Jiapingguan Chronicle

Xiao Fengqi silently drank two bowls of tea, and his mood finally calmed down a bit.

He sighed silently to himself. He never expected that this trip to Jiaping Pass would yield such great results. The questions he had left over from many years ago were being answered little by little.

"What's wrong?" Jin Miaomiao glanced at Xiao Fengqi, and seeing that he remained silent, she raised an eyebrow slightly. "What are you thinking about?"

"I feel this trip was worthwhile." Xiao Fengqi looked at everyone, smiled, and said, "I'm not joking or anything, I'm serious. Now that I think about it, the one who ultimately benefited from the rivalry between the two princes wasn't Young Master Lan, but the Regent. The late king gradually relinquished power to him starting three months before his death, but the Regent had already begun handling state affairs much earlier. As I said before, the Regent was the late king's confidant, and many things were done by the Regent. As for what he did..." He gently shook his head, "No one knows."

"Even your great-aunt doesn't know?"

“The power shift in the Yelü family would naturally be kept secret from the Xiao family. No matter how good the personal relationship was, when it came to this kind of thing, it was impossible to tell the Xiao family.” Xiao Fengqi sighed, “Just like that night.”

"We're finally getting to talk about what happened that night! It's been such a long time!" Jin Miaomiao took a big gulp of tea. "Hurry up, I'm getting a little impatient!"

"This is a closely guarded secret of Linhuang Prefecture, not something to be casually revealed. Now that Young Master Xiao is telling us this as if we're family, you seem quite anxious." Xia Chen was both amused and exasperated by Jin Miaomiao's reaction. "Isn't this a bit too much?"

“It’s not exactly a secret, so many years have passed.” Xiao Fengqi waved his hand and said, “After the two princes found out that Young Master Lan had been sent to the Regent’s Palace, they threw a huge tantrum and then led their men to the foreign tribes without stopping.”

"What is the princess's maiden name?" Shen Cha frowned slightly. "You've been so secretive about it, never revealing it from the beginning."

"General, you are incredibly intelligent. Why don't you try to guess?"

Shen Cha touched her chin, looked at Shen Haolin, then at Chu Han, and both of them smiled at her.

"This..." She frowned slightly. "Since you put it that way, I have to think more about it. Could it be the Rong family, who were at odds with Empress Dowager Xiao back then?"

"Rong?" Jin Miaomiao was taken aback, her face immediately turning pale. "What is their relationship with the Rong family of Huizhi?"

“Same lineage.” Xiao Fengqi nodded slightly. “The Rong family of Huizhi in Jiangnan is the main family, and the Rong family of Linhuang Prefecture is their branch, but they are quite far apart.” He looked at Jin Miaomiao, whose expression had suddenly turned sour. “A grudge?”

“A deep-seated grudge.” Jin Miaomiao sneered. “I was wondering why the way the Princess Consort’s family behaved seemed so familiar. It turns out it’s the Rong family. No surprise then. This is their ancestral skill.”

“A family heirloom craft?” Xiao Fengqi was taken aback. “What does that mean?” “The Huizhi Rong family has a very bad reputation, to be precise, extremely bad, because they are good at stealing.” Chu Han sneered. “I feel the same way as Miao Miao, after all, I was once tricked by them.”

"The Huizhi Rong family?" Seeing Chu Han nod, Jin Miaomiao sneered again, "Their family is truly incorrigible."

"I've heard about your family." Chu Han looked at Jin Miaomiao. "That Miss Rong, who used to be your mother's best friend, has put in a lot of effort behind the scenes, just to get revenge for not being able to marry your father in place of your mother back then."

“I know.” Jin Miaomiao nodded. “My master told me about it a long time ago. I even asked my master before, ‘Isn’t it a good thing that their family always acts this way? Aren’t they afraid of giving others a handle to use against them and being retaliated against?’ My master said that they are very careful in choosing their targets. They only act when they feel that they won’t be retaliated against. But the only time they stumbled was when they were attacked.” She looked at Chu Han and said, “Uncle Chu Han.”

"So," Chu Han shrugged, "I dealt with them, and that family no longer exists." He looked at Xiao Fengqi, "Could this be considered indirectly avenging Empress Dowager Xiao?"

"Thank you, benefactor!" Xiao Fengqi stood up and bowed solemnly to Chu Han. "The one who was sent to the palace to target Empress Dowager Xiao was the daughter of the Rong family of Huizhi, not the Rong family of Linhuang Prefecture. We found evidence of this after the Rong family was raided for assisting the two princes in their plot to rebel. However, by then, neither the Rong family of Huizhi nor the Rong family of Linhuang Prefecture existed."

“Now I’m increasingly convinced that the Princess of Liao isn’t their child. She’s completely different from their usual style.” Jin Miaomiao spread her hands. “I just find it strange. Did they really gain their reputation and status as a century-old family by stealing other people’s marriages?”

“They do have real talent and learning, and they have cultivated many outstanding scholars. They also have their own insights into politics. Unfortunately,” Chu Han spread his hands helplessly, “they are lacking in private morality. Who doesn’t say it’s a pity when they mention the Huizhi Rong family?”

“That’s true.” Jin Miaomiao sighed. “However, their family has a much worse reputation than a good one.”

“So they’re experts at this kind of thing.” Xiao Fengqi shook his head helplessly. “Our family has always avoided them like the plague. As for why the Princess Consort, as a member of the Rong family, was favored by my great-aunt, it’s because she saved my great-aunt once when she was very young. I’m not entirely sure what happened, and my great-aunt never mentioned it. But from that moment on, my great-aunt observed and paid attention to her, and found that she was indeed different from the other members of the Rong family. Although she didn’t have a good life, she didn’t complain or feel sorry for herself, and she didn’t think about revenge. Just like what the late King Jia said, if she had known how to resist, things might not have been so bumpy between them.”

“But if she knew how to resist and scheme against those who hurt her, she probably wouldn’t have attracted Jia’s attention, nor would Jia have fallen in love with her.” Jin Miaomiao spread her hands. “Right? There are no ifs in this world. Although the Princess of Liao’s short life was very bumpy, she lived according to her own heart and was with the person she loved. That’s enough, isn’t it? It’s a perfect ending for both the Princess of Liao and Prince Jia.”

“That’s true!” Xiao Fengqi nodded. “Furthermore, before the two little princes came looking for them, before this night, no one could have imagined that the Rong family’s private army had reached such a terrifying number.”

"Terrifying? How terrifying?"

"That day, the two young princes went to the Rong family to discuss their actions with their maternal grandfather and uncle. Their grandfather and uncle seemed to think the time was right, so they sent each of the two princes with three hundred private soldiers to the Regent's Palace. Meanwhile, the powerful members of the Rong family, with five hundred men, guarded the outer perimeter of the palace, ostensibly because of the chaos in the city, and claimed they needed to ensure the King's safety." (End of Chapter)