Chapter 15 Heart Knowing

Sui Yan was dazed as the servants helped him put on his clothes. Only when he went out of the door was he completely sobered up by the cold wind blowing towards him.

Duan Zhisu held an umbrella and walked towards the front hall with him side by side.

The snow was howling heavily. Sui Yan vaguely remembered that it was also such a heavy snowfall on Duan Zhisu's birthday in his previous life. The young man stood in the middle of the main hall where all the guests had left, his lips were pale and his eyes were gloomy.

Then he said...

What did he say? Sui Yan suddenly couldn't remember.

In a short while, the two of them walked through the corridor and arrived at the main hall which was full of guests.

Although Duan Zhisu was not very favored, he had a good relationship with the children of some princes and nobles. Everywhere he looked, he saw young men in fancy clothes. Because there was no adult supervision, their behavior was extremely unbridled.

When Sui Yan was led to his seat by the servants, Song Xian and Jiang Enhe were making eyes at him, but he ignored them. After he sat down, he realized that Duan Mingchong was next to him.

As soon as he saw Duan Mingchong's gentle face, Sui Yan suddenly remembered how embarrassed he had been before. His pale face immediately turned red and he almost buried his head in the table.

It was just a birthday banquet, and there was no distinction between first and second seats. He sat with a few young men, raised his glass and said to everyone, "Thank you all for coming to join us. Today is just a small gathering, so don't be restrained. I'll toast to you all first."

The young men in the room raised their glasses and drank the wine in one gulp.

Then all kinds of jokes and fun started.

Sui Yan had the energy to play with them in his previous life, but now he no longer had the mood to do so. He held the cup and took a sip of wine, but was shocked to find that his cup actually contained peach honey.

Sui Yan raised his head and saw Song Xian smiling at him. He secretly mouthed, "Don't tell anyone."

Sui Yan burst out laughing.

A group of teenagers were playing together, and with some serious indulgence, the whole main hall was very lively, but Sui Yan just yawned on the side.

Duan Mingchong, who was standing by, saw that he was about to shed tears and chuckled, "I heard that you slept in the Third Brother's bedroom all day. Why are you still so sleepy?"

Sui Yan was so embarrassed that she almost blushed when she saw him, but when she saw that Duan Mingchong didn't seem to intend to tease her about the embarrassing incident before, she gradually cared less.

"Maybe it's going to hibernate." Sui Yan said seriously.

Duan Mingchong was amused by him and said, "You, I don't know where you get so many tricks from. You talk in a very complicated way."

Sui Yan smiled at him with the corner of his eyes, but his remaining eyes glanced towards Duan Mingchong's desk.

For some reason, there was no wine glass on the table in front of Duan Mingchong, only a crystal clear porcelain bowl, which seemed to be filled with ginseng soup.

Sui Yan asked tentatively: "Your Highness, don't you want to drink?"

Duan Mingchong said, "This morning, I injured my right arm while practicing swordplay with my martial arts master. The imperial physician applied medicine and told me not to drink alcohol for three days."

Sui Yan said "Oh" and was confused. He had heard about Duan Mingchong's injury in his previous life. How did he get poisoned? Was it mixed in the ginseng soup?

Sui Yan was wondering when a servant suddenly came to report that the second prince had arrived.

Duan Zhisu quickly stood up and asked someone to invite him in.

There were many charcoal braziers placed in the main hall, and it wasn't that cold even with the door wide open. However, the Second Prince, dressed in dark green clothes, came in wrapped in the wind and snow, and froze everyone. Even those who were happily jumping around just now didn't dare to say a word.

The second prince Duan Ruwang had a very strange personality. He was very cunning and shrewd in the court. In the eyes of court officials and the emperor, he was a young and promising man who could achieve great things. However, in the eyes of his peers, he had a cold and bad temper. In addition, there was a rumor in the city that he had a habit of torturing and killing his servants, which made people even more terrified. Whenever he was mentioned, their faces were filled with horror.

So when he came in, even Gan En and he lowered their heads dejectedly and dared not speak.

Duan Ruwang glanced at everyone, and they all saluted hurriedly.

He forced a smile and said, "Don't be so polite. I wanted to come earlier to wish my third brother a happy birthday, but my father kept me in the inner chamber for a while longer, so I wasn't delayed for too long."

Duan Zhisu smiled and said, "It's already a great honor for Second Brother to come here. There's no reason to delay."

Duan Zhisu invited Duan Ruwang to sit down, and the two seemed to be having a very pleasant conversation.

Sui Yan was sitting on his throne, drinking peach blossom honey nonchalantly, his eyes kept glancing at Duan Ruwang. Perhaps he was too blatant. Duan Mingchong beside him chuckled and said, "After the New Year, you will attend court and will definitely have dealings with the Second Prince. Do you want to take this opportunity to get to know him?"

Sui Yan quickly shook his head, thinking that he didn't want to deal with such a weirdo. I think he was just trying to prevent him from doing anything bad.

I don't know what Duan Zhisu and Duan Ruwang were talking about. Sui Yan even drank several cups of peach blossom honey. No matter how much he liked sweet food, he couldn't help feeling a little sick of it.

Just when Sui Yan was getting a little impatient, Duan Ruwang finally stood up.

He had the highest status among the people present. When they saw him stand up, others did not dare to sit and quickly stood up as well.

Duan Ruwang raised his wine glass and said calmly, "I have something important to do in the inner chamber, so I won't stay any longer. I'll toast to everyone and take my leave."

Everyone hurriedly picked up their wine glasses.

Duan Mingchong's brows wrinkled. If Duan Zhisu had toasted him, he could have drunk it with tea instead of wine without changing his expression. However, Duan Ruwang's status in the court was very special, and he often conflicted with him because of different political views. Duan Mingchong didn't want to let him get a handle on disrespecting his brother, so he whispered instructions to the servants behind him.

Soon, the servant poured him a glass of wine.

Sui Yan Tongzi shrinks.

It looked like Duan Mingchong would only drink one glass of wine during the entire banquet, and that was the glass of wine that Duan Ruwang had to drink. The stigma must have been buried there.

Sui Yan turned around and glanced coldly at the servant, and found that it was the boy who served Duan Zhisu.

Sui Yan didn't know what he was thinking about, and his face suddenly turned pale.

Duan Ruwang had already drunk the wine, and Duan Mingchong beside him also held the wine, frowned, and wanted to drink it.

Sui Yan paused for a moment, then suddenly leaped forward and fell straight towards Duan Mingchong.

Duan Mingchong was startled and quickly reached out to support him, holding him tightly in his arms, but his hand holding the wine did not move at all.

Sui Yan buried his head in his arms, gnashing his teeth secretly. If he could spill the glass of wine with this throw, things would be much easier. However, he didn't know what kind of kung fu Duan Mingchong had practiced, and not a drop of the wine was spilled.

Sui Yan wailed in his heart: "Your arm is injured, so don't hold it so firmly, okay? Doesn't it hurt?"

Sui Yan made so much noise that everyone in the main hall looked towards them.

Duan Mingchong's face almost turned red: "Young Marquis?"

Sui Yan thought that he had lost all face, so he just went for it. He deliberately groaned and pressed hard on Duan Mingchong's right arm.

Duan Mingchong let out a hiss and shook in pain, but his right hand was still holding the cup steadily.

Sui Yan almost knocked the cup down without caring about anything.

Duan Ruwang looked over calmly and said, "What's wrong with you, young marquis?"

Duan Mingchong blushed and whispered, "Maybe he's drunk."

Song Xian's eyes almost popped out of his head. Drunk? Drunk from drinking peach honey?

Sui Xun's face turned black, and he lowered his voice and said, "Sui Wanggui!"

Sui Yan shuddered, but now he was in a difficult situation. If it was Duan Ruwang, when his toast was suddenly interrupted, he would definitely find other reasons to make Duan Mingchong drink the wine.

Duan Mingchong didn't know how he had managed to survive in a palace full of tigers and wolves without any vigilance at all.

Sui Yan was so angry that he couldn't make the same decision. He struggled to get the wine again, but Duan Mingchong grabbed his shoulders with his left hand and trapped him in his arms.

Sui Yan: “…” I’m going to chop off your arm!

Duan Mingchong lowered his voice and said, "Don't be ridiculous. This is in front of the Second Prince. Aren't you afraid that he will say in front of his father that you are reckless and unworthy of being appointed?"

Sui Yan was so angry that his chest hurt, and he almost roared in his heart: "I'm saving you!"

Duan Mingchong seemed to want to carry him back to his seat and was about to put the wine glass aside when Sui Yan suddenly felt his head heat up and a buzzing sound arose in his ears.

In a trance, he seemed to have left his body and watched himself struggling and falling onto Duan Mingchong's arms.

Before his eyes was a mixture of black and white like snowflakes, and that ghostly voice rang in his ears again.

By the lake outside the Little New Year Palace, the voice whispered: Come quickly, come here and you won’t be afraid anymore.

But just a few days later, at a birthday party filled with people, the voice rang out again: Grab it, grab it, just drink it, and you won't be in pain anymore.

Sui Yan stared at the wine cup in Duan Mingchong's hand in a daze. Duan Mingchong's voice seemed to come from a very far distance, making him completely unable to hear it.

He listened blankly to the sound that kept echoing in his ears. He didn't know how long it had been, maybe a day, maybe just a moment, before he suddenly realized.

——Since he was reborn, the voice that kept echoing in his ears and made him want to commit suicide was actually his own.

No, perhaps in an earlier past life, when he was alone and without any worries, the voice had always been there.

He seemed to be in a dream, watching himself snatch the wine glass from Duan Mingchong's hand, put it to his lips and drink it down directly.

Duan Mingchong was startled and quickly supported him, saying, "You...are you really drunk?"

Song Xian, who was standing aside, suddenly turned pale for some reason, Duan Shishou's hands became a little unsteady, and the wine spilled all over him. Even Duan Ruwang frowned.

Sui Yan's body seemed to be out of control, and he looked at the cup in his hand in shock.

Duan Mingchong saw that his face was pale and hurriedly helped him back to his seat.

Sui Yan dropped the wine cup in his hand, and his body became limp like a pool of water, lying on the table without moving.

Everyone present saw the farce that Sui Yan had put up, and they all glanced at him in anticipation of the show. Jiang Enhe's eyes lit up, and he felt that he had found something on Sui Yan, and he would definitely make fun of him someday.

Sui Yan had already drunk the glass of wine. Duan Mingchong sighed, asked for another glass of wine, raised the glass to Duan Ruwang, and drank it in one gulp, as a return of the previous glass of wine.

Sui Yan buried his head in his arms and closed his eyes. Upon closer inspection, he could see that his whole body was trembling slightly.

"Am I crazy? What am I doing?" Sui Yan trembled, "My brother is still alive, my brother is still alive, and I don't want to die anymore. If I want to live, why should I drink this glass of wine for him? Isn't the lesson I learned back then enough?"

He didn't know if it was his illusion, but he always felt that the wine went down his throat, causing a vague pain and itching, making him want to cut his throat.

"Year after year, I forget to come back!"

He repeated his own name over and over in his mind, his mind hazy, and he couldn't even tell whether he wanted to swallow the poisoned wine willingly because he didn't want him and Duan Zhisu to repeat the same mistake, or because he didn't want Duan Mingchong to be killed.

In a trance, the words he said to Duan Mingchong a few days ago rang in his ears.

"Your Highness is kindhearted. Please consider it as helping me this time. I will definitely find a chance to repay you in the future."

Sui Yan thought about it and suddenly laughed quietly. He thought to himself, "It seems that we really can't owe favors to others casually. If we are not careful, we may lose our lives."

"That's really unwise," he thought.

Sui Yan no longer wanted to care about what happened after that. He forced himself to wait until Duan Ruwang left, then he staggered to his feet, turned around and left without saying a word.

Sui Xun frowned and grabbed him, saying, "What happened to you today?"

Sui Yan's face turned pale, and he said softly, "I, I want to go home."

Sui Xun said: "If you want to go back, you should at least tell the Third Prince. It's so rude to leave without saying a word..."

Sui Yan's lips trembled slightly, and he said in a low voice: "Brother, go and talk to him. I'm leaving first."

As he spoke, he walked quickly into the howling snow outside without even putting on his cloak.

The author has something to say: Sui Yan: When it comes to tasting poisonous wine, no one can surpass me.