Chapter Ninety-Four: The Truth Gradually Unveiled

"Do you recognize the calligraphy on this wall, Chief Clerk Chen?"

Princess Taiping’s voice was indifferent, yet laced with a chilling coldness. It did not startle Chen Zi’ang. He looked up silently at the four lines of verse on the wall, brimming with suppressed fury, and shook his head slowly.

"What?" Taiping pressed, her tone sharp. "You do not recognize it, Chief Clerk Chen?"

"How could you not!?"

She took a step closer.

"More than a decade ago, the talented scholar from Shu, Chen Zi’ang, was sworn brothers with Wu Minzhi, the Emperor’s greatest favorite. They were inseparable—who in the world did not know this? How could you possibly fail to recognize his handwriting?"

"..."

Chen Zi’ang laughed, a sound of bitter mockery.

"The Emperor’s greatest favorite, Wu Minzhi?"

"The Holy Empress has long since demoted him back to Helan Minzhi."

He stood with his hands behind his back, looking once more at the vengeful poem on the wall.

"Even if I recognized it, I could not admit it!"

"!!!"

Taiping let out a long, ragged breath.

"So, he truly is Brother Minzhi. And you, Chief Clerk Chen, intentionally lured me here."

"And what of it?" Chen Zi’ang retorted, pressing her. "Do you intend to report him, Your Highness?"

"Do you want the Holy Empress to have him dragged back and strangled somewhere along the road of his exile?"

"I..." Taiping faltered, her spirit instantly wilting. "I don't know."

"Ha." Chen Zi’ang sneered. "More than a decade has passed, yet you still remember his handwriting. It seems, Your Highness, that you have not forgotten the brother who treated you like his own kin."

"I... I don't know."

Taiping instinctively looked out the window, toward the ugly figure still pacing in front of the Wuning Gate. The past flooded back like a nightmare, scene by scene.

Over a decade ago, Taiping had been a girl of only ten or so. Although her father was on the throne and her mother held absolute power, she had been nothing more than a caged bird in the towering imperial city.

Back then, Helan Minzhi was the most handsome of all the imperial relatives—the most handsome in all of the Great Tang, and the most talented as well.

In his youth, he had entered the Hongwen Pavilion to compile the hundred volumes of the *Spring and Autumn Annals of the Thirty States*. His literary fame spread throughout the world, and every scholar in the capital envied his genius.

He was the one with the brightest future...

At twenty, he inherited the title of Duke of Zhou. Looking across the Great Tang, one could hardly find another duke so young.

More than that, he was the one who adored Taiping most, second only to her parents.

Taiping remembered well that when she was small, her brothers, Prince Xian and Prince Dan, would sneak out of the palace to play among the commoners, refusing to take her along.

Whenever she cried the hardest, it was always Brother Minzhi who would come to coax her and sneak her out of the palace. For this, her parents punished him often, sometimes even with the rod.

Later, when the Tibetan envoys threatened war and demanded that Taiping be sent away to marry into Tibet, it was Brother Minzhi who led a group of young nobles to storm the Tibetan relay station, beating the envoy half to death.

She still remembered him standing in the imperial court, debating the ministers and berating the envoys. His thunderous words still echoed in her mind today:

"The Great Tang is a land of splendor where nations pay homage! Why must we sacrifice the blood of the imperial house and the Emperor’s own daughter to trade for peace!?"

After that, the Tibetan envoys never again dared to speak of taking a Tang princess beyond the borders.

But now... but now...

Taiping gazed at the hunched, ugly man standing alone in the snow, unable to advance or retreat. She could not reconcile this figure with the dashing, proud, and brilliant Helan Minzhi of ten years ago.

She truly did not know how to face all of this.

Tears shimmered in her eyes. "How... how did he become like this?"

Chen Zi’ang walked up behind her and looked toward the ugly figure in the snow.

"If he hadn't become like this, how could he have lived until today?"

His expression was grave. "Your Highness is not unaware of the crimes the Holy Empress laid upon Brother Changzhu."

"Incest with his grandmother, Lady Rongguo; defiling Yang Youyi, the candidate for Crown Princess; embezzling the funeral funds granted for Lady Rongguo..."

"Oh, and let us not forget—there were your own attendants, Your Highness. Brother Changzhu was accused of losing his senses to lust and attempting to violate them."

"With so many heinous crimes, was there any other way for him to survive!?"

***

On the other side.

The Ugly Uncle hesitated for a long while before finally pushing open the door to Wuning's room.

"Are you asleep?"

Wuning looked up, his face reddening instantly. The delirious talk about his "damned uncle" from that afternoon had been overheard by the man himself, and he dared not speak.

The Ugly Uncle entered the room, sat on the edge of the heated brick bed, and watched the flickering oil lamp in silence.

After a long time.

"Boy, do you hate me? Are you wishing for me to die soon?"

"Ha." Wuning gave a dry laugh. "Don't be like that!"

He shot a sidelong glance at his uncle. "You’re an educated man, why are you eavesdropping?"

The Ugly Uncle smiled, a bitter, shaking smile.

"I have taught you for ten years, why haven't you learned to curb this unbridled nature of yours?"

He turned his head to glare at Wuning. "Cursing me to die—that is a great lack of filial piety!"

"Alright, alright!" Wuning interrupted his nagging. "You know that's not what I meant."

He rested his chin on his arm, trying to get comfortable. "To say I don't hold any resentment would be a lie. After all, you were supposed to raise me, and yet it ended up with me raising you."

"Besides, even now, you still refuse to tell me the truth. It really hurts, you know."

"But..." Wuning’s tone shifted, and he sighed deeply.

"We have depended on each other for ten years, through wind and rain. Even if we were enemies, we would have formed a bond."

"What’s more..." He looked up at his uncle. "You are my uncle, my blood kin. That alone makes everything else unimportant."

"..."

The Ugly Uncle was inexplicably moved. It was true that he hadn't told Wuning the truth all these years. But had this little rascal ever poured his own heart out to him?

Today, this must be the first time.

"Do you truly want to know your origins?"

Wuning raised an eyebrow. "You’re willing to say it now, Uncle?"

"Yes," the Ugly Uncle nodded. "It is time."

Wuning added, "So, I’m qualified now?"

"Yes, you are."

During this recent period, the Ugly Uncle had observed everything Wuning had done with Princess Taiping. In his view, even if he were to throw Wuning into that cutthroat imperial court, it would not be much of a problem.

Unfortunately, Wuning's next words nearly caused the Ugly Uncle to die of anger.

The little rascal curled his lip and said, "You’re willing to say it, but I don’t want to hear it anymore."

"You!"

The Ugly Uncle was left hanging, utterly speechless. Why was this boy so infuriating?

"You!!"

"Haven't you always wanted to know who your parents were? Haven't you always wanted to know how my face ended up like this, and who I really am?"

"Why would you suddenly not want to know anymore!?"

"I don't." Wuning shook his head. "Things are fine as they are. Why go looking for trouble?"

"Trouble?" The Ugly Uncle’s face twisted. "What? Are you content with a life of mediocrity, caught up in the affection of that merchant's daughter? Or..."

The Ugly Uncle suddenly thought of another possibility.

His face brightened with surprise. "Or have you already guessed something?"

If Wuning had managed to deduce anything based on just the tip of the iceberg, it would truly exceed all his expectations.

"I have guessed a little something." Wuning's candor pleased the Ugly Uncle even more.

"But..." Wuning raised his head. "I don't dare to guess any further!"