I changed into an ordinary cloth garment, put on a human skin mask, and boarded the carriage. The carriage quietly drove out of the palace gates, encountering almost no obstruction along the way. Que’er and another unfamiliar-looking woman sat across from me, and due to our tension, we hadn’t spoken.
The night was misty, bronze bells softly chiming. After driving through the darkness for who knows how long, Que’er lifted the curtain to look outside.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. I thought you might have been trapped. Where’s An Jin? Are my parents okay? Have they been arranged for?”
Que’er hesitated before answering, “Your family has been escorted out of the city by another group. We’re now heading to meet them. As for the master—” She turned and glanced at the woman beside her.
I followed her gaze to the woman. She pondered for a moment, then reached up to remove her mask.
It was actually my mother-in-law. She looked pale and haggard, but her eyes remained sharp as ever.
The bitterness and grief of recent days surged up, and I couldn’t help but grab her hand, choking, “Mother-in-law… Father-in-law, he—”
“I already know,” she said, her hand cold, her voice still calm and steady. “Now is not the time to discuss this.”
My emotions, which were about to burst forth, were suddenly blocked, stopping abruptly. Why could mother-in-law remain so calm? Her husband had just died, without even seeing him one last time—could she really feel nothing?
Mother-in-law was indifferent to the confusion and doubt in my eyes, her face like stagnant water, without a ripple.
As for the infant she had brought with her, almost no one knew her whereabouts. It was probably because the elderly woman was worried about being found by the empress’s people. Before her death, she deliberately instructed her parents not to publicize the baby girl’s origins. My father soon left to take an exam elsewhere, and my mother packed up her business, taking me and my older brother to travel with my father. Thus, there were no informed people left in Yao Town. The secret department’s investigation ultimately yielded nothing.
Later, my parents became neighbors with the An family. By chance, my mother had put away the black gold token hanging on me, and no one noticed anything, except for An Jin.
When An Jin came to play at my house, he happened to see the black gold token once. However, he was still young at the time and didn’t pay much attention to it, only remembering that the Yao flower was quite special. It wasn’t until he turned fifteen and gradually began to take over the secret department’s affairs that he saw the image of the black gold token given to the secret department by the Qi Emperor.
He must have remembered seeing such a black gold token at my house and secretly sent people to investigate the Xiao family’s background, confirming my identity. However, he never revealed this to his mother-in-law or mentioned a word to the Qi Emperor.
From the beginning, he never intended to let the Qi Emperor know my identity or have me return to Nan Rui as a princess.
In the year he turned eighteen, he proposed to me and was tragically rejected. He thought it over and decided to become an official, causing a significant conflict with his mother-in-law. By then, he had completely taken over the secret department, leaving her with no choice. Everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly, and he was just waiting to propose to me after becoming an official, hoping I would marry him peacefully. He even instructed the dark agents to keep an eye on my every move, ruthlessly cutting off any potential romantic prospects.
Who would have thought that more than a year later, my gambling-addicted mother would lose that black gold token?
The black gold token accidentally fell into the hands of the Third Prince, Xia Zhichun, and the secret department immediately received the news. Shocked, his mother-in-law immediately questioned An Jin, who was then forced to tell the truth.
His mother-in-law was furious and immediately demanded he go to the palace and report the matter to the Qi Emperor. An Jin resolutely refused, reasoning with her and deciding to suppress the matter and feign ignorance. His reason was simply that he didn’t want me to fall into the hands of the Qi Emperor and the Eastern Palace, becoming a tool for their political schemes.
Even out of personal selfishness, he didn’t want me involved in the conflicts between the three countries. Although his mother-in-law was angry, she couldn’t overpower him. Moreover, having watched me grow up, she was also reluctant to see me become the Qi Emperor’s pawn, and finally reluctantly agreed.
The Third Prince, after obtaining the black gold token, did not publicize it but kept it close and used the clue to find me, successfully inducing me to get acquainted with him.
An Jin watched everything unfold. He understood the Third Prince’s purpose. As an illegitimate prince, gaining Nan Rui’s support would provide a powerful backing. Moreover, with Western Liang and Qi Country always at odds, Nan Rui was an object of contention between them. He might even use this backing to rise rapidly and replace the Eastern Palace’s heir.
An Jin was originally planning how to counter the Third Prince’s design when the Qi Country suffered a military defeat and the two countries began peace talks. Undercover agents in Western Liang reported that Western Liang intended to demand the cession of two cities as a condition of the peace talks. An Jin deliberated and ordered the agents to influence the Western Liang Emperor’s decision, changing the final condition to sending a hostage.
The Qi Emperor had only two sons, and the Eastern Palace heir naturally couldn’t become the hostage. The only option was the Third Prince.
The Third Prince had no choice but to abandon his plans and go to Western Liang. An Jin tried to have agents retrieve the black gold token from him, but the Third Prince had hidden it so well that they never succeeded. Nevertheless, An Jin believed he would not reveal the black gold token or my identity to the Qi Emperor or Eastern Palace.
However, he underestimated the Third Prince.
Although Xia Zhichun went to Western Liang, he found a powerful collaborator there – the Fourth Prince, Yan Huo. To gain Yan Huo’s help, he sold a favor, revealing the whereabouts of Nan Rui’s missing princess. Yan Huo disguised himself as a Western Liang merchant, traveled to Yan Feng, and successfully approached me.
After learning of this, An Jin regretted not being decisive enough initially. He then put considerable effort into dealing with Yan Huo, ultimately using Western Liang’s palace intrigue to force him back to his country. Shortly after Yan Huo’s departure, knowing he could delay no longer, An Jin decisively proposed marriage to my family, despite knowing the timing was not ideal.
His mother-in-law opposed this marriage. My identity was too special. She sensed that if An Jin married me, it would burden the An family with a reputation of disloyalty.
I could marry anyone except becoming an An family daughter-in-law. However, An Jin was determined and ultimately made the marriage happen.
His mother-in-law was furious, hating that An Jin disregarded everything for the sake of “love” and abandoned family responsibilities. She also resented fate for making him fall in love with someone he shouldn’t. Every time she saw me, she would think of the challenges the An family would face and involuntarily became cold towards me.
An Jin originally thought that after our marriage, even if Yan Huo was unwilling, he would temporarily give up, and we would no longer have troubles. Unexpectedly, before one wave subsided, another rose – Nan Rui and Western Liang arranged a marriage, and it was the Fifth Princess who bore some resemblance to me.
