Chapter 34

Chapter 34

“Sheng… Shadow Ten Guard went missing while carrying out a mission. May I ask if Your Highness knows her whereabouts?”

Wei Chengjun looked straight into her eyes. “Carrying out a mission? I don’t recall ever assigning her any mission.”

Conflict flickered across Dai Rong’s face. After hesitating for a long while, she finally said, “She was… following someone else’s orders.”

“Whose orders?” Wei Chengjun’s gaze darkened.

Dai Rong lowered her head. She could hear her own heartbeat with painful clarity.

Feeling the scorching stare fixed on the top of her head, she clenched her fists and said, word by word, “Your Highness the Heir.”

The air around them went abruptly still.

Wei Chengjun’s eyes were deep and black as he stared at Dai Rong. She kept her head bowed the entire time, falling silent after those words, like a death-row prisoner who had committed a grave offense and was waiting for the final sentence.

Cold sweat seeped from her forehead and slid down along her hair. Her tightly clenched jaw and the faint trembling of her wrists betrayed her nerves.

Wei Chengjun watched her for a while before finally speaking. “You truly care for her.”

He sighed with feeling. “The name she refused to speak even at the risk of her life… I never expected you would be the one to say it in the end.”

There was no blame in his words, only a sigh that came from the heart.

In this world, there were not many who could devote themselves wholly to a single person. There were certainly those willing to die for someone, but most did so on a surge of hot-blooded courage, only daring to gamble their lives in a single moment.

But to endure it day after day, with no end in sight, as if trapped in hell, facing those inhuman tortures while fully conscious every single day… aside from Sheng Zhaoning, there was likely no one else who could do such a thing for Wei Yi.

Her loyalty to Wei Yi was absolute.

And that was precisely why she had been chosen.

Dai Rong remained silent, as if she did not know how to answer.

At this point, she was certain the person was in Wei Chengjun’s hands. After thinking for a moment, she said, “Madam entrusted that child to this servant to raise. I have long regarded her as my own daughter. I have spent half my life guarding the prince’s mansion and serving at Your Highness’s side, and she is the only attachment I have. Now that she has served Your Highness, braving mountains of blades and seas of fire countless times, even if she has no great achievements to her name, she has still endured hardship for you. I beg Your Highness to show mercy and spare her life.”

Dai Rong kowtowed heavily again, her forehead striking the ground with a dull thud.

Wei Chengjun seemed to think of something. As he looked at the crown of Dai Rong’s head, a trace of tenderness suddenly appeared in his cold, hard features.

Only after a long time did he let out a nearly imperceptible sigh. “She won’t die.”

Dai Rong abruptly raised her head and met Wei Chengjun’s gaze, not missing the hint of softness that had yet to fade from his eyes.

“However, from now on, I fear you will no longer be able to see her.”

“There will be no Shadow Ten in this world anymore.”

She would live on under another identity.

No longer as a Shadow Guard of Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion.

Nor as herself.

Only as Sheng Zhaoning.

Dai Rong walked through the snow, wrapped in the cold wind.

The winter night’s dim starlight hung sparsely overhead. The moonlight was pale, hazy, and cold, draping her shoulders in a layer of silver.

Torches burned throughout the military camp. From time to time, a wolf’s howl rose nearby, mingled with the cries of some unknown beast.

Nights at the border were dangerous. They had to guard against enemy night raids as well as attacks from wild animals.

For safety’s sake, Wei Chengjun had specially permitted her to stay in the camp for one night and return to Liangzhou the next day.

Wrapped in her cloak, Dai Rong stood beneath a withered tree, staring blankly at the moon in a daze.

After hearing that Sheng Zhaoning’s life was not in danger, her entire body had relaxed at once. Yet beyond that joy, a corner of her heart had gone empty, and Wei Chengjun’s expression kept circling through her mind.

It had been a very long time since she had seen such a look on his face.

But whether it was for her, or for… her, she did not know.

Dai Rong could not help thinking of that person-that gentle, wonderful woman, so merciful and pure to the extreme.

If she were still alive, what would His Highness be like now?

Dai Rong could not imagine it, and did not want to.

On one hand, she hoped the woman was still alive, that she could erase the resentment and ambition in his heart. On the other, she was despicably grateful for her death, because it allowed Dai Rong to remain at Wei Chengjun’s side without scruple.

Conflicted. Tormented.

No one could replace that woman’s place in Wei Chengjun’s heart. Even if Dai Rong stayed by him for ten years, twenty years, fifty years, an entire lifetime, his eyes and his heart would never see her.

That was why she knew Sheng Zhaoning’s love, as one-sided as her own, was destined to bear no fruit.

The one in Wei Chengjun’s heart was a person.

The one in Wei Yi’s heart was the absolute pursuit and control of power.

Women like them had always been optional, so insignificant they were barely worth mentioning.

…

Not long after the New Year holidays passed, victory reports began arriving from the border one after another.

Liangzhou settled down once more, and the streets suddenly grew lively again.

Chi Wan had been in an excellent mood lately. She had heard that Sheng Zhaoning had gone missing, her fate unknown, and that her brother, as if drugged by some love potion, had searched desperately for a month and still found nothing.

The news could not have been better.

For several days in a row, Chi Wan went frequently to the Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion, often staying for half a day at a time. The people in the mansion had long since grown used to it.

The moment she stepped down from the carriage, a servant at the gate immediately came forward to greet her.

With several guards following behind to protect her, Chi Wan was just about to enter when the corner of her eye caught sight of a man dressed in blue striding out through a side gate. He looked entirely unfamiliar.

Who was he?

Suspicion flickered in Chi Wan’s eyes.

Judging by his clothes, he was neither an attendant nor a soldier, but one could tell from his bearing that his status was anything but ordinary.

She stared at him for a while, but had no impression of him. In the end, she simply withdrew her gaze, having no intention of looking into it.

She was about to step over the threshold when someone behind her said uncertainly, “Divine Doctor Zhou?”

Chi Wan’s foot halted, suspended in midair.

“Divine Doctor Zhou? What Divine Doctor Zhou?” She drew her foot back and turned to ask.

The guard stared at the man’s retreating figure for a while longer before turning his head and replying, “Second Miss, that is Zhou Lingsheng.”

Chi Wan’s brows drew together, a thought flashing through her mind.

Zhou Lingsheng was the most famous Divine Doctor of the age.

He spent years wandering from kingdom to kingdom, his whereabouts impossible to predict. Countless people had searched the world over without ever catching a glimpse of him. Chi Wan had only ever heard his name; she had never seen him in person.

What was he doing here…

“Are you certain it’s him?” Chi Wan asked.

At that, the guard turned again and watched the figure for a long while. Only after some time did he say with certainty, “It is him!”

“Two years ago, when the general was injured and poisoned, his life hanging by a thread, it was His Highness who found Divine Doctor Zhou and had him treat the general. Divine Doctor Zhou stayed in the General’s Mansion for a full half month. Many brothers in the army recognize him.”

Chi Wan had only recently come from the capital with her father, so naturally she knew nothing of these matters.

She pressed her lips together and said nothing, as if deep in thought.

Recently, she had not heard any news of anyone in the Zhenbei Prince’s Mansion being injured. Apart from Prince Zhenbei and Wei Yi, who else would be worth inviting such a figure to treat?

Chi Wan’s gaze darkened. She seized upon that strange thought that had flashed through her mind, lowered her head, and quickly considered it. When she raised her eyes again, a shrewd gleam lay in their depths.

“Follow him. See where he goes, and find out whom he is treating!”

The guard straightened and cupped his hands. “Yes!”