Chapter 5 — Truong Minh Lights Are Off

I flew in midair, following him. My ears were filled with the words "don't come" that my mother repeated over and over before she died. The cemetery in the southern suburbs is remote and desolate. Black smoke filled the sky, rising straight up, and the smell of burning bones and flesh made people nauseous. Next to the bone cremation pit were piled up countless broken and unclaimed remains. Tham Nghien Tu tightened the reins. When he turned around and dismounted, his legs felt weak. He fell hard onto the ground filled with mud and ashes. The old man guarding the pit quickly ran to stop him. "Quan, you can't go down into this pit!" "There has already been a fire today, the ashes of the unclaimed souls are all mixed together, completely unrecognizable." Tham Nghien Tu pushed him away. He took the golden token from his waist and shouted with bloodshot eyes. "Open the hole! Open the hole for me!" The fire in the hole had just gone out, but the inside still radiated a scorching heat. Tham Nghien Tu rushed directly to the ash pile. He knelt on the dirty ground, not caring whether it was hot or not, using his bare hands to rummage through the ashes and broken porcelain pieces. The sleeves of the bright red wedding dress were stained dirty with black ash. The white fingers were cut with blood by the porcelain shards. He seemed to feel absolutely no pain. I stood next to him, silently watching him go crazy. Finally he bowed his head. Finally, he knelt down on the ground to look for me. But my mother can never be seen again. The old man guarding the pit really couldn't see anymore. He sighed, turned around and went into the old room storing firewood, and brought out a porcelain vase with a large piece broken. "Quan, don't look anymore." "Last night someone brought an urn of ashes, he saw the three words 'Giang Chieu Tuyet' engraved on the bottom of the vase, and felt pitiful." "So he secretly kept half of it." "The other half was dumped into the pit and burned by people from the princess's residence." Tham Nghien Tu suddenly stiffened. He reached out his hands covered in blood and ashes and took the broken vase. His hands trembled so much that he could barely hold the light porcelain vase. At the bottom of the vase, there was indeed half a blackened wooden sign lying silently. On it, one can still vaguely recognize the three words "Giang Chieu Tuyet". Next to it was a torn death notice, half burned by fire. On the death note, it was clearly written: Giang Chieu Tuyet, exiled to Ninh Co Thap. C.h.t died of illness. Both hands are disabled, and there are old punishment marks on his face. Tham Nghien Tu stared at the words "death by illness". Tears that had been suppressed for a long time in his eye sockets finally fell drop by drop onto the death notice. The old man guarding the pit took out a piece of dirty torn cloth from his chest. "This thing... fell from the clamp in the vase." "It was full of blood, I didn't dare burn it." That's my blood book. Tham Nghien Tu trembled and received the torn piece of cloth. On the cloth there were only a few crooked words in blood, so pitiful that I couldn't bear to look at them. These are the words I used my crushed fingers, dabbing the blood in my heart, writing stroke by stroke. "Tham Nghien Tu, I did not lie to you." "I am about to die." "I beg you, please spare my mother." 7 Tham Nghien Tu hugged half a jar of ashes and returned to the capital. He did not return to the court, but went straight to the abbot of the capital's palace. In the monastery, my mother's body was still lying on the cold ground. In her heart, she was still clutching the empty urn that someone had stuffed into it. Tham Nghien Tu stood in front of the hospital door for a long time. He didn't step in. He just knelt like that outside the door. Raise the broken vase containing my ashes above your head. He bowed his head before my mother's body. "Lady Giang." "I have found her." His voice was so light that it seemed like if the wind blew through it, it would disappear. But my mother will never wake up to scold him for being blind again, nor will she

He bowed his head and begged him to investigate the truth further. That night, Tham Nghien Tu sent the elite force of Dai Ly Tu to depart that night. Use a horse to run eight hundred miles to transmit an emergency message, then go to Ninh Co Thap to check the old records of that year. Seven days later. The veteran soldier who was in charge of escorting me to my place of exile was brought back to the capital. When being led into Dai Ly Tu, the veteran soldier raised his head to look at Tham Nghien Tu. The first sentence was a sarcasm. "Master Shen, are you finally willing to ask how Miss Giang died?" Tham Nghien Tu sat on the street, his face as pale as a dead person's. He tightened his grip on the armrest. "Say." The old soldier took out an old, yellowed book from Ninh Co Thap from his chest. "When Miss Giang arrived at the place of exile, she had a high fever that wouldn't stop." "The burns on her face were all rotten, giving birth to maggots, her ten fingers were so broken that even chopsticks couldn't hold them." "But she still knelt in the snow, kowtowing her head and begging us to write a letter on her behalf." "The first letter." wrote to Mrs. Giang." "She said that here she was well fed and warmly clothed, completely pain-free, told Mrs. Giang absolutely not to cry." "The second letter was written to Dai Ly Tu." "She said that the case of Giang family colluding with the enemy had other internal details, please be re-tried." "The third letter is written to you." The veteran stopped, looking straight into Tham Nghien Tu's eyes.