It was quiet inside the barrier.
After hearing "neither my father nor your uncle," Si Chen felt no ripple in his heart.
He looked at Ye Jing for a while.
Then he spoke, asking his first question.
"Why did my mother leave Central Province back then?"
Ye Jing froze for a moment.
He had not expected Si Chen to ask that first.
"That matter... no one in the palace dares mention it."
Then his expression visibly crumpled.
"I spent years secretly investigating, piecing scraps together, before I roughly understood what had happened."
He raised his head and looked at Si Chen.
"I was still young then."
"All I remember is that the atmosphere in the palace was strange, and everyone's faces were white."
He lowered his head, seemingly recalling those bloody, hazy events.
"Back then... my imperial grandfather, the late emperor, did something no one could understand during the last few years of his reign."
"My father was already overseeing state affairs then. The old man tacitly approved it... or perhaps he was the one who gave the order."
"They launched a purge."
"Overnight, many people died in the palace."
"All those who died were... princes eligible to contend for the throne."
"My aunt was still the Eldest Princess then. When she received the news, she rushed back through the night."
"But by the time she returned..."
Ye Jing did not continue.
Si Chen finished for him. "Almost all her younger brothers were gone in a single night?"
Ye Jing nodded, his face pale.
"The details were erased very thoroughly. I don't know much either. No one in the palace dares mention it. Anyone who does... dies."
He looked at Si Chen, his gaze complicated.
"But there is one thing I uncovered."
"Before my aunt left, she went to the