Chapter 32 — Sacrificed by the Heir: Reborn as Yue Zhaoyue to Avenge Sixteen Years of Injustice

Half a year had passed, and the northern frontier had finally stabilized. Xie Linchu returned to the capital to report on the military situation. That day, as I stepped out of the Yue estate, I spotted him standing on the other side of the street. He was clad in worn, battle-scarred armor, and a jagged scar now ran from his temple down to his ear. Compared to the arrogant and untouchable noble heir he had once been, the man before me seemed like a complete stranger. He approached me, yet halted at a distance of three paces.

"Yue Zhaoyue."

I looked at him silently. His voice was hoarse as he spoke, "I have come to apologize to you." I did not respond immediately. He bowed his head, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword with enough force to turn his knuckles white.

"I know that an apology cannot undo what has happened. I do not ask for your return. I only wish to say that everything from those years was my fault. I should not have doubted you, I should not have shielded Shen Yuntang, and I certainly should not have sacrificed you time and again for the sake of her perceived fragility."

I asked him calmly, "Are you apologizing because you finally discovered I was the daughter of Yue Zhongshan, or because you realized Shen Yuntang was not worth the sacrifice of my life?" Xie Linchu stiffened. His lips parted, but no words emerged. Had my true identity remained hidden, had Shen Yuntang not turned on him to shift the blame, if the precious pearl in his heart had managed to maintain its facade of purity, would he have truly realized his errors? No one would ever know. Even he could not answer. I watched him for a long time, then whispered, "Xie Linchu, what I needed on that high fortress wall years ago was for you to cut the ropes that bound me." His face went deathly pale. "Not for you to stand before my grave years later and utter words of regret."

His eyes reddened. "I have dreamt of it."

"I know," I interrupted him. "Perhaps it was a dream, or perhaps it was a debt from a past life. But regardless of what it was, the person on those walls is dead. I am Yue Zhaoyue today. I do not need your salvation, nor do I require your remorse."

I walked past him. He did not reach out to stop me. A few paces later, a trembling voice came from behind me. "Then, can you forgive me?"

I stopped, but did not look back. "No."

The single word was light, yet it stripped the man behind me of his last vestige of hope. I do not seek revenge against you, not because I have forgiven you, but because my life from this moment on has nothing to do with you. You may live, you may earn glory, and you may become a better man. But none of those things can bring back the girl who once loved you with all her heart.

I continued walking. This time, Xie Linchu did not call out to me. He stood in the middle of the snow-dusted street, watching my silhouette vanish behind the gates of the Yue estate. It was a long while before he slowly sank to his knees, as if he finally understood that there are people who, once pushed out of one’s life, can never be retrieved, no matter how many lifetimes are spent in repentance. Three days later, he returned to the northern frontier. From that day forth, Xie Linchu never returned to the capital. It was said that he performed many heroic deeds and saved countless lives, but he never petitioned the Emperor to restore his title. He remained in that wind-swept northern fortress, living in the modest quarters of a common soldier. Every year, on the day of the first snowfall, he would stand alone upon the city walls. No one knew for whom he was waiting. Only he understood that the person he awaited would never turn back again.

After the testimony of Consort To was verified, the Emperor immediately issued a decree to surround the Prince Ninh’s estate. But when the imperial guards arrived, the Prince had already fled the capital the previous night. He took his trusted aides and escaped to his fiefdom, using forged military tallies to mobilize troops in a desperate attempt to use the northern border as a base to resist the imperial court. The great Qingzhou case dragged on for nearly another half-year. The names carved into the copper tablets were tracked down one by one. Some committed suicide in fear, others fled with their entire households, while others knelt before the High Court and confessed to the embezzlement of military supplies years prior. They had mixed sand into the rations, replaced uniforms with rotting rags, and delivered rusted weaponry to the frontier, all to divide the millions of taels meant to sustain the army.

Yue Zhongshan had uncovered the entire scheme. He had secretly gathered evidence and obtained a list of every official involved. Fearing that he might alert the mastermind, the Emperor had issued a secret edict summoning him to the capital. But the Prince Ninh learned of this first. He ordered Consort To to intercept and slaughter the entire Yue family, seize the wooden tokens, destroy the secret edict, and fabricate letters accusing Yue Zhongshan of colluding with foreign enemies. The northern soldiers whom Yue Zhongshan had once saved were branded as traitors. Some were exiled, some were expelled from the barracks, and others carried the stigma of treason to their graves.

Once the case was finally brought to light, the Emperor personally issued a decree clearing the names of all those implicated. The Prince Ninh was eventually captured at Han Guan. When he was brought back to the capital in chains, he still refused to plead guilty. He claimed that if he had seized the northern military power years ago, the throne would never have fallen to the current Emperor. But the copper tablets, the ration ledgers, the personal letters from Consort To, and the testimonies of over twenty witnesses rendered all his denials meaningless. The Prince Ninh was stripped of his royal status, demoted to a commoner, and sentenced to life imprisonment at the imperial mausoleum. Consort To was stripped of her rank and confined to the cold palace. Those who had directly participated in the slaughter of the Yue family were all executed according to the law.