Pei Yuan kicked aside several eunuchs and suddenly grabbed a palace maid whose face was covered in soot, asking, "Where is Qiu Su?"
"Who?" The palace maid had just run out of the fire and was still in shock when she denied it. Pei Yuan's sudden movement made it even harder for her to hear his words.
"Qiu Su! Where is the person who lives here?"
The palace maid coughed twice and pointed to the main hall surrounded by fire, saying, "Cough cough, she's, she's inside, pull, pull... she won't come out."
Pei Yuan's face turned pale. He turned around and was about to rush into the only gap when his mother, who had just arrived, grabbed him and cried, "Yuan'er, you're courting death! If Su Su... how can you bear to hurt her?"
"I am not Pei Yuan, I am..."
Pei's mother covered his mouth with her hand, her voice trembling as she said, "Are you courting death? What if Su Su is alive? Are you sure she's here?"
Pei Yuan trembled, his eyes red as he pushed his mother over. He glanced at the spot that had instantly caught fire, staggered two steps forward, lost his footing, and knelt on the ground, unaware that his hair had been singed by the flames.
Sun Qi, the regent, and several imperial concubines rushed over. Consort Li looked at the Changqing Palace, which had been reduced to nothing in an instant, and it took her a while to react. She covered her mouth and cried, "Your Majesty, that Lady Qiu burned down my Changqing Palace."
Sun Qi remained silent, his gaze fixed on Pei Yuan, who was kneeling on the ground, neither crying nor laughing. Two guards stood not far away, ready to prevent Pei Yuan from jumping into the fire at any moment.
The Emperor remained silent, as did the Regent Prince. Consort Li, persuaded by another concubine, went to her palace, leaving behind numerous eunuchs who carried water back and forth, extinguishing the smaller parts of the fire. Seeing that Pei Yuan, though kneeling, made no further attempt to enter the fire, Madam Pei sighed inwardly and, following Xiao Shunzi's arrangement, went to a separate courtyard.
The fire raged all night. Pei Yuan stared blankly at the charred beams and pillars, and the crackling rafters. Sun Qi had stood with him all night. As the morning light shone in, he stretched his legs and shoulders before walking to Pei Yuan's side. Seeing that Pei Yuan's hair was mostly singed, even his eyebrows and beard were half burned off, and his skin was scorched and dry, Sun Qi felt a pang of fear. He knelt beside him, touched his nose, and said, "If she were alive..."
Damn, someone's wife and child have died, how do you comfort them?
Sun Qi uttered five words but didn't know how to continue. With a sorrowful expression, he patted his shoulder and ordered his men to extinguish the remaining fire and search for the remains.
Several eunuchs pulled out a few charred, grayish-yellow bones and piled them together. They looked at Sun Qi and then at Pei Yuan, who had been hanging his head and showing no reaction. They were unsure of what to do.
Sun Qi waved for the men to leave, sat down next to Pei Yuan, looked at the mess in Changqing Palace, and sighed, "Don't blame me, she asked for it herself. She said she didn't want to see you, I never thought she would take this step."
Sun Qi glanced at the charred pile of wreckage beside him, touched his nose, and said, "Pei Yuan, actually..."
"Your Majesty," Xiao Shunzi hurried closer, glanced at Pei Yuan beside him, and whispered, "It's done. What about this side?"
Sun Qi helped Xiao Shunzi to his feet, glanced around, and sighed, "Think it over carefully, don't let sadness blind you."
Xiao Shunzi looked at Pei Yuan with pity and helped Sun Qi out of the courtyard.
Pei Yuan knelt until noon, the ground in front of him changing from scorching hot to warm, and now to icy cold. Pei Yuan looked up at the blinding sun and tried to get up. But because he had been kneeling for too long, he had lost all feeling in his legs.
Turning his head to look at the pile of human bones, Pei Yuan frowned slightly. Qiu Su wasn't dead, she definitely wasn't dead. Pei Yuan waited until he regained feeling in his legs and stood up. He searched through the pile of charred wood for a long time, feeling his way inch by inch. When he found the jade bracelet that Qiu Su had worn in the side hall, his heart ached, and a salty, metallic taste rose to his throat.
Pei Yuan suppressed his anger, carefully removed the shattered jade bracelet piece by piece, wiped it clean with his sleeve, put it away, glanced at the pile of bones, and left the palace without looking back.
He will come back here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Your Majesty," Xiao Shunzi glanced in the direction of Changqing Palace and whispered, "Isn't your move a bit too ruthless? Aren't you afraid that His Highness will..."
"What about him? This wasn't my idea, you know that. It was my sister-in-law who requested it. I've always been considerate of my family."
Xiao Shunzi's lips twitched. "That child is too wronged. I think Miss Qiu looks very sad."
"This was done according to her request." Sun Qi tapped Xiao Shunzi on the head and said seriously, "She said that I should hand the child over to He Zhuo safely. Xiao Shunzi, tell me, wasn't what I did the most sincere and trustworthy?"
Xiao Shunzi's eyebrows twitched. He glanced at the self-absorbed Sun Qi and whispered a reminder: "Miss Pei seems quite angry."
Sun Qi's upturned lips instantly turned down, and he sighed, "This is indeed a difficult matter."
"Yes, how can you not have any difficulties dealing with His Highness's entire family after you've devised such a scheme?" Xiao Shunzi thought to himself.
The two upheavals came suddenly, and naturally, they ended just as abruptly. The palace gossiped for a mere two weeks, and then everything vanished along with the debris from the ruins of Changqing Palace, which was dragged out of the palace grounds. The regent trusted Sun Qi more, and the previously tense atmosphere became unusually harmonious. Qi Xiu disappeared after that incident; he rarely appeared in public, and no one in the palace even noticed his existence.
What Sun Qi couldn't understand was that Pei Yuan hadn't made any moves since that time he left the palace. He ate and slept as usual, and would occasionally go out for a stroll, but he was accompanied by someone else, and he didn't follow Sun Qi's instructions to return to Qingyuan Mountain with yellow peaches.
The atmosphere between the two was a bit strange. People in the capital said that the maidservant beside him was there to collect debts for her master. She followed him silently every day, just to remind him from time to time that he was the one who had killed two people.
Some say that Pei Xiang's son was also pitiful; he married a wife, but both she and her child died in the palace. That girl really shouldn't have taken her revenge on Pei Yuan; she should have gone to the palace to settle scores.
Some people said they saw the girl pour a cup of scalding hot tea onto his hand, burning his hand so badly that blisters formed, and Pei Yuan didn't say a word. They added that he must have felt guilty.
There were so many versions of the story that the people of the capital no longer knew which to believe. Occasionally, out of curiosity, some people would secretly stand guard near the Pei Prime Minister's residence, watching Pei Yuan and Huang Tao leave one after the other. Those who witnessed it said that having such an expressionless, sinister-looking maid by his side was truly terrifying; even without being scalded with boiling water or scalded with hot soup, just being around her every day would cause problems. Gradually, the people of the capital's pity for the deceased mother and child shifted to Pei Yuan.
He Zhuo secretly arrived outside the capital in February, and Xiao Shunzi followed closely behind, disguised and sneaking out of the capital. Unexpectedly, as soon as they left the city gate, someone climbed onto their carriage and grabbed them by the neck.
Xiao Shunzi looked at Pei Yuan, whose cheeks had become sunken from thinness, and chuckled twice, saying, "Your Highness, what's wrong? This servant only has these two days a year to visit relatives, and I'm in a hurry to go back to see my family."
Pei Yuan snorted, released his hand, and sat opposite him, staring straight at him until his legs trembled uncontrollably before saying, "Believe it or not, I'll wipe out your master too?"
Xiao Shunzi chuckled dryly, "His Majesty is also extremely close and sincere to His Highness."
Where did I send my son?
Xiao Shunzi glanced over, then frowned and said, "No, wasn't Madam Pei supposed to take it back?"
Pei Yuan closed his eyes and said calmly, "I won't object if you want to die. Even if you die, I can still find the person I'm looking for."
Xiao Shunzi coughed lightly, ordered the carriage to stop, and then lowered his voice to say, "His Majesty is doing this for His Highness's own good, so that the young master can be kept safe."
"And her?"
"Oh, this servant knows just as much as you do. That fire was truly an accident. Even His Majesty was puzzled about it for a long time afterward."
Puzzled? Pei Yuan frowned and said no more.
The carriage traveled for dozens of miles before stopping at a farmhouse on the outskirts of Beijing as darkness fell. Xiao Shunzi jumped off first, and a girl in a coarse cloth shirt with thick black braids ran out, smiling and saying, "Xiao Shun, why did it take you so long to come?"
Xiao Shun gestured towards the carriage with his lip, then knelt down to support himself as Pei Yuan got off. Pei Yuan jumped over and landed beside him, ignoring the girl, and went straight into the low, mud-brick house.
Inside, an old woman was holding a child in her arms and comforting him. Pei looked from afar and couldn't see the child's face clearly, but his heart pounded wildly.
He was reprimanded by Qi Xiu that day and forcibly dragged out by Pei's mother. When he went back in, the baby had already been born, a stillborn infant, very small, covered in bruises. He was in a daze that day, and seeing that the child was gone, he focused on watching over Qiu Su. Now, thinking back, Qi Xiu didn't seem very sad or panicked at the time; he just kept a straight face the whole time, as did Sun Qi. Later, he disappeared without a trace. He searched for him, but there was no trace of him. Thinking about it carefully, Qiu Su only had a wound on her forehead that was bleeding profusely, mostly amniotic fluid, not much blood. He panicked when he saw her fall while heavily pregnant, and Qiu Su was very emotional, so he subconsciously thought that mother and child were in danger. Perhaps, the child was fine all along, but someone switched the babies.
Pei Yuan struggled to keep his hands from trembling and asked in a calm voice, "Qi Xiu, where is that doctor?"
"He went out." The old woman patted the child in her arms and said, "Old Wang's son from the next village got into a fight and was stabbed. His intestines came out. The gentleman was feeling bored at home and said he was going to check on him."
Xiao Shunzi came in with an embarrassed smile, bowing and saying, "Auntie, this is my young master."
The old woman quickly bowed and said to the woman with the long braid, "Quickly, pour water for the distinguished guest."
Pei Yuan pursed his lips and walked over. He looked at the yellow-faced child in the old woman's arms, who was sucking his fingers, and touched his face with trembling hands.
"Auntie, that child, hehe, was sent to be fostered by my young master." Xiao Shun glanced at Pei Yuan's trembling hand hanging by his side and secretly wiped away a cold sweat. She wondered if her master would face retaliation later. They were all princes, none of them easy to mess with.