Chapter 268 Butterfly

Chapter 268: Butterfly

A pair of pale, delicate feet rested in the water, small and exquisite, with toes painted bright red.

Qiu Heng froze.

"Miss Qiu, the water is getting cold," Consort Yu reminded with a faint smile.

She was curious what Qiu Heng would do.

Would she stoop to wash her feet, or refuse and die?

Hopefully the latter—then she could dump that basin of water right in her face.

Anticipation glittered in Consort Yu's eyes.

Qiu Heng seized Consort Yu's ankle and lifted the foot out of the water.

The palace maids gasped in shock, and Consort Yu was even more taken aback: "Qiu Heng, how dare you!"

The foot she held kicked toward Qiu Heng's face, but couldn't budge.

Consort Yu was furious: "Do you have a death wish? Guards!"

"Sister." Qiu Heng stared at Consort Yu's foot and whispered.

Consort Yu froze, glaring at Qiu Heng: "What did you say?"

Qiu Heng pointed at the ankle of that foot, where a dark red butterfly stood out starkly against her pale skin: "This birthmark—have you had it since you were little?"

At that moment, a crowd of palace attendants rushed in upon hearing Consort Yu's shout. Seeing the scene inside the chamber, they were greatly alarmed: "How dare you! Offending Her Highness!"

Consort Yu waved her hand: "All of you, leave."

The attendants exchanged glances, acknowledged with a "Yes," and filed out in unison.

"What did you just say?" Consort Yu calmed down and fixed Qiu Heng with a scrutinizing gaze.

Qiu Heng looked up, her eyes fixed on Consort Yu.

She was a woman as brilliant as a rose, in the very bloom of her youth. Even though the malice in her eyes was unrestrained, it did nothing to diminish her beauty.

Did she resemble them?

When Qiu Heng examined Consort Yu closely for the first time—from the curve of her red lips to the bridge of her straight nose—she finally caught a trace or two of her foster parents.

Not that much.

But she had heard her mother mention that her father once had an elder sister, born with a flower-like beauty, who was forcibly taken by a wealthy young man. That aunt, unable to bear the humiliation, committed suicide. Her father went to avenge his sister but suffered retaliation, and the entire family moved to Yunfeng Village.

Perhaps Consort Yu resembled that aunt, or perhaps it was a unique blessing of heaven, but the butterfly birthmark could not be a coincidence.

She would never forget what her mother had said on her deathbed.

Their biological daughter was four years older than her, and when she went missing she was just five. On her left ankle there was a red birthmark shaped like a butterfly.

The world was vast, and her mother had feared she might bear the burden of the search, so she told her not to look. She never imagined she would meet her like this.

Qiu Heng looked at Consort Yu, her eyes glistening with tears: "Before coming to the capital, I lived in Yunfeng Village of Suiyun County in the south. It was a peaceful, beautiful village with singing birds and fragrant flowers. I had parents who adored me—until the people from Earl Yongqing's manor came. Only then did I learn they were my adoptive parents. They had a biological daughter who had been lost. That elder sister had a dark red butterfly birthmark on her left ankle—"

"Shut up!" Consort Yu coldly interrupted Qiu Heng's words.

Qiu Heng looked at her quietly.

"Who gave you the courage to look at me like that?" Consort Yu lifted her foot, pointing at the butterfly birthmark. "Qiu Heng, your mind is truly sharp. The moment you saw the birthmark on my ankle, you immediately made up such a story. Do you think that if I believe this, Fang Rui's death will be brushed aside and you'll be off the hook?"

Faced with Consort Yu's relentless questioning, Qiu Heng's emotions welled up inside her.

She had once imagined—if heaven would show mercy and let her find her parents' biological daughter, how wonderful that would be. Her parents' spirits in heaven would be comforted, and she would also gain a relative.

"Sister, do you know how my parents met me?" Qiu Heng continued. "They were searching for you. Ever since you were lost, every year they would go looking for you. In the fourth year of searching for you, they found me and brought me home."

Consort Yu sneered: "After they found you, they stopped searching for that unfortunate biological daughter, right?"

Qiu Heng shook her head: "After they had me, Father would go away for a while each year. When I was young, I asked Mother, and she said Father went to pick rare spices. Now that I think about it, Father was actually searching for my sister."

"That's just your guess."

Qiu Heng met Consort Yu's gaze and saw anger in her eyes.

A flicker crossed Qiu Heng's eyes.

Her anger—did it mean she still remembered?

Could she still remember her biological parents?

As soon as this guess arose, Qiu Heng looked straight at Consort Yu: "When Sister was lost, she was five. You must have some impression of Mother and Father, right?"

When she was kidnapped, she was also five, but she had suffered a terrible shock and lost her memory. Under normal circumstances, do people have vague memories from before age five?

Qiu Heng saw the flash in Consort Yu's eyes and knew the answer.

"Sister, you still remember Mother and Father, don't you?"

"Stop spouting nonsense." Consort Yu's expression was cold, her gaze contemptuous. "My background is clearly documented in the palace archives. What are you, to dare fabricate such connections?"

"Sister—"

"Guards."

Soon, attendants entered.

"Take her back to the inner prison."

Qiu Heng gave a long look at Consort Yu and said no more.

Consort Yu watched expressionlessly as Qiu Heng was taken away, then grabbed a teacup and flung it hard to the ground.

The teacup shattered, mirroring her fragmented emotions.

Did she remember her parents?

She thought she had completely forgotten, but when Qiu Heng pointed at the butterfly birthmark on her ankle and spoke of these things, the memory fragments buried deep in time emerged.

Their faces were blurred, the specific events hazy. She only remembered the young woman she called "Mother" holding her and saying, "Bao Zhu."

"Mother's Bao Zhu is the most beautiful."

"Sell these spices for money and buy Bao Zhu some silk flowers to wear."

"Bao Zhu, Bao Zhu..."

Honored Consort Yu rubbed her forehead, her face paling.

Were they memories or illusions?

When she was trained and beaten, and forced to call a strange man and woman her father and mother, she cried that they weren't her parents, enduring beatings until her newfound fear eventually buried the old memories.

Now she had become the Honored Consort, second only to the emperor, yet of all times, these memories had to come back.

Sure enough, that wretched girl Qiu Heng was especially hateful and absolutely deserves to die!

Honored Consort Yu clenched her fist, snapping a meticulously manicured fingernail.

Qiu Heng returned to the inner prison, sat down, hugging her knees, and didn't look up when she heard footsteps.

"You seem fine. I didn't expect the Honored Consort to go easy on you."

"I want to see Xue Han." Qiu Heng looked up at Xue Quan, with a fake smile.

"What?" Xue Quan thought he'd misheard.

"I said, I want to see Xue Han."

Xue Quan stared at Qiu Heng for a moment, then laughed. "Qiu Heng, you're a serious criminal. You can't just see anyone you want."

"I'm pregnant. If you don't let me see him, the next time Honored Consort Yu summons me, I'll tell her."

"Say that again?" Xue Quan's voice suddenly shot up.

Qiu Heng smirked. "Xue Han is going to be a father, and you're going to be a grandfather. Can I see him now?"