Chapter 42 Chapter 42 Xie Zhi took his place.
Since childhood, Xie Chengxin had heard others say that if he had not been born to Empress Wencheng, the third prince Xie Zhi would have been more suitable to be a crown prince than him.
Xie Zhi was calm, dignified, and extremely talented, and was never troubled by illness.
What's more, when he was seven years old, he learned a secret, a secret that was enough to make him confused and anxious.
He was jealous and wanted to take away everything Xie Zhi had. Inkstones, calligraphy and paintings, books and antiques, as long as Xie Zhi liked it, he could easily take it away with just a little request.
But he had never seen such a hypocritical and self-righteous person.
Even if his eyes were filled with joy because of these things the previous moment, he would be indifferent to his plundering the next moment.
"If my brother likes it, I will give it to him as a gift."
It was clearly something that was stolen, but it seemed like his charity.
Later, Xie Zhiliao was not seen in the palace for a long time. Xie Chengxin heard that the emperor had ordered him to go to the border for training.
He envied Xie Zhi's freedom, and envied his ability to command troops and generals at such a young age. However, due to his physical condition, he could only be trapped in the palace forever, a caged prince.
The next time I saw Xie Zhi was two years later, when he and General Anxi returned to Beijing to report on their work. At that time, he was filled with a murderous aura, and everyone respected him as the "Ghost-faced General."
Xie Chengxin felt that he was even further away from him.
During the Lantern Festival that year, he secretly took away Xie Zhi's bronze ghost mask and left the palace for the first time as Xie Zhi.
He was in poor health, and the imperial concubine protected him like the apple of her eye. Since he was born, he had never seen the world outside the palace.
Finally, with the help of the bronze ghost mask, he could look at the excitement around him with curiosity.
That's when the girl appeared.
Xie Chengxin could no longer recall how she had appeared before him. He only remembered that, illuminated by the countless sparkling lights, the girl's cheeks were as red as the clouds in the sky, and she looked as bright and beautiful as a goddess or fairy.
She lowered her head, not daring to look him in the eye. While rubbing the corner of her clothes, she handed him a white jade mask and said, "I think... this mask suits you better..."
Xie Chengxin will always remember the shock he felt at that time.
It turns out that he doesn't need to snatch what belongs to Xie Zhi, he can also have something that belongs to him.
He took the white jade mask and gave a heavenly lantern as a return gift.
When he wanted to ask her name, he heard a voice calling, "Asi!"
The lively and bright figure disappeared into the crowd in an instant.
It was as if her arrival was like a fairy from heaven, and she disappeared after comforting him.
Xie Chengxin never thought that the scene would be like this when he saw her again.
She actually became Xie Zhi's wife!
His eyes were almost bloodshot as he hurried to Nie Xiangyi and asked, "Why you?"
Seeing the tense situation before him, Nie Xiangyi vaguely guessed that the person coming might be the prince, but his strange look made his scalp tingle. He could not help but take two steps back, his feet almost touching the Buddha altar.
"You...what do you mean..."
Seeing her dodge, Xie Chengxin's eyes became more sinister. The bluestone floor made dull footsteps as he kept approaching her.
Nie Xiangyi had nowhere to hide, and the man in front of her was pressing closer and closer, almost crossing the line. Nie Xiangyi subconsciously pulled out the golden hairpin in her hair and pointed it at him.
"Don't come over here!"
"Wow—" The moment she pulled out the golden hairpin, the surrounding Shen Ce guards all drew their swords from their waists. The bright light made Nie Xiangyi's face pale.
Xie Chengxin held her wrist bone and squeezed it gently, causing the golden hairpin in her hand to fall to the ground in pain, making a crisp "clang" sound.
Pei Lang, who was standing by, gritted his teeth at the sight and spoke up for her, "Your Highness, the Third Prince's Consort is not..."
"Get out." Xie Chengxin interrupted her.
His words were filled with unquestionable arbitrariness, and several Divine Strategy Guards retreated in response. Pei Lang glanced hesitantly at Nie Xiangyi, but was ultimately escorted out by the Divine Strategy Guards.
"Hurry up and send someone to inform my brother! Something happened on the mountain! Go quickly!"
Xie Chengxin still held Nie Xiangyi's hand tightly, not letting go. He looked at Nie Xiangyi's frightened expression with a dark and obscure gaze, "You don't know me?"
Seeing him overstepping his bounds, Nie Xiangyi was shocked and furious. She struggled desperately, "Your Highness! Let go! You're being disrespectful!"
"Answer my question!" Xie Chengxin's eagerness almost became real as he asked her loudly, "Do you still remember me?"
Nie Xiangyi's wrist bones were pinched until they turned red, and she was almost in tears from the pain.
The two of them were shrouded in the shadow of the Buddha statue, and countless eternally burning lamps made Xie Chengxin's face flicker, making him look even more gloomy and cold.
"Before today, I don't remember ever meeting His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
"Really?" Xie Chengxin suddenly laughed, his pale smile like a ghost. "Three years ago, the Lantern Festival. The white jade mask and the heavenly lanterns. Don't you remember them?"
Nie Xiangyi's eyes suddenly widened!
That mask was actually given to him? She actually gave it to the wrong person? But that person was clearly wearing the bronze ghost mask that only Xie Zhi had!
Her voice was filled with incredible surprise, "Isn't that the Third Prince?"
"Xie Zhi?" Her words startled Xie Chengxin for a moment, and then he seemed to have figured something out. The smile on his lips gradually widened, with a strange and gloomy feeling.
It turned out that Xie Zhi was using Li as a substitute.
Suddenly, a subtle, indescribable sense of satisfaction rose in his heart. Over the years, out of resentment and jealousy, he had taken away many things from Xie Zhi.
Today, it is Xie Zhi's turn to be the villain.
His eyes roamed back and forth on Nie Xiangyi's cheek, and he said firmly, "It's not Xie Zhi, it's me."
Nie Xiangyi suddenly understood.
She really sent it to the wrong person.
There had been clues before, but she had never paid attention. Xie Zhi said she had mistaken him, and the busy schedule of the Divine Strategy Department during the New Year holidays all indicated that the person at the Lantern Festival that day was not Xie Zhi.
She thought she would give the mask to the ghost-faced general she had always dreamed of, but she never expected that it would be given to the prince.
Then that Heavenly Palace Lantern... turned out not to be a return gift from Xie Zhi.
Her head was a little confused, "It turns out that I recognized the wrong person."
Xie Chengxin looked at her with a slightly dazed expression, and became more and more certain in his heart that her marriage with Xie Zhi was just due to Xie Zhi's impersonation of his identity.
It was Xie Zhi who took it away from him.
"If you and Xie Zhi..."
He had just opened his mouth when he heard a loud bang and the door to the palace was violently kicked open.
This was the first time Nie Xiangyi saw Xie Zhi kick the door open.
He was always polite and calm. Kicking the door was an inappropriate and rude act for him, and was definitely not what a gentleman would do.
"I'm afraid it's against the rules for my royal brother to be alone with my wife so late at night." Xie Zhi's low voice was as cold as black ice, almost freezing people.
His figure outside the door was stretched out by the dim moonlight, and his expression could not be seen against the light. He only felt like a god or Buddha standing there, silently confronting the people in the house.
He stepped into the hall, his footsteps pounding like his heartbeat, and the quiet air was faintly filled with a strange smell.
"Your wife? Really?" Xie Chengxin sneered. "How dare a fake person who came here to take someone else's place be so self-righteous?"
Xie Zhi's pupils suddenly constricted.
When he led his men to the foot of the mountain and found that the people coming were not the rebels but Pei Jue's men, he realized that something was wrong.
"It's a trick to lure the tiger away from the mountain." His heart suddenly tightened. It must be the prince's trick.
He and Pei Jue hurried back, but just as they reached the temple gate, a servant of the Pei family came to inform them that something had happened in the palace.
If Nie Xiangyi met the prince, she would definitely know that the person she met on the Lantern Festival that day was not her.
So what should she do?
Xie Zhi looked at Nie Xiangyi's face. At this moment, she was frightened and stunned, looking at him blankly, as if she had suffered a great shock.
His eyes dimmed and his fingertips curled tightly into his sleeves.
"The marriage was granted by our father, so it's legitimate. How can there be talk of a fake?" He approached the two of them and met Xie Chengxin's gaze sharply.
Under his contemptuous gaze, Xie Zhiyi grabbed Nie Xiangyi's wrist and said, "This is against etiquette. Please let go, brother."
Xie Chengxin raised his eyebrows, "What if I don't let go?"
He had a confident smile on his face, "Xie Zhi, you should know that it's you who should let go."
Xie Zhi's gaze fell on the door.
Pei Jue's handsome figure suddenly appeared outside the door.
"If my royal brother doesn't let go, his outrageous behavior today will spread immediately throughout the court, including my father."
Xie Zhi's tone was indifferent, without any threat or cruelty, as if he was talking about an insignificant matter. "Whether your position as Crown Prince will be affected by this depends entirely on you, my brother."
"Pei Jue?" Xie Chengxin glanced at the person who slowly walked in from outside and sneered, "Little Master Pei, do you know the fate of those who sit on the fence?"
The three people in the hall had strange and eccentric postures. Pei Jue looked up at them who refused to let go, and the usually gentle smile on the corner of his lips faded to almost nothing.
He was just a bystander.
"I know you are not sincere in surrendering to me, but today, I can give you a chance." Xie Chengxin raised the corners of his lips slightly, but there was no smile in his eyes.
"Should you choose me, the crown prince, or this prince who doesn't even have the name of a clan heir? Master Pei, you are a smart man."
Even Nie Xiangyi, who had never been familiar with political affairs, heard that Xie Chengxin was blatantly asking Pei Jue to take sides.
It seems that Xie Zhi's chances of winning are indeed slim.
Nie Xiangyi saw Pei Jue was silent and couldn't help but feel nervous, "Brother Ziying!"
Xie Chengxin suddenly turned around to look at her with this kind of affectionate address, his face half-smiled but with a hint of ghostliness, "Brother?"
"Childhood sweethearts." Xie Zhi sneered, "How can a single encounter compare to this?"
"That's better than passing off fakes as real ones."
The atmosphere became increasingly tense.
Pei Jue in the distance seemed to sigh silently, "Your Highness, please let go."
"It seems that Master Pei has made up his mind to choose the third brother?"
"Your Highness, you are wrong. I am loyal to the Emperor." Pei Jue said calmly, "If the Emperor knew that you were forming a clique and attacking those who are different from you, I'm afraid he would be displeased."
"It's a high-sounding statement." Xie Chengxin remained in a stalemate.
Nie Xiangyi was inexplicably held by the two men, and it became increasingly difficult to break free. She could only move closer to Xie Zhi and frowned, saying, "Your Highness, please let go."
Xie Chengxin's gaze became like a sharp knife, almost slicing through the bones and flesh of the person. He suddenly let go.
As soon as he let go, without waiting for Nie Xiangyi to say anything, Xie Zhi turned around and pulled Nie Xiangyi out of the hall.
Xie Chengxin looked at the direction they left and chuckled inexplicably. He wouldn't let go just like that.
Xie Zhi, I didn’t steal it from you this time.
It should be mine.
Xie Zhi's footsteps were so hurried that Nie Xiangyi almost stumbled. Nie Xiangyi sensed a hint of anger in him, assuming she'd gotten into trouble tonight. She didn't dare speak, her wrist pinching painfully, and timidly followed him.
A huge panic of losing something surrounded Xie Zhi. He had never felt so uneasy as today. Ever since he came back from the mountain, his restless mood had been constantly suppressed, almost tearing him to pieces.
He was angry about why he had to go down the mountain and give the prince a chance, and he was also angry about why Nie Xiangyi didn't listen to him and went out on her own.
What made him even more angry was that the person he met during the Lantern Festival that year was not the real him.
"Your Highness..." He heard Nie Xiangyi speak softly behind him, her voice as soft as a frightened kitten, "I didn't cause any trouble for Your Highness tonight... I called Pei..."
"So why didn't you listen to me? And why did you go out?" She was interrupted by Xie Zhi before she could finish her words.
In the darkness, Xie Zhi's voice was low and hoarse, filled with deep fatigue, "A Si, did you know this a long time ago?"
-----------------------
The author has something to say: Private Marseille, dear friends, I have been too busy recently [chin]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
