Chapter 53
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Chapter 53: "What’s wrong? Can’t eat the fruit yourself? Need me to keep feeding you?"
The camp was noisy, with snores rising and falling everywhere, making it impossible for Jiang Wu to catch any forest sounds even when straining his ears.
The camp was quiet, as if Jiang Wu alone stayed awake among dozens. The firelight seemed powerless against the endless night, and his heart kept pounding violently without slowing since Du Yinsui left.
Overwhelming tension and worry dulled Jiang Wu’s sense of time. Du Yinsui felt gone so long he thought dawn might break any moment.
Du Yinsui hadn’t returned.
Why wasn’t she back…
Had the forest trapped her?
Was she in danger?
Despite Jiang Wu’s efforts to stay calm, anxious thoughts flooded his mind.
His right hand clenched the bone for picking locks Du Yinsui had used earlier. He remembered her parting words and fought not to cause trouble.
But…
As time crawled by, staying obedient grew too hard.
Yes, too hard.
Haunted by Sun Xinang’s warnings and guided by apocalypse-honed instincts, Du Yinsui slipped into the icy bedding. The still figure beside her smelled more awake than she felt.
Truly, too hard.
Du Yinsui wanted to pretend she hadn’t noticed Jiang Wu’s wakefulness, to fake exhausted sleep. Knowing his habit of self-sacrifice, she knew he’d never "disturb" her.
Yet…
"Want some?"
The person beside him had returned silently and lain motionless, so Jiang Wu assumed she’d collapsed asleep. Just as he planned to wait until she slept deeply before checking on her, Du Yinsui sat up first and scattered several… tiny fruits by his pillow.
"Now?" Jiang Wu had countless questions—about her safety, injuries, Sun Xinang’s fate—but Du Yinsui stuffed a small red fruit into his mouth, cutting him off.
Smaller than a grape, the fruit burst soft and juicy when bitten.
Catching the sudden sweetness in the air, Du Yinsui fed him another. "Sweet?"
"Sweet!" Jiang Wu nodded eagerly.
Truthfully, he tasted nothing, his focus locked on where Du Yinsui’s fingers had brushed his lips twice.
The air’s sweetness thickened wildly, engulfing Du Yinsui.
Normally, she’d have distanced herself and redirected his attention.
But today…
She fed him a third fruit before lying down. "If it’s sweet, finish them and sleep."
Three were enough. Watching her settle, Jiang Wu softened his gaze and carefully gathered the remaining fruit. "We’ll share these at dawn."
"They’re yours. Eat." Right now, Du Yinsui wanted to cram every worldly delight into Jiang Wu’s mouth—why share mere handfuls? She’d pick more tomorrow.
She only used that commanding tone when teaching skills or facing crisis.
The heat from being touched and fed faded slightly, and Jiang Wu instinctively sensed something wrong.
"Are you alright after going out? Weren’t you spotted or hurt? Did something happen in the forest? How are they…?" Jiang Wu finally voiced the questions weighing on his heart.
If he’d been caught or injured, could he have returned unscathed with perfectly round fruit?
Don’t overthink it, friend…
Du Yinsui sighed. The fading sweetness in Jiang Wu’s scent, now overtaken by bitterness and sourness, softened her heart once more.
"I’m fine. You’ll learn about the forest tomorrow. Eat your fruit now, then rest." Du Yinsui kept her voice calm, then propped herself up to look at him. "What’s wrong? Can’t eat by yourself? Need me to keep feeding you?"
That light, teasing remark struck a hidden craving Jiang Wu hadn’t even recognized.
"No! No, no—I can manage." Jiang Wu’s face flushed instantly as he waved his hands.
Du Yinsui lay back, listening to the soft rustling as he ate. Suddenly, she felt like a half-decent yet ruthless butcher—one who gives cute animals a final good meal before slaughter.
She didn’t want this, but there was no choice. Sun Xinang’s words in the forest had to reach Jiang Wu. Worse, she had to make him believe it all—Jiang Wu, who couldn’t sniff out lies without a scent ability.
It was hard.
Truly hard.
Hearing those claims, Du Yinsui even wondered if the poison temporarily suppressed by the antidote had flared up again, warping her smell.
How could any of it be real?
People shouldn’t…
At least, they oughtn’t…
Du Yinsui had less than half a night to plan how to tell Jiang Wu.
At dawn, Tan Wang would announce Sun Xinang’s death. Jiang Wu—clueless—would show his raw reaction to the news.
Once Tan Wang left to fetch his mysterious relative, she’d have to speak.
Exhausted, Du Yinsui stared at the sky: starless, just a lone moon.
Like moonlight trapped by darkness…
Like Jiang Wu, surrounded by scum…
Du Yinsui shut her eyes. Sun Xinang’s frantic confession still echoed—spilled only after Tan Wang hacked off Xu Lv’s hands and Xu Lv offered guesses.
Prince Cheng meant to rebel. He’d schemed for over a decade, planting spies everywhere, gathering strength, waiting for a righteous cause. Like the Emperor’s folly. Or relentless disasters. Or… back when the Emperor was a prince, to flaunt heirs and please the late Emperor, he’d joined the Liu clan and Zhaoyuan Marquis’s estate. They’d cut open eighteen pregnant women seized from commoners, finding no sons. Then they sliced the last pregnant woman in the estate—Liu’s own half-sister.
Sun Xinang had no proof. She’d pieced it together from years dealing with Prince Cheng’s allies and her palace experience. Prince Cheng needed her and Xu Lv to torment Jiang Wu on the journey—without letting him die.
When Sun Xinang first spoke, Du Yinsui would’ve thought her driven mad by Tan Wang’s blade… if not for the terror and truth in her scent.
Tan Wang, scent-deaf to lies, didn’t buy it. Before Sun Xinang could explain, he efficiently slashed Li Dayong—making Li Xiaojuan shriek and faint.
That’s when Du Yinsui caught another whiff of wrongness.
Sun Xinang barely reacted to Li Dayong’s wound. Even Li Xiaojuan seemed only mildly concerning.
But Sun Xinang, desperate to live, rushed out actual facts before Tan Wang turned on her.
Back then, to make sure Liu Baozhu had a son before Han Yu and became a princess, the Liu family cruelly gathered twenty pregnant women from the countryside. These women were due to give birth around the same time as Liu Baozhu and were kept in a separate estate. Before Liu Baozhu gave birth, two of the women had daughters.
When the little princess was born, she was taken to the estate. But the maid who went with Sun Xinang was too nervous. When they arrived and opened the swaddle, the newborn princess was barely breathing.
Liu Yaozu got so angry he killed the maid right away, leaving Sun Xinang shaking as she held the princess.
At that time, Liu Yaozu was in charge. He only cared about getting a son fast and ignored the little princess…
Strangely, when they reached the eighteenth, all—even the first two born earlier—were girls.
The little princess had died, and they couldn’t get a little prince. Liu Yaozu, mad with killing, dragged out a pregnant woman who looked like a young lady from a locked house. He cut her open himself.
The nineteenth was a girl.
Sun Xinang learned later that the last pregnant woman was Liu Yaozu and Liu Baozhu’s half-sister. She was kept in the estate because she was pregnant before marriage and wouldn’t say who the father was. Forgotten for months, she was remembered again in all that blood… Liu Zhen’er.
Much later, when Sun Xinang was visiting her son outside the palace, Prince Cheng’s people knocked her out. She then learned that the girl she had pretended was Liu Baozhu’s daughter was actually Prince Cheng’s and Liu Zhen’er’s child.
Back then, Prince Cheng and Liu Zhen’er loved each other and crossed lines. But early on, trouble started between Prince Cheng’s fief and the neighboring Jin Kingdom. Prince Cheng went back to his fief, which took two years. When he returned to the Capital, he found Liu Zhen’er had died of illness. He quickly dug up what the Liu family had done.
But by then, the current Emperor had taken the throne, Liu Baozhu became Empress, and Jiang Wu had been Crown Prince for over a year.
At first, Sun Xinang didn’t know what Prince Cheng was planning. She only knew he swapped a boy for her son, who was held by the Liu family. After that, she stopped being loyal to the Liu family and became Prince Cheng’s spy.
Her earlier guesses weren’t baseless.
Over the years in the palace, Liu Baozhu saw Jiang Wu as a tool to win favor. She secretly hated that Jiang Wu wasn’t born a boy and treated him badly.
Sun Xinang first told Prince Cheng’s people about this. She thought they might ask her to help Jiang Wu secretly. But instead, Prince Cheng told her to go along with Liu Baozhu’s ways—make Jiang Wu suffer but not die.
This was very like the task they got on the road to exile.
Sun Xinang believed Prince Cheng would use Jiang Wu as a symbol for his rebellion. After Jiang Wu suffered a lot and hated the royal family, Prince Cheng could say: his daughter was swapped at birth by the Empress, forced to live as a boy, abused, and exiled by the Emperor. It sounded like a tragic story that called for justice.
Of course, Sun Xinang wasn’t telling Tan Wang royal secrets just to gossip.
With Jiang Wu with them, Tan Wang could use him to get close to Prince Cheng or the Second Prince. Xu Lv had said the Second Prince might send people to Linzhou. Jiang Wu was a quick way to reach them.
As for how to do it, Sun Xinang was happy to plan with Tan Wang later.
Tan Wang stayed silent for a long time and refused. He then killed Xu Lv, who was crying and laughing.
After Xu Lv died, Sun Xinang stopped trying to persuade Tan Wang.
She carefully said a few things. When she saw Tan Wang wouldn’t spare her, she cried for real, much harder than before.
Sun Xinang begged Tan Wang to listen. She said she wasn’t bad from the start. As a slave of the Liu family, she had no choice. The Liu family forced her to do bad things by holding her son. Prince Cheng did worse the same way. For her son, what could she do?
She couldn’t love the swapped child. In fact, she hated him. She went from visiting her real son twice a month to only once every three months.
Liu Baozhu noticed she seemed less attached to her child and asked why. Sun Xinang had to lie, saying boys don’t cling to their mothers. Liu Baozhu believed her and even sent her to Marquis Xuan Ning’s mansion.
Liu Yaozu forced her to have a daughter.
The children with her: one wasn’t hers, the other she didn’t want. Her real son was still with Prince Cheng.
Sun Xinang gave up her schemes. She kowtowed to Tan Wang and begged for a proper death. She feared if she died like a runaway, it might hurt her son.
Tan Wang agreed.
Du Yinsui didn’t know what story Tan Wang would tell everyone tomorrow, but she didn’t care.
On the way back, Du Yinsui thought about the Empress—who was supposed to be Jiang Wu’s mother but was cruel and didn’t care. She wondered if the Empress knew Jiang Wu’s real background. She also thought about the Emperor, who always schemed, and Prince Cheng, who might be Jiang Wu’s father but was also bad.
In the palace, Jiang Wu lived in fear, used as a pawn. Now in exile, the road was full of plots, still a pawn. Fine, is this how it’s supposed to be?
Jiang Wu, what can you do to suffer less tomorrow…
Du Yinsui sighed deeply. Her fingers twitched, but she didn’t get up to feed Jiang Wu more fruit.
She was so afraid that Jiang Wu’s past was all darkness, and meeting her might be like drinking poison to quench thirst—harmful.
