Feng Jiu had been somewhat distracted for the entire morning, and eventually found herself unable to carry on with her work in the consultation room. She left early.

In the rear courtyard, Xue Gu had just returned with a fresh batch of medicinal herbs. After hearing about Emperor Ji from Xiao Yingtao, she immediately set out to find Feng Jiu.

As it happened, Feng Jiu returned on her own.

That Emperor Ji had been able to leave unharmed meant Feng Jiu had not done anything to him during the consultation.

“Treating him must have weighed on your heart?” Xue Gu walked with Feng Jiu into the cool pavilion in front of the herb storage to sort through the medicinal plants, and asked.

“It did.” In front of Xue Gu, Feng Jiu had always been fairly open about her feelings — unless the matter involved Ninth Imperial Uncle.

“And yet you still treated him, same as any ordinary patient.” Even without having been there, Xue Gu could imagine exactly how she had conducted herself.

Feng Jiu said nothing. Xue Gu knew her guess was almost certainly right.

She let out a quiet sigh: “You… are the same as she was back then — full of ardor and conviction. Though you… are gentler than she was, and better at holding yourself back.”

Feng Jiu fixed her gaze on Xue Gu’s face. In Xue Gu’s eyes lay an endless longing — directed, of course, at the “she” she had spoken of.

There was a question that had been hidden in Feng Jiu’s heart for a long time. Even half a year ago, she had begun to turn it over in her mind.

She had long suspected that Xue Gu must once have followed someone. She was accustomed to attending to her, accustomed to protecting her — yet Feng Jiu had always felt that Xue Gu saw her only as the shadow of someone else.

And so that loyalty, that meticulous care, that protection — all of it had originally been meant for that other person.

“Xue Gu, were you once one of my mother’s people?” This question should have been asked half a year ago. That she had held it in until now said much about Feng Jiu’s capacity for patience.

Xue Gu’s body gave a faint tremble. So many years had passed since anyone had spoken that name in her presence.

Long Feiyan — Feng Jiu’er’s birth mother. Her former mistress.

She had always known it!

“In the past, I was the vanguard general of the Dragon Army — belonging to your mother’s forces. I… was your mother’s lead vanguard commander.”

She had always known it!

She had always known that everything Xue Gu felt for her was because she had an extraordinary mother.

Her birth mother — Long Feiyan!

But hearing it said aloud by Xue Gu herself, Feng Jiu’s heart still could not help but tremble.

Toward her birth mother Long Feiyan, she harbored a deep and inexplicable reverence — her character, her conduct, her style on the battlefield — all of it was something to aspire to.

To now meet the lead vanguard commander who had once charged into battle and faced death alongside Long Feiyan — the excitement stirring in her heart, the turbulent surge of feeling, was beyond any words.

Even having long suspected it, nothing could match even one ten-thousandth of how moving it was to hear Xue Gu say it aloud. It was genuinely overwhelming.

“My mother…” Though she knew some things, once said aloud, would only bring despair — the final battle of Long Feiyan had yet to find anyone who had witnessed it with their own eyes.

So many questions, so many thoughts, so many… hopes. Yet the Battle of Broken Wolf Mountain had wiped out the entire Dragon Army. Who was left to ask?

Now Xue Gu was saying she had been Long Feiyan’s lead vanguard commander. If nothing had gone wrong, surely the vanguard commander would have marched ahead of General Long with every campaign?

Then, at the Battle of Broken Wolf Mountain, Xue Gu had…

“I was there.” Xue Gu understood what Feng Jiu was wondering.

“I do not know where the General was in the end… In that battle, the General took ten soldiers and set out to break through the encirclement for the rest of us. I, the vanguard commander, was left behind to lead the remaining soldiers in covering the retreat — because I had been wounded at the time.”

Though Xue Gu’s face showed no particular expression as she spoke of it now, Feng Jiu could see clearly that her fists were clenched tight — she was forcing down the pain.

She must have been gravely wounded back then. Otherwise, with her temperament and her devotion to Long Feiyan, she would never have remained behind and allowed Long Feiyan to break through with others.

“The General and the ten Dragon Army soldiers went and never returned. Those of us who were left fought to the death…”

Xue Gu did not continue. The circumstances at the time were, in truth, not very different from what had later been passed down — the gap was not large.

“When I came to, the enemy troops had already withdrawn. Smoke and fire rose on all sides, and all the soldiers had fallen. I searched the area around me, but found no trace of the General’s remains. And yet, so many of the soldiers’ bodies… were too dreadful to look upon.”

Feng Jiu brought her hand to her lips and pressed down hard.

Her eyes reddened. Her heart ached. Yet she could not cry.

Her mother would surely not wish to see her cry. The daughter of Long Feiyan must not weep so weakly.

“In that battle, Nanmeng Rong held back the reinforcements and refused to deploy them. But what truly drove the Dragon Army into a dead end was a mysterious organization.”

“A mysterious organization?” Feng Jiu’s hand clenched tight. She stared at Xue Gu — this was something she had never heard anyone mention before.

Never had she heard anyone speak of a mysterious organization being involved in the Battle of Broken Wolf Mountain.

“Yes. An organization whose power came from no one knew where, and yet its influence was enormous.”

Xue Gu’s breathing grew heavy — there was hatred in it, yet because so many years had passed, what remained now was mostly helplessness.

“In truth, I was not living on Snow Lotus Mountain the entire time these past ten or so years. In the first few years, I was out searching constantly for any trace of General Long.”

“The General was the kind of person who loved and hated fiercely, and who never let a grudge go unanswered. If she were still alive, she would certainly have come back to take revenge on Nanmeng Rong and to hunt down the mysterious organization that had driven the Dragon Army to its ruin.”

“Yet all these years, there has not been a single word of news about the General. I fear… she is truly no longer in this world.”

Feng Jiu looked out at the vivid blue sky. Though she had long since come to accept this truth, every time someone spoke of it — every time — her heart ached.

“On my own, I had originally intended to watch over you as you grew up, then tell you about what happened back then. Yet that great fire burned you into such a state.”

“That fire…”

Feng Jiu murmured softly, and a scene seemed to surface hazily in her mind.

Flames blazing skyward. She lay on the ground, unable to breathe. Just as she believed she was about to die, a figure suddenly appeared in the sea of fire, drawing closer and closer…

But she could not make out who it was, and in the end she lost consciousness.

The events of those nearly ten years afterward — she could remember almost none of it.

Yet one question had always lived in her heart: why were her memories from before the age of six so vivid, as though she had truly lived through them herself?

And had she not only arrived in this world, only become Feng Jiu’er, roughly half a year ago?

Then why — even though her soul was not truly the daughter of Long Feiyan — did her heart insist that Long Feiyan was her birth mother, that she was the true Feng Jiu’er?

Feng Jiu’s thoughts were in disarray. Many things had remained beyond her grasp for a long time. But the identity of Feng Jiu’er — she had grown into it more earnestly with every passing day.

She was Feng Jiu’er. Long Feiyan was her birth mother.

Whether it was a soul transmigration or a body transmigration — this much was already decided.