After the thirty strokes of the staff were finished, the white marble steps were already stained with bright red blood.
The Imperial Guards collected their staffs and went into the hall to report back. Only Xue Yan remained, kneeling alone before the steps.
His head hung somewhat low. After catching his breath for a moment, he still stretched out a hand and barely braced himself against the stone steps. Jun Huailang instinctively wanted to step forward, but he saw that Xue Yan had already pushed himself up from the ground and slowly stood.
He suddenly remembered what Xue Yunhuan had told him today.
When Yan Commandery fell, he had taken several hundred cavalrymen and fought circles around the Turkic army. Afterward, his entire army was annihilated. He had literally crawled out from a heap of corpses, traveled thousands of li at full speed, and returned to Chang’an.
He watched helplessly as Xue Yan turned around and left alone. His steps were very slow, with a faint stagger. He had walked a long way, yet not a single person came to support him. Only when he seemed unable to remain steady did he raise a hand and press it against the white marble handrail carved with coiling dragons.
By the time Jun Huailang came back to himself, only a patch of dark-red bloodstains remained before him.
In the education he had received since childhood, people who committed the most heinous crimes always had only themselves to blame.
But no one had ever told him that some villains had spent long years walking alone through the despair of a life no one else could see, and that no one had ever reached out a hand to them.
They themselves had long since grown accustomed to it.
——
After the Imperial Guards reported back, the banquet ended on an unpleasant note. Consort Shu hurriedly sent her senior palace maid, Dian Cui, over to support Jun Huailang and escort him back.
Xue Yunhuan also hurried over with Jun Linghuan. When he saw Jun Huailang standing alone beneath the palace lanterns, his lips pale, Xue Yunhuan was startled and rushed forward.
“They beat you too?”
Jun Huailang glanced once more at the bloodstains. Eunuchs were already carrying buckets of water to wash the stone steps. Under the rush of clean water, the blood faded and was easily scrubbed away.
“I’m fine.” Jun Huailang came back to himself and answered softly.
Xue Yunhuan still refused to feel reassured and personally escorted him back to Consort Shu’s Mingluan Palace. Although such a major incident had occurred today, Jun Huailang and Jun Linghuan still had to move into the palace.
Mingluan Palace was luxurious and situated in an excellent location, so they arrived shortly afterward.
When Jun Huailang raised his head at the palace gate, he saw gold and jade everywhere. Even the bracket sets were carved with curling peony branches and painted with gold powder. After passing around the exquisite little garden in the courtyard, they arrived at the main hall of Mingluan Palace. Four side halls stood before and behind it, connected by covered corridors.
After Xue Yunhuan returned, Jun Huailang and Jun Linghuan were led to the eastern side hall. This side hall was closest to the main hall, its windows faced the sun, and in winter, its heated floor was connected to that of the main hall.
It was already deep into the night. Jun Linghuan had begun dozing off halfway there. Not long after returning to the room, she fell into a deep sleep. After waiting until she had gone to sleep, Jun Huailang returned to his own hall.
The palace maids helped him wash and prepare for bed, then had him change into sleeping clothes before withdrawing. Jun Huailang, however, had little inclination to sleep. He lit a lamp alone and sat beneath the window, gazing at the moonlight half-hidden among the lights outside.
Perhaps because he had never seen someone receive punishment before, the sight of all that blood had unsettled him. For a moment, he actually did not know how he should settle the old debts of his previous life with such a person.
He thought that he needed to calm himself.
Just then, someone knocked on the door from outside. A palace maid quietly announced that Consort Shu had arrived.
Jun Huailang went over to greet her and saw that Consort Shu had already removed her makeup and hair ornaments. She was wearing sleeping clothes, with a brocade cloak trimmed with fox fur wrapped around her, and walked straight inside.
“I thought you probably hadn’t gone to sleep either. Were you frightened today?” Consort Shu sat beside him by the window and said, “His Majesty really is something. Why did he insist on having you teach him a lesson?”
Jun Huailang knew that although this aunt of his was beautiful and domineering, she actually had little scheming ability and was very simple-minded. Presumably, the reason she had remained favored for so long was partly because her family supported her and the Empress protected her, but also because she believed whatever she was told and was quite easy for the Emperor to manipulate.
Jun Huailang did not say much. He merely answered softly, “…I was indeed somewhat frightened.”
It was not the sight of Xue Yan being beaten that frightened him, but the hearts of people he had never seen in his previous life.
Consort Shu raised her hand and smoothed his hair.
“It’s all right. Here with your aunt, there is nothing you need to fear.”
Jun Huailang nodded and gave her a faint smile.
“The people and affairs in the palace are much more complicated than those at home,” Consort Shu said. “You have always been a cautious child, so I’m at ease. It’s just a pity that I still haven’t had a child of my own, and I’ve had to make you and Huan’er go so long without seeing your parents.”
At this, she lowered her eyes and sighed.
“Although that woman, Consort Yi, is irritating when she talks, there is one thing she said that wasn’t wrong.”
Jun Huailang froze, remembering the casual remark Consort Yi had made in the rear hall of Yongle Palace that day.
She had said that having a child by one’s side was perfectly fine even if he was not one’s biological child.
At the time, Jun Huailang had felt that there was another meaning hidden in those words. But people in the imperial harem always spoke with several twists and turns in every sentence, and he had not understood it completely.
Only now, seeing the thoughtful expression on Consort Shu’s face, did he suddenly realize.
Those words had seemed careless, but they had actually been very deliberate. She had been reminding Consort Shu that she could raise another consort’s son by her side.
In his previous life, Jun Huailang had known very little about affairs in the palace. But it was indeed in this year that Consort Shu took another consort’s child under her care. However, Consort Shu seemed extremely dissatisfied, made a huge scene, and sent that prince back not long afterward.
Jun Huailang tentatively asked, “You mean…”
Consort Shu paused and hesitated.
“This palace wants to ask His Majesty for a favor and raise a young prince here in the palace. I’m getting older, too, and I’ve been thinking that I should have someone to rely on in the future…”
As she spoke, she smiled again.
“Your Sister Dian Cui advised me to do the same.”
Jun Huailang knew that Consort Shu had never been very scheming and therefore often listened to Dian Cui’s advice. He pretended to understand only vaguely and gave an “Oh,” while considering which prince Consort Shu would raise.
Among the princes currently in the palace, those without mothers, along with those whose birth mothers held low status, left only Xue Yan and the Seventh Prince. The Seventh Prince had just been born and had not yet been weaned. His mother was merely a low-ranking palace maid, so he seemed like the best choice. Consort Shu certainly would not object.
Then could it be… that the child raised by Consort Shu in his previous life had been Xue Yan?
At the thought of Xue Yan, that glaring patch of dark red beneath the night sky rose before Jun Huailang’s eyes again. He hurriedly focused his mind and forced that scene out of his thoughts.
After coming back to himself, he found it somewhat strange. Why had such an absurd substitution occurred?
But before he understood the reason behind this change, his instincts told him that he should speak up and stop Consort Shu. Xue Yan was extremely dangerous and was also hated by the Emperor. Raising him beside Consort Shu would certainly bring nothing but harm.
Moreover, the most dangerous part was that when Xue Yan had come to Consort Shu’s palace in his previous life, Jun Linghuan had also been here. It was very possible that it was during this period that Jun Linghuan had provoked Xue Yan.
Meanwhile, Consort Shu was still thinking to herself and said to him, “The Seventh Prince would be quite good. He’s young, and his mother has no ability to raise him… What do you think, Lang’er?”
Yet Jun Huailang could not bring himself to persuade Consort Shu to abandon the idea.
He was naturally afraid that the events of his previous life would happen again, but preventing Xue Yan from moving into Mingluan Palace would not solve the problem.
In his previous life, he had thought that his family’s fate had been caused by his father being viewed with suspicion by others and Xue Yan being violent and unruly.
But now, it seemed obvious that there was a hand behind the scenes manipulating everything, pushing them toward the path of their previous life.
The Seventh Prince inexplicably becoming the Fifth Prince, his family becoming enemies with Xue Yan, his father and aunt dying, the Jun family being destroyed…
Beneath the appearance of everything simply following the current of events, the coincidences were far too strange. It was clearly someone pushing the Jun family toward the edge of the cliff step by step, without leaving a trace.
If he wanted to find the person behind it all, he had to follow the direction of his previous life and uncover his traces rather than disrupt the other party’s plans and introduce variables of his own.
“It’s naturally a good idea.” Jun Huailang looked at Consort Shu and smiled gently.
He was unwilling to admit that there was another reason hidden in his subconscious, one that made it impossible for him to refuse.
That was because, even now, he could not forget how cold the stone steps outside Yongle Palace had been on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
——
In a secluded palace at the southwestern corner of the imperial palace, the red maples outside were as blazing as fire, surrounding the palace in lively splendor. Yet the palace itself was quite dilapidated. The vermilion paint was mottled, and most of the plaster had peeled from the walls.
Inside the main hall, a lone candle flickered, casting a sinister, eerie light over the old palace.
Suppressed sobbing trembled violently, blending with the dancing candlelight.
Just then, a voice came from behind the bed curtains. It was clearly hoarse and somewhat lacking in strength, yet there was a languid nonchalance to it, along with an unmistakable pressure.
“If you’ve cried enough, shut your mouth. You’re noisy,” he said.
“Those dead soldiers were brought back from Yan Commandery by me. Without my order, they won’t touch a single person in your family.”
It was Xue Yan.
He lay on his stomach on the bed, his back bare. The lines of his shoulders and back were smooth and athletic, curving with resilient strength at his waist.
Yet his back was covered in crisscrossing wounds, looking particularly horrifying and giving off a thick smell of blood mixed with the pungent scent of medicine.
Emperor Qingping had not even summoned the imperial physicians. Xue Yan was using the wound medicine he had brought back with him from Yan Commandery.
He rested his head on the pillow, turning his face to the side as he narrowed his eyes and studied the little eunuch collapsed on the floor, like a lazy leopard resting in wait.
This little eunuch was the same one who had broken the jade arrow today. His name was Jinbao. He had previously been nothing more than a laborer in Yongxiang and had been assigned here to serve Xue Yan personally.
He had originally thought that being assigned to such an unloved master, whose treatment was even worse than that of a servant, was already unfortunate enough.
He had never imagined that when this master revealed his true nature, he would turn out to be such a terrifying fiend.
Jinbao was merely an ordinary person who feared death and coveted life. He had planned to earn enough money in the palace, then return home and buy two shops so he could enjoy his old age in peace.
He had never expected that this fiend would have his subordinates in the capital locate his family and then use them as leverage to force him to work for him.
This master could barely keep his own life, so if Jinbao worked for him, wouldn’t he be the first one to die?
Whether he stuck his head out or pulled it back, his entire family would be cut down. Jinbao lay collapsed on the floor, not even daring to cry aloud, trembling all over from holding it in, practically on the verge of breaking down.
Why was his life so miserable?!
Xue Yan calmly watched him for a while, but the man showed no sign of stopping his crying. He clicked his tongue impatiently.
“If you cry one more time, your younger brother dies tomorrow.”
That was the only male heir of Jinbao’s family!
A distorted whimper escaped from Jinbao’s throat. He forcibly swallowed the sob before it could become a cry.
“You have no choice. You might as well do my task properly. Perhaps you can even keep your own life.” Xue Yan moved his stiff neck and shoulders, immediately pulling at the wounds on his back and making him frown and click his tongue.
The moment he frowned, Jinbao’s tears began falling again.
“Enough.” Xue Yan continued impatiently. “I know you’re useless. It’s just that I’m short of people right now, so I’ll use you temporarily. I won’t have you do anything important.”
Jinbao had no way out. Hearing this, he could only whimper and say, “Please give this servant his orders, Master.”
Xue Yan said calmly and slowly, “Since I returned to the palace, every time I am humiliated, someone sends a message outside. Go and find out exactly where those messages are being sent.”
When Jinbao heard this, it seemed that it really wasn’t too difficult. After all, there were only these few people in their palace. They saw one another constantly, so he only needed to pay a little attention.
Jinbao breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly scrambled to his feet. Although he was timid, he was also quick-witted. Now that his entire family was in someone else’s hands, he naturally became much more attentive.
“Then this servant will go fetch some water for you…”
As he spoke, he hurried to get busy.
“Stop.”
Xue Yan spoke coldly and rubbed his brow.
What an idiot, he thought.
Jinbao immediately stopped, not daring to move an inch.
“Do as you did before. From now on, do the same.” Xue Yan patiently endured it and ordered him, half as a warning, “If I tell you to do something, do it neatly. If I haven’t told you to do it, don’t act on your own.”
Jinbao nodded repeatedly.
“Get out.”
Xue Yan did not spare him another word.