Chapter 79
Chapter 79 Tianci’s Dad?
Tianci’s eyes were tightly shut, his face ashen, his lips colorless. Hua Qiyue was panic-stricken. The rims of her eyes turned red. She only heaved a heavy sigh of relief after seeing his face recover its color.
Huangfu Xuan giggled. “A person like you can be worried?”
Hua Qiyue ignored Huangfu Xuan and gazed silently at Tianci. She waited for him to calm down and re-open his eyes, clear as spring water. Only then did Hua Qiyue feel assured.
“Tianci, are you alright?”
Hua Qiyue asked gently. Tianci was in a daze and his gaze a little blank. He stared confusedly at Hua Qiyue, blinking his attractive eyes. Under the worried gaze of the trio, he finally parted his lips gently. “Mother… ”
Hua Qiyue heard him and instantly shedded tears of joy. She pressed Tianci violently into her bosom, her tears falling like a tilted jade basin with pearls, streaming down incessantly.
Her tears drenched Tianci’s clothes. Huangfu Xuan and Yun Shimo stared quietly at her. The most vulnerable side to a woman was finally revealed before their eyes.
“Tianci… Tianci… you can finally speak, you can finally speak!” Hua Qiyue cried out, weeping and laughing. She was like a mad woman.
“Mother!” Tianci’s voice was exceptionally clear, as naive and direct as it was before. Hua Qiyue released him and looked into his chubby little face. His delighted eyes bore no trace of any dark memories.
Splendid! It looked like Tianci had forgotten everything save for her, his mother.
Hua Qiyue embraced Tianci, weeping and laughing. The luminous night pearl throwing its gentle light on her face revealed her alluring gentleness.
“Princess Jinghua, it’s almost midnight. Aren’t you going back?”
A voice suddenly dragged Hua Qiyue back into reality. She was astounded. She was shedding tears of joy with Tianci in her arms and had nearly forgotten she was in another man’s mansion.
Hua Qiyue quickly pulled Tianci up. Tianci looked refreshed but his stomach was rumbling. “Mother, I am hungry! Starving!”
Hua Qiyue smiled at him apologetically. “Tianci, I’m sorry. Mother’s just overjoyed. I forgot you haven’t eaten. Let’s go home and take our meal.”
Yun Shimo snorted coldly. “Children can’t take hunger. Bingyi, get someone to serve the dishes.”
The corner of Bingyi’s mouth twitched. It was already so late. How could the cooks prepare supper? However, a Master’s order was divine. He had to bow and retreat.
Hua Qiyue did not really care. She brought Tianci to sit outside. Two pharmacy apprentice were secretly sizing her up.
Hua Qiyue’s eyes were terribly swollen from tears. They resembled peaches, but this made the formerly aloof her looked more human.
Huangfu Xuan curled his lips and said with dissatisfaction, “Brother Yun, I don’t believe you. Are you letting this woman stay to take their meal?”
Disbelief was all over his eyes. Hadn’t Yun Shimo quite disliked Hua Qiyue? Why did he allow her to stay for a meal? Letting an unmarried woman stay in a man’s mansion would surely invite gossip.
“She is my disciple,” Yun Shimo said calmly and quietly.
“What?”
Huangfu Xuan almost stumbled. “When did she become your disciple?”
“Today.”
Huangfu Xuan’s sight darkened and he almost passed out. Yun Shimo threw him a casual glance. “Boys, send Master Huangpu back to his mansion. He’s had too much to drink.”
Huangfu Xuan heard him and instantly jumped up. “Brother Yun, when did I ever drink? Hey… don’t drag me out. I have legs! I can walk myself!”
The two pharmacy apprentices still continued to pull at him. Huangfu Xuan knew that Yun Shimo wanted some time alone with Hua Qiyue and Tianci. He glared in astonishment at Yun Shimo, then snorted coldly, striding out.
Huangfu Xuan could not understand how Yun Shimo could fall for such a woman.
The appetizers for supper were some fruits and titbits. Hua Qiyue was not overwhelmed by the shock but her heart had momentarily missed a beat.
To serve fruits first for supper meant only one thing: the cooks had not prepared the dishes. In other words… Yun Shimo had made them stay for supper at the spur of the moment.
“Tianci’s situation should be quite steady now?” As she fed fruits to Tianci, Hua Qiyue asked quietly.
“Yes. He doesn’t need to take the Spring Reviving Pill any more. Tianci’s constitution is unexpectedly good… he needs only one-third of the normal dose to attain three times the normal efficacy.” Yun Shimo’s words greatly shocked Hua Qiyue.
She stared at Tianci eating fruits, escounced in the armchair. The mischievous fellow was blinking at her. “Mother, is this mansion very poor? Why are there only fruits here?”
Err…
The corner of Yun Shimo’s mouth twitched awkwardly. “Tianci, supper will soon be ready.”
“Who are you? Mother, is he my Dad?”
Tianci had lost his memory and would ask everything he did not know. He put a big question mark on everything and everybody.
Yun Shimo’s brows began to lift. Hua Qiyue snorted. “He’s not your Dad. Your Dad’s… ”
She stopped. She could not continue any more.
Should she tell Tianci that his father was dead or missing?
Because Hua Qiyue did not know. She did not know who had deflowered on her wedding night, who made her pregnant in her former life.
“I, the Prince, am your father,” Yun Shimo suddenly said quietly. He stretched out his hand to gently caress Tianci’s face.
Hua Qiyue spurted out all the tea in her mouth noisily.
Opposite her, Yun Shimo was sprayed all over with tea.
Crystalline droplets were on Yun Shimo’s face, making him looked very awkward. Bingyi immediately whizzed over to Yun Shimo’s side.
“Outrageous! How dare you disrespect His Highness like this!”
Bingyi bellowed coldly. He was about to draw out his sword when Yun Shimo waved for him to stop.
“Leave us.” Yun Shimo stared indifferently at Hua Qiyue who had almost spewed out blood. He quietly took out his handkerchief to wipe the tea droplets off his face.
Bingyi stared disbelievingly at Yun Shimo but could only retreat helplessly.
Tianci’s eyes lit up. He quickly threw down the fruits in his hand and tumbled into Yun Shimo’s arms. “Dad, you are so handsome… Why can’t I remember anything about the past? Is this our home, Dad?”
Yun Shimo continued to smile faintly. He treated the utterly stunned Hua Qiyue as though she were transparent.
Hua Qiyue widened her big eyes. That’s right!
She saw it right. Yun Shimo was taking Tianci’s tenderly into his arms. His voice was full of gentleness. With his benign, paternal look, he was not like the normal Yun Shimo at all!
Did he have a seizure?
Had he a screw loose again?
Hua Qiyue really wondered if she was in a dream. She pinched herself sharply on her arm. It hurts!
If this wasn’t a dream, what made him say and do this?
“Tianci, Father has a jade fan with gold threads outside. Go and bring it here.” Yun Shimo smiled lightly. Tianci jumped up immediately and dashed off.
He had completely regained his naivete and vigor of the past. This was the true Tianci.
“Yun Shimo, what do you mean by this?”
Hua Qiyue saw Tianci go and immediately leapt up. She interrogated Yun Shimo coldly.
Yun Shimo gave her an indifferent glance. “Do you want Tianci to know his father has been dismembered by horses? That his mother died unjustly in the hands of the Princess?”
Hua Qiyue bit her lip. That would indeed be terrible news for Tianci.
“Even if you keep mum, outsiders will tell.”
“I will make everyone shut their canine mouths.”
Yun Shimo stretched out his long and shapely fingers and took a slice of watermelon. He bit into it quietly.
A cold gleam flitted across his eyes. Hua Qiyue was momentarily stunned. Why was this man treating Tianci so well?
“Both Tianci and you are my disciples.” Yun Shimo added this finally.
Hua Qiyue went a bit crazy. Disciple? Again, he used the fact they were his disciples to do some things she could not understand.
She thought again. With Prince Nan’s power, it was not impossible for him to keep everyone’s mouths shut. That would benefit Tianci.
He was already six. If he learned that Zhou Zhicheng had been dismembered, that his real mother had been tortured to death by the Princess… although she was also his real mother, but in reality, the person who had given birth to him was her previous self…
In the eyes of outsiders, Hua Qiyue could never be his biological mother.
“Since you think this, you’d better keep to that tale. But I have to bring Tianci back to Hua’s Mansion. What can I say then?”
Hua Qiyue knitted her brows, looking at Yun Shimo in some perplexity.
Why must he be so good to Tianci and her?
Was it really because Tianci had the potential to become an alchemist? Did he help them because of this? When she found a cold, distant man like Yun Shimo extending her his helping hand, she found the fact unbelievable.
“Tell him this. You’re bringing him back to Hua’s Mansion because the Old Madame dotes on both of you.”
Yun Shimo explained, calm and collected.
Hua Qiyue was about to say something again when Tianci returned with the jade fan with gold threads. “Dad, your fan!”
His jade-like eyes, as dark as ink, were brimming with joy. He was looking forward to a compliment.
“Well done! Tianci is so obedient. Daddy is very happy. Are you hungry? Come, sit up here and take your meal!” Yun Shimo smiled gently. The servants had already brought in the prepared dishes, one by one.
Hua Qiyue paused. She sensed that she needed to investigate who had ravished her in her previous life.
Hua Qiyue had got men to investigate this, but Butler Wang had not given her any good news. It seemed like she needed help from a better qualified organization.
Hua Qiyue remembered that night: the wild kisses, the pain of being deflowered. Although she had passed out, she still had a faint sensation. The only thing she did not know was the identity of that person.
When she thought about this, Hua Qiyue felt quite vexed.
If it weren’t for that person, she would not have ended up in this predicament. But a scum like Zhou Zhicheng would fall for another woman even if that rapist hadn’t existed.
“Mother? Mother?”
“What’s wrong?” Hua Qiyue had a great fright. She was so deep in her thoughts that Tianci had to call her many times before she recollected herself.
Tianci smiled mischievously. “Just now, Dad says that we are going back to Hua’s Mansion. That’s Grandma’s place, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Grandma dotes on us terribly. Great-grandma dotes on us even more. She’s old. We must spend more time with her.” Hua Qiyue’s smile was faint. She had to cooperate with Yun Shimo and keep this lie under wraps.