AUBTN -Chapter 190 The Princess of a Fallen Kingdom

Madam Lin pulled Su Hewan down to sit, but said nothing for a long while.

She simply looked at her with an extremely complicated gaze.

“My child… these past years… you’ve suffered,” she finally said, her voice carrying a faint, barely noticeable tremor.

Alarm bells rang loudly in Su Hewan’s mind, yet her expression remained calm. “Madam, why do you say that?”

Madam Lin seemed to realize she had lost her composure. She took a deep breath, regaining her dignified bearing, then took out a banknote from her sleeve and placed it on the table.

“This is the deposit. The remaining payment will be sent directly to your merchant guild by my accountant.”

She stood up, as if preparing to leave.

But in the instant she brushed past Su Hewan, a plain white handkerchief accidentally slipped from her sleeve.

“Oh my,” she exclaimed softly.

Instinctively, Su Hewan bent down and picked it up.

She was just about to return it when her gaze swept over one corner of the handkerchief—and instantly froze!

In that snow-white corner, embroidered in gold thread, was an incomparably familiar emblem!

It was exactly the same as the one she had seen carved into the cave wall—and the one on the jade pendant she always carried with her!

It was as if a thunderclap exploded in Su Hewan’s mind!

She abruptly looked up at Madam Lin, only to see the latter staring at her with an expression full of deep sorrow and expectation—

as though waiting for her reaction.

Suppressing the storm raging within her, Su Hewan handed the handkerchief back.

Her face showed just the right amount of confusion and puzzlement. “Madam, your handkerchief.”

As if she didn’t recognize the emblem at all.

Madam Lin did not take it. A trace of undisguisable disappointment flashed in her eyes—

but was quickly concealed.

“Thank you. You can keep it,” she said with a nod. Without another word, she turned and left.

Only after Madam Lin’s figure had completely disappeared—did Su Hewan hurriedly find an excuse and rush back to Yuyuan.

Inside the study, Shen Jue was reading a secret report.

Seeing Su Hewan push the door open with a pale face, he immediately set down the document and went to meet her.

“What’s wrong? Why do you look so pale?”

Su Hewan said nothing. She simply took out the handkerchief from her bosom and handed it to him.

Shen Jue accepted it. The moment his eyes fell upon the gold-embroidered emblem—they instantly turned sharp!

“Who is she?” His voice was as cold as if tempered in ice.

Su Hewan recounted every detail of her meeting with Madam Lin that day, without leaving out a single word.

By the time he finished listening, Shen Jue’s expression had already become extremely grim.

This so-called Madam Lin was definitely not the widow of some wealthy Jiangnan merchant.

Her appearance, her probing—had only one purpose: to confirm Su Hewan’s identity!

“Men!” he barked sharply.

An Eastern Depot agent appeared in the study like a ghost.

“Investigate! A woman named Madam Lin!”

Late at night.

The news brought back by the agent made Shen Jue’s heart sink even further.

“Reporting to the Governor—no such person found.”

“Among all registered merchants, officials, and nobles in the capital, there is no one surnamed Lin who matches. Household registration, property deeds—everything is forged. This person… is as if she appeared out of thin air.”

Out of thin air?

Shen Jue let out a cold laugh.

In this world, no one simply appears out of nowhere.

The other party’s background was clearly so deep that even the Eastern Depot could not reach it in such a short time.

Shen Jue realized that this matter was far more complicated—and far more dangerous—than he had imagined.

After a long while, a trace of resolve flashed through his eyes.

He walked to the deepest part of the study and activated an extremely concealed mechanism.

An entire wall of bookshelves slowly slid apart, revealing a pitch-black hidden door.

This was the true core of the Eastern Depot—the vault of top-secret archives.

Inside were records of every unspeakable secret since the founding of Great Wei.

Lighting an oil lamp, Shen Jue stepped inside.

He went straight to the far corner, stopping before a massive iron chest covered in cobwebs.

On the chest was engraved a character long forgotten by the world—Yuan (淵).

He opened the chest and took out scroll after scroll of yellowed parchment.

These were part of the highly classified documents salvaged by the first Director of the Eastern Depot from the imperial secret vault of the former dynasty, Great Yuan.

Shen Jue flipped through them one by one.

Finally, in an illustrated record documenting the private seals of the Great Yuan imperial family, he found it!

On the page was a clear depiction of that emblem—neither quite dragon nor phoenix.

Beside it was a line of delicate annotation in tiny script:

“The private seal of Empress Changsun, née Su. It symbolizes the harmony of dragon and phoenix, and the eternal stability of the realm.”

Empress Changsun… of the Su clan…

She was the Empress of the last emperor of Great Yuan!

Shen Jue’s heart skipped a beat.

Forcing himself to continue, he read on. At the end of that annotation, there was an additional line written in red ink—clearly added later:

“On the day the palace fell, the Empress gave birth to a daughter in Kunning Palace, and died of hemorrhage. The Emperor perished in flames. The little princess… disappeared. Disappeared!”

Shen Jue’s hands trembled uncontrollably as he held the scroll.

At that moment, every clue finally connected!

The former dynasty bore the imperial surname Changsun. The last empress was surnamed Su, and she gave birth to a missing princess.

And Su Hewan—not only bore the surname Su, but also carried a jade pendant engraved with the Empress’s private seal…

And then there was Madam Lin, the mysterious woman who had also been probing Su Hewan’s identity…

A chilling truth was on the verge of surfacing.

Su Hewan might not be the daughter of Minister of Rites Su Wenyuan at all.

That Su Wenyuan was likely, from the very beginning, merely a pawn—someone who adopted and protected the real princess to conceal her identity!

Su Hewan’s true identity—was the lost princess of the fallen Great Yuan dynasty!

The Great Wei dynasty had risen upon the ruins of Yuan, built through iron-blooded conquest.

Toward remnants of the former dynasty—especially those of imperial blood—their policy had always been: better to kill a thousand by mistake than let one escape.

This was not only a royal taboo, but also a sword hanging over the heads of all who were connected to the former dynasty.

If Su Hewan’s identity were exposed, the Empress Dowager would not hesitate to have her executed by dismemberment to eliminate future threats.

The young emperor, for the sake of securing his throne, would never tolerate her existence either.

And those hidden forces of the former dynasty—if they found her, would it truly be to restore her as their sovereign and rebuild the realm?

Shen Jue did not believe it for a second.

A dynasty that had fallen for nearly twenty years had long since lost the hearts of its people.

These people merely wanted to use her as a banner, a puppet—leveraging her bloodline to command old followers and fulfill their own ambitions.

When that time came, Su Hewan would only become a pawn in the struggle between various factions—powerless, and ultimately sacrificed without mercy.

No matter whose hands she fell into, what awaited her would be an abyss of no return.

Storms surged in Shen Jue’s eyes.

He could not let anyone find out!

At least—not now. Not even Su Hewan herself could know yet!

The fewer who knew, the better!

He would personally sever every possible lead that pointed to her.