PNB Chapter 340 The dusty past
Chapter 340 The dusty past
The teahouse by the ferry crossing was emptied and its curtains were drawn.
Hui Niang sat on a wooden stool, holding a cup of hot tea in both hands, but the tea spilled everywhere due to her shaking. Yun Qing dismissed everyone, leaving only Ning Dechang, Ning Haochen, and Qin Shi by her side.
“My original surname was He! I lived in the capital, and my father was a schoolteacher. It was just my father and me, relying on each other for survival. When I was fifteen, my father caught a cold and fell seriously ill. All the money in the family was spent on medicine, but my father's illness only got worse and worse…”
Hui Niang slowly recounted, her voice hoarse: "...Fortunately, we met Miss Yuan Zhi who treated my father. Not only did she not charge us a penny, but she also got the medicine for us, which helped my father get through that winter. Unfortunately, his body was too weak and he still passed away!"
"Before my father died, he sold me to Miss Yuan Zhi. He said that he had never owed any debts in his life, and he couldn't die in debt to anyone, otherwise he wouldn't be able to rest in peace!"
“I know that Father was afraid that I would be bullied if I was left alone. This is his dying wish to entrust his child to someone. Miss Yuan Zhi is the kindest. She understands Father’s meaning even better and agreed immediately.”
"From then on, I became Miss Yuan Zhi's maid... But she never treated me like a servant. Instead, she treated me like a younger sister, taking care of me in every way and even teaching me about herbs..."
Yun Qing's pupils suddenly contracted. The Yuan Zhi she was talking about was his mother, the divine physician Yuan Zhi!
"Twenty-three years ago, Crown Prince Shaojun suddenly disappeared..." Huiniang closed her eyes, as if overwhelmed by a flood of memories: "Miss was very worried. She couldn't eat or drink, and searched for the Crown Prince's whereabouts day and night with Jiuyou..."
That night, it was pouring rain. The young lady finally found the prince. The prince said that the capital was very dangerous and we had to leave immediately. So we changed into refugee clothes and escaped the capital through a secret passage.
Crown Prince Shaojun said that too many people would make us too conspicuous, so he told us to split up: Miss and the Crown Prince, and me and Jiuyou, one going east and the other west, and we would meet up in Jiangnan in three months.
After three months on the run, Jiuyou and I finally arrived in Jiangnan, but after waiting for several days, we still had no news of them.
That day, Jiuyou returned and said that someone was monitoring us and that the Crown Prince's people dared not contact us. He told me to stay in Jiangnan and that he would go to find the Crown Prince and Miss alone!
Later, I lived in Jiangnan for over a year, but I still had no news of any of them!
Hui Niang's tone grew increasingly agitated: "One day, a band of bandits came to the city. They set fires everywhere, and the people were in chaos. Someone took advantage of the chaos to steal Miss's keepsake and tried to take me away. I didn't take anything with me, so I followed them to a place called Daxi Village in Yongkang County."
Her eyes were bloodshot, and tears streamed down her face. Ning Dechang tenderly wiped away her tears with a handkerchief.
“I remember it was a very remote village, with a large bamboo forest behind it, and a house deep in the bamboo forest. The Crown Prince settled the young lady there... The young lady was more than eight months pregnant at that time. I also saw Jiuyou, who had been missing for more than a year. It turned out that they were all hiding here.”
Yun Qing's hands clenched silently. Outside the teahouse, the river flowed swiftly, much like the surging blood in his veins at that moment.
"Later, Miss gave birth to a boy, whose cry was particularly loud." Hui Niang looked at Yun Qing, her eyes softening for a moment: "The Crown Prince held the child, overjoyed and weeping. He said he wanted to give the child a beautiful name. He sat by Miss's bedside all night, and only at dawn did he say: 'Yun is a person who rolls up their sleeves in the blue sky, and Qing is a person who drifts on the vast sea.'"
Let us call him 'Yunqing'—'The auspicious clouds are radiant, flowing gracefully,' wishing for peace and clarity throughout the world, and that my son will never have to live in darkness.
Yun Qing's Adam's apple bobbed, but she remained silent.
“But Emperor Yong’an still found this place.” Hui Niang spoke faster: “On the day Emperor Yong’an’s men surrounded the bamboo forest, Jiu You returned. He, he, he actually knew the art of disguise. He put on the Crown Prince’s jade crown and the Crown Prince’s python robe, and his face was exactly the same as the Crown Prince’s.”
She paused, then said, word by word, "Jiuyou said: His greatest honor in this life is to be the crown prince."
The teahouse was deathly silent. Something within Yun Qing's heart was stirred. So that's how it was—it was Jiu You who returned to the capital in place of his father, and the one who ultimately hanged himself in the Eastern Palace—was Jiu You!
"Miss Yuan Zhi knew of Jiu You's feelings for her and refused to let him go to his death. The Crown Prince, being an even more arrogant person, naturally wouldn't agree either. We were prepared to fight to the death, but Jiu You was most skilled in using poison. He drugged us all, left a letter, and left. The letter said that he had the ability to escape and that we shouldn't worry! He also told us that he had prepared a merchant ship in Fuzhou to take us to meet up with the merchant ships that were going out to sea, and that he would come to find us once he had escaped!"
"And so, Jiuyou impersonated the Crown Prince and went to the capital to 'confess his crimes.' Meanwhile, the Crown Prince changed into Jiuyou's clothes and, protected by his men, escaped through a small path in the back mountains all the way to the coast of Fuzhou, where we boarded that merchant ship."
Hui Niang's voice began to sound uneasy: "The ship was adrift at sea, and just when we thought we were finally safe... Emperor Yong'an came chasing after us again, even though the 'Crown Prince' had already returned to the capital. He still wants you to go back to the capital with the Crown Prince."
She looked at Yun Qing, and tears welled up in her eyes again.
“I don’t know why Emperor Yong’an is so obsessed with having a baby, but Miss and Crown Prince Shaojun know the reason. I seem to have heard Miss say to the Crown Prince: This Emperor Yong’an wants to raise Qing’er into another Shaojun. He’s really crazy.”
Yun Qing clenched her fists, her face turning pale!
Hui Niang continued, "The navy's warships are coming after us... At sea, the cannons are roaring. My lady and I were holding you, little prince, in the cabin, listening to the shouts of battle outside. My heart was in my throat. Later, my lady handed you, still in your swaddling clothes, to me and said, 'Hui Niang, you must protect Qing'er!' Then she rushed out to find the crown prince."
Hui Niang lowered her head, her shoulders trembling violently.
"The cannon fire hit the cabin... I was holding Your Highness and we rolled onto the deck and fell... The child slipped from my grasp... I tried desperately to grab him, but I only managed to grab a piece of his clothing."
She opened her right hand, her palm seemingly still bearing the lingering sensation of torn fabric: "The mast broke and crashed down... The instant I fell into the sea, I saw a man dressed in black use his lightness skill to pick you up and carry you away... I lost consciousness as soon as I fell into the sea, and when I woke up, I was already on the Ning family's ship."
Ning Dechang cleared his throat and replied softly, "I told Your Highness about this when I was in Daxi Village. That year, I had just bought a cargo ship and was preparing to go out to sea to see the world. When the ship was halfway there, we saw corpses floating everywhere at sea. We thought that a ship had been wrecked, so we ordered people to salvage it. Hui Niang was the only survivor. At that time, she was holding on tightly to a broken section of the mast, which saved her life."
Hui Niang looked up at Yun Qing, her eyes almost pleading: "It was me who lost Your Highness... I failed to protect you, I failed to fulfill Miss's request. I begged Master to search for you at sea for three days and three nights... but there was nothing... I thought... Your Highness was dead... I've lived these past years, every day has been like being fried in oil and roasted by fire..."
She suddenly knelt down and kowtowed heavily to Yun Qing: "But seeing your face today... it's exactly the same as Crown Prince Shaojun's, and your eyes, they're just like Miss's! You must be my little prince... my little prince... I'm guilty, I lost my prince..."
Hui Niang knelt at Yun Qing's feet, weeping bitterly. Ning Dechang also knelt down, his body trembling slightly. This was the first time he had heard Hui Niang recount her past. He never imagined it would be such a shocking and earth-shattering story!