Jiapingguan Chronicle

"A dilapidated temple?" Seeing Shen Cha nod, Hongye could hardly believe her ears. She never expected it to be so early. She glanced at Shen Cha, pulled her around a protrusion on the ground, and said, "You already knew when we were so young? That's impossible! I don't really believe it. You need to have enough evidence to convince me."

“There is definitely evidence, but before that, I need to correct you. At the ruined temple, I only knew your identity, not ‘you all’.”

Are you alone?

"Of course, you forgot, back when we were at the dilapidated temple, I had just run away from that house, with wine in my arms, and hadn't been recognized and returned to the Duke's mansion yet, right?"

“It seems it really is.” Hongye nodded, looked at Shen Cha, sighed softly, and said, “Have I told you before? When I first saw you, I simply couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t imagine that a child with parents still alive could be worse off than us beggars. There wasn’t a single unscathed spot on your body, and you had many obviously old wounds. Later I learned that those two beasts were so ruthless that they would do such a deadly thing, completely disregarding your life or Xiao Jiu’s life. But after seeing them, I understood. They didn’t disregard your lives; they never intended for you to live at all.”

“That last sentence is correct.” Shen Cha smiled, not caring at all. “When we all arrived at the Duke’s mansion, by a very coincidental opportunity, my brother learned of your identity, but he wasn’t too concerned. After all, you’ve never betrayed anyone or done anything bad to Jiaping Pass. Then last year, Miao Miao and Brother Xiao Jing found out, and apart from feeling sorry for what you’d been through, they didn’t say anything else. As for Brother Xiao Tian…”

When did he find out?

“Recently,” Shen Cha held up a finger and waved it in front of Hongye, “no more than a month ago.”

"He was the last to find out, and only recently. How incredibly dense!" Hongye shook her head helplessly. "You all made it so obvious, even I noticed, but he was completely oblivious. How slow-witted is he?"

"You can't say that. Actually, he had his suspicions before, but we all talked his way out of it." Shen Cha glanced at Hongye, raising an eyebrow slightly. "Putting everything else aside, do you think I don't know your feelings for him? If..."

"You're worried that once he knows my identity and my background, there will be even less of a chance for us, right?"

“Yes, I did have those concerns, but…” Shen Cha looked at Hongye, “it seems I was overthinking it. After he found out your identity, his attitude towards you didn’t seem to change much, right? He doesn’t seem to care much.”

“You’re a bit slow on the uptake in this regard. No wonder the Duke has made it so obvious, yet you’re still clueless and completely oblivious to his feelings. It’s not that the Marquis doesn’t care; it’s that he simply doesn’t care. My feelings for him are completely different from his feelings for me.” Hongye gave a bitter smile. “Even without all of this, there’s no possibility between us.”

"You mean, he doesn't have feelings for you, he just sees you as a younger sister?" Seeing Hongye nod, Shen Cha gently shook her head. "Not necessarily. As the saying goes, the onlooker sees more of the game than the player. It may seem like he doesn't care about you on the surface, but he still cares about you a lot."

"Don't try to instruct me with your slow brain!" Hongye rolled her eyes at Shen Cha without any attempt to hide it. "Speaking of which, how did you even guess it?"

"Guess what?" Shen Cha led Hongye through the moon gate connecting the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion and the Marquis of Wuding's mansion, and said, "Your identity?" Seeing Hongye nod, she snorted and said, "There's no need to guess at all!" "No need to guess? Why? Linhuang Prefecture has eyes, but very few people know about this matter of mine, very few indeed, so it shouldn't be so easy to find out."

“I already said it was in the dilapidated temple. There were no eyes at that time!” Shen Cha reached out and tapped Hongye on the head. “Actually, I saw it.”

"Saw it?" Hongye thought for a moment. "It's still quite possible we'll meet."

"Careful?" Seeing Hongye nod, Shen Cha scoffed. "If they were really careful, I wouldn't have seen them. But this isn't your problem, it's Yelü Ertu's problem. The people he sent were really unreliable. Although Jiaping Pass was indeed in a chaotic mess back then, a mixed bag of all sorts of people, it was still enemy territory. When meeting with people, shouldn't you at least try to be discreet? But they didn't. They didn't care at all about revealing their whereabouts and just brazenly appeared in the dilapidated temple."

"Wait a minute!" Hongye recalled, "If I remember correctly, we always met at night. A dark and windy night is the perfect time to make contact!"

“That’s true. Luckily, they know that there are too many people around during the day, and it’s impossible to connect with you. There are some things that are hard to say, so they can only wait until it’s late at night when everyone is quiet.” Shen Cha rolled her eyes again. “Nighttime is nighttime, but not everyone can sleep, right? There are also people who stay up late and get sentimental, right?”

"You're talking about yourself, aren't you?"

"I see through you but I won't expose you. If it weren't for me, someone else would have known your identity!" Shen Cha tapped Hongye again. "You should be grateful that it was me; I saved your life."

"That's true. Back then, if anyone did something wrong and I reported them, they were finished."

"Thank me!" Shen Cha teased, then continued, "The person Yeluertu sent to make contact that time was probably one of his confidants. However, I only saw him that one time, and I haven't seen him since." She looked at Hongye and asked, "Really?"

"He's long gone. I heard he fell seriously ill not long after returning home, and passed away within a week."

Shen Cha was at a loss for words and could only sigh, "Life is so unpredictable!"
"You witnessed our meeting and heard our conversation, so you confirmed my identity, right?"

“Yes!” Shen Cha nodded. “I heard him call you Princess, and you didn’t deny it. I also saw him bow to you, which confirmed your identity. Coupled with your conversation, we knew everything. However, at that time, I was living on the edge, not knowing if I would survive, so I just heard it and didn’t take it to heart at all. As for later, when you returned to the Duke’s mansion, your words and actions proved yourself, so my brother and I both felt that you wouldn’t side with Yelü Ertu.”

“Of course I won’t side with him. I don’t care about either my biological father or Yelü Ertu, my nominal uncle. After all,” Hongye sneered, “to me, they are all complete strangers.” (End of Chapter)