Roumin looked immensely pleased with herself. Dowager Noble Consort exclaimed in astonishment, "Duke of Chu, you...?"
Even if he had learned that Roumin was Yun Miao the Third, surely such a grand gesture of prostration wasn't necessary?
Yet when Chu Huaishan raised his head, his aged face was already streaked with tears. "Good... very good, Dowager Noble Consort. You have kept this old man in the dark for over a decade, and I have kept a secret from you for just as long. Fair... perfectly fair! Hahahaha!"
Dowager Noble Consort's heart gave a violent lurch. She saw him turn his head and call out loudly, "Bring him out!"
From inside the room, Chu Zhong and Shopkeeper Du carried out a sedan chair, with Hongxiu following behind.
Leaning against the sedan chair was a man, clad in red robes with hair as white as snow, sunk in a deep slumber... Dowager Noble Consort recognized him at a glance. "The Prince?!" The word escaped her lips before she realized it was wrong.
He was far too young. Moreover, his eyes were narrower and more elongated, giving him an even more bewitching appearance.
She opened her mouth to ask, but her gaze swept over Shopkeeper Du's face and she froze again. "Little Du? You're not dead?"
Shopkeeper Du bowed with a bitter smile. "It is I, Your Ladyship. Not only am I alive, but the Second Young Master, Hongxiu... they are all alive as well..."
Dowager Noble Consort murmured, "Alive is good, alive is good..." Then her voice broke. "Second Young Master? You mean Lang'er? Lang'er is also alive?"
Shopkeeper Du looked towards the figure on the sedan chair. Dowager Noble Consort's tears spilled over, and she nearly flew to his side. "Lang'er! Lang'er! What's wrong with you? Wake up, look at your grandaunt, look at me!"
She shook him for a while, but there was no response. She turned to look at Shopkeeper Du, whose face was filled with hatred as he glared at Roumin. "It was her! Third Young Lady, your heart is truly vicious! Since acknowledging you, has the Pavilion Master ever treated you with anything less than kindness? And you! Conspiring with the Prince of Jin's heir to assassinate the Pavilion Master... do you have even a shred of sibling affection left in your heart?"
Dowager Noble Consort trembled violently. Roumin hung her head guiltily. "N-no, it wasn't me... I didn't mean to..."
"Didn't mean to? Then these past two days, with the Pavilion Master hovering between life and death, have you come to see him even once?" Shopkeeper Du spoke through gritted teeth. If not for the blood ties between the Pavilion Master and her, he would have killed her right then to avenge his master!
At that moment, a weary voice interjected. "It wasn't her..."
Everyone was stunned. They saw Chu Huaishan straighten up, looking as if he had aged ten years in an instant. "Roumin is not Yun Miao. The real Yun Miao... is here."
With a push, he sent Chu Ruoyan forward.
Though Chu Ruoyan had long suspected, hearing it confirmed still brought tears to her eyes. "Father..."
Chu Huaishan raised a hand to stop her. Facing the many shocked and bewildered gazes, he gave a bitter laugh. "Dowager Noble Consort, do you remember the day you came to my residence to take the child away?"
Dowager Noble Consort said, "How could I forget? The Prince of the Western Frontier's army was at the city gates then, on the verge of destroying Xia. I went to great lengths to learn that Yun Miao was in your residence and rushed there to take her to see the Prince of the Western Frontier, hoping he would withdraw his troops for the sake of his granddaughter!"
Chu Huaishan nodded slowly. "Correct. And just two months before your arrival, the Princess Consort's loyal servant brought Yan'er to seek refuge with my father-in-law. The Jiang family was implicated because of it... two hundred and seventy people died. But those two managed to escape... Afterwards, my father-in-law arranged for someone to deliver them to my residence. At that time, my own daughter had just turned two and a half..."
His words sent a shock through everyone.
Because Yun Miao was around the same age at that time!
Everyone began to guess the truth. Dowager Noble Consort covered her mouth. "You... the child you handed over to me... could it be...?"
"Correct. The child I handed over to you was my own flesh and blood!!"
Chu Huaishan closed his eyes in anguish, sinking into painful memories. "You showed up so suddenly, telling me only that child could make the Prince of the Western Frontier withdraw his troops. How could I trust you? The late Emperor had slaughtered five entire families of my father-in-law's clan, two hundred and seventy lives, all to capture that child! And you were the late Emperor's Noble Consort... how could I not be suspicious?"
"But I also dared not refuse. If you reported it to the late Emperor, my entire Chu family would be doomed! So... I could only hand over my own daughter... Roumin..."
By the end, he was sobbing uncontrollably. Roumin was completely dumbstruck, standing there in a daze, utterly speechless.
Chu Ruoyan's eyes reddened as she knelt down. "I am the one who wronged you! I am the one who implicated you!"
If not for protecting her, her father—no, she should say, the Duke of Chu—would never have sacrificed his own daughter.
Chu Huaishan waved a hand dismissively. "It has nothing to do with you. No matter who was sent, as long as it was the Prince's child, I had to protect her! If not for the Prince, where would the Chu family be?"
Everyone was stunned into silence by this revelation.
Dowager Noble Consort suddenly said, "No, that's not right! When you handed the child over, I personally checked. The butterfly-shaped birthmark on the back of her neck was identical, it was Yun Miao's! How do you explain that?"
Hongxiu, who was attending to the Pavilion Master, also remembered something and cried out, "Yes! And the scar on the little finger of her right hand! The Pavilion Master said he got that as a child, no outsider could possibly know about it!"
Chu Huaishan gave a derisive laugh. "The person was right in front of me. What scar or birthmark could be hidden from me? Dowager Noble Consort, do you know who the loyal servant was who escorted Yan'er over a thousand li to me?"
Dowager Noble Consort was taken aback. Shopkeeper Du said, "I know! The Pavilion Master mentioned her. It was Qiaoniang, who served by the Princess Consort's side. She was a master of disguise!"
It was precisely because she excelled at disguise that they managed to escape the pursuit of so many soldiers.
And it was precisely because of this that...
"So you conspired with Qiaoniang. You had the birthmark and scar from Yun Miao's body replicated onto your own daughter, and had Qiaoniang remove the marks from Yun Miao's body. Thus, you substituted one for the other. With two little girls of the same age, who would suspect their identities had been swapped?"
"Good... very good! Chu Huaishan, the day I returned to the capital, I asked you if you had played some trick! And you denied it! Now you finally admit it! Over a decade... you... you have kept me in the dark all this time!!"
Dowager Noble Consort beat her chest in anguish. All these years, fearing the royal family might go back on their word, she hadn't even dared to let Roumin live in the capital.
She could only use the excuse of quiet cultivation to hide in the remote Mount Wutai, far from the emperor's reach. To think it was all for nothing!
Chu Huaishan let out a sorrowful, bitter laugh. "And weren't you the same? You kept it from me and brought Roumin back, letting father and daughter meet without recognizing each other... Ha! It's all retribution... all retribution!!"
Mutual wariness, each other's calculations, in the end, neither gained anything good from it!
Chu Ruoyan's heart was in turmoil. She was the cause of all this present suffering. Her voice trembled. "I'm sorry, Father... I have wronged you and Mother... Madam Jiang..."
Chu Huaishan, however, said, "That wasn't your mother. It was Qiaoniang... Not long after Roumin left, she passed away. Qiaoniang said the young mistress was still small and couldn't be without care, so I had her disguise herself as your mother. It wasn't until a few years later, when she too passed, that I married Lady Jiang the Younger."
No wonder "Mother" could invite a legendary physician like Old Divine Doctor Qin.
No wonder they hadn't shared a chamber in the later years...
Chu Ruoyan's heart was a storm of conflicting emotions. Only Shopkeeper Du cried out joyfully, "Pavilion Master, did you hear? Roumin is not your sister! The County Magistrate of Changle is! She is the Third Young Lady! Please, wake up!"
Chu Ruoyan instinctively looked over. That peerlessly handsome face remained placid and unmoving...
Disappointment filled her heart, and she lowered her eyes. Suddenly, a familiar, lazy voice reached her ears.
"What's all this racket? This Pavilion Master isn't deaf, I can hear you!"
Chu Ruoyan looked up in pleasant surprise. On the soft sedan chair, the man who had been unconscious for two days and nights opened his eyes, the corners of his mouth lifting as he gazed at her: "Little Blind One, fate truly brings us together~ I suggested you swap places with Roumin, and you actually did it!"
Chu Ruoyan's tears turned to laughter: "Indeed. And it's a blood bond that can never be severed in this lifetime. Is the Pavilion Master satisfied now?"
Yun Lang nodded, then suddenly turned serious: "Miao Miao!"
Chu Ruoyan's heart was deeply moved, and she called out in return: "Second Brother!"
The siblings looked at each other, as if reuniting after a long separation.
Old Divine Doctor Qin came out clapping his hands: "Excellent, excellent! A happy ending at last! This old man's performance wasn't in vain..."
"Old Master!" Yun Lang interrupted, his previously languid gaze suddenly sharpening as it fixed on Roumin, filled with a chilling murderous intent. "Since you are not my little sister, then you will repay the sword thrust to my chest... with your life!!"
