Chapter 43 The Opportunity is Lost

That voice belonged to her second uncle.

He had never taken up an official post, instead choosing to study and plow the fields in the world of letters, and was a renowned Confucian scholar in Qingzhou.

Therefore, even without official rank, he still wielded decisive influence within the Han family.

This was because he was cultivating prestige and recruiting talent for the Han family.

As a widely celebrated scholar far and near in Qingzhou, which student did not wish to study under his tutelage?

Representing the scholarly faction of the Yidu Han family, which humble family did not yearn to borrow his prominence?

Thus, the moment those words left his mouth, Han Tang was overwhelmed by despair.

Yet she still did not give up. Taking a deep breath and steadying her mindset, she prepared to raise her head and confront her second uncle.

However, upon looking up, an even greater shock gripped her. She suddenly saw her own father—currently the highest-ranking official of the Han family residing at home, the Assistant Governor of Qingzhou—gazing at her with a face full of regret.

Once both of them had spoken, the situation truly became impossible to retrieve!

In frantic anxiety, she hastily looked toward the other elders standing nearby, hoping to find an ally.

Yet the more she looked, the colder her heart became.

Not a single pair of eyes offered the support she sought; instead, they held anger, derision, incomprehension, and apathy...

Ah, in a great aristocratic clan with its various branches and lineages, everyone harbored their own agendas. How could a single voice ever bring them to accord?

Han Tang finally understood the source of her panic.

Yet, following the brief despair, an endless surge of shock and indignation rose within her heart.

The miraculous powers of the Daoist priest, the manifestation of the mountain deity—which of these had she not witnessed with her own eyes? Everything she had striven for, every effort she had made, was entirely for the foundation and future of the Han family.

Now that she had managed to grasp such an immense, once-in-a-lifetime fortune within her hands, how could she simply let it slip away and flow into nothingness?

Therefore, she rose indignantly, pointing at the spirit tablets of the Han family ancestors and cried out:

"I know that you uncles and elders will not believe my sole word, but I, Han Tang, dare to swear before the ancestors that every word I speak is the absolute truth!"

"If it is otherwise, let the ancestors send down a bolt of lightning and strike this unfilial descendant dead on the spot!"

In an era like this, such an oath carried immense weight.

Yet what met Han Tang was the deep, stern voice of her second uncle:

"Han Tang!"

"Second Uncle, if you do not believe me alone, then the twenty-and-odd guards and maidservants I brought back can all bear witness! What was seen last night is by no means my solitary delusion!"

Had she not spoken, it might have been better; but the moment she mentioned this, her father's expression changed instantly, and he shouted:

"Quickly take all those people into custody! Without my permission, no one is allowed to visit them—no, wait, take everyone who has had contact with them into custody as well!"

The guards outside immediately moved away.

Han Tang cried out in shock:

"Father! Can you truly not trust your own daughter?"

"Who knows what was going through your mind after you left home for so many years? The person we know is the Tang'er who had yet to marry, not a Han Tang who returns after a long absence only to spout wild and nonsensical words."

A clan elder behind her suddenly spoke in a cold tone, his eyes filled with mockery.

Han Tang recognized him—her grand-uncle, who back then should have taken the place of her grandfather as the head of the family.

What she had not expected, however, was that this grand-uncle, who had always been so amiable toward her in the past, would tonight suddenly deliver such a thorny and fatal blow.

"Grand-uncle, I am no three-year-old child. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, how could I be so foolish as not to know what should be said and what should not?"

"Are the words spoken tonight not foolish enough? A rebellion in the southwest—do you not know that the imperial court is most sensitive to such matters nowadays? And do you not know that the Emperor is already profoundly dissatisfied with aristocratic clans like ours? Since you know all this, why must you utter such wild talk?"

The aged voice suddenly rose sharply, and the old man's withered fingers heavily tapped the incense table. The spirit tablets of the Han family ancestors enshrined upon it flickered indistinctly in the candlelight.

Though he did not rise, as the person of highest seniority and heaviest prestige present, his anger caused all the Han family descendants to bow in unison and confess their fault.

"Grand-uncle! I—"

The old man interrupted her in a fury:

"Han Tang, do you truly believe that our Han family's ancestral hall can shield us from prying eyes and ears?"

With that, the old man leaned on the carved wooden armrest, slowly straightened his waist, and walked up to Han Tang.

He questioned her word by word:

"Tell me, what exactly does Han Tang intend to trade the lives of the entire Han family for?"

Han Tang lowered her head hastily and said:

"Right or wrong, my elders will know as soon as they go with me!"

"Go where? Go and let people know that my Han family is making a great fuss over seeking spirits and asking the Dao? Do you have any idea how you have placed the Han family on a roaring fire to be roasted tonight?"

Seeing the situation spinning further and further out of control, Han Tang's father, the Assistant Governor of Qingzhou, hurriedly stepped forward, cupped his hands, and said:

"Uncle, Tang'er is someone we watched grow up from childhood, so I believe that most likely she really did witness something last night!"

"Father?!"

Han Tang was utterly overjoyed, never expecting that her father would stand before her at the very end.

Yet a moment later, this joy vanished as abruptly as it had arrived.

She saw her father glance at her and say:

"I wager that it was most likely someone who took advantage of the gathering darkness to meticulously deceive my foolish daughter, intending to use this to make a great fuss before the Emperor!"

The old man turned his head to look at him. As the eldest legitimate son of the family head and the future leader of the Han family, it was evident that whether in terms of speaking rights, status, or the number of people willing to support him, he far surpassed himself.

Moreover, if this matter blew up, it would indeed spell disaster for the family.

Therefore, the old man said no more, simply turning on his heel to leave, dropping a final remark as he departed:

"Do not make me regret my choice of you as the future head of the family!"

Following the old man's departure, his branch of the family and those close to him also left.

Han Tang's father hastily bowed and said:

"This nephew understands."

Once the others had walked out of the ancestral hall, though they could still be heard nearby, Han Tang's father turned his back to Han Tang and said in a deep voice:

"Detound those people separately; I will interrogate them one by one shortly. As for you—"

He whipped around, his gaze like poison-tipped needles piercing fiercely into Han Tang's face—unfamiliar and terrifying.

"Do not think of going anywhere tonight. Kneel right there before the ancestors' tablets and ponder deeply upon where you went wrong!"

"Hmph!"

With that, he flicked his sleeve and strode away.

Han Tang's mother just raised her hand as if to speak, but the maid beside her, pale with panic, grabbed her sleeve tightly and dragged her toward the door.

As the heavy doors of the Han family ancestral hall were slammed shut from the outside by the guards, the light inside the hall plunged abruptly into darkness, leaving only the flickering, dim flame of the everlasting lamps before the spirit tablets. Han Tang opened her mouth, but the refutations, grievances, and resentment choked in her throat surged like a rising tide.

Finally, recalling the sea of cold, blank faces, she could no longer hold on and collapsed with a thud before the spirit tablets of her Han family ancestors.

"This is clearly what the future foundation of the Han family hinges upon!"

With bitterness filling her eyes, Han Tang could only turn back to look at the spirit tablets of her own ancestors and ask:

"Ancestors above, since the mountain deity can manifest and the immortal master can communicate with the divine, why did you all remain completely silent regarding such a major event? Are we not your descendants?"

Amidst Han Tang's sorrowful complaint, she suddenly caught sight of something amiss with the spirit tablet of her great-great-grandfather.

Why was one of the everlasting lamps before her great-great-grandfather's tablet extinguished?

Realizing something, she hurried forward.

Upon closer inspection, she indeed found something wrong. The wick of the lamp before her great-great-grandfather's tablet had not been blown out; it had been smashed out!

Moreover, it was not the only everlasting lamp that had been smashed out; the others had simply been relit. Most likely, because various branches of the family had crowded into the ancestral hall, the person tending the lamps had hurriedly left one unlit in their haste.

As for the object that had smashed the lamp...

Han Tang looked in astonishment at her great-great-grandfather's spirit tablet.

Had her great-great-grandfather not remained indifferent? Had no one else simply noticed?

Once Han Tang discovered this, another possibility flashed brilliantly across her mind.

She pinched the charred wick, compared its length with the newly relit wicks, and amid an endless wave of bitter self-mockery, discovered another fact that filled her with despair.

The time when her great-great-grandfather's tablet had fallen was likely synchronized precisely with the closing of the Qingzhou city gates!

Her great-great-grandfather had not only tried to warn the Han family members here; he had also tried to warn her at the city gates!

The Han family was a massive ship, difficult to turn around, and so her ancestor was telling her not to return home, but to flee back posthaste!

Had she done so, she, Han Tang, could still have preserved this hard-won affinity with the immortals for the Han family.

Yet she, Han Tang, knowing full well that the various branches of the Han family harbored their own motives and that the ship was already too massive to turn, had nevertheless forced the city gates open and returned to the Han family.

She had even used the accumulated prestige of her Han family ancestors to force that door open!

Comprehending the crux of the matter, Han Tang collapsed before her great-great-grandfather's spirit tablet, kowtowing incessantly and weeping bitterly:

"Ancestors, it is I, Han Tang, who am unfilial; it is I, Han Tang, who am incompetent!"

Amidst Han Tang's wailing, within the ancestral hall where the everlasting lamps flickered uncertainly, a faint, imperceptible sigh echoed.

Immediately afterwards, the spirit tablet belonging to the ancestor directly above her great-great-grandfather cracked down the middle with a sharp snap.

Instantly, both her grand-uncle and her father—who had already departed—each felt a heavy blow materialize out of thin air upon their backs!

The strikes knocked one unconscious on the spot, while the other cried out in panic that there were assassins.