THE DARK SECRET OF MING ROYAL HOUSE 1

The empty meadow that they were passing through was excessively vast. Even though Xu Gechang and his three fellows had been racing their horses fast, and even though the sun was ready to set in the western horizon, they still had not yet been out of there.

"Should we spend the night in this area?" Xu Gechang squinted, trying to see everything far ahead of him, but still, as far as the eye could see, only the deserted meadow stretched endlessly before him. He stared at his horse, which looked tired and hungry. "Still, we must stop and rest. Come on, let's get down here."

"It's an easy job for us to stay overnight here, but how about Ma'am Nayin? She is the former Wang Fei, anyway, and she is pregnant." Bao Mei said.

The six of them had gotten off the horse. Wu Qi looked at Hu Nayin. Her facial expression was still vacant, nothing changed at all. "Actually, Wang Fei is a tough woman, she is used to working hard and even live in the wild... but for the current condition, I'm not sure..."

"Wang Fei is used to live in the wild? A Wang Fei is supposed to live a pampered life since childhood, isn't she?" Ma Ya asked as she led her horse to a cool area under a large, shady tree not far in front of them.

"Actually, at first Wang Fei isn't a noblewoman. She is a country girl from Yunnan."

"Yunnan? Wow, how far!" Xu Gechang observed Hu Nayin's face for quite a long time. "And if I'm not guessing wrong, Ma'am Nayin shouldn't be a Han?"

"Yes, Wang Fei is a Miao woman. Actually, there are very few Han people in our village."

"Our?" Wei Han felt an oddity inside Wu Qi's sentence. "Are you?..."

"Yes, my hometown is the same as Wang Fei's. Both of us come from Yunnan."

They had been under the shady tree. Then they spread out the tarpaulin Wu Qi once used as a shield to ward off arrows, they planned to use the tarpaulin as their sleeping mat.

"Can you tell us about your life? I guess, both of you must have wonderful life stories." Ma Ya asked.

Wei Han reached into his bag. "Don't just tell stories, we also have to eat! I'm so hungry, you know!" He put out some big bings that looked delicious.

"It is a very long story." Wu Qi sighed. "It'll make you bored."

"I'm sure that your stories won't make us bored." Ma Ya assured him.

"Alright, then."

The sun had now completely sunk to the bottom of the earth. The sky, which was reddish-blue in color, had turned purplish black. They were in the middle of the wild, could see the horizon which meets heaven and earth very clearly. The glitter of trillions of stars spread out straightly before them. This was the way it was, the real world. The natural form of the world, which had not been touched by humans, and which had not yet suffered from the cruelty of humans.

When Wu Qi finally ended his long story, all of them fell silent for quite a long time.

Ma Ya was the first to express her opinion, "Your life stories, are mostly filled with the role of Zhou Wang."

"Indeed, to be honest it is Zhou Wang who has changed our lives. He appoints me - who was only a lowly officer - to be San Hu Wei Chief Commander, and creates Wang Fei - who was only a female healer in the village - to become a Wang Fei."

"But, in my opinion, you deserve to have it. You have helped him a lot. The guilty culprit is apparently Zhou Wang. Kindness is replaced with wickedness!" Bao Mei cursed. "Look, Ma'am Nayin becomes like this because of him. According to your story, Ma'am Nayin loves Zhou Wang so much, yet Zhou Wang wants to kill her instead, isn't that enough to make her lose her sanity?"

Bao Mei kept looking at Hu Nayin. The former Wang Fei did not listen to them, instead, her eyes were daydreaming at the stars. She moved closer to Hu Nayin, trying to talk to her.

"Ma'am Nayin, what are you thinking about?"

Hu Nayin was startled. "Ah..."

Ma Ya also got closer to her. "Are you thinking about Zhou Wang?"

Hu Nayin blinked. Her facial expression changed a bit.

"You must love Zhou Wang very much, right?"

Right now Hu Nayin's eyes filled with tears, and then, tears fell down her cheeks.

Bao Mei was agitated. "Sucks! For what reason do you still love such that cruel man?! You have helped him a lot, even willing to sacrifice your own life, but he instead wants to kill you! He doesn't deserve your love! Sucks! All Ming rulers are the same. All of them are cruel and heartless! Don't deserve true love!" She looked closely at Hu Nayin. "Ma'am Nayin, you must know the truth, who the person you love actually is, and what kind of blood he has inherited. It seems that you are too naïve and so consumed by blind love that you soon marry Zhou Wang without investigating the history of his family, especially his father. But now you incur losses because of that, right? So, let me tell you the truth!"

Wu Qi moved forward, curious. "Zhou Wang's family history? Is there something wrong with them?"

"Really wrong! Gosh... you don't know about it either? You were Chief Commander of San Hu Wei, weren't you? Hey, accepting job offers carelessly without knowing whom you serve, can make you often commit atrocities!"

"Dunno!" Wu Qi shook his head. "I've told you that I lived in Yunnan earlier, and after I moved to Kaifeng, I was always busy with my duties. How can I have time to inspect such things?!"

"But now you are curious about it, aren't you? Actually you want to know about your lord's life history, but don't dare to investigate it for fear of being assumed as impudent."

Wu Qi was silent. Bao Mei was right, indeed. "But... then, how can you know?"

Now it was Xu Gechang who answered, "As members of Bai Lian Jiao, we have a principle; must research everything about the enemy even to the smallest extent. Our main enemy is the Hongwu Emperor, of course, we must investigate everything about him. Moreover, Hongwu Emperor has made us Bai Lian Jiao members suffer so much, of course, we are even more determined to bring them down!"

"So... your topic is something about the departed Emperor?"