Chapter 107: Secrets

Bao Ning froze for a second. She saw the breeze lift the woman’s veil, revealing half of her face—ghastly, ridged scars on her left cheek that looked like they had been seared by fire. It was a terrifying sight.

She recovered quickly, standing up to usher Wei Meng and the woman named Mo Nanshu inside. “Let’s go straight to the inner chamber.”

Bao Ning then instructed Mother Liu, “Have everyone else leave, and go get some rest yourself.”

Mother Liu complied and withdrew.

Bao Ning rubbed her aching eyes and followed them into the inner room. She had a gut feeling that this Mo Nanshu had a story, as did Yuan’er. Her heart began to thud. She thought of Yuan’er, who wasn’t afraid of venomous snakes, and wondered if there was still a chance for Pei Yuan’s recovery… When she entered, Mo Nanshu was holding three fingers to Pei Yuan’s wrist, checking his pulse.

She quickly withdrew her hand and said, “The injury reached the bone and has seeped three inches into the muscle, but it hasn’t damaged the internal organs yet. He won’t die for now.”

“You know medicine?” Wei Meng eyed her suspiciously. “Who exactly are you?”

Mo Nanshu didn’t speak. Pei Yuan coughed twice and asked, “How did you find her?”

“I didn’t find her,” Wei Meng said. “She found the old subordinates at the General’s Manor herself. After being directed, she came straight to the gates of the villa. I saw her, questioned her, and brought her in.”

Mo Nanshu remained silent. The veil hid her expression, but Bao Ning noticed with surprise that her fingernails were a deathly pale color. Her hands hung naturally at her sides, yet both fingertips and nails were as white as paper. Looking further down, Bao Ning noticed her calves trembling slightly. She was struggling to stand.

Wei Meng turned toward Mo Nanshu, putting on his authoritative air of interrogation, but just as he was about to speak, Bao Ning shook her head at him.

“Miss Mo, please sit first.” Bao Ning brought a stool over and invited her with a smile, adding, “General Wei, you sit as well.”

Mo Nanshu did not decline. Once settled, she suddenly said, “I want a drink of water.”

Bao Ning blinked, surprised that this woman showed no sign of fear or nervousness. “Alright, I’ll pour some for you.”

She returned quickly and placed the teacup in Mo Nanshu’s hand. “It’s hot, be careful.”

As she handed the cup over, Bao Ning deliberately brushed against Mo Nanshu’s fingertips. They were as cold as ice, as if she had been frozen in the dead of winter for a long time. The touch made Bao Ning’s heart shudder.

“I am dying,” Mo Nanshu said after a sip, her voice calm. “I have come to entrust my child to you.”

Bao Ning asked softly, “Is it Yuan’er?”

“Yes,” Mo Nanshu replied. “But his surname shouldn’t be Pei. It is Gongsun. I named him Yuan—as in Yuanfen (fate).”

Bao Ning and Pei Yuan exchanged a shocked glance. She couldn’t immediately grasp the meaning. Pei Yuan’s mind raced through memories until he suddenly recalled Yuan’er’s little rattle; the handle had bamboo leaf carvings, and Yuan’er said his grandfather had given it to him…

Pei Yuan narrowed his eyes. “Yuan’er is Gongsun Zhu’s grandson?”

“I was originally a pharmaceutical apprentice by Gongsun Zhu’s side. I followed him and studied poison since I was a child. Over time, I developed feelings for the Young Master. Later, when Gongsun Zhu entered Pei Xiao’s service and refined many poisons, the Young Master felt it was despicable and refused to participate. He parted ways with us and left. He was Gongsun Zhu’s only son, and Gongsun Zhu had wavered because of this, wanting to leave Pei Xiao,” Mo Nanshu spoke slowly.

“So, I volunteered to Pei Xiao. I was willing to help him set a trap to ensnare the Young Master, and thereby ensnare Gongsun Zhu. Looking back, my method was incredibly foolish. I overestimated myself and the affection of those years. He saw me as a junior disciple, never a lover… But I lied and said I was dying to trick him into coming back, then drugged him. One night of warmth. The next day, he didn’t stay and marry me as I had hoped; he left in a fury. Our plan failed.”

She seemed very weak and exhausted. After these few sentences, she began to cough incessantly. Bao Ning stepped forward to pat her back.

Mo Nanshu glanced at her.

Recovering, she continued, “It wasn’t a total failure, because I was left with his child. I was terrified then. I feared my master would blame me, and I feared the Young Master would never return. What was I to do with this child alone? But Pei Xiao told me he was willing to take me as a concubine and would look after me. I believed him. I didn’t know that by then, he had already struck a deal with Gongsun Zhu. Gongsun Zhu needed his bloodline to continue; he didn’t care if it was the son or the son’s child. He promised Pei Xiao that if I gave birth to a boy, he would stay and serve him.”

Pei Yuan understood. “And it was indeed a boy, but Pei Xiao wanted to kill you. He needed the child, but not the mother. You were redundant, and you knew too much.”

“Yes,” Mo Nanshu said. “After I gave birth, he gave me a bowl of medicinal tonic laced with poison. I was unconscious and couldn’t distinguish it, so I drank it. He thought I was dead, told the world he had lost a beloved concubine, and hurriedly had me buried in the outskirts. But he didn’t know that after years of following Gongsun Zhu and ingesting countless toxins, I wouldn’t die that easily.”

Wei Meng exclaimed, “So you crawled out of your grave?!”

“I crawled out. He gave me a cold-based poison; I used fire to counteract it, which charred my face, but at least I didn’t die.” Mo Nanshu paused for a long time. Her strength seemed spent. After a long interval, she said slowly, “Only after dying once did I realize how loathsome my obsessed self was. I became like this—neither human nor ghost, a dead person in status. I can’t do anything a normal person can… but I still have my child.”

“I only want to see him grow up safely,” Mo Nanshu’s voice was suppressed with pain. “But his identity is so awkward. Like me, he shouldn’t even exist in this world. No one likes him; he is very unhappy. He barely speaks because no one speaks to him. I live in a dried-up well in the manor. Fearing discovery, I made an agreement with him: at midnight on the last day of every month, I go to see him and give him candy. That is when he is happiest.”

Pei Yuan asked, “Why isn’t Yuan’er afraid of snakes? Is he immune to all poisons?”

“That’s thanks to his grandfather and his guilty conscience,” Mo Nanshu laughed. “Gongsun Zhu did too many evil deeds and poisoned too many people. He was afraid someone would poison his only bloodline. From the time Yuan’er turned one, Gongsun Zhu secretly fed him medicine, cultivating him into a ‘poison-resistant medicine human.’ He hoped Yuan’er would live to be a hundred.”

“Do you know?” Mo Nanshu asked suddenly. “A medicine human’s blood can detoxify. But not yet. You must wait until he is twelve, after being steeped in medicine for eleven years. Then, his blood can neutralize almost every poison in the world.”

Bao Ning had been immersed in the story, but hearing this, her heart leapt. She looked up at Mo Nanshu.

Mo Nanshu said, “I am revealing this secret because I hope you will snatch Yuan’er from Pei Xiao’s hands and protect him. I know that besides you, no one else can or will do this. I have nowhere left to go; I am dying. I cannot stop the Crown Princess. I’m afraid that if even I, in the shadows, am gone, how will Yuan’er survive in the Crown Prince’s manor filled with hidden daggers? I don’t want him to be a pawn for Pei Xiao to blackmail Gongsun Xu—oh, I forgot to tell you, after that poisoning case, Pei Xiao’s residual toxins haven’t been cleared. Gongsun Zhu is dead; the only one he can rely on is the missing Gongsun Xu. Yuan’er is his only leverage.”

Pei Yuan asked, “If what you say is true, Yuan’er’s blood is a treasure. Why do you trust that if I get a hold of him, I won’t treat him like a blood cow to satisfy my own desires?”

“Consider it a gamble—a gamble that there is still a shred of virtue in your hearts,” Mo Nanshu laughed. “I’ve heard him whisper many times that he likes being with you.”

Bao Ning asked, “Will taking blood affect Yuan’er’s health?”

Mo Nanshu replied, “If you don’t take much, he’ll just be weak for a few days. He’ll recover with some good food. But if you take too much, he will die.”

“I’ve never seen a mother like you,” Pei Yuan suddenly laughed. “Are you a fool? You trusted Pei Xiao so easily back then, and now you trust us just as easily.”

“Then let me be a fool—a fool who trusts her own eyes too much.” Mo Nanshu stood up, her voice cold. “I advise you to treat him well and protect him until he is twelve. When the time comes and he cures your poison, the condition is that he must be as happy for the rest of his life as he was during those few days with you. If you don’t agree, I won’t let you off even as a ghost.”

Pei Yuan “tched.” “Who are you trying to scare?”

Mo Nanshu straightened her back, bent her knees, and knelt before them. She kowtowed and said, “Thank you.”

Pei Yuan stared at her coldly without telling her to rise. Mo Nanshu struggled to get up on her own and asked Bao Ning for paper and brush. She walked to the table and quickly wrote two prescriptions. “This is the medicine Yuan’er usually takes. He finds it bitter. Adding honey and rock sugar while brewing can alleviate the bitterness, but the servants find it troublesome and won’t do it. The second one is a medicine that can temporarily suppress pain, but it’s bad for the body. Don’t use it unless absolutely necessary. As for whether you believe me… believe it or not.”

She set the brush down, rolled up the paper, and stuffed it into Bao Ning’s hand. She gave her a look and said, “I heard your cooking is quite good?”

With that, she ignored everything else, finished the rest of her tea, turned around, and strobed out the door.

Bao Ning stared blankly at her retreating back, unable to describe the feeling in her heart. This truly was an extraordinary woman…

Pei Yuan ordered Wei Meng, “Send someone to follow her.”

Wei Meng asked, “Little General, can this woman’s words be trusted?”

“A person like her has stayed in the mountains since childhood and rarely sees anyone; her personality is nurtured to be ‘foolish,'” Pei Yuan looked down at his nails and said plainly. “To say she’s smart isn’t quite right, but she isn’t exactly dumb either. She uses a line to split the world in two—black is black, white is white. She thinks there are only pure good people and bad people, and that good people won’t turn bad, nor bad people turn good. I’m honored she thinks I’m a good person.”

Wei Meng frowned. “So…”

Pei Yuan said, “So go ask the Little Madam what we’re having for lunch. I’m hungry.”

In the study of the Crown Prince’s front courtyard, under a dim lamp, Pei Xiao and Tao Maobing stood side by side. A map lay before them as they checked their strategy one last time.

Tao Maobing said, “…I understand. Orders have been dispatched. The brothers have set the ambush overnight; nothing will go wrong. Once it’s done, we’ll pin it on the Fourth Prince, saying it was his order and he intended to rebel. We can kill two birds with one stone.”

Pei Xiao threw down his brush and said indifferently, “That would be excellent.”

Tao Maobing looked at his profile and hesitated. “Your Highness… I feel the Emperor is already wary of me, and very wary of Your Highness’s maternal family, the Gao family. Also, rumors say the Emperor has secretly sent men to find the Eldest Prince and has found clues in the Qilian Mountains of the Northwest. The Eldest Prince still holds the Ba-Shu army. Though they are nominally loyal to the Emperor, they are all the Eldest Prince’s old subordinates… and then there’s the Fourth Prince, who’s been constantly colluding with Qiu Mingshan. Many of his friends are in the Northern Border garrison. We have officials in court, but ultimately no soldiers. I only have the capital guards—a mere 30,000…”

He worriedly added, “What we are doing is, frankly, rebellion. Even if the regicide succeeds and we ascend the throne, how will we convince the civil and military officials?”

“You’re already worrying about the future before the task at hand is even finished.” Pei Xiao looked into his eyes. “Are you afraid?”

Tao Maobing’s large frame shuddered. Sensing the chill in Pei Xiao’s eyes, he immediately said, “Of course not! Riches are sought in danger; this is how those who achieve great things should be. What is there to fear?!”

“The Emperor has lived too long. I can’t wait for him to die of old age; I’ll give him a push. Pei Yuan isn’t being honest either. On the surface, he moved to Lihu to live in seclusion, but I know what he’s calculating. The longer this drags on and his power grows, the harder it will be for me.” An itch rose in Pei Xiao’s throat. He drank some water to suppress a cough. “The Emperor doesn’t like me, you know that.”

He tilted his head toward Tao Maobing. “Moreover, if I don’t seize power soon, how can I conduct a massive search for Gongsun Xu?”

“This plan… I must win!”

The next day, it was still raining steadily.

Pei Yuan took the medicine Mo Nanshu had left. After sitting quietly for a while, he felt much better. He tried firing an arrow; he drew the bow to its full extent, and the range was almost the same as before.

Bao Ning had hardly slept at all last night, worrying about Pei Yuan and today’s plan. Seeing him better now, she felt happy, yet a faint anxiety remained.

Bao Ning helped him dress and held an umbrella to see him out. Looking at the road ahead, Bao Ning knew this departure was different from previous ones. What would change was unknown.

Bao Ning looked up, tugged his sleeve, and whispered, “A-Yuan, fight if you can, but run if you can’t. No matter what, you must come back safely!”

Pei Yuan laughed and scolded, “Run my ass! Can’t you say something nice? With the enemy at the gates, you’re busy beating a retreat for me.”

Bao Ning said, “I’m worried about you.”

“Mhm. I’ll bring you back some sauce-braised duck from the shop next to Ruyi Pavilion.” Pei Yuan stopped smiling, pulled Bao Ning close, and in front of everyone, gave her a firm kiss on the forehead. “Go warm the wine. Wait for me to come home.”

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