"I wish you and your brother could return home together on this journey..."
She couldn't help but shudder, and when she looked up, she saw her brother's face covered in blood.
The sudden appearance of dawn jolted her awake from her dream. It felt as if someone was choking her, making it hard to breathe; the thin shirt covering her was completely soaked. She couldn't help but cry out, "Brother!"
Feng Hua and Pu Niang, carrying copper basins, pushed open the door and entered. Upon seeing her appearance, they were startled and knew something was wrong. They immediately put down what they were carrying and ran over quickly.
"Miss, are you having another nightmare? Another nightmare?" Feng Hua asked anxiously when she saw that her face was pale.
She felt her teeth chattering, her throat dry, and she couldn't speak.
Pu Niang then wrung out a towel from the warm water basin and wiped her face.
Seeing that her feet were on the carpet, Feng Hua went to the side to get embroidered shoes and went to the wardrobe to get a cloak to put on her.
"The ground is cold, Miss, please get dressed quickly."
Then Pu Niang gathered her hair from behind, intending to tie it up, and while combing her black hair, she said, "Young Master is in the study..." Before Pu Niang could finish speaking, the person on the bed suddenly sat up.
Her eyes were bloodshot as she looked at the few white magnolia blossoms in an octagonal vase placed by the window. Then, barefoot, she rushed over and, without thinking, used her arm, which felt as if it had been ripped of its bones, to lift a long sword hanging on the wall and swing it.
The bottle shattered into pieces, and the fallen flowers turned to mud.
Feng Hua's heart clenched in fright, and she let out an "Ah!" before giving Pu Niang a wink.
She looked at the bronze mirror in front of her. The person in the mirror had all her black hair loose. The face in the mirror seemed to have high eyebrows, eyes like hanging pearls, a high nose bridge, thin lips, and a pointed chin with a slight roundness.
Years ago, her mother praised her with affection: "My child, you possess both heroic spirit and gentle beauty."
A thin layer of sweat beaded on her forehead. Staring blankly at her pale face in the mirror, she murmured, "Who am I?"
Feng Hua's heart pounded, tears welling in her eyes. She comforted her, "Miss, things will get better. You are the eldest daughter of this household!"
She smiled sadly in the mirror and said coldly, "The late emperor said that I am the precious pearl of my father and mother and was born in the bright midsummer of July. He only wished that I could be as bright and radiant as the July sun."
Therefore, he was given the name Qin Jiaweixi.
How long has it been since she last heard that name?
"He watched us being born, watched us grow up, and swore an oath with the Qin, Luo, and Chu clans who helped him conquer the land by planting a magnolia tree himself. But could he have imagined that one day, his own nephews and nieces, whom he had also watched grow up, would be laid to rest one after another on the land to which he had devoted his life?"
She clenched one fist and gripped the hilt of her sword tightly with the other, her eyes suddenly turning cold.
He then drew his sword and pushed open the door.
Feng Hua exclaimed in surprise, "Miss!"
She wanted to go to those powerful and noble families and ask them what crime the Qin family had committed of treason. But she could never bring back her own flesh and blood.
A courtyard was filled with fallen hibiscus flowers. Luo Ling stood alone under the flowering tree, slender as bamboo.
She still has that warm smile and clear eyes, just like her brother.
I still remember a secret letter that was sent from the capital to Jiangnan. The letter contained only a short sentence, and the pen seemed to penetrate the paper with force.
"Though we have different names, we were born on the same land and will weather the storms together. Xiao Xi, I am your elder brother. An elder brother is like a father. The Luo family will always be a home where you can escape the storms."
In the winter of the third year of Kang Le's reign, she threw herself into the river on her way to Beijing, believing that she would surely perish there.
Perhaps even Heaven took pity on her and listened to her prayers, for someone rescued her. It was a handsome young man in a blue robe who lifted her from the river, while his men fought off the enemy on the boat.
She could no longer hold on, tears streaming down her face like a kite with a broken string. She said to him, "Go quickly!"
Tao Qingyun's eyes were dark circles, and a ring of black stubble had grown on his lips. Clearly, he had traveled at breakneck speed and then switched to a boat to travel by water, and it was unknown how many obstacles he had overcome to get here.
He gritted his teeth, his eyes red, and said fiercely, "Even if we are both riddled with bullets today, I will drag you away no matter what."
When she awoke from a hazy, repetitive dream, she found herself in the water towns of Jiangnan. Meanwhile, in the distant capital, the New Year was approaching, and Lunar New Year's Eve was just around the corner.
But everything the Qin family owned was gone overnight.
At that time, the Luo family had left the capital, and Luo Xiaoxing was only six years old. Jiang Yuanjun was still under house arrest in the Eastern Palace because of the incident involving Liang Xu, and was not allowed to leave. Only Luo Ling and Tao Qingyun rode south to see him off for a while.
This parting was destined to be long and arduous. Tao Qingyun said nothing, but gave Luo Zhaoxing a clay figurine of a girl from Huishan, a little girl with her hair in two buns and wearing a pink silk skirt. She had big eyes and a chubby face, and her appearance was vivid and lifelike.
The bottom of the clay figure is inscribed with six small characters: "Little Star, may you have peace and safety year after year."
As the group headed south, he said to Luo Ling, "It's better that they left; at least they can grow up safely."
However, things didn't go as planned. Before he even reached Jiangnan, Luo Zhaoxing fell seriously ill and was barely breathing.
Sometimes she would wake up from a nightmare, lean on Qin Weixi's shoulder, and cry, "Sister, I'm so afraid of dying!"
When he's lucid, he'll smile sweetly at her and say, "Sister, don't be afraid, I'll protect you from heaven."
In moments of confusion, he would whisper to her, and they would lie head to head in the green gauze-draped wardrobe, listening to the cicadas chirping in the courtyard.
“Sister, how could I be like this? If I could live a healthy life, would I also live to be an old woman with a full head of white hair in my sixties or seventies? Sister, I am six years old this year. When I leave, I will pray to the gods that you, sister, may live to be a hundred years old and see all things in this world for me, and live for more than a hundred years.” Luo Zhaoxing lowered her eyes, holding the clay doll in her hands, stroking it lovingly again and again.
Qin Weixi tried her best to restrain herself, forced a smile, turned over so her back was to her, and felt the bitter and salty taste of tears in her mouth. She said, "Then wouldn't I have become an old monster?"
Luo Zhaoxing chuckled: "That's true. But sister, if I don't drink the Forget-Dust Tea offered by Meng Po at the Bridge of Helplessness, and wait for you at the Bridge of Helplessness when your lifespan in this world comes to an end, we will be true sisters again in the next life."
Tears welled up and streamed down her face, one after another, as if her heart had been ripped open. She replied, "Alright! Little Star, it's a deal!"
But silly girl, how could your closest relatives and friends in this world watch you not drink the Meng Po tea, not forget the troubles and sorrows of this life, and let you stand on the banks of the Naihe Bridge day after day, thinking about all the people and things still in the mortal world?
Finally, Luo Jiaxiaoxing whispered in her ear, "Sister, you must live well for me! I'll go and take a good look after them for you. We will all protect you from heaven."
She knew that she was referring to her father and mother, who cherished her like a treasure, and her brother, who raised her and loved her the most.
From then on, he forgot his Qin family name and the name bestowed upon him by the late emperor, and lived a life of mere survival.
Watching the Liang family rise in rank and titles, and seeing the powerful officials and nobles who once plunged the Qin family into misery through rumors now enjoying their newfound success.
Watching his elder brother Luo Ling live alone in Beijing for the past ten years.
Over the past decade, relying on her childhood memories and the stories her grandmother told her about the events in the capital after she moved to Jiangnan, she began to unravel the complexities of the Qin family clan and its branches with the outside world. This included everything from her seventy-year-old great-uncle to her uncles and underage children in the branches, as well as her father's former colleagues. She tried to piece together the clues and traces to find the truth behind the Qin family's destruction.
However, nothing was gained.
Zhuang Shijun, the father's advisor, has also disappeared without a trace.
It wasn't until she relied on the protection and connections accumulated by her grandparents that her elder brother Luo Ling, who was in the capital, intentionally or unintentionally visited those officials, merchants, and farming families.
Until I heard someone say that fourteen years ago, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the palace held a royal banquet. After the banquet, the officials were drunk and in high spirits. Someone said, "The Qin family is now as prestigious as the Big Dipper!"
Someone chimed in, "No, can the Qin family stay at the height of their power forever?"
That was the twenty-fifth year of the Wantai era. The late emperor had already retired to Penglai Xiaoding, and the current emperor, who was still the crown prince, was handling state affairs and politics on his behalf.
After the New Year, when the spring of the next year arrived, the magnolias bloomed, and the founding emperor passed away.
Meanwhile, everything in the Qin family was quietly thriving. The emperor frequently kept his father overnight in the palace to play chess, which was due to a grudge between them.
The seeds of their destruction had already been sown back then. She didn't know what role the current emperor played in the downfall of the Qin and Chu families. Was it because of "conclusive evidence" that he was enraged, or was he afraid of the Qin and Chu families' power and went with the flow, pushing the two great families into an endless abyss?
Over the past decade, the eldest brother, Luo Ling, has gradually established himself in the capital after the Luo family moved away from the city, thanks to these connections.
Grandmother Luo said, "Wait a little longer, wait a whole ten years, until everyone has forgotten the past, until those who cared have become indifferent, and they feel that life is going smoothly and there are no more threats. Then you can catch them off guard, make a comeback, and settle old scores!"
"But how many decades does one have in a lifetime? Our little granddaughter is already eighteen years old."
With a series of long sighs, Luo's grandmother sent her back to the capital, her hometown where she had lived for eight years.
Over the next ten years, Luo's mother taught all her best makeup techniques to her confidante, Pu Niang.
As the day of her return approached, Pu Niang had learned to transform her appearance into that of Xiao Xing, to make Luo's mother look decades older, and to make Luo's grandmother look like a complete stranger.
On the night before she left home, Luo's father said to her, "I dare not think about it all these years, much less mention it. The events of that year are like a cloud of mystery. At that time, the remnants of the previous dynasty had not been completely eliminated, and after the late emperor's death, they began to recklessly harass our borders. You should know that the emperor sent an envoy with your father to the enemy to persuade them to surrender, but they failed. Your father was injured in the process and returned to the capital with his remaining troops. The envoy was also killed in a foreign land. When your Uncle Chu went on his last expedition, everything was normal. He even said that when he returned, we would invite your father to drink together."
"Some time before the incident, the Emperor summoned me to the palace. He said that there seemed to be some problems at the border and that your Uncle Chu should be reinforced. I had just left the palace and was about to discuss countermeasures with your father, but the next day your father was summoned to the palace. Only then did I realize that those stubborn old men hiding in the rich and powerful wanted your father to lead troops to reinforce the border, but the Emperor reprimanded those officials and did not agree. In the end, the person who went was General Chen Chuansong of Dingyuan."
"For a long time before the incident, I had not seen your father. He was often summoned to the palace at that time. Until that day, your father did not return home all night, and A-Ling was also left in the palace. This had happened before, until I noticed something was wrong in the evening and found that many soldiers had left the city. Then, I saw the youngest grandson of the Marquis of Chengyi, Qingyun, riding a horse with a sheathed sword, galloping from the market towards the city gate, injuring many civilians in the process."
“I knew something was wrong right then and there. So I ordered all the women and children in my household to stay in the backyard, and the servants and guards of the mansion to guard the front yard. After settling everything, I wanted to go with Qingyun to see what had happened. But I saw that the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) had already arrived in front of the Luo mansion and had placed all of us in the Luo mansion under house arrest for several days.”
What Tao Qingyun saw was a scene of carnage: her brother kneeling on the cold snow, a spear embedded in his back, his mouth full of blood. Liang Bai, the second son of the Liang family, was disfigured, his flesh mangled, and his clothes barely covering him. He knelt on the ground in an extremely strange posture, his head pressed tightly against the ground towards his brother, as if he were worshipping him.
Back then, it caused the Liang family to lose face completely, making them the laughingstock of everyone in the capital who had always been at odds with them.
The rumbling carriage drove away from the home that Luo Ling had described as a safe haven from the wind and rain, and Luo's father handed her a precious sword.
He said, “My youngest daughter, this is your brother’s precious sword. Back then, Ah Ling ordered someone to bring it back to Jiangnan, because she was afraid that seeing it would remind her of him, and also because she was afraid that it would cause trouble back then.”
"I wish you and your brother could return home together, and you will not be lonely on this journey."
She gently stroked the sword, as if she could still feel the warmth of the hand that once held it, and then lightly touched the two small characters engraved on the hilt with her fingertips.
Sparkling light.
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