92. No, no, that’s not my daughter.

That afternoon at the Hu Escort Agency

Zhao Chengxian, still dazed and unsteady, escorted by guards and eunuchs, sent Qiqi’s remains back to the Jun Prince’s Residence, and then accompanied Yue’er back to the Hu Escort Agency. Along the way, Zhao Chengxian showed no expression at all. He simply followed blankly behind the carriage that drew the coffin, as though his soul had already left his body. Since speaking those words to Xuanyuan Ren, he had not uttered another word.

Soon they entered the gates of the Hu Escort Agency. Word had already reached them, and the whole agency lay sunk in grief. All the men of the agency came to see Yue’er off on her final journey. By then Chen Gui had become Zhao Chengxian’s spokesman. He handed the carriage over to the men of the Hu Escort Agency and said solemnly, “Please accept my deepest condolences.”

Those words should have come from Zhao Chengxian himself, but he had still not been able to accept the truth. How could he possibly comfort anyone else? Chen Gui could only speak for his master.

Everyone in the Hu Escort Agency was seething with anger. They believed Zhao Chengxian had brought about Hui Yue’er’s death. If Zhao Chengxian had not sent Yue’er to the Jun Prince’s Residence as a maid, how could Yue’er ever have entered the palace? One by one, the burly men glared at Zhao Chengxian with murderous hatred, wishing they could kill him. They did not know that no one was grieving more deeply than Zhao Chengxian himself. The last person in the world who had wanted anything to happen to Hui Yue’er was Zhao Chengxian. Now Yue’er had already slipped away from him, and it was as though the light in his life had been extinguished.

A dark-skinned escort master shot Zhao Chengxian a fierce look and said angrily to the others, “He’s the one who killed the boss! If not for this bastard sending her to the Jun Prince’s Residence as a maid just to humiliate her, how could the boss have entered the palace? And if she had never entered the imperial palace, how could she have died? We must avenge the boss! We must avenge the boss!”

The others shouted at once, “We must avenge the boss!”

At that moment all they knew was that Yue’er was dead, and the soul of their escort agency was gone.

The Jun Prince’s guards surrounded Zhao Chengxian so that those escort men would not harm him, yet Zhao Chengxian himself gave no reaction at all. He simply stood there, as though nothing in the world had anything to do with him.

In the very nick of time, Senior Brother Qishang stepped forward and said to all the men of the agency, “Everyone, calm down, calm down. Little Junior Sister chose to enter the Jun Prince’s Residence as a maid for the sake of this escort agency, for the sake of all of us. If we were to strike the Jun Prince today, would not Yue’er’s painstaking effort be wasted? For Little Junior Sister’s sake, please, fellow disciples, calm yourselves!”

After hearing Qishang’s words, everyone slowly came back to their senses. No one moved to beat Zhao Chengxian anymore. Though Qishang was also heartbroken at the loss of his beloved younger sister, he was still able to look at the matter calmly. That was precisely why Hui Yue’er had wanted him to take charge of the agency.

At that moment, Lady Hui came out supported by Hui Qinghui and Sirou. Stumbling to the coffin, she refused to believe that this was truly her daughter’s coffin. She cried out, “Open it for me. Open it now. It cannot be Yue’er inside. Open it quickly!”

Hui Qinghui found it equally hard to accept. His sister, who had only days earlier been cheering him on, now lay in a cold coffin. He remembered telling her that night that he hoped she would marry soon. He had never imagined that only a few days later things would come to this. If he had known, he would rather have stayed in Zhuxin Village and never come back at all. Now he regretted bitterly that he had not stopped Yue’er from entering the palace.

Sirou looked up at her elder brother, whose eyes were vacant and lifeless. She knew he must be in great pain. At that moment, only she was still thinking of Zhao Chengxian’s sorrow.

Seeing that Lady Hui was determined to have the coffin opened, Chen Gui, who had already seen the body, feared that exposing Yue’er’s charred remains would only be a greater shock to her. So he hurriedly said, “Old Madam, Lord Consort, this servant feels it would be best not to open the coffin. Princess Siyue was consumed by fire, so...” He was afraid that saying too much would only upset everyone further.

But Lady Hui insisted on opening the coffin. Tears streaming down her face, she said, “No matter what, I must see my daughter one last time. These past years she gave everything she had for me, for her brother, for this family. If I do not see her with my own eyes, how can I believe that the person lying in there is my daughter?”

No one could dissuade Lady Hui. In the end, they had no choice but to open the coffin. When Lady Hui saw the body burned beyond all recognition, she shook her head in disbelief again and again. “No... no, this is not my daughter...” Then she collapsed in a faint.

From that day on, Lady Hui was never again quite herself. Whenever she saw anyone, she would say, “No, no, that was not my Yue’er. My Yue’er is still alive. Yue’er is still alive. I still want to see Yue’er married...” In an instant she had lost the daughter she loved most dearly, and so she descended into madness. A wound of the heart must be healed by a remedy for the heart, but now there was no such remedy at all.