An hour later, Su Rong woke up. She opened her eyes, looked at the canopy of the room, recognizing it somewhat, then turned her head, her eyes landing on Xie Yuan who was sitting in the room. She blinked her eyes, realizing she was now in Xie Residence.
She looked at Xie Yuan, not speaking for a while.
Xie Yuan was playing chess by himself. Sensing someone’s gaze, his hand stilled on the chessboard. Seeing that Su Rong was awake, he dropped his chess piece, got up and walked over to the bed, asking her, "Awake? Would you like some water?"
Surprisingly, Su Rong didn’t feel thirsty. On the contrary, her lips were moist, probably because someone had fed her water when she was unconscious.
She shook her head, but as she began to rise, Xie Yuan immediately held her down, "The doctor just finished bandaging you. Your injuries are severe, you mustn’t move."
Su Rong could only remain lying like a block of wood, silent as she looked at Xie Yuan.
Xie Yuan sighed, sitting down, "I didn’t intend to keep this from you forever. I had planned to tell you when you were older. I was afraid that you, being impulsive, might cause trouble upon learning about your heritage."
With a pout, Su Rong finally spoke, "Uncle Xie is doing this for my well-being, I know. Or else, my mother would not have trusted you the most and entrusted me to you."
On her mother’s deathbed, she entrusted not even Governor Su with her, but rather gave her to Xie Yuan. She still remembered her mother telling Xie Yuan to make sure she grew up safely, got married, and had children. Only then would her mother feel at ease in the afterlife.
She also sighed, "Then go on! You can’t hide it anymore anyway, let me hear it."
Hear about who her parents were, hear about their love and hate, and hear about her hidden identity that had been kept from her all these years.
Xie Yuan seemed not to know where to start, falling silent for a while.
Watching him, Su Rong said, "I used to suspect that you were my father. But after finding out that it was quite implausible, I dismissed the notion."
Xie Yuan almost retorted, ’I wish I could have been your father, but I wasn’t that lucky.’ He glared at Su Rong, "You really can think of anything."
Su Rong couldn’t help but want to smile, "It’s not that I dare to think like that, but because when I was a child, I saw you getting emotional in front of my mother and even embracing my mother. You all thought I was too young to understand anything, but I didn’t want to understand."
She could remember things from too early on, she had realized her mother was not really a concubine of Governor Su. At least, even when he stayed over, they didn’t share a bed. Xie Yuan, however, frequented the Governor’s Residence, often finding her mother at Nuanxiang Pavilion for tea or chess, and would stay for half a day. Her mother was much more intimate with him than with Governor Su.
Once again, Xie Yuan lost his words. He did not know when she had noticed, despite his carefulness over those years. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
"If you don’t know how to start, how about telling me about my parents’ identities first?" Su Rong considerately suggested to him.
Xie Yuan looked at Su Rong, her casual demeanour both irritating and amusing him. He took a deep breath, "Whether you turning out this way is good or bad, I honestly can’t tell."
"It’s largely thanks to you that I turned out this way," Su Rong didn’t dare to take all the credit.
Xie Yuan choked on her words, finally forced out the truth, "Your biological father is the Nanchu King, and your mother was the Princess Zhenmin of Daliang, the only heir of Prince Mingrui."
Although Su Rong had known this a while ago, hearing it from Xie Yuan was still a bit overwhelming. It turned out that the Nanchu Queen was right to want to kill her.
At this moment, Nurse Zhao’s voice came from outside the door, "Master Xie, has Miss Su awakened? The medicine is ready."
Su Rong was startled, "Is that Nurse Zhao?"
Xie Yuan nodded, "I had her brought here." He turned to the door and called out, "Nurse, come in!"
With red-rimmed eyes, Nurse Zhao carried a bowl of medicinal soup into the room. Seeing Su Rong, she almost cried out. Su Rong had been perfectly fine when she saw her in the morning and now she was severely injured, "Miss Su, you’re so badly hurt, you need to take the medicine and rest."
She had heard that although Su Rong was often injured since childhood, unless it was absolutely necessary, she didn’t like to take medicinal soups prescribed by the doctor, preferring pills instead. However, the doctor had said this time that her injuries were so severe that pills would be too slow to work, so she had to take medicinal soup.
Su Rong reluctantly replied, "Don’t worry, Nurse. My injuries aren’t too serious; I’ll recover in a few days."
Nurse Zhao immediately retorted, "The doctor from Huichun Hall said that you need to rest for half a month. He will come to change your dressing every day and you have to take the medicine for half a month. You’ve lost too much blood."
Hearing that she had to drink the medicine for half a month, Su Rong’s eyebrows knitted in distaste. But seeing Nurse Zhao’s "I’m going to make sure you take your medicine from now on" expression, she nodded in silence.
The woman had accepted him, hence he had the right to command her. In hindsight, she should have accepted her later.
Nurse Zhao added, "Huichun Hall’s doctor prepared ten bottles of condensed cream jade ointment for you. It’s just the right amount to cure your wounds. If you don’t take good care of yourself, I fear you would need two more."
Implicitly, it all secretly meant money.
Su Rong immediately adopted a serious attitude, "Nurse, don’t worry, I will take my medicine seriously."
Despite her seeming generosity when dealing with Zhou Gu, she was generally reluctant to spend her money lavishly. After all, she had been through the hardship of sweet-talking the doctor’s wife for half a day just to borrow two taels of silver and had asked almost everyone in the residence, even those who couldn’t stand her.
Nurse Zhao was amused and sat down, spoonfeeding Su Rong the medicine.
Su Rong really wanted to gulp it down all at once, but couldn’t due to her frailty. She could only bear with the bitterness, scrunching her face, and drank the bowl of medicine slowly.
After Su Rong finished her medicine, Nurse Zhao immediately stuffed a piece of preserved fruit into her mouth.
Munching on the preserved fruit, Su Rong mused over how Yuewan was not as considerate as this. Keeping Nurse Zhao around was indeed the right choice.
Once Nurse Zhao was done feeding Su Rong the medication, sensing that Master Xie and Su Rong had something to discuss, she intended to leave, but was stopped by Master Xie, "Nurse, please stay."
On his words, Nurse Zhao set the bowl down and stayed by Su Rong’s side.
Master Xie asked Nurse Zhao, "Nurse, how much have you told Xiaoqi?"
Nurse Zhao replied promptly, "That day when I went to the Su Residence to teach Miss Xiaoqi, I observed her closely and found that she looks strikingly similar to Princess Zhenmin, hence I couldn’t contain myself and asked her about her mother’s past. As Miss Xiaoqi is highly intelligent and was becoming suspicious, I had to reveal everything I knew about the royalty from the past era."
Looking at Master Xie, she asked, "I always wanted to know, how did Princess Zhenmin end up becoming concubine of the Governor of Jiangning at his Residence? And she passed away prematurely..."
She took out a handkerchief to wipe her tears, "The princess...did she lead a difficult life afterwards?"
"Not particularly difficult." Master Xie shook his head, "Other than suffering some hardships during Xiaoqi’s difficult birth, she had a severe hemorrhage after giving birth. The doctor managed to stop the bleeding with some strong drugs, but that left her health permanently impaired. Apart from that, she led a life free from worries, in peace and tranquility with no disturbances."
"Did the princess pass away prematurely due to her failing health after giving birth to Miss Xiaoqi?"
"That’s one reason. Secondly, she was injured when she was rescued from Dawei back in her early years. After giving birth to Xiaoqi, she was often lost in thought, which caused her life to be short-lived."
Nurse Zhao could not hold back her tears, "How did the princess get rescued from Dawei back then?"
"We used a dead woman to substitute her physical identity, a tactic to surreptitiously make the swap."
Nurse Zhao looked at Su Rong, thinking that they should have an open conversation about this, "As I recall, you and the Princess were in love, why did she end up with Governor Su instead of marrying you?"
Su Rong was keen to know the answer as well. She looked at Master Xie, keen to hear his explanation. Though she suspected him to be her biological father for a while, she later observed from his interaction with her mother that they seemed more like relatives. Also, having looked at herself in the mirror several times and finding no resemblance, she dismissed the idea.
Master Xie fell silent again, then said after a while, "She had been through too much. When she was finally free, she was unwilling to marry me. I didn’t insist, as long as she was alive and within my sight, I was content."
Upon hearing this, Su Rong wanted to scoff at him, but held back as he was her elder. She couldn’t resist saying, "My mother and my father never consummated their marriage. She lived alone in that room for several years."
Implicitly, she was hinting at the Chinese saying about cherishing the flowers when they bloom, lest they were wasted. They had wasted their time.
Master Xie glared, "You shut up."
How did this child know everything?
Nurse Zhao laughed, "Miss Xiaoqi is intelligent, it’s not surprising that she knows many things. From what I recall of Master Xie’s temperament, he was not one to care about a woman’s past. If he knew that the princess had feelings for him, even if she was unwilling, he would have sustained her heart’s warmth, wouldn’t he?"
Master Xie held his forehead, he almost didn’t want to say anything anymore in front of Su Rong. But he was no longer young, and his embarrassment was manageable. He sighed, "Her heart was already lost to the Nanchu King, I knew I couldn’t make her mine."
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