the truth

The door of the ancestral hall was pushed open fiercely, and Luo Ziran saw the girl standing in front of the hall at a glance.

She was dressed in a light silk dress, a fox fur cape, and her long black hair draped over her body. Her face was pale and cold, but her dark eyes sparkled in the starless and moonless night. In her hand, she held the jade locket that he never left behind.

"Nan'er..." Luo Ziran paused and called out softly, "I'm here to pick you up."

Aruo raised his head and said with a nostalgic tone, "That year you stood at the gate of the other courtyard, and it was the same scene."

Luo Ziran's expression darkened, and his tone became flustered, "Nan'er, you said you forgave me..."

That year, he married Mrs. Qiao. For the first time in her life, Nan'er spoke coldly to him and even moved to a separate courtyard. He braved the rain to pick her up, kneeling all night before he could even get through. He hugged her and confessed his mistake, saying that he only touched Mrs. Qiao to save her the pain of childbirth. She had said with her own mouth that she forgave him!

"No, she lied to you, how could she forgive you? All her dreams of love were given by you, and it was you who destroyed all her happiness with your own hands." Aruo looked at him coldly, and every painful expression of his made her feel an indescribable pleasure.

Shen Nan had been doted on by her loved ones throughout her life, and all the suffering she endured came during the first two years of her marriage. Whenever Aruo thought of that fragile and desperate person, she wished she could tear Luo Ziran into pieces. If it weren't for Shen Nan's complete soul, why would she have endured all these years?

"No... Nan'er," Luo Ziran covered his chest and looked at her sadly, "It's all in the past. It's my fault, but it's all in the past. Come back to me, and let's go back to Liangzhou together. This time, no one can separate us."

"She won't come back to you. Haven't you seen the reality yet?" Aruo frowned, and her bright black eyes raised a firmness that did not belong to Shen Nan. "You pushed her away with your own hands."

The girl standing under the moonlight had her eyebrows flying, her shining black eyes were like the night sky, with tiny stars hidden in them, firm and resolute. Her posture was proudly upright, without a trace of weakness and sorrow anymore.

"Shut up!" Luo Ziran looked at the person in front of him, feeling a sharp pain in his heart. His eyes were filled with an almost morbid determination, and his face was full of gloom. "Nan'er, come to me..."

He extended his hand towards her, and Aruo suddenly sneered, "Luo Ziran, don't you realize it? I'm not Shen Nan."

She spoke word by word, but Luo Ziran turned a deaf ear to her. He simply raised the corners of his lips and revealed a gentle smile, but his black eyes were not tainted with a trace of laughter. "No, you are Nan'er, you can only be Nan'er... The resurrection formation is complete, you can only be my Nan'er."

The wind was blowing and the clouds were moving, blocking the moonlight. The man was completely immersed in the night, and was eerily silent.

Aruo was suspicious. The man in front of her seemed to be completely oblivious to the difference between her and Shen Nan. He just looked at her almost obsessively, with the same eyes he looked at Shen Nan. This look made her hair stand on end and she felt inexplicably terrified.

"Why say so much to him?" A lazy voice came from a tree on the side. Luo Ziran's expression started and he looked over quickly.

The sound of snow falling to the ground, footsteps approaching slowly, and the moonlight that finally parted the clouds and mist spread softly.

A shiny head shone faintly in the moonlight. The monk's handsome eyes were filled with disdain and disgust. "Hurry up and do it. Don't waste time."

"You... aren't in seclusion?" Luo Ziran recognized the man as Master Yiyuan from Yangzhou Dayin Temple. According to the news, he was severely beaten by Su Zirui and had been in seclusion for more than half a month... No, if that was the case, Su Zirui's destination was not Yangzhou at all.

An inexplicable uneasiness surged up, but Luo Ziran suppressed the confusion, revealed a gentle smile, and extended his hand to Aruo, "Nan'er, will you come back with me? Let's go back to Liangzhou now."

"Are you crazy? Open your eyes and take a good look. You can't recognize her as anyone else. Do you really love Shen Nan?" Yiyuan frowned, and saw that his expression seemed to be a little wrong, and became vaguely alert.

"Shut up!" Luo Ziran's expression suddenly changed, and he looked gloomy. "She is Nan'er, my Nan'er... That lonely soul from the outside world is gone! Gone--"

His angry voice echoed in the empty ancestral hall, sounding somewhat mournful in the pale night.

"Do you really think she will still love you after you treated her like that?" Aruo, who was standing in front of the ancestral hall door, sneered and asked.

Luo Ziran's heart was shaken, his pupils trembling, and those words of rebuttal were like fish bones stuck in his throat, unable to be spoken or swallowed.

"You ignored your country and made deals with the eight tribes of Rong and Qiang, forcibly taking Qiao into your mansion, and after quarreling with Shen Nan, you even took Qiao away to anger her. Finally, you used Qiao to refine the soul-calling flag. Do you really think that Shen Nan will continue to love you after you did all this?" Aruo's ethereal voice was as crisp and cool as a cold spring hitting a stone on a winter night.

His breathing suddenly stopped, and those details he didn't want to recall came flooding back. Luo Ziran smiled miserably, "Why not? Why shouldn't she love me? I did all this for her... She was frail and couldn't bear the pain of childbirth. The Qiao family was just used as a replacement for her. What's wrong with me? The Qiao family is the only one in the world whose fate and birth date match hers. What can I do? What if I trade with foreign tribes for her?"

"You helped spies from the enemy country sneak into the capital. Have you ever thought about the people in the northwest who sacrificed their lives to defend their country? The Shen family was a founding hero, but you committed treasonous acts in her name. She is disappointed in you, not because of the Qiao family, but because your actions have repeatedly worn away her love, leaving her with only despair." Aruo frowned, unwilling to let Shen Nan bear these accusations in vain. "Her body is infertile. Didn't you know it since childhood? If you really wanted to have children, why did you marry her? Why let her die in childbirth?"

If it weren't for the years of pampering that made Shen Nan trust her, how could she have married into the Marquis's Mansion? Two years of marriage turned her from a pampered and spoiled noble woman into a traitorous soul. The honor of the Shen family was ruined by her, and she abandoned herself in despair.

"Don't ask me to remind you how she got pregnant..." Hatred flashed in her black eyes, and Aruo looked at him with a sharp gaze.

How did it come about? Deep guilt welled up from the depths of his heart. Luo Ziran stumbled two steps and closed his eyes in regret. His Nan'er's desperate cries and scarred body haunted him like a ghost. It was he who had destroyed Nan'er's trust and brought her into the greatest danger.

However, he really didn't know why things had turned out like this between them...

At first sight in his youth, he'd decided this delicate, frail doll, seemingly about to break, was the love of his life. After years of care, he finally allowed that indifferent doll to set her eyes on him. He poured his ardent love into this delicate orchid, naively believing this was his life.

But life is too long, and after marriage, all the problems he had neglected began to resurface. She was too frail to have children, while his status and responsibilities necessitated an heir. She was destined not to live past twenty, so he needed someone born on the same day to refine the spirit-calling banner.

Shen Nan is from the Qishan Shen family. She has a unique fate. No one in the entire Daqi has the same birth time and birth chart. It took Elder Shen more than ten years to find a... the youngest daughter of the Khan of the Eight Tribes of Rong and Qiang.

In order to get the girl, he reached a cooperation with the Khan. Qiao's entry into the mansion satisfied his mother's request to take a concubine and also successfully concealed all his plans. However, when Shen Nan learned about it, she just looked at him disappointedly.

Why? He clearly...was doing it all for her? He only loved Nan'er. Even when the unsuspecting Qiao drugged him to win her favor, and because she was pregnant that night, he never hesitated. He only wanted to use her to refine the spirit-calling flag.

Why, upon learning that Qiao was pregnant, had Nan'er desperately asked for a divorce? He pleaded, he explained, he even swore... but nothing could bring back the love in her eyes. It was that coldness that had caused him to lose his composure.

"No... don't hate me, Nan'er... I just love you too much..."

That was obviously the person he loved the most, his most precious wife.

Yiyuan and Aruo exchanged a look, and Aruo put away his sarcasm. "Brother-in-law, let her go. Sister is too tired, she wants to rest."

Luo Ziran was shocked and looked up in shock, looking at the girl whose cold eyebrows had faded and whose black eyes were clear.

Even she... doesn't look like Nan'er anymore. How could she not look like her? Her piano, her eyes, her body, should all belong to Nan'er!

All of this should belong to him!

His eyes fell on her face, deep and tender. His brows knitted together slightly, and a flash of murderous intent flashed across his eyes. Then, he swayed, and as if exhausted, he fell to the ground. He raised his eyebrows slightly, his eyes sad and bewildered, "Let me... let her go?"

His expression reminded Aruo of the beginning when the handsome boy gently held Shen Nan's hand and told her that he would protect her in the future and told her not to be afraid.

Her dark eyes softened as she slowly walked up to him, and he stared blankly, as if he was looking through her to see that beautiful soul.

"Your love is too tiring, your betrayal is too painful, she doesn't want it anymore." Aruo slowly stretched out her hand and unfolded the jade lock on her palm, "Let her go, and let yourself go."

He stared blankly at the jade locket, caressing it almost every night and expressing his longing. Now, was he being asked to let it go? Was he being asked to take away his only hope?

"Nan'er...she kept asking me to let you go before she died. In her last moments, she didn't ask about our dead child, nor did she say a word about me. It was all about you..." Luo Ziran muttered to himself, raising his hand very slowly.

She said it was a four-year agreement... but in fact, she knew that once Aruo disappeared into the city, she would be able to escape from all this.

Slender, almost transparent, white fingers brushed against the jade lock and grasped Aruo's wrist. Luo Ziran's smile was filled with uncontrollable madness. He suddenly pulled her into his arms, one hand firmly gripping her throat. "Why you? What's so good about you that she would risk everything for you?"

"Aruo!" Yiyuan was shocked.

"Don't come over!" Luo Ziran pinched her hand tightly, and a trace of pain appeared on Aruo's face. His gentle voice rang in her ears, "Nan'er, no one can take you away from me again."

"Luozi...Ran, wake up." Aruo frowned and turned her head to avoid his warm breath.

His cool fingertips caressed her cheek inch by inch. Ignoring her disgusted look, Luo Ziran smiled, his low and hoarse voice carrying a bit of morbid madness, "I'm very sober, Nan'er... I've ordered people to prepare. When we get to Liangzhou, you just need to sleep... When you wake up, you will only be Shen Nan."

A cold voice spoke terrifying words, and Aruo suddenly thought of the fake Fang Shouren from Sizhou, and her heart shuddered. Could he have been so provoked that he was determined to turn her into Shen Nan?

Yiyuan stopped vigilantly not far away. Luo Ziran grinned and said leisurely, "You gave up Su Zirui just to be with me, didn't you? Nan'er, I will never let you leave me again..."

Aruo was speechless. After all this time, the real madman was here? The pressure in her throat grew tighter and tighter, her breathing became intermittent, but her palms tightly grasped the jade lock.

Suddenly, a sharp arrow flew through the air. Luo Ziran dodged while holding onto Aruo. When he looked up, he saw the tall figure riding a horse galloping towards him and couldn't help laughing.

Su Zirui's eyes were cold and sharp. He smoothly nocked the arrow, drew the bow, and tightened the bowstring. "Let her go. You can't get away."

Luo Ziran put away the icy smile on his lips, suddenly pinched her neck, and pressed her tightly in his arms, staring at him with those cold eyes, "You didn't go to Yangzhou, you went to the northwest. It was you who investigated the Qiao family... right?"

"I have been ordered to conduct a secret investigation. The governor of Liangzhou has confirmed that the household registrations of Huanniang and Qiao are forged. They are both from the Rongqiang tribe. In recent years, the Zhenyuan Army's secret military intelligence reports and personnel transfers in the court have leaked from Furong Tower. Yilanxiang's secret and the baby who died in vain to save Marquis Luo's appearance have all been verified. The evidence is conclusive, and the ancestral hall has been surrounded. Marquis... you'd better plead guilty." Su Zirui said lightly, aiming the arrow without moving, as if he didn't see the girl with a painful expression being held in front of Luo Ziran.

"Confess? Ha..." Luo Ziran sighed and laughed, disdain in his eyes, "Do you think you can convict me based on just one side of the story?"

Su Zirui's eyebrows remained motionless, his voice indifferent and steady, "The Ministry of Justice never relies on one side of the story when handling cases. Furong Tower has been sealed off and investigated by the Inspectorate. The letters of your affair with Huan Niang are now on the imperial desk, and several elders of Niujiazhuang Village have also confessed their guilt. I wonder what other evidence the Marquis would like to hear?"

Luo Ziran's face darkened instantly, his brows furrowed, and the murderous aura on his body suddenly surged, "Su Zirui... I really shouldn't have kept you here."

When Luo Yin attacked him, he shouldn't have let him go because he was afraid of provoking Su Qing. He was distracted by Su Qing's secret investigation into the northwest, and that foolish woman Ruxian secretly sent Yanhong to look for Aruo. He was afraid that something unexpected would happen before the battle started and that Luo Yin would be caught in the act.

You big guys can negotiate, but can you please let her go first? Aruo was strangled to the point of having difficulty breathing, and she had to listen to these secret codes that she didn't understand at all. She couldn't help but cough twice to make her presence felt.

"If you confess your crime now, Concubine Luo should be able to kneel down all night and beg for mercy and spare your life." Su Zirui's eyes were cold, and he said sarcastically, "The people you brought have been subdued. The Marquis' Mansion and your Mr. He have also been taken into custody. Now, it's your turn."

Release him? Confess?

"Heh..." Luo Ziran suddenly smiled nonchalantly, hugging the girl tightly. "What if I insist on going all out? Would you be willing to do that?"

He smiled and deliberately rubbed the girl's cheek, completely ignoring her struggle.

Under the moonlight, Su Zirui's eyes were cold and piercing, and his whole body was filled with murderous aura. He pulled the bow to its full extent, and the bowstring was taut.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, look, he's so reluctant to abandon the woman who gave you up... I never knew Lord Su was such a sentimental man..." Luo Ziran's brows flashed with weariness, and he smiled at him. The cold man stretched his bow to its full length, yet never released the sharp arrow that lay on the string, even if there was even the slightest possibility of hurting the person in his arms.

For some reason, his behavior made Luo Ziran feel a little emotional.

"No one can compare to the Marquis," Su Zirui said with a cold look in his eyes, "even after his death, he is still so affectionate."

He did all sorts of things to hurt her when he was alive, yet in death he showed no regrets about his love for her? How ridiculous! Yet, the world still praises this shallow affection to cover up his own crimes.

Luo Ziran felt a pang of pain in his eyes. His wife's resolute and indifferent eyes overlapped with the disgusted and contemptuous eyes of the man before him. He suddenly gasped. Why? Why did he do everything, and in the end, the person who was supposed to be his Nan'er would return to the arms of another man?

Why!

"You don't understand at all. For Nan'er, I can give up everything. The resurrection array is complete, and she is Nan'er!" Luo Ziran said angrily. Yes, Mr. Shen said that the array would not fail after he devoted his entire life to it. She is Shen Nan.

"The formation didn't work," Yiyuan sneered, looking at him indifferently, his eyes fading away his compassion, leaving only a look of indifference. "Half of Shen Nan's soul has been sealed in the Soul Lock by you. The soul in the Soul Summoning Banner is not complete, so there is no way to revive him."

Whether Shen Nan is willing or not, if the formation is successful, then A Ruo will be replaced. But... Luo Ziran accidentally sealed half of Shen Nan's soul. How can an incomplete soul snatch the complete soul?

As if on purpose, Yiyuan raised the corner of his lips. The usually kind monk now looked evil, and his indifferent eyes were tinged with mockery. "Look, your self-righteous reluctance has destroyed Shen Nan's life. Your behavior is just as ridiculous as your deep affection."

Luo Ziran's pupils suddenly shrank. Those words that he refused to believe were like the tip of a sharp knife, piercing into his heart. Every part of his body was filled with unspeakable pain.

He trembled uncontrollably all over and stared at him intently, "No... No, she is Nan'er... If she is not... Hehe..."

He suddenly grabbed Aruo's throat tightly, his face full of madness, "Master Su, you want me to plead guilty? Sure, in exchange for this woman's life... Ugh!"

Luo Ziran felt a sharp pain in his chest and his expression changed drastically. He lowered his head tremblingly and saw that the girl in his arms was holding a hairpin in her backhand, and the sharp end of the hairpin was deeply piercing his chest.

"The victor is the king and the loser is the bandit. Can't you have some class? A man should speak with strength. What kind of ability is it to ask a woman to be buried with you at every turn?" Aruo pried open his fingers, turned around, his black eyes full of arrogance and contempt.

"You're courting death!" Luo Ziran erupted in rage, but Aruo suddenly pushed him away, pulling out the hairpin piercing his heart. In excruciating pain, he reached for his waist, attempting to draw his sword. Yiyuan, waiting for his opportunity, swiftly swung a palm to block his movement. At the same instant, a sharp arrow pierced his shoulder.

"Ruoruo—the Yin time has arrived!"