The Splendid Brocade of the Painting Physician – Chapter 113

Chapter 113: The Past of Mother’s Life

“Did she sacrifice herself to protect you?”

Xiao Yuan’s words made Xiao Jinyu reflect: Could it be that the original owner’s mother, Xiao Luan, really died to protect her daughter?

The death was suspicious, yet there wasn’t a single trace of struggle.

Seeing Xiao Jinyu’s sadness, Xiao Xian couldn’t help but feel pain in his heart.

“A’niang, please don’t say anymore. A’yu also doesn’t know why Big Sister died…”

Xiao Yuan looked at Xiao Jinyu, her expression filled with grief and a hint of bewilderment, as if she was trying to see another person through her.

Suddenly, she cupped her face and murmured to herself:

“Possessing a valuable treasure invites disaster. My A’luan, she was intelligent since childhood. At the age of three, she already showed signs of precociousness. Her grandfather, Crown Prince Zhao Ming, was very fond of her. Not only did he personally teach her to read and write, but he also bestowed upon her a purple jade ring, symbolizing her status as the eldest legitimate daughter of the Xiao Clan’s direct line…”

Purple jade ring?

Hearing this, Xiao Jinyu was startled and couldn’t help but interrupt, “Crown Prince Zhao Ming? Grandfather?”

Xiao Yuan raised her head and nodded.

“Yes, our branch is indeed the direct descendants of Crown Prince Zhao Ming. My husband was the Prince’s eldest legitimate son, Xiao Huan, and A’luan was our eldest legitimate daughter, thus the Prince’s eldest legitimate granddaughter. At that time, Xianlang and your other uncles hadn’t been born yet, but the Prince was particularly fond of your mother, A’luan, and even treated her as his eldest grandson. It was he who made an exception to include your mother’s name in the clan genealogy and wrote a document granting your mother the right to freely marry in the future.

But when your mother was five years old, the Prince was framed and falsely accused by villains around him, nearly killed by the then Emperor Wu because of the wax moth curse incident. Fortunately, thanks to the strong advice of Chancellor Xu Mian, the Emperor did not investigate the matter further, but from then on, he developed a rift with the Prince.

No matter what the Prince did or how he did it, the Emperor was not satisfied. The Prince also gradually lost confidence due to the Emperor’s distrust and often felt depressed. Until one day, he unfortunately fell into a pond and contracted a serious illness, which eventually led to his death.

Before he died, A’luan was by his bedside. He said his biggest regret was not seeing A’luan grow up and was worried about her, so he entrusted all six shares of the Xiao Clan’s Xian Branch’s property to A’luan’s hands, temporarily managed by me. This included the literary works 《Selected Works of Literature》 left by the Prince, and a personal guard…”

Listening to Xiao Yuan’s narration, Xiao Jinyu also thought of some events from the former Xiao Liang Dynasty: Crown Prince Zhao Ming was erudite and benevolent, deeply loved by the people. It was unknown if it was because he was too perfect that even his father, Xiao Yan, felt jealous and disliked this impeccable eldest legitimate son.

Even when the adopted eldest son, Xiao Zhengde, defected to Wei, Xiao Yan could downplay the crime as if it had never happened.

But just because a wax moth with a curse was dug out from the tomb of the Prince’s mother, he wanted to severely punish the Prince. Even though he didn’t pursue the Prince’s crime later under the strong advice of his ministers, he also alienated the Prince from then on.

It was truly extremely biased!

After Crown Prince Zhao Ming’s death, there was another struggle for the throne. Xiao Yan, because of his dislike for the Prince and the excuse that a young emperor would find it difficult to inherit the throne, abolished the legitimate heir and established a concubine’s son as the heir. He appointed the third son, Xiao Gang, as the Crown Prince. It seemed that in order to compensate Crown Prince Zhao Ming, he enfeoffed all his sons as kings. His eldest legitimate son, Xiao Huan, was enfeoffed as the Prince of Yuzhang and appointed as the Inspector of Jiangzhou.

But strangely, Xiao Huan died suddenly and inexplicably on his way to Jiangzhou to take up his post.

As for how he died, history books did not record it in detail, leaving only four words:

Died suddenly in office!

It turned out that her previous guesses were correct. This branch of the Xiao Clan did have descendants of the Prince’s direct line, but it wasn’t Xiao Jian’s line, it was actually the original owner’s mother, Xiao Luan. Then Xiao Xian…

“Xiao Huan, your maternal grandfather, was originally the eldest grandson of the Emperor and should have been the heir to the throne. But because of the Prince’s curse incident, he was disliked by the Emperor. He was enfeoffed as a king and went to Jiangzhou to take up his post, but unfortunately, he contracted a serious illness on the way and died. The symptoms of the illness were even similar to the Prince’s…”

Speaking of this, Xiao Yuan took a deep look at Xiao Jinyu and continued,

“Because both your grandfather and father died from serious illnesses, your mother started studying medical books. At that time, she was only ten years old. She was very intelligent and within just one year, she was able to use medicine to treat people. It was also at that time that Hou Jing led his troops into Jiankang, hunting down the descendants of the Wang and Xie clans and other high-ranking families. The Emperor was besieged in Tai City, and the princes of the Xiao Clan were fighting amongst themselves for the throne.

It was your mother who led our branch of the clan to escape Hou Jing’s rebel army, leaving Jiankang and going to Jingkang. There, A’luan disguised the personal guards as commoners and built a fortified settlement in Jingkang to protect the clan.

It wasn’t until Chen Baxian replaced the Liang Dynasty and established the Chen Dynasty, and the world was initially stabilized, that she brought the clan and the personal guards back to Jiankang…”

Hearing this, Xiao Xian’s heart was in turmoil, beyond words.

✿✿✿

“Mother, if what you said is true, A’yu’s maternal grandfather, your husband, was Xiao Huan. Then who is the current head of the Xiao Clan, my father?”

“He is not your father either. It was after your father died that I discovered I was pregnant with you. It was precisely because of this that I, a pregnant woman, had to flee with several children under the age of twelve, while also trying to preserve the property of the Xiao Clan’s direct line. It was incredibly difficult!”

“It was your Big Sister who, despite the clan’s objections, abandoned some of the wealth and took those who were willing to follow her to flee to Jingkang. Among those who followed, there was your Fifth Uncle, who is now your father, Xiao Jian!”

Speaking of this, Xiao Yuan buried her head in her hands and cried heartbrokenly.

“It’s all my fault. A’luan didn’t want to return to Jiankang. She said that for the safety of the clan, it would be better to stay in Jingkang and live as ordinary commoners.

But I didn’t want that. I didn’t want the Prince’s direct line to remain anonymous. They said that the new ruler of the Chen State was a wise emperor and didn’t completely exterminate the descendants of the Xiao Clan. Those with talent could even hold high positions. I was blinded by greed for a moment and forced A’luan to bring the clan back to Jiankang.

But when registering the genealogy, because A’luan was a woman and still young, she couldn’t be the head of the clan. Your Fifth Uncle came up with the idea of substituting a concubine’s son for a legitimate one, asking me to testify and include him in Crown Prince Zhao Ming’s Xian Branch’s direct line. He also asked me to marry him so that we could rightfully be called husband and wife. I was also blinded by his sweet words, thinking that he would truly treat you as his own children. But who knew…

He actually wanted to marry the princess of the Chen Clan, and he had already secretly had a child with that princess! I wouldn’t have objected to him taking a wife and concubines. Before Princess Yunyin married into the residence, I also took in several concubines for him as he wished. I only hoped that he would keep his promise and let A’luan and your brothers inherit the Xiao Clan’s direct line.

But he actually used the Chen Clan as his backing, gradually swallowing the Xiao Clan’s assets controlled by A’luan, as well as the personal troops she personally trained!

What surprised me even more was that this Chen woman was even more vicious. Not only did she ruin A’luan’s reputation, but she also forced A’luan to hand over the Xiao Clan’s assets and the supervisory seal that controlled the personal troops, forcing her to flee to the north…

What I didn’t expect was… after A’luan left, she got everything from the Xiao Clan but was still not satisfied. She actually… she actually harmed my son…”

At this point, her voice choked with sobs, and she could no longer speak.

So that’s how it was!

Crown Prince Zhao Ming contracted a serious illness, his eldest legitimate son, Xiao Huan, also contracted a serious illness on his way to take up his post in Jiangzhou, and even later, the descendants of the Xiao Clan all contracted serious illnesses…

How could it be such a coincidence?

Someone wanted to completely eliminate Crown Prince Zhao Ming’s direct line!

Hearing this, Xiao Xian felt extremely uncomfortable. When he was young, he had also longed for the love and care from Xiao Jian. At that time, he only felt that this father was sometimes cold and sometimes warm towards him, and didn’t like him. It wasn’t until Xiao Yun was born that he saw the joy of a father towards his son on his face.

So biased, but it turned out that he really wasn’t his son.

“Grandmother, there’s one thing I don’t understand. Since it was the Prince’s personal guard, and it was always controlled by Mother, why did they betray Mother, the Prince’s eldest legitimate granddaughter, just because of a supervisory seal, and willingly serve Princess Yunyin?”

Note: Let’s talk about Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of Liang. He was a really strange emperor, but his life was also legendary. At the age of forty, he conquered the world, destroyed the Southern Qi Dynasty, and established the Southern Liang Dynasty. At that time, he was a true hero, and his reign was politically clear. It was also in this year that his eldest legitimate son, Xiao Tong, Crown Prince Zhao Ming, was born. It is said that Crown Prince Zhao Ming was too outstanding, so outstanding that his father, Xiao Yan, was jealous, so Xiao Yan really treated this prince unfairly. Xiao Yan was besieged in Tai City by Hou Jing and starved to death at the age of eighty-six. He really lived a long life and outlived many people. Otherwise, if he had passed the throne to the next generation earlier, maybe there wouldn’t have been that tragic chaos in the south.

Based on Xiao Yan’s age, if Crown Prince Zhao Ming had lived to the time of Xiao Yan’s death, he would have been forty-six years old. Therefore, I set it in the story that the female protagonist’s mother, Xiao Luan, was the granddaughter of Crown Prince Zhao Ming. People in that era married early. Xiao Tong had a crown princess at the age of eight. Although history records that he was not fond of women, it should be relative to other debauched nobles. He should have had normal wives and concubines.

Finally, thank you very much for your support, especially to Yanzhihu1 for your votes, rewards, and comments, which have given me a lot of encouragement. Also, thank you to Joey is Little Qiao, Purple Bamboo Ha, and others. I am very grateful!