Huo Qixiao remained in the dark, windowless room, without food or drink, for three full days and nights.
From initial fear and begging, no one appeared. Then came despair, curling up in a corner, hugging himself tightly.
Strangely, things would crawl onto him or accidentally touch him. By the third day, when he was finally let out, he was covered in filth and severely dehydrated to the point of collapse.
It was the same thatched hut and the same man with a soft voice. This time, however, he was not wearing a mask, revealing his fair and delicate face. He appeared to be around thirty years old.
“How is it? Young Master Huo, after considering for these past few days and nights, what have you decided?”
Hearing the man’s voice, Huo Qixiao instinctively trembled all over, but he remained silent.
Seeing this, the man did not get angry. Instead, he had someone change Huo Qixiao into clean clothes and prepare some simple congee and light dishes. After Huo Qixiao had eaten and recovered some strength, the man took him back to the city.
Huo Qixiao thought the man was letting him go and was relieved to have escaped. Although he disliked Huo Qiyuan, he hadn't reached the point of wanting to kill him, nor did he have the courage to act.
The carriage swayed as it arrived outside the Huo family mansion. The man did not have Huo Qixiao alight but sent someone to announce their arrival. To their surprise, the messenger returned shortly, reporting that the masters of the Huo mansion were all out.
It turned out to be the day General Huo was returning victoriously, and everyone from the Huo family had gone to the East City Gate early to welcome him. They were likely heading to the Prince of Pingbei’s mansion for a celebration banquet and would not return until evening.
Upon hearing the servant’s report, the carriage immediately turned towards the Prince of Pingbei’s mansion. Huo Qixiao felt a pang of unease. What did it mean that the masters were all out? What did it mean that everyone was attending a banquet?
Had his family not known he had been missing for days? Or had they simply not cared during his absence and hadn’t sent anyone to look for him?
With the clatter of hooves, Huo Qixiao’s emotions surged.
After traveling about five long streets, they arrived at the entrance of the Prince of Pingbei’s mansion. The carriage stopped in an alley next to the mansion, only a few meters away from the gate.
Although they couldn’t hear what was being said, the expressions on everyone’s faces were perfectly clear!
Many people had come to attend the celebration banquet today, and there were numerous carriages from various mansions and courtyards, so no one noticed the unadorned carriage parked in the alley.
The man deliberately moved aside, pulled the still weak and shaky Huo Qixiao to the carriage window, and then lifted the curtain, allowing him to clearly see the scene opposite.
At this moment, the entrance to the Prince of Pingbei’s mansion was already crowded with people. Apart from the officials and their families who had come to offer congratulations, members of the Huo family and the Prince of Pingbei’s household also stood at the main gate.
Huo Qixiao saw his grandmother, his eldest uncle, his fourth uncle, and even his father, who was usually self-conscious about his leg ailment and disliked appearing in public, were all present.
Each of them wore smiles of contentment, surrounding Huo Qiyuan like stars around the moon. The family chatted and laughed, welcoming and seeing off guests, creating a lively scene.
Looking at the harmonious scene before him, Huo Qixiao found it particularly glaring.
Huo Qiyuan was truly too outstanding. His dazzling brilliance could overshadow the meager starlight of everyone else in the world.
Was he not one of those overshadowed by him?
Huo Qixiao closed his eyes in pain. Even though reality was cruel, the mere thought of poisoning the most radiant person in the Huo family made his hands tremble uncontrollably!
The man saw the pain in his eyes and understood his inner struggle. He leaned close to Huo Qixiao’s ear. The man’s strong scent of perfume and the heat of his breath felt like the most poisonous miasma and blood-sucking insects in the world.
“Do you see? As long as he is here, you will never have a chance to shine. Even if you’ve been missing for three days and nights, the Huo family’s eyes are still only on Huo Qiyuan’s celebration banquet. No one cares about your life or death, not even your own father! Why don’t you kill him? As long as he’s dead, as long as he can no longer appear, you can reclaim everything you’ve lost! Don’t you want to succeed? Are you willing to live your life as an insignificant second-generation heir, a good-for-nothing among noble sons?”
The man’s words were relentless. His tone was calm, yet Huo Qixiao’s face turned pale, and a chill ran down his spine. This man was like a venomous snake from a ditch; even sitting beside him felt chilling.
Huo Qixiao stared out the carriage window under the man’s gaze. It wasn’t until the guests and hosts had all entered the Prince of Pingbei’s mansion, until he could see nothing more, that he slumped back onto the carriage, dejected.
The street once again became bustling. The man waved to the carriage and had it return to the front of the Huo family mansion, this time stopping at the street corner.
“Young Master Huo can go back now,” the man said, smiling as he lifted the carriage door.
Huo Qixiao could hardly believe it. Was he no longer forcing him to kill Huo Qiyuan and was now letting him go?
Regardless of the man’s intentions, Huo Qixiao, with his weakened body, stumbled out of the carriage and ran towards the Huo family mansion as if driven mad.
The doorman, seeing the person rushing over, quickly reached out to stop him. “Young Master? Why didn’t you go to the Prince’s mansion today? Old Madam and Master have all gone. Only Madam is still in the courtyard.”
Huo Qixiao nervously hid behind the doorman and stretched his head to look towards the street corner. However, there was no sign of the carriage. These people were truly terrifying, appearing and disappearing without a trace, like ghosts.
He breathed a sigh of relief and, pulling the doorman next to him, asked if his mother was still in the mansion. Receiving an affirmative answer, Huo Qixiao pushed away the doorman who was trying to support him and ran towards his mother’s courtyard, his face filled with grievance.
Despite his days of disappearance, everyone else in the family had gone to attend Qiyuan’s celebration banquet, and only his mother was waiting for him at home.
He used to think his mother disliked him, but now he realized he had been wrong. In this grand and imposing Huo mansion, it was likely only his mother who truly cared for him.
Huo Qixiao, dragging his weak body, panted heavily as he arrived at his mother’s Peony Courtyard. Perhaps because everyone else in the mansion was out today, there wasn’t a single servant in the courtyard.
He entered the main building, passed through several corridors to the back courtyard, and was about to knock on his mother’s bedroom door when he suddenly heard two people talking inside.
The first person to speak was the nanny who had served Madam Lin, Madam Huo Sizer’s wife, since she married into the family. “Madam, today is such a joyous occasion over there, why aren’t you going to join the festivities? Won’t it be awkward if Old Madam brings it up?”
“What’s there to go to? If I had married him back then, today’s events would naturally be joyous… Now, no matter how great the joy, it’s someone else’s joy, what does it have to do with me?”
Madam Lin paused her hand holding the teacup. Although her reply was indifferent, Huo Qixiao outside could clearly hear the unwillingness and loneliness in her words.
When the nanny spoke, she was initially cautious. Then, thinking that everyone in the family was out today, she said with pity, “Madam, it’s been decades. Have you still not let it go? You say why bother yourself like this? If you can’t let it go, you’re only tormenting yourself…”
Madam Lin flung the teacup she was holding away. The ceramic cup shattered on the ground, spilling the scalding tea everywhere, and burning several patches on her own hands.
“Let go? How can you ask me to let go? Back then, the Huo family was supposed to propose for the disabled second son, yet they sent the un-disabled eldest son! If I hadn’t caught a glimpse of Huo Sizhun through the screen and thought he was the one I was marrying, why would I have married into the Huo family and endured so much pain and suffering?”
Huo Qixiao, eavesdropping outside, was filled with dread. This was the first time he had heard such words. He quietly withdrew his hand that was about to knock and prepared to leave.
He felt this was a matter for the older generation and that as a junior, he shouldn’t listen or participate. But before he could leave, the next words exchanged by the two froze Huo Qixiao on the spot, rendering him unable to move.
Seeing Madam Lin’s descent into hysteria again, the nanny sighed, knelt down to clean up the shattered teacup, and couldn’t help but lament, “It’s all fate’s cruelty!”
Recalling that Miss Lin was of marriageable age, the Lin family was overjoyed when the suitor who came to propose was Huo Sizhun, an close associate of the Emperor and a great general who had suppressed rebellions.
Although General Huo was considerably older than their daughter, it was said that older men were more doting. He had military achievements, was deeply trusted by the current Emperor, and most importantly, he had abstained from women due to his military service.
It was heard that not only did he have no principal wife or concubines, but he didn’t even have any maidservants as bed partners. Such a man, if married, would surely be a life of bliss, without the need to compete with numerous concubines, his eyes and heart solely focused on her.
The outcome proved that marrying Huo Sizhun was indeed a blessing. However, the person who ultimately received this blessing was not the Lin family’s engaged daughter, but a woman from the martial world.
At the time of the proposal, Miss Lin had only caught a distant glimpse of Huo Sizhun through a screen. He was tall and imposing, with handsome features, an extraordinary aura, and an overwhelming presence – simply the husband of her dreams.
This one glance caused the sheltered young lady to lose her heart and become completely smitten.
Somehow, they discussed it, and the marriage was settled that very day. The wedding date was also quickly set, with only a little over a month between the engagement and the wedding.
Madam Lin had some doubts at the time, as major families that valued tradition would not set such hasty engagements, and the preparation time was insufficient.
She didn’t know how the Huo family and her parents had negotiated. They only informed her that an engagement had been made with the Huo family, but they hadn’t specified with whom. Therefore, Miss Lin naturally assumed that the fiancé was Huo Sizhun.
Later, considering Huo Sizhun’s age, she thought it was reasonable for him to be eager to marry. Thus, Madam Lin did not object but was filled with anticipation, waiting to be married at home in the following days.
Whether it was the nanny’s words that stimulated her or her own deep unwillingness, Madam Lin became like a madwoman, raising her hands, her expression contorted, crying and shouting!
“It’s not fate’s cruelty, it’s the Huo family’s excessive bullying! First, to enable their disabled son to marry, they came to deceive my Lin family. Then, they blamed me for not giving birth to a son and repeatedly arranged for Huo Sizer to take concubines.”
“Concubines! That cheap woman… If not for that cheap woman, if not for the bastard born to her, my son, my son wouldn’t have been able to come into this world! He was over six months old when he fell…”
“So much blood, my stomach hurt so much, my body was so cold. I knew he was leaving me little by little. But they sent the doctor to save that cheap woman and her son…”
“Until I saw him, carelessly thrown onto a cold wooden board, a thin, emaciated infant… My son turned to dust, while that bastard became the eldest young master of the Huo family and had to call me Mother every day! Does he deserve it?”
“He doesn’t deserve it! He doesn’t, does he? Nanny, I truly hate! I hate my parents, hate them for knowing that marrying into the Huo family was a fiery pit for me, yet pushing me into it regardless of my future happiness.”
“I hate Huo Zhangshi, hate her for making things difficult for me and tormenting me because I gave birth to a daughter. I hate Huo Sizer, hate him for marrying a respectable woman and causing so much harm, knowing he was disabled. I hate Huo Sizhun, hate him for being heartless and unfeeling, for disregarding human relations. He was the one who came to propose, yet in the end, he gave me to his brother.”
“But most of all, I hate Huo Qixiao! I hate him for taking away everything that originally belonged to my son. I hate that he crawled out of that cheap woman’s womb. I hate myself for not having the heart to strangle him to death back then…”
As she spoke, Madam Lin knelt on the ground and cried heartbrokenly. Her palms were cut by the porcelain shards, but she seemed to feel no pain.
The nanny picked up a handkerchief and wiped the blood from her hands. So many years had passed. Ever since her six-month-old son was miscarried, Madam Lin would go mad like this once a year during this period.