She Holds the World After Being Reborn
Chapter 123 Imperial Consort and Eldest Brother, Intersection

Chapter 123: Chapter 123 Imperial Consort and Eldest Brother, Intersection

By the time Hong Wu found his way to the suburb, Yan Wanqing was walking toward the middle of the courtyard carrying dried grass and firewood.

"Master!" In her panic, Hong Wu hurried forward to check her condition, noticing blood on her cheek, and quickly reached out to touch it. Yan Wanqing turned her face away and wiped it off with the back of her hand.

"It’s theirs."

Only then did Hong Wu notice six neatly laid bodies in the center of the courtyard, each killed with a sword thrust to the throat.

She paused for a moment.

"Master..."

"Congratulations, Master, on restoring your martial strength and returning to your peak!" Piji interrupted.

While they were in the city, they had noticed someone was tailing Yan Wanqing, so they acted separately to deal with it. When they realized that this was a tactic to draw them away from the real target, they hurried here.

Yan Wanqing casually threw the firewood in her hand onto the six bodies and reached out to Piji, "Do you have a fire starter?"

Piji searched his pocket, "No."

Hong Wu also searched but found nothing.

Yan Wanqing sighed. She picked up a long sword from the ground and forcefully scraped it against a rock, miraculously sparking a small flame, "Go."

The flame landed on the dry grass and quickly caught fire.

Hong Wu was somewhat puzzled, "Don’t we need to keep the bodies to find clues?"

Yan Wanqing watched as the fire quickly grew, her eyes brimming with unfathomable depth, "Their faces are already destroyed, and there are no distinctive items on them. The only certainty is the eunuch, but whether it’s a decoy or not needs further investigation."

"A eunuch?" Hong Wu was taken aback, "I’ll verify this immediately."

Yan Wanqing nodded faintly.

She threw her blood-stained sword on the ground, yawned, and headed toward the door while stretching lazily, "I’m going to rest. Tomorrow, my father and brothers still need to be buried. You all stay here and make sure everything is burnt clean."

The scale tonight was nowhere near the previous assassination attempt in the woods.

Perhaps the last time had inflicted heavy damage on them, making it impossible for them to quickly gather so many people again.

But the fact that they saw through her disguise and followed her indicated at least some deeper knowledge of her from the person behind the scenes.

Who could it be?

Several attempts had been made to take her life stealthily.

Yan Wanqing sprinted toward the capital against the wind.

Today, she had lured people to the suburbs precisely to eliminate as many threats as possible; the fewer people knew of her regained strength, the greater her chances of success.

Tomorrow, with the burial of her father and brothers, she was bound to face a storm of blood and violence, allowing her strategic calculations to slowly draw to a close.

By the time she returned home, it was deep into the night.

Yan Wanqing went straight to the mourning hall and found that no one was sleeping; the whole family was gathered around her father, each maintaining a calm demeanor.

She did not show herself immediately.

After a while, her mother Sun Qinglian asked everyone to leave so she could properly send off her father.

Seeing her mother’s face quickly thin from sorrow, Yan Wanqing felt a wave of pain fill her heart.

With teary eyes, Sun Qinglian lit a stick of incense and placed it in the ashes.

She then took a cloth and meticulously wiped every inch of dust from the coffin.

"Mother...I have something to say to you." Yan Wanqing appeared from behind the curtain, and Sun Qinglian looked up and silently nodded.

...

It was still dark.

Many commoners had already gathered at the entrance of the Township Manor. Today was the day the Marquis of the Township and the Yan Family’s sons were to be buried, and the commoners had come spontaneously to see them off.

But that was just the commoners.

Since the news of the defeat reached the capital, Yan Family had lost the support of many officials.

Furthermore, with the Emperor’s ambiguous treasonous edict, the friends of the past in the court now wished to distance themselves as much as possible, let alone come and send off the Marquis of the Township.

The Yan Family had no words for all this.

They viewed human relations lightly, more so than anyone else.

Yan Wanqing had not expected to see a person who should not be appearing in her home—Imperial Consort Sun Lianyi.

A black robe could not conceal her belly, and she looked extremely round.

"Cousin," Yan Wanqing was stunned, "you shouldn’t be here."

Sun Lianyi’s face was haggard, with dark bruises under her eyes. The palace attendants all wanted to keep it from her, but how could they?

There are no walls in the world that can keep out the wind.

When she found out, she passed out from crying that day.

"I returned to the Sun Family yesterday and saw my father and brother," Sun Lianyi’s eyes flashed with pain as she continued, choking, "Today is the funeral, I wanted to come to send him off..."

Sun Lianyi struggled for words; her eyes bloodshot as she stared at Yan Wanqing, "to send him off... Him."

Yan Wanqing silently stepped aside, making way for her.

Sun Lianyi, holding her swollen belly, took steps toward the spirit hall and finally stopped in front of her elder brother, Yan Li’an.

Yan Wanqing did not want to see this scene; she turned away and called her sisters to leave the house.

She thought her cousin might have some last words to say to her elder brother.

Before her cousin was selected as the Imperial Consort, she had been engaged to her elder brother.

But as time passed, with the Emperor’s suspicion and frequent troubles from the court toward General Sun, her cousin was ultimately sacrificed for this political game.

On the day she entered the palace, her elder brother left for the battlefield without looking back.

Since then, the two became as strangers.

One far in the deep palace, and the other far in the military camp.

Thereafter, they had no further contact.

Yan Wanqing stood quietly outside the door, waiting. Before dawn, the air always carried a scent called nostalgia, very familiar yet deeply saddening.

When the faint sound of the door came from behind, she turned around to see her cousin looking normal again.

Sun Lianyi nodded to Yan Wanqing, "The burial is soon, isn’t it?"

"In another two hours."

"Understood," Sun Lianyi nodded, "I am aware. Take good care of sending them off."

Yan Wanqing didn’t speak.

Struggling to stand, Sun Lianyi held her belly with both hands, "The purse you sent me looks very nice. The embroidery isn’t clear enough though. If there’s a chance, come to me before I give birth, and I will teach you personally."

"... Such a trivial matter isn’t worth the Noble Consort’s trouble," Yan Wanqing frowned slightly, declining.

Sun Lianyi shook her head, "It is necessary. It’s precisely these little things that a girl should pay attention to." She extended her hand for a palace attendant to help her, then looked back at Yan Wanqing, "Let’s settle on that. When you marry the Young Marquis, you need to sew your own wedding dress in advance."

After she finished speaking, she didn’t wait for Yan Wanqing’s response and let the palace attendants help her onto the carriage through the back door.

Yan Wanqing stood at the door, watching the carriage slowly drive toward the dawn; she stared at the morning mist, lost in thought.

By this time, there was still an hour and a half until the Township Manor chief would be buried.

A group of unexpected visitors arrived at the entrance of the Township Manor.

The doorkeeper reported that the second master, clad in white, was at the gate requesting to pay his respects.

"Paying respects is just a pretense, he actually wants to frame and entrap," Yan Lingzhen said bluntly.

At this time, all the women were seated in the hall.

Listening to Xiaoliu’s words, Yan Wanqing meticulously wiped her sword without making a sound.

"He doesn’t even deserve to kneel before father!" Yan Hongzhao also disagreed with letting Yan An enter.

Seven days ago, Yan An’s behavior was disheartening; how could he have the audacity to come and kneel today?

"How dare you! Regardless, he is also Guozhong’s brother, your second uncle... cough, cough!" the old lady, leaning on a cane, staggered in from outside, "He’s come to send off his elder brother; what’s wrong with that? What right do you have to stop him, cough, cough..."

The old lady coughed twice after speaking a few words, appearing very frail.

She had been ill these days, hanging on to life through all kinds of rare and exotic treasures, yet surprisingly, she had the energy to get out of bed today.

She even managed to admonish others.

"Don’t just stand there! Open the gates and let An’an come in," the old lady ordered Sun Qinglian.