The maid pressed her hands against her knees, struggling twice to stand before finally steadying herself. As she stepped out of the shadows into the light, Gao Jing suddenly noticed that her exposed neck and arms were covered with scars, both old and new.
Gao Jing asked, “Your name?”
The maid shrank back slightly but answered, “Jinque.”
Before leaving with the maid, Gao Jing paused at the threshold. The white silk sash hanging from the beam brushed against his hand, cool and soft to the touch. Gao Jing turned back and said, “White silk in the palace has a particular use. Since Consort Mei’s suicide by hanging ten years ago, the Emperor issued a decree forbidding the private possession or transfer of white silk among concubines. I wonder, Your Highness, where did this sash come from?”
Li Fuqiu’s face turned dark and unsightly, as if someone had torn away his façade. He gritted his teeth in anger and retorted, “No wonder your daughter is so detestable—it must run in the family!”
Gao Jing frowned. Li Fuqiu’s repeated mention of his daughter was highly unusual. He was unaware that his supposedly obedient youngest daughter had been causing all sorts of trouble in the palace and had long since clashed with Li Fuqiu. He still thought his sweet, well-behaved daughter was peacefully studying and writing at the princess’s side.
—
“Father!”
Gao Yuexing ran up, panting heavily, just managing to intercept her father outside Jingmen Palace.
At first glance, Gao Jing didn’t even recognize his daughter. He looked her over from head to toe and realized that in just a few months, she seemed to have shed a layer of skin—she was much thinner, almost unrecognizably so.
He raised his hand halfway, but then restrained himself and let it drop.
However, judging by her appearance, it didn’t seem like she had been mistreated in the palace. Her winter clothing was brand new, and the gold hairpin in her hair was a fresh style recently introduced in the palace.
Perhaps she had lost weight due to not acclimating well to the environment.
Gao Jing asked, “Ah Xing, why are you here?”
Gao Yuexing replied, “The princess said she saw Father heading this way.”
Gao Jing smiled. “Ah Xing misses Father?”
Gao Yuexing: “Is everything well at home?”
Gao Jing: “Everything is fine. How is life by the princess’s side? Are you accustomed to it?”
Gao Yuexing blinked, quickly realizing that her father had no idea about her actual circumstances in the palace. He still believed she was serving as a study companion to the princess.
A brief moment of thought clarified things for Gao Yuexing. Consort Xian, who had arranged for her to enter the palace, was an overly cautious person. If Gao Yuexing were mistreated in the palace, it would reflect poorly on Consort Xian’s ability to protect her, and the Gao family would hold her accountable.
Thus, after Gao Yuexing entered the palace, all information about her was tightly controlled. As long as she didn’t encounter major problems, any minor disputes among children were carefully suppressed, ensuring no news would leak.
Gao Yuexing asked, “Did Father receive the crabapple flowers I sent home?”
Before winter arrived, she had collected the last withered blossom from a crabapple tree and entrusted the princess to find someone to send it home. It was just a single dried petal, with no accompanying words. Her mother and elder sister at home would understand the meaning immediately upon seeing it—they would know she was safe.
Unfortunately, even the freedom to send a letter home was a luxury she could not afford.
Gao Jing was puzzled. “What?”
Gao Yuexing gave a small “Oh” and said, “Nothing, perhaps I remembered wrong.”
As a daughter, Gao Yuexing had reached the age where her soul instinctively yearned to spare her parents from worry, sharing only the good and hiding the bad. Since her father believed she was still safely serving at the princess’s side, there was no need to correct him. She had hurried here because there was one matter she absolutely had to mention.
“Father, a few days ago, I accidentally stumbled upon a secret about the Third Prince’s background, and it has caused some discord between us.”
This single sentence resolved Gao Jing’s current confusion.
“So that’s it—” Gao Jing, by instinct, pressed further. “Then, Ah Xing, tell Father, how did you stumble upon it?”
Gao Yuexing replied, “That is why I’ve come to you. I’ve heard that Father has taken over this case. If you encounter any obstacles or difficult points, I suggest you visit Consort Xu in Rouqi Pavilion.”
Gao Yuexing had an intuition that Consort Xu, who had once been close to the late Imperial Consort, still held many hidden clues. But her own abilities were limited, and now that things had reached this stage, the mastermind behind it all had yet to fully emerge. She was beginning to feel powerless.
She could only rely on her father now.
Gao Jing affectionately patted his daughter’s head. “Ah Xing has grown up—you can now help relieve your father’s burdens.”
Knowing her father had official duties to attend to, Gao Yuexing, having delivered her message, stepped aside to make way.
As Gao Jing walked past her with Jinque, Gao Yuexing quietly watched them leave. They hadn’t gone far when Jinque suddenly turned her head and glanced back at her. Gao Yuexing’s gaze met hers directly, and her heart jolted.
That glance, filled with gloom and resentment, made Gao Yuexing momentarily doubt her own eyes.
She had never paid attention to this gugu by Li Fuqiu’s side before because Jinque always appeared so inconspicuous. She was silent, like an ordinary servant, meticulously taking care of Li Fuqiu’s daily needs. Even when subjected to his abuse, she never uttered a word.
Could there really be something wrong with Jinque?
Yet she had overlooked it all this time.
A thin layer of sweat broke out on Gao Yuexing’s back, soaking through her inner garments, and she suddenly felt cold.
—
“Miss Gao, Miss Gao!”
At some point, a guard from the Imperial Guard had appeared before her, casting a shadow over her. He called her name several times before she snapped out of her thoughts.
Gao Yuexing: “What… what is it?”
The guard replied, “Miss Gao, you should return to the drill ground. The little prince has ridden back but didn’t see you and seems unhappy.”
Gao Yuexing clapped her hands together in realization. She had left in such a hurry earlier, and now Li Fuxiang had gone off horseback riding without her, without her even giving him any instructions. She quickly followed the guard back.
After walking only a few steps, Gao Yuexing suddenly remembered something trivial—something about horseback riding.
In her previous life, when Li Fuxiang had departed for the western frontier for the second time, Gao Yuexing had been summoned to the Qianqing Palace to play chess with the Emperor during a moment of idleness.
—
Her chess skills were decent, and she had no intention of going easy on the Emperor. After winning several games in a row, the Emperor, slightly irritated, told her a story.
When Li Fuxiang was a child, the first time he rode a horse, it was with the help of a young woman. Li Fuxiang had been very happy during his first ride. But when he returned to the starting point, he found that the woman who had accompanied him was gone.
From that moment on, for a very long time, Li Fuxiang refused to ride a horse. Deep in his subconscious, he had formed a belief: as soon as he mounted a horse, she would disappear.
Gao Yuexing almost immediately thought of the owner of that crabapple-embroidered handkerchief.
Li Fuxiang never mentioned anything about that girl in front of her. She could only piece together fragments from others’ offhand remarks to try and sketch an image of that girl she had never met—a girl who must have grown up alongside Li Fuxiang, a childhood sweetheart, the epitome of mutual affection and devotion. (TL: This was her past feelings)
She had made the Emperor lose at chess, so the Emperor was making her life difficult.
He was truly insufferable.
—
Noticing Gao Yuexing suddenly stop on the bridge, the guard urged her anxiously, “Miss Gao?”
A sourness clouded Gao Yuexing’s heart. “Oh, I’m coming.”
It had nothing to do with Li Fuxiang; she was the one who had forgotten everything.
She was the one who had first turned her back on all their past feelings and promises.
—
When she returned to the drill ground, Li Fuxiang was indeed sitting quietly on the crimson railings. Though a group of people surrounded him, he paid no attention to anyone. Even Zheng Qianye, the highly esteemed elder general, was crouching patiently, trying to coax him into smiling, but Li Fuxiang’s expression remained confused and apprehensive.
Gao Yuexing ran over and embraced him, whispering softly into his ear, “I’m sorry, I’m here now.”
Sure enough, when Zheng Qianye tried to get him back on the horse, Li Fuxiang stubbornly refused, no matter what. He said nothing at all.
No one but Gao Yuexing could guess what he was thinking.
Gao Yuexing took it upon herself to fetch the horse.
She wasn’t even as tall as the horse’s legs, and if the animal had become agitated, she could have been trampled under its hooves. The sight alarmed everyone present. Zheng Qianye immediately waved his hand, and his son, Zheng Yunji, crossed the distance in a few long strides to catch up to her.
He was half a step too late.
Zheng Yunji failed to catch the little girl.
Under everyone’s astonished gaze, Gao Yuexing wrapped her arm around the reins, grabbed the saddle, and nimbly climbed onto the horse’s back.
The red horse snorted, turning in place.
A well-trained horse would never misbehave when receiving familiar commands.
No one present had expected a six-year-old girl to be so skilled at mounting a horse. Standing in front of her, Zheng Yunji tugged the reins, gave her a thumbs-up, and exclaimed, “Impressive!”
Zheng Qianye also looked over, his face filled with expectation as he said, “Your horsemanship is impressive, but as I recall, your father, Gao Jing, is a civil official?”
Gao Yuexing replied, “There’s no rule that only military officials can ride horses. Horsemanship transcends civil and military divisions, and it certainly transcends gender.”
Zheng Qianye, who hadn’t encountered such an extraordinary girl in many years, was deeply moved.
However, Gao Yuexing’s horsemanship had not been inherited from her father, Gao Jing. It was something her husband, Li Fuxiang, had taught her.
Fate had played a curious joke. The red horse trotted up to Li Fuxiang, and Gao Yuexing extended her hand toward him.
Li Fuxiang tilted his small face to look at her, seemingly hesitant. But before he could decide, Zheng Qianye had already lifted him by the waist and placed him on the horse behind Gao Yuexing.
With the two children on the horse, Zheng Qianye didn’t dare let them roam freely. He had Zheng Yunji lead the horse, slowly walking it around the drill ground.
Leaning back against Li Fuxiang’s chest, Gao Yuexing held his hands and gestured with them, saying, “I won’t leave you again. I swear.”
Li Fuxiang simply buried his face against her neck, offering no response.
Gao Yuexing felt a wave of melancholy rising in her heart again. She sighed softly.
“When will you grow up?” she wondered.
—
The messengers the Emperor had dispatched to find Yagu returned to the palace with disappointing news.
They had traveled to Yagu’s hometown, only to find that she had lost her parents at a young age and had left home many years ago. Her family had long since disappeared. It was said that after leaving the palace, Yagu never returned to her hometown.
The Emperor sighed and ordered them to continue searching through other channels.
—
Gao Jing, efficient as ever in his investigations, detained Jinque at the Court of Justice and immediately returned to the palace to visit Consort Xu.
As Gao Yuexing had guessed, Consort Xu held numerous leads, but she herself was unaware of many of them. Gao Jing would need time to patiently piece the puzzle together.
As the Minister of the Court of Justice, Gao Jing’s skill in handling cases far surpassed Gao Yuexing’s fledgling efforts.
By that very afternoon, the Emperor received an unexpected piece of good news.
Gao Jing had uncovered Yagu’s whereabouts.