The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

It was as if a thunderclap from the heavens had exploded right next to my skull, or like the deafening roar that splits the chaos when the sky and earth shatter.

Qi Si stood frozen in the deep snow, his blood seemingly frozen and flowing backward, even the howling north wind seemed to hold its breath and stand still.

His pupils shrank to pinpoints, and a sharp numbness coursed through his limbs and bones.

That was the tremor of the soul before the body when the shock was too intense; it was the only sensation when the world was upside down.

What did he hear?

Yaoyao said... Lin'er and Ranran...

Is it his child?

Have he and Yaoyao already formed an unbreakable blood bond amidst the twists and turns of this mortal world? Or are they two?

Shock was like ice water poured over his head, chilling him to the bone; bewilderment was like a fog obscuring his vision, even the flickering candlelight under the eaves blurred into streaks of tears.

Unbelievable emotions surged within my chest, causing a sharp pain in my heart, but ultimately coalesced into a torrent of burning ecstasy that crashed down like a dam breaking, utterly destroying all barriers of reason.

He suddenly turned his head to look at Pei Yanchuan under the corridor.

The slender young man stood in the dim light, the candlelight flickering on his handsome profile, his usually calm eyes now filled with a turbulent sea just like his own.

Yes.

The sharpness of his eyebrows like swords, the unyielding lines of his jaw like those carved by a knife, and even the stubbornness revealed when he slightly pursed his lips.

Where is Pei Zhao's gentle and refined demeanor?

It was clearly the same young Qi Si from twenty years ago, the one who refused to admit defeat on the training ground and stood proudly alone at the palace banquet.

Had he never noticed the similarities in those subtle clues before?

No, he just doesn't dare.

He simply felt that it was nothing more than his own ridiculous and delusional wishful thinking, an illusion that grew during his long and arduous wait.

After all, he seemed to be forever out of luck throughout his life.

What you want always slips away just before you can touch it;

What we cherish often becomes a memory when we look back.

He was forever missing out on his beautiful daughter, missing out on the best years of his life, missing out on the days and nights they could have spent together.

How could he possibly... how could he be so favored by Heaven, already possessing the offspring of the two of them?

This is not divine mercy.

This was clearly his beloved Yaoyao, a perpetual lamp lit for him in the boundless darkness, silently continuing the bloodline and deep affection for him in the years he was unaware of.

He looked eagerly into the depths of the warm pavilion.

As the curtains hung low, a glimpse of a light green hem in the shadows revealed a lovely little girl, timidly hiding behind the door, only her clear, deer-like eyes showing.

In an instant, memories flooded back like a tidal wave.

The palace banquet from many years ago suddenly flashed into my mind.

Inside the magnificent Linyun Palace, the sounds of silk and bamboo instruments lingered around the beams and pillars, and amidst the clinking of cups, there was only the fragrance of fine clothes and the swaying of hair.

Mei Ruohuan, dressed in a plain white gauze palace gown, sat side by side with Pei Zhao at the lower end of the table.

The lamplight danced on the white plum blossom pinned in her hair, giving it a warm glow.

She tilted her head slightly to listen to Pei Zhao's whisper, a faint smile playing on her lips.

The smile that fell into his eyes was more dazzling than all the bright palace lanterns in the hall.

At that moment, jealousy, like a venomous snake, gnawed fiercely at his heart, causing him so much pain that he almost crushed the glass cup in his hand.

Midway through the banquet, he excused himself and intercepted her deep in the snow-covered plum grove.

Moonlight filtered through the slanting branches, casting dappled patterns of silver light. His eyes were red as he grasped her cold wrist, his voice hoarse and barely audible: "Yaoyao, let's get a divorce. Marry me."

She turned her face away, her long eyelashes casting a trembling shadow beneath her eyes: "Ah Si, I am already married."

"I don't care!" he almost growled, a raging fire simmering in his chest, suppressed for years. "Do you know how long I've waited? From the day I first met you as a young boy, I've wanted to be with you forever—I wanted to stand proudly beside you, to see you every morning when I opened my eyes—"

"But I am Mrs. Pei now."

These words, though seemingly casual, were like a poisoned dagger, precisely piercing the softest part of his heart.

That night he drowned his sorrows in alcohol and got completely drunk.

The alcohol, mixed with despair, burned away the last vestiges of his reason, and he led her to a secluded, warm room.

He kissed her with a ruthless intent, as if he wanted to pour all the endless waiting, insane jealousy, and resentment of unrequited love into this almost predatory kiss.

She didn't push him away.

The overwhelming joy of that moment overwhelmed him, making him mistakenly believe that she also had feelings for him, even if only a little—that would be enough for him, a man who had been wandering in darkness for too long, to be willing to be a moth drawn to the flame.

He knew he was a thoroughly bad person!

He knew perfectly well that what he was doing violated ethics and morality!

He didn't care about right or wrong, he just wanted her!

As long as the woman in front of him has haunted his dreams for half his life!

The moonlight was beautiful that night.

Outside the window, sparse shadows slant across the room, and a subtle fragrance wafts through the air; inside, candlelight flickers, filling the room with warmth.

She trembled gently in his arms, her tears silently soaking the fabric of his clothes, the warmth seeping through the brocade and burning into his heart.

"Slender and graceful..."

He called her name again and again, his low, hoarse voice trembling with sobs, as if he wanted to etch those two words into his very bones and soul.

If only he had known...

If he had known all along that she and Pei Zhao were only husband and wife in name only and had never had any physical intimacy, how could he have allowed her to stay at the Pei residence for even one more day?

How could we miss the time when Lin'er was learning to speak and take her first steps?

How could we leave the mother and her two children to endure the vicissitudes of life alone amidst the storms of life?

What shocked him even more, and made his internal organs clench, was Pei Zhao.

His best friend, whom he once considered a rival in love but later felt guilty towards, had been quietly raising his child all along.

He treated his children as his own, teaching them with utmost care, and even on the eve of his death in the fire, he was still planning for the survival of his children.

In those years, he took Pei Yanchuan under his wing and personally raised him, devoting all his energy to him.

Sometimes, when the night is quiet and I look at the silhouette of the boy studying hard under the lamp, I would think to myself with a self-deprecating smile: "Qi Si, Qi Si, you are so magnanimous as to tutor your rival's child. How absurd and ridiculous."

Little did he know that the person he had poured all his heart and soul into cultivating was his own eldest son.

No wonder.

No wonder I always felt an inexplicable affinity and closeness with that child.

His gentle and refined demeanor was inherited from Pei Zhao's careful teaching, but the sharpness in his eyes, the decisiveness in his actions, and the stubbornness in his bones that refused to bow down—clearly showed that he had the blood of the Qi royal family flowing through his veins.

The Mei family's aloofness and integrity, Pei Zhao's magnanimity, and the Qi family's sharpness and persistence.

Such dazzling brilliance was actually emanating from Pei Yanchuan.

"Lin'er, Ranran."

Mei Ruohuan's voice was as soft as melting snow in early spring, and her gaze gently fell into the depths of the curtains, carrying the tenderness and pity unique to a mother.

"Come out. He is your biological father. From now on, you will no longer have to... wander from place to place."

A small, fair hand timidly lifted a corner of the brocade curtain in the warm chamber.

Her light green skirt peeked out like tender buds just beginning to bloom in early spring, followed by her small head with its delicate double buns.

The little girl was about four or five years old. Her snow-white cheeks were framed by a pair of moist eyes, like a newborn fawn in the forest, filled with curiosity and timidity.

She first glanced at Mei Ruohuan, and after receiving a gentle nod from her mother, she quietly looked at the tall, unfamiliar man standing in front of the door, whose face was covered in tears.

The snowy night was silent.

There was silence for a long time.

She gently tugged at her brother Pei Yanchuan's sleeve, tilted her small face up, and spoke in a voice like a fledgling bird's first cry, delicate yet clear:

"Brother... will this father... be like those bad people before, and beat Ranran?"

The voice was extremely soft.

Light as the first snowflake falling from the eaves, it melts quietly before even touching the ground.

It was like a blade tempered with ice for a thousand years, suddenly piercing into the softest part of Qi Si's heart, and the chill instantly spread to his limbs and bones.

His body trembled violently, and he almost staggered and knelt down.