Just as Xuanyuan Han and his servant were about to reach the palace gate, a man dressed as a pharmacist from the Imperial Pharmacy suddenly appeared in front of them, looking somewhat hurried. The man stopped, bowed his head, and respectfully clasped his hands in greeting, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Highness, the Prince of Qin!"
"Pharmacist Yi, what are you doing here?" Before Xuan Yuanhan could speak, Cheng Liang stepped forward to examine him carefully and then asked in surprise.
"Your Highness Prince Qin, I have been waiting here for quite some time, and I have important matters to report," Yi Shangkun said, still bowing his head.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Liang silently turned to look at his master's face behind him. He saw Xuan Yuanhan stop abruptly, then, with one hand behind his back, without even glancing at Yi Shangkun's face, he turned slightly to him and coldly said, "If what Pharmacist Yi wants to report is only about your daughter's disappearance, then there's no need to say anything; I already know. I will spare no effort to find my people. However, I want to know why my people aren't peacefully recuperating in Pharmacist Yi's residence, but instead have gone to the south of the city alone and haven't returned for so many days, and why Pharmacist Yi hasn't sent anyone to search for them? I wonder how Pharmacist Yi has been taking care of them? I only ask Pharmacist Yi to give me a reasonable explanation for this."
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangkun felt as if struck by lightning, his legs went weak, and he trembled uncontrollably. He immediately knelt down with a thud, sweating profusely, and repeatedly kowtowed, saying, "This humble subject deserves to die! Please forgive me, Your Highness Prince Qin! It's all my fault. I failed to properly protect my daughter, which led to this misfortune and her disappearance... This humble subject deserves to die! This humble subject deserves to die..."
Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Xuan Yuanhan's eyes seemed to shoot out thousands of sharp, cold arrows, piercing Yi Shangkun's internal organs. He shouted at him, "You truly deserve to die. If anything really happens to her... even if you offered the heads of your entire Yi family to compensate me, you still couldn't afford it."
Yi Shangkun could only kowtow repeatedly, saying, "This humble subject deserves to die, this humble subject deserves to die..." Aside from that, he seemed truly unaware of what else he could say or do to quell the immense rage in the man's heart. Even without looking up, he could already sense the overwhelming fury on the extremely imposing man's face—a fury so intense that even swallowing him whole wouldn't appease him.
After a long while, Xuan Yuanhan's extremely angry emotions seemed to have finally subsided somewhat, and he was about to stomp away in a huff. Yi Shangkun suddenly came to his senses, mustered his courage, and still knelt down, saying, "Your Highness, please wait. There is something I must tell you, a secret about my daughter that cannot be told... I have thought about it for a long time and decided that it would be better to tell Your Highness. After all... she will be a member of the Qin Prince's Mansion from now on."
At this moment, Xuan Yuanhan had already walked up behind him, with Cheng Liang following closely behind. However, upon hearing that what Yi Shangkun was talking about concerned Yi Shangyun, he couldn't help but stop in his tracks. If it weren't for this, he would never have lingered here even for half a step, let alone wasted a single word. He felt utter contempt and disdain for such parents in his heart.
So, suppressing his grief and indignation, he stopped without turning around, and asked coldly and sparingly, "What is it?"
Although he often walked around the palace and knew that few people passed by at this time and place, which was why he chose this place to meet, Yi Shangkun still cautiously glanced around again.
Seeing this, Cheng Liang also carefully looked around before nodding to him. Yi Shangkun then gasped and said, "Your Highness, actually... Yun'er... she is not my daughter..."
"What did you say?" Before Yi Shangkun could finish speaking, Xuan Yuanhan turned around abruptly, staring at him with wide, astonished eyes.
Even Cheng Liang, who was standing next to Yi Shangkun, was stunned for a moment, staring blankly at his lowered profile, filled with disbelief.
However, Yi Shangkun remained kneeling, not daring to raise his head even slightly. Instead, he lowered his head even further and said softly, "Seventeen years have passed. In these seventeen years, it's not that I haven't cared for her, but I was afraid that my concern for her would become a burden for her in that secluded mansion. Yun'er, she was actually born to a woman I met by chance in the deep mountains with my wife before I entered the palace. She seemed to have fallen off a cliff and was about to give birth. I was entrusted by that woman on her deathbed to adopt that poor child who had lost her mother at birth."
At this point, Xuan Yuanhan suddenly realized what was happening, but he was so astonished that he couldn't even speak. He seemed to be wondering about something else that was more important, and his eyes widened in surprise.
After a moment's thought, he simply said to him in a cold voice, "Get up and answer."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Yi Shangkun then lifted the hem of his robe and slowly stood up.
But as soon as he stood still, Xuan Yuanhan seemed to suddenly understand something. He immediately stepped forward, stretched out a very strong hand and tightly grasped one of his arms. He stared intently into the other's eyes and said seriously, "I ask you, you just said that you met that woman who was about to give birth after falling off a cliff while you were gathering herbs in the mountains. Which mountain was it?"
“It’s Beishan in the south of the city, that’s my hometown.” Yi Shangkun looked at Xuan Yuanhan’s eyes timidly, utterly shocked.
"North and South Mountain of the city? Seventeen years ago? Your hometown?... Do you remember which day seventeen years ago you met that woman?... Was it... was it the day the late emperor passed away?" At this moment, Xuan Yuanhan was incredibly excited, and even the strength of the hand on Yi Shangkun's arm gradually increased without his awareness. He asked in a solemn voice, word by word.
Upon seeing this, Yi Shangkun immediately became extremely nervous. He had no idea why Xuan Yuanhan was so unusually agitated. After a moment's recollection, he simply shook his head blankly and stammered, "No... not the day the late emperor passed away, but... but the day after the late emperor's death, at dawn, when the sky was just beginning to lighten. However, judging from the woman's injuries and the circumstances at the time, she must have fallen off the cliff the day before. When I saw her, she seemed to have struggled to crawl for a long time from the shore of Biyue Lake at the foot of the North Mountain, probably afraid that her child might be born unexpectedly during the night and get cold. She crawled until she reached the edge of the woods and had no strength left..."
Before he could finish speaking, Xuan Yuanhan's wide, deep eyes suddenly filled with tears, which looked like they were about to fall. His whole body seemed to be trembling. Yi Shangkun looked at his eyes in surprise and silently stopped talking.
"Your Highness, Your Highness..." At this moment, Cheng Liang, who was standing to the side, seemed to have guessed something. Seeing that Xuan Yuanhan was already immersed in painful memories of the past, he hurriedly reached out and grabbed the arm that was still attached to Yi Shangkun and called out to him softly.
Finally, Xuanyuan Han slowly loosened his grip, his eyes gradually shifting away, and then he turned away with a look of deep sadness on his face.
At this moment, Cheng Liang stepped forward with a solemn expression and asked Yi Shangkun on behalf of his master, "So, the only burned-down thatched hut that the guards found after searching all over Beishan back then was your home?"
"Yes, that was my former home. I personally burned it and that woman to the ground. As for the woman, she wouldn't say anything when I asked her. I saw that she had an extraordinary air about her and thought that her family had suffered some kind of misfortune, perhaps being chased or being executed along with her entire family, and that she had accidentally fallen off a cliff while fleeing. I was afraid that the thieves would come and eliminate any threat to the child, so I didn't dare to stay for a moment and fled from the North Mountain overnight. I haven't dared to go back since." Yi Shangkun gasped as he spoke.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Liang was instantly enraged and shouted at him, "Why did you do this? Do you know that His Highness was just a child back then? To find his savior, he led his guards and searched day and night in the deep mountains for months, but they couldn't find even a trace of that woman."
"What, my savior?" Yi Shangkun asked, puzzled.
Cheng Liang sighed and said, "That woman who was about to give birth was forced to fall off a cliff while trying to save His Highness Prince Qin."
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangkun's eyes widened instantly as he stared at Cheng Liang's face, so shocked that he took two steps back and exclaimed, "How could this be?"
Upon hearing this, all three fell silent, each lost in deep thought.
After a long pause, Xuan Yuanhan finally composed himself and asked again in a deep voice, "Did that woman really not leave any words before she died?"
Yi Shangkun hesitated for a moment, then, as if steeling his resolve, said, "That woman, before she died, said she only wished for that child to live happily as an ordinary woman from a common family, and instructed me never to let her get close to... get close to anyone in the royal family, and even less to become entangled with them. She even went so far as to poison and disfigure the child herself, but in the end, she still..."
"Since you know this is a secret that cannot be told, why did you still tell me about it?" Xuan Yuanhan asked.
Upon hearing this, Yi Shangkun immediately raised his head and stared blankly at Xuan Yuanhan's profile for a long time. Finally, he said with a helpless expression, "Because of this daughter, since she woke up from her year-long coma, her actions have become unfathomable and uncontrollable to me. Things in this world often go against our wishes; perhaps this is her fate. No matter how powerful a person is, they cannot ultimately fight against fate. Since we cannot escape it, we might as well stop hiding it. I only ask that Your Highness help us find this poor child; I will be eternally grateful."
As soon as Yi Shangkun finished speaking, Xuan Yuanhan walked out of the palace gate by himself.
Watching his departing figure, Yi Shangkun murmured to himself, "It's fate, it's all fate!"
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