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Su Xiaoxiao nodded. In that situation, the identity of a maid was indeed the least conspicuous.
Wei Ting continued, "The young princess had experienced too much shock and developed mutism. My grandfather gave her to my grandmother, who personally raised her. My grandfather, grandmother, and father were the only three people who knew her true identity. Even my sixth brother was unaware. I just discovered it last year."
"Grandmother was extremely cautious. For the seven years the young princess was in our home, no one ever saw through her disguise."
"But sometimes, fate plays cruel tricks. No matter how careful we were, someone eventually discovered the truth."
Su Xiaoxiao asked, "How did they find out?"
Wei Ting frowned. "Four years ago, she wasn't feeling well and secretly left residence to buy medicine without informing anyone. Someone accidently knocked her veil off as she walked into an alley. The person who ran into her was a problematic servant who had been dismissed from the Nanyang Prince's residence, and he recognized her.
"She fled alone, knowing her identity had been revealed and not wanting to implicate the Wei family. When Grandmother's shadow guards arrived at the site, they discovered only a packet of medicine on the ground."
"It was medicine to prevent miscarriage."
This explained why she didn’t seek a doctor within the residence but instead went out for treatment.
She had probably suspected she was pregnant.
Su Xiaoxiao pondered, "What about her and your sixth older brother…?"
Wei Ting spoke slowly.
"My sixth brother had gone to the border a month before. Grandmother did not say she had disappeared, she simply asked Sixth Brother what was going on. Sixth Brother stated that they had already committed to each other in private. He didn't care if she was a mute girl, he would marry no one else in this lifetime. When he returned triumphant from battle, he would marry her with great ceremony."
"Grandmother was aware of their feelings for each other, but she knew their marriage was impossible. To sever Sixth Brother’s attachment to the young princess, she arranged an engagement between Sixth Brother and the Guo family."
The Guo family…
That surname sounded somewhat familiar.
Su Xiaoxiao asked, "What happened after that?"
Wei Ting replied, "After that, the young princess went into hiding while pregnant, giving birth to Dahu and the others. For nearly three years, she faced countless pursuits. Eventually, during one chase in which escape appeared impossible, she plunged from a cliff while holding a straw-made doll wrapped in fabric.”
Su Xiaoxiao: "One?"
Wei Ting explained, "During their escape, she once saved a wet nurse. She used tricks to convince their pursuers that she had only given birth to one child and that the other two were the wet nurses'. Their little faces were usually filthy, fearful that someone might notice they were triplets."
Su Xiaoxiao asked, "After that, did the wet nurse take care of them the whole time?"
Wei Ting nodded.
"The wet nurse didn’t know what to do, so she could only lock them up."
"For.….. How long?"
"I don’t know. Maybe a month, maybe two, or even longer.….."
By the time they found the wet nurse, she was already dead.
They discovered from captured assassins that the young princess had been murdered a few months before.
No one knew exactly how long the three children had been kept in darkness.
When they were first brought out, the three were disoriented, unresponsive to their surroundings, and scared of the bright light.
Su Xiaoxiao recalled her first meeting with the children.
They had made a significant recovery by then.
"You took good care of them." She said,
"You did too." Wei Ting responded.
For once, they didn’t bicker.
Wei Ting said quietly, "It’s just a pity that Sixth Brother never knew he had three children in this world before he died in battle."
Throughout the entire story, Wei Ting didn’t use a single word of sorrow or shed a single tear of grief.
But his fingers trembled slightly.
Su Xiaoxiao didn’t speak. She simply reached out and gently held his hand.
"Huh? I think I heard Xiao Qi’s voice!"
"Really? Where is he?"
Wei Ting jolted, snapping out of his sorrow in an instant!