The wind picked up, and fallen leaves fluttered in the autumn breeze. The two lights on the corridor reflected each other, casting a circle of warm yellow light in the courtyard. A few fallen leaves stumbled into the light, added a sense of melancholy and desolation to the quiet night.
Inside the room, Blind Liu remained silent, and neither did Ding Youtian. After a long moment, Blind Liu's voice rang out, low and mournful, like a falling leaf, filled with a sense of loss.
Pei Xiyuan's mother, Concubine Li, was originally Princess Minhui of Qing State. When the Dayan Army attacked Qing State, Qing State had already been occupied by another rebel army. Princess Minhui's husband was a military general who had died for Qing State long ago. All the male members of the Qing royal family were slaughtered by the rebel army, and the women were either enslaved or taken possession of by the rebel generals, and Princess Minhui was no exception.
At that time, Princess Minhui was pregnant with Meixiang's father. For the sake of the fetus in her belly, she had to submit to the rebel general. After the Dayan army broke through the city, they besieged the former prince consort's mansion. As a princess of the former Qing Kingdom, she submitted to the rebel general. Emperor Yongping, as a citizen of the former Qing Kingdom, could not tolerate such a disloyal princess and ordered her to commit suicide.
But Princess Minhui did not die. She survived and later learned that it was Nanyangzi, who was the military advisor at the time, who persuaded Emperor Yongping to change his mind, demoted her to a commoner and drove her out of the prince consort's mansion.
As if by divine providence, in the third year of the Yongping reign, Liu Xiazi was imprisoned in the Tianlao Prison. One day, the jailer, Sheng Yong, brought him fine wine and delicious food. Upon inquiry, he discovered that his wife was actually Princess Minhui. Meixiang's father was already five years old at the time. To repay Liu Xiazi's kindness, Princess Minhui would prepare wine and food for him to bring to the Tianlao Prison whenever Sheng Yong was on duty.
Princess Minhui was unaware that her warmth rekindled Liu Xiazi's hope for life. Knowing his abilities, Emperor Yongping placed a curse on the shackles that bound him, using blood as a curse and energy as a barrier. This method, originally taught to Emperor Yongping by Liu Xiazi, stated that those who achieved the highest position possessed the aura of an emperor, being descended from the celestial Ziwei constellation.
To lift the forbidden spell cast by the emperor is neither easy nor difficult. All you need to do is to have something carried by any emperor throughout history to break it.
The saying goes, "fight poison with poison, and relieve anger with anger." All things in nature are interdependent and cannot escape this principle.
The jade ring Princess Minhui gave Pei Xiyuan was originally a personal item worn by her father, the emperor, who had given it to her husband on the day she married him. On the day the rebel army captured the Qing capital, the husband, after enduring a relentless battle, was struck from his horse by a spear. When his body was recovered, it was covered in blood and had a tooth missing.
The human tooth pendant worn by Meixiang was made by Princess Minhui using the tooth lost by her husband. When she buried her husband, she took off the ring as a souvenir.
The jailer Sheng Yong respected Nan Xiang very much. He treated Princess Minhui very well and regarded Meixiang's father as his own son. After learning that Nan Xiang had to wear other imperial items to nourish his blood and replenish his energy if he wanted to escape, he went home and told Princess Minhui.
Princess Minhui did not hesitate and immediately took out the jade ring and gave it to Sheng Yong to secretly bring to Blind Liu.
On the night Liu Xiazi escaped from the prison, he went to see Princess Minhui before leaving and returned the jade ring. He also told Princess Minhui that if she ever needed anything in the future, she only needed to bring the jade ring back. Once he saw the ring, he would definitely grant her request to repay her for saving his life.
At the same time, he also told Princess Minhui and Sheng Yong that although he had escaped on the day when Sheng Yong was on duty, not everyone could possess the emperor's things. Emperor Yongping would soon find out about the couple and asked them to pack up their things and escape from the city with him overnight.
Blind Liu took the family of three away from the capital before they parted ways. When he met Concubine Li in Yue Kingdom last time, he learned that after they parted, the couple had lost their child on the way, and then Sheng Yong fell seriously ill and passed away soon after, leaving her behind.
In order to find her young son, Princess Minhui followed the trail all the way to the territory of Yue Kingdom. When she realized that she was chasing the wrong person, she was exhausted and fainted.
The child she mistook for her youngest son was none other than Suo Wenzheng, who now followed Pei Xiyuan. Because of her extraordinary beauty, Princess Minhui was presented to the Moon Emperor as a gift by her rescuer.
After Blind Liu finished telling this story, a gloom gathered in his eyes. Ding Youtian sighed inwardly after listening to it. It seemed as if his life had been carefully calculated. He thought that if Princess Minhui had not pursued the wrong person back then, there would be no Pei Xiyuan today. Who would have thought that Meixiang's father was taken back to the capital by his adoptive parents by mistake?
Thinking of the capital, Ding Youtian's heart suddenly trembled. After a moment, he looked at Blind Liu and hesitated for a moment. He said, "Master, there is something I don't know whether I should ask you or not."
In the past, Blind Liu would have said, "If you don't know whether to ask or not, then don't ask. So why not?" But at this moment, he didn't, nor did he look at Ding Youtian. He just sighed and said, "Ask if you want to."
"Disciple remembers that when my second and third sisters were two years old, our master went out for nearly a year before returning. Did he go to the capital that year?" When Ding Youtian asked this, he felt a chill on his back. The surroundings were so quiet that one could almost hear the sound of a pin drop.
It seemed like only a moment, yet also like an eternity, before Blind Liu spoke, "Don't worry. Master has already figured it out. In the pursuit of pacifying the Central Plains, Master also committed many sins of murder, which brought disaster to his family."
"Alas, when will the cycle of revenge end? The dead are gone, and the past is over. Don't mention it again, it will only add to the sadness."
Ding Youtian breathed a sigh of relief. Even when he was still in the capital, he had been puzzled as to how the news that Nan Xiang was still alive had suddenly spread throughout the capital. Just now, he suddenly realized that the only person who could have spread such news was his master himself.
The purpose was nothing more than to provoke a fight between the Crown Prince and Prince Yong, so that the two sons of the Emperor would kill each other to avenge the extermination of their family.
What made his hair stand on end was not limited to this, but the fact that his master helped Pei Xiyuan ascend to the throne of the Crown Prince of the Moon Kingdom. If he made a wrong decision, and one day he borrowed the troops of the Moon Kingdom to avenge the extermination of his family, he didn't dare to think about it anymore. Fortunately, his master had already thought it through, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.
"Master, what do you think of Pei Xiyuan?"
"He is a man of great talent and vision."
"In that case, it is inevitable that the Moon Nation and our dynasty will come to blows sooner or later. In Master's opinion, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of our dynasty is even more inferior to Pei Xiyuan..."
Before he could finish his words, Blind Liu waved his hand, signaling him to stop. "Remember this, my friend. The former Prime Minister of the South has long since perished in the Heavenly Prison. Your master, I will spend the rest of my life as a storyteller. I, an old blind man, was born a native of the Central Plains, and I will be a ghost of the Central Plains after my death. If a foreign enemy invades, as long as I am still breathing, and if I am fortunate enough to be recognized by you, Lord Ding, I will definitely not sit idly by and do my part to help the people. Other than this, do not bother me with anything else."
Being able to let go of the hatred for the extermination of his family is the greatest kindness of Blind Liu. As for who is stronger between His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Pei Xiyuan, what does it have to do with this old blind storyteller like him?
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