In a mansion in the western district of the Capital City, a guard walked hurriedly to a room and gently knocked a few times.
"Enter!" a lazy voice called from inside.
The guard pushed open the door and walked to the bedside, respectfully addressing the occupant as "Your Highness."
Several lamps were lit in the room, illuminating the pale face of the person on the bed and the bandages wrapped around his exposed abdomen.
A maid-like figure was carefully cutting away the bandages and cleaning the blood-stained wound with strong alcohol. She then took out a porcelain bottle and sprinkled pale yellow medicinal powder on the wound.
"Any news?" the man on the bed asked.
This was Prince of Xiang Yuwen Yan, who had been rescued by Jiang Ning and Liu Ming'an.
He had been severely wounded in Jinzhi City and was on the brink of death. He had originally planned to rest for a few days, but on the second day after his wounds were stitched, he found his condition much better than expected. So after leaving behind his jade pendant, he forced himself to leave.
The people who had stabbed him must have thought he was dead. He couldn't delay; he had to return quickly to stabilize the situation and prevent years of planning from going to waste.
"Your Highness, those two people entered the Capital City yesterday and stayed at Fulai Inn for a night. Today they went to Junyue Inn, and then moved into a residence on Late Winter Road. We've found out that the residence belongs to Zhou Yi, the young master of Junyue Inn," the guard reported, keeping his head lowered.
"Are you sure it's them? Don't make any mistakes," Yuwen Yan emphasized.
"My brothers and I have all seen the portraits Your Highness provided. The man is definitely Liu Ming'an; we can't be mistaken. The young lady with him had her face covered, so we couldn't see her features clearly, but her figure and bearing match Your Highness's description."
"Her face was covered?" Yuwen Yan recalled his conversation with Jiang Ning and smiled. "Of course it was!"
The wound on his abdomen had been re-dressed with medicinal powder. Yuwen Yan allowed the two attendants to help him sit up, then took the bandages and wrapped them around his wound, layer by layer.
After putting on his outer robe, Yuwen Yan got up and walked to his writing desk. As he moved, the wound on his abdomen pulled painfully, but his face showed no sign of discomfort. After all, this pain was nothing compared to when Jiang Ning had stitched his stomach with a needle.
Yuwen Yan took several sheets of paper, and the maid who had applied the medicine earlier immediately came over to grind the ink.
Moments later, several sheets filled with writing were folded into a yellow envelope. Yuwen Yan picked up his brush again and wrote "For Miss Jiang Ning" on the envelope, then handed the letter to the waiting guard.
"Deliver this overnight. Be careful and don't let anyone discover you," Yuwen Yan instructed seriously.
"Yes, Your Highness."
The guard saluted and left immediately.
"Ah, I've finally repaid the Third Young Lady's kindness," Yuwen Yan sighed to himself after the guard had gone.
As for Liu Ming'an's kindness, that would be harder to repay. He'd think about that later.
With these thoughts, Yuwen Yan stood up, supporting himself on the armrest of the chair. The maid helped him slowly back to bed.
He needed to recover from his injuries as quickly as possible. He couldn't give them any opportunity to take advantage!
In the dead of night, all was silent.
Suddenly, Jiang Ning heard a whistling sound in her sleep and instantly opened her eyes.
The next moment, there was a "thud" from outside, as if something had embedded itself in wood.
Someone was there!
Jiang Ning became instantly alert. She made a split-second decision to place the sleeping Liu Ming'an in the bamboo bed in her spatial realm, then took a knife and went out.
All around was quiet. A full moon hung in the sky, illuminating a short arrow embedded in a wooden pillar.
The arrowhead was buried deep in the wood, and something was tied to the foot-long arrow shaft—a letter.
Jiang Ning crouched down, removed the letter, and glanced at the words on the envelope. She had a guess about its contents. She pulled the arrow out forcefully and threw it into her spatial realm.
Back in the room, Jiang Ning brought Liu Ming'an out of the spatial realm and carefully tucked him in. Then she slipped back into the spatial realm and, using the light there, began to read the letter.
The letter had no salutation or formal structure. It was written like a ledger, but it told Jiang Ning the information she wanted to know.
The letter read: "Prime Minister Nangong Ya and his wife Luo Siyi were deeply in love. Luo had a cousin named Cheng Qiwen who had loved her since childhood. After Luo married the Prime Minister, Cheng became resentful. During Luo's pregnancy, he schemed to drug the Prime Minister and arranged for him to have a tryst with another woman. He then led Luo to witness the scene, causing her great distress and resulting in premature labor, thus driving a wedge between the couple."
"Cheng Qiwen was later found dead in a remote area. He had been beaten before his death, and his corpse had been mauled by wild dogs, leaving his face unrecognizable. The scene was extremely gruesome."
"The Prime Minister and his wife's relationship was shattered. For three years after giving birth, the Prime Minister's wife did not see her husband once. Later, when her father passed away, the couple came together to arrange the funeral, which led to their reconciliation."
"The woman who had the encounter with the Prime Minister was named Lan Xu. She came from a respectable family and was also a victim of Cheng Qiwen's plot..."
Jiang Ning suddenly remembered Aunt Lan from Quishui City, and the ancestral tablet inscribed with "Nangong Ling". Some things were now clear without further explanation.
"Lan Xu, unmarried and dishonored, was too ashamed to return home. She became a nun, but later discovered she was pregnant. In the twelfth month of the 21st year of Yuanning, on the ninth day, she gave birth to a baby girl named Lan Ling."
The 21st year of Yuanning?
Jiang Ning's previous reading of those miscellaneous books hadn't been in vain. She at least remembered some history of this dynasty. The 21st year of Yuanning was seventeen years ago.
So Nangong Ling was seventeen years old.
As for the date, the ninth day of the twelfth month, Jiang Ning also remembered it. That was the day she and Liu Ming'an had gone to sell couplets at Universal Blessing Temple, and then saw Aunt Lan at the Hall of Longevity.
The whispered prayer "Bless Ling'er with peace year after year" seemed to echo in her ears, and Jiang Ning's heart sank.
That day had been Nangong Ling's birthday. The mother and daughter had met again after seventeen years, yet neither recognized the other.
Even the ancestral tablet Lan Xu had requested and the longevity lamp she had lit had become futile. The daughter she had been thinking of constantly had already been tortured to death.
Longevity, longevity, yet in the end, it was a short-lived beauty!
"When the baby girl was five months old, she fell ill. Unable to afford treatment, Lan Xu took her to the Prime Minister's Mansion. She knelt and begged Luo Siyi to take good care of her daughter, vowing never to set foot in the Capital City again for the rest of her life."
"The baby girl became the Third Young Lady of the Prime Minister's Mansion, Nangong Ling."
After reading this, Jiang Ning let out a long sigh, feeling infinitely rueful.
Nangong Ling's life had been quite bitter.
Her parents' union was not born of love but of conspiracy. Except for her mother Lan Xu, no one had looked forward to her birth. Even as a young lady of the Prime Minister's Mansion, her existence was like a thorn in the flesh, constantly reminding the Prime Minister's wife that her husband had once been intimate with another woman.
No wonder Yuwen Yan had said Nangong Ling was timid, cowardly, and reticent. Growing up in such a family environment, with two legitimate older siblings, she was already unwelcome. She must have faced cold shoulders and neglect everywhere, and possibly even bullying from her brother and sister. And what about those servants who always followed the prevailing wind? Would they really treat her as the Third Young Lady? It's likely that servant bullying was a common occurrence.
In modern times, Nangong Ling would probably be diagnosed with depression.
Living like this, like a transparent person, always cautious and careful, Nangong Ling wouldn't have tried to compete with her brother and sister for favor. So why did she end up offending someone?
There was one last page of Yuwen Yan's letter. Jiang Ning, lost in thought, unfolded it.
"The eldest son of the Prime Minister's Mansion, Nangong Chenfeng, now twenty-two years old, has given up the pen for the sword and is guarding the border. He hasn't returned for three years."
"The second young lady of the Prime Minister's Mansion, Nangong Muyan, now seventeen years old, born nine months before the third young lady, is waiting to be married. She wishes to be matched with Prince of Rui Yuwen Xuan."
"Time was short, and this prince's methods were limited. I was only able to investigate the above information to repay Miss Jiang Ning's kindness in treating my wound. I hope you will forgive any shortcomings!"
That was all.
Jiang Ning put away the letter, storing it in her spatial realm. She slipped out of the realm and, in the moonlight streaming through the window, climbed into bed and hugged Liu Ming'an.
First, she would sleep. Tomorrow, they would enjoy the Lantern Festival. After that, it would be time to settle old scores and repay debts.
