Chapter 98 Xiao Shenjing, it's time for you to let go.

The flickering candlelight elongated the shadows of the two figures facing each other, like two lonely mountain peaks unwilling to yield an inch.

"Love?" Yunxi chuckled. "Your so-called 'love' means that you were angry that I deceived you, so you threw me into that dark and sunless prison to watch the world's most extreme punishments day and night?"

Her slender back was ramrod straight, her gaze piercing straight into his eyes. "Or is it because Cen Yuwei was injured that you were so furious that you issued an imperial decree to condemn me to eternal slavery, to be as worthless as grass, to be trampled on by everyone? Is this your 'forgiveness'?"

"The Empress herself pushed people too far and fell into the pool, yet you were frightened because of her, and without considering her merits or demerits, you gave me twenty heavy lashes, leaving me with torn skin, high fever, and fainting, practically walking through the gates of hell? When I woke up, I was in that dark and dreary laundry room, washing clothes until my hands were ulcerated. Is this what you call 'pardoning'?"

As if recalling something amusing, Yunxi smiled again, "Cen Yuwei framed me with her death, and you, without even asking what happened, threw me into the cold palace and chained me up. Is this your favor?"

She smiled and stared at her with her almond-shaped eyes. "All the bitterness I have suffered is due to you. If this is your love, then I, Yunxi, will never be able to enjoy it in this lifetime."

Her expression and tone were no longer as tense as before; every word seemed to lash out like a whip.

Xiao Shenjing clenched his knuckles, not rising in a fit of rage as before, but rather as if he were being pressed down by an invisible weight.

After Yunxi finished questioning him, the room fell into a deathly silence. He finally spoke.

“Deceiving the emperor is a grave offense. Not only have you deceived me, but you have also repeatedly plotted against me, harboring traitors, helping them escape, and even plotting to assassinate him.” Xiao Shenjing frowned. “Your crimes are all punishable by the extermination of your entire family!”

“Even though I was angry at the time, I only put you in the Zhaoyu prison and forbade the imperial edict to torture you. I just wanted to” he said, tilting his head as if he was reluctant to admit it, “I just wanted to scare you and make you realize you were wrong.”

"So I should thank you for sparing my life, right?" Yunxi asked. "If you hadn't taken me away on my wedding day, we would never have met again in our lives."

Without the slightest hesitation, Xiao Shenjing said, "I have never regretted this matter, and I am even grateful to this day."

"It's clearly you who are stubborn and greedy, you are the one who started all of this." Yunxi could no longer hold back and mocked.

This time, Xiao Shenjing did not deny it. He seemed to be tired of standing and sat back down at the octagonal table, stepping on the broken porcelain shards.

He poured himself a glass of wine, and then poured one for Yunxi as well.

"Throughout my life, I have never wronged the common people in the slightest; nor have I neglected the affairs of the nation." He tilted his head back and downed the wine in his cup in one gulp, the bottom of the cup clinking heavily. Suddenly, he lifted his thick eyelashes, his dark eyes staring intently at Yun Xi. "I have only ever coveted the throne, and only ever coveted one person."

"That is you."

"Only you could make me become such a tyrant!"

Just as Yunxi was about to speak, Xiao Shenjing interrupted her, as if he were throwing caution to the wind or trying his best to talk about the past and future. So he took the initiative to say, "Even if you did not mean to hurt Cen Shi back then, I had to punish her because she was the Empress. But if you were just an ordinary palace maid, do you know the consequences if you hurt the Empress and were severely punished according to the law?"

Yunxi crossed her arms and remained silent.

"My demoting you to slavery is the least harmful punishment I can offer, and I can restore your freedom at any time." He poured himself another glass of wine. "As for falling into the water..."

"Cen Shi was, after all, the Empress at that time, and it was indeed her duty to manage and discipline the harem. However, she was frightened and fell into the water because of your disputes. Regardless of the reason, you cannot escape the crime of persecuting the Empress." Xiao Shenjing paused. On that occasion, all the palace maids and eunuchs involved in the incident at Chengqian Palace were either beaten to death or exiled for dereliction of duty. But what about Yun Xi? As the main person involved in the incident, his bias was too much and even aroused public anger.

"Yunxi." He lifted his eyelashes to look at her. "If I were truly as cold-hearted as you say, how could you be alive?"

It seems that it was because of his repeated favoritism that Cen gradually developed the idea of ​​framing Yunxi.

He favored Yunxi but failed to protect her properly, and he was indeed at fault in that regard.

He vowed never to let such a thing happen again.

He had to give her plenty of wings.

"So, you mean I'm ungrateful?"

Her tone was very sarcastic.

Like a sharp sword, it pierces straight at you.

Xiao Shenjing was momentarily annoyed. "You only see me punishing you, but have you ever seen what heinous crimes you committed? Time and time again, I suppressed court discussions for you, time and time again I withstood the pressure of palace rules and ancestral regulations, time and time again I protected you, time and time again I treated you leniently and showed you mercy outside the law. Isn't this the greatest 'forgiveness'?"

The wick of one of the lamps burst.

Yunxi remained silent, which only amplified Xiao Shenjing's sense of grievance. "You only remember the punishment I inflicted on you, the pain you suffered, the humiliation you suffered, but you can't see how much I took responsibility for you, how many rules I broke for you!" His voice was deep as he looked at Yunxi with utter disbelief. "You say I don't understand love? Then let me ask you, if anyone else had committed any of these offenses, they would be dead by now! Did they ever receive even a fraction of my reward, forgiveness, or pardon? Have I not loved you enough?"

He pressed further, "Isn't this love?"

"Why should I put myself in your shoes and try to understand you, while I suffer in silence?" Yunxi smiled and tilted her head. "All of this happened because you forced me to stay in the palace."

"You know perfectly well what kind of person I am, yet you still try to mold me, just to make me fit into the prison you've designed. Why should I wrong myself for you? Why should I change my personality for you? Why should I compromise and cater to your whims?"

She straightened up and looked down at him, demanding, "Tell me, on what grounds?"

Xiao Shenjing opened his mouth with difficulty, but found that he could not speak.

Yunxi gave him no chance to breathe: "In your eyes, not punishing someone in the imperial prison is a grace; being demoted to a slave is forgiveness; and surviving in the laundry department is pardon!"

"All of this is bullshit. Power, wealth, and exclusive favor are of no importance to me, and I have never been begging for your favor, reward, or leniency."

"Yunxi, what exactly do you want?" His voice carried a hint of confusion and urgency that even he himself hadn't noticed. It was no longer a question, but rather the utmost bewilderment that an emperor could display in matters of the heart.

Yunxi remained silent, so Xiao Shenjing asked again, "Tell me."

The emperor, who held the power of life and death, was like a lost child, stubbornly holding onto what he considered his most precious treasure, yet bewildered as to why he couldn't earn even a glance from the other party.

The candlelight flickered in Yunxi's almond-shaped eyes, like two flames that would never go out, remaining steadfast despite the wind and rain.

"What I want is not dependence, but companionship."

"It's not charity, it's giving to each other."

"Not for power, but for joy."

"I don't succumb to the riches and honors he bestows upon me, but because I like him, I'm willing to do anything for him."

Xiao Shenjing's eyes flickered for a moment.

Her words made one involuntarily yearn for them and want to possess them.

"What I ask for is simply him as a person, someone who stands shoulder to shoulder with me and gives to me on an equal footing. It will never be a condescending act of charity or a favor that requires me to lower myself to do something I don't deserve."

Yunxi looked at Xiao Shenjing coldly and said, "And you are no longer what I want."

"What you want, I can try," he suddenly interrupted her.

He said firmly, as if he didn't want to hear her answer at all, "You will see, Yunxi."

"Why are you always so stubborn?" Yunxi frowned, her tone extremely impatient. "Why can't you understand? What's missed is missed, what's done is done. Just because you're the emperor doesn't mean you can erase everything and pretend it never happened!"

“A broken mirror can never be repaired.” It was as if she were delivering a final verdict to a death row inmate. “Xiao Shenjing, you should let go.”

"Impossible." Xiao Shenjing's reply was even more resolute.

A pair of phoenix eyes stared intently at her, and at first glance, they seemed to be filled with deep affection.

Yunxi took a deep breath.

I really want to swear.

This madman is completely incomprehensible.

"Yunxi." Xiao Shenjing ignored the anger in her eyes, stood up and said directly, "I have lost you. If I could really let you go, I wouldn't have kept looking for you. You have no idea what kind of days and nights I spent after you set fire to 'yourself' and burned to death."

"What kind of life have you been living?" Yunxi couldn't hold back any longer. "You brought my elder brother, my godmother, and all the people from Hongxiuzhao to the capital, and you even wanted to kill them because of a crazy thing you once said."

"You know all this?" Xiao Shenjing suddenly looked up.

"If you don't want others to know, then don't do it in the first place." Yunxi crossed her arms, her face cold.

Xiao Shenjing pressed further, "What else do you know?"

"What else did you do?" Yunxi asked immediately.

The Emperor breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Fan Zishi hadn't told Yunxi about his crazy and shameful deeds, otherwise…

He decided to take all of that to his grave and not reveal a single thing to Yunxi.

He was bound to have a serious talk with those two treacherous ministers.

Yunxi stared at him suspiciously.

"Fu Shun." Xiao Shenjing looked away and called out loudly.

Soon, Grandpa Fu came in carrying a food box.

“Mid-Autumn Festival, a night for family reunion, we always eat mooncakes.” Xiao Shenjing waved him away and opened the food box himself. “I had the Imperial Kitchen make several flavors of mooncakes a long time ago. Try them.”

"I'm not eating." Yunxi found the man's nonchalant attitude baffling and said without thinking, "Don't you think that once you've said it, it's over? And everything will go back to the way it was before, when nothing happened?"

Xiao Shenjing cut a piece of the egg yolk lava mooncake into three pieces and said, "No."

"So you're still not leaving?" She lost all patience and warned, "I will never repeat Xiao Shenjing's mistakes."

He slowly finished eating a small piece of mooncake and said, "I have said before that I will never let you go."

His deep voice carried an unquestionable power, so heavy it bordered on obsessive.

“Yunxi”

Seeing that she didn't want to talk, Xiao Shenjing explained, "There will always be a way. I will do everything I can to make up for what you're bothered by. I will try to change what you don't like. No one is born perfectly compatible with another person, right?"

This time, the usually high and mighty God descended from his throne.

He walked down the jade steps one by one until he stood side by side with her.

"As long as you are willing to change for the other person, there will always be an opportunity."

"Since it's no use no matter how much I emphasize it, then so be it." Yunxi was really too lazy to waste any more words.

Just as she was about to leave, Xiao Shenjing stood up first. "You ate one mooncake during the Lantern Festival, so have one too. It'll be a way of keeping him company during this Mid-Autumn Festival."

Yunxi glanced at the sliced ​​mooncakes on the table.

There were two mooncakes left that could be cut into four pieces.

A few days later, after the court session, Xiao Shenjing kept Fan Zishi and Lu Xiuran behind.

The two exchanged a glance.

In the end, no one spoke.

Although the two are kindred spirits, there is always a layer between them for some reason.

They seem very close, but in reality, they are quite far apart.

Fan Zishi was summoned first.

Xiao Shenjing put down his teacup, the crisp clinking sound breaking the silence of the warm pavilion.

"Fan Qing, have you been busy with official duties lately?" Xiao Shenjing's voice was neither loud nor soft, carrying his usual imperial majesty, yet deliberately slowing down. "I heard you went to the West City Villa the other day? That place is quiet and elegant, a good place to recuperate."

Fan Zishi felt a chill run down his spine. Yunxi had been sent to this villa in the west of the city when she escaped from the palace.

He hasn't seen Yunxi since she returned to the capital.

Even though I learned a lot from Xiao Bei, I still didn't know much about many of her private affairs.

Last night, Xiao Bei reported back, and he knew that His Majesty must already know about what happened back then, but he didn't know how much he knew.

He bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, I was merely taking inventory of some old items."

"Old things?" Xiao Shenjing paused for a moment, his gaze falling on Fan Zishi's face as if it were a physical object, capturing any subtle changes in the other's expression.

"Old things should be cleaned up properly. Some things, if left for a long time, will be covered in dust, which can easily make people think of the past, increase their troubles, and even give rise to some inappropriate thoughts."

Fan Zishi replied, "Your Majesty's teachings are correct; I will remember them."

"Recently, I have found Yunxi, and I believe you are aware of this."

"I have indeed heard about this matter."

"But Yunxi is still angry with me." Xiao Shenjing said with a somewhat helpless expression, "Fan Qing knows that Yunxi is stubborn and doesn't like to listen to me at all. This makes me think of you, my dear minister. Tell me, wouldn't Yunxi be more willing to listen to you?"

The gentle mask on Xiao Shenjing's face seemed to fade a bit, and a dark and cold undercurrent surged deep in his eyes. "After all, your deep brother-sister affection has left a deep impression on me."

He spoke the words "deep brother-sister affection" with exceptional clarity, tinged with an indescribable irony.

"Your Majesty," Fan Zishi lowered his head even further, his voice respectful yet with a hint of barely perceptible tension, "Yunxi has always been open-minded and straightforward. I have been fortunate enough to be her relative for over a year, but she has her own opinions on what she says and does, and I find it difficult to sway her."

Xiao Shenjing narrowed his eyes without speaking, casually picking up a memorial but not opening it. He simply tapped the hard rosewood tabletop with his knuckles.

The "tap, tap, tap" sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet room, much like a countdown to the end of patience.

It was obvious that he was not satisfied with Fan Zishi's answer, but he kept quiet about it.

The emperor remained silent, and a deathly silence descended upon the warm pavilion, a silence that kept everyone on edge.

"Fan Qing." After a long while, Xiao Shenjing finally spoke. "Do you still remember the great fire in Yongxiang back then? The fire was raging and almost devoured everything. At that time, I thought I had lost Yunxi forever."

Fan Zishi's heart skipped a beat, but he remained calm, bowing his head and refusing to speak.

Seeing this, Xiao Shenjing's lips curled into a very faint and cold smile. "Yunxi fooled me back then. After all, I never expected that Yunxi, who was in the Cold Palace at the time, could transport a corpse from outside the palace into the Forbidden City."

“This matter is indeed strange,” Fan Zishi replied steadily.

"It is indeed strange. So I was deceived and, in my extreme grief, I did quite a lot of things."

“Your Majesty,” Fan Zishi said solemnly, “I have never heard of such a thing before. But Your Majesty is a man of deep feelings and righteousness, and it is only natural for you to do whatever you do in your grief.”

"Minister Fan, there's no need to be nervous." Xiao Shenjing put down the memorial in his hand and suddenly chuckled. "I just suddenly remembered some old things and wanted to chat with you casually. After all, the past is like smoke. Some ashes should not be stirred up again."

"Your Majesty is right." This was the emperor's reprimand, telling him to shut up, and Fan Zishi understood.

"I know that you and Yunxi are like brothers, and you are her only support outside the palace." He emphasized the words "like brothers" and "outside the palace," but his expression was unusually indifferent as he said, "I understand this affection. But everything has its limits, and once you cross them, there will be no turning back. Not only you, but everything you cherish may be reduced to dust."

Soon, Fan Zishi left, and Lu Xiuran was called in again.

Lord Fan stood tall and elegant under the eaves, gazing at the clear autumn sky.

Thinking of what Xiao Bei had sent back yesterday.

I wonder if His Majesty made things difficult for Yunxi last night.

Even though they lived under the same sky, it was difficult for them to even exchange a single word.

Only occasionally, when the sedan chair was driven around to Peach Blossom Village, could one catch a glimpse of Yunxi bustling about in the shop.

I remember the smile on her face.

Fan Zishi couldn't help but curl his lips into a smile.

Soon, he was summoned into the East Warm Pavilion by Steward Fu.

When they came out, the two looked at each other and both saw the shock in each other's eyes.

When the two stepped out of the sedan chair, they found that the emperor's blue-curtained carriage was parked in the familiar western villa of the city. This was the place where Yunxi had rested and recuperated after escaping from the palace.

The two of them glanced at the mute servant kneeling inside the door who had taken care of Yunxi, and their expressions darkened.

"Miss" Xiao Bei was holding a candy, her expression seemed normal, but her slightly trembling shoulders betrayed her true feelings.

Yunxi's expression changed slightly, but she calmly patted his shoulder.

Ever since Xiao Shenjing left that night, she has felt uneasy, fearing that this madman might target Fan Zishi and Lu Xiuran without her knowledge. Therefore, she has been keeping a close watch on Xiao Bei and instructing him to inform her immediately if there is any disturbance.

Judging from Xiao Bei's expression now, something has clearly happened.

Only after walking all the way to the back kitchen did Xiao Bei speak in a slightly trembling voice, "His Majesty took Lord Fan and Lord Lu to the West Villa and captured the mute servant who served you."

In that instant, Yunxi's face turned deathly pale.

Is Xiao Shenjing settling old scores?

If he were to investigate, the mere fact that he smuggled her out of the palace would be enough to cost everyone their heads.

When an emperor is enraged, even his entire family, up to nine generations, will be wiped out.

"Miss, what should we do?" Thinking of the consequences of bloodshed, Xiao Bei was so frightened that she lost all composure.

Yunxi gritted her teeth and lowered her rolled-up sleeves.

She touched the dagger at her waist and calmly said to Xiao Bei, "You stay in the shop and guard it. I'll go check it out. Remember, don't follow me."

Xiao Bei was naturally unwilling to hear this.

In his haste to speak, he was interrupted by Yunxi.

"Xiao Bei! He's still too young for Yuanxiao."

Xiao Bei's eyes widened. "Miss, is this entrusting an orphan to someone?"