TNIBFT -Chapter 219 The Woman in My Memory

Ye Tian’s expression of anger slowly calmed.

Shock.

And a tangle of conflicting emotions.

Shangguan Ning looked at Ye Tian’s face, feeling a faint sense of satisfaction. In her mind, the once-godlike majesty of the Emperor had been discarded by Ye Tian as if he were tossing aside an old shoe, showing not a trace of sentiment.

Shangguan Ning continued, “Back then, her father had just passed away, and there were uncles in the family eyeing the inheritance. She was alone outside, facing both family pressure and malicious gossip, surrounded on all sides. The doctor told her that her body, already weakened and carrying residual toxins, was at its limit after giving birth three times. Her life was in danger.”

Her tone was calm. She looked up at Ye Tian, recalling the day Qin Fengyi gave birth, her eyes reddening, and she continued, “That night, the thunder and lightning could not cover her screams, Ye Tian…”

“As a mother, doesn’t she deserve that?”

“If she hadn’t risked her life to give birth to three children, where would your children have come from?”

Shangguan Ning pressed forward relentlessly.

Ye Tian didn’t know what to say. His mind flashed with the face of Meng Yuquan.

Her skin was like ice and jade.

Exquisite and unmatched.

Her pair of phoenix-like eyes carried extraordinary authority. Her gaze always seemed to look down upon the world, transcending everyone, as if there was nothing she could not accomplish in this world.

Someone like her—just to give birth—would actually…

In Ye Tian’s mind, the images flickered like a television with a broken signal.

A shabby wooden house.

Snow-covered ground. A woman with flowing black hair sat on the bed with her back to Ye Tian. Her back was pale and flawless, like fine white porcelain, marked with a few scars. Ye Tian’s heart ached. She gave him a familiar feeling, and he was certain this was Meng Yuquan.

Ye Tian shook his head, trying to recall more clearly.

“Ah…”

His head felt like it would split apart. Ye Tian slapped his own head, his features twisted in pain.

A moment ago, Shangguan Ning had been pleased at the guilt she thought Ye Tian felt.

Now she realized she had caused trouble.

Shangguan Ning rushed forward in panic: “Ye Tian?”

“Ye Tian?”

Seeing Ye Tian clutching his head in pain and staggering into a corner, she panicked: “Ye Tian, what’s wrong?”

“Someone, help!”

“Hurry, someone help!”

At this moment, Ye Tian was immersed in memories. In the scene, the woman had her back to him and slowly put on her clothes.

“Your name is Ye Tian?”

“Son of Da Liang’s Great General Ye Zhengyang?”

“I will take responsibility for you. Come with me—I will marry you!”

“In three days, wait here. I will definitely come!”

The boy and girl from memory, speaking to each other, one line after another.

Ye Tian stepped forward, wanting to see Meng Yuquan’s face clearly. He reached out his large hand. In his mind, Meng Yuquan turned around.

It was a head, pale and bloodied, hair soaked and disheveled.

Ye Tian shuddered violently, as if a piece of his chest had been ripped away. He shouted, “Father!”

“Father!!”

Panting, drenched in cold sweat, Ye Tian slowly pulled himself out of the memory. He looked around in confusion, his whole body chilled. A wave of indescribable sorrow and hatred surged through his limbs.

“Father!”

“Father, what’s wrong?”

“Ye Tian, Ye Tian?”

Two children, their faces full of fear, ran to him. His daughter’s eyes were brimming with tears as she flew into his arms, sobbing, “Father, what’s wrong?”

Ye Yunting knelt on the ground, tightly holding Ye Tian’s hand, as if afraid he would disappear.

Fang Shenghu and Duan Qingshan, along with a few others, looked on with concern, wanting to speak but afraid of making things worse.

Seeing his daughter’s tear-streaked face, Ye Tian calmed himself and gently patted Ye Shuangxue’s back: “It’s nothing, nothing. Just a bad dream.”

“No need to worry!”

Ye Shuangxue clung tightly to Ye Tian, refusing to let go.

The others exchanged suspicious glances, looking at Shangguan Ning, who kept her head down.

Shangguan Ning felt guilty and didn’t dare to lift her gaze.

The atmosphere was tense; the air seemed charged with the scent of gunpowder.

Ye Tian stood up and smiled at everyone: “You all can leave. I’m fine, sorry for worrying you. Go and take care of what you need to.”

Old Duan, Old Yang, and a few of the staff gradually left the room.

Shangguan Ning lowered her head, preparing to step out.

Ye Tian’s peripheral vision caught sight of her back. His voice turned low and firm: “You can’t take the children. The children are my life!”

The answer was as expected.

Just as Shangguan Ning lifted her foot to leave, Ye Tian’s voice came again from behind: “Tell her, don’t worry. I will protect the children.”

This time, his tone was a little gentler.

Shangguan Ning didn’t turn back and walked out of the room.

Looking at his daughter’s delicate face, Ye Tian seemed to be seeing someone else through her—same eyebrows, same facial shape. A tightness rose in his chest, and he didn’t know how to deal with it.

“Daddy?”

Ye Shuangxue tilted her little head in curiosity, her big eyes fixed on him.

Ye Tian held his daughter close and muttered: “If your mother really came back, would you go with her?”

“No!”

Without a second thought, Ye Shuangxue rejected the idea immediately, then frowned slightly and asked: “Isn’t mother dead?”

“Uncle Fang said so.”

She turned her gaze toward Fang Shenghu, doubt in her eyes. Fang Shenghu’s honest face twisted into a slightly embarrassed smile. He spoke: “That was many years ago.”

“Actually… you were the one who told me this.”

Fang Shenghu’s gaze shifted to Ye Tian.

“Me?”

Ye Tian was taken aback; the question bounced back to him, and anyway, he couldn’t remember.

…

After dinner, in the hotpot restaurant.

Everyone had washed up and returned to their rooms.

Fang Shenghu held a kerosene lamp in one hand and shielded its light with the other. His eyes were alert as he scanned the surroundings. Seeing nothing unusual, he entered the room of the Zhu father and son.

“Uncle Fang.”

Zhu Zhongyi turned cautiously, greeting him coolly when he realized it was Fang Shenghu.

Fang Shenghu nodded, scanning the room. Zhu Heyu had just risen from a chair, and on the table lay a long, cold gleaming knife with a coarse cloth beside it for wiping.

Fang Shenghu stepped forward, placed the lamp on the table, and whispered: “The letter has arrived. That dog Zhao Boping will reach Sifang City in three days.”

“Three days?”

Zhu Heyu frowned.

Time was too short. They hadn’t prepared anything yet.

“He’s a lackey of Dazhou. When his master is angry, would he not rush over?” Fang Shenghu said mockingly, then sighed and continued: “As for Grand Eunuch Gao Defu’s death… he probably already knows it wasn’t done by the people of Dazhou.”

“So what?”

Fang Shenghu gritted his teeth: “Dogs like them frame the loyal and upright. Anyone who dares do such a thing deserves to be punished by all under heaven!”

“If only we had killed him last time!”

Fang Shenghu slammed his fist onto the table, making the long knife tremble.

In an instant, the room fell into dead silence.

Zhu Heyu’s face was troubled. Years of hiding in hardship had aged him; though only forty, he looked as frail as if his life were flickering away.

Zhu Heyu asked: “Our men have made contact secretly, right?”