Faced with Ziqing’s sharp demand, the man paid it no mind at all, staring wide-eyed at Ziqing — or rather, to be precise, staring fixedly at Ziqing’s cheek!

Very quickly, Ziqing sensed something was wrong and stepped back warily. Jun Beiyue and Baili Weisheng both moved in at the same time.

Seeing the man’s deeply emotional expression, they, too, were left puzzled.

Amid the confusion, Jun Beiyue felt something else even more strongly — displeasure. Whoever this man was, he thoroughly disliked anyone staring at Ziqing like this.

Jun Beiyue placed a hand firmly on the man’s shoulder, saying coldly, “Come. Up you go.”

But who could have known, the man offered not the slightest resistance, murmuring instead, “Girl, you… you… you’re a Lonely Isle orphan?”

The moment he said this, Jun Beiyue’s hand froze instantly in place, while Ziqing and Baili Weisheng were both struck with shock, never having expected the man would ask such a question at all!

“Just who exactly are you? How do you know that?” Ziqing exclaimed, her emotions surging.

To recognize her as being from the Lonely Isle so easily — just from her face alone?

How could that be?

This man… who was he?

But the man didn’t answer, instead reaching forward abruptly to touch Ziqing’s face. Jun Beiyue immediately seized his arm, demanding coldly, “Who exactly are you?”

Still, the man didn’t answer, staring at Ziqing in a dazed trance. Then, all at once, his eyes welled up with tears. “Girl, let me see your face — there’s a human-skin mask covering your cheekbone, isn’t there? And beneath it, a poison scar, isn’t there?”

A human-skin mask!

A poison scar!

He had actually seen through it!

Back when she’d been pregnant with Xiong Bao, deep in the Poison Beast World, Ziqing’s poison scar had vanished entirely. She had assumed it was simply because her constitution had been cultivated into a human Gu, and so the scar had disappeared.

But after Xiong Bao was born, she’d discovered the poison scar gradually reappearing on her face, bit by bit!

And it remained there to this day, hidden beneath the human-skin mask — that same complete poison scar.

She had gradually stopped thinking much about it, never dwelling on it, never mentioning it to anyone.

She never expected that today, a complete stranger would recognize it at a single glance!

“Just who exactly are you! Answer me!” Ziqing said urgently, an inexplicable, indescribable feeling stirring within her as she looked at this man with bloodshot, tear-filled eyes — a feeling that left her deeply unsettled.

But the man seemed even more anxious than she was, suddenly demanding sharply, “Let me see! Right now!”

Strangely enough, Ziqing found herself obeying without protest, slowly lifting the human-skin mask from her cheekbone, revealing the totem-shaped poison scar beneath, little by little.

Jun Beiyue and Baili Weisheng exchanged a glance, both wearing complicated expressions.

The man, meanwhile, shook his head over and over in visible agitation, too choked with emotion to speak, tears welling up and brimming in his eyes. “Girl… you… your mother… could your mother be… could she be the woman famous throughout the capital of Great Zhou, Mu Ci?”

Ziqing froze. In that instant, she felt as though her heart had suddenly turned into fragile, brittle glass — as though her entire being had turned to glass, so delicate that she didn’t even dare breathe too hard, terrified that the slightest misstep might shatter her heart, shatter herself, into pieces.

Sir… just who exactly are you?

Why could you recognize me at a single glance? Why do you know my mother’s name?

Ziqing didn’t dare think about it, truly didn’t dare, terrified of guessing wrong, of being disappointed, of her heart shattering like glass.

And yet, she couldn’t stop herself, couldn’t help but wonder… Sir, could you possibly be… the family I’ve been searching so desperately for, all this time?

Ziqing didn’t dare voice the question aloud, but Jun Beiyue and Baili Weisheng were both growing anxious.

“Elder, you… you are…”

“Elder, please, say something!”

…

But the man insisted on questioning Ziqing instead. “Girl, answer me — is your mother Mu Ci?”

Ziqing immediately nodded, without the slightest hesitation, nodding firmly and emphatically. “Yes! My mother is Mu Ci — the most celebrated musician of Great Zhou’s Music Pavilion, Mu Ci, whose beauty could topple kingdoms, Mu Ci, the first zither courtesan in all of Great Zhou to marry into a marquis’s household!”

Clear tears finally began to slowly slide down from the corners of the man’s weathered, time-worn eyes, and yet he still stubbornly pressed on. “She… how is she doing now?”

The moment he asked this, Ziqing’s eyes instantly welled up with hot tears. She didn’t answer, only shaking her head over and over.

Now?

Her mother had no “now” left to speak of.

And in the past — in her memories — her mother’s life had not been good at all.

Born a zither courtesan, married into a prime minister’s marquis household — could such an existence ever truly last happily? Doted upon intensely for a while, then coldly cast aside for the rest of one’s life!

And once a man grows cold toward you, the other women in his life are certain to come knocking at your door.

“Before my mother passed, she told me — men in this world all love beauty, and are all fickle at heart. I was born ugly, and worse still, born a daughter of low status, a concubine’s child… beneath everyone. All she could give me was this — never tear away the thin membrane covering my face.” Ziqing’s voice broke, choked with sobs, unable to continue.

Jun Beiyue said nothing, simply wrapping his arms around her silently from behind, and only then did her trembling finally stop.

But the man was struck with shock, crying out in alarm, “Mu Ci, she… she…”

“She passed away from illness. She died over ten years ago now,” Ziqing said, her voice breaking.

The man froze completely. Two lines of clear tears streamed down his face, and suddenly he threw his head back and let out a wail of anguished grief, “AHHH… AHHH… AHHH…”

That roar went on and on, unending — a pain that no words could ever fully describe, heartrending beyond all measure.

“Mu Ci… Mu Ci… Mu Ci!”

He kept repeating that woman’s name over and over, part roar, part sob — and yet, even a grown man’s cries could never pierce through the passage of time, could never reach across those ten-some years that had already passed.

Mu Ci — she couldn’t hear him. She would never, ever hear him.

The man she had once loved with her entire life had finally called out to her, weeping as he cried her name — but she would never, ever hear it.

There was no need to ask who he was any longer.

Only a parent, or a beloved, could ever cry out someone’s name with such raw, soul-tearing anguish.

He was Mu Ci’s beloved — he had to be.

“Jue Mingzi…” Jun Beiyue said quietly. All this time, not just him, but even Xuanyuan Lige and Consort Yi and the others, everyone had been investigating Mu Ci’s identity — never once realizing that Mu Ci had, in fact, simply been an exceptionally gifted musician. It was Jue Mingzi who had truly been the Lonely Isle orphan!

And what’s more, he carried the direct royal bloodline of the Lonely Isle itself!

Everything about Qinse Valley, every piece of the past the two Qinse Elders knew, everything Xuanyuan Lige had uncovered in his investigations — all of it had been deliberately obscuring the truth from everyone!

Everyone said that Mu Ci had been rescued by Jue Mingzi at Qinse Sea Valley, and had brought with her the zithers Wuzheng and Xuezheng — but surely, these two instruments, along with the Song of Parting Sorrow itself, had originally belonged to Jue Mingzi all along!

Everyone said Jue Mingzi had been so devoted to the art of medicine that he had neglected Mu Ci, causing her to eventually leave Qinse Sea Valley — but the truth, surely, was not that at all!

Everyone said that Jue Mingzi had only given up medicine years after Mu Ci left, wandering the Longyuan continent searching for her, unable to find any trace of her, before finally returning alone to Liuxian Island, where he eventually died of a broken heart — but surely, none of that was true either!

The truth was known only to this grief-stricken man standing before them now.

But one thing was certain: this man had shifted an entire secret, an entire burden of responsibility that should have rightfully been his own, onto Mu Ci instead!

Everyone had been investigating Mu Ci, while he himself had simply hidden away here!

Why? Why would he do such a thing?

Finally, Ziqing spoke up, her voice trembling. “You are the true Lonely Isle orphan — why did you throw the entire burden onto my mother’s shoulders instead? The Song of Parting Sorrow, Wuzheng, Xuezheng — they were all yours! You’re the one who gave them to Xuanyuan Lige!”