After Ban Zou said, “There’s someone outside the door,” the door was brazenly opened from the outside. Ban Zou immediately moved his body and headed straight for the person. The extended hand reached straight for that person’s neck; however, that person calmly said: “Don’t be so nervous. It’s me.”
The hand that Ban Zou had extended was practically about to touch that person’s skin; however, it suddenly stopped. He then looked at the person that had come and said in a dazed voice: “Your… Your Highness the seventh prince.”
The person that had come was none other than Xuan Tian Hua, who was wearing white clothes. Even on this sort of night while doing something like sneaking into someone else’s residence, he still wore a set of white clothes. It was as though it was something that never changed.
He gently lowered the hand that Ban Zou had extended then said: “I heard that Feng Jin Yuan and Yao shi both went missing and was feeling worried about it. I thought at first about going to the imperial daughter’s manor to check on you; however, I found that you weren’t there.” While speaking, he headed toward Feng Yu Heng.
At this time, Feng Yu Heng was still holding those pieces of paper and standing in place. Her little face was pale-white, and her face was filled with grief and feelings of reluctance.
Xuan Tian Hua walked over to her and did his best to wrestle the pieces of paper from her hands. In the blink of an eye, the girl’s fingernails broke through the skin on her palm, as she clenched her hands. Blood appeared and made him extremely distressed. “Let go and be obedient.” Xuan Tian Hua gently consoled her and went to hold her hands to try and loosen her grip. Who knew that with this success, the palms would trade places. Feng Yu Heng’s fingers no longer dug into her own palm, as they dug into Xuan Tian Hua’s hand. In just an instant, the skin on the palm was broken through, and blood began to flow; however, Xuan Tian Hua let out a sigh of relief.
Hurting him would be better than her hurting herself. His other hand went to pat Feng Yu Heng’s head, “I know that you can’t let it go, but with things as they are, no matter how much you can’t let it go, it’s pointless. A relationship is like a rope, and it requires two people to hold it. You’re properly holding onto the rope on this side, but the other side has already let it go. No matter how much you work at it, you’ll just end up with the other end of the rope. Heng Heng, seventh brother saying these things might be a bit heavy, but this is reality. You need to be spirited to face her; otherwise, if it continues to happen again and again, no matter how strong a person is, they will eventually collapse.”
Feng Yu Heng did not make a sound. She had heard what Xuan Tian Hua had said, but she could not recover for quite some time. But the fingers that were digging into his palm were pulled back. She had always liked keeping her fingernails a bit longer. After her fingernails were pulled out of his flesh, Xuan Tian Hua moved quite a bit, and Feng Yu Heng noticed. Only then did she lower her head and notice that it was not just her own palm that had been injured. There was also Xuan Tian Hua’s.
“Seventh Brother.” She frowned and subconsciously reached into her sleeve for medicine, wanting to get some medicine out to treat his wound; however, she was stopped by Xuan Tian Hua, who slightly shook his head to her, only saying: “It’s not a problem.”
Ban Zou had left the room to stand guard, thus he held Feng Yu Heng’s hand and walked over to the bed that Yao shi had slept in. When they arrived, he had her sit down on the bed and faced her confused gaze. Only then did he say to her: “Reach out and feel it. This is the bed that your mother slept in. Regardless of whether or not there is any lingering heat, it was still a place that she had stayed, and it should still have her scent.”
Feng Yu Heng did not understand why, but she still obeyed and reached out. At the moment that she did this, a surge of memories filled her mind, but the odd thing was that these memories were not related to Yao shi, nor were they memories left behind by the body’s original owner. Instead, they had come from her previous life. They had come from the Feng Yu Heng of the 21st century, from when she was young. At that time, her mom was still alive, and she wore a long dress and had long hair that went down to her shoulders. She had a faint and kind smile and would always cup her little face in her hands while saying my daughter, my daughter. Even when her mom became pregnant with her younger brother, she still told her that once she had a young darling, she would not forget about the older darling. They would both be their mom’s darlings.
Feng Yu Heng suddenly understood. In truth, she did not have many feelings for Yao shi herself. All of her feelings stemmed from her mom from her previous life. Because of Yao shi’s face, she had unconsciously brought her mother in from her previous life. It was not that she simply wanted to treat Yao shi as the original owner’s mother. In the end, being unable to get out of this loop was her own failure. What of a face? Even Yao shi realized that she could not just look at the face when looking at people. Yao shi peered into her soul and found that inside this body was not the original Feng Yu Heng. After this timely pull back, she no longer felt reluctant nor attached. But she could not get out. It was only now that she began to wake up and realize that she was no more awake than Yao shi. She could not cast aside what was on the surface to look at the core. In the end, it was her that had been foolish in this game.
“Seventh Brother.” She suddenly raised her head, “Thank you.”
In truth, Xuan Tian Hua did not understand what she was thanking him for. He just told her: “You still have a chance to sit on your mother’s bed and feel where she has slept, but I don’t even have that chance. Compared to seventh brother, Heng Heng is very fortunate. It’s just that you need to remember that in this world, there is a set amount of fate for each person. Whom each person meets, with whom each person becomes close and how long they can stay together, whether that fate is profound or shallow determines just how far you can walk with each other. These are all things that have been determined by the heavens. They aren’t things that can be requested. The fate between my imperial concubine mother and me was so shallow that I can no longer even remember what she looked like, while your fate with Madam Yao was enough to allow you two to stay together until today. It’s already an immense grace granted by the heavens. Listen to seventh brother and take it to heart. You can feel regret, but don’t feel hurt. Even more, do not resent it. There is little reason to look back, as looking forward is the only way to see the path that you must walk.”
After he finished speaking, he extended a hand toward Feng Yu Heng. The person sitting on the side of the bed also extended a hand toward him and finally smiled. He heard Feng Yu Heng say: “I understand. At this point, there should be no reluctance to let go of fate nor any resentment. In truth, I am thankful for the heavens for granting me something that I had once lost many years ago and allowing me to enjoy two brilliant years. I should not cling to it. I should be thankful.”
When she said these things, she finally stopped feeling that same hatred as when she and Yao shi had fallen out. Instead, her face carried a smile, and it was filled with relief.
Only then did Xuan Tian Hua let out a sigh of relief, “Let’s go. I will send you back to your manor. Get a good night of sleep and don’t think about anything. Those people that want to cause a fuss can go ahead and cause a fuss. There will come a day when Ming’er tidies them up. There’s no need for you to worry.”
Feng Yu Heng nodded and followed Xuan Tian Hua while bringing along Ban Zou. In a flash, they left the Yao family’s other courtyard. Just as they reached the road, snow began to fall from the sky. Who knew if it was a ceremony to commemorate her separating her feelings or if it was a celebration of the path that she would be walking. Feng Yu Heng looked up at the falling snow, and snowflakes fell on her long eyelashes. Glistening and translucent, they were very beautiful.
In truth, Xuan Tian Hua really did not understand what the last things she had said inside the room meant. What did she mean by being granted something that had once been lost? But there were some things that he did not want to clarify too much. The way he looked at this world was different from others. As he saw it, there was a need for ambiguity in this world. If he could figure everything out, the truth of the world would be lost, and the beauty in the lives of the people living in this glorious country would also be lost.
The next day, Feng Yu Heng slept until noon. She still did not know that by this day at noon, information relating to Yao shi going to the South with Fu Ya to support the eighth prince, with Feng Jin Yuan following over, had already reached Feng Fen Dai’s ears.
The information had come from Feng Zhao Lian. That maniac had heard others say that the imperial family had gone hunting, and Feng Yu Heng did not bring him along, thus he brought Wu Li Sheng and headed into the mountains in the other direction. He did not succeed in hunting and nearly got hunted by the prey. Fortunately, there was a guard to protect him, which allowed him to avoid getting seriously hurt. But he had quite a good time. Regardless of whether it was for Feng Zhao Lian, who had grown up in Qian Zhou, or Wu Li Sheng, who had grown up in the North, the cold of the winters in Da Shun’s capital could not be considered much. The two did not even wear thick winter coats. They just dressed lightly and happily went to play for many days before being willing to return.
Of course, Feng Zhao Lian’s movements might be unknown by others; however, it could not be hidden from Feng Yu Heng’s side. Wang Chuan received information in the morning that Feng Zhao Lian would be returning to the city, thus she went outside the city to meet with them. She then told him about Feng Yu Heng’s plans, and Feng Zhao Lian immediately nodded, only saying: “Understood!”
At this time, he was already sitting in the Feng residence’s main hall with Wu Li Sheng speaking, as she reported the damages done caused by Feng Fen Dai’s rough treatment of it the previous night.
Wu Li Sheng earnestly discussed the debt with Fen Dai: “The gate of our Lian Residence had been changed after the residence was purchased. Because husband said that whether a residence is expensive or cheap depended heavily on the gate, and we aren’t lacking in money, the gate to the manor had to be made out of a good material. Even if gold or jade were not used, sandalwood had to be used. That’s why Young Miss Feng leading a group of people to bang on our sandalwood gate caused some damage to the surface of the sandalwood. We just inspected it, and it’s fortunate that the damage cannot be considered too serious. There is no need for the entire gate to be changed, and it will only require some repairs, but the repairs will need to be paid for by Young Miss Feng. The total is 350 taels. Young Miss Feng, have it prepared over the next couple of days.”
When Feng Fen Dai received the two, Housekeeper He Zhong was also present. There was also a lowly maidservant that happened to be bringing in tea. Upon hearing that they wanted 350 taels, He Zhong trembled, and the maidservant carrying the tea nearly spilled tea everywhere. He Zhong quickly went to help serve the tea then chased the servant out. He then wiped away some sweat and quietly sighed that things really were getting worse with each passing day! Thinking back to the days of the Feng family’s prime, what could this bit of money be considered? Unfortunately, this was not that time. The current Feng residence, not to mention 350 taels, but it was even difficult to scrape together 35 taels! Fortunately, they were asking Feng Fen Dai for this debt, thus things would not be too awkward.
Indeed, Fen Dai did not care about this bit of money. Not giving it to the Feng family was one thing, but she was not lacking in money. In this regard, the fifth prince was spoiling her quite a bit. She was basically given however much she asked for. Either way, he was a prince and did not lack money.
That was why she did not argue with Wu Li Sheng. She just waved her hand and said: “I will give you the money later on. Today, I just want to clarify one thing. Is Feng Jin Yuan in your residence?”
Feng Zhao Lian looked at her with his exceptionally beautiful face and asked in confusion: “Why would your father be in my residence? Oh right, in the past, he had dressed up as a servant and snuck in. Later on, he was discovered and chased out. Why is Young Miss Feng coming to me to look for him?”
Wu Li Sheng also said: “The Feng family’s master doesn’t know self-respect. He just spends all his days wrapped around my husband. If he continues to act like that, I will be filing a report. We as a couple have already been playing in the mountains for a number of days. If the Feng family’s master went missing during this time, you should file a report instead of trying to tie us up.”
After she finished speaking, Feng Zhao Lian suddenly spoke up in a gloomy tone without waiting for Feng Fen Dai to speak: “This cannot be blamed on the Feng family’s young miss. After all, what Feng Jin Yuan had done is too shocking. Fourth Young Miss Feng is young. How could she have thought of the truth of the situation…”