Chapter Text
The night when Wufeng had attacked had been one of doom for the Gong family. Not only did they lose their dear ones in the hands of the Wufeng assassins, Shangguan Qian had escaped away right under Gong Shangjue’s eyes seemingly carrying his child and he had let her. He had stood there watching her silhouette disappear behind the secret door. To him, that was the last time he had seen the woman he had grown to love in the past few months despite all the betrayals and deceptions. The young master, to whom showing emotions was a rare luxury, had shed a tear for a life he had dared to wish for but it had slipped out of his hand. He had resolved that he would never open his heart to anyone ever again because the one time he had tried, it was cruelly shattered like broken porcelain pieces.
As if fate could not let them breathe a moment of relief, a few days later, Yun Weishan had left for Linxi town to meet her twin sister but even though Gong Ziyu waited at the main entrance everyday, she did not return. The Gong palace was never the same anymore and no one heard from the women who had disappeared from the palace again.
Meanwhile…
Yun Weishan had already felt something was wrong when she had entered her family home in Linxi town. She was met with a terrified pair of eyes and face exactly similar to hers but she realized the fear was not of her. As she turned around, her suspicion was confirmed when she saw the woman she was fighting against siting there, waiting for her, Diyanzhu.
“You knew I would come here?” Weishan asked, her hand already moving to the dagger hidden beneath her sleeves. Diyanzhu let out an unimpressed laugh.
“You have always been easy to read. You present yourself as a hardened shell but you have a rather soft heart for being an assassin. So, it wasn’t hard to figure out that would come here as soon as you heard about your sister.”
It didn’t take her long to understand that it was actually Diyanzhu who had sent her the letter to trap her and unfortunately, she had fallen for it. Her twin sister was crouching behind her in fear.
“It will be for your own good if you come back to us. I will spare you and your sister,” the older woman said.
“I’m never going back there. I’ve earned my redemption and I won’t give it up for anything,” Weishan grunted as she freed the dagger from her belt and stabbed into the skin of the assassin who was approaching behind her.
As he fell into the ground, another one charged at her. Without missing a second, Weishan sliced through his chest. But she was outnumbered. She knew she alone could not win against Diyanzhu and her men and yet she kept fighting, to save her and her sister. As she was guarding her twin sister against an assassin, another sword was approaching her neck but before she could achieve her goal, a black figure swirled into the room and knocked down the assassin with her own sword. Weishan was surprised to get sudden help from this masked figure but didn’t have much time to dwell on that thought. She and the masked figure fended off the assassins and gained the upper hand. Seeing this new figure, Diyanzhu smiled in recognition.
“Two traitors together… how exciting,” she whispered under her breath and then the whole room filled with smoke.
By the time the three women could shake off the smoke, Diyanzhu and her men were already gone. It was only then Weishan could see the other woman properly, whose mask had slipped off and her eyes widened in surprise.
“Shangguan Qian!”
Qian coughed and looked back at her, “Didn’t expect to find you here.”
“Same to you. What are you doing here? I thought you were gone.”
“I came here tracking Diyanzhu but….” Qian wished she could finish her sentence but before that her vision blurred and she swayed into Weishan’s arms, unconscious.
“Qian! Are you alright?” Weishan tapped her face but she didn’t respond. Yun Weishan’s twin sister, whose real name was revealed to be Yun Xushan, slowly got up and approached them.
“I have some knowledge of medicine. May I see?”
Weishan nodded and placed Qian on a leaning chair nearby. As she splashed some water on Qian’s face, Xushan checked for her pulse and then stilled. Weishan noticed her change in demeanor and asked what she felt.
“She is pregnant.”
“What!” the exclamation came out before she could even realize.
“Yes. By her pulse, she’s at least 8 weeks along. The excessive adrenaline had exhausted her body, that’s why she fainted.”
As she finished the diagnosis, Qian stirred and opened her eyes. Weishan helped her sit up and stared at her with disbelief.
“You are pregnant?”
Qian sighed. She wanted to keep it a secret but there was no point lying now, so she nodded softly.
“Who is… Is it Gong Shangjue?”
Qian nodded again. Weishan let out a huff.
“You had gone that far?”
Qian rolled her eyes, “I was at least doing my job unlike you, who changed sides last moment.”
As they were talking, Xushan extended a glass of water towards Qian who finally got a good look at the woman who looked exactly like Weishan.
“How many of you are there?” she asked, turning to Weishan.
“Well… I discovered that my identity was truly the daughter of Yun family and this is my twin sister, Yun Xushan.”
“Unbelievable,” Qian snickered.
“What about you? Why did you help Wufeng when you are already having Gong Shangjue’s baby? You could have secured a position there?”
Qian sighed with a hint of sarcasm, “Because you had the entire Gong family backing you up whereas I was all alone. I had to fight all by myself. I needed the anti-tode to the fortnight fireflies to save myself and my child as well as to take down Wufeng. I didn’t have any other choice.”
As Qian was explaining, it dawned upon Weishan that they had never really told her the truth about the fortnight fireflies and it made her feel guilty.
“Actually, there is no cure to the fortnight fireflies… because it’s not a fatal poison. It is a like a medicine. It only subdues our internal power for a couple of hours every fortnight. Wufeng had lied to us to keep us under control.”
Qian was dumbstruck. Everything she did to survive was all a lie and nobody thought of telling her.
“So, you knew everything and yet did not tell me!!” Qian’s composure broke and she exploded. “You had the choice to side with them because you knew that your life was not at risk. But every day in that house for me was a fight for survival. Even if I did have feelings for Gong Shangjue and I know he did for me too but I still betrayed him because I wanted to live. You know why I ended up helping Wufeng? Because I was ready to risk my life to against them but when I found out I was pregnant, I never thought I could feel something like this. For the first time, I felt I was not alone. There was someone inside me who needed me and I knew I would do anything to protect that. I even betrayed the father of my child to keep us safe but now you are telling me that I wasn’t poisoned in the first place? I truly never had a choice to make and yet I became the villain for all of you!”
She was crying now and she wanted to blame her raging hormones for that. Weishan couldn’t even meet Qian’s eyes because she also knew that it was their fault that Qian had to make her decision.
“I’m sorry. I… It was our fault. I should have told you the truth. Even if we were on the opposite sides, I should not have let your life be in danger. But I promise you I will make it up to you. We both have the same goal- to take down Wufeng. You want to avenge your Gushan sect and I want to revenge Yun Que. We are not in the Gong residence anymore so we don’t have any rivalries now. So, why not help out each other? And you would also need someone to look after you in your condition. Why don’t you let me do it?”
Qian wiped her tears, “Why should I trust you?”
“I know it will be hard to trust each other but we are each other’s best chance to achieve our goals. So, why don’t we learn to trust each other?”
Qian was silent. She was finding it hard to believe Weishan but she also knew that she would need help and Weishan could be a good ally.
“Alright. We will work together but we have to be honest with each other.”
Weishan nodded.