Chapter 151: Comfort and the Truth Revealed

Shen Qianmo originally intended to lean against the head of the bed, reading a book while waiting for Meng Yuanheng to return, but she drifted off to sleep without realizing it. When she woke up, the sky outside was still a gloomy grey-blue, and she had no idea what time it had become.

After arriving in Jingzhou, she found herself growing increasingly prone to sleep. In her past life, working through the night was a common occurrence, but now she found herself astonishingly lazy. This was not merely due to the effects of pregnancy; more importantly, it was because Meng Yuanheng protected her so thoroughly, granting her a profound sense of peace and security.

Now, she was nearly three months pregnant, and thanks to Situ Gong's meticulous care over these past days, her health had improved considerably. Yet Meng Yuanheng remained overly cautious, refusing to let her do anything. Calculating the days, there were still more than six months left before her due date. Shen Qianmo truly worried that if she continued like this, she would soon become completely useless.

The bed beside her was cold. Evidently, Meng Yuanheng had not returned at all last night.

Perhaps hearing movement in the room, Luzhu pushed the door open quietly. Seeing that Shen Qianmo was already awake, she hurried forward to skillfully help her dress, speaking in a soft voice, "My lady, it is still early. Why did you not sleep a little longer?"

Shen Qianmo shook her head. "I cannot sleep anymore. Luzhu, did the Prince not return last night?"

Luzhu replied, "The Prince did not return from the Prefect's Mansion until the middle of the night. Seeing that my lady was already asleep and not wishing to disturb you, he went to the study. However... this servant thought the Prince's expression did not look well."

"I see." No wonder the book she had been holding had been put away and the blankets on her body tucked in so neatly; she had known Meng Yuanheng must have come in. Frowning slightly, she had a lingering intuition that something was amiss. It seemed certain that an event of significance had occurred last night.

After a brief silence, Shen Qianmo instructed Luzhu, "Luzhu, go and summon Yan Mo."

Not long after, Yan Mo—dressed in black with a cold and stern expression—appeared at the doorway, reporting in a low voice, "Princess, your subordinate Yan Mo."

"Yan Mo, come inside and speak." Back when Shen Qianmo had been abducted and taken to Wuji Island, it was Yan Mo who had been ordered to protect her secretly along the way. Therefore, among the Prince Xuan's secret guards, Shen Qianmo was most familiar with him. Yan Mo also held deep respect for Shen Qianmo, who possessed extraordinary intellect, remarkable courage, gentleness, kindness, and consideration for her subordinates.

Yan Mo pushed the door and entered. Although his expression retained its habitual coldness and severity, Shen Qianmo could tell that his countenance was far heavier than usual.

"Did something happen at the Prefect's Mansion last night?" Shen Qianmo asked softly.

Hearing this, Yan Mo's expression grew even gloomier. However, since he had originally intended to report the matter to Shen Qianmo anyway, now that she asked, he held nothing back and told her everything that had transpired in the dungeon of the Prefect's Mansion the previous night.

Upon hearing Yan Mo's words, Shen Qianmo stood stunned for a moment, her heart shaken to its core. She had originally thought that the secret imperial decree in Lou Xinyue's possession represented the truth of what had happened seven years ago, but it turned out to be far from the full picture.

Back then, when the former Prince Xuan, Meng Langqing, was fighting the Northern Di general He Yuanshan at Zhengyang Pass, he was accidentally injured. A military doctor accompanying the army, acting under the orders of the Mingde Emperor, took advantage of treating Meng Langqing's wounds to poison and assassinate him. In the end, however, the doctor's conscience was pricked, and he did not take Meng Langqing's life, leaving him poisoned and comatose instead.

The true mastermind behind the deaths of Meng Langqing and the one hundred thousand soldiers of the Meng family army was... Meng Tianxu!

And the person Meng Tianxu truly intended to harm was Meng Yuanheng. When Meng Yuanheng learned that his adoptive father had been heavily wounded on the battlefield, he volunteered to rush to Jingzhou City for reinforcements. Meng Tianxu seized this opportunity to collude secretly in the shadows with Mo Hanshan, dispatching men from the Shadowless Gate to infiltrate Meng Yuanheng's reinforcement troops using disguise techniques. At the Angry Ghost River, they secretly sealed off the passage, released poison, and set fires, causing the former Prince Xuan, Meng Langqing, to succumb to his poison and die. The Meng family army soldiers trapped at the Angry Ghost River were completely wiped out. Meng Yuanheng had only managed to neutralize a portion of the poison and save his life by relying on the Exquisite Blood Jade he wore, yet he still ended up with paralyzed legs and a shattered, scarred body.

That being the case, Mo Hanshan and Meng Tianxu had long been in collusion, and the previous predecessor's orphan Yin Zhan and the Wuji Sect were likely mere pawns utilized by Mo Hanshan.

Although Shen Qianmo had made certain guesses in her heart prior to this, hearing the unvarnished truth with her own ears still left her immensely shocked.

Shen Qianmo recalled Meng Tianxu's appearance. He had delicate, feminine features, pale skin, and a pair of narrow, slender phoenix eyes that always held a gloomy and murky gaze. Such a person typically possessed a paranoid personality, a ruthless mind, and unfathomable depth. Yet where did such a deep-seated hatred for Meng Yuanheng stem from, driving him to commit such a vicious act?

Could the imperial family of Da Sheng truly not tolerate the House of Prince Xuan, insisting on eradicating them utterly? If the founding emperor had a spirit in heaven, upon learning that his descendants treated the hereditary Prince Xuan—whom he had personally conferred by imperial decree—in such a manner, one wondered what his thoughts would be.

"How is... the Prince?" Shen Qianmo asked.

Yan Mo's tone was low. "After returning from the Prefect's Mansion last night, the Prince locked himself in the study and has not allowed anyone to enter."

Shen Qianmo nodded. This truth dealt a blow to Meng Yuanheng far greater than the truth revealed by Lou Xinyue previously. He had spent seven bitter years investigating, only to discover in the end that this tragedy had been brought about because of him!

He would surely believe that if he had not insisted on rushing to the rescue at that time, perhaps his adoptive father, the one hundred thousand soldiers of the Meng family army, and so many of his fellow disciples from the Mo Sect would not have died.

It was his own self-will and negligence that allowed Meng Tianxu to exploit the opening. It was he who implicated his adoptive father and so many brothers and subordinates, sending them to an innocent grave in a sea of flames and ultimately leaving them without even intact corpses.

How could he possibly accept such a truth all at once?

The study was not far away. The door remained tightly shut, and the taciturn head guard, Dong Zheng, stood vigilantly at the post. Seeing Shen Qianmo approach, he was about to bow and greet her when Shen Qianmo raised a hand to signal him to stop.

Since Meng Yuanheng wished to be left in quiet solitude, she would not go in to disturb him. She had come here simply because she could not set her mind at ease, feeling that staying a little closer to him brought her peace.

Dismissing Luzhu, Shen Qianmo sat alone on the bluestone steps outside the study door, looking up at the perpetually grey and misty skies of the northwest, a faint ache of sorrow gripping her eyes. She let out a soft breath and slowly closed her eyes, her long, curled eyelashes growing damp before she knew it.

A fluffy sensation brushed against her hand. Shen Qianmo opened her eyes to be greeted by a pair of watery, emerald-green eyes.

"Xiao Guai." Shen Qianmo gently stroked the smooth fur of the emerald-eyed spirit fox and offered it a faint smile.

Xiao Guai let out a few soft, whimpering cries. Sensing the sorrowful aura radiating from its master, it stopped making a fuss and quietly curled up in Shen Qianmo's embrace.

It was not until noon that the study door behind her creaked open. Shen Qianmo hurriedly stood up and turned around, meeting a pair of bloodshot eyes and the extreme exhaustion etched across the man's face.

This fellow had surely not closed his eyes for even a single moment since last night. Shen Qianmo sighed softly. Without waiting for him to speak, she stepped forward, took his hand, and said gently, "A-Heng, come back to the room and sleep for a while. We can talk about everything else after you wake up, alright?"

Meng Yuanheng nodded, reaching out to pull Shen Qianmo gently into his arms. His resolute chin rubbed softly against her soft hair, and the familiar, ethereal fragrance drifted to the tip of his nose, making his mood seem to ease slightly.

Having spent the entire night without sleep, the light, dark-blue stubble sprouting on his chin bore witness to his exhaustion and fatigue, making him look both decadent and alluring.

He was truly bone-weary. Before he had even recovered from the truth revealed by Lou Xinyue days ago, he had now learned such a reality from Rong Yunhe. Grief, resentment, fierce anger, self-reproach... various emotions intertwined and tangled, wearing down his mind and body. This dealt a double blow to a constitution already compromised by lingering toxins. How could he not be exhausted?

Upon returning to their bedchamber, Luzhu thoughtfully carried Xiao Guai away. Meng Yuanheng lay on his side on the bed, watching as Shen Qianmo carefully pulled the blanket up for him. Forcing open his slightly unfocused eyes, he grabbed Shen Qianmo's hand and murmured, "Mo'er, do not leave. Stay here and accompany me."

Shen Qianmo sat sideways beside him, gently patting the blanket over him and speaking in a soft voice, "Alright, I will stay with you. Rest at ease."

Meng Yuanheng gave a satisfied hum. His eyelids fluttered open and closed a few times before he finally drifted into a deep sleep.

Looking down at the man who still wore a tightly furrowed brow even in slumber, Shen Qianmo felt waves of heartache. Over the years, his inability to walk had forced him to live in seclusion within the estate and cultivate his mind, which had yielded some results. Otherwise, given his temperament, upon learning the truth from Rong Yunhe, he might have immediately raised an army to breach the passes and march straight into the capital to take Meng Tianxu's life.

Leaning against the head of the bed, Shen Qianmo closed her eyes, her delicate brows slightly furrowed as she calculated the future of the northwest.

Now that the truth of what happened seven years ago had finally come to light, the complete rupture between the House of Prince Xuan and the court of Da Sheng was a settled matter. From this day forward, the northwest would be the land upon which they relied to survive and rebuild their strength.

Quietly watching the sleeping man beside her, Shen Qianmo did not know what he would do once he woke up, but she knew that no matter what he chose to do, she would be by his side, accompanying him and supporting him.

"Father... Father... I'm sorry... It was Heng'er who harmed you..." Intermittent murmurs drifted from his lips, carrying a boundless sense of grief and self-reproach.

Meng Yuanheng's sleep was extremely unsettled. His sharp brows were knitted tightly together, and a thin layer of sweat coated his forehead, as if he were trapped in some terrifying nightmare.

Shen Qianmo gently wiped the sweat from his brow. Looking at his deeply disturbed sleeping face, her heart ached as if it were being tightly squeezed.

She understood how deep Meng Yuanheng's affection for his adoptive father was. Although Meng Langqing had known from the very beginning that Meng Yuanheng was not his own flesh and blood, ever since the boy's birth, he had treated him as his own, showering him with affection and instructing him in all manner of things. Conversely, his biological mother, Su Mei, due to being ruthlessly abandoned by the Mingde Emperor, showed little favor toward a child born at such an inopportune time. Thus, since childhood, Meng Yuanheng's affection for his adoptive father ran far deeper than that for his mother.

Precisely because of this, one could well imagine how intense the self-reproach and resentment raging within his heart must be at this moment.

With a faint, lingering sigh, Shen Qianmo drew closer to him, tucked the blanket more securely around his shoulders, and gently patted his back, murmuring softly beside his ear, "A-Heng, do not grieve. This is not your fault... Not your fault..."