Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The sky was clear and the air was crisp. Numerous carriages were parked before the mountain gates of Ci’en Temple, many of them belonging to noble and wealthy families.

I had heard stories about Ci’en Temple since I was a child. Years ago, the Late Emperor was so devastated by the loss of his beloved consort that he intended to renounce the world and become a monk.

A country cannot go a single day without its ruler. The ministers spent an enormous fortune to redeem him, petitioning the Late Emperor three times to return to the imperial court. They even commissioned a golden statue in his likeness for the people to worship.

In my previous life, when Yuan Heng sent men to surround our family shrine, I became a cornered beast with no escape.

But he would never dare to do the same to Ci’en Temple. Surrounding this place would be tantamount to rebellion.

…

My mother’s memorial tablet was enshrined in Wangsheng Hall.

I knelt on a prayer mat, kowtowing and offering incense. On the rows of tablet stands, there was one inscribed with: “Memorial Tablet of the Late Lady Wan of the Ye Mansion.”

My mother’s surname wasn’t actually Wan. The name was just something my grandmother had chosen at random: Wan Mudan.

When her true identity was exposed back then, my father had asked her what her real surname was, where her true home was, and what her family did for a living.

With tears in her eyes, she simply smiled and said she had forgotten; she only remembered that her family had been poor.

I was very young when she passed away, so most of my memories of her are a blur.

Only one thing remains vivid.

During that period, my mother was very anxious. She kept writing letters to my maternal grandfather, but it seemed she never received a favorable reply. She cried for an entire night.

I looked up at the memorial tablet, tears streaming down my face.

Sometimes, I’m not even sure what I feel for my mother.

I was only six years old when she left me behind. Did she not know how difficult it would be for a small child to survive in the Ye Family?

For all these years, I’ve had only one wish: that when I was wronged, I could hear someone say, “Don’t be afraid, Mother is here.”

Unfortunately, that was nothing more than a pipe dream, an impossibility.

And so, I hated her.

Hongyu handed me a handkerchief and comforted me softly, “Madam, please dry your tears. If the old lady knew you were this heartbroken, she would be grieved in the afterlife as well.”

I stood up and said, “Let’s go to Zhujing Hall.”