Broken Jade - Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Moonlight flowed across the courtyard, shadows swaying amid the faint fragrance of plum blossoms.

Sheng Zhaoning gazed at the mottled red plum blossoms filling the courtyard, then turned toward Wei Heng just as he happened to look up.

Their eyes met unexpectedly, and they both froze.

A strange feeling silently spread through the still night.

Sheng Zhaoning hurriedly lowered her head. Her fingertips tightened around the edge of her sleeve, and she swallowed.

“Why is Your Highness here?” she asked, changing the subject.

Wei Heng also looked away, the tips of his ears red as he fed the cat crouched at his feet.

The dried fish crunched loudly between its teeth.

“These were my Mother-Consort’s chambers,” he replied.

Sheng Zhaoning paused. “Consort Mei?”

Wei Heng nodded. “Mm.”

He rarely spoke of his mother to anyone.

She was a taboo no one in the entire palace dared mention.

In truth, even his own memories of her had grown hazy.

“I can barely remember what she looked like anymore.”

Wei Heng’s gaze grew distant, as though he were searching through his memories, his eyes filled with endless melancholy.

His mother had died of illness when he was very young.

In his memories, she was unhappy day after day, trapped within chambers that appeared magnificent but were, in truth, a cage. She had no one to speak with. All she ever did was sit quietly by the window and gaze at the red plum blossoms in the courtyard.

Yet Wei Heng had never once been neglected.

No matter how unhappy she was, she still sewed his clothes with her own hands, taught him to read and write, and held him in her arms as she gently told him countless stories he had never heard before.

Wei Heng had grown up surrounded by love, so he naturally knew how to love others with boundless patience and acceptance.

Sheng Zhaoning looked into his eyes. No matter how many times she saw them, they were always just as gentle and clear.

“As long as Your Highness remembers her, she’ll always be with you,” Sheng Zhaoning said.

Wei Heng turned to look at her. Every time his gaze fell upon her, his heart trembled.

He truly liked her so very much.

“What kind of person is Ningning’s mother?” Wei Heng asked.

Only now did he suddenly realize how pitifully little he knew about her.

At his question, Sheng Zhaoning fell silent.

Mother…

The word was far too foreign to her.

She had been unwanted from the moment she was born and abandoned while still in swaddling clothes. Prince Zhenbei had found her and brought her home, and Dai Rong had raised her.

Perhaps she had never been meant to exist in this world. Even her name had been stolen from someone else.

She had never lived a single day for herself.

Dai Rong could be called her mother. Lady Lu could also be called her mother.

But neither of them truly was.

Sheng Zhaoning did not know what a mother was supposed to be like, so she could only answer by describing the two of them.

“She… was virtuous and warm. She would hit me and scold me, but she also loved me with all her heart.”

Dai Rong was strict, while Lady Lu was loving and gentle.

They seemed like two completely different people, yet both had quietly loved her with the same sincerity.

Wei Heng tried to imagine the sort of woman she had described, but selfishly, he still wanted to know more.

“Can you tell me more about yourself?” He lowered his head slightly and looked into her eyes, asking with utmost sincerity.

Sheng Zhaoning’s fingers curled inward. “What would Your Highness like to hear?”

She did not know what else she could possibly tell him.

Wei Heng knew nothing of all the desolate years she kept hidden. He merely said, “Anything you’re willing to tell me. I want to hear it all.”

But the light in Sheng Zhaoning’s eyes gradually dimmed.

Anything she was willing to tell him…

Scenes of flashing blades and bloodshed began flickering before her eyes.

She truly did not know what else she could tell him.

Wei Heng did not know that she was not the person he imagined her to be.

She was not upright as a pine, pure as jade, clean and untouched by the world.

Her hands were drenched in blood. She was a vengeful ghost who had crawled out of hell, burdened with countless blood debts.

Even when she first entered the capital, her purpose had been to seize the imperial throne for Prince Zhenbei.

To reclaim the throne that had rightfully been his.

“I…”

Sheng Zhaoning did not know how to begin.

Wei Heng saw her distress. For her to have disguised herself as a man all this time, she must have secrets too painful to tell.

He did not want to make things difficult for her.

“It’s all right if you don’t want to tell me. I can wait,” he said.

He would wait until the day she was finally willing to lower her guard and tell him about that unknown past.

Whenever that day came, he would be there.

Having snatched away the dried fish, the orange cat curled up beside Wei Heng’s feet and began nibbling it at a leisurely pace.

His hand remained hidden beneath his wide sleeve. In his palm lay a small square of white jade, radiating a scorching heat.

“There is something I’ve always wanted to give you.”

Nervousness flickered in Wei Heng’s eyes, his gaze trembling slightly as he spoke. Yet he forced himself to remain composed and looked directly at her, a thousand unspoken words lingering between them.

He said nothing more. He merely extended his hand and held out the small square jade seal.

Sheng Zhaoning lowered her gaze-and froze.

A tiny white jade seal lay in his palm, glowing with a lustrous silver light beneath the night sky. It was no larger than a thumb, its base tinged faintly red. The shape of a plum blossom could just be made out upon it.

That was… the Plum Blossom Vermilion Seal.

Li Ji’s words suddenly returned to her.

“On the announcement of the Metropolitan Examination results, the Crown Prince personally wrote your name and stamped a small seal beside it.”

“That seal was carved by the Crown Prince’s Mother-Consort herself. He has never used it lightly.”

Sheng Zhaoning felt as though its molten heat would burn straight through her heart.

The sheer intensity and sincerity of his feelings pressed down on her until she could scarcely breathe.

“I cannot accept this, Your Highness,” Sheng Zhaoning said, her voice trembling.

How could Wei Heng give her something like this?

She could not accept it.

She did not dare accept it.

But this time, Wei Heng would not allow her to retreat.

He took her hand and solemnly placed the jade seal in her palm, his eyes brimming with resolve.

“I give the Plum Blossom Vermilion Seal to my beloved. I shall keep you in the deepest part of my heart-what day could I ever forget you?”

He had kept this jade seal by his side for many years. It was his most precious possession.

And now, he was willing to give his most precious possession to the person he cherished most.

Something crystalline and cold touched the tip of her nose and melted.

At some point, dark clouds had covered the moon. Snowflakes drifted thickly from the sky, settling upon their shoulders and hair and enveloping them in a world of white.

It was snowing.

The seal in Sheng Zhaoning’s palm felt as heavy as a mountain. She did not even notice the chill of the snow landing between her brows.

Then a cloak steeped in the scent of pine resin wrapped around her, and his body heat settled over her.

Sheng Zhaoning raised her head and stared. Wei Heng was so close that his breath brushed against her ear.

He had leaned in, his head lowered as he carefully fastened the cloak around her.

Their breaths intertwined.

Sheng Zhaoning never knew what possessed her in that moment. She simply stared at his face for a long while, then, without thought or warning, leaned forward and kissed him.

Her cold, trembling lips touched his face.

A stray snowflake melted at the corner of her lips.

In that instant, both their hearts began to pound violently.