Unexpectedly hearing his own father’s name in the middle of this old story left Mo Xi with complicated feelings for a moment.
The innkeeper said, “After making inquiries, the eldest Chu girl learned that Mo Qingchi already had a daughter at home, and that she was extremely jealous. So in the end, she set her sights on Murong Xuan, who was still unmarried.”
Murong Chuyi asked in a low voice, “But if the second Chu girl was truly so strong-willed, how could she possibly be willing to follow her sister’s arrangements? And even more so, if she learned that everything her sister had endured and planned had been for her sake, how could she willingly continue living?”
“Exactly.” The innkeeper said, “So what the eldest Chu girl planned was to make sure her sister never found out.”
“She wanted her sister to live out the rest of her life peacefully, without carrying any pain. So one day… when the entire royal family went hunting in the outskirts of the city, she brought her younger sister along. Taking advantage of her unpreparedness, she slipped the Forget-Worry Powder she had stolen into the water her sister was drinking.”
“!”
“After her sister drank the Forget-Worry Powder, she forgot everything that had happened in the past and fell into an unconscious sleep. At that moment, the eldest Chu girl secretly carried her onto the road that Murong Xuan was bound to pass through. When Murong Xuan saw an orphan girl who was barely alive, disheveled and pitiful, he indeed felt compassion and ordered his people to rescue her.”
“After the eldest Chu girl had done this, she knew that all the seduction and ingratiation she had previously used would soon be exposed, so she decided to risk everything and flee during the night. But before she could get far, the nobleman who had abducted her discovered what she had done. He immediately flew into a rage and sent people after her. During her frantic escape, Miss Chu fell down a steep slope and plunged into the Five-Poison Abyss.”
Murong Chuyi murmured, “That depression east of Chonghua City where the miasma gathers in dense concentrations?”
“Yes… When Miss Chu struggled her way out, she had already inhaled too much poisonous miasma, and her mind was no longer clear. She began to become somewhat confused. But Immortal Master, you should know that the effects of that kind of miasma don’t manifest all at once. Instead, they become increasingly severe as time passes.”
“When Miss Chu still possessed some clarity of mind, she held onto a faint hope and wanted to return to Lin’an City to look for her father and younger brother. But after she reached an inhabited area and made several inquiries, all the news she received only plunged her further into despair. She became more deranged with each passing day. And when she discovered that she was actually carrying that nobleman’s child, the mental shock reached its peak—she practically collapsed completely.”
The private room became frighteningly silent.
Not to mention Murong Chuyi himself—even Mo Xi immediately understood that Murong Chuyi was the child of Miss Chu and the nobleman who had forcibly violated her.
Gu Mang looked at Mo Xi and asked softly, “Why do you look a little pale?”
Mo Xi shook his head.
He truly did not want to hear any more and wanted to take Gu Mang away. But leaving at this moment would only make it easier to attract the other party’s attention. And no matter what, he had no idea how he should face Murong Chuyi right now.
Amid this unbearable silence, Murong Chuyi suddenly asked in a voice devoid of emotion,
“Why didn’t she have that child aborted?”
“How could anyone possibly know?” the innkeeper sighed. “She herself probably didn’t understand what she was thinking. But… human emotions are the most unpredictable things in the world. Isn’t there a saying that with one thought, one can become a devil, and with another, a Buddha? I imagine she must have struggled for a long time between abandoning the child and keeping it. She hesitated and hesitated until it was no longer suitable to have the child aborted. So afterward, she had the thought of abandoning the baby at the entrance of a temple.”
Murong Chuyi abruptly closed his eyes.
The innkeeper said, “Before Miss Chu died, she repeatedly told me that at the time, she had hidden in the woods and watched a richly dressed woman carry her child away. After feeling relieved, she suddenly felt nothing but heartache. It hurt so much that she suddenly regretted it and wanted to take the child back. But that woman had already traveled away in her carriage. No matter how much she chased after her, she couldn’t catch up. No matter how loudly she shouted, no one paid her any attention.”
“That became the final straw that broke her. That night, she completely lost her mind.”
After saying this, the innkeeper himself sat in a daze for a while. Only then did he slowly add,
“As for the youngest son of the Chu family… that child kept working aboard my boat. Later, when I grew old, I wanted to live a more stable life, so I came to Lin’an and opened this restaurant. But he had grown attached to boats, so even now, he still works around the docks, doing the same old trade. I never told him the details of what happened during his childhood.”
“…”
Murong Chuyi’s voice was low and somewhat hoarse.
“How is he doing now?”
“He has a wife and children. He lives a peaceful life. He says that while he’s still young and strong, he wants to earn as much money as he can. In a few more years, he’ll take his wife and child back to Lin’an, establish a household and some property, and let his child study properly.”
Murong Chuyi remained silent for a long while before saying,
“That’s good.”
After a while, he asked again,
“Shopkeeper, do you know who the nobleman was who abducted those two Chu sisters back then?”
The innkeeper’s expression changed slightly. His thick lips trembled as he hesitated.
Although he had never mentioned that nobleman’s identity or name throughout his account, it was obvious that he knew. But telling a rumor was one thing; openly naming that vile man and reporting him was another.
Everyone’s sense of justice in this world was different. Some people could only go this far; beyond this point, they simply had no more courage. But in the end, they still possessed their own goodness, and it would be unreasonable to demand too much of them.
Murong Chuyi understood this principle very well. Besides, he did not actually need confirmation. He already had a fairly good idea of the answer.
Who else could it have been?
Even Mo Xi, who had always been the least inclined to meddle in other people’s affairs, could easily guess the identity of that bastard.
Murong Chuyi took in the innkeeper’s reaction in its entirety. He did not say anything more, only saying,
“I understand. Thank you, Shopkeeper.”
“No, sigh, don’t thank me… What is there to thank me for?”
There was another stretch of silence.
Suddenly—
“Shopkeeper, may I trouble you to answer one more question?”
“Immortal Master, may I ask you something?”
The two spoke almost simultaneously.
Murong Chuyi said, “You ask.”
The innkeeper stammered hesitantly,
“You… you aren’t really… the child that Miss Chu had back then… are you…?”
“…”
“Forget it. Sigh, pretend I never asked. Pretend I never asked. Tell me about yours instead. What did you want to ask me?”
Murong Chuyi was silent for a moment before saying,
“What I want to ask is, in this area of Lin’an Prefecture, do many families have a custom of tattooing certain patterns or totems onto their children’s shoulders shortly after they are born?”
Hearing this, Mo Xi’s hand paused slightly, and he froze.
“Oh… The Yue people do indeed have a fondness for tattooing. There is such a custom, though not all Yue people do it.”
The innkeeper said, “Actually, this kind of custom depends on one’s ancestors. I can’t explain the specifics very clearly either. I’ve heard that a very long time ago, the ancestors of some families worshiped flower gods. They would recognize a particular flower as their family’s protective symbol against evil, and then ask a great cultivator of that time to place a mark on their arm. For example, those who worshiped peonies would have a peony mark, while those who worshiped tree peonies would have a tree-peony mark.”
The more Mo Xi listened, the worse his expression became. By this point, his face had almost gone pale.
The innkeeper continued, “The great cultivator who performed the markings back then used extremely refined magic. These marks not only appeared on those believers at the time, but were also passed down through their bloodline. Their children would be born with such birthmarks as well.”
“However, because so many years have passed since that great cultivator performed the spell, the marks of the various families have gradually faded. Some whose power was insufficient can barely be seen anymore. After a few more generations, these birthmarks will probably disappear completely.”
“…”
Murong Chuyi was silent for a moment before asking,
“Then that Chu family from back then… did they also carry this inherited mark?”
The innkeeper thought about it and answered,
“Yes.”
The air seemed to freeze.
“What was it?”
“A lotus flower.”
It was like thunder striking directly into his heart. His ears and eyes went numb, and Mo Xi’s vision repeatedly darkened. He raised his eyes and, through the flickering, dim candlelight of the restaurant, looked at Gu Mang’s face across from him, completely unaware of what had just happened.
Lotus… lotus…
Countless fragments from the past flashed through Mo Xi’s mind like scenes from a lantern:
The rumors about First Wangshu and the girl from Lin’an, the incompatibility between Gu Mang and Murong Lian, the subtle similarities between Murong Chuyi and Gu Mang…
Finally, a clear and gentle voice sounded from his memories.
It was something Jiang Fuli had said not long ago when treating Gu Mang’s illness—
“Hm? This lotus-petal mark on his shoulder… I think I’ve seen it somewhere before?”
—
It was Murong Chuyi.
Murong Chuyi must have once asked Jiang Fuli to examine him for some reason, allowing him to see the birthmark on his shoulder.
A chill rose from the depths of Mo Xi’s bones. The truth was like an ocean that had overturned the entire world, crashing down and completely submerging him until he could barely breathe.
He buried his brows and eyes deeply in his palm, goosebumps rising across his back.
Murong Lian, Murong Chuyi, First Wangshu, the Chu sisters, Gu Mang… and that… that Aunt Lin whom Gu Mang had once mentioned to him, something he had not thought much of at the time.
The relationships between all of them became entangled like a single thread, rising in his mind and gradually becoming clearer.
And the clearer they became, the more terrifying they were.
His entire body felt as though he had been plunged into icy water.
“Mo Xi?”
“…”
“Mo Xi!”
He did not know how long had passed before Gu Mang’s worried voice abruptly dragged him out of his chaotic thoughts.
Mo Xi suddenly came back to himself and looked up, seeing Gu Mang’s delicate face beneath the candlelight.
He had been lost in thought for too long. At some point, Murong Chuyi had already taken his leave, while the innkeeper had slowly come downstairs, his greasy belly sticking out as he put on a welcoming smile and resumed serving the customers entering the restaurant.
Everything was like a dream.
But Mo Xi knew it wasn’t.
None of this was a dream.
In the regression through time, he had once seen Gu Mang’s final farewell with Lu Zhanxing. Gu Mang had so desperately hoped that this lonely, solitary existence of his could have relatives to accompany him.
Then he remembered Yue Chenqing saying that Murong Chuyi had always been a solitary person, an abandoned baby left at the entrance of a temple who had never known who his family was or whether they were still alive.
The two of them—one cold, one warm; one passionately hoping, the other silently searching. They seemed to have absolutely no connection, and yet… and yet…
Mo Xi closed his eyes with a tremble.
“Mo Xi, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing…”
After a long while, Mo Xi said hoarsely, his voice carrying an emotion that he could not tell was worry or joy.
The joy went without saying.
The worry was because Gu Mang was already in this condition. How could he possibly withstand another shock concerning his origins? And if the brothers truly reunited, the tangled mess between the Yue and Murong families would also fall onto Gu Mang’s shoulders.
His thoughts were complicated for a moment, and he did not know what to say. He merely raised a hand and stroked Gu Mang’s head before asking,
“If you… if you still had a close blood relative in this world, would you be happy?”
Gu Mang looked confused.
“What is that?”
“Someone who is closest to you.”
“Then that’s only you.”
“What if there were someone else?”
“But no one else could be closer to me than you.” Gu Mang slightly widened his eyes. “If there really were someone, why wouldn’t he come looking for me?”
“He…”
Mo Xi was silent for a moment before finally saying,
“He will.”
—
After returning to the inn, Mo Xi had no desire to sleep.
He stood by the window, looking at the moon outside, frost covering the rooftops of countless homes, his mind filled with countless thoughts.
The nobleman who had mistreated the Chu sisters back then was, in all likelihood, Yue Juntian.
Given Murong Chuyi’s personality, Mo Xi did not know what he might do. Whatever the outcome, it would inevitably leave both the Yue family and Murong Chuyi severely wounded.
And if he wanted to prevent Murong Chuyi from taking the desperate path of seeking revenge, then telling him that he still had a blood-related younger brother in this world was clearly the best way.
He did not know Murong Chuyi all that well, but he could more or less tell that Murong Chuyi also wanted to know what it felt like to have a “home.”
Between the satisfaction of revenge and the lasting warmth of family, Mo Xi believed that Murong Chuyi would choose the latter.
Actually, this would be better for everyone.
“Mo Xi.”
Hearing movement behind him, Mo Xi turned around, only to discover that it was merely Gu Mang talking in his sleep.
Gu Mang was curled up on the bed, the thin blanket pulled high, exposing only half of his face. His brows were slightly furrowed, as though he had dreamed of something.
Mo Xi walked over to him and sat down on the edge of the bed.
He raised his hand and smoothed Gu Mang’s slightly disheveled hair away from his forehead, only to see Gu Mang sleepily open his eyes.
Mo Xi’s voice was gentle as he asked quietly,
“Did I wake you?”
Gu Mang sleepily shook his head. After a moment, he narrowed those translucent blue eyes and mumbled,
“Do I really have… a big brother too…?”
Mo Xi’s hand paused slightly.
Then he gave a low “Mm.”
“Then will he really come looking for me…?”
“…He will.”
“Will he like me?”
“He definitely will.”
Gu Mang gave a soft hum. The furrow between his brows slowly relaxed, and there was gradually a little more ease and anticipation in his expression.
In the long night, Mo Xi sat beside him, watching him sleep as he continued turning everything over in his mind.
After a long while, he tucked Gu Mang’s thin blanket securely around him. Then he stood and silently left the inn, heading toward the burial grounds outside the city.