Before their daughter entered, he’d said to Lady Pu:
With that daughter’s temper, the harder you are, the harder she is. Only by continuously showing softness and weakness can you pierce her heart.
He’d predicted part of it correctly.
After Lady Pu finished speaking, their daughter stiffened for a moment, then suddenly knelt and kowtowed three times to Lady Pu.
Lady Pu covered her mouth and turned to lie down facing the interior of the bed.
After kowtowing, their daughter turned and left. Reaching the doorway, she looked back once more at the person curled under the bedding. Her stubborn tears finally fell.
She’d cried very little since childhood. After age ten, not a single tear would drop. Even with matters of utmost importance, at most she’d furrow her brow.
Even her four brothers said this girl was cold in feelings and blood.
Ultimately, mother and daughter were connected at heart. Shen Wei looked at that string of tears, secretly celebrating inwardly.
Next he escorted her out of the residence. Father and daughter walked side by side outward.
Silent all the way.
Reaching the second gate, she stopped and asked: “Father, is the Shen family’s glory and wealth really so important to you?”
“Child.”
Shen Wei said darkly: “Father is already someone with yellow earth buried to his chest. Father has no other hopes, only hoping you and your brothers all live well.”
She stared at him fixedly for a long time, then suddenly smiled.
“Speak. What do you want me to do?”
Shen Wei let out a long breath of relief and quickly said: “That person will come find you. Just listen to his words.”
“I’ll wait for him to find me.”
After speaking, she lifted her robe and knelt, kowtowing three solid times to Shen Wei.
Shen Wei was both delighted and shocked.
Delighted that their daughter had finally agreed.
Shocked that she kowtowed three times to her mother, then kowtowed three times to him—did this mean…
She rose from the ground, a bit of cold light in her eyes.
“Father.”
She called lowly: “Your and Mother’s grace of giving birth, grace of raising me—I can only repay to this extent. Your daughter is leaving.”
Shen Wei stared blankly at her retreating back, his heart in great pain. He chased forward several steps, shouting loudly:
“Child, come back…”
She didn’t turn her head, didn’t even pause her footsteps, quickly disappearing into the night.
Shen Wei’s eyes welled with tears again.
Before his eyes seemed to appear his daughter’s back again—so frail, so resolute, and so… sorrowful.
In the room, silence fell again.
At this point, the truth surfaced.
A tender scheme of self-inflicted injury had finally forced Shen Duruo to submit obediently.
Afterward, Prince Zhao’s people found her. She steeled herself and committed this deed that violated her conscience. Because of her, the Crown Prince’s residence was completely destroyed.
Yan Sanhe’s heart felt blocked.
“Do you know what kind of deed Prince Zhao had her do?”
Shen Wei was overcome with sorrow. “I didn’t know at first. It was later… after the incident occurred that I vaguely guessed a bit.”
“Guessed what?”
“Miss Yan, stop asking. It’s a capital offense!”
“So she survived afterward… did you go beg that person?”
Shen Wei wiped tears and shook his head. “I begged Her Majesty the Empress.”
This old thing was truly clever!
Begging the emperor—sovereign and subject face to face. You know my secret, I know your secret. To avoid future troubles, the emperor would inevitably develop murderous intent.
Begging the empress was different.
The empress managed the inner palace and fundamentally wouldn’t know what schemes men laid to ascend the throne.
When Shen Wei pleaded, naturally he couldn’t mention his daughter acting as an insider. He only begged the empress to spare his young daughter’s life for the sake of past thin affection.
The empress and her son had both been saved by Shen Wei.
For this alone, the empress would definitely help him plead.
The reason the emperor didn’t kill Shen Duruo roughly had three reasons:
First, the empress’s plea.
Second, Shen Duruo was a woman who couldn’t stir up great waves.
Third, the Shen family was still in the capital. Even for her parents and brothers’ sake, Shen Duruo knew to keep quiet.
This was the complete truth of how Shen Duruo survived.
“After Shen Duruo came out, did she come bid farewell to you two elders?” Yan Sanhe asked.
“No.”
Shen Wei said sadly: “We didn’t even know she’d been released. By the time we knew, she’d already disappeared without a trace.”
Truly clever.
Bidding farewell to no one, leaving the capital silently—she preserved both herself and the Shen family.
“The rumor outside that Shen Duruo did something wrong and you expelled her from the Shen residence—did you deliberately spread this rumor?”
This deduction was completely unexpected. The three people in the room all froze slightly.
Shen Wei suddenly raised his head, his face full of shock.
Yan Sanhe’s eyes flashed with mockery.
“If you didn’t say this, how could the Shen family demonstrate its innocence? How could your four sons rise step by step in glory and wealth?”
Shen Wei sat motionless. On his body was the most luxurious and proper brocade robe. Only beneath the brocade was a completely lifeless dried corpse with merely one breath left, barely surviving.
After a long while, he beat his thighs, weeping sadly: “Miss Yan, what choice did I have?”
“You had one.”
Yan Sanhe stared at him directly.
“She wandered outside for many years. After death, her soul returned to her homeland. If you’d still remembered even the slightest bit of father-daughter affection, you wouldn’t have let your four sons prevent her coffin from entering. You are the family head.”
“I…”
Shen Wei covered his face and wept.
“Your Shen family’s glory and wealth was exchanged for by most of her life spent away from home, exchanged for by her dying in a foreign land. In the end, you couldn’t even tolerate her coffin…”
Yan Sanhe said in an extremely cold voice: “That question Shen Duruo asked was so right: Father, am I still your daughter?”
“Wu wu…”
An elderly person’s crying was the most heart-wrenching.
Unfortunately, not one of the four people in the room had half a point of sympathy for him.
Young Master Pei was even grinding his teeth in anger.
Originally he’d thought Shen Duruo had committed some unconscionable deed, bore deep sins, so the four Shen brothers wouldn’t let her coffin enter.
How could he have imagined…
The truth was like this.
These people drank Shen Duruo’s blood, ate Shen Duruo’s flesh, and in the end… still wounded her heart.
Young Master Pei looked at Shen Wei in the grand master’s chair and finally understood why Yan Sanhe so hated those who constantly regretted their actions.
Because these people’s regret was merely a momentary awakening of conscience.
But for people like Shen Duruo, regret was day and night, every moment, and until death brought no release.
So-called high virtue and respect—pfft!
Hoping and wishing for a daughter—pfft, pfft, pfft!
Xie Zhifei’s gaze turned left, seeing Mingting’s face full of anger. His gaze turned right—Yan Sanhe’s chest was heaving.
Well, both were angered!
He waited until both had calmed somewhat before speaking: “Yan Sanhe, is there anything else to ask?”
“No more.”
Yan Sanhe stood, walked before Shen Wei, and instead of anger, smiled. “There’s one matter I want to tell you—something those common people who carried her coffin back to the capital said.”
Shen Wei raised his face.
“Someone asked Shen Duruo why a woman would leave home to practice itinerant medicine. She said she bore deep sins and wanted to atone.”
Yan Sanhe’s smile deepened. “What I want to say is: the one who truly bears deep sins is you. The one who should atone is also you.”
She paused.
“Old Imperial Physician, in midnight dreams, don’t you have nightmares? Aren’t you afraid of going to hell after death? Don’t forget—three feet above your head, the gods are watching!”
Shen Wei let out a wail. His eyes rolled upward and he fainted in fright.
Yan Sanhe didn’t even glance at him, turned and walked straight out.
Her heart felt a rush of exhilarating satisfaction.
For Shen Duruo!