Ning Dao Covered with Snow

Chapter 378 Love Letter
Yan Ciwan lowered her eyes to look at the silver hairpin in her hand. Perhaps because of the angle, she suddenly noticed two small characters engraved on the edge of the hairpin. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it was Xiao Wang's handwriting: Wuju (无拘).

A slight stirring ran through her heart. She hadn't expected Xiao Wang to leave his mark on the silver hairpin; this little gesture was truly endearing.

Because she discovered this little secret, Yan Ciwan was in a good mood, and even her enemy in front of her seemed more pleasing to the eye.

She said, "You've got it wrong. I came here today mainly to ask you some questions. Why are you so sure I'm not the daughter of the King of Xizhou? Do you have any proof?"

Instead of answering, Yan Tingyu asked, "Why should I tell you?"

"If you don't speak now, you may never have the chance to say it again."

Yan Tingyu was silent for a while, then suddenly said, "I can tell you, but you have to promise me one thing."

"You said."

"If you can see the Crown Prince, please tell him for me not to look for me anymore. I don't want to see him again."

When Yan Tingyu said this, her face was expressionless, but her eyes revealed a trace of sorrow.

Yan Ciwan nodded: "Okay."

Yan Tingyu let go of her hand, backed away step by step, and finally stopped by the stairs.

She touched the wooden stair railing and slowly said, "After the Princess of Xizhou passed away, my mother spent almost every day in the Buddhist hall, chanting the Rebirth Sutra in front of the Buddha statue. Even at night, she would still copy scriptures. I knew she had a habit of chanting Buddhist scriptures, but before, she would only go to worship Buddha on the first and fifteenth of each month, far from being as obsessed as she is now. I felt that my mother was a little strange, so I asked her if something had happened. She refused to say anything no matter what, until one night, I heard her talking in her sleep. She was muttering things like, 'Princess, don't blame me, I didn't mean it, I'm sorry.'"

Yan Ciwan never expected that Consort Ji was involved in this matter.

In her memory, Consort Ji was always a quiet and reserved person who rarely went out and rarely appeared in front of her lover. She had no demands for food, clothing and daily necessities and was an extremely low-key and gentle person.

That's why Yan Ciwan didn't notice Ji Cefei's unusual behavior.

Yan Tingyu climbed the steps one by one, looking at the stairs that stretched ever upwards, and continued, "The Princess died of illness, but Father suspects there's more to her death and has been sending people to investigate. I'm terrified that the Princess's death is related to Mother. If that's the case, once Father finds out the truth, neither Mother nor I will survive. I was so scared that I quickly woke Mother up, and under my repeated pressure, she finally told the truth."

The staircase inside the tower is spiral-shaped, with a handrail on one side and the other side against the stone wall.

Unbeknownst to Yan Tingyu, she had already climbed quite high, and Yan Ciwan had to look up to see her.

“My mother told me that before the princess married my father, she had a relationship with the current emperor. Unfortunately, they were not destined to be together and could not get married. But the emperor always remembered the princess. Even though the princess had married someone else, the emperor did not let go of her. He once sent someone to deliver a letter to the princess.”

Yan Ciwan pressed further, "What letter?"

Yan Tingyu paused, leaned against the armrest, looked down at Yan Ciwan, and said with a smile, "What else could it be? It's naturally a love letter expressing the pain of unrequited love."

Yan Ciwan's heart sank, and she continued to press, "How was it possible for the Emperor to deliver the letter to my mother so quietly? Was it because Consort Ji secretly helped him?"

Now that things had come to this, Yan Tingyu had nothing to hide, and she frankly admitted it.

“Yes, Mother was originally a woman specially bestowed upon Father by the Emperor. The Emperor asked her to help deliver messages, so naturally she had to obediently do as he said.” “How many messages did she deliver in total?”

Yan Tingyu said indifferently, "Not many, just two. The first letter was shortly after you were born, and the second letter was when the princess was seriously ill. She passed away not long after receiving this letter."

Where is the letter?

“The first letter was burned by the princess. After reading the second letter, the princess vomited blood and fell into a coma, and her condition worsened. My mother found the letter. Fearing that it would be discovered, my mother secretly hid it. After I found out about this, I forced my mother to take out the letter.”

Yan Ciwan's heart tightened. What exactly did the emperor write in the letter? Why did it make her mother so angry that she vomited blood and fainted?

Yan Tingyu immediately saw what she was thinking and took the initiative to say, "I already told you, it was a love letter. In the letter, the Emperor reminisced about the scenes from his past interactions with the Princess. He specifically mentioned that seventeen years ago, when the Princess came to the palace to express her gratitude the day after her marriage to Father, Father and the Princess were kept in the palace overnight. The Emperor said he would never forget the feeling of being intimate with the Princess that night..."

Yan Ciwan couldn't listen any longer and interrupted her description.

"enough!"

No wonder Mother was so angry; that dog of an emperor is utterly shameless!

Yan Tingyu seemed to enjoy seeing her so annoyed, and couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Heh, you can't stand this? You can imagine how angry Father was after reading this letter."

Yan Ciwan asked, "Did you show the letter to your father?"

“Yes, after I learned this secret, I couldn’t wait to run to Aye and tell him everything I knew. At first, he didn’t believe me until I showed him that letter.”

Yan Ciwan lowered her eyes. So what if there was a letter from the emperor? That was just the emperor's side of the story. If her mother really had something going on with the emperor, why would she have been so angry that she vomited blood and fainted after seeing the letter?!
“You know Aye's character better than I do. When he loves someone, he wants to give them the best of everything in the world. But once he discovers that he has been betrayed, that love will immediately turn into hatred. The more he loved you and the princess back then, the more he hates you and the princess after learning the truth. He wants to grind you two to dust!”

When Yan Tingyu said this, she deliberately looked at Yan Ciwan with a look of anticipation, hoping to see her sad and upset reaction.

But Yan Ciwan remained calm and composed, showing no sign of sadness on her face.

This greatly disappointed Yan Tingyu.

She clicked her tongue in disbelief: "You don't even have a reaction to being treated like this by your beloved father?"

Yan Ciwan said calmly, "In my heart, he is no longer my father."

Upon hearing this, Yan Tingyu was visibly taken aback.

She never expected Yan Ciwan to be so decisive and unilaterally sever her relationship with her father.

This was something she had never imagined in her life.

After a long silence, she finally asked, "Aren't you reluctant to part with it?"

Yan Ciwan retorted, "If he can be so heartless as to want to kill me, why can't I sever my father-daughter relationship with him? Just because he raised me, does that mean I have to let him slaughter me without being able to fight back?"