Echoes of My Heart Throughout the Court

Xu Yanmiao! Why are you everywhere?!

[Now your cleanliness obsession kicks in?! Even if you thought she was your granddaughter, the shock of your cleanliness obsession is still overwhelming!]

No, it’s not!

Ji Sui nearly ground his teeth to powder.

If she really were my granddaughter, I wouldn’t care whether she’s clean or not!

Ji Sui glanced at the guards surrounding the execution ground, produced his official seal to confirm his identity, and pointed at Xu Yanmiao.

“Drag him away!”

Xu Yanmiao: “Eh?”

Xu Yanmiao: “Wait, wait, wait, wait!?”

As he was being taken away, Ji Sui could still hear Xu Yanmiao’s thoughts from afar.

[Fine, I get it! Magistrate Ji trying to save his granddaughter at the execution ground but still couldn’t help vomiting—it’s understandable that he wouldn’t want a minor official like me to know!]

Ji Sui:

I really want to punch someone!

---

That evening, Xu Yanmiao heard the news: Ji Sui’s “granddaughter” had still been executed.

His attempt to disrupt the execution ground angered the emperor, who ordered him to divorce Princess Qinghe. His position as Left Censor-in-Chief was also revoked—an important role in Da Xia, as it was tradition for officials to hold this position before ascending to the chancellorship.

Originally, with Prime Minister Dou’s old age, Ji Sui was poised to become the next Prime Minister and be ennobled. Now, he was demoted to a provincial post in the countryside, with no telling when he might return to the capital. However, his assignment to inspect temples across the nine provinces had not been revoked. This implied he might still return to the capital to report on the task’s completion in the future.

Xu Yanmiao quickly checked his system, combing through the gossip until he found news about Consort Qin, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness! The one executed was the condemned criminal set to die anyway. Consort Qin is fine.”

“Huh? When did the emperor have the Embroidered Guard investigate Consort Qin’s identity and tell Ji Sui about it?”

“What about my note?!” Xu Yanmiao suddenly panicked. “I’d slipped it into Ji Sui’s lockbox earlier—what if the Embroidered Guard finds me out?”

Rolling back and forth in bed.

“If I get caught, how should I explain my source? Can I just say I noticed the resemblance between Consort Qin and Ji Sui?”

Rolling back and forth.

“Oh no, Ji Sui is about to meet his granddaughter. Wait, why did the Empress summon Ji Sui first?!”

---

Empress’s Palace

“Ji Sui, I know you wish to ask about your daughter. A-Zheng has told me everything.” Empress spoke directly. “She is unsettled; let me explain it instead.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.” Ji Sui sat upright. At forty-six, this imposing official seemed as nervous as a schoolboy privileged to hear a great scholar lecture.

“A-Zheng told me her mother was the daughter of farmers. In the tenth year of Tian Tong, a plague devastated Quanzhou, leaving her family destitute. She was sold to a brothel at the age of seven.”

Ji Sui’s face remained stoic, though his hands under his sleeves clenched into fists.

“At sixteen, her mother was preparing to leave the brothel, but that year you launched a campaign against brothels across the region. The brothel she belonged to was shut down, allowing her to escape. She later married a farmer—a simple, honest man who treated her well.”

Because… he had cracked down on brothels, his daughter had escaped such a fate? Ji Sui’s mind went blank.

It wasn’t until Empress resumed speaking that he barely managed to collect his thoughts.

“But life in the brothel took its toll. Her health was frail, and she passed at the age of twenty-six. Her husband had died when A-Zheng was only three. As a widow, she struggled to raise her daughter alone, but when A-Zheng turned ten, she too passed away.”

“A-Zheng learned dancing and some healing arts from her mother. These skills saved the Crown Grandson and later helped her escape him.”

This cold and stern man—who was feared as a ruthless enforcer, despised by landlords, and regarded as a scholarly hope by the modern Confucianists—this imperial watchdog, this deputy chancellor, and Grand Academician of the Wenyuan Pavilion sat stiffly on a cushion. Tears slowly streamed down his cheeks.

He wept.

Empress sighed softly. “That child is currently recuperating at my estate.”

---

At the estate, a new maid helped Consort Qin dress. Envious and excited, the maid exclaimed, “Miss! Your grandfather is none other than the Left Censor-in-Chief, Deputy Chancellor, Grand Academician of the Wenyuan Pavilion, Grand Academician of the Wuying Hall, and Imperial Tutor to the Crown Prince—the leader of the modern Confucianists!”

Consort Qin, however, remained calm. Her pale face betrayed her lingering weakness, and she spoke softly. “The same Ji Sui who discusses women’s virtues and precepts with the emperor?”

The maid, puzzled, said, “I don’t know about that, but there’s no other Ji Sui in the court.”

That was when Ji Sui arrived.

Filled with guilt and longing, grappling with unspeakable apprehension, he pushed open the door.

The sight of the frail girl before him shattered all his carefully rehearsed words. His voice trembled as he said, “A-Zheng! I am your grandfather!”

The girl looked up with clear, solemn eyes. Rising, she performed a perfect bow, her demeanor detached yet respectful.

“Ji Gong,” she greeted him formally.

Ji Sui froze as if struck by lightning. When he regained his senses, a sharp ache radiated from his chest, and his trembling fingers betrayed his despair.

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