This was the Emperor's overt search; in secret, the General's Mansion also continued to investigate them.
It's impossible for them to get out in a short time. Hailin is quite plump, so it's absolutely impossible for her to evade the soldiers' pursuit. Therefore, they should stay here and wait for an opportunity to act.
However, putting aside the extensive searches outside, let's talk about sea sappanwood.
He was like a walking corpse. Three days passed and he didn't eat a single meal. He was listless and neither ate nor spoke. He stayed in his room, lying on the bed, neither sleeping nor moving. He just sat there with his eyes open, hugging himself.
Shi Mei and Shi Lan tried everything they could, but they couldn't get her to eat or speak.
Seeing that her mental state was deteriorating, Shi Mei and Shi Lan were extremely anxious. If something really happened to their young lady, the master would be heartbroken, as he loved her very much.
What should we do?
For a moment, the two of them really couldn't come up with a solution.
In the room, Hailing lay on the bed, thinking about the letter her mother had left behind.
From that letter, she learned many things she had never known before, as well as secrets her mother never told her.
It turns out that her mother's real name wasn't Du Caiyue; her name was Nie Wan'er. She was the daughter of the prefect of Yuncheng, a young lady from a wealthy family. As a child, she was pampered and spoiled. However, one day, someone destroyed her family. That person was Jiang Batian. He coveted a treasured sword passed down through the Nie family, named Longtianjue. It was forged from thousand-year-old cold iron by a master craftsman and was a rare treasure. For martial arts practitioners, this sword was no less than a priceless treasure. When Jiang Batian learned about this sword, he went to the Nie family to offer to buy it. However, this sword was still a family heirloom of the Nie family. Although the Nie family later turned to literature, they could not sell the things left by their ancestors.
It is said that the Dragon Heaven Sword was left by the great-great-great-grandfather of the Nie family. He was a loyal and patriotic general who accidentally obtained this precious sword, so it was passed down. The Nie family has always worshipped the Dragon Heaven Sword. But who would have thought that Jiang Batian would be so heartless and ruthless as to falsely accuse her father of embezzling the government's disaster relief funds, so the entire Nie family was imprisoned and executed. However, she was rescued by the old steward using his own daughter.
How could a weak woman like her possibly avenge the Nie family? So she decided to sell herself into the Liu family.
At that time, the Liu family and the Jiang family were already engaged. The eldest daughter of the Liu family was to marry Jiang Batian, so Nie Wan'er entered the Liu family under the alias Du Caiyue. Because of her literacy and intelligence, she was favored by the eldest daughter of the Liu family and taken in to serve. Then she followed her into the Jiang family.
She had never forgotten the deaths of the Nie family, so she always wanted to find an opportunity to kill Jiang Batian.
However, Jiang Batian, being a general, was rarely in his residence, so she had very few opportunities.
Later, when he returned home from the army, his wife had gone to her parents' home. Jiang Batian got drunk and, ignoring her resistance, raped her while he was half-drunk and half-awake.
At that time, she even contemplated suicide, but she had not yet avenged herself. Later, she became pregnant and gave birth to her daughter, Hailing.
Liu hated her for not bringing honor to her, so she made things difficult for her at every turn. You can imagine how miserable their lives were. Even so, Liu did not let her go and tried every means to kill her daughter Ling'er and then get rid of Du Caiyue.
One night, she finally succeeded. Her child had a high fever that wouldn't go down, and she couldn't save him.
She left the general's mansion with her child in her arms and wandered along the West City River. It was on that night that she met Hailing's biological mother. Her mother was being chased and was on the verge of death. So when she met Du Caiyue, she begged her to help her raise her child, who is now Hailing.
In fact, Hailing was not Du Caiyue's child. Her child died that night. She took Hailing back to the mansion because people couldn't tell the difference between two or three-month-old babies, and most importantly, people rarely asked about the mother and daughter.
Over the years, whenever Du Caiyue thought of taking revenge, she would remember her promise to Hailing's mother to raise her, so she would give up on revenge.
It wasn't until she entered the palace that she knew she had to do what she was supposed to do.
As for her mother's revenge later, it was not mentioned in the letter, because the letter was written before she took her revenge, and she only told Hailing about it at the end of the letter.
She was a child of the Ji family, a great general of Beilu. As soon as Ji Shaocheng appeared, she knew that he was her brother.
Because his eyebrows and eyes look very similar to Hai Ling's when she was a child, and Hai Ling has a jade pendant on her body, which is the ancestral jade of the Ji family.
Du Caiyue also mentioned Hailing's weight gain. It turned out that Hailing's weight gain was due to a weight-gain drug that Du Caiyue had given her. Because Hailing was very beautiful when she was young, Du Caiyue was afraid that Liu Shi and Jiang Feixue would harm her, so she devised this method to protect her. The weight gain was actually not difficult to cure, but no one knew that her weight gain was due to the drug.
At the very end of the letter, Du Caiyue instructed Hailing, "Ling'er, this is a matter between your mother and the Jiang family. No matter what happens in the end, you must leave Da Zhou and go to Bei Lu. This is not your home. Go back. Please grant your mother's last and only request: I don't want you to seek revenge, I just want you to live well."
Her mother always thought of her best, loved her so much, and doted on her. Her heart ached terribly. Now even Rouge was gone. Hailing felt completely empty. She used to be full of hope every day, hoping to one day take them to a beautiful place where they could live a happier life. People are full of vitality because they have hope, but now she had no hope at all, only boundless darkness everywhere.
She felt utterly powerless, as if all her strength had been drained away. So she curled up in her own world, neither eating nor drinking, and remained completely still without any emotion.
Seeing their young mistress like this, Shi Mei and Shi Lan were extremely anxious. Shi Mei was a doctor and knew that after a great tragedy, people were like walking corpses, wishing they could just die.
The young lady was in this situation at the moment, and they really didn't know how to help her.
Now the Emperor has ordered his troops to search the entire city. Although they can't find this place, it's not good for them to stay here indefinitely.
In the room, Shi Mei brought a bowl of porridge and looked at the woman curled up on the bed with heartache.
I never knew that Miss was such a loyal and affectionate person. Most people would feel pain when faced with the death of a loved one, but they can usually get through it. However, she couldn't get over it, which shows that she gave all her love to her family.
"Miss, please eat something. You'll die if you don't eat. Don't you want to avenge Madam?"
"Yes, miss, please have something to eat. Let's leave here. Sooner or later, we'll come back."
But no matter how much they tried to persuade him, the person on the bed remained completely still.
Shi Mei stood up, holding her bowl, and looked at Shi Lan: "What do we do now?"
"Since Miss is like this, we can't leave. We wonder what the situation is like in the city?"
The two of them sighed at the same time, not knowing how to help Hailin.
The person in bed was still lost in her own thoughts. Because she hadn't eaten for a long time, she was extremely weak, and then she slowly fell asleep.
In her dream, she saw her mother. Her mother was just like before, her face full of love. She reached out and rubbed her head, speaking gently.
"Ling'er, my child, how could you do this?"
"Mother, Mother," Hailing hugged her mother tightly, her mother's embrace still as warm as before.
"Ling'er, do you know? My greatest wish is to see our Ling'er happy. Seeing you like this makes my heart ache so much."
"Mom, I miss you so much."
"Mother misses you too, Ling'er. Mother has no relatives left in this world, only us, Ling'er. If something happens to Ling'er, who will remember Mother? So Ling'er must live well and keep Mother in your heart. Then Mother will not have lived in vain, because I live in someone's heart. Ling'er, can you promise to let Mother live in your heart?"
"Mother."