the truth
"Boom—"
Suddenly, a thunderclap ripped through the sky outside the window, turning the sky as dark as ink. Then, a light drizzle scattered and was carried by the wind.
Xie Yuan sat quietly at the table, a candle burning before him, casting a stark contrast between light and shadow on his face. Xie Lingxi couldn't help but shiver. "Father... already knew?"
Xie Yuan looked at his daughter, whose brows now held a mixture of determination and compassion, no longer the cold-faced, amusing little lady he once was. He said gently, "What is Lingxi referring to? If she is referring to Wan Jun and He Ren, then I do know about them."
"Father's appearance here means he knew that Ah Xu and I would come to the He family to investigate—but why did we come to the He family, and why did we want to investigate Xie Wanjun? How could someone as intelligent as Father not guess?"
After saying that, she threw herself into her father's arms, sobbing, "I...I...!"
Now she truly abandoned all composure and self-control, all decorum and propriety. Her heart was filled with a thousand emotions, and she didn't know how to express them to Xie Yuan.
“I don’t know… It was the Prince of Pingnan, he wanted to… wanted to…”
He killed Cui Jue and even wanted to destroy the Xie family!
What good could have been buried there until now? How could the Prince of Pingnan's feelings for her family be anything but kind and gentle?
The pent-up feelings of grievance and helplessness burst forth, flowing like a long, drawn-out sob, just like the surrounding rain. Xie Lingxi's tears slid silently down her face like a string of beads.
When her tears had all dried, she looked up in surprise and saw Liu Xu standing not far away, his eyes filled with pity.
"I...I lost my composure."
Her father's robes were soaked with her tears. Xie Lingxi released him, her mind clearing, her expression showing a mixture of shame and helplessness.
She was always aloof, so how could she be so utterly transparent today?
Liu Xu had been silent all along, but now he finally stepped forward, grasped her hand tightly, and said to Xie Yuan, "Father."
"Chengzhi, thank you for taking care of Lingxi."
Liu Xu shook his head.
Xie Yuan replied, "You should thank me."
“It was my ignorance that led you juniors to get involved in this mess,” he sighed. “I am truly ashamed.”
The Prince of Pingnan is far away in the southern border. It is not an easy thing for him to extend his reach into Chang'an. It would require years of planning. Whatever his intentions, the Xie family does not participate in any faction in the struggle for the throne, so he is no threat to them.
With its roots and leaves flourishing, it became a target for various princes and nobles to win over.
But Xie Yuan never expected that the incident from ten years ago would cause him to hold a grudge to this day.
"Is the Prince of Pingnan targeting us solely out of personal grudges?"
Xie Lingxi asked this question.
She knew things weren't that simple. How could a general with a distinguished military record and the powerful influence of the emperor, and a nobleman and the legitimate daughter of the empress, act so rashly because of some personal feelings?
Xie Yuan: "Of course not."
He wore a mocking expression, and the same look he had when he acted as Wan Jun's older brother reappeared on his face. "'Deep affection' is just a man's pretense, a self-deceiving pledge of allegiance... Some things are not easy to say, but now, I have to let Lingxi and Chengzhi explain them to me."
Xie Lingxi asked, "Aunt Wanjun, did you really have a relationship with the Prince of Pingnan?"
"That's... a case of misjudging people."
The inability to judge people refers not only to Xie Wanjun, but also to Xie Yuan.
More than ten years ago, Xie Yuan had just married Wang Jing, a woman from the Wang family, and then, due to a change in his official position, he temporarily settled in the north of the mountain. At that time, his two younger sisters were still unmarried.
It was the age of youthful innocence.
Wan Jun is lively and loves to travel, while Yun Zhi is quieter.
One day, while Xie Wanjun was enjoying the scenery, she picked up her brush and wrote a long and flowing poem. Exhausted after finishing, she leaned against a tree and fell asleep.
He fell asleep, and when he woke up again, it was already dusk.
Everything around her was bathed in a soft glow. Just as she was about to leave, someone picked up the Xuan paper she had dropped. "White river flows over green water, bright stream flows down green river... What a beautiful poem, what a beautiful poem!"
"A good poem?" Xie Wanjun stopped in her tracks. "Then tell me, what's so good about it?"
The young man had only spoken offhand, indulging in his own enjoyment. But upon suddenly hearing the woman's clear voice, he was startled. He turned around, saw Xie Wanjun, and bowed, saying, "I didn't know you were here, madam. I inadvertently picked up your poem that you had overlooked and just spoke on a whim. I am truly sorry for the offense."
Xie Wanjun didn't care about any of that. "What's offensive? Just tell me, what's so good about my poem?"
Her poem was a complete mess, and this person was praising it haphazardly...
Could he be a playboy who came specifically to pick up girls?
After thinking for a moment, she gazed at her husband opposite her, whose face was slightly flushed, his forehead damp with a thin layer of sweat, whether from heat or annoyance; meanwhile, Yan Li was also staring intently at Xie Wanjun—
This woman is incredibly bold; she wasn't afraid of him even in the middle of nowhere.
He said, "A work created spontaneously and with heartfelt sincerity is always good."
Xie Wanjun narrowed her eyes: "You certainly have a sweet tongue."
Yan Li had just been through a fierce battle, and he still had injuries on his face and arms, with a shallow scar across his eyebrow. He was a burly man, and it was clear that he was not someone who had been raised in luxury. He raised an eyebrow: "Sweet talk? This is the first time I've heard someone say that."
"Really? So you're only sweet-talking me?"
"you……"
Upon hearing this, Yan Li was slightly taken aback.
Xie Wanjun always spoke like this, without any scruples or restraint. Yan Li had only ever met well-mannered and dignified ladies, and this was the first time he had seen her like this. He was silent for a while and said, "Madam, speaking like this can easily lead to misunderstandings."
Xie Wanjun stared at him: "Then you misunderstood?"
"……No."
She said regretfully, "Alright then."
As dusk settled, she had to go home. She had begged her second brother to bring her to Shanbei this time, but she couldn't cause trouble and give Xie Yuan something to say, so he sent her back to Chenliu.
Thinking about it, Chao Yanli waved and said, "I'm leaving now. Will you come again tomorrow?"
Yan Li chuckled and called out to her retreating figure, "I'm not coming anymore, I'm never coming again."
...
The next day, the two met again by the stream.
This time they did exchange names. Xie Wanjun said to call her "Mianniang," with "Mian" meaning soft and fluffy. Yan Li was taken aback and exclaimed, "You and your name don't match at all!"
Xie Wanjun sat on the tree and swung her legs again. "So what? I just love being called this."
Yan Li said that his surname was Li and his given name was Yan.
Xie Wanjun: "Li Yan, my beloved Li Langjun."
...
As time went by, the two gradually fell in love with each other.
Xie Wanjun was quirky and clever, which made her very likable. Yan Li was also a silly guy who could make a joke, and he had a muscular body. Xie Wanjun liked him very much.
Streams, waterfalls, forests...
The two rode horses to many places for their rendezvous.
When Xie Yuan learned that Xie Wanjun had found a lover, he was shocked and thought to himself, "There's someone in the military camp who knows how to please a woman?"
So Xie Wanjun was asked to summon the man. After talking with Yan Li, she found that this young man was well-versed in poetry, literature, music, and etiquette, and had unique insights into military affairs.
Xie Yuan immediately agreed: "Excellent, excellent."
But the good times didn't last long.
At that time, the war with the south was imminent, and Yan Li's troop was dispatched there. On the day he left, the two held hands and looked at each other with tears in their eyes. Xie Wanjun wiped away her tears and said affectionately, "I will wait for you to come back."
Five years passed.
When Xie Yuan moved his entire family to Chang'an, Yunzhi had already married, leaving Xie Wanjun all alone.
Xie Yuan advised her not to wait anymore, that he would not come back. Xie Wanjun was stubborn and went to the place where Yan had left to search for several months, but she couldn't find him. Heartbroken, she followed Xie Yuan to Chang'an.
—"Then, she met He Ren. Her family looked down on his merchant background and told Wan Jun to break off all contact with him. But Wan Jun said that even a good young man with military merits is not necessarily a good one. He started a relationship and then abandoned her. He Ren, who dyes cloth, is not as good as her."
"Later, Wan Junzhen married He Ren and lived a happy and fulfilling life. She even had a child, but unfortunately, the child died at the age of eight."
“He Ren treated her very well and never let her have any more children. The family was still well-off, and they lived like this for decades until Wan Jun passed away. He Ren stayed and guarded the dye house, and never remarried.”
Xie Yuan sighed deeply, as if reminiscing about the past years.
Since his daughter got married when he was young, Old Master Xie forbade the family to mention her name again. However, whenever the family members had free time, they would often visit each other.
Xie Lingxi murmured, "But... I don't know."
Xie Yuan glanced at her, "Little kids, I'm afraid you'll let something slip. Lingxi probably doesn't remember that the beautiful woman you often saw when you were little was your Aunt Wanjun."
That's really true.
When they met on the street, Xie Yuan would always talk to her for a long time. Xie Lingxi even suspected that her father might have fallen in love with someone else and was going to follow in the footsteps of Uncle Cui and marry a new bride behind her mother's back.
"Therefore, some people may look glamorous on the surface, but their hearts are rotten to the core. You would be better off marrying Chengzhi than Yanji."
Xie Lingxi: "Mm."
She glanced at Liu Xu, who was sitting upright: "Didn't Yan Li really come back to look for Aunt?"
He remembered that when Yan Li was delirious in the secret passage of Fragrant Hills that day, he said that the Emperor disliked Mian Niang's background and forced him to marry a woman of equal social standing.
Upon hearing this, Xie Yuan's beard bristled. "Nonsense! He's a heartless man himself, and he wants to drag the Emperor down with him! What noble family can't a girl from the Xie family of Chenliu marry?"
On one side, it's a story of a wife waiting in vain, only to be betrayed by a heartless man; on the other, it's Yan Li recounting how he was manipulated by his elder brother, leading to the separation of lovers and their inability to be together...
Let's not jump to conclusions about the truth yet.
Xie Lingxi pieced together the whole story from these fragments of information—
Yan Li and Xie Wanjun were lovers in their youth, but due to a series of unfortunate events, they missed each other for a lifetime. The jade pendant she lost on that day in Fragrant Hills was finally revealed to be true.
Rain still streamed down the eaves, the damp air causing the candlelight to flicker. The spring clothes of the three people at the table billowed in the wind, and their faces all showed signs of weariness.
Through past and present lives, the person behind the scenes is truly Prince Pingnan, Yan Li!
While in Jingzhou, this man used the Xie family's name to manipulate power, form cliques, and accept bribes, and he also called her "niece"!
It's possible they've already discovered Xie Wanjun's true identity, and then conspired with Yan Ji to send Xie Lingjun to her death...
All sorts of conspiracies and schemes against the Xie family, whether personal grudges, open grievances, or even his pipe dream of seizing the throne, Xie Lingxi lowered her eyes and said, "Father, the Prince of Pingnan is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Now that His Majesty is weak and critically ill, he will definitely make a move."
Now he made no attempt to hide anything, revealing everything that had happened in Chang'an and even Jingzhou in recent days.
Upon hearing this, Xie Yuan tenderly supported Xie Lingxi's arms, saying, "Don't be afraid."
He walked outside and looked up to see a scene of rain and gloom. The imposing, bright yellow palaces were hidden in the swirling mist, and beyond that was Xiangshan Temple...
What's meant to happen will eventually happen.
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