Chapter 24 — The one who did not remember being a mother
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Secret Night — Imperial Archives Neighbourhoods
Under the light of a veiled lantern, Meilin turned the pages with a silent fever.
The rolls exhaled the smell of old blood and imperial dust.
A courtesan. A go player. A crazy...
Each word torn from the margins, each silence between the lines, drew the portrait of a spectre still alive.
Then his finger stopped.
A name hastily scratched on the margins of a register erased by time: Feng Xiān.
Black-green hair. Faded purple eyes. Disappeared. Fallen. Demented.
And in the shadow of a clinical report:
Severe mental disorders. Refuses to recognise his daughter.
Yuèyao's mother.
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Meeting — Pavillon des Orchidées Fanées
A fog stagnated around the old basins.
Meilin advanced slowly, with a cold heart.
On the stone terrace, a squeaky woman, dressed in dirty linen, played go alone with pebbles.
His gestures were slow. Automatic.
At his side, a red ribbon, yellowed by the years, hung from his tangled hair.
"I heard that you were Yuèyao's mother," said Meilin in a voice without trembling.
The woman looked up.
His gaze was empty... except for a burst of embarrassment. Or contempt.
"Never had a child," she whispered. It's this monster of Luó Hàn... he invented everything. He was the one who decided for me.
She scratched the stone with her stump.
— She's not my daughter. It's not my fault.
Meilin stared at her in silence.
This woman would never speak. She was no longer capable of the truth.
Not when the evil had eaten everything.
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Meilin's thoughts — Going out
"That's why the Emperor didn't arrest her."
(Chapter 23)
No need for chains.
She was already locked in her own split skull.
Feng Xiān didn't even recognise his daughter anymore.
And yet, this girl had upset the fate of her own son.
Meilin tightened his shawl. A cold anger rose to his throat.
"The Emperor plays chess with our hearts... But he forgets that mothers are also strategists."
She looked up to the East.
Where Liyan had fled.
Where Yuèyao had followed him.
Where her son... had abandoned her.
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End of Chapter 24