Chapter 32: The Heartless Scoundrel

Yan Bei embraced his impending fatherhood with complex emotions, and eventually, he officially became a father. After A-Li was born, he personally changed the baby's diapers and lulled the child to sleep. As a Prince of the realm—a man who held the royal seal in one hand and a heavy halberd in the other—he mastered every aspect of caring for an infant in less than half a month.

In the blink of an eye, the child grew. According to custom, the baby’s hundredth day marked the end of her postpartum confinement. During those three months of living together, he had secretly ordered his shadow guards to investigate her once more. After all, she was to become the Princess of Jingyang, and the circumstances of their marriage were so absurd that he had to ensure there were no issues. Ultimately, he confirmed that her household registration was genuine; discreet inquiries in the neighborhood revealed nothing suspicious, nor was there any evidence linking her to the imperial court. Many locals could attest that she was truly without parents, visited only occasionally by distant relatives from far-flung regions.

On the day of the baby’s full month, Wang Huan mentioned early on that she wanted to celebrate privately. He had planned to lay all his cards on the table during that meal. However, early that morning, his shadow guards suddenly brought news: the late Emperor had issued an imperial decree in the middle of the night, ordering guards to ride at full speed to the north to summon him to the capital immediately. At that time, Gao An and his entourage were still on the road, moving slowly due to the large number of people and supplies, still three hundred miles from the capital. Sensing that something had gone wrong in the palace, Yan Bei weighed his options and decided to enter the capital first. Though he had always maintained a guarded attitude toward the late Emperor, over the past year, he had seen no signs of the palace moving against the Jingyang Prince’s estate; on the contrary, reports of the Emperor’s failing health arrived periodically. Since the imperial house had no intention of removing him, he felt it was his duty to maintain stability in the court.

When he arrived at the palace gates and was about to identify himself, he learned that an emergency dispatch had arrived overnight: the First and Second Princes had both encountered a storm while returning to the capital. The city was placed under martial law. Soon after, Prince Duan, Grand Tutor Chu, Minister Shen, and other pillars of the court rushed into the palace. Yan Bei dared not leave, yet he could not reveal himself prematurely. It was not until nightfall, when the palace gates opened and Grand Tutor Chu and the others emerged with news that the late Emperor’s condition had stabilized, that he returned home. With the political situation as it was, he had to appear in the capital at dawn under the pretext of having arrived early. It was now urgent, both emotionally and logically, to reveal his true identity to the mother of his child.

But when he returned to that familiar place, he was not greeted by a brightly lit house, her sparkling eyes, or the clear cries of A-Li. Instead, he was met with a darkness so thick he could not see his own fingers! She was gone! She had actually taken A-Li and left without a word! On the table, she had left only a letter of separation, stamped with an official seal, and a farewell note. She wrote that she knew he had not wanted to be "forced" into marriage, and after he left, she never expected him to return. Thus, from the moment the child was born, she had made her decision: it was better to set him free and go their separate ways. She and the child had found a better place to go, and she begged him not to look for them!

...To hell with freedom! He had only returned a little late, and his wife and child were gone? What about the planned hundred-day celebration? She was a fraud!

She had deceived him out of his body, and then she cheated him out of his son! Yan Bei had been wandering through military camps since he was eight, became a young leader at ten, and took the mantle of Prince of Jingyang at fifteen. Throughout his life, he had never let any demons or monsters get the better of him, only to be brought down by the daughter of a local landlord!

He turned back to find Zhang Wei, who was waiting at his doorstep with a large chest of jewelry. Zhang Wei told him that after Yan Bei had slipped away without a word, Wang Huan discovered she was pregnant. To survive, she assumed he was dead and sought another husband. This man was a wealthy merchant who loved Wang Huan deeply and was waiting for her to give birth before marrying her. Having heard that Yan Bei had returned, the man had voluntarily offered these riches so that Wang Huan could settle accounts with him—but Wang Huan had held back and never told him. Zhang Wei also said that Wang Huan believed a twisted melon would surely be bitter, so she hoped he would accept the silver, live a good life, and stop looking for a heartless woman like her. For the sake of the money, they should treat it as if they had never known each other.

After Zhang Wei finished speaking, he tried to drag him to a tavern, but this time, Yan Bei did not let himself be drunk. Once Zhang Wei left, he stood up from the table, summoned all his guards, and ordered them to search in every direction for the woman who had run away! They searched for a day and a night, but found nothing. He sat alone in the inn all night, unable to sleep.

When night fell again, he rode his horse along the post road toward the capital. He reasoned that a rural merchant would not have the means to provide such a large sum of money to pay off an ex-husband. Since they had not found her in any of the surrounding areas, she had likely headed toward the capital.

The post road was not peaceful that night. Crows flew overhead, and the faint sound of hoofbeats echoed in the night sky. In those two years, refugees from the south had been moving north, and it was rumored that the dangers faced by the First and Second Princes were linked to these people. He smelled danger in the air. Indeed, from deep within the road, several horses charged out like madmen. Soon after, more than a dozen others emerged, dressed in various clothes and wielding different weapons, encircling Yan Bei. Most of his guards were out searching, and Yan Bei had only two shadow guards following him in the shadows. But they were highly experienced experts; the struggle lasted a while, but the outcome was never in doubt.

As he killed the last man, Yan Bei decided to turn back, but then, a faint cry of an infant came from under one of the horses left at the scene. Prince Yan had been a dedicated "nanny" for over three months and was particularly sensitive to the sound of a baby crying. He pulled his mount, which was already rearing, back to a stop. He rushed into the pile of corpses and found A-Li, who was severely wounded. Having been inseparable from the child for over three months, the boy’s face was etched into his heart. Furthermore, the new swaddling clothes he had personally changed the baby into for the hundred-day celebration were still wrapped around him—there was no mistake; this was his own son, whom the mother had secretly taken away!

But if A-Li was here, where was his mother? Yan Bei looked at the heap of bandits, handed the child to his shadow guard, and spurred his horse toward the direction from which the bandits had come. By the banks of a rushing river, a carriage lay overturned, covered in blood and scattered with clothing. An elderly woman and a young maid lay dead in pools of blood, struck down by blades. Yan Bei did not recognize them, but he recognized the clothes; he had seen several of them in Wang Huan’s room. He had even washed them for her!

He grabbed the elderly woman, who still had a breath of life left, and demanded to know Wang Huan’s whereabouts. She opened her mouth, unable to speak, and simply pointed toward the river behind him before exhaling her last. Yan Bei circled to the lower reaches of the river, but apart from finding another murder scene ten miles away, he found not a trace of Wang Huan—the road led directly into the rushing river, and having fallen in, it was impossible for him to find her.

His ex-wife, who had "divorced" him, had died at the hands of bandits just like the Princess Yongjia of the Prince Duan estate! He had heard that Princess Yongjia was also traveling with her young child when she met her fate. It was impossible for him not to make the connection, so when the government sent troops to investigate the cause of the Princess’s death, he went to see for himself. He even went to the cliff where the Princess had jumped. He had seen the body with his own eyes. Although the Princess’s corpse was unrecognizable, her stature and the unmarred half of her face were still identifiable; it was definitely not the Wang Huan he knew.

That smiling Wang Huan was truly dead! He could never settle scores with her again. He had lost his wedded wife forever. Even though she had abandoned him, Yan Bei could not bring himself to utter a single word of blame, nor could he curse her for receiving her comeuppance. For the next three years, he did not mention her name. He willingly guarded the child, living as a widower, unable to stop blaming himself. He always thought, if only he had returned sooner that day, would things have been different? It was all his fault! He deserved to live alone as a widower!

But damn it all—who could have imagined? Just when he had firmly concluded that she was long dead, her handwriting appeared within the conspiracy of the Du family! Just when he had been drowning in self-reproach and regret for three whole years, her script had suddenly materialized out of thin air! He still possessed the marriage contract and the divorce letter she had left behind; he had looked at them countless times over the years, and every time he did, he felt like slapping himself. There was no way he could misidentify the handwriting on that funeral oration; it was her writing!

If she could still write, it meant she was still alive. And since she was still alive, it was one thing that she hadn’t come to find him, but she hadn’t even tried to find A-Li! This heartless woman! This fraud! This unscrupulous, trashy woman!