The sky is full of stars, but the Jiangnan region he once longed for, that sky...

Liang Lang abruptly stood up, but due to squatting in place for so long, his vision suddenly went black and he felt dizzy. He slowly regained his composure and then looked at the girl dressed in a black cloak who had come to the outside of the cage.

The faint moonlight shone through the tiny window above the cell, illuminating Liang Lang's purple, slightly faded long gown, which he still wore before his imprisonment.

He slightly lifted his foot and moved to the side so that the sliver of moonlight that had leaked in could shine on the girl.

Give her light.

"Xiao Xing? You... how did you get here?" he asked, his voice trembling with panic.

Standing in that light, Qin Weixi suddenly recalled the Lantern Festival and that carefree young man.

"Liang Lang, you've really changed a lot."

"How did you get in? Did your father and brother personally bring you in?"

Liang Lang remained silent, lowering his eyes, but his hands gradually clenched into fists.

Qin Weixi opened the food box in her hand, squatted down, and handed a pot of sake and a package of freshly baked pastries wrapped in oil paper through the prison bars. She stood up and looked at Liang Lang, who was now thin and frail with chapped lips, and said, "Isn't it good to be alive? Eat something."

Without hesitation, Liang Lang took the food and water, cradling them in his arms. He pursed his lips and asked, "Did you make this?"

Qin Weixi nodded without saying a word. Soon she saw Liang Lang carefully place the food on the wooden table and then approach her, but still maintain a self-restrained distance from her.

"Xiao Xing, I'm sorry, and thank you for coming to see me."

"This is not a good place. You should leave."

Upon hearing this, Qin Weixi suddenly raised an eyebrow. Seeing the burning gaze in his eyes, she suddenly remembered the person who had been patiently waiting for her outside the Dali Temple that night.

Are you in love with Xiaoxing? Or are you still regretting your past mistakes?

Liang Lang's eyes suddenly softened dramatically, then looked puzzled again, and he said gently, "What do you mean by that?"

Qin Weixi smiled faintly, gazing at the light outside the small window, and said softly, "You used to stand up for Zhenhui like that, but you didn't understand much when you were young. Now that you've grown up, you understand things better."

"Liang Lang, take another good look at who I am?"

Upon hearing this, Liang Lang's pupils suddenly contracted, his heart skipped a beat, and he looked again.

For some reason, that cold tone and the indifference in his eyes suddenly reminded him of the "battle" that had taken place at Shuiyun Tower years ago.

The "barbarian woman" he spoke of that day was truly formidable; he even had a high fever for several days because of her. And then he thought of all the ways in which the Marquis of Jingning protected her after returning to the capital.

No, impossible!

Liang Lang opened his eyes wide, feeling as if a thunderclap had suddenly resounded in his mind.

He looked at her face again, and it was clearly the youngest daughter of the Luo family, but why did her expression not resemble Xiaoxing's? He seemed to have seen that look in the mannerisms of Duke Qin Heng.

Liang Lang's face was full of astonishment, and he stammered, "You..."

Qin Weixi still looked at him with a faint smile.

"Liang Lang, Xiao Xing has died."

Upon hearing this, Liang Lang's mind went blank, and he slowly slid down to his knees, gripping the prison bars.

A single tear slid from the corner of his eye. Qin Weixi looked down at him again and saw that his shoulders were trembling slightly.

Liang Lang said, "Impossible. I knew she left. I thought to myself, 'You're all gone, you've all scattered. That's great. Nobody can bully me now.'"

Upon hearing this, Qin Weixi felt a sudden pang of sadness. She tilted her head back slightly, forcing back the tears that were about to spill from her eyes.

“Liang Lang! She didn’t even live to see that bright spring in Jiangnan. Her beloved older sister died, and her second brother, who had cared for her since she was a child and was six years old, also passed away. Others kept it from her, but she knew everything.”

"Sometimes I even wonder, what was she thinking all the way from the capital to Jiangnan?"

Kneeling on the cold ground, Liang Lang could no longer hold back his tears and broke down in sobs.

He recalled his coming-of-age ceremony in early spring, and the beautiful girl in her green dress who said to him, "It's kind of you to remember."

He should have realized it much earlier.

He kept muttering, "No wonder, no wonder. How could I have been so foolish!"

Back then, when he was the Director of Studies at the Imperial Academy, he would conduct regular assessments and talent competitions for them. He always believed that the one and only vote, that one name recorded, belonged to Princess Zhenhui, a woman of noble birth.

In his youthful ignorance, he clashed head-on with his classmates, even causing the Imperial Academy's instructors to shake their heads at him. Not only that, he consistently ranked last in every assessment.

However, his father was the Grand Secretary of the country, and his classmates dared not ridicule him. They could only avoid him from a distance, and only a very few people were truly on good terms with him.

Later, at the Lantern Festival, he went to see the lanterns with his classmates. He noticed a crowd gathered around a lantern stall, and then he saw the rabbit in the little girl's arms had bitten a corner of the portrait. He threw the rabbit away and spoke rudely.

Later, that lovely young girl went to Jiangnan.

Later, during a New Year's celebration, a former classmate from the Imperial Academy poured him wine. Hearing rumors circulating in the city, the classmate teased him, "Brother Hanyu, I heard that your father intends for you to marry a princess?"

He didn't speak at the time, but lowered his eyes and smiled faintly, no longer looking at the crowd.

His classmate poured him another glass of wine and said, "Hey, I still remember the Lantern Festival back then! Hanyu, you got into a big fight for that princess and stole the show."

He frowned slightly at the time: "When did I start a fight? It was just that Princess Zhenhui voted for me during the talent competition back then. I still remember it to this day. I was young then and didn't think about the consequences."

Upon hearing this, the classmate opened his mouth, then froze on the spot, forgetting even the wine pot he was holding. The wine in his cup overflowed and spilled down the edge of the table onto his clothes.

His classmates laughed at him: "Where did you write those names? You idiot! Those are the Luo family's little girls!"

"What?" He didn't react for a moment.

“That’s Miss Luo, Luo Ling’s younger sister.”

It was snowing lightly outside that day. He walked all the way back to his residence, then had someone buy a basket of rabbits to send to Jiangnan that very night. As the servants disappeared from his sight, he made another decision.

So he packed his bags overnight, intending to personally deliver them to Jiangnan, and in front of that young girl, he wanted to say: I am ashamed, it was my fault.

Perhaps his father noticed his unusual behavior after returning home, or perhaps his mother was watching him too closely, because before he could even leave the mansion, he was tied up and dragged back.

His father glared at him through gritted teeth: "Where do you think you're going? You unfilial son! What are you going to Jiangnan for?"

His elder brother stared at him with a sharp gaze, while his mother stood to the side wiping away tears with a handkerchief.

"My son! What are you going to Jiangnan for? It's such a long way, I'm worried about you! My heart aches for you, you're a piece of my flesh!"

The father sneered from the side: "If it were still when Luo Yifang was alive, why would the old man of the Luo family care what you were doing in Jiangnan? But now, who can touch those three families?"

The mother roared from the side, "What? You want to go to the Luo family? Son? Who encouraged you? Who was it?"

The older sister cried and pleaded, "Little brother! Please have pity on Mother. She worries about you, and she spoils you the most."

The cold words and cries filling the room gave him a splitting headache, and he wished he could escape from this house immediately. For some reason, he inexplicably recalled that year after the Lantern Festival, when he had just recovered from a serious illness and returned to school as usual, the little girl from the Qin family had given him a cold look and said, "A hothouse flower."

He jumped to his feet, his expression icy as he looked at them: "One is my elder brother, who has never thought highly of me. The other is my mother. You and Father don't get along, so you want to place all your affection on me. But Mother, have you ever thought that I would be suffocated by these constraints?"

"If you are ever unhappy and want to go to your sister to complain, the two of you should come up with a solution together."

"You don't know that my classmates often laugh at me because of this. If I get married in the future, and you say, 'My mother loves you, you are her flesh and blood,' what will she think? Will she think I don't approve of her? Or will I say it on purpose to make her feel ashamed?"

"Do you still think that no woman in the world is good enough for your son?"

"It's fortunate that the Qin family's daughter didn't marry into my Liang family, otherwise you would have ripped her soul out of her body!"

He chuckled as he said this: "No, she's not that easy to bully."

He then turned his gaze to his father, whose eyes were filled with cold light: "As for you, you never used your beatings on my older brothers when they were young. You vented all your anger on me. In your eyes, they were sensible and steady, so you vented all your anger on me. You only care about your power, but you don't care about anything at home. If something happens at home, you just hide."

Then he lowered his eyes and gave a bitter laugh. When he looked up at his sister, who looked helpless, he shook his head and smiled again, silently mocking himself.

But the Jiangnan region he once longed for, and the innocent, sweet-smiling little girl, remained there forever.

Liang Lang looked up at the small window above his head, trying to see the starry sky, but today he couldn't see anything at all, not a single star. He helplessly buried his face in his hands and wept bitterly, while Qin Weixi stood outside the prison cell watching him quietly.

After a long silence, he spoke in a hoarse voice, "Then why did you return to the capital in the guise of Xiao Xing?"

Qin Weixi smiled calmly: "Liang Lang, what do you think?"

Upon hearing this, Liang Lang suddenly recalled that winter ten years ago, when Qin Shuoguang, the heir of the Duke of Dingguo, also lay forever resting on the summit of Penglai. At that time, it was his elder brother Liang Xu who carried the imperial decree, and the last person Qin Shuoguang saw was also his brother.

Then he thought of his second brother, Liang Bai.

His pupils contracted again, and after a moment of silence, he asked, "My second brother..."

Qin Weixi smiled but remained silent. After a moment, she said, "I came today to see you off, but not to send you to hell. I wanted to ask you if you've heard anything during your years in the Liang family. For example, the imperial edict, or the secret talks between your father and brothers about the Duke of Dingguo."

Liang Lang was bewildered for a moment: "Back then... I didn't know."

Qin Weixi looked at him calmly, as if she had expected this.

"It's nothing. But do you really think your arrogant brother would want you to leave alive? Liang Lang, you're nothing but a discarded pawn to the Liang family now."

"Your cruel brother knows perfectly well whether my brother died because of his stubborn resistance."

Hearing this, Liang Lang raised his head, then turned his gaze to the small window behind him. The moonlight outside that window represented freedom, but also his hypocrisy and empty promises. Year after year, he longed to visit the Jiangnan water town where that little girl had briefly stayed, yet he had never been there.

Now all he can see is a cold tombstone.

Liang Lang bit his lower lip hard, his face streaked with tears, blurring his vision. He turned to look at the face of the woman in the black cloak before him.

So this is what Xiaoxing looks like when she grows up.

very nice.

Liang Lang choked up as he said, "Back then..."

Qin Weixi stared at him and saw that his shoulders trembled slightly, but he did not utter another word.

The bright moon pierced through the dark clouds, casting a gloomy shadow over the capital. Even the last glimmer of light within the prison was mercilessly taken away by the heavens.

Qin Weixi turned away and refused to look at him again, only saying, "Liang Lang, I hope we'll meet again."