Yi Shangkun pondered for a moment, then lowered his hand, snorted coldly, and said to himself, "Could all of this really be fate, something we can't escape no matter how hard we try? My benefactor was right after all. She shouldn't have gotten involved with those members of the royal family. They only brought trouble to Yun'er... Heavens, she has already paid the greatest price in a woman's life for this. Are you still not willing to let her go?"
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangjun asked in great confusion, "Father, what are you talking about? What do you mean by 'paying the greatest price in a woman's life'? What happened to my eldest sister?"
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangkun stared intently into his eyes for a long while with a serious expression before slowly shifting his gaze and carefully scanning his surroundings.
Seeing that there was no one else besides the two servants who were driving the carriage and standing far away waiting for their master's orders, he moved his body slightly to indicate that the boy should sit down next to him. He said with a look of satisfaction, "Jun'er, I know that you have grown up and are no longer the idle and dissolute playboy you used to be. I am really pleased with you."
Yi Shangjun seemed to have already sensed the hesitation in Yi Shangkun's words, so he hurriedly said, "Father, I owe my success today to my elder sister. I know what's important, so please speak frankly, Father. I will never disobey your wishes, especially... matters concerning my elder sister."
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangkun nodded, then sighed heavily. With a determined look, he said, "Jun'er, actually... the red birthmark on your eldest sister's face... it's not a birthmark."
Yi Shangjun stared wide-eyed in disbelief at Yi Shangkun's face, exclaiming, "Father, what did you say? The red birthmark on my eldest sister's face that made her carry the infamous title of 'the ugliest woman in the capital' for 17 years isn't a birthmark?... What is it then?"
Yi Shangkun seemed extremely reluctant to recall this past event. After closing his eyes for a moment, he said, "Her face... was poisoned at birth, and that's what caused it."
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangjun was stunned. "Who? Who could be so cruel as to do such a thing to a newborn baby in swaddling clothes?"
Yi Shangkun recalled painfully, "She...she was a woman with unparalleled beauty and kindness, yet she suffered a tragic fate."
Yi Shangjun clenched his fists, his brows furrowed, and he was furious. However, fearing that someone with ill intentions might overhear, he suppressed his anger and asked repeatedly in a low voice, "Who exactly is she? What right does she have to do this? What wrong did my elder sister commit to suffer such a calamity from the moment she was born? As a woman, isn't this tantamount to ruining her entire life's happiness? From childhood to adulthood, my elder sister has always worn a veil; I doubt anyone has ever seen her true face. Why didn't Father stop her then?"
"This is the second secret that exists within your eldest sister," Yi Shangkun said mysteriously.
"What? A second secret? What other secrets does my eldest sister have?" Undoubtedly, Yi Shangjun was extremely surprised. He never expected that his half-sister, with whom he had grown up since childhood, would hide so many astonishing secrets.
After thinking it over and over, Yi Shangkun finally said after a long silence, "Actually, your eldest sister... she is not the daughter of your father and your aunt."
"What?" This time, Yi Shangjun could no longer hold back. He suddenly stood up, staring wide-eyed at Yi Shangkun's eyes with his deep, starry gaze, completely stunned.
Yi Shangkun hurriedly reached out and forcefully pulled his straight body down, making him sit back down beside him. Then he said softly, "That woman with unparalleled beauty and kindness, yet tragic fate, the woman who poisoned her newborn child's face... she is your eldest sister's biological mother. I was only entrusted with this task in a time of crisis, by my benefactor's dying wish. She only asked that I not wrong your eldest sister, that she live a normal life as an ordinary woman in an ordinary family, happily and peacefully."
"Benefactor? Father, what exactly is going on?" Yi Shangjun seemed more and more confused as he listened, and he was extremely puzzled.
As Yi Shangkun recalled, he said softly, "Back then, your father and I were just a poor couple living halfway up the mountain in the north and south of the city, making a living by collecting herbs all day long."
"So Father's ancestral home is in the mountains north and south of the city?" Yi Shangjun finally understood. For so many years, no matter how many people asked them about their ancestral home, this family always remained silent. Many people even insulted them, saying that they had forgotten their ancestors and their roots as soon as they entered the palace.
Yi Shangkun nodded and continued, "One day, your aunt and I got up early and were searching for a very precious thousand-year-old ginseng in the North Mountain. Suddenly, we discovered a heavily pregnant woman lying by the woods not far from the shore of Biyue Lake. Upon closer inspection, we found that the woman was covered in wounds, as if she had fallen off a cliff, and was already lying unconscious in a pool of blood. At that time, she must have felt that her child was about to be born. Because she was afraid that the child would be cold on the icy lake shore, she climbed across the entire shoreline to the edge of the woods where there was some shelter from the cold wind. In addition, her injuries from the fall were quite severe, and she had almost exhausted all her strength. Her body was too weak, which meant that she did not have the strength to give birth."
"Isn't the baby in her womb in great danger?" asked Yi Shangjun anxiously.
Yi Shangkun let out a long sigh, as if all the events of that day were still quite shocking to recall. He said, "Who can argue with that? Fortunately, that woman's medical skills were quite remarkable. She used acupuncture on herself to save the baby's life. But in the end, it still took too long. By the time I met her, it seemed that she and her child were about to die together. But at that time, she was tightly holding the thousand-year-old ginseng that your aunt and I had been searching for for many years."
"Then why doesn't she take any ginseng? Wouldn't that give her strength?" Yi Shangjun asked疑惑地.
Yi Shangkun also said, "Yes, if she had been able to swallow a little of it in time, she would have had the strength to give birth to the child safely. But she... she used that thousand-year-old ginseng and her last breath to gamble with God."
Yi Shangjun didn't understand and asked, "A bet with God?"
Yi Shangkun said with a firm gaze, "Yes, it was a bet with God. She was betting that God wouldn't be so cruel as to take away their lives. She was betting that she would find someone who could save her child and leave alive. So, I became that person."
Yi Shangkun spoke with great admiration for the woman, pausing briefly before adding regretfully, "But in the end, because the best opportunity to take the ginseng was missed, by the time I arrived, even a celestial being would be powerless. Only one could be saved, the child or the mother. Without hesitation, the woman chose to save the unborn child. So, on her deathbed after giving birth, she gave me and your aunt the thousand-year-old ginseng and all her valuables, asking that we help her raise the child. She said she absolutely had to leave her child a seven-colored gold and jade bracelet. She also gave me a medical manual she had personally compiled and tested. It was because of her painstaking work and that thousand-year-old ginseng that I was later able to secure my current position in the palace."
At this point, Yi Shangjun was extremely shocked and said sadly, "That woman must have known that even if she had consumed that thousand-year-old ginseng and had the strength to give birth, her injuries were so severe that a woman like her might not be able to protect the child and bring it safely out of the mountains. Therefore, she could only hold onto a sliver of hope, quietly carrying heavy gifts and praying for someone to appear who could save her child. Fortunately, Father and Aunt appeared."
At this moment, amidst the poignant atmosphere, Yi Shangjun suddenly seemed to have something even more perplexing, and asked, "But that woman, since she cherished this child so much, willing to give everything for the child's life, why did she poison her face and disfigure her? Also, who exactly is she? Does this child have no other relatives besides her?"
Regarding this, Yi Shangkun seemed somewhat confused as well. "Before she died, the woman only told me, her father, not to wrong this child too much. She only wished for her to live happily as an ordinary woman from a common family, nothing more. She absolutely forbade her from getting close to those members of the royal family and becoming entangled with them. As for ruining her appearance, I suspect it was precisely because she feared those people would covet her beauty that she did it. As for the woman herself, I only saw that she was as beautiful as a fairy, with an extraordinary temperament, like a..." She was no ordinary woman, but a woman of noble birth. When asked who else was in her family, she simply shook her head repeatedly, silently weeping. It was heartbreaking to see, and one couldn't bear to ask any more questions. I thought that perhaps her family had suffered some terrible misfortune, perhaps being hunted down or even executed, which was why she had accidentally fallen off the cliff. Fearing that thieves would come and wipe them out, I dared not linger. I returned and burned the house in the mountains to the ground, then fled the North Mountain that very night, never daring to return again.
“I’m afraid it’s not as simple as Father thinks. If she were truly the descendant of some disgraced official, the government would have issued a city-wide warrant for her arrest. When Father was on the run, did you ever see any warrants posted by the government for the arrest of fugitives?” Yi Shangjun asked again.
Caught off guard by Yi Shangjun's sudden question, Yi Shangkun suddenly felt that something was amiss about what had happened back then. "At first, I was really scared, afraid that it would bring me to my death. Several times along the way, I almost abandoned the child. But whenever I saw that poor child, who didn't understand anything yet and only knew how to smile at me and your aunt, and when I thought of that woman's tragic death and your aunt's inability to have children, we couldn't bear it anymore. On the way we fled, it seemed that everything was peaceful, and we didn't see any official notices about confiscating property or arresting fugitives. Therefore, we dared to continue staying in the Western Qin Kingdom."
"If that's the case, could it be... that woman isn't even from our Western Qin Kingdom... Father, did that woman tell me her name?" Yi Shangjun silently speculated.
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