"During this difficult time, Concubine Lu sent many letters to Wu Zhong informing him of what was happening but little did she know that her letters were intercepted and burned. By the time that the Emperor woke up from his coma, it had already been three months."
"Those three months of watching her father grow old and grey combined with her pining for words of reassurance from Wu Zhong that would never arrive... it had broken her heart. She felt abandoned in those dark times and lost hope of any future with him..." Yingyue's heart ached for her mother... how hard it must have been to feel so alone during those times, she had never known.
"So when the Emperor gave the Lu family one last mercy out of the goodness of his heart knowing they were truly innocent, they took it... The Lu family's daughters were to marry before Lu Guozhi and his son - Concubine Lu's beloved twin brother - were to be given death by poisoned wine."
"Thinking that Wu Zhong had abandoned her, Concubine Lu just quietly agreed to whichever marriage that her father decided on - there were not many high-ranking houses that wanted to associate themselves with a family that had 'committed treason'."
"Her second sister married a rich young merchant, while her eldest sister married the son of the Xiang family as they had remained on good terms through the hard times."
"Concubine Lu was seemingly luckier than her sisters, being able to marry into the Jiang family as a concubine, but the man, Jiang Zhenfeng, wasn't looking for love or power as there remained none in the Lu family."
"He had simply always lusted after the younger Concubine Lu, a girl who was talented, beautiful and wanted by all. He needed to own her for himself, and so he did - much to Madam Jiang's fury."
"While Concubine Lu's letter had not made its way to Wu Zhong, Xiang Nuo's letter had... She herself was heartbroken that the man she loved - Concubine Lu's brother - was soon to be put to death, and as a last resort hoped that the Wu family could help them..."
"However, by the time the Wu family made it back to the capital, it was far too late. No amount of begging nor evidence could turn around the Lu family..." Tears pricked at Yingyue's delicate eyes.
She may have never met them but they were still her family now... Her heart swelled with injustice.
"There now only remained one day before Concubine Lu was to be married off... and her father and brother were to be sentenced to death..." Xiao Zhu paused often to take deep breaths and blink back tears.
"After the two young lovers were reunited and the misunderstanding between them came to light, sadness and disappointment washed over both of them when they realised that the marriage could not be halted now... She was never able to marry the only man she had loved her whole life..."
"In a drunken stupor that night, they ended up making a mistake that she carried with her for the next year... she had accidentally fallen pregnant that night."
Yingyue was shocked to hear this... She was only 10 years old at the moment, so adding up the years, meant that her mother had been pregnant with another child before her! Her guess was soon confirmed by Xiao Zhu...
"My mother was able to bribe a physician with what remaining money we had left. On the day she married, the physician declared to the Jiang family that Concubine Lu had a terrible infectious disease so not a person dared to approach the courtyard, and no one thought anything of it when they heard loud noises coming from their courtyard one night, after which a small bundle was carried out the back entrance and never seen again..."
"The day she had silently stepped through the servant's door and entered the Jiang house, not only had her father died but as did her twin brother and with him, the innate connection between the two of them."
"It left behind an emptiness that she could only fill by busying herself with the child that grew within her but yet again came emptiness when the child she had grown to love so much was taken from this world before he even came into it..."
"After hours of pain, grief then struck her yet again... My mother had to take away the stillborn child before Concubine Lu could even look him in the eyes. Concubine Lu was never able to overcome the guilt of not being able to give him a proper burial but she would have been killed if his body were to ever be discovered."
In her years as a doctor, she had grown accustomed to seeing death and with it, grief; however, she had never felt grief like she did now...
If only young Yingyue's older brother had survived, perhaps she would not have felt so lonely, and not been so unprotected that she suffered such a cruel death.
But she knew that she was just lying to herself... A child that was born from such circumstances would have meant certain death for all of them and Yingyue would not be alive, to begin with. Xiao Zhu's voice brought her back to reality as she resumed her story.
"Not too long after her marriage to Jiang Zhenfeng, the two leftover broken hearts - Wu Zhong and Xiang Nuo - also married, and a year later, they had a baby boy too."
"Although Concubine Lu was sad that his child would never be hers, she could not help but be thankful that at least her best friend and the man she loved had found a happy ending somehow."
"Concubine Lu understood the pain that Xiang Nuo had undergone the day the man she loved was stolen from the world many years too early. She could never blame her for marrying Wu Zhong and the two of them starting a family together."
"When eventually Concubine Lu healed from her childbirth, she knew that she would not be able to fake having an infectious disease forever if she were to fulfil her role in the family. And so began her life of tribulations within the Jiang family... "