Chapter 116: A Nightmare Within A Nightmare
“Didn’t you sleep well again last night?”
After school, Yang Luo walked side by side with Mo Zheng, scrutinizing her complexion and asking in a low voice.
Although she had slept for a while in the Library, it couldn’t hide the exhaustion in her eyes.
Mo Zheng sighed: “Wei Jiao came last night.”
Yang Luo was startled: “What did he come to find you for?”
Mo Zheng said: “To sleep.”
Yang Luo was stunned. What?
Mo Zheng told her about what happened last night.
Wei Jiao slept on the rockery, whether truly asleep or pretending, he didn’t speak or move. She couldn’t leave or stay, so she simply pretended to sleep in the rockery too until almost dawn when Wei Jiao left and she went back. So she essentially didn’t sleep all night.
“This madman is deliberately tormenting you.” Yang Luo said in a low voice, then frowned again. “You’ve already told him your true identity. Your mother was killed, you were ambushed, your uncle’s abnormality—he saw it all with his own eyes. What’s there to keep chasing after?”
Probably because Wei Jiao still had the Zhao County Jiang Wangchun case on his mind.
Given that she had once appeared in Zhao County, she now gave a reasonable explanation, but it didn’t fully convince him, so his intuition told him to keep watching her…
After all, she really was still hiding one layer of identity.
Mo Zheng pursed her lips: “He’s a madman, can’t be judged by ordinary standards.”
Indeed, and moreover, Wei Jiao was the Emperor’s man. Maybe the Emperor told him to do this. Yang Luo lowered her eyes and asked in a low voice again: “If you tell him that Big Brother Zhang and the others are your people, will there be trouble?”
Mo Zheng smiled and said: “He must have guessed it long ago.”
So, telling him could show her own sincerity.
Moreover, although Zhang Sheng You and his wife were exposed to Wei Jiao, she still had more people in the Capital City.
Exposing some people in the open would better hide those in the shadows.
“Ignore him. We’ve said what needs to be said. Let him think whatever he wants.” She said to Yang Luo. “Better to think about the exam first.”
In three days it would be the end of the month, and the exam presided over by the Libationer was really coming.
Hearing the word “exam,” Liu Chan, who was walking ahead while silently reciting and memorizing her book, turned her head, her eyes somewhat terrified.
“What if I fail the exam? What should I do?” she said.
Mo Zheng reached out and patted her arm: “Do your best, and seek only a clear conscience.”
Liu Chan let out an “oh,” her terror dissipated, and she nodded: “Right, that’s exactly it.”
She turned her head back and continued memorizing her book.
Yang Luo chuckled, then gave a mocking smile.
This exam was aimed at them. Whether Duke Ding’an or the Emperor who agreed to let them enter the National Academy, both were prepared to eliminate them.
She didn’t know what tricky questions the National Academy would come up with this time, whether they would give Yang Hui the answers in advance again, or simply judge them as the lowest rank without even looking at the answer sheets…
“Everyone says do your best and leave the rest to fate.” She said in a low voice. “If fate is already decided, what’s the use of doing your best?”
“I don’t know.” Mo Zheng said softly beside her. “I haven’t figured it out yet.”
Yang Luo was interrupted and stunned for a moment. What hadn’t she figured out?
……
…….
Night enveloped the Imperial City, and lights were still burning in Princess Pingcheng’s Imperial Study.
The Emperor looked from afar without going closer, listening to the eunuch reporting beside him.
“The Princess said to tell His Majesty not to worry. She won’t stay up all night, but with the exam coming up soon, she has to cram at the last minute.”
“These past few days she’s been resting in the study instead of returning to her sleeping quarters, and surprisingly sleeps better.”
The Emperor shook his head: “How can she sleep better here?”
The eunuch smiled and chimed in: “Maybe because she’s sleeping among brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, the Princess feels very at ease.”
The Emperor couldn’t help but laugh, nodding: “Pingcheng is a child with her own ideas and sense of proportion. Since she has ambition, I must encourage her.” He instructed the eunuch, “You all just watch from around her. Don’t disturb her.”
The eunuch acknowledged, escorting the Emperor toward the sleeping quarters.
“Not just Princess Pingcheng. They say Princess Wuyang and Princess Nangong are also studying hard, not like before.” The eunuch continued.
Since the Emperor liked to see his children diligent, they would say more.
But the smile on the Emperor’s face didn’t deepen; he only gave a light hum: “Best if that’s the case. If they don’t perform well in this exam, they won’t need to go out and embarrass themselves anymore.”
The eunuchs didn’t dare say more.
The Emperor stopped, but didn’t look toward the Imperial Study. Instead, he looked outside the Imperial City. The night was dim, his expression dark.
Some people who appeared due to accidents should also disappear from sight.
……
…….
When she saw the person who shouldn’t appear show up again, Mo Zheng just felt a headache.
“Captain Wei, I really won’t go out at night anymore.” She looked at Wei Jiao squatting on the roof ridge and said seriously. “I’ve told you all my secrets.”
Wei Jiao, who had been motionless like a stone beast, turned his head. His brows and eyes, shadowed by the wide hat, lit up faintly: “All of them? The matter of your dad not wanting you—do you think it’s embarrassing and don’t want to say it?”
Mo Zheng’s hand hanging at her side stiffened.
She had confessed her “identity” to Wei Jiao, and she knew that before confessing, Wei Jiao must have already known her identity.
But Yang Luo’s birth father’s matter was publicly acknowledged as him having passed away long ago. No one mentioned it, and no one dared to ask.
Even Yang Luo herself only had a guess because of a jade pendant.
Wei Jiao actually said her dad didn’t want her—did that mean he knew who this dad was?
Did Wei Jiao investigate and guess this himself?
Or did that dad reveal it…
That day the Empress Dowager came to the National Academy, the Emperor came but left halfway…
The Empress’s behavior, the Emperor’s behavior, the Imperial Consort’s behavior…
Mo Zheng’s thoughts were in turmoil. The next moment, she hurried a few steps toward Wei Jiao, her voice nervous and agitated: “You, you know about my dad? I don’t even know myself…”
Wei Jiao didn’t respond to her again. After saying that, his gaze looked forward once more, overlooking the entire Duke Ding’an’s Mansion, motionless.
Of course he had guessed who Yang Luo’s dad was.
The true past between the Emperor and Duke Ding’an’s Mansion was concealed and buried by time, but he was in charge of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, specialized in investigating all sorts of privacy, so he naturally knew some things—like how the Emperor and Duke Ding’an’s Mansion were connected by marriage alliance. Looking at Marquis Yichun’s recent behavior, he was a madman, not a fool, so of course he could guess.
And Miss Yang—look at her behavior all along. Either she had reliance in her heart and feared nothing, or she harbored some evil intent and deliberately caused trouble. She must know who her dad was.
He didn’t say it because he enjoyed watching these people put on airs, watching what else they would stir up.
Listen, this dog thing was starting to babble and cover up. Wei Jiao listened to the voice by his ear.
“…My mother never mentioned it since I was little…”
“…When I went to my dad’s tomb as a child, my mother’s reaction was very strange…”
“…I knew something was off, sure enough…”
“…Captain Wei, what do you know? I trust you the most. Tell me…”
Wei Jiao sneered inwardly. The voice by his ear gradually faded, and the mansion before his eyes changed appearance—bigger than before, brighter with lights than before. Even late at night, it was full of people everywhere, with singing and dancing and all sorts of laughter.
He huddled in the dog kennel, surrounded by large and small hunting dogs growling and baring their teeth, but unlike the endless biting in his previous nightmares, they didn’t attack him without end.
They seemed to want to pounce, but feared the human figure nearby.
Wei Jiao lifted his head and looked toward the brightly lit front, where a radiant woman shone brilliantly amid the lights.
She smiled at him and extended her hand to him.
“A Jiao, Mom’s here. Don’t be afraid.”
Yes, his mother was here. Wei Jiao thought, what did he have to fear?
He hadn’t dared or wanted to approach this mansion before because it was the origin of his nightmares.
Ever since Qin’an City, he had been plagued by nightmares. He wasn’t afraid of them, but perhaps because he wasn’t afraid enough, too clear-headed, he always woke up right as he entered the dream.
He couldn’t fall asleep anymore.
After returning, he tore up a room full of books at the National Academy, but it didn’t help.
Unexpectedly, passing by Duke Ding’an’s Mansion that day, on a whim he stepped in, and surprisingly he could sleep well here.
Yes, this was the source of his nightmares, but it also held traces left by his mother.
Where his mother was, even nightmares became sweet dreams.
Wei Jiao reached out and grasped his mother’s hand, pressing his face into her soft palm.
“Mom, I’m sleepy. I’m going to sleep.” He murmured.
His mother’s hand gently stroked the top of his head.
Suddenly, a strange female voice whispered lowly by his ear: “Wei Jiao, your dad and mom both don’t want you.”
Like a bolt of lightning tearing through the scene before him, that lightning split him directly in two.
Wei Jiao opened his eyes and saw half of himself standing, the other half fallen to the ground.
The hunting dogs that had retreated grew enormously, turning into huge shadows with bloody maws wide open, pouncing over.
