Chapter 717 - 261: Treason?
Chapter 717: Chapter 261: Treason?
Because of her words, Xu Su Ying remained distracted for the rest of the evening.
Once the banquet ended and they left the palace gates to return to the Xu’s home, Xu Su Ying quickly settled the old madam before hurrying straight to the backyard to find her daughter.
Chen Wanqing was reclining on a soft couch, reading a book. Chaoyang had already been taken away by the nanny. He played so much during the day that he grew drowsy the moment night fell. After nursing until he was full, he would sleep soundly until broad daylight. She was also slowly learning to let go, allowing the maids and the nanny to take over Chaoyang’s care. This would make it easier for her to travel to the Western Regions in the spring to visit Jing.
When Xu Su Ying arrived, Chen Wanqing set aside her book and pulled her mother over to sit by the brazier. Only then did she reveal the dream she had about Zhao Jing and her father while she was in labor.
"The pain was so unbearable that day that my mind went completely numb. I couldn’t remember anything from the dream at all; I only had a vague, sinking feeling that something terrible had happened. Later on..."
During her postpartum confinement, she had been terribly bored. Aside from feeding Chaoyang, she spent all her free time thinking about Jing. Then, quite suddenly one day, as if a blocked meridian in her mind had finally cleared, the lost memory surged back to her.
She stretched out her hand, examining it again and again under the candlelight. "I kept calling out for Dad and Jing, but they couldn’t hear me. I was so frantic that I drew the dagger from Jing’s waist and stabbed the camel."
Xu Su Ying seized her hand. "Are you absolutely sure you grabbed the dagger and stabbed the camel?"
Chen Wanqing nodded, then shook her head. "I can’t remember clearly. The dream was heavily obscured by clouds and fog, with violent sandstorms filling the sky. I couldn’t see anything. I only vaguely felt a scalding liquid splashing all over my hand..."
It must have been the camel’s blood, but when she woke up, her hand was perfectly clean.
Chen Wanqing continued, "At first, I thought I only had that dream because I missed Jing too much. But one day during my confinement, you came to see me as usual, yet you seemed incredibly distracted. Even my aunt, De’an, and my grandmother were all speaking in circles, their words contradicting each other. That’s when I knew something had happened.
"Later, when all of your faces lit up with joy again, I figured that even if Jing and my father had truly encountered danger, and even if they had gotten hurt, it couldn’t have been life-threatening..."
Chen Wanqing recounted everything methodically, her tone as calm as if she were telling someone else’s story. But to Xu Su Ying, the words were agonizing, as if someone were violently wringing her heart. They had justified hiding the truth from Qing’er, claiming it was for her own good. Yet, in order to spare them from worry, the poor child had buried all of her own anxieties deep inside.
Xu Su Ying pulled Chen Wanqing into a tight embrace. "I was wrong. I promise I will never hide anything from you again... However, Qing’er, you must never tell anyone else about what happened in your dream."
At this point, Xu Su Ying’s eyes filled with lingering shock and disbelief. "To be completely honest with you, when your father wrote to us back then, he said that they had indeed nearly died in a sandstorm."
The envoys from the Western Regions had been harboring deep resentment. Not only had they lost three of their colleagues during this trip, but they had also failed to secure any lavish rewards. Throughout the journey, they constantly caused trouble, doing everything in their power to make life miserable for the Wei Dynasty’s envoys.
At one point, catching everyone off guard, they even abducted several civilian women in an attempt to satisfy their beastly desires. Fortunately, they were stopped by Chen Song and the Imperial Guard. Fueled by both old grudges and fresh animosity, a fierce brawl erupted between the two sides. It was said that lives were nearly lost that day.
All of these escalating conflicts finally pushed the envoys from the Western Regions to take a desperate risk.
And they did just that.
Within their ranks was someone skilled at reading the weather and wind patterns. They predicted that the weather would drastically change that night, likely bringing a massive sandstorm. Before dinner, seizing a brief window while water was being fetched, the envoys from the Western Regions dumped a heavy dose of sleeping drugs into one of the water buckets.
Unaware of the plot, the Wei Dynasty envoys all fell into a dead sleep. Meanwhile, the envoys from the Western Regions had taken the antidote beforehand and quietly waited for the wind to shift. Sure enough, deep into the night, a violent sandstorm began to brew. Seizing the moment, the traitors immediately mounted their camels and fled.
Chen Song and Zhao Jing were only awakened by the frantic cries of the camels, but that was a secret known solely to the two of them. In the eyes of the other envoys and the Imperial Guard escorting them, they had been vigilant night watchers. People believed that even though they had been drugged, they still managed to stab a camel to sound the alarm the very second they sensed danger.
This incident had happened a long time ago, but even now, merely bringing it up sent a lingering chill of terror through Xu Su Ying. Both Chen Song and Zhao Jing were simply too young. Thank the heavens they had made it out alive. Had they not, she didn’t even want to think about what she might have done.
Mother and daughter held each other in quiet embrace, only startling back to reality when the candle softly popped, sending up a shower of sparks.