Murong Yan lingered in the Qingquan Palace for the entire afternoon. It was only after he departed that Wang Yunzhao sent a trusted inner attendant to lead Zuo Canglang out through a small side gate to avoid prying eyes.
Zuo Canglang’s current status was awkward. The old subordinates of Wen Che within the army accepted her partly because of her military achievements and character, but it was undeniable that a large part of it was also due to her identity as General Wen’s widow. Once the nature of her relationship with Murong Yan spread, it was feared that people would have their doubts and opinions.
Furthermore, Wen Xingye of the Wen Estate was a man who placed extreme importance on family reputation and lineage. Should he learn of her unseemly involvement with Murong Yan, it was not impossible that he might die of rage on the spot. From then on, she would surely be estranged from the Wen family.
As for Murong Yan, he had always presented himself to the world as a man of deep devotion. Whether it was the reasons he gave when raising troops to force the palace or his later insistence on crowning Jiang Bilan as Queen against the opposition of his ministers, all served as proof of his unswerving loyalty to love.
Now that the imperial harems had been abolished and only one Queen remained, this tale of the King and Queen’s devotion had become a celebrated story throughout the State of Yan. If his relationship with Zuo Canglang were made public, it would undoubtedly cause a national uproar. Everything he had painstakingly cultivated would become a laughingstock.
Murong Yan did not mention these stakes, but Wang Yunzhao understood them perfectly. Thus, the path he chose for her was the most secluded one.
Leading her horse, Zuo Canglang walked through the narrow alleys. The sunlight falling upon her was bright, yet it cast a shadow over her heart. As she walked with her head bowed, she suddenly saw the Minister of Justice, Xia Changyou, emerge from a red door ahead and quietly enter a sedan chair.
Zuo Canglang was slightly startled. This was not Xia Changyou’s residence; why would he appear here? And in such a surreptitious manner. He was the Minister of Justice; what could possibly require such caution?
Could he be keeping a mistress?
She was young, after all, and curiosity got the better of her. Once Xia Changyou had gone, she leaped onto the wall. In the small courtyard, plum blossoms were in full bloom, their petals falling in a colorful profusion. Beneath the flowers, a girl sat in a daze. She was very young, appearing to be no more than thirteen or fourteen—still a child who had not yet fully grown. Zuo Canglang froze; this person was none other than the white-clad girl who had cried out for justice on the main street that day.
What was her name? Bing’er?
Suspicion rose in Zuo Canglang’s heart, but she did not descend. From the look of it, this person truly seemed to harbor some great grievance.
Bing’er’s hands were slender and delicate; one look was enough to tell she was a young lady from a wealthy family who had never known hard labor. Since she called Xia Changyou "Uncle Xia," she must be well-acquainted with him. For an unmarried daughter of a wealthy family to be so familiar with someone like Xia Changyou suggested that the two families were exceptionally close—to the point where the women of the house did not need to avoid him.
She had said her father did not commit suicide, but was murdered...
Zuo Canglang returned to the Wen Estate, her mind still heavy with thought. Wen Xingye was feeding his fighting cocks. Seeing her return, he said, "Yirong has been clamoring for you to take him out hunting. When did you promise the child again?"
Zuo Canglang replied, "I’ll go now. By the way," a thought struck her, and she suddenly asked, "Do you know which official in the court has a daughter around thirteen or fourteen named Bing’er?"
"How would I know?" Wen Xingye said. After a moment’s thought, he suddenly added, "Come to think of it, Wei Tongyao had a young daughter about the same age as Yixuan. We even joked about becoming in-laws back then. I didn't expect..." Things had changed, and people were gone; he fell silent.
Zuo Canglang’s heart skipped a beat. Wei Tongyao? If it really was Wei Tongyao’s daughter, it would make sense.
The Wei family and Minister Xia had always been close. But if Wei Tongyao didn't commit suicide, how did he die? Who would murder an old man who had already been convicted and stripped of his rank?
A month ago, Leng Feiyan had suddenly appeared in Jinyang. Had she returned simply because her injuries had healed, or had she received some order from Murong Yan? Zuo Canglang suddenly dared not think further.
***
Meanwhile, at Yuhou Pass.
Zang Ge received a letter from Zang Tianqi. It explained nothing else but clearly ordered him to abandon all royal affairs and head to Yuhou Pass to wait for the Zang family.
The letter was written by Zang Ge’s mother on his father's behalf, but the words "I am old and useless, my strength is spent" still revealed his father’s despondency. Zang Ge was somewhat surprised; since he was old enough to remember, his father, though strict, had always been proud and confident. For him to say such things inevitably gave rise to a faint sense of foreboding.
However, he agreed with his father’s plan to stop interfering in the struggle for the Yan throne and to take the family out of Yan through the pass.
In truth, he was a man of leisure who enjoyed traveling and was never particularly interested in royal matters. Had it not been for his father’s ambitions, he truly had no need to protect the Crown Prince or strive for the throne. His thinking was not as archaic as his father’s; he held no notions of "legitimacy." He simply felt that since Murong Yan took power, his actions had been heartening to the people. By comparison, the old King of Yan was truly inferior.
Thus, upon receiving the letter, he returned to Yuhou Pass.
The Zang family now consisted only of the elderly, women, and children; leaving the pass would not be easy. Even if they found a merchant caravan, traveling beyond the pass would take at least a month. So, he waited patiently.
However, as many days passed, there was still no news. Zang Ge finally left Yuhou Pass to search for the place where the Zang family had been temporarily staying. It was a secluded, deep estate. When Zang Ge reached the entrance and prepared to knock, he saw that the copper rings had turned green with age and the wooden door was weathered.
Startled, he pushed the door open and entered. He saw that the birds in the cages under the corridor were all dead, leaving only a few scattered feathers and dried bones.
He tried to steady his mind, but found his hands were trembling. His footsteps felt as heavy as a thousand pounds; his breathing was thick and hurried in the deathly silent courtyard.
He walked slowly toward the courtyard where his mother usually stayed. The surrounding vegetation was withered, and the air held the stench of rotting corpses.
Zang Ge cautiously pushed open the door, walked across the moss-covered flagstones, and reached the threshold. His hand reached out and pulled back several times before he finally threw the door open. Inside the room, two people lay on the floor. With just one glance, Zang Ge recognized who they were.
"Father, Mother!" he cried out with a trembling voice, but the only response was the dull sound of the wind.
He stepped forward slowly, reaching out to help his mother up. But the moment he touched the body, putrid fluids and corpse worms scattered. The skin on the corpse's face shifted and skewed, its mouth splitting open as if in a smile.
"Mother." Zang Ge’s lips moved as he called out, but no sound came. Then, he suddenly let out a deafening shriek, his voice so hoarse the words were unintelligible. He stepped forward to lift Zang Tianqi’s body, and corpse fluids and maggots covered him. The toxic fluids caused his own skin to swell and peel; as Zang Ge held him, the skin of the corpse slid off loosely like a garment.
Suddenly, Zang Ge could see nothing. He silently pulled the headless corpse into his embrace. His mind was like water poured into boiling oil; after a burst of soul-crushing noise, only silence remained.
*This must be a dream. It must be a dream.*
He closed his eyes. The maggots on the headless, rotting corpse in his arms crawled slowly beneath his palms. He gently laid the body down and, like a puppet, walked out of the room step by step toward the other courtyards. Those bodies, one by one, had all been dead for a long time.
He looked at each of them. In the entire Hidden Sword Villa, from old servants to young children, not a single person had survived.
It was not a dream. They were all dead, and he had been blissfully unaware.
He didn't know what he was thinking; those putrid fluids seemed to have turned into grime within his mind. He found a mud shovel and began digging holes in the garden. There were many bodies, yet he dug the holes one by one. He buried them, every single one, into the earth.
Handful after handful of sand and soil fell upon the rotting corpses. Those bodies, whose original features were long gone, some with twisted mouths, some with eyes wide open, presented terrifying silhouettes. His hands were rubbed raw and bloody, but he was entirely unaware, simply digging and shoveling, scoop after scoop.
Here, he was the only one left.
The sky darkened and brightened again. He did not eat or drink, mechanically burying the bodies. Finally, he placed the corpses of Zang Tianqi and Madam Zang into the same pit, then sat beside them, staring blankly at the sky.
That night, it rained for the first time in three months at Yuhou Pass. The winter rain was not heavy, but it was piercingly cold. He lifted his robes to cover the two corpses beside him. Rain rolled down from his forehead, drowning his tears.
He sat there until the rain stopped, then stood up, took the shovel, and began filling the pit with earth. The soil and mud covered the last corner of their clothes. Suddenly, he seemed to hear someone smiling and calling out, "Son, come here." His younger self turned back, toddling toward the warm gazes of his parents. It left his adult self standing in the cold rainy night, weeping uncontrollably.
As dawn broke, Zang Ge sat before the cluster of graves for a long, long time. Then he slowly rose and left the desolate manor.
He went down the mountain and into the streets. A man who was once as handsome as fine jade now had bloodshot eyes and sunken sockets, looking like a skeleton possessed by a ghost. Pedestrians scrambled to avoid him. His clothes were covered in dust and mud, and his long hair was matted into clumps. A strange stench of death clung to him, causing everyone he passed to take a wide detour.
Zang Ge simply walked forward, his mind a void. There was only one place he had to go.
Leng Feiyan had returned to Yuhou Pass not long ago and was currently pruning her flowers. She hummed a song as she clipped away the stray branches and withered petals. She was pruning happily when someone suddenly pushed open the door. She turned around and saw the emaciated, skeletal Zang Ge. At that moment, he was terrifying, like a returned soul.
"You... Zang Ge?" Leng Feiyan stood up and stepped forward to support him. The smell on him was enough to make one gag. But she knew almost instantly where he had come from. After the incident at Hidden Sword Villa, she had gone to look. It wasn't that she hadn't thought about handling the aftermath, but to her, it was meaningless.
The grudge of a murdered father, the hatred of a slaughtered clan—how could such things be resolved?
She asked, "What happened to you? How did you become like this?"
Zang Ge said nothing, but suddenly pulled her into an embrace. His hands were so forceful it seemed he wished he could rub her into his very flesh and blood. Leng Feiyan originally felt repulsed by the smell on him and wanted to push him away. But for some reason, she slowly lowered her hands.
She let him hold her, even as that terrible scent slowly stained her. She raised her hands and slowly returned the embrace. A person who had never had family did not know the feeling of losing them.
*I only know that you are very sad, Zang Ge. If such an embrace can give you a moment of release, then let our body heat mingle. Shall we pretend this is forever?*
"Let's take a bath first, alright?" After an unknown amount of time, Leng Feiyan spoke softly. Zang Ge was dazed; he seemed unable to hear her words at all. He simply held her in a death grip, as if clutching his last lifeline.
Leng Feiyan gently patted his back and said softly, "I'll get some hot water for you, be good."
Zang Ge would not let go. She said, "You're hurting me."
His hands finally loosened. Leng Feiyan added hot water to a gold-inlaid wooden tub and said, "Hurry and wash; you're filthy."
Seeing Zang Ge still standing there like a wooden block, his gaze vacant, she pushed him over, reached out to strip off his clothes, and half-dragged, half-supported him into the tub.
The hot water slowly submerged him. Leng Feiyan combed out his matted hair and slowly scrubbed away the grime from his body. He turned his head, grasped her hand, and finally spoke: "Yan Yan." His voice was hoarse, like an old bellows.
"Hmm?" Leng Feiyan didn't look up, using a loofah to scrub his back. Amidst the hazy steam, Zang Ge finally said, "My parents... and everyone at Hidden Sword Villa, they are all dead."
"Ah?" Leng Feiyan’s hand paused slightly, and she made a surprised expression. "How could this happen?"
Zang Ge said, "He had already intended to retire. He only wanted to take his kin and clansmen away from Yan. Yet that man still killed him."
Leng Feiyan was silent for a moment before slowly asking, "Who?"
Zang Ge gripped the edge of the wooden tub, the veins on the back of his hand bulging. "Murong Yan. I want him to pay in blood!"
Leng Feiyan scooped up water to wash his hair and said, "Zang Ge, when will the cycle of vengeance end? Besides, you are only one person now, while he is the King of Yan. How can you fight him?" She cupped his face and said, "Leave Yan. That is what your father wanted, isn't it?"
Zang Ge grasped her hand, his eyes like those of a trapped beast. He said, "Everyone I love lies forever in this earth, unable to find peace. How can I leave this place?"
Leng Feiyan helped him up and refilled the tub with fresh water. "You're tired. Don't think so much for now."
Once he was clean, Leng Feiyan brought him clothes. Only then did Zang Ge barely regain a human appearance, yet between his brows, he was no longer the handsome, carefree youth of the past.
Leng Feiyan applied medicine to his hands and made a bowl of hot soup. She did not take Zang Ge’s words to heart. Now that the world was settled, the old King of Yan had been captured by Guzhu and wouldn't be returning anytime soon. Even if he did return, few of the old ministers remained in the Yan court. What use was an empty title of Retired King?
The deposed Crown Prince was even less of a concern; he only relied on the old King’s lingering prestige. Now, with only a few thousand remnants, no money, and no resources, what strength did he have to make a comeback?
Zang Ge was but a man of the martial world. Now that Hidden Sword Villa had collapsed and the Duanmu family had risen, his former friends had likely long since moved on. Murong Yan might not be surrounded by a sea of experts, but his defenses were tight. What could a single Zang Ge achieve?
Since she couldn't persuade him anyway, she simply stopped trying.
After Zang Ge finished a bowl of hot porridge, Leng Feiyan said, "Get a good night's sleep, alright? Look how red your eyes are."
Zang Ge held her hand and said, "Stay with me."
Leng Feiyan nodded and helped him to the couch. For some reason, a hint of tenderness appeared in her habitually cold heart. Even at this moment, he was willing to come back. To return to her side. Was this what family meant?
Even if one dripped blood all the way, even if the soul was extinguished, would the last bit of lingering thought still travel to your side?
She lay down beside Zang Ge and pulled the quilt over them. Zang Ge turned on his side to embrace her, his face pressed against her back like a child seeking warmth. Leng Feiyan did not move. He closed his eyes and soon began to snore softly. He was too exhausted.
Leng Feiyan placed her hands over his, which were clasped tightly around her waist. The skin on his palms had been worn away by the shovel, the wounds startling to behold. She slowly stroked those hands; beneath them, the sword wound left by Zang Tianqi had only just healed.
The next morning, Zang Ge dressed and prepared to go out. Leng Feiyan rose and asked, "Where are you going? Are you going back to Jinyang?"
Zang Ge said, "No. You sleep first; I'll be back in a while."
Leng Feiyan was still uneasy and followed him out of the small courtyard. "What exactly are you going to do?"
Zang Ge said slowly, "I'm going to gather jade. We need to live."
Only then did Leng Feiyan breathe a sigh of relief. Although gathering jade was dangerous, with Zang Ge’s skills, it was nothing. She nodded, straightened his clothes, and said, "Don't be gone too long. I'll wait for you."
Zang Ge nodded.
He truly did go to gather jade. Yuhou Pass was rich in jade, and veins could be seen in many places. But the best jade was found beneath the icy rivers to the east of the mountains. These seed jades tumbled down from the mountains and were washed by the river for thousands of years, resulting in a fine, warm texture. Although one had to dive to find them, finding one of excellent quality was worth a fortune.
It was now winter, and almost no one would dive for jade beneath the glaciers. The water was too cold; even in the heat of summer, countless people died in the water, let alone now.
Yet Zang Ge chose this season to enter the water. The deeper the place, the greater the chance of finding good jade. Usually, there were many people gathering jade here.
He stayed out for half a month straight, becoming even thinner and more silent. The once-charming young nobleman now barely spoke a few words all day. Leng Feiyan felt some pity and said, "Don't be like this. How much money can the two of us spend? That river water is so cold and deep; hardly anyone gathers jade in this season. Yet you go down every day!"
Zang Ge said, "Before... I always thought I would marry you and provide you with fine food and clothes, a stable life. Now... I realize that all along, I have truly mistreated you." He took her hand. "Yan Yan, I truly wish to kiss your eyes and shield you from a lifetime of wandering. To have met you in this life is my great fortune."
Leng Feiyan said, "Do you think I follow you for the sake of Hidden Sword Villa’s silver? Just stay home peacefully; that’s better than anything." Then she thought secretly that she had played with him for so long, so giving him some silver wouldn't be a loss.
Zang Ge said, "No, it's not about what you want, but what I want to give you." He held Leng Feiyan’s hand. "Look at these hands of yours; I always wanted to nurture them to be as smooth as those of a lady from a great house. But now, not only must you travel with me, but you must also labor alone."
Leng Feiyan sighed. *These hands of mine probably can't be restored in this lifetime.*
The next day, Zang Ge went out again. He exchanged all the jade he gathered for silver. Being a nobleman, he understood the value of such things perfectly.
After more than a month like this, by the time December arrived, he had actually amassed three or four thousand taels. In Yan, three or four thousand taels was a significant sum. He converted most of it into banknotes and handed both the banknotes and the silver to Leng Feiyan, saying, "Keep this money for now."
Leng Feiyan didn't care much; she took the silver and banknotes and put them away casually. "Stop going out for a while. Can't you just stay home peacefully for a few days? It's almost New Year."
Zang Ge said, "I won't be spending New Year's Eve with you."
Leng Feiyan was dissatisfied. "You're going out again?"
"Yes."
Leng Feiyan grabbed his sleeve. "Is it just these few days? Look at you, since we arrived at Yuhou Pass, how many times have you been back? Now... now that you're back, how many days have you stayed at home? Don't you know I'll miss you?"
Zang Ge was silent for a long time before saying, "I know."
Leng Feiyan slowly buried her face in his chest. "Zang Ge, don't go out. Stay and accompany me."
Zang Ge stroked her head and pulled several pieces of jade from his pack. "Keep these jade materials for now. I've marked the prices. If... if in the future someone asks, and you're short on money, sell them at these prices. Keep them safe; you have a poor memory and often forget things."
Leng Feiyan grew impatient. "Fine, fine. I don't even like these. What's the difference between keeping them at home and keeping stones? How annoying."
Zang Ge said, "I'm leaving."
Leng Feiyan asked, "Then when will you be back this time?"
As soon as she spoke, Zang Ge had already walked out. He left the small courtyard and turned back to close the gate. Leng Feiyan chased after him, only to see his thin back. She could only shout, "Come back early! You have to be home by the Lantern Festival at least!"
Zang Ge did not look back.
The person behind him stood in the old garden under the corridor, asking when he would return. He pressed his lips thin, his steps firm as he moved forward, but his eyes slowly filled with tears. The road ahead was one of no return; how could a departing man come back?
And so, he left his Yan Yan behind in that simple yet warm courtyard, left her in those few but precious years.
Leng Feiyan thought he would return for the Lantern Festival and hummed a song as she prepared a few small dishes. But New Year's Eve passed, and the Lantern Festival passed, and even when the spring of March arrived, he never returned to this small courtyard.
And so, gradually, she stopped returning as well.
The flowers and plants went unpruned, the stone steps were covered in traces of moss, and the seed jades piled in the corner of the room were, one by one, covered in dust.
***
