At dusk, the last rays of the setting sun spilled over the mountain, gilding the road as three riders headed toward the hills on the outskirts of Capital City.
"The graves are on the mountain. We'll be there soon."
The others had gone ahead to prepare the farewell banquet that evening, while Fang Yuanke took Xie Huizhou to bid farewell at his parents' graves.
The graves of the former Marquis of Anping and his wife had been moved to a mountain. It was an auspicious site with a view of Capital City and the land in every direction.
That way, wherever they went, the marquis and his wife would be able to see them.
It was also the place they had chosen while they were alive.
Xie Huizhou and Zhang Lanhe offered incense before the graves and kowtowed three times, their foreheads striking the ground. Standing there, they did not know what to say.
Xie Huizhou had a thousand things in his heart. He wanted to say something before their graves, to seek affection as he would from his parents, but in the end, the words stuck in his throat.
In all his years, Xie Huizhou had never seen his parents or been held by them. He did not even know what to say to them, and suddenly felt a little sad.
"Brother, do you think Father and Mother would love me? If they were alive, would they hold me?" Xie Huizhou looked forlorn. Even he could not be sure whether his arrival had been a blessing or a curse, and his voice grew a little choked. "Sometimes I feel like I really am a jinx. Otherwise, why did they die as soon as I came into the world?"
From birth, Xie Huizhou had been sent to the Detached Palace