It was a day in early August by the lunar calendar. Although it was the end of summer, the weather was still scorching hot, so much so that even the cicadas on the big trees outside chirped listlessly.
Despite the blazing summer sun outside, Yang Ruoning felt a chill rapidly spread through her body, instantly freezing her blood. She widened her eyes, her heart still pounding, and stared at Qingye who had suddenly appeared. Her mind went blank for a moment.
Qingye was wiping brain matter off his long sword with a silk handkerchief as he spoke, "As you wished, I'll give you a swift death."
After cleaning and sheathing his sword, he glanced at Yang Ruoning, who was cowering in the corner. "Why did you suddenly come here?"
"Who are you?" Yang Ruoning's voice trembled as she stared at him warily.
"I'm Qingye, your nephew," Qingye replied with a look of confusion. "Don't listen to Jiang Qi's nonsense. A dying person can say anything. Huh, why are you sweating so much..." As he spoke, he pulled out a handkerchief and raised his hand, preparing to wipe away the beads of sweat on her forehead.
Yang Ruoning flinched back in fear. Seeing the hostility in her eyes, Qingye paused with his hand holding the handkerchief in mid-air.
"Who are you?" Yang Ruoning asked again. "Why did you do this to him?"
Qingye withdrew his hand and nonchalantly tucked the handkerchief into his sleeve. "You're tired today. I'll have someone escort you to rest."
"Who the hell are you?!" Yang Ruoning was infuriated by his pretense. She yelled hysterically, "Stop acting! I know you're not him! Tell me where he is! You motherfucker!"
Qingye's anger flared as well. He roared at Yang Ruoning, "Why?! Why can't you just pretend you don't know?! Why do you have to make me say it!! You want to know why I killed him, do you?! Yang Ruoning, do you want to know?! Fine! I'll tell you right now!"
Qingye roughly grabbed her arm and dragged her all the way to the main hall. This was the tallest and most magnificent building in the entire imperial palace, the place where the emperor and his ministers held court daily, and a symbol of supreme imperial power.
It was past four in the afternoon now, and the hall was deserted.
Qingye dragged her all the way to the throne room and then shoved her onto the imperial seat.
The throne was made of pure gold, intricately carved with dragon patterns. Although there was a soft cushion, it was still incredibly hard. When Qingye roughly pushed her onto the throne, Yang Ruoning's back slammed against the raised dragon patterns, and she felt a sharp pain.
Yang Ruoning sat slumped on the throne, her body trembling as she used her hands to support herself. Tears welled up in her eyes. She thought of her future in the wormhole, a future she couldn't reverse. She realized that perhaps today was her day of death. Facing her demise, she felt no anger, only a desire to know the truth. "This throne is yours now. No one will ever take it from you... Please, don't hurt anyone else..."
Qingye stood with his back to her, facing the empty hall. The late summer sunlight outside was dazzlingly bright. He spoke to himself, "Jiang Qi was right. I am the bastard son of a lowly prostitute, and even she didn't know who my father was. I should have been strangled at birth, but by some twist of fate, I was brought into the palace that day and became the supreme emperor. It was Jiang Qi, he was the one who put this creature worse than a dog on this golden throne. I should have been grateful to him, shouldn't I? Hmph," he said, glancing back at the throne with contempt, "It was right here, on this very chair you're sitting on, that he first touched me... I was only six years old then. I panicked, I cried out loud, but no one listened... From then on, I understood that as long as he was here, I would forever be his plaything and puppet, and I could never become a true emperor. From that moment on, I swore that I would kill him, and I would become the true emperor of Da Song."
"Where is he?" Yang Ruoning had no interest in his life story; she only wanted to know the whereabouts of the child.
"Him? Qingye, the real owner of that name? Heh, he's a monster," Qingye deliberately contorted his body into strange poses, mimicking someone disabled. "The person you're looking for is a monster. He spends his days like this, all bent over... He was born without limbs, more stupid than a dog, and he'll howl like this whenever he sees a stranger," Qingye let out strange, beast-like cries. At this moment, Yang Ruoning's eyes were red with rage. She felt that this person before her could no longer be called human; he was the true ugly monster!
"...I had to chain his neck so he wouldn't crawl around the palace and scare people... You have to understand, it was an ominous sign for the noble consort to give birth to such a monster after the late emperor's death. By custom, he should have been killed at birth, but Jiang Qi was afraid your brother would return, so he spared his life. Otherwise, he would have been dead long ago."
She had initially thought that due to his genetic defects, the child wouldn't survive in ancient society with its underdeveloped medical practices, and that Jiang Qi had found Qingye as a puppet for the throne. But when she heard Qingye speak, a flicker of hope ignited within her. "Are you saying that child is still alive?"
"Ah, that's right. You've met him."
Yang Ruoning looked at Qingye in despair. "I've met him?! I don't remember when I would have met him..."
"Ah..." Qingye slapped his forehead. "I remember now. It was on the first snowfall, when you first entered the palace. I arranged for you to meet. You remember, you said then that wishes made on the first snowfall could come true, and you were right, the first snowfall can indeed make certain wishes come true."
"When?!" Yang Ruoning demanded, her voice hoarse.
"Heavens, you are truly insensible. You know I've been merciful to you, Yang Ruoning. I let you have one last meeting with him!"
"One last meeting..." Yang Ruoning murmured, her mind racing through the events of that first snowfall day when she entered the palace. Suddenly, she remembered the group of eunuchs they encountered after leaving the imperial garden. They were carrying a corpse covered with a white cloth. The eunuchs had said it was a young eunuch who had drowned himself in a well. Could it be...? The thought sent a piercing pain through her heart, as if an invisible sword had stabbed her chest, causing her to double over and clutch her chest.
"Merciful? Is this what you call mercy?! You told me it was a young eunuch, I didn't know he was my own relative!!"
"Please, Yang Ruoning, you call that creature worse than a dog your relative? He can't even tell if he's human or a dog!"
"Shut up! He's not a monster! You are the real monster!!" Yang Ruoning leaped up and grabbed Qingye by the collar. "How did he die? Was it you? Is that why you took his hair and then killed him?!"
"You misunderstand me. I've never killed anyone. Oh, wait, I just killed Jiang Qi. Regardless, you can't blame me for his death. I didn't kill him. Jiang Qi asked me to kill him a long time ago. You should thank me; it was I who let him live like a dog for so long, otherwise, he would have been gone already."
"So Jiang Qi killed him?"
"Yes. He knew you were coming to the palace, and to make you betray Luo Yuan and help me secure the throne, to make you acknowledge me, and to cover up the truth so you wouldn't find out, he killed that monster. When I saw you arrive at the banquet from the imperial garden like a lost soul, I knew you had taken the bait. You had seen that letter."
"So even that letter was deliberately placed there by you..."
"Yang Ruoning, where are there so many coincidences in this world? Yes, that letter was placed by Jiang Qi in the library. He made sure that eunuch would ensure you 'accidentally' obtained it. He also anticipated that you wouldn't easily believe I was that child based solely on a letter from your brother, so he also replaced the hair of the late emperor in the ancestral hall and then had me give that sachet to Xiao Guizi. Ah, you don't know how urgent it was then. Fortunately, the monster's body hadn't been removed from the palace yet, otherwise, everything would have been in vain..."
Yang Ruoning stared at him in disbelief. "You replaced the late emperor's hair too? Then Luo Yuan..."
"Whether Luo Yuan is of the late emperor's bloodline, we don't know. But we must ensure that everyone, including you, believes he is just the bastard son of Consort Jin and an outsider, that he has no right to inherit the throne, so he will give up more easily..."