For the second divination, Cang Xuan asked someone to get a small lock of hair from the Marquis of Pingyang and Lady Tong, and cut out a small paper figure with Su Yuanyuan's birth date on it. He then placed them all in the divination instrument.
The two were Su Yuanyuan's closest relatives, connected to her by blood. Logically, the result should have been divined. However, when the burning talisman paper fell into the instrument, it went out on its own before even touching the small paper figure.
Cang Xuan looked up at the Marquis of Pingyang, raising his eyebrows. "Can you see clearly now?"
How could the Marquis of Pingyang and Lady Tong not see? This was exactly the same situation as when they tried to burn paper money for their second daughter in Qianqiu Courtyard but couldn't light it no matter what.
Feeling bitter in their hearts, Lady Tong looked up, her face full of tears, and begged Cang Xuan again. "Please, do the divination one more time."
Cang Xuan didn't give a definite answer. He just asked Tian Shu to step forward and take a drop of blood from the tips of their fingers.
Naturally, this third divination also ended in failure.
Normally, the two drops of blood would have merged in the instrument and then a bloodstain would have appeared, indicating the direction of the person they were looking for. But the blood from the tips of the Marquis of Pingyang and Lady Tong's fingers just lay there in the instrument, motionless, and nothing happened.
Facing the three unsuccessful divination results, Lady Tong let out a sorrowful sob and closed her eyes tightly, her heart aching as if being cut by a knife.
"Yuan'er..."
Hearing her call, the Marquis of Pingyang and Su Zeqian, who were standing beside her, suddenly felt their noses turn sour and tears welled up in their eyes.
"I've said before that this is a sign of everything being empty. No matter what method you use or how many times you divinate, the result won't change." Cang Xuan watched the three of them crying in front of him, feeling no pity at all. Instead, there was a hint of disdain on his face.
"I advise you all not to do anything in vain anymore." He said coldly.
The Marquis of Pingyang looked up at Cang Xuan, who was wearing a robe embroidered with stars, and asked hoarsely. "Why is this so? We've found all the things she liked the most when she was alive, just as you said. Why is the result still like this? Did you see her soul just now? Did you explain the situation to her? Did you tell her... that her parents and elder brother all hope she can come back?"
Cang Xuan suddenly laughed. "Don't you, Marquis, really have an answer in your heart as to why this happened?"
Cang Xuan's words silenced the Marquis of Pingyang.
Lady Tong broke free from Su Zeqian and knelt in front of Cang Xuan.
"Prince Cang, please! Think of another way for us!"
The smile on Cang Xuan's face became even wider. He asked the same question he had asked before. "So, are you really regretful?"
Were they regretful?
When they came here today, the Marquis of Pingyang still couldn't say those two words.
But when he saw how the Jiaowei Qin was treated and found that his eldest daughter might not be as he had thought, and there might be other secrets behind it, he...
He was indeed regretful.
Making up his mind, Su Zeqian gritted his teeth and stepped forward. "She probably hates me the most. It was I who ordered her body to be thrown into the mass grave. If I give my life in exchange, can it calm her resentment? Can we find her body?"
"Qian'er! What are you talking nonsense about?!" The Marquis of Pingyang scolded.
Cang Xuan said calmly, "Everything in the world has its cause and effect, and also depends on fate. Su Yuanyuan was born into the Marquis of Pingyang's Mansion, which means she had an indissoluble bond with all of you in her previous life. This is the cause; being reborn as a daughter and a younger sister to repay you in this life is the effect. When she was still alive, she had already repaid her parents for raising her. When she was abandoned by the Marquis of Pingyang's Mansion and died in the Lu Mansion, her kinship with the mansion was completely severed."
"The bond that has ended cannot be forced no matter how many times you try. Please go back, everyone." Cang Xuan gently raised his black jade fan, making a gesture of seeing them off.
When the heavy red wooden door of the Prince Cang's Mansion slammed shut behind them, the three of them gradually came to their senses.
Thinking of the words "kinship severed", the Marquis of Pingyang felt a sharp pain in his heart. Only then did he realize what he had lost.
Lady Tong even cried and fainted in the Marquis of Pingyang's arms, attracting the attention of many passersby.
The cold wind blew through the streets of the city, making people's faces cold and their teeth chatter.
But this coldness was nothing compared to the coldness in the hearts of the Marquis of Pingyang, Lady Tong, and Su Zeqian, who had just left the Prince Cang's Mansion.
The carriage of the Marquis of Pingyang's Mansion was originally heading towards the mansion. But halfway through the journey, Lady Tong suddenly said, "Change the route. Go to the mass grave."
"Madam..." The Marquis of Pingyang held her cold hand. "You've just recovered. You can't catch a cold again."
"Go to the mass grave!" Lady Tong shouted like a madwoman. "I want to go to the mass grave!"
Helplessly, the Marquis of Pingyang had to ask the coachman to change the route.
Lady Tong lay in the Marquis of Pingyang's arms, tightly grabbing his collar, and cried, "Su Shian, it's all your fault. It's all because you were so cruel back then. If it weren't for you, how could Yuan'er have ended up like that?"
The Marquis of Pingyang closed his eyes and endured his wife's blame and complaint. He couldn't say a single word of refutation.
Lady Tong then beat her own chest. "How could I have been so cruel as to slap her and say such harsh words to her? How could I have let her go to the Lu Mansion to suffer? She was also my daughter, born after ten months of pregnancy!"
Hearing his mother's cries, Su Zeqian lowered his head and looked at his own hands. In his mind, he also remembered the light that had once shone in the eyes of the pale and sick girl when she saw him a long time ago.
It was obvious that she had been bullied in the Lu Mansion. She must have been extremely aggrieved in her heart, right?
At that time, as long as he had bent down and helped her up with these hands, giving her enough confidence, she wouldn't have died.
But he had pushed her away.
It was his coldness that had caused her death.
— Cang Xuan was right. He had been too self - righteous. Yuan'er was so stubborn and proud. She must have hated him to the core. Even if he gave his life in exchange, Yuan'er would never come back to them.
In fact, until they found Cang Xuan for the divination today, they didn't think they had done anything wrong.
The Marquis of Pingyang thought that as a father, no matter how he taught his children, they should only obey. He never considered his children's feelings.
Su Zeqian thought that as an elder brother, with two younger sisters, showing favoritism to either one would make the other sad. So he only believed in the "truth" he saw with his own eyes and adhered to the "justice" in his heart.
As for Lady Tong, after losing her eldest daughter back then, she always felt guilty towards her. After the eldest daughter was found, her heart naturally leaned towards her. Instead, she complained that her second daughter didn't understand their feelings and couldn't get along well with her older sister. She always wanted to compete with her.
Even after Su Yuanyuan died and for half a year after her death, they still couldn't get rid of these thoughts and never felt the slightest bit of pain for Su Yuanyuan.
When did they start to realize their mistakes?
Maybe it was when Lady Tong dreamt again and again that Su Yuanyuan's body was being gnawed at by wild dogs in the mass grave.
At first, Lady Tong was just scared and wanted to get rid of the scary dream quickly. She even invited a Taoist priest to exorcise the ghost and calm the soul.
But slowly, when she found that the dream might be real and it was the only way she could communicate with her deceased second daughter, she couldn't dream about anything related to her second daughter anymore.
Just as Cang Xuan had said, Su Yuanyuan's bond with the Marquis of Pingyang's Mansion had ended. She no longer cherished anything in the mansion, including her relatives and... the qin that she had once cherished so much.
They didn't even have a chance to find Su Yuanyuan's body.