FID – Chapter 864

Chapter 864: He Had Only Himself to Blame for His Tainted Past 

“You didn’t know? Your mother, Medical Lady Xue, was from Baicao Valley. She was carefully selected and sent into the palace by them,” the Empress Dowager said.

She glanced at Feng Qingbai. “Did your mother never tell you any of this?”

She had assumed Feng Qingbai already knew.

But it turned out that even this had been hidden by Medical Lady Xue.

“Xue Qinglian, you knew, didn’t you?” Feng Qingbai’s long eyes narrowed slightly.

He was certain that Xue Qinglian knew about his mother.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have frozen the moment the Empress Dowager asked that seemingly casual question.

Xue Qinglian quickly wiped the stunned look off his face and grinned at Feng Qingbai. “Now, now, no need to be tense. Honestly, if the Empress Dowager hadn’t brought it up, I would’ve completely forgotten. Feng Qingbai, you can call me cousin.”

Feng Qingbai stared at him in silence for a long moment, then slowly calmed his emotions. “We’ll talk properly about this back at the residence.”

The current setting was inappropriate for such a conversation—he would endure for now.

Xue Qinglian nodded with a stiff smile, bitter as if he’d just swallowed a bowl of the most bitter herbal brew.

If he had known it would turn out like this, he wouldn’t have come to this damned family banquet even if someone beat him into it.

What was the big deal about eating? Why had he insisted on coming to the palace for this meal?

Who could’ve predicted that the Empress Dowager would just happen to bring that up?!

What a blunder!

Liu Yusheng and Feng Mohan were equally shocked. For the rest of the meal, they kept glancing at Xue Qinglian.

Cousins? Xue Qinglian and Feng Qingbai?

From the way things played out just now, it was obvious Xue Qinglian had known all along about his connection to Feng Qingbai. But after knowing him for so long, he had never once mentioned it.

Why had he kept it secret?

Except for the Empress Dowager and Qin Xiao, who remained completely indifferent, the rest of the King’s household couldn’t enjoy a single bite of food for the remainder of the meal.

By the time they returned from the palace, it was already late at night. The snow, which had paused for most of the day, had started falling gently again.

The heavily pregnant Liu Yusheng was exhausted. As soon as they got back, Feng Qingbai coaxed her into bed.

She knew he would go to speak with Xue Qinglian soon. She wanted to listen in too, but her body betrayed her. She fell asleep the moment she touched the bed.

Once the woman in his arms began to breathe slowly and steadily in sleep, Feng Qingbai quietly got up and left the room.

In the flower hall, Xue Qinglian was huddled by the brazier, warming his hands. When he saw Feng Qingbai coming in, he greeted him casually and lazily, “I’m not going anywhere, you know. What’s the rush? Couldn’t this wait until tomorrow? Why drag me out in the middle of the night to freeze?”

“That’s hard to say. You’ve had more than a few episodes of ‘running away from home’ and vanishing without warning. It’s better to clear things up while you’re still around,” Feng Qingbai said calmly.

He had only himself to blame for his own record of disappearing acts.

Xue Qinglian rubbed his face. “I didn’t mean to hide it from you. It’s just that so many years have passed. Baicao Valley is long gone, and you’re now a noble prince. If I brought it up now, wouldn’t it seem like I was trying to curry favor with you? Do I look like the kind of person who sucks up to power?”

“Go on, keep making things up,” Feng Qingbai replied, staring at him with an unreadable expression.

Xue Qinglian hated that about him. He was always so emotionless and inscrutable, like a deep well you couldn’t see the bottom of.

Impossible to deal with.

Picking up the small poker by the brazier, he stirred the coals until they burned more brightly. Then he sighed. “Fine, fine. I’ll tell you everything, alright? Yes, I’m your cousin. My father is your mother’s older brother. Back in the day, Baicao Valley was highly prestigious. Almost all the famous doctors in surrounding nations came from our valley. It was basically a golden nameplate. Whether you were a noble hiring a family doctor or the royal family recruiting imperial doctors, anyone from our valley was a top choice.”

“Your mother was the most gifted among the women in the valley at the time. She was especially accomplished in the art of bodily nourishment and conditioning. So when the Nanling royal palace requested female doctors from the valley, your mother was chosen. She never returned to the valley after leaving. As for what happened after that, I don’t know. She left before I was even born, so everything I know comes from what my father told me. That’s all I can tell you.”

Glancing at the silent man, Xue Qinglian asked, “Can I go to bed now? I’m really sleepy.”

“Where’s your father?”

“Dead. Died young.”

“Your mother?”

“Also dead. She died for love and followed my father in death. Their love story was the stuff of legends,” as he said this, a flicker of sarcasm passed through Xue Qinglian’s eyes.

Seeing that Feng Qingbai seemed to sink into thought, Xue Qinglian quietly got up, tiptoed away, and slipped out.

Feng Qingbai was a shrewd man, one who could see the whole picture from just a scrap. Give him a clue, and he’d deduce what lay beneath.

How could Xue Qinglian dare say too much?

The more he talks, the more likely he is to slip up.

On his way back to his room, Xue Qinglian clasped his hands in the direction of a certain spot and muttered under his breath, “Uncle, I’m sorry… but I only told him a tiny bit of what I could. You won’t blame me, right? Of course you won’t blame me.”

Back in the hall, after Xue Qinglian left, Feng Qingbai didn’t immediately return to his room. He sat beside the brazier in silence for a long while. Only when the coals in the stove had gradually died out did he finally rise and leave.

Xue Qinglian didn’t say much, but there was already a lot to ponder from what he did say.

Back in its heyday, Baicao Valley was flourishing, with its doctors spread across many countries, highly revered by royal families and the common folk alike.

Among doctors, the Valley was considered one of the very best.

Doctors were indispensable everywhere, and the respect for them was immense. Nobles and officials frequently spent lavishly on medical care and medicine.

It would have been easy for Baicao Valley to gain both wealth and fame, and logically, it should have continued to thrive. So was it nonexistent now?

It was as if it vanished into thin air—disappeared without a trace over a decade ago, leaving the world searching in vain.

Such a prestigious sect simply ceased to exist. What on earth happened back then?

His mother came from the Valley, but in the years she spent with him, she never once mentioned the Valley. Why? Even his father never spoke of that place.

It was as if everyone deliberately avoided the subject.

And then there’s Xue Zhong, stirring up chaos among the countries with his crippled body, triggering massive turmoil. What was his true purpose?

Xue Zhong bore intense hostility toward him. Since the moment he appeared from Cangying Pavilion, he had repeatedly attempted to assassinate him. It seemed only his death could satisfy Xue Zhong’s grudge.

What kind of connections lay hidden within all these events and incidents?

All these matters tangled together like a knotted ball of thread, impossible to unravel. To uncover the truth, he could only straighten out each thread one by one and untangle them.

Back in his room, the woman was still sound asleep. The dim yellow candlelight flickered softly, casting a warm glow across her face, making her seem tender and peaceful.

Only after the chill had left his body did he quietly get into bed, gently turning her over to help her sleep more comfortably.

Since her belly had grown large, she could no longer lie flat on her back. It would cause difficulty breathing. She hadn’t told him, but after being by her side every day, he had already figured it out.

Pressing a kiss to her cheek, Feng Qingbai waved his hand and extinguished the candles.

No matter how complicated or dangerous those matters were, this manor, and the woman in his arms—he would protect them both completely.

To him, she was everything.