"What?"

Xu Lei trembled. "Donor Wei... is gone? Wasn’t she only fifty? The last time she came to the temple to see me, she was clearly in good health!"

The Duke Aunt Hu spoke of was, of course, Wei Qingning.

After helping Shang Yin become Emperor back then, Wei Qingning was also enfeoffed as a Duke.

Her status was likewise incredibly revered.

In the years prior, Zhang Xiaomai and Shang Rou had left Anqing.

But Wei Qingning had remained in Anqing.

From time to time, she would still come to Anchan Temple to ask Xu Lei for Charitable Giving.

Other times, they would arrange for Xu Lei to visit the Wei Family’s home to find her.

The two of them would then help each other with their Cultivation in a secret room in the house.

Of course, as she grew older, the frequency of her visits to Xu Lei gradually decreased.

"How did she pass away?"

Xu Lei asked, "How could she be gone so suddenly?"

"She was on a spring outing in the countryside with her grandson and unexpectedly encountered a venomous snake."

Aunt Hu said through her tears, "The Duke held the child, but she herself was bitten by the snake. In just a moment, she was..."

At this point, Aunt Hu was already sobbing uncontrollably.

She truly treated Wei Qingning like her own daughter.

For her, it was a case of the white-haired burying the black-haired.

Xu Lei’s eyes also grew moist.

He remembered when he had just transmigrated into this world.

In the mountain forest, he too had encountered a venomous snake, been bitten, and died not long after collapsing.

However, he had the Ten Thousand Lives Book, so he had been resurrected at the cost of one life.

But Wei Qingning did not.

「A minute later.」

Aunt Hu sent the young man who had come with her out of the room.

Once they were alone, she held out a Jade Pendant.

"This is for you, Divine Monk," she said. "It was something Qingning wore her entire life.

This old woman thinks that if she’d had time to leave any last words before the snake’s venom took her, she would have wanted to leave them for you, Divine Monk.

This Jade Pendant included, I’m sure.

After all, besides this old woman, you were the only one who knew she was a woman and treated her as such.

You were also the person she was closest to."

"Amitabha Buddha."

Xu Lei reached out and took it. "This humble monk is fortunate."

Of course, according to Aunt Hu, Wei Qingning’s body was ultimately prepared for burial by her.

Thus, the secret of Wei Qingning being a woman was never discovered by later generations.

From birth to death.

Other than Aunt Hu and Xu Lei, who had accidentally discovered her secret, no one else ever knew.

In her entire life, not her primary wife Shang Rou, nor Concubine Ping Zhang Xiaomai; not her own children, her relatives, her house servants, or her subordinates at her businesses.

Not a single one of them ever knew that Wei Qingning was a woman.

In the end, she had lived and died as ’Wei Qingning’, just as her mother had wished.

At birth, while still in swaddling clothes, Aunt Hu had followed her mother’s command, placed the Jade Pendant on her, and disguised her as a baby boy.

After her death, it was also Aunt Hu who shielded her from the world’s eyes and arranged her burial.

Of course, Aunt Hu also knew that Wei Qingning had actually wanted to be a beautiful young lady.

But her life was not her own to decide.

That was why she had not let the Jade Pendant be buried with Wei Qingning.

「An hour later.」

After resting for a while, Aunt Hu descended the mountain.

Xu Lei tried out the Jade Pendant.

He discovered it naturally possessed a faint amount of Magical Power.

It could disguise a person’s voice, allowing them to switch their tone between male and female.

It could also visually distort the appearance of a small part of the body.

Although Xu Lei had often slept beside Wei Qingning in the past, he had never really tested the Jade Pendant’s functions.

Now, however, he examined it in detail.

He didn’t know what use it could be.

But Xu Lei kept it anyway.

’Let it be a vessel for remembering a dear old friend.’

「Another hour passed.」

Xu Lei finished a painting.

It was of the graceful and spirited fifteen-year-old Wei Qingning, dressed in beautiful women’s clothes, from the time she had taken off her Jade Pendant.

The final inscription read—"Wu Tan’s Record of the Wei Family’s Daughter, Qingning."

After all, in this world, besides Aunt Hu and him, everyone else would only remember Wei Qingning, the man who held the revered position of Duke, and not the woman, Qingning.

Xu Lei felt it was necessary to paint a picture for her.

This way, it would be as if a trace of her existence was left in the world.

「A little over a month later.」

In just over a month, Xu Lei received news again—Aunt Hu had passed away too!

After Wei Qingning’s death, she had been lost in her grief.

Coupled with her old age and frail body, she fell ill and never recovered.

「Three years later.」

Xu Lei was seventy-eight years old!

But he still hadn’t died!

And on this day, the Founding Emperor... passed away!

The entire nation mourned!

Xu Lei was stunned. Ever since growing old, he hadn’t paid much attention to the changes in the outside world.

He was just living out his old age in the temple, slowly waiting for death.

He never thought that before he died, Shang Yin would be the one to go!

Xu Lei looked into it and finally learned the cause of Shang Yin’s death.

One version of the story said:

Ever since becoming Emperor, Shang Yin had governed with extreme diligence.

Since the new dynasty had just been founded, the nation was in shambles and in need of rebuilding.

Yet Shang Yin insisted on handling many matters personally.

This led to an accumulation of strain over many years.

He eventually died from illness brought on by overwork.

Of course, there were other versions of his cause of death circulating among the common folk.

For example, another version claimed:

that Shang Yin had been too ruthless in executing corrupt officials.

As a result, he was secretly assassinated by his own officials.

Someone had bribed one of his Concubines,

to administer a slow-acting poison to him or something of the sort.

However, Xu Lei had no way of verifying the truth of these rumors.

’In any case, Shang Yin was a good emperor, I suppose.’

Xu Lei murmured to himself, "My choice to support him and help him ascend the throne back then wasn’t in vain!"

Although Shang Yin had died in his fifties and hadn’t lived a particularly long life...