Chapter 104: The Enigmatic Whirlwind
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The moment that sentence was uttered, it shocked Kai Ming more deeply than any sentimental words ever could. She froze, eyes wide, staring at Da Yin. Da Yin returned her gaze coldly.
“Given the prior context, isn’t it easier to accept this outcome?”
“Nonsense!” Kai Ming’s lips trembled as she weakly protested. “How could it be possible? How could someone kill their parents and then adopt their daughter? You’re lying…”
“Do you think I know Xuan any less than you do?” Da Yin interrupted her with a mocking smile. “Proud, fragile, sometimes very gentle, and growing gentler still.” She blinked, her mockery turning into a strange, chilling smile. “But because the signals he sent me on our first meeting were too dangerous, even though I understood his feelings, I could never accept him. So when he left me and told me he had adopted such a child, I wasn’t surprised at all.”
Kai Ming stared at her in disbelief. “Just because of that, you handed over your own child to him to raise together?”
Da Yin’s eyes flicked over sharply. “He did tell you about me, didn’t he? But it no longer matters. Xiao Wan is dead. It’s all over now.”
“Da Yin,” Kai Ming’s voice shook, “you said Xiao Wan was a substitute for your child. Then where is your real child now?”
“My child…” Da Yin smiled softly, her face thawing like frost melting, warm beyond measure. “Has actually been by my side all along…”
Kai Ming shuddered violently, a dawning understanding she refused to accept. “Impossible! It can’t be!”
“My child,” Da Yin extended delicate fingers to gently stroke a corner of the tombstone and smiled, “when I hung the pendant around Xiao Wan’s neck, did you see Xuan’s expression? Though displeased, he didn’t stop me. He already knew what I intended and that, if absolutely necessary, I must sacrifice Xiao Wan. That was Xuan’s tacit consent—he allowed me to take Xiao Wan’s life.”
Kai Ming could no longer stand and collapsed to the ground. So, from the very beginning, the agreement between the two of them had been sealed with Xiao Wan’s life, all to protect Da Yin’s biological child, which was…
“My child is Sháozi.” Da Yin softly breathed out the crucial name. Kai Ming instinctively covered her face. Sháozi was Da Yin’s child! Yes, it was Sháozi! The little one she had always longed to escape with from the General’s mansion—the child was Da Yin’s own flesh and blood! Da Yin had used Xiao Wan’s life to safeguard him!
No wonder. No wonder Da Yin always looked at Sháozi with such a strange gaze. No wonder she tapped the back of Sháozi’s hand at the dining table. No wonder she was so ruthless. No wonder she acted so unusually when assassins infiltrated the mansion. No wonder, no wonder—countless no wonders led to only one conclusion: Sháozi truly was Da Yin’s biological child!
Kai Ming nearly choked on her words. “Then what about Xiao Wan? Xiao Wan…”
“Xiao Wan is already dead.” Da Yin swiftly cut her off, gently patting the tombstone. She sighed. “Sacrificing Xiao Wan was the worst choice of all. I originally wanted Tian Lang to successfully attract the Dai family’s assassins so Xiao Wan could enter the palace safely. If I can’t protect her fully in the palace, then it would be the emperor’s failure. I would never hand Sháozi over to him. If everything had gone well, Xiao Wan would have had a happy life too…”
“That’s just wishful thinking on your part!” Kai Ming let her hands fall from her face, tears streaking down her cheeks. “I want to ask you, General Da Yin: your son’s life is precious—does that mean others’ lives are not?”
As soon as these words escaped, Da Yin’s fingers trembling on the tombstone. Kai Ming still remembered how, once, she had suppressed her immense anger to reprimand a government official with those very words.
“Your son’s life is precious—does that mean others’ lives are not?”
“Where has the fiercely righteous General Da Yin gone?” Kai Ming looked at her with disappointment. That dark night, hiding behind a pillar, she heard the general slowly utter those words, and her heart was stirred deeply. Yet in the blink of an eye, the goddess she had admired had turned into a demon.
“I only have one son, Kai Ming.” Da Yin spoke with difficulty, as if struggling to explain yet unsure how. “Can you understand a mother’s instinct to protect her child? Danger lurks from every direction. If I didn’t try my hardest, Sháozi would have been secretly assassinated by the Dai family long ago.”
Kai Ming steadied herself against the tombstone. “I’m a mother too, Da Yin. Don’t lecture me on the greatness of motherhood. I only know that sacrificing others’ lives for one’s own desires is shameful.”
Da Yin sneered. “We stand on opposite sides already, and after this, we are completely irreconcilable. Kai Ming, the more truth you learn, the harder your choices become. But no matter what, I will never let you take Sháozi away!”
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Kai Ming gazed at her, and Da Yin returned the look. “You can take your private silver openly, no need to hide it anymore. From now on, as long as you don’t oppose me, I won’t trouble you again!”
Kai Ming frowned deeply, her thoughts in turmoil. Da Yin’s attitude was clear: apart from Sháozi, they were like two parallel lines with no chance of intersection.
She stared blankly at Xiao Wan’s grave, lost in thought. Da Yin, meanwhile, turned and said, “Think it through carefully. Don’t bother coming to the General’s mansion anymore. I’ll send your private silver over.” Her skirt fluttered as she left on her own.
Not coming to the mansion anymore meant no more visits to see Sháozi. Da Yin was so ruthless, severing all connections between her and Sháozi in this way.
Kai Ming touched Xiao Wan’s tombstone dumbly, calling her name over and over, until she could no longer hold back and collapsed, wailing loudly before the grave.
Xiao Wan, who were you really? Why did Xuan kill your parents? Why did he adopt you afterward? Xuan, did you really consent to Xiao Wan’s death? Xiao Wan, Xiao Wan…
The innocent child’s face gradually appeared before her eyes, as if an invisible hand was caressing her cheek, her adorable smile blooming like a little flower bud.
There was Xiao Wan giggling foolishly, hugging her knees; Xiao Wan lying weakly in bed, smiling faintly; Xiao Wan pale with a gun pointed through her body yet still smiling. Why, in her memories, did the little girl always wear a smile?
Kai Ming closed her eyes tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Kai Ming!” A rough voice sounded as strong arms steadied her shoulders. “Are you alright?”
She weakly leaned against him, slowly sitting up, glancing at the handsome, anxious face beside her. She gave a bitter smile. “I’m fine, just tired.”
“Tired?” He paused, as if understanding something, then patted her head and sighed. “The dead cannot return. You must keep your grief in check.”
Kai Ming’s mouth twitched. “Does Commander Chang Geng really say such comforting things?”
Chang Geng frowned slightly but said nothing else, muttering, “Did you think I was a brute who couldn’t say a kind word?”
“Chang Geng.”
“What?”
“Thank you.”
“…” Chang Geng stared at her with the strangest expression.
“Thank you for coming all this way to comfort me.”
“No problem!” He looked uncomfortable. “I didn’t see you during training today and only heard about the big incident last night later. I figured you’d come to see Xiao Wan, so I came too.”
“Well, thank you again.”
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“We’re family—why bother with such formalities?!” Chang Geng’s face flushed a little as he said this.
“Chang Geng.”
“Hm?”
“Can you let go of me now?”
“Alright.” He instinctively released her. Kai Ming wobbled, then settled herself, pulling her knees up and resting her chin on them, hugging her feet.
Chang Geng looked at her with surprise, not understanding her actions.
“I just learned some unexpected inside information today,” Kai Ming said, lifting her swollen eyes to stare blankly into the distance. “I’m weak like this because I can’t let it go yet.”
Chang Geng fixed his gaze on her. “Kai Ming, did General Da Yin tell you anything?”
A tear slid down her cheek. “You knew it was General Da Yin?”
“When I arrived, she had just left,” Chang Geng said suspiciously. “What did you two talk about? Did she explain anything about Xiao Wan’s death?”
Kai Ming snorted coldly, refusing to answer.
Chang Geng blinked and said, “Kai Ming, I have some gossip you might find interesting.”
“Gossip?” She smiled inwardly, amused that Chang Geng had learned to say that.
“It’s about Da Yin and her deputy general,” Chang Geng lowered his voice while glancing around. “I did find out something. You didn’t ask, so I forgot to tell you.”
“What is it?” Her nervousness grew from his playful demeanor.
“It’s about Da Yin and her deputy general.”
Deputy general? Wasn’t that Xuan at the time?
Chang Geng nodded firmly. “Exactly, your former husband, Xuan, was Da Yin’s deputy general back then. But before he took that position, something happened that became one of the army’s ten most shocking scandals.”
The ten shocking scandals? Oh, like the urban legends and weird stories in modern schools? The military had its own gossip too.
“Tell me.”
Chang Geng adopted the tone of a storyteller, full of expression. “Back then, during war and training, men ate, drank, and relieved themselves together without any privacy. One day, Da Yin, only a commander at the time, brought a new young recruit and assigned him to a room with a dozen other men. At first, the young man was refined and pale, with cold eyes and no interest in talking to others—so no one cared much. But over time, it became clear this man had many peculiar habits.”
“He never ate with his roommates, never bathed with them, never said much, completely a loner. You have to understand, soldiers were all rough men, with no qualms about anything. Seeing him so aloof and indifferent, someone joked that he must be a woman disguised as a man, like Hua Mulan. Otherwise, how could a grown man be afraid to undress in front of everyone?”
[End of excerpt]