Chapter 273: Journey To Shaolin (4)

The Empress tightly grasped Qing’s hand.

Whether it was because Qing’s hands were always cold from demonic arts or not, an extremely hot temperature that felt like it would burn was transmitted.

“Seeing you like this, in your former beautiful appearance, it truly feels like a dream. Well, you’ve seen your mother, don’t you have anything to say?”

“Uh, well.”

Qing rolled her eyes around.

At this, the Empress smiled benevolently.

“Go on. Speak freely. What is there to hesitate about between mother and daughter?”

“Then, can I put on clothes now…”

“Tsk. What is there to be ashamed of in front of your mother? I see. Even after losing your memories, Sohal is still ashamed of her body. Just like you always were before…”

“Sohal…?”

“Yes. Sohal. It’s the name you’ve forgotten. This is how it’s written in Chinese characters. It may be a character you’re seeing for the first time.”

The Empress wrote the character on Qing’s palm.

She could tell it was extremely complex with many strokes.

Sohal meant a beautiful white snow bird carved from jade, an oriole.

The grace of the imperial family comes from their names, so commoners cannot dare to use the same names as the imperial family, which are so common that one could instantly become a great criminal without even knowing.

So the imperial family, out of consideration for those lowly commoners, use unusual characters that are hardly used in the market to create their names.

“But about that, first the clothes…”

“Tsk tsk. Is the body your mother gave you so shameful and embarrassing? Having such huge breast mounds is maternal love that can embrace all under heaven, and having such a large bottom is beneficial grace for fertility, but why does the princess always try to hide and conceal them?”

“No, that’s not it.”

Qing is not ashamed of her body.

Sometimes when she looks in the mirror, there is always new and thrilling beauty that makes her exclaim in admiration every time she sees it.

Now she could understand that foreign god, Mr. Na, who supposedly broke his mother’s heart by staring at his reflection in the stream all twelve months of the year.

So it wasn’t that she was ashamed and hiding, she just felt awkward and embarrassed being naked in front of a stranger.

Especially when a woman who suddenly appeared claiming to be her mother was looking her over thoroughly with such affectionate eyes, as if trying to engrave every hair on her body into her memory.

“You seem so awkward. Don’t you feel affection with your mother right in front of you? This mother, what is blood anyway, I knew something was strange from the day that fake claiming to be you entered the palace.”

The woman the wicked Indian nuns brought saying she was her now healed daughter had an identical body, and though her face was somewhat damaged, glimpses of her former beauty could be seen.

But for some reason, whether due to some intuition or transcendent ability only blood relatives have, she constantly felt awkward and strange and couldn’t see her as her daughter at all.

Then one day a court lady serving the princess said that strangely, the twin moles under her chest had spread and connected.

At that moment her mind cleared and simultaneously went blank, realizing ah, those wicked monks have brought in some monster wearing my daughter’s skin through their evil tricks.

If she had only one child she would have risked death to fight those witches to the death, but fearing her remaining children would be harmed, she just suffered inside, and now particularly missing her departed daughter, she came to offer devotions.

Then unable to bear having no news, she opened the carriage window and the moment she saw Qing’s appearance, she unconsciously opened the door and came out.

At the same time her legs lost all strength, so forgetting the dignity of the nation’s mother, she hurriedly got out and fell with a splash, but not feeling the pain she hurriedly chased after her daughter’s figure.

The magnificent breasts and buttocks she had hated and tried to hide since childhood, and the exceptionally thin waist between them that looked like it would snap, could be seen from her body’s lines, but above all her face that had been the most beautiful in the world before her illness was exactly the same. Though it had become even more beautiful, the appearance from that time remained intact.

Aish. Why am I listening to this?

Qing’s heart just grew heavier and heavier as she listened.

Unintentional body snatching, or since the owner was already dead, rather than snatching it was more like a handover? Picking up something abandoned? Qing was roughly a corpse thief.

She couldn’t help but feel more and more uncomfortable at the passionate story.

So Qing tried to change the subject for now.

“Uh, but am I really twenty? Actually I didn’t know my exact age so I just insisted.”

“Of course. You grew exceptionally tall from childhood, weren’t you already taller than your mother at ten years old? I thought you were growing so quickly because you were going to leave so soon, trying to show your grown-up appearance before you left. So when you fell ill, I resented you saying if you want to be the world’s most filial daughter you should live long, how could you try to go before your mother.”

As the topic naturally returned to the original, Qing swallowed an uncomfortable groan and just thought of other things.

What? Then when I first came here. It’s been five years now, so I was sixteen?

That was sixteen years old, hmm. No wonder my breasts seemed to have gotten bigger, it was an age when I was still growing a lot.

“So, how have you lived out in the world? Surely those wicked monks, no, those demons didn’t lie completely. They said that when the great method was finished, not only would you have longevity without illness, but when your martial talent awakened and you learned martial arts, the world’s greatest martial artist would be born. Since your achievements impressed even the eunuch, wasn’t it truly fortunate that you were able to protect yourself in the outside world?”

“Hmm. I just lived well enough.”

“Tsk. Can’t you tell your mother everything in detail?”

No matter what, she couldn’t say that getting beaten up by beggars was a normal daily occurrence happening once a day, that she ate garbage when she could and when she couldn’t she just ate any bugs, poisonous mushrooms or leaves she could find in the mountains, and when even that wasn’t enough she filled her stomach with water while living as a beggar.

“Uh, it was hard at first, but I adapted quickly. Then my master, ah, do you know Ximen Surin of the Divine Maiden Sect, she’s the greatest among women, my master took me in so after that I ate well and lived very well.”

“Not only did Buddha protect you, but the immortals helped too. It’s truly something to be grateful for. I shouldn’t just offer Buddhist devotions, I should hold ancestral rites, ancestral rites.”

“Uh, you don’t need to go that far…”

“No. What is there a mother can’t do when her dead child has been returned? Yes, and then, what else happened?”

“Uh, I made a lot of friends, and traveled a lot of places. Ah, do you know Mount Hua? Actually, that Mount Hua wasn’t that Mount Hua…”

Qing appropriately matched the rhythm and told about the famous sights she had seen and heard in the Central Plains.

Since she left out all the stories of hardship, to the Empress’s ears it sounded like she had truly lived comfortably while traveling all under heaven.

Of course, how could that be?

It was clear what hardships a completely sheltered young lady with no knowledge of the world would have gone through, so her heart trying hard to hide it was just admirable.

“I see. You said you can play the flute? Won’t you play a tune for this mother too?”

“Ah. Yes.”

Qing held the Bokshinjeok and pondered for a moment.

Though she was still embarrassingly naked, for some reason when she held the Bokshinjeok her mind calmed a bit.

But why won’t she let me put on clothes?

Is there some strange custom in the Central Plains where parents look at their child’s naked body affectionately? Is it some custom only the imperial family does?

Of course, that wasn’t the case.

It was just that in the Empress’s mind only the image of her daughter’s body rotting from the strange disease remained, so it was a mother’s heart checking if any scars remained anywhere.

Qing pondered for a moment what to play, then thought is it parental love? Hmm is that the right title? Come to think of it, I don’t think I particularly remembered the title.

So Qing recited the lyrics in her mind and brought out the beautiful tone of the Bokshinjeok, that melody listeners call truly heavenly sound.

Forgetting all pain when giving birth

Heart that strived day and night when raising

Teaching to be true and righteous

Parents who prepared both warm and cold beds

Ah ah ah, thank you for the m…aster’s grace?

Qing continued playing for now.

The performance must go on.

Ah ah ah, I will repay the master’s grace.

And then she really couldn’t figure it out.

What is this? Where did I go wrong?

Why did the refrain become about the master? This doesn’t seem right.

And is it thank you? Miss you? Aish. I don’t know. There’s no way to check either.

Anyway, there’s no one in this world who would understand, but Qing felt embarrassed and immediately continued to the next song.

The Cho family of Japan, no, the merry-go-round of the Cho family that will be born in Japan in the future, and then a few famous songs from her homeland that she vaguely remembered.

“My, when did you grow up so much? Of course your body grew up long ago…”

At this, the Empress shed tears again.

Aish. Making my heart soft.

But what’s not okay is not okay.

Qing steadied her wavering heart.

If it was someone she didn’t know at all, a complete stranger, she could have played along pretending to be her daughter even if it was a lie.

Just look at our grandfather with dementia.

But for the Empress, she couldn’t do that while wearing the skin left behind by her dead daughter. At least, she shouldn’t.

But her heart kept wavering.

Isn’t it no different from grandfather?

But does a corpse thief have the right to do that?

In the end, unable to be cruel, she just went along with things and time passed helplessly.

What saved Qing in that situation was Qing herself.

To be precise, it was her empty stomach roaring fiercely with powerful growls, angry that food hadn’t been put in even though it was past dinnertime.

Grooowl!!! (Give me food!!!)

“Oh my, my daughter is hungry. As a mother I didn’t even realize my daughter was starving. Oh my.”

And then she shed tears again.

“It’s okay. It just sounds really loud, but I’m only a little peckish. It’s nothing.”

“No, that’s not it. We’ve met again through heaven’s protection, but this mother’s pitiful situation of not even being able to eat a meal with her daughter makes me sad.”

“Uh, couldn’t we eat together?”

At this, the Empress smiled while shedding tears.

“No. How could imperial palace matters be ordinary? Just holding you this long is drawing attention, this mother lost track of time and acted foolishly. This mother would like to say she could recognize you because she’s your mother, but that’s not the case, so if someone recognizes you harm might come to you again, so we should part here.”

“Ah. I see…”

Is it freedom now?

“Yes. My daughter. Don’t worry and just wait most comfortably in the world, seeing only good things, wearing only good things, eating only good things. This mother will reclaim the things you should have originally had.”

The look in the Empress’s eyes as she said this was truly at the level of the most vicious witch under heaven with no equal.

Qing was startled and hurriedly tried to dissuade the Empress.

“No, you don’t need to do that. I’ve already decided to live as Ximen Qing, disciple of the Divine Maiden Sect-“

“That cannot be. Being born with the Emperor’s blood means receiving heaven’s mandate, so if our daughter tries to avoid it, it would rather become a great sin. How could a mother watch such a thing?”

“No, really, it’s fine. I’m already living extremely well now. So please don’t worry about it-“

“My daughter. Before we part, let me hug you. Let me hug you.”

This is wrong. She’s not listening at all.

I hope she doesn’t do anything unnecessary.

However, along with the intuition that she wouldn’t listen no matter what was said, there was also a premonition that this would cause troublesome things to happen in the not-too-distant future.

But even so, what. Whatever. I don’t know.

Qing gave up trying to persuade her and obediently burrowed into her embrace.