Chapter 738

Gu Jiu Ling stared fixedly at the corpse in the coffin; the corpse was well preserved, even the facial features were clearly visible, without any decay.

That face was so young it made one's heart race, belonging to a woman in her early twenties.

This face was intimately familiar to Gu Jiu Ling; it was indeed her biological mother, Lady Du.

When she was still the eldest daughter of the Gu family, in her bedchamber and on the walls of the hall hung everywhere were portraits of her mother, Lady Du.

She was gentle and lovely, her beauty could topple a city; alas, she died in difficult labor when giving birth to a son.

Gu Jiu Ling suddenly thought of something, lowered her head and looked toward the outside of the coffin.

Generally, the time of death is carved on coffins, with the year, month, and date etched clearly.

Gu Jiu Ling stepped back, fixed her gaze on the date carved on the coffin, and her expression changed.

Xiao Yin quickly grabbed Gu Jiu Ling's hand, held her tightly in an embrace, and asked in a low voice: "What happened? Your complexion looks so terrible."

Gu Jiu Ling murmured softly: "No, it simply doesn't match, it doesn't match at all."

"My mother died in difficult labor giving birth to Gu Kang; I remember that day clearly, it should have been in winter."

"It was approaching the Origin Festival, the end of the year."

"You look at today's date, yet it is summer."

"In other words, my mother was already buried here long ago; but the problem is, if my mother was sent to this tomb and interred, then who is the woman who, outside, carried my younger brother and gave birth to Gu Kang?"

"Ghosts certainly can't give birth, right? My younger brother Gu Kang is certainly not a ghost fetus."

As soon as Gu Jiu Ling's words fell, both of them were stunned.

Yes, the timing before and after doesn't match.

Gu Jiu Ling turned and walked down from the platform, continuously searching for missed clues around.

Xiao Yin closely followed her steps: "Are you looking for your maternal grandfather?"

Gu Jiu Ling nodded: "I remember now; back then my maternal grandfather hurriedly brought the family's vast wealth and all the clanspeople, leaving Shang Jing and heading straight for the border of Bei Di's Western Rong."

"He wasn't going to do business, or simply to flee the pursuit of the Xiao imperial clan; he likely had something more important to do."

"For him, the most important thing was nothing less than burying his lord properly."

"Before I could never figure it out, now I understand: he is a servant of the Murong family; he even got involved in the affairs of Qi Sha Gu, because he also wanted the Xiao family to suffer, to reduce the Xiao imperial clan's generals to useless wrecks, he..."

Gu Jiu Ling couldn't go on; everything was suddenly resolved.

She trembled all over; Xiao Yin looked at her with heartache, swept her into an embrace and said softly: "It's over, it's over, don't think about it, just take care of yourself, don't think about anything."

Gu Jiu Ling felt utterly weak, gave a bitter smile: "My mother is not surnamed Du at all; she should be surnamed Murong."

Xiao Yin glanced at the coffin ahead: "Everyone thinks the descendant of Murong Gu is a son."

"Heh, people see the infant in swaddling clothes and assume that child must be a boy."

"Why couldn't it be a princess? Later the princess endured hardships to grow up, grew old, and her own daughter also died young."

"The elderly woman in this coffin is probably your true maternal grandmother."

Gu Jiu Ling forced herself to calm down.

"Let's go look at those skeletons by the door again."

Xiao Yin nodded, leading Gu Jiu Ling out of the tomb chamber.

Sure enough, outside they found the corpse of Old Master Du, who fought to the last moment against unknown pursuers; a sword was lodged in his chest, and the opponent's throat was also pierced by Old Master Du.

Gu Jiu Ling half-kneeled before Old Master Du; one can imagine how fiercely Old Master Du fought those people, sparing no effort to lure them into the passageway to perish together.

He never left himself a retreat; even if he were rich enough to rival a country, he still faintly remembered that he was a servant of the Murong family.

Gu Jiu Ling carefully removed Old Master Du's waist tablet; indeed it bore the name of the Du family patriarch, and everything was settled.

At that moment, Gu Jiu Ling felt a sour ache in her heart.

"Forget it, let's bury them," Xiao Yin said in a flat tone, bending over to lift the remains.

"Your Majesty," Gu Jiu Ling grabbed his sleeve: "Qi Sha Gu?"

Xiao Yin stared for a moment, then gave a bitter smile: "He set up Qi Sha Gu as an accomplice; you helped me avenge and cleared the brothers' names... you... forget it, let's leave it at that."

Xiao Yin found a jewelry box and placed the remains inside.

Old Master Du, as a royal merchant of Southern Qi, played such an important role before Emperor Longqing, hiding the Murong imperial bloodline right under the emperor's very nose.

Despite all calculations, they never expected the young master to be born with a natal poison, a frail body that wouldn't live long, nor did they anticipate that the young master would secretly possess a divine physician's pearl fetus to heal her.

Gu Jiu Ling also found several yellowed love letters in the coffin; sitting on the steps, she gradually pieced together that shocking story.

Gu Jiu Ling had long suspected that someone as shrewd as Old Master Du, while her mother was of the imperial clan, could never have married someone like Gu Shijie, a petty person, whom she would never look down upon, right?

The reason the Du family spared no effort to support Gu Shijie was simply because it was a transaction.

She is not Gu Shijie's daughter; her father is someone else.

At this moment, Gu Jiu Ling felt her head buzzing with pain; weakly leaning against the coffin, she paused a moment then continued to look at the letters and poems in her hand.

These poems, from just a few words, clearly show they were written by a man, expressing deep affection for a woman.

This man is a divine physician of the martial world; because he treated a woman who had been frail since childhood, he formed an unbreakable bond with her.

Later the physician discovered that Lady Du's true identity was a descendant of the Murong imperial clan.

The Xiao imperial clan never gave up searching for remnants of the previous dynasty; taking advantage of an opportunity, they captured the physician and tortured him.

This physician, in order to protect his beloved, actually wrote this poem as his final verse and then committed suicide; and she happened to be a descendant of that divine physician.

The divine physician's medical texts, before his death, were all given to his junior disciple, who is also the adoptive father of Zuo Feichen.

The more Gu Jiu Ling read these letters, the more anguished she felt; so much unresolved resentment.

Xiao Yin felt a token in the coffin and shoved it into Gu Jiu Ling's hand.

"But there's still a problem we haven't considered: perhaps the one who truly married Gu Shijie was someone else."

"Old Master Du found a woman to imitate your mother's appearance and mannerisms, then sent her to the Gu family."

"So that you could live peacefully in the Gu family, who would have thought that the Murong imperial descendant would be a good-for-nothing young lady who excels at eating, drinking, and playing?"

However, you can be sure of this about your younger brother: he does not have the Murong Royal Clan's bloodline.

The Murong Royal Clan now has only one legitimate heir, and that is you.

Take it; who knows, it might still be of great use when we return to the capital.