“What? She’s missing!”
Deep in the night, Old Master Sheng’s shocked voice rang out from within the Nanzhao camp.
A few days after the withdrawal, the Beast Clan forces had largely dispersed, and Old Master Sheng had been traveling back to the royal capital together with the King of Nanzhao. But before they’d even reached the capital, word had already arrived from the Sheng estate—Xiaosheng was missing!
“Could she have gone to Da Zhou?” Old Master Sheng asked urgently, the unease plain on his face. In truth, he knew perfectly well that, given Baili Xiaosheng’s temperament, she wouldn’t have gone back to Da Zhou at a time like this—even if she meant to go eventually, she’d have waited until the King of Nanzhao had made his public apology, until Da Zhou’s forces had withdrawn.
And yet, even knowing this, Old Master Sheng still clung to a shred of hope.
“No, sir. Madam said that morning, the young mistress told her she planned to go back once the war ended, saying something about how her master hadn’t come to find her, and she wasn’t happy about it.” the servant answered honestly.
“Once the war ended?” Old Master Sheng was startled.
The servant looked helpless. “Master, in truth… the young mistress has actually been missing for seven or eight days now. Madam was afraid you’d…”
“Recklessness!” Old Master Sheng burst out in fury.
If his daughter had been missing for seven or eight days, that meant she’d disappeared right in the middle of the fierce fighting between Da Zhou and Nanzhao—which meant there was even less chance she’d gone to Da Zhou to find Han Ziqing and the others.
Xiaosheng, young as she was, always acted with a clear sense of judgment—there was no way she’d have left without a word to anyone.
Without a doubt, that girl had run into trouble!
“Madam said… Madam said…” the servant stammered, not daring to finish.
“Out with it! Prepare the carriage at once—this old man is heading back tonight!” Old Master Sheng snapped, setting aside every other concern to go request an audience with the King of Nanzhao at once.
Though the Nanzhao royal family still maintained its outward dignity, its reputation had been thoroughly damaged, its standing among Nanzhao’s clans already precarious—how could they possibly give Old Master Sheng any trouble now?
Perhaps Old Master Sheng harbored no thoughts of rebellion, but plenty within the Beast Clan certainly did. The King of Nanzhao could barely keep the Sheng family placated as it was, and would hardly dare give him any trouble—he immediately dispatched an escort to see him home.
Traveling through the night, Old Master Sheng finally made it back to the Sheng estate on the evening of the third day. Before he’d even reached the gate, Madam Sheng and the others had already come out to meet him.
Just as Old Master Sheng was about to ask, a single look from Madam Sheng made him swallow the words back down.
“Father, you’re back so soon? Why didn’t you go on to the capital?”
“Father, will the king really apologize publicly? Wouldn’t that be a huge blow to the royal family’s dignity?”
“Father, is the lonely island still findable?”
“Master, you must be exhausted from the journey!”
…
His sons, daughters, and disciples all chimed in at once, clearly having no idea that Baili Xiaosheng was missing, no idea that Old Master Sheng had come back early specifically because of her. Only Sheng Zimo stood silently apart from the crowd, watching his father from a distance, his expression quiet, as though something weighed on his mind.
Old Master Sheng was ushered inside, surrounded by the crowd. The eldest and second sons had prepared a welcome-home banquet, but with his mind already in turmoil, being fussed over by everyone and then confronted with a table piled high with food and wine only made him more irritable.
Just as he was about to lose his temper, Madam Sheng thankfully grabbed his hand in time, holding him back.
She smoothed things over. “All right, all right, your father’s exhausted from the journey and needs to rest. Whatever needs saying can wait until tomorrow.”
“Mother, but the welcome banquet…” the eldest son said in a low voice.
“Enough. Rein it in—it’s not as though we’ve come home victorious from battle.” Madam Sheng said, equally low, and the eldest son fell silent at that.
After all this fuss, Old Master Sheng’s displeasure was written plainly across his face. No one there was a fool, and most could sense something was amiss, but no one dared say more, and they all took their leave.
Once Madam Sheng and Old Master Sheng were alone in their room, he could hold back no longer, snapping furiously, “What exactly is going on? Don’t you dare tell me it’s another inside traitor!”
That Madam Sheng hadn’t made Baili Xiaosheng’s disappearance public meant she surely had her reasons for holding back.
Madam Sheng had been under enormous pressure these past few days, blaming herself constantly, and at her husband’s outburst, tears began quietly falling.
“All right, all right, this isn’t the time for crying. What exactly happened? When did she disappear, how did it happen, where have you searched—just tell me!” Old Master Sheng said, forcing down his anger, asking patiently.
But the moment he asked, Madam Sheng couldn’t help but break into sobs. “My lord… my lord, tell me… could it be like it was back then…”
At those words, Old Master Sheng froze.
“My lord, could our daughter end up like back then… never to be found again?” Madam Sheng choked out, barely able to speak. She’d searched everywhere she could think of, even secretly interrogated no small number of people, but after seven or eight days of searching, there wasn’t a single word, not a single clue to be found.
A person, simply vanished into thin air.
Old Master Sheng collapsed onto the couch, staring blankly at the floor, his eyes hollow, unfocused.
“My lord, that morning, Xiaosheng told me quite earnestly that she wouldn’t go to Da Zhou at a time like this… my lord, that girl… she was always so sensible!”
At this, Madam Sheng choked up again. “She said she wouldn’t go, said she’d wait until the war was over. She even made a bet with me, said Da Zhou would surrender soon enough—said her master had predicted as much.”
“That morning, she sat with me in my room for a good while, keeping me company, said that once she found her master, she’d come back and take me to get treated for my illness, and said…”
As Madam Sheng spoke, her voice finally broke entirely, unable to continue, one hand pressed to her chest, breath coming in ragged gasps—her frail, sickly body simply couldn’t bear such a heavy blow.
Beside her, Old Master Sheng looked as though his very soul had been drained from him, head bowed, utterly lifeless.
After a long, long while, he suddenly lifted his head sharply. “It must be an inside traitor!”
But just then, he realized his wife had fallen ill, collapsing beside him, her face ashen, her breath faint and thin.
“Wife!” Old Master Sheng cried out in alarm, hurriedly summoning a physician, but Madam Sheng, once she’d fainted, never woke again.
On the third day, word arrived from the capital—the King of Nanzhao was convening a Hundred Clans Assembly, and specifically requested Old Master Sheng’s attendance.
The so-called Hundred Clans Assembly was a gathering attended by the chiefs of every clan across Nanzhao, great and small.
Clearly, the King of Nanzhao, unable to decide for himself, no longer daring to decide alone, whether to publicly reveal the truth of the lonely island and apologize before Da Zhou’s forces withdrew, had decided to turn to the assembled clans for guidance instead!
This move on the King of Nanzhao’s part was, in truth, a shrewd one—with the royal family’s credibility hanging by a thread, convening the Hundred Clans Assembly would both help rally support and prevent the various clans from using this affair as an excuse to rise up in rebellion.
These past few days, Old Master Sheng had moved like a man who’d lost his own soul, and upon receiving this news, he showed no reaction at all, simply sitting numbly at his wife’s bedside.
Though Madam Sheng had put word out early on that Baili Xiaosheng was in secluded cultivation, rumors had already begun swirling throughout the entire Sheng household.
Some said Baili Xiaosheng had colluded with the enemy; some said she’d enraged Madam Sheng into her fainting spell; others said she’d stolen the Sheng family’s phoenix-tail sheng and fled in guilt. In short, beneath its calm surface, the Sheng family had already begun scheming amongst itself, each according to their own designs.
“Father, word from the capital is urging you to hurry.” Sheng Zimo said in a low voice. He was the only one who knew about Baili Xiaosheng’s disappearance.
Old Master Sheng didn’t move, silently watching over his wife.
“Father, there’s no shortage of rumors circulating through the estate. If you keep on like this, I’m afraid people’s hearts will start to waver…”
Before Sheng Zimo could finish, Old Master Sheng cut him off furiously, “Tell them to shut their mouths! Every last one of them scheming, every last one of them coveting the position of family head, coveting the phoenix-tail sheng. Tell them, if they think they have what it takes, let them prove it—this old man will step aside for them right now!”