Chapter 260 You Go
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The Fourth Prince’s Mansion.
After the emperor left, Xiao Yuan's spirit began to visibly wilted, his slightly bent spine seemed to have aged more than ten years, but his deep black eyes were fixed on Shen An'an reluctantly, wishing he could encompass her completely in them.
"Xiao Yuan." Shen Anan couldn't stop her tears from falling, "What's wrong with you? What can I do to save you?"
“An’an, don’t cry, listen to me.” Xiao Yuan coughed lightly a few times, his hoarse voice was very serious, and he tightly grasped Shen An’an’s hand.
"Fifty miles ahead of Langyue Lake is the retreat route I have arranged for you. Those people will escort you out of the capital safely. You should pack up and leave immediately."
"Leave?" Shen Anan's tears were still hanging on her eyelashes. She looked at him blankly, "Where do you want me to go?"
"You can go wherever you want. They will keep you safe. An'an, don't you want to stay in the capital? The world outside is vast and you can do whatever you want. You can go back to Jiangnan. There are banknotes in the treasury of the prince's mansion, enough for you to live comfortably for the rest of your life."
He spoke very anxiously, his face began to turn abnormally red, he kept coughing, and blood was flowing from the corners of his lips, but he tried his best to endure it, for fear of scaring the girl next to him again.
Shen Anan's eyes were filled with despair, "You want me to leave? What about you? What about your great cause?"
Xiao Yuan stroked her head as if he was deceiving a child, "That position is not easy to sit in. I don't like it anyway. When everything is settled, I will go to Jiangnan to find you. If you are here, I will always be worried and can't do things wholeheartedly."
"You lied to me." Shen Anan waved his arm, her clear almond eyes misty, "I won't leave. When the Shen family was in trouble, I asked you to stay out of it. Why didn't you listen? When we got married, you also made all kinds of promises, but now you haven't fulfilled them. Do you want to drive me away?"
"An An."
For the first time, she saw helpless despair in his eyes.
"Just listen to me again."
Shen Anan shook her head firmly, her expression cold, "I won't listen. When I wanted to leave, you tried every possible way to keep me here. Now, you can't just say a few words and drive me away."
Xiao Yuan expected her to do so, but when he really heard her say these words, he couldn't help but feel a warmth rising in his heart. His deep affection that had nowhere to go finally had a response.
Unfortunately, it’s not the right time.
"Doctor, I'll go find the doctor. You lie down and don't move." She was about to leave, but he held her wrist tightly. "Don't look for the doctor. It's useless."
"An An, you have always been smart. In the face of the overall situation, you should know how to make a choice. I am afraid that I can't protect you. You..."
"Then they will all die." Shen An'an's eyes were filled with anger. "I can't beat them, but I can still kill one or two of them."
She turned back and stared at Xiao Yuan, "You don't have to say such things anymore."
What she said was very cruel, but her eyes couldn't help but turn red, so the reason why he delayed for so long when going to Langyue Lake to rescue Qi Jinping was to give her a way out.
"Why are you so stubborn?" Xiao Yuan stroked her soft wrist with his fingertips, his eyes filled with deep powerlessness and worry.
"If you're worried about me, then hold on and don't leave me alone to be bullied by those people."
She turned back to the bed and held Xiao Yuan's hand in hers, "Xiao Yuan, can you hold on for a while and protect me for another half of my life?"
Among the furnishings in the room, he could only take in her face. His dark eyes stared at her without blinking, as if he wanted to embed her face into his eyes.
"An An, this time is different from the past. It is not something that can be changed by human power. I..."
Before he finished speaking, he started coughing violently, and the bright red that he had suppressed for a long time finally came out, shocking Shen Anan so much that his hands and feet were cold.
"Imperial physician, imperial physician, Mo Xiang, go and get the imperial physician." She almost roared.
Xiao Yuan lay back heavily on the couch, his cold eyes slowly becoming blurred, "An An, don't cry," he raised his hand to wipe away the tears on her face, whispering, "I will pray for another life, there will always be a chance for us to be together until old age."
Shen Anan was shocked and looked up at Xiao Yuan in disbelief, "You, what did you say?"
Xiao Yuan smiled slightly, although the smile was weak and ugly, "In the last life, he was never worthy of forgiveness, but now I really like you."
"Be good, I will look for you again, so you have to live well so that you can wait for me."
"No, you lied to me." Shen Anan once again experienced what it was like to be torn apart, as if she was forcibly pulled apart and torn into countless pieces, each piece was enough to make people numb and suffocate.
"Remember what I told you. Go to Langyue Lake and take the token from the fourth drawer of my study. All the secret guards in the Fourth Prince's Mansion will escort you out. Also, you can use the list I asked you to recite to negotiate with Father. Leave quickly while I'm still here and before those people can be used by you."
"I forgot about it a long time ago. I don't remember the list." Shen Anan shook her head, "Don't talk anymore. Save some energy and let the doctor take a look."
She slowly stood up and walked to the basin, wrung out the water with a towel and came back to wipe Xiao Yuan, "You have survived for so many years, this is just one of the disasters, you will be fine."
She repeated these words while wiping him, not knowing whether she was comforting him or herself.
"Princess, the imperial physician is here."
Shen Anan immediately asked someone to come in to take her pulse, but Xiao Yuan closed his eyes at some point and seemed to have fallen asleep.
As soon as the imperial physician's fingers touched the pulse, his fingertips trembled in shock and his face suddenly changed, "Your Majesty, Princess, the Fourth Prince's pulse is like a dying candle."
"Impossible, he just woke up and was still talking to me, how could he die suddenly?" How could Shen Anan accept this? She stared at the doctor without blinking, her eyes sharp.
The imperial physician had never seen such a disease before, so how could he explain it? "Perhaps, I just spent too much energy, which accelerated the decline of the kidneys."
"How many days left?" she asked suddenly calmly.
"Two, two days." The imperial physician did not dare to ask Shen Anan to prepare for his funeral as soon as possible.
"Two days," she murmured, a bitter smile appearing on her lips. The pain and despair in her eyes could no longer be suppressed and surged out.
"You should leave now."
"Yes," the imperial physician was as if he had been pardoned and quickly left the main house.
Everyone left. She fell on the edge of the bed like a puppet with its soul taken away, staring blankly at Xiao Yuan who was sleeping quietly.
"Both lives cannot be fulfilled. Could it be that we are really doomed to be together? When will the chance for us to grow old together come true?"
She spoke softly, tears began to well up in her eyes, and finally she let out a suppressed cry of grief.
"You always lied to me. You tricked me into coming to the Fourth Prince's Mansion, but you never spent half of your time with me, and now you're tricking me about my next life."
A year has passed, and Shen Anan can no longer remember clearly how she felt when she married into the Fourth Prince's Mansion. She only knows that she felt resentful, reluctant, and unhappy. When did she start to ease up and repeat the same mistakes?
It was the wedding night, the fireworks outside the window, his undisguised joy, the days and nights together afterwards, his unreasoning partiality and protection, or the joys of sex time and time again...
The only flaw is that he is too petty.
Scenes from the past year flashed through her mind.
"Look forward to the next life." She murmured softly, her brows tightly furrowed. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, she stood up from the ground.
He said that his illness could not be changed by human power, and he said that he would look forward to his next life. He told her about the dream many times.
So he knew where his illness came from, but he just didn't want to tell himself.
"Buddhists often talk about cause and effect. Nothing happens without a reason. My rebirth, his dream..."
She turned and ran out the door.
"Princess, where are you going?" Mo Xiang was startled, thinking that something had happened to her son-in-law again.
"Prepare the car, quick."
"Where is the princess going?"
"Xiangjue Temple."
Two quarters of an hour later, a carriage rushed out of the city gate at a very fast speed and arrived at the foot of Xiangjue Temple Mountain. However, it was already dark at this time and the road up the mountain was rugged and uneven. Not only was it dangerous, it would also take a lot of time.
“Princess, how about we move on first and find a roadside inn to rest for a night, and then go up the mountain tomorrow morning.” Qingfeng suggested with a frown.
"No." Shen Anan took the lantern from him, which could barely illuminate the road under his feet. "We don't have any extra time to waste."
There were foundation stones on the roadside. She carried a lantern and walked up the mountain with one foot deep and one foot shallow. Because she was in a hurry, she couldn't see the road clearly and was tripped by stones. It was only because Qingfeng and a few others followed her that she didn't fall down the mountain.
She had never felt a road so long and difficult.
Mo Xiang was left in the mansion to take care of Xiao Yuan. The people who accompanied him, such as Qing Feng, were all men and could not get close to him. They could only watch their own princess fall again and again, and stand up again, with mist in their eyes.
The moon was high in the sky, but it was particularly dim today. Shen Anan's palms were already scratched and covered with mud, and her dress was also cut by the dead weeds and stones. She looked indescribably miserable.
But when she reached Xiangjue Temple, she still looked relaxed and happy, as if she had finally found hope.
At this time, Xiangjue Temple had already fallen into darkness, with only a few scattered lanterns emitting faint light.
Following her memory, Shen Anan came to the courtyard where Wen Yin lived, where there were lush green bamboos and the sound of wind.
"Who is it?" A little monk came out of the side room rubbing his eyes, and was shocked to see Shen An'an's scene, "Donor, why are you here in the middle of the night?"
"I'm looking for Master Wen Yin."
The little monk was obviously stunned for a moment, then frowned, "Master Wenyin is not here, what do you want to see him for?"
It was the same trick again. Shen Anan was too lazy to talk nonsense with him and just gave Qingfeng a look. The latter didn't say much and just went forward to tie up the little monk.
"What are you doing, benefactor? My master is really not here. How can I, a monk, deceive you?"
"He has deceived me more than once or twice." Shen Anan's voice was cold. Looking at the closed courtyard door, the first thought in her mind was, if it was Xiao Yuan, what would he do?
Of course, we have to break in and grab the person.
"Qingfeng, break the door."
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