After watching Xuan Yuan Yue arrive excitedly, only to leave dejectedly with a group of servants, Qiao Lan and Qiao Hui, who had been standing by in stunned silence, finally came to their senses.
The two women hurriedly curtsied towards her retreating figure, saying in unison, "This servant respectfully sees Your Highness off!"
The three of them watched Xuan Yuan Yue and the others until their figures completely disappeared from the courtyard. Only then did Yi Shang Yun, who had been staring at them intently, blink slightly.
Suddenly, she noticed that her eyes were already wet, and drops were quietly falling into her palm.
God knows how much she secretly wanted to look at her closely, listen to her talk, and ask her if she had been doing well all these years alone in this foreign land, and whether she had truly found the love she had hoped for.
But all of this was simultaneously being slowly destroyed by another, more powerful force within her heart, making it increasingly blurred, as if her eyes were also veiled in a white mist, and everything was fading away.
Yes, she had imagined their reunion a thousand times over in her heart for a long time.
She had thought she could be more decisive and graceful, but when she suddenly appeared and stood before her, her heart was still stirred. She hesitated: "Your Highness, was Yun'er wrong to treat her like this?"
While she was pondering to herself, she suddenly heard Qiaolan, who was not far behind her, carefully instructing Qiaohui, "Look, the wind is picking up again! It's getting colder and colder. Hurry back and brew some fresh tea for the young master and bring it inside."
"Yes," Qiaohui replied happily, then quietly withdrew.
At this moment, Qiaolan exhaled a deep breath and slowly took two steps forward to get closer to Yi Shangyun.
At this moment, you could tell from her footsteps that she had lost her fear and was very calm. She finally dared to say some things that she couldn't say before.
She followed Yi Shangyun's gaze, looking with him toward the empty courtyard gate, and silently said, "She's gone!"
"Yes, they're gone!" Yi Shangyun said blankly, seemingly without thinking.
"So many rewards, each one priceless, yet you refused them all. Won't you regret it?" Qiaolan slowly withdrew her gaze, looking at Yi Shangyun's retreating figure, and tentatively asked.
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangyun did not answer her immediately, but continued to gaze in that empty direction.
After a long while, he uttered a sound that even he himself could hardly hear: "Regret..."
"What did you say?" Qiaolan obviously didn't hear her clearly, and tilted her head to ask again.
"It's nothing!" Yi Shangyun blinked and raised her voice slightly.
Qiaolan pursed her lips, and after a moment's thought, she realized that because she was quite far away and Yi Shangyun's body blocked most of the view, she hadn't seen some of the scene clearly. So, she asked curiously, "What was the last reward Your Majesty gave you? You seemed quite surprised at the time. Was it more valuable than those mountains of gold and silver?"
"To the ends of the earth, my heart will forever be with Yue!" These words, originally spoken by herself, were a vow made with unwavering conviction, as pure and sincere as a pledge made between mountains and seas. They were, of course, incredibly precious in her life.
At this moment, as if she had finally made up her mind, she suddenly came back to her senses, turned around and walked back to the pavilion, saying with a serious yet seemingly casual expression, "It's nothing, just things that are irrelevant to me for the rest of my life, so let's not talk about them!"
However, Qiaolan followed closely behind, exclaiming in disbelief, "It's all unimportant to you? Are you serious? Two people who were once deeply in love and could talk about anything, with such a sincere relationship, separated for less than two years, and now you can just casually utter the words 'unimportant'!"
She paused, twirling a strand of hair that fell from her temple with her fingers. Suddenly, she seemed to understand something and said, "You are truly a very special person. So unpredictable, no wonder you are so favored by the brave and mighty King of Western Qin, the god of war who looked down upon the world!"
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangyun, who had just managed to compose herself and was about to bend down to pick up the guqin on the table in the pavilion, suddenly stopped in mid-air.
Qiaolan immediately realized what was happening and hurriedly apologized repeatedly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up your sad story?"
Seeing that Yi Shangyun stood there motionless for a moment, Qiaolan hurriedly stepped forward, bent down, and picked up the guqin that Yi Shangyun was about to pick up: "I'll do it, I'll do it, please go back, young master!"
Yi Shangyun gritted her teeth, glared at her angrily, but ultimately suppressed the pain in her heart, turned around and went down the steps, quickly leaving the pavilion.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the palace.
As soon as Xuanyuan Yue stepped out of the backyard gate, she dismissed everyone except her maid Jinlan. Accompanied by Jinlan, she moved around to the Imperial Garden, seemingly to enjoy the flowers or simply to relax.
Clearly, Jinlan was still feeling down and suspicious the whole way.
By this point, she had completely lost her temper. As soon as she found a secluded corner, she stopped and angrily complained, "Princess, that person was clearly Yun'er, but she wouldn't admit it! Even if she were reduced to ashes, I would still recognize her. Now, she's only a little prettier after the birthmark on her face was removed, so why does she act so arrogantly and disregard even you, Princess?"
Remembering that the two of them had been hungry all morning, having worked for nothing, Jinlan grew increasingly angry: "This morning, with His Highness's permission, the princess personally selected and gave her all of her best dowry and daily rewards and treasures. So many precious items, and she didn't even take a liking to a single one? Isn't this a blatant insult to the servants, showing that Your Highness's rewards are all commonplace to her? What is her intention in doing this?"
As she spoke, after a moment's thought, she seemed to have guessed something again, and thus became lost in her own incredulous thoughts, her brows gradually furrowing tightly, and she said with even greater astonishment, "Princess, could it be that she wants to... she wants to..."
It seemed that even she herself couldn't believe what she was thinking at that moment. She was afraid that if she spoke out, it would upset her kind master, but she couldn't bear to keep it to herself.
After much deliberation, she finally blurted out, "Princess, does Yun'er also want to be the Third Prince's woman?"
At this thought, she immediately launched into a tirade, "What a fickle woman! Back in Western Qin, she always played the victim to gain His Highness the Prince of Qin's sympathy and pity. And now, she's somehow seduced the Third Prince. You can guard against anything, but it's hard to guard against a traitor within your own ranks. What an ungrateful and shameless woman! All that the Princess and His Highness the Prince of Qin have done for her is in vain. Especially His Highness the Prince of Qin, if it weren't for her, he wouldn't have fallen ill upon returning from Northern Lie and hasn't recovered since... And now, she still has the nerve to try and steal the Princess's husband."
Upon hearing this, Xuan Yuan Yue quickly glanced around before finally speaking, rebuking the maid, "Jin Lan, don't talk nonsense. Be careful, walls have ears. Yun'er... she's not that kind of person!"
However, Jinlan, who was extremely angry, seemed to care about nothing else. She only felt wronged for Xuanyuan Yue, and her next words were even more cutting.
She stared intently into Xuan Yuan Yue's eyes, pressing, "She's not that kind of person? If she's not that kind of person, why is the princess's voice getting softer and softer? If she's not that kind of person, why isn't she serving His Highness Prince Qin at his sickbed right now, but instead being secretly kept in the backyard like a pampered concubine brought back to the palace by our Third Prince, with no one allowed to visit her? If she's not that kind of person, then why..."
Xuan Yuan Yue shook her head, covering her ears tightly with her hands, as if she had completely collapsed. She didn't want to listen anymore, so she shouted at her, "Jin Lan, shut up! Shut up! That's enough! That's enough!"
Seeing this, Jinlan felt a pang of heartache and pity for her. She slowly reached out and gently pried her hands apart, advising her, "Princess, you've always been too kind-hearted! That's why people come to bully you, isn't it?"
For a moment, it seemed that she could not even stand up. Then, with a "thump," Xuan Yuan Yue sat down heavily on the stone bench in the garden.
She said sadly, "I don't believe it, I don't believe it. Yun'er wouldn't be so cruel, she wouldn't talk back to me like that. She must have some unspeakable reason. Perhaps... or perhaps His Highness doesn't even know her, and just thinks she's a man! Or perhaps we've mistaken her for someone else, because we miss Yun'er so much, because we want to find Yun'er for the ailing Qin Emperor, and we've mistaken her for someone else? So, so that young master, he might not really be Yun'er, he just looks a lot like her, a lot like her... She wouldn't, she wouldn't..."
Although they verbally resisted with all sorts of reasons they could think of, their inner world was already gradually collapsing.
Jinlan's voice still rang in her ears. She gently shook her arm: "Princess, stop deceiving yourself. Do you really think that our Third Prince, who has seen countless people, would fail to recognize the true identity of a woman disguised as a man? Perhaps, to cover up the truth and to avoid punishment from the Emperor if he finds out, this was even his own idea? She is not worth so much from you. Wake up!"
Little did they know that their conversation was overheard by Mei Zhixuan and his servant, who had been following behind them.
"Your Highness, what should we do now? Her Majesty... It seems we've made things worse for her?" the guard said worriedly.
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