Chapter 72 Did I hurt you?

Xiao Xun gripped Lin Yu's arm even tighter for no apparent reason, and said angrily, "You cut your hand and injured your tendons, how are you going to use a sword?"

He summoned the eunuch outside and led Lin Yu to the cabin on the first floor for first aid.

Because a banquet was being held there, there were medicine chests prepared by palace servants.

After saying that, he returned to Lin Yuan's side, lowered his head and said softly, "Don't be afraid, A Yuan, I will take you to find the antidote right away."

The boatman, Huang, had already followed his instructions and was rowing back towards Taiye Pond with all his might.

He had seen this kind of tactic before.

He grew up in the palace, which was never a clean place.

When Qu Qingru was still the empress, he never touched the food from the Jiaofang Palace or from the wife of the Grand Marshal.

Later, they even stopped burning incense.

Just in case, he secretly had a trusted physician prepare an antidote for the Hehuan Powder and kept it in the Xuan Shi Hall.

The Crane Cry Boat has reached the center of Kunming Pool. The shortest route is to turn back to Weiyang Palace along the waterway.

However, it will take about half an hour.

The room was quiet, save for the sound of countless oars cutting through the water.

Lin Yuan's forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat.

Xiao Xun gently brushed away the strands of hair that were stuck to her forehead and cheeks.

"Wait a little longer, just a little longer. After you take the antidote, you'll be fine soon."

Lin Yuan stood next to Xiao Xun.

This embrace is different from the one Lin Yu had just given her.

Xiao Xun had just ridden in on horseback from outside, draped in the cool light of the setting sun. His clothes were icy cold.

The aura emanating from him reminded Lin Yuan of the setting sun, or the grass and trees glistening with morning dew, lotus leaves rolling with water droplets, and plum blossoms laden with snowflakes.

Her thirst intensified, and her consciousness gradually faded.

It was as if the evil fire in his belly had turned into a tongue of fire, sticking out from his throat, wanting to lick and swallow the dew on the grass and trees, the pond water on the lotus leaves, and the snowflakes on the plum blossoms.

I'm so thirsty, so thirsty.

I'm so thirsty.

She moved closer to the rain she saw.

Just as she was about to touch those cold lips, she heard a staggering sound, and Lin Yuan suddenly came to her senses.

The wooden door to the cabin swayed, and she saw Lin Yu's back.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I... I didn't mean to, it was this medicine..."

As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes.

The last few words were swallowed back down.

Xiao Xun lowered his head.

Lin Yuan seemed to have returned to that long, confusing dream of spring.

This kiss felt like something out of a dream.

Their love was tender and sweet, seemingly endless.

Is it still a dream?

It's still a dream.

Cool and moisturizing.

She closed her eyes.

Her body suddenly felt light.

Xiao Xun kissed her, picked her up, and carried her to the inner room of the cabin.

There was a narrow couch for resting, and he carefully placed Lin Yuan on it so that she could lean against the pillow.

Lin Yuan's arms were still draped over Xiao Xun.

Her hand unconsciously slid from his neck to his shoulder, then to his arm and waist.

But the initial coolness gradually disappeared. She wondered if her fire had spread to her palms, as everything she touched became hot, completely stealing away the remaining coolness.

She opened her eyes.

Xiao Xun's face was so close that she could see the flames burning in his eyes.

She was so close that she could see the face of the person in those eyes.

Tears suddenly welled up in my eyes.

Xiao Xun stopped, tasting the salty and bitter flavor on his lips, and looked at Lin Yuan helplessly.

"What's wrong? Did I hurt you?"

The hands that cupped her cheeks brushed against Lin Yuan's lips.

His gaze swept frantically across the area, searching for a possible tear or opening.

"I'm sorry, this is my..."

As he said this, his breathing weakened.

"It's you?"

With a sob in her voice, Lin Yuan pounded her fist on Xiao Xun's chest instead of resting her hand on his waist.

Her eyes were brimming with tears, which were still streaming down her face: "I thought, I always thought, that it was all a dream."

Xiao Xun was stunned, finally understanding what she meant, and felt a sudden pang of pain in his heart.

“I never knew why I had that dream.” She bit her lip. “I felt ashamed of myself. I blamed myself for having that dream. It wasn’t a dream, was it?”

So, she knew.

It turns out she had woken up.

So, it turns out, she... had feelings for someone.

They must have liked each other.

You only feel wronged and sad if you've liked someone.

Xiao Xun couldn't catch his breath; his chest felt numb and aching as if it had been pounded by a barrage of fists. After a while, his heart finally started pounding again, rapidly.

"It's not a dream, A-Yuan, it's not a dream."

He haphazardly wiped away the tear stains on Lin Yuan's cheeks with his fingers, only to find it was futile; the tears simply flowed like beads from a broken string.

This was the first time he had ever seen Lin Yuan cry like this.

Even when she was stabbed by the assassin and was in excruciating pain, or when she drank Qu Yan's medicine and was trembling with fear, she never shed a tear.

Why did you do that?

Xiao Xun's hand stopped on that cheek, which was already soaked with tears.

"Because, Ah Yuan, I love you. I... I love you."

He had planned that on a bright and beautiful spring day, under a sky full of stars, the sheng and xiao would play, musicians would sing love songs that were full of twists and turns, and they would walk past the most beautiful flowers, and when she was smiling the most happily, he would take her hand and say these words.

This is the day.

However, at this moment, the ship was moving very fast and could not wait for the stars to fill the sky.

The musicians were still ahead, but the music from the sheng and xiao had not yet reached them.

Night had fallen, and the flowers were nowhere to be seen.

Before him stood a woman with tears glistening in her eyes and her delicate brows furrowed.

"But back then, you didn't like me at all..."

Tears could not be wiped away, nor could they be wiped away. He kissed the corner of her eye: "No, A-Yuan, I have loved you for a very, very long time. Long before you knew it."

He kissed her cheek: "Back when you lit up the stars in the darkness you gave me."

He kissed her lips and said, "Back when I had Wang Fu ask you if you could stay at Zichen Pavilion..."

For some reason, the more I kissed those tear stains, the wetter my lips became.

"No, that's not right." Lin Yuan bit her lip.

She tried to push Xiao Xun away, but her hand remained firmly in his palm. Perhaps because of the medicinal wine, she had lost her strength and couldn't break free.

She sobbed, “You always bullied me and made things difficult for me back then. You secretly hid the jade pendant and insisted that I make you pay for it with a belt. I made the belt, but you said it was lost long ago. You never slept at night, making me serve you with ink and brushes, and help you change your dressings. You were always sarcastic, you didn’t like me, you thought I was no good at anything, my clothes were no good, my poems were no good… The person you liked wasn’t me at all. You mistook me for her, didn’t you?”

“It’s you. It’s always been you. No one else, there has never been anyone else, A-Yuan.”

Xiao Xun's heart pounded, and he became somewhat incoherent.

She wasn't without resentment or hatred; she simply buried it all deep in her heart and hid it away.

Now, this belated reckoning, this belated questioning, makes his heart ache, yet beat with unparalleled vibrancy.

"I...I'm a bastard, I'm a scoundrel. I didn't mean to bully you, A-Yuan. I just wanted to talk to you more, spend more time with you, and get one or two things that belong to you."

As he spoke, he glanced at his belt, and with a flick of his wide sleeve, the bare, faded plum blossom came into view.

"I've kept all your things, your belt, and your handkerchief."

He spoke softly, knelt down in front of her, and took out a plain handkerchief from his sleeve.

Lin Yuan blinked, tears streaming down her face, before she could see clearly.

The handkerchief was plain and worn out. She had long forgotten about it.

Rather than a handkerchief, it was more like a neatly cut piece of cloth.

"This is... mine?"

Xiao Xun curved his lips into a smile: "Yes. When I first met you, you used this handkerchief to bandage my wound, and I kept it. In the plum grove of Jianzhang Palace, when I first met you, you also used this handkerchief to help me dust off my clothes."

Lin Yuan was stunned for a moment: "I don't remember."

“I remember, that’s enough, A-Yuan.” He smiled at her and said gently, “Your things have always been with me, every moment of every day.”

"My things are with you?" Lin Yuan was drunk and confused. "But you left me on the mountain in Shanglin Garden?"

"I want to protect you, but I'm sorry, I can't think of a better way—"

"Protecting me?" she asked, tears welling in her eyes. "Do you know how scared I was there?"

“I… I found out later,” Xiao Xun said urgently. “I know, you were afraid of the sounds of wild animals. You were afraid of the dark forests. I… I didn’t realize that it was so close to the animal watchtower.”

Lin Yuan bit her lip, angrily scolding him: "You make me keep guessing, keep thinking, keep being afraid. You don't tell me anything. I don't know anything, and I can't do anything."

Xiao Xun stared at her in a daze.

"I'm scared, I'm terrified. I'm afraid that when I get down the mountain, I'll see Chang'an in ruins, Weiyang Palace gone, streets trampled by horses, and mountains and rivers changed. And people. So many people. People I care about, people I love."

She sobbed, "I'm afraid... I'll never see you again."

"I'm sorry, A-Yuan, it's my fault. I... am incompetent and cowardly. I'm afraid, afraid that I can't protect you. I'm afraid that I can't protect you, so I don't dare to tell you how much I love you. Do you know what it means to be afraid of love?" His eyes were also filled with a misty mist, and he lowered his eyelashes. "It's just that I can't control my feelings for you, I can't stop liking you."

He took her hand and slowly moved it to his heart: "Ah Yuan, I love you. This person has always been you. This place has always been you."

These words entered her ears hazily, and Lin Yuan was in a drunken stupor.

When I placed my hand on his chest, I could feel it pounding rapidly and burning hot. With the slightest movement, only the skin beneath his clothes seemed to carry a slight coolness.

The twilight light streaming through the ship's windows had been completely withdrawn, and starlight had filled the space.

She heard a tender voice whispering in her ear:

Stars cross the Milky Way...

Every day you're not here, I look at the sky, at the moon, at the stars, and I think of you.

It's not a star raft, it should be stars.

I can't wait for the star raft. I want all the stars in the sky to come and ferry me across...

The Crane Cry Boat seemed to have passed through the narrow path connecting Kunming Pool and Jian Pool, and was passing through the dense woods on both banks.

A branch of peach blossoms peeked through the window of the boat, its pink cheeks blushing red under the tree lamp, before shyly turning its head away.

Dewdrops cling to the petals, unfolding layer by layer, trembling as they are gently caressed by the window frame.

The water murmured like a spring.

The tinkling sound never stopped.

A land of enchanting beauty, a land of vibrant red and wet hues.

I seem to be feeling better.

Lin Yuan could hear faint music coming from somewhere.

The banquet had ended several hours ago, so why did the music continue to play?

As I draw nearer, I realize that I wish to be with you forever, through thick and thin...

Long life without decline...

Mountains crumble, rivers run dry, winter thunder roars... summer snow falls...

She heard a clap of thunder.

The river overflows, and the wind rises and the clouds surge.

Someone has fallen into the water.

Someone is shouting.

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A note from the author:

Xiao Xun: Everyone, come and shower me with flowers! After more than seventy chapters and nearly three years of effort, I, I, I (incoherently) finally, finally kissed her!!!

Lin Yu: You took advantage of someone's vulnerability.

There are still two or three chapters left in the ending. I'm not satisfied with what I've written and I've been revising it. I need to take two days off. [Please!]