Chapter 158: Qi Min

The Regent’s face turned cold and gloomy, shrouded in a layer of darkness.

Since he took power, no one had dared to bargain with him.

If it were anyone else, he would have taken what he wanted by force.

But the troublesome person in front of him was Qi Min’s daughter!

“If you refuse to cooperate with the treatment, you won’t live many more days anyway. You might as well go underground and ask my mother yourself.”

Su Wan held the box tighter against her chest, her eyes showing a hint of wariness, as if fearing that the Regent would stop at nothing to snatch it back. “You can’t take it from me. If it’s something I don’t want to give, I’d rather destroy it than let someone else have it.”

The veins on the Regent’s forehead throbbed, his fingers tightened, and the figurine in his hand dug painfully into his palm.

Su Wan saw the bulging veins on the back of his hand and felt the terrifying aura emanating from him, making her nervously swallow her saliva.

She was unsure if the Regent would turn hostile and ruthless; if so, she would have to think of another way.

The Regent’s gaze was as sharp as a knife, seemingly about to tear apart Su Wan’s facade of calm. Just as she was about to buckle under the pressure and consider proposing a compromise, he made his move.

He suddenly shifted his gaze, lowering his eyelashes to look at the figurine in his hand, and sneered coldly, “Reaching out for something you can’t have is pointless.”

Su Wan was stunned, but she somehow understood the meaning behind the Regent’s words.

He couldn’t have Qi Min, so this marriage contract meant nothing to him.

So, he didn’t want it anymore.

Su Wan’s heart ached as if an invisible hand was tightly gripping it.

For someone as lofty and powerful as him, who could command the winds and call the rain, everything seemed meaningless without Qi Min by his side.

“Don’t you want to visit Xiliang?” Su Wan, grasping at straws in desperation, only wanted to spark some will to live in the Regent. “I learned from Qi Guang that my maternal grandmother was from Xiliang, and my mother was half Xiliang. Last time, when I visited Taoist Temple, I happened to meet Jiu Yu, and his sister said I resembled her aunt.”

She lied through her teeth, saying, “When Qi Guang heard this, he said my mother’s wish was to visit Xiliang once in her lifetime, to see where my grandmother lived.

Don’t you want to go there, to experience the local customs? You could even talk about it on the Yellow Springs Road, tell my mother she owed you, and in the next life, she’ll marry you to repay the debt.”

The Regent sneered coldly, as if mocking Su Wan for using such childish tactics against him, finding them utterly unimpressive.

Gu Huaizhi spoke calmly and steadily about the news he received today: “Godfather, the spies from Xiliang have reported that the one who had a romantic relationship with General Qi was not a female general from Xiliang, but the Empress of that time, who has now abdicated in favor of her youngest daughter.”

Su Wan was shocked. Her grandmother was an Empress??

Then Jiu Yu and Jiu Ge are also members of the Xiliang royal family?

Gu Huaizhi dropped another bombshell: “The spy mentioned in the letter that the former Empress’s youngest daughter was lost at a young age and was only found and brought back more than ten years later.”

The Regent followed Gu Huaizhi’s words in his thoughts, initially not sensing anything amiss, as Gu Huaizhi never said anything unnecessary.

The woman of General Qi was the Empress of Xiliang, and the Empress had given birth to a princess who went missing at a young age.

He suddenly connected the dots: Qi Min was the daughter of the Empress and General Qi, and the missing princess was Qi Min?

Found and brought back more than ten years later, could it be…

His eyes trembled, and he abruptly looked at Gu Huaizhi.

“The year after Qi Min’s death, the former Empress of Xiliang found the missing princess and appointed her as the Crown Princess.”

Gu Huaizhi glanced sideways at Su Wan. All of this was still speculation; after all, the Empress of Xiliang did not have only one man in her life.

When the Empress personally led her troops into battle back then, she already had a male consort in the palace, along with several other male concubines, and had given birth to the eldest princess.

Su Wan’s heart was in turmoil, and she stared blankly at Gu Huaizhi. She heard every word and every sentence clearly, but she couldn’t grasp his meaning.

Did her mother not die? Did she go to Xiliang?

Given how much her mother loved her, how could she bear to leave her behind?

And the Regent… If she became the Empress, considering the Regent’s feelings for her, he would surely be willing to go to Xiliang.

Impossible—

The words Su Wan wanted to rebut got stuck in her throat.

She suddenly thought, could this be Gu Huaizhi’s way of trying to stir up the Regent’s will to live? Was he deliberately releasing this information to confuse the Regent?

If the Regent went to Xiliang to verify the claims, by then, the poison in his body would have already been cured. Could he still end his own life then?

Su Wan suppressed the surging emotions in her heart, planning to thoroughly verify everything once she returned.

She forced a smile and asked, “Are you saying my mother became the Empress?”

“It’s just a guess,” Gu Huaizhi said, glancing at the Regent who was lost in thought, then timely threw out another question, “If Qi Min had faked her death back then, someone at her funeral would have noticed something amiss.”

Su Wan was stunned, her gaze complex as she looked at Gu Huaizhi, not quite understanding the meaning behind his words.

Was he trying to tell the Regent that the Empress of Xiliang was her mother, or was he attempting to dispel the Regent’s suspicions and simply inform him of her grandmother’s true identity?

The Regent, aware of some insider information, thought differently from Su Wan. Gu Huaizhi’s words weren’t meant to undermine but rather to prompt him to think even deeper.

After Qi Min’s death, General Qi used his influence to take Qi Min’s body from Su Jihong. Instead of a grand burial, he discreetly buried her in the Qi family’s ancestral tomb, without inviting colleagues or relatives to mourn.

The Regent suddenly stood up and shouted coldly, “Jiang Cheng!”

A dark figure swiftly appeared in the inner chamber.

“You go to Xiliang in person and investigate the Empress of Xiliang,” the Regent commanded, his hand hidden within the wide sleeve trembling uncontrollably. The cold blood in his veins seemed to heat up and boil at that moment.

The mere thought of General Qi sending the supposedly dead Qi Min to Xiliang made him desperately want to rush there immediately.

Seeing the Regent’s intense reaction, Su Wan realized that she had misunderstood the situation.

Gu Huaizhi, observing the Regent’s reaction, knew that he had taken the bait and was now contemplating the oddities surrounding the funeral.

Seeing Su Wan’s confusion, Gu Huaizhi leaned in and whispered in her ear, “The funeral of your mother was handled by the Qi family. It was a low-profile burial, and no one else attended.”

Su Wan suddenly understood. If that were the case, the speculation about her mother faking her death seemed even more plausible.

“Regent, are you willing to receive treatment now?” Su Wan hugged the box tighter and stepped forward a few paces. “Your condition is very serious. If my mother is truly still alive, you won’t even have the chance to rekindle your past relationship with her. As for matters of the next life, who would even remember? What if she ends up promised to someone else?”

These words pierced the Regent’s heart like a sharp blade, causing a pain that cut to the bone.

Su Wan let out a deep sigh and walked over to Gu Huaizhi’s side, her fingers tugging at his wide sleeve. “If the Regent doesn’t wish to be treated, I won’t force it. Let’s go.”

Gu Huaizhi glanced at the Regent, cupped his hands, and bowed, saying, “Godfather, please take care of your health. I, Tingyuan, will take my leave.”

The two exchanged a glance and began to head towards the door.

“Who gave you permission to leave?”