From the time Xi’er could remember, he had always known he was an orphan, raised by the Elder of Huguo Temple. But in his dreams, there often appeared a young woman. She was so beautiful, and the way she looked at him was filled with boundless tenderness and affection.

In his small heart, it was as though a voice had always been telling him that the young woman in his dreams was his mother. Someday, she would come for him and bring him back to her side.

His dream had finally come true. The mother he had seen in his dreams time and again had at last appeared before him. He was no longer an orphan. He had his own name, and the mother who loved him.

Xi’er knew that every child in the world had a mother and a father. His Sister A’Ru was the same.

Uncle was her father. Auntie was her mother.

Strangely, he had never once found himself wondering who his own father was, or where that person was now, or what he might be doing.

Until tonight, when this question had been put to him, from the mouth of the man standing before him.

This man seemed to blend into the surrounding darkness of the deep night. In the moment just now when their gazes had met, something had stirred quietly in Xi’er’s heart — a resistance — and this was entirely unlike what he had felt in the presence of the Prince Qi Young Lord or General Yuan.

And now, because of that single question, Xi’er was suddenly reminded.

A look of confusion gradually appeared in his eyes.

Yes — he was a child too. Other children had mothers and fathers. So then, who was Xi’er’s father?

He did not know. His mother had never mentioned it to him.

But that feeling of resistance in his heart made him unwilling to speak of such things with this person.

“You still haven’t told me who you are. This is my and Mother’s room!”

Xie Changgeng was startled. He looked at the child sitting up in bed, his whole face written with wariness, and pressed down the flicker of irritation that rose within him.

“My surname is Xie. My name is Xie Changgeng. Your mother — she is the woman I married.”

“Do you know what it means to marry her? It means she is mine!”

“Very well, I have answered your question. Now you answer mine!”

He stepped forward, walking toward the child.

But the child’s two small shoulders had suddenly gone rigid.

It seemed that the very moment he had spoken his name, the child had snapped his eyes wide open and was staring at him without blinking.

Then quickly, he sat up straight, closed his mouth, and said nothing more.

Xie Changgeng could see it clearly — in those eyes trained on him, beyond the thickening wariness, there seemed to be even a trace of anger.

His footsteps halted. He and the child on the bed stared each other down, the large eyes locked with the small.

He made a determined effort to search this face for any features that belonged to the child’s father.

The nose? The mouth? The chin?

The more Xie Changgeng looked, the more certain he became that every feature seemed to match.

That Yuan fellow. He grew more and more convinced of it.

And then he thought again of what the Lian City Magistrate had said just now. All these days, the Yuan fellow had been with her, traveling side by side. Right now, in some distant cave-settlement deep in the night, that man and woman were — who knew what they were up to.

His hand slowly tightened into a fist.

“Xi’er — has your mother ever told you who your father is?”

He put the question a second time, in the most measured tone he could manage — one that would not frighten the child.

But the only reply was silence.

The child’s lips pressed themselves together ever more tightly.

Whatever little patience Xie Changgeng still had for this child finally ran completely dry.

“Speak!”

His eyelid twitched. He leaned down, his face close to the child’s on the bed, and spoke through gritted teeth.

“You bullied my mother! You are a bad person! I will not say a single word to you!”

Xi’er’s face flushed scarlet. He finally burst out at him, then once more pressed his lips firmly shut.

Xie Changgeng, in his astonishment, heard rapid footsteps from behind.

Nanny Mu could bear it no longer. She burst in and said, “My lord, Xi’er is small — he does not know how to speak with care. Please do not take offense. The young master is an orphan who lost both parents from a very young age. He was sent by the princess early this year. The princess happened to meet this child and, feeling a connection with him, took him in as her adopted son to raise by her side. Everyone in Changsha knows this.”

“The young master has no father. His only adoptive father — that is you, my lord.”

Xie Changgeng slowly straightened up and turned to look at Nanny Mu.

“I see.”

He gave a slight nod. His expression had become entirely indifferent.

“When she returns, tell her to come find me at the guesthouse.”

He did not look at Xi’er again. His words finished, he turned and walked out.

……

Xie Changgeng had come suddenly and left just as quickly, but the unsettled feeling left behind in Nanny Mu was not so quickly dispelled. She had no idea what had brought him all this way from Hexi to this place, nor what it meant for the princess.

The moment Xie Changgeng was gone, she immediately sent someone out of the city in the middle of the night to carry word to the Sanmiao territories. When the messenger had left, she went back inside the room to find Xi’er still sitting on his bed, refusing to sleep. She went to him and tried to comfort him.

“Nanny Mu, is he really my adoptive father?”

He tilted his head back slowly and asked.

“The princess is your mother, and Commissioner Xie and the princess are husband and wife — so naturally he is your adoptive father.”

“Nanny Mu, do you know why he came here? Is he going to take Mother away, so I can never see her again?”

Nanny Mu looked at the worry on his face and let out a silent sigh. She coaxed him down onto the pillow and said, “He is a very high-ranking official. He must have come here for something important. Xi’er, go to sleep. When you wake up, the princess will have returned, and everything will be fine.”

Xi’er fell silent, staring blankly ahead. But he was still young, and though he had things on his mind, drowsiness came for him all the same. His eyelids drooped gradually, and he drifted back to sleep.

The following evening, Mu Fulan came hurrying back from Liyang to Lian City. Without pausing even to catch her breath, she went straight to the guesthouse to find Xie Changgeng.

The guesthouse in Lian City had long since fallen into disrepair, with no renovations in many years. A single minor official remained to keep watch over it. The night before, when Xie Changgeng arrived, the official had been filled with anxious deference and had tidied up a few rooms that were just barely habitable, for Xie Changgeng and his attendants to lodge in. Now, seeing the princess arrive, he quickly led the way, bringing her to a courtyard, then withdrew with a bow.

Mu Fulan came to the door, knocked twice, and then pushed it open.

She saw a man standing by the window, dressed in a blue robe with a broad sash, his back to her, composed and unhurried, gazing at the distant sunset as though completely absorbed in it — so absorbed that even her entrance had gone unnoticed, his figure remaining perfectly still.

Mu Fulan walked to a point behind him and said, “I received word that you had come here, and returned at once. What did you come to find me for?”

Xie Changgeng turned around slowly.

Two cold, piercing eyes fell upon her face — a face he had not seen in nearly half a year.

“Mu Fulan, this child Xi’er — he is your illegitimate son, is he not?”

He opened with this, blunt and unsparing.

“Last year at the end of the year, when you were in the capital, I had already agreed to give you a letter of release. It was you who tore it up yourself, unwilling to separate. You cannot have forgotten that.”

“In order to get you out of the capital, I went to extraordinary lengths before the Empress Dowager — it was only by confirming the reality of our marriage that I managed it. And yet, how long has it been since then? You have returned to Changsha, and now you brazenly parade around with your illegitimate child and your lover in broad daylight, humiliating me to this degree!”

“Mu Fulan, who do you think I, Xie Changgeng, am? What is it you are trying to do to me?”

The setting sun had gilded his face into a mask of gold — like a false face, showing nothing. Only the two eyes fixed upon her, filling slowly with malice.

“If you do not give me a clear account of this matter today, I have ways enough to make you understand what it means to regret what cannot be undone.”