In this situation, without needing to ask more, Huo Liuxing already understood the cause and effect.
Earlier, Huo Shuyi had come to find him, saying she seemed to have caused trouble. As soon as he entered and saw Nanny Ji kneeling, he knew things were bad.
Huo Liuxing raised his hand, using his fingertips to wipe beneath Shen Lingzhen’s eyes. But as soon as he wiped away one tear, another fell—he couldn’t wipe them all away.
He sighed, stood up and drew her into his arms, changing instead to gently patting and stroking her back, over and over, until he heard her sobbing gradually stop. Only then did he release her and lower his head, saying matter-of-factly: “Are you hungry? We didn’t eat breakfast on the road. Should we go have an early lunch?”
Shen Lingzhen seemed not yet recovered, staring blankly without any response.
“The situation in Qingyang isn’t good, so we can’t have delicacies from land and sea, but Mother prepared sweets you like in advance to welcome us back—many soups and pastries in Bianjing style.”
Hearing these words, Shen Lingzhen’s shoulders trembled slightly.
In the past, she would naturally be delighted and content when the Huo family treated her with such thoughtful care. But now, this thoughtfulness, this care, had instead become thorns piercing her heart, making her feel both sour and pained inside.
The more they let bygones be bygones, the more tolerant and magnanimous they were, the less she could face them, the less she could accept all this with a clear conscience.
She shook her head and said hoarsely: “I’m not hungry. I’ll eat here a bit later. Please thank the old madam for me.”
Hearing the distance in her words, Huo Liuxing fell silent for a moment and said: “Then I’ll have someone bring it to your courtyard.” He pulled over her hand again. “Your eyes are swollen. Come with me to wash your face.”
Shen Lingzhen intended to break free. She exerted force but then restrained herself, letting him lead her as she walked unsteadily for a few steps. Looking down, she said: “No need to trouble you. Please just call Jianjia and Bailu for me.”
Huo Liuxing raised his eyebrows: “Don’t want to see me?”
She struggled and shook her head, saying with a nasal tone: “No, you’ve also worked hard traveling over mountains and rivers all this way. How could I make you serve me?”
Huo Liuxing seemed to see through her and let out a heavy breath: “Then stay by yourself for a while. If you need anything, call Jianjia and Bailu. When you want to come out, come out then.”
Shen Lingzhen’s nose stung again.
She truly hoped to be alone and quiet for a while, but now even such a simple request felt difficult to voice.
She nodded: “Thank you for your consideration.”
Huo Liuxing said nothing and wheeled himself back to the study.
Over there, Jingmo and Kongqing heard the news—one face reading “dejected,” the other “disheartened.” Hearing Huo Liuxing sigh, they also sighed along.
The entire study was filled with rising and falling, ebbing and flowing sighs for a time.
Even by bedtime, the inner courtyard remained completely silent. Servants constantly reported on Shen Lingzhen’s condition, saying she ate a large bowl of rice with soup at lunch, and in the evening had two plates of pastries—apparently eating more than usual.
Hearing this, Kongqing’s heart broke: “The young madam must have no appetite. She doesn’t want the servants to worry, and doesn’t want you distracted caring for her, so she’s forcing herself to eat. Alas, eating when she can’t—how uncomfortable that must be!”
“Am I blind? Can’t I see? Need you to analyze it?” Huo Liuxing tapped the desk. “All useless talk—think of a solution instead.”
Kongqing looked aggrieved: “My lord, there really is no solution for this matter right now.”
When someone’s mood is poor, they need an outlet, but Shen Lingzhen had just learned of past events and was filled with guilt—she absolutely couldn’t vent to anyone in the Huo household.
As for Bianjing, the person who sent her here wielded the power of life and death, holding absolute authority over the realm—the Emperor. Could she oppose the Son of Heaven? Obviously not.
And the person who concealed this matter was precisely her own mother. She had indeed benefited from this, living through a stolen period of carefree days. Did she have the right to blame her helpless mother? Even less so.
Thinking it over, everyone seemed to have their difficulties, everyone seemed blameless—so she could only struggle with herself.
Kongqing said: “Right now it’s best to help the young madam shift her attention. Unfortunately, being in the Huo mansion, everywhere she looks she sees us. Even the most optimistic person couldn’t easily let go. Why don’t you send her to the Shen residence to change environments and stay for a while?”
Huo Liuxing frowned in refusal: “With so many refugees in the city, how can I be at ease?”
“Then at least tonight, let the young madam sleep alone. Seeing you will only make her worries heavier.”
Huo Liuxing rubbed his temples and jerked his chin toward Jingmo: “Have them pass along a message—say I’m busy with matters tonight and won’t go to the young madam’s courtyard.”
——
After a night passed, servants again reported to Huo Liuxing on Shen Lingzhen’s situation, saying she went to bed on time last night and rose on time this morning, with nothing unusual.
But this lack of abnormality was precisely the greatest abnormality. Huo Liuxing couldn’t hold back anymore and had Kongqing push him toward the inner courtyard. But halfway there, he saw Shen Lingzhen and Huo Miaoling walking toward them side by side, followed by a string of servants.
Huo Miaoling tilted her head talking to Shen Lingzhen: “Mother said Sister-in-law refused to come out and eat breakfast with us. I guessed Sister-in-law was hurt by what Big Sister said yesterday. Big Sister explained to me later that all that talk about enemies was just her scaring me—it wasn’t true. Sister-in-law, don’t take it to heart. We’re still good!”
“I know it wasn’t true and haven’t taken it to heart,” Shen Lingzhen concealed her weariness, saying with a smile. “See, I came out with you to eat breakfast, didn’t I?”
Kongqing, pushing Huo Liuxing, felt his heart shatter again.
Already feeling so terrible, yet still having to consider the second young miss’s feelings, lying as if nothing had happened—who wouldn’t feel heartache?
He looked down at Huo Liuxing and indeed saw him frown: “Miaoling, your sister-in-law hasn’t been well recently and doesn’t want to walk around. Don’t keep pestering her.”
Huo Miaoling was taken aback. Before she could speak, Shen Lingzhen took over: “No.” She smiled. “Don’t listen to your second brother’s nonsense. Come, let’s go eat breakfast.”
Huo Liuxing could only follow the two.
When the group reached the hall, Yu Wanjiang and Huo Shuyi were already at the table.
Seeing Shen Lingzhen’s haggard and weary appearance, then Huo Liuxing’s gloomy expression, Huo Shuyi knew this was entirely due to her loose tongue. On one hand she felt somewhat apologetic, on the other hand thinking of Shen Lingzhen’s identity, she was unwilling to lower her head and awkwardly said nothing.
Yu Wanjiang politely greeted Shen Lingzhen and quietly tugged at Huo Shuyi’s sleeve, signaling her to give a smile.
Just as Huo Shuyi was about to force out a smile, Shen Lingzhen came to her rescue: “Shuyi, are you still going out to distribute porridge later?”
She answered uncomfortably: “Yes.”
“Then could I… could I go with you?”
Huo Shuyi said in surprise: “You can’t even scoop…”
A killing glare from Huo Liuxing cut her off: “How strong are you exactly?”
“I was just…” This time Huo Shuyi truly hadn’t meant to hurt Shen Lingzhen. She quietly tried to remedy: “I was just thinking the streets are so dirty and chaotic, I’m afraid she might get bumped or bruised.”
“If your sister-in-law wants to go, take her.”
Huo Shuyi nodded in agreement. Shen Lingzhen awkwardly waved her hand, saying with an apologetic smile: “I was just thinking, I don’t know if there’s anything I could help the family with. If I can’t help, I won’t add to the confusion. I’m not that eager to go…”
She smiled awkwardly and began eating breakfast with her head down.
Yu Wanjiang, as the elder, wanted to say something to ease the atmosphere at the table, but saw Shen Lingzhen avoiding eye contact, not even daring to meet her gaze. Throughout the meal, she never raised her head even once.
The whole family then fell silent, lapsing into strange quietness.
Shen Lingzhen seemed to feel she had made everyone unhappy. Forcing a smile, she personally ladled four bowls of tea soup and distributed them according to order of seniority and age.
Huo Liuxing accepted his without a word and also ladled one for her.
The meal was stiff and agonizing—not one person felt comfortable.
After the meal, Huo Liuxing was just about to have Huo Shuyi take Shen Lingzhen out to help refugees as a distraction when he suddenly saw Jingmo rushing in from outside the mansion.
Jingmo was relatively steady by nature and rarely this panicked. The people at the table were all somewhat surprised, and Huo Liuxing also furrowed his brow: “What’s got you so flustered?”
“My lord, eight-hundred-mile urgent courier.”
Huo Shuyi stood up in alarm: “The Xiqiang have attacked?”
But Huo Liuxing had already seen the bright yellow message tube in Jingmo’s hand.
Under heaven, only one person could and dared use bright yellow. This wasn’t news from the Dingbian Army, but from Bianjing.
Jingmo looked at Shen Lingzhen with reluctance, lowered his eyes, and presented the message tube to Huo Liuxing with both hands: “It’s a personal letter from His Majesty. Please review it, my lord.”
Shen Lingzhen felt panicked by that glance: “What happened?”
What could be such important news that even dispatching a eunuch messenger was too slow, forcing her imperial uncle to send an eight-hundred-mile urgent courier with a handwritten letter?
Huo Liuxing opened the tube, unrolled the bright yellow silk inside, his eyes skimming over it rapidly, his expression darkening.
Shen Lingzhen had an increasingly bad premonition and stumbled forward: “What is it?”
Huo Liuxing looked at her, his jaw clenched tight.
Shen Lingzhen grew more panicked: “Say something!”
He took a deep breath: “The Empress Dowager has passed.”
Shen Lingzhen’s legs gave way and she nearly collapsed, but Huo Liuxing caught and supported her.
She stared at him blankly, murmuring: “What did you say?”
“The Empress Dowager passed away from illness at Baoci Palace. On her deathbed, she entreated His Majesty to make sure you return to Bianjing to see her off on her final journey.”
Shen Lingzhen shook her head in disbelief: “It can’t be. When I left, Imperial Grandmother was still… still perfectly fine. She even told me…” She nodded to herself, staring intently into Huo Liuxing’s eyes. “Yes, she clearly told me to marry into Qingyang first, that she would find a way to bring me back to Bianjing… Is this the way she thought of?”
Huo Liuxing turned his head away.
A man who could face thousands of troops with a calm smile turned his head away under the gaze of a fifteen-year-old girl’s eyes.
Shen Lingzhen suddenly laughed: “Grandmother is so clever. This is a good method, a good method… I can go home to see her now. This is a good method…”
Huo Liuxing gripped both her hands: “Lingzhen.”
Shen Lingzhen kept laughing.
Huo Liuxing gave everyone around them a look.
Yu Wanjiang led people out.
Only then did he stand and embrace her: “Be good. Cry it out. Be good.”
Shen Lingzhen shook her head with a smile: “I do miss home a bit. This is a good thing. Why should I cry? But Grandmother is too mischievous, playing such a big joke and scaring me…”
“No one would dare joke about such a thing.” Huo Liuxing held her tightly. “Grandmother is already gone. Be good—can you cry it out?”
Shen Lingzhen still wouldn’t shed tears: “I won’t cry. Let me go. You’re hurting me.”
Huo Liuxing released her, frowning: “The vigil at Baoci Palace lasts forty-nine days. If you return now, you should still be in time to see her one last time. Shall I prepare a carriage and horses for you?”
Shen Lingzhen looked at him woodenly, then suddenly stepped back two paces: “No, I suddenly don’t want to go back. You don’t need to prepare a carriage for me… Didn’t we just say we’d go distribute porridge? I’ll go with Shuyi to distribute porridge.”
She turned to leave but Huo Liuxing pulled her back: “Didn’t you just say the Empress Dowager promised to find a way to bring you back to Bianjing? She doesn’t truly hope you’ll see her off on her final journey—she’s giving you an opportunity to leave the Huo mansion and return home with good reason. At her final moment, she still remembered her promise to you. Don’t let her down.”
Shen Lingzhen’s smile faded, and in an instant, all light vanished from her eyes.
Huo Liuxing closed his eyes and called out: “Jingmo, go prepare carriages, horses, and personnel. Bailu, pack luggage. Jianjia, take the young madam back to her room.”
——
The Huo mansion quickly sprang into action.
Shen Lingzhen watched this bustling scene, sitting dazed in her room as if her soul had left her body, never coming to her senses. Not until noon, when Jianjia and Bailu supported her on either side and led her out the mansion gate, did she finally react: “We’re returning to Bianjing?”
“Yes, young madam. Please accept our condolences.”
Shen Lingzhen looked back at the Huo mansion’s gate plaque in a daze: “What about my husband?”
Jianjia showed a difficult expression and quietly reminded her: “The young master’s legs…”
Shen Lingzhen nodded slowly.
With his current situation, Huo Liuxing couldn’t possibly walk into a trap by accompanying her to the capital.
She stood hesitating in place, her gaze empty as she said: “Then let me go bid him farewell?”
While she hesitated, Kongqing came chasing out from the mansion with a letter, saying to Shen Lingzhen: “Young madam, my lord says you needn’t specially go bid him farewell. Whatever you want to say, if there’s an opportunity in the future, you can say it then. If there’s no opportunity…” He smiled and handed her the envelope with its back side up. “Here’s a letter that my lord just hurriedly wrote. You must keep it safe. My lord says if you weren’t happy at the Huo mansion, and after you reach Bianjing, if you feel your family there treats you well and you don’t want to return, then open this letter.”
Shen Lingzhen was taken aback. With surprise and uncertainty, she turned the envelope over to the front and saw the three words “Divorce Document.” Her eyes widened and she hastily tried to return this scalding letter.
Kongqing pushed the letter back to her: “Young madam, the border war will likely break out soon. When that time comes, with flames of war everywhere, people like drifting duckweed and grass, life and death uncertain—if my lord should meet with misfortune, having this letter will give you a good landing for the rest of your life, won’t it? In any case, it’s good to be prepared. If you don’t need it, just treat it as if it never existed.”
Shen Lingzhen’s throat tightened as she lowered her head and gripped the letter tightly.
——
When Kongqing was delivering the letter, in the study, Jingmo was asking Huo Liuxing in surprise: “The young madam is only going to Bianjing for the funeral. She didn’t say she’s not coming back. Why are you…”
Huo Liuxing smiled faintly: “Since she already knows the truth, how could the Grand Princess not feel heartache for her current situation at the Huo mansion? This time, she will certainly use guarding the Empress Dowager’s tomb as a reason to keep her in Bianjing.”
Though manipulated, Huo Liuxing had to admit that the Grand Princess had actually been right all along.
Shen Lingzhen, after learning the truth, was humble and in a weak position. As long as she remained in the Huo mansion even one day, she could never raise her head again.
That innocent and vibrant young girl was something the Huo family of Qingyang had no way to bring back. To make her smile again, only letting her return to Bianjing would work.
“Then this divorce document of yours?”
“She won’t open it.” Huo Liuxing said with certainty.
This divorce document was just a ploy of feigning retreat to advance.
With mountains towering and roads winding far, there must be something that could make her constantly remember him and think of him while in Bianjing.
He would eventually go to Bianjing—let her wait obediently for him there.
Jingmo understood: “You deliberately had Kongqing say those words… My lord is brilliant, a master strategist.”
His words had barely fallen when Kongqing walked in hurriedly carrying a bundle: “My lord, there’s one matter where your brilliant strategy may have failed.”
Huo Liuxing looked up: “Didn’t I tell you to deliver the letter? What’s this?”
“The letter has been given to the young madam. She accepted it and departed. This was just sent by subordinates—items retrieved from the Duke’s mansion in Bianjing. Didn’t you previously send people to fetch the young madam’s benefactor’s handkerchief and cloak? My lord, look at this handkerchief and you’ll know what miscalculation means.”
Huo Liuxing furrowed his brow, immediately reached out to take it, and unfolded the handkerchief. His head shot up abruptly.
Jingmo’s jaw also dropped dramatically.
The young madam had said the inscription on the handkerchief didn’t match my lord’s handwriting. But this handwriting was clearly my lord’s.
Except what the young madam had seen before was my lord’s public handwriting, while the handkerchief bore my lord’s private handwriting used for secret correspondence.
Very few people in the world even knew of this handwriting.
“Who could possibly imitate my lord’s handwriting so perfectly? This is absolutely… absolutely impossible!” Jingmo stared wide-eyed at Kongqing, but looking down, he saw a drop of moisture suddenly spread across the handkerchief.
The two looked at Huo Liuxing as if seeing a ghost: “My lord, why are you crying?”
Huo Liuxing was startled, as if he himself hadn’t noticed. Reminded by the two, he raised his hand in surprise to touch his moistened eyes.
He stared down blankly at this sky-blue handkerchief.
He didn’t know.
He didn’t know either.
It was just that when he saw this handkerchief, suddenly this happened.