The Prime Minister’s Darling

He wanted to go out and revive the Sword Pavilion!

He squeezed through the gap under the stone door.

The small first aid kit remained untouched.

But just as Master Rong crawled halfway through, something unexpected happened, and the small first aid kit suddenly disappeared; the heavy stone door came crashing down!

"No——"

Under the stone door, Master Rong was crushed into two halves.

He opened his eyes and saw the small first aid kit right in front of him.

He spat blood while reaching out his hand: "With medicine... with medicine... I can... live... give me... medicine..."

However, even until his death, he never touched the box that was within arm's reach.

...

In August, during the golden autumn season.

Gu Jiao and Long Yi were recuperating at the Princess Residence.

Xiaojiu's wing was wrapped in gauze, strutting around the courtyard, showing off his injury to the newly recruited little bird brothers.

Gu Yan was fine already; he had gone to school with Gu Xiaoshun.

Xiao Hen came out of Long Yi's room, holding an empty bowl.

Gu Jiao looked at the bowl and hummed: "Drank it all? So obedient."

Xiao Hen smiled, then pulled out a box of charcoal pencils: "I said you promised him."

Gu Jiao's face darkened.

At the end of August, Xuanyuan Qi returned, accompanied by Chang Kun and Ye Qing to Zhan Country.

Gu Jiao thought Chang Kun was here to see Chang Jing, but it turned out otherwise.

He came to meet Long Yi.

Gu Jiao was painstakingly learning to write with Long Yi in the courtyard when Chang Kun walked over. He was very emotional, wanting to get closer but seemingly afraid of startling Long Yi. So he stood not far away, staring without blinking.

"Is he, is he that child?" His eyes were even red.

Chang Jing looked inexplicably at his father.

Xiao Hen said: "If you're talking about the child who was taken by the Sword Pavilion Master, yes."

Long Yi was stolen by the Sword Pavilion Master at the age of five, who had a Gu Master erase his memories, and he was trained to become a killing tool.

Xiao Hen glanced at Long Yi, who was playing boisterously with Gu Jiao despite his limp arm, and said to Chang Kun: "Long Yi was young when he left; he only remembers coming from Dark Night Island, and that his father was the island lord, but he knows nothing else. However, I've heard from Chang Jing that you didn't have a son as old as Long Yi."

Chang Kun smiled bitterly and said: "The island lord he referred to wasn't me, but the first island lord. He was the first island lord's child, not born by the island lord himself; he was probably brought back from the outside."

"What do you mean by probably?" Xiao Hen asked.

Chang Kun said: "The first island lord was an extraordinary person with many secrets that ordinary people can't comprehend. This child was one of those secrets. I always felt he was not an ordinary child."

Indeed, Long Yi was not an ordinary person.

Chang Kun sighed and said: "The island lord entrusted this child to me before passing, asking me to take good care of him. I didn't expect the people from the Sword Pavilion to seize him, feed him purple herb poison, and turn him into a death warrior. I am ashamed facing the island lord."

After the child disappeared, he had looked for him carefully but never found him; he assumed the child was no longer alive.

Xiao Hen asked: "Did your island lord have a first aid kit?"

Chang Kun was surprised: "Yes, how did you know?"

Having completed her penmanship task for the day, Gu Jiao watched as Chang Kun went to find Long Yi, uncertain if Long Yi still remembered him.

Gu Jiao went to the Study Room with Xuanyuan Qi.

Xuanyuan Qi handed a brocade box to Gu Jiao: "I first went to Jianlu Island and found that Long Yi had connections with Dark Night Island, so I made another trip to Dark Night Island. Inside here is the Sword Pavilion Master's hand-written notes."

Gu Jiao first examined Master Rong's notes, discovering that when he was eight years old, he left the island with his father, and his senior brother got hurt. Thanks to a miracle doctor, they were saved, and the doctor's first aid kit contained strange tools and medicines.

When he was twenty, he met the same miracle doctor again, whose appearance hadn't changed.

At thirty, it was the same.

He believed the miracle doctor had taken a potion for eternal life, and that the medicine was hidden in his first aid kit.

He followed the doctor to Dark Night Island and found out he was the island lord, then discovered a portrait in the doctor's Study Room.

"It's a portrait of the first Dark Night Lord," Xuanyuan Qi said, as he took out the portrait from his bosom and handed it to Gu Jiao with both hands.

This was an extremely respectful gesture, not something an elder would do when handing something to a junior.

Preoccupied with her thoughts, Gu Jiao didn't notice this detail, but when she took the portrait, her expression suddenly froze.

This wasn't a portrait.

It was a photograph.

A photograph of her from a past life.

...

Gu Jiao went to see Chang Kun and asked him for the first island lord's portrait.