It was a letter of divorce issued to her by Wen Wu’ai.
Her hands grew colder, like ice. Her heart pounded violently, and the sound of blood surging backward echoed in her ears.
Gu Jingsheng took the letter of divorce with trembling hands and slowly read through it. The words before her blurred and sharpened repeatedly.
It was indeed Wen Wu’ai’s handwriting. The calligraphic style and the official seal were both authentic. It was his genuine script, something no one in the world could imitate.
Overwhelmed by a barrage of shocks, Gu Jingsheng could neither cry nor laugh. She merely stared blankly at Liu Jinyuan, who stood before her full of self-satisfaction. Her eyes were utterly hollow.
“I must see him in person.”
Gu Jingsheng’s voice was eerily calm.
“Nonsense,” Liu Jinyuan said, waving her hand. “The Prince of Ning is a royal lord of the realm. He no longer has any relation to you. Why would he come to see a wretched thing like you? What are you waiting for? Drag this traitor’s daughter out this instant!”
The moment those words left her mouth, the guards lunged at Gu Jingsheng with rough hands.
“Let go of me! Release me at once!”
Gu Jingsheng struggled with all her strength, trying to shake off the guards who were attempting to seize her wrists, but they were unyielding. The more she resisted, the tighter they gripped her delicate arms—so forcefully that dark blue finger marks began to form.
“Uncover your hands from me! I…”
Her voice cracked coarsely. However, another guard pinned her other arm, leaving Gu Jingsheng completely unable to move.
Her physical strength exhausted and unable to resist any longer, she glared at everyone in the room while panting heavily. Her eyes burned with a cold fire.
“Let me see Wen Wu’ai! Even if I must die, I will die right before his eyes! Bring him here!”
Indifferent to Gu Jingsheng’s desperate cries, Liu Jinyuan let out a cold laugh and turned around.
“Save your breath. When Wu’ai returns shortly, I shall personally brew a tonic for him.”
She paused at the doorway and looked back, her eyes filled with the thrill of victory.
“Gu Jingsheng, you are now the daughter of a traitor. You are nothing! Tie her up securely. If she somehow escapes, your heads will roll!”
Inside the storeroom, the air was thick with a damp, rotten stench. The smell of mold, rat droppings, and the stale odor of old straw heaps mingled together, stinging her throat with every breath. Five days had already passed since Gu Jingsheng was locked up here.
Aside from a maidservant and a low-ranking guard who occasionally brought spoiled rice, no one visited. Wen Wu’ai did not show even a glimpse of his shadow, nor could she hear any news regarding her father.
The moonlight shining through the window was unusually bright.
As Gu Jingsheng sat silently in a corner of the storeroom, faint footsteps reached her ears. The sounds drew closer, and soon, a familiar voice drifted inside.
“His Imperial Majesty has been unable to rest properly these past few days due to Gu Ping’s affair. According to the Imperial Physician, it is because His Majesty is overly burdened with concern.”
It was Wen Wu’ai’s voice.
Gu Jingsheng abruptly sprang up and staggered toward the door. Having barely eaten for five days, her legs lacked strength, yet her body moved on its own the moment she heard his voice. Her unkempt hair spilled over her shoulders, and her dust-covered robes dragged along the floor.
With trembling hands, she felt along the crack in the door. The gap was narrow, making it difficult to see outside clearly. Under the pale moonlight, however, she could vaguely make out the man she had once loved passing through the courtyard in front of the storeroom.
His side profile lit by the moon remained straight and dignified. Two guards followed by his side.
Her heart pounded violently. Though she bit her lip, the trembling would not stop. She wanted to call out to him, to scream that all of this was a misunderstanding and demand an explanation.
“His Imperial Majesty evidently still finds it hard to accept Gu Ping’s treason, but the Gu family estate has already been confiscated. In a few more days, His Majesty should be able to lay this matter to rest.”
Wen Wu’ai spoke in a cold, low voice.
“No, that is not so. Everything this time—including His Majesty reacting in such a manner—was already within my calculations. Gu Ping is an old veteran who stood through life and death alongside His Majesty for a long time. If even a single member of the Gu family remains alive, there is no telling how things might go awry. Therefore, this must be settled swiftly and decisively.”
In that instant, all color drained from Gu Jingsheng’s body.
“Wu…”
The hand raised to knock on the door and call his name froze mid-air.
Already within his calculations…?
His voice echoed relentlessly inside her ears—cold, decisive, without a trace of hesitation. All of this—the destruction of her father’s household, the ruin of her clan, her own dethronement—had been executed by his hand.
It felt as though the center of her chest had been completely hollowed out.
Something vast collapsed in a single instant. Along with it, all the years gone by, every word they had shared, the laughter, and the promises seemed to crumble into ashes and scatter away.
Why? Why bring this upon me and my family…?
Her fingers gripping the doorframe tightened, turning stark white at the knuckles. Her entire frame trembled violently. Surging rage, a sense of betrayal, and the foolish heart that still desperately wished to believe in him entangled together, choking her.
At that very moment—snap.
Her fingernail caught in the wooden crevice and broke. A sharp pain spread from her fingertip, yet even that was nothing compared to the agony in her heart.
Whether sensing that tiny noise or not, Wen Wu’ai’s footsteps outside came to a halt.
Gu Jingsheng’s heart began to beat like mad.
Wen Wu’ai slowly turned his head toward the courtyard where the storeroom stood. It was an abandoned place where no one lived. In the darkness, his eyes glinted sharply.
Terror engulfed her entire being.
Gu Jingsheng hastily swallowed down the sob that surged to her throat. Covering her mouth tightly with both hands, she backed away two steps. Holding in even her ragged breathing, she leaned her back against the wall. Her whole body turned cold as ice.
—No.
Wen Wu’ai did not intend to leave a single member of the Gu family alive. She, too, would never be spared.
“If even a single member remains alive…”
His words echoed in her ears. That statement included her as well.
She had already been deposed, and as if that were not enough, Wen Wu’ai had cruelly issued a letter of divorce himself; being locked in this storeroom was surely his doing as well.
Gu Jingsheng was no longer foolish enough to expect him to save her. If he were to see her current wretched and filthy state trapped inside this storeroom, he would only look down upon her with cold eyes and sneer. Or perhaps he might draw his sword on the spot to take her head.
Despite quickly covering her mouth and retreating a few steps, Wen Wu’ai’s footsteps gradually drew nearer.
She still could not understand why Wen Wu’ai sought to kill every last member of her family. Yet the desire to uncover the truth had completely vanished.
What point was there anymore?
Gu Jingsheng knew: Wen Wu’ai possessed not a single shred of pity for her, a man capable of lightly trampling upon all their past affection. Thus, no words and no tears would be of any use to him now!
The footsteps grew even closer, followed immediately by the low voice of a guard.
“My Lord, there seems to be a sign of presence inside the storeroom.”
Holding her breath, Gu Jingsheng pressed herself tightly against the wall, cold sweat dripping from her palms.
By the light of the moon, Wen Wu’ai looked at the storeroom a short distance away. The old door was shut tight, and a damp moldy smell hung thick across the desolate courtyard. A pear tree in the adjacent yard swayed in the night breeze, blowing scattered petals toward the front of the door where they fell.
Under the frost-like moonlight, the scene appeared all the more bleak.
A brief silence ensued.
Gazing down at the fallen pear blossom petals on the ground, a subtle light flickered briefly in the corners of Wen Wu’ai’s eyes.
“Wu’ai-gege, this time it’s matcha flavor! How is it, delicious?”
A few years ago, the laughter of that clever, bright young girl echoed in his ears. A thirteen-year-old girl holding pear blossom cakes (Lihuagao) in her hands, looking up at him with expectant eyes. White pear blossom petals were tangled in her hair, and when he reached out to brush them away, she blushed and smiled.
Gu Jingsheng.
Whenever that girl secretly snuck out of the Prime Minister’s estate with him, she made a point to stop by the suburban pear orchards to pick clean pear blossoms before returning. A few days later, she would proudly bring a generous batch of pear blossom cakes for him to taste.
She used to add all sorts of strange flavors to her pear blossom paste (Lihuagao)—many of which were ingredients he had never heard of before. For instance, matcha, wasabi, tomatoes, preserved strawberries, and the like. Sometimes she added sweet red beans, which were subtly sweet and never sickening.
Around eight years old, having faced a near-death crisis alongside her mother in the borderlands, she returned from the brink of death a completely transformed person. The young lady of the Gu family, once dull and taciturn, turned into an exceptionally brilliant child, making a name for herself across the entire Great Ha Kingdom at the tender age of eight.
With that cleverness, Gu Jingsheng had flustered Wen Wu’ai on multiple occasions, leaving him with no choice but to admire her each time.
She was… much like the pear blossom cakes she made: sweet, yet never cloying.
Wen Wu’ai clenched his fist inside his sleeve, his nails digging deep into his palm.
One day, a year before their wedding, he had specifically transplanted a few pear trees from the suburbs and planted them in the estate’s courtyard. Unfortunately, it seemed the soil of the Prince’s estate was ill-suited for pear trees to thrive. Only a year after being transplanted, the pure white pear blossoms gradually withered away, scattering all across the courtyard on this autumn night.
Wen Wu’ai looked down at the fallen petals on the ground. Hidden within his sleeve, his fingertips slowly stiffened.
An indescribable sensation compelled him, as if something was lurking in the shadows beyond the storeroom. Unconsciously, he prepared to take a step toward the storeroom.
At that very moment, a soft, low voice called out from behind.
“My Lord…!”
Wen Wu’ai stopped in his tracks and turned his head to see Liu Jinyuan walking over, her slightly rounded belly thrust forward. Approaching him with a joyful face, she coyly linked her arm with his and whispered lazily into his ear.
“My Lord, if you had returned to the estate, why didn’t you send word? You have been so busy with Prime Minister Gu’s affairs lately that my heart aches with longing for you every night…”
Watching Liu Jinyuan lean against him in her voluptuous posture, Wen Wu’ai’s expression froze for a split second. Noticing that brief moment, Liu Jinyuan quickly rested her head against his shoulder.
“My Lord, Yu’er’s stomach feels a bit painful…”
“How does your stomach hurt?”
Wen Wu’ai looked down at Liu Jinyuan’s belly, where his child was growing.
The sliver of suspicion directed toward the storeroom vanished in an instant because of the little child in her womb.
A warm light returned to Wen Wu’ai’s face. Wrapping his arm around Liu Jinyuan’s waist, he said softly:
“The weather is cold; let us hurry back. I will call an Imperial Physician immediately.”
“My Lord is always so doting toward me.”
Liu Jinyuan acted coquettishly, nestling even deeper into his embrace. As Wen Wu’ai carefully scooped her up in his arms, a coy smile spread across her face.
As he carried her out of the courtyard, Liu Jinyuan turned her head and cast a side glance at the tightly closed door of the storeroom.
A sinister smile played upon the corners of her lips.
