Chapter 33 — Sacrificed by the Heir: Reborn as Yue Zhaoyue to Avenge Sixteen Years of Injustice

On the day the final verdict was announced, a heavy downpour swept over the capital. I stood before the gates of the High Court of Justice, watching the rain wash over the stone steps. I felt no surge of triumph as I had once imagined; there was only a profound sense of relief. It was as if a heavy boulder, resting upon my chest for sixteen years, had finally been rolled away.

Three days later, the Emperor issued an additional decree. Yue Zhongshan was posthumously honored as the Marquis of Loyalty and Virtue, and my mother was granted the title of a First-Rank Lady. All properties previously confiscated were restored, and the old Yue estate was renovated to its original glory. My father’s former subordinates had their military statuses and reputations reinstated; the survivors were compensated, and the state erected monuments to honor those who had perished.

When the day came to transport the ashes of my parents from Qingzhou, I personally accompanied the cortege back to the Yue family’s ancestral home. My father’s hometown lay in the south, a place of verdant mountains and a small river winding through groves of bamboo. According to the elders of the clan, my father had once dreamed that, upon retiring from official life, he would bring my mother back here to build a house by the water—to read books in the morning and tend to flowers in the afternoon. He could not return in life, so it was left to me to bring him and my mother home after sixteen years of absence.

On the day of the burial, the sky was clear. A breeze drifted from the river, carrying the faint, crisp scent of young bamboo. I knelt before the grave, placing handfuls of earth over the coffin with my own hands. There was no loud wailing. Behind me, Qing Xing stood weeping silently, while Co Nghien stood by, quietly holding an umbrella over me, even though there was not a hint of sun.

After the funeral rites concluded, I returned to the capital. The Yue residence was finished; the new plaque hanging above the gate had been inscribed by the Emperor’s own hand. The crabapple trees in the courtyard, the same variety my mother had loved, had been sent by the Princess Royal herself. I did not hire many servants. Aside from Qing Xing, I only retained a few elderly retainers who had served the Yue household in the past. Having wandered for over a decade, they wept the moment they stepped across the threshold, unable to stand from the weight of their sorrow.

That evening, I personally set up the spirit tablets for my father and mother. Before them, I placed the half-piece of wood I had guarded for so many years beside the other half found in my father’s cold grip. I slowly pressed them together. A soft "click" resonated in the quiet room. The two crescent moons joined to form a perfect, complete circle. The secret documents hidden within had been extracted as evidence, yet the exterior carvings remained pristine. In the soft candlelight, the bronze moon cast a warm glow, as if it had finally returned to where it belonged.

I gazed at the tablets before me. The words I had gathered in my heart all these years surged into my throat, leaving me speechless. I had once resented being parentless. I had wondered why they never came for me. Seeing Shen Yuntang held in her parents' arms, I had once believed there was no place in this world that truly belonged to me.

But today, I finally understood how deeply I had been loved. My mother had traded her life to secure a path for my survival. My father, until his very last breath, had clutched the wooden seal, leaving behind the evidence that would restore my honor. They had never abandoned me. The road home had simply been far too long.

I slowly knelt and kowtowed before the tablets.

"Father, Mother."

My voice trembled as I spoke.

"I have returned."

Outside the window, the night breeze stirred the branches of the newly planted crabapple trees. A single petal drifted onto the threshold. I looked up, watching the candlelight flicker, and felt the once-chilly room grow warm. From that day forward, I officially reclaimed the name Yue Zhaoyue. I was no longer the foster daughter of the Shen family. I was no longer the betrothed pawn sacrificed for others' gain. I was no longer the girl who had to endure indignity to beg for crumbs of affection.

I was the daughter of Yue Zhongshan. I was the mistress of the Yue estate. I was, at last, myself. The Qingzhou case had come to an end, but my life did not conclude with it. On the contrary, it was only then that I truly began to live.

Two years later, the Yue estate opened a medical clinic on the eastern street of the capital. It did not merely treat those who could pay; every month, for three days, it provided free medicine to the families of soldiers who had been implicated in the North Border military provision scandal. This had been my idea.

Co Nghien was the one in charge. He lacked neither wealth nor reputation. After he cured my mutism and helped the imperial court unravel the great Qingzhou case, many noble families had sought to invite him as a private physician, and even the Imperial Medical Bureau had expressed a desire to keep him. He had refused them all. He claimed he was not accustomed to places with too many rigid rules. Yet, every morning, he appeared on time at the Yue clinic, seeing patients until the very last person had left.

For two years, he had never spoken of repayment. He never mentioned the days we spent investigating the case. He simply stayed by my side. When I went to Qingzhou to erect monuments for the fallen, he accompanied me to tend to the elderly witnesses. When I returned home to renovate the ancestral hall, he brought medicine for the elders' rheumatism. When I fell into a high fever in the middle of winter, he sat outside my bedroom door all night, only to claim the next morning that he had merely been "passing by."

Qing Xing, overhearing this, rolled her eyes. "Young Master Co, you happened to be passing by the young lady's private quarters at the third watch, and you just happened to be carrying a medicine chest too?"

Co Nghien did not change his expression. "Those who study medicine always carry their supplies."

"And the blanket on your shoulders? Did you happen to be carrying that too?"

He looked at the quilt the servants had draped over him, fell silent for a long moment, and then replied, "Perhaps it was blown here by the wind."

From then on, whenever Qing Xing met him, she would deliberately stare at the sky, wondering which gale could possibly blow a cotton-padded quilt into the Yue residence. I said nothing to break his charade.