Reunion scene
As Xiao Lin stepped out of the room holding Su Manyan's hand, the wind from the corridor blew in with a bit of autumn coolness, causing the hem of her clothes to sway gently.
Su Manyan subconsciously leaned closer to Xiao Lin. The warm touch from her fingertips made her feel at ease. She had always feared she was an outsider, but now she realized that she was the one who should be standing shoulder to shoulder with him in this story.
Passing through the courtyard lined with sycamore trees, they spotted a bright yellow figure standing in the distance at the entrance to the hall. Xie Jingyuan had his back to them, his sleeves hanging down, his knuckles unconsciously rubbing the jade pendant at his waist, lost in thought.
Hearing the footsteps, he slowly turned around, his eyes first falling on Xiao Lin with his usual aloofness, but when his gaze swept over Su Manyan, he paused slightly, his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
Shadow Owl, who was following behind the prince, widened his eyes and exclaimed in shock, "You!"
He hadn't expected Xiao Lin to brazenly bring this eunuch to the front hall to discuss matters. What kind of magic potion had A Yan poured into Xiao Lin that allowed him to be so defenseless and have him right beside him?
Xie Jingyuan narrowed his eyes and glanced at Ying Xiao calmly. It was rare for him to see Ying Xiao lose his composure like this. In front of him, this man was always meticulous, never smiling or losing his composure. To put it bluntly, he was a blockhead.
Yingxiao was so shocked, could it be that he and this eunuch were old acquaintances?
Xie Jingyuan twirled the large ring on his thumb—a habit he used when he was feeling down. He glanced at the frail figure hiding behind Xiao Lin, only to discover it was just an ordinary eunuch. The eunuch seemed a little wary of Shadow Owl, hunching his head and glancing left and right, never daring to meet his gaze.
When their eyes met, Xie Jingyuan felt a strange ripple in his heart as he looked into those eyes. He felt a sense of déjà vu. He frowned, suppressing the strange feeling. He looked at the eunuch, then at Xiao Lin, who was protecting the man behind him, and finally at his guard Ying Xiao. It was then that he suddenly realized: this weak eunuch must be Ah Yan.
He chuckled softly, "Xiao Lin, I, the Crown Prince, am here today to discuss an important matter with you." Xie Jingyuan spoke first, his tone calm, yet he couldn't hide his inherent arrogance. However, his eyes, as he looked at Su Manyan, were filled with an indescribable complexity. "This... eunuch is coming too?"
Su Manyan's heart moved slightly, thinking of her brother, the crown prince, who always protected her in her previous life. Then, looking at the face in front of her that was both familiar and unfamiliar, her throat tightened a little.
Xiao Lin noticed her strangeness and quietly pinched her palm with his fingertips, whispering to her: "Don't be afraid." Then he looked up at Xie Jingyuan and said in a colder tone: "Ayan is mine. If there is anything, there is no need to avoid him."
"Your people?" Xie Jingyuan repeated, his eyes suddenly becoming sharp, as if he wanted to see Su Manyan thoroughly. "Xiao Lin, don't you forget your identity? You're just a hostage from the Southern Kingdom. How dare you act so presumptuously in the palace?"
Xiao Lin chuckled softly, pulled Su Manyan to the center of the hall and sat down, then slowly spoke: "Your Highness, you didn't come here today to teach me a lesson, did you? If there is nothing else, A Yan and I will go back to read, so we won't accompany Your Highness."
Xie Jingyuan was choked by his words, his face darkening, but he didn't beat around the bush. He took out a secret letter from his sleeve and placed it on the table: "News has come from the Hu Kingdom that Xiao Ye has been very active recently and seems to be making unusual moves. My father asked me to ask you if you have any countermeasures."
Xiao Lin picked up the secret letter, glanced at it, and threw it back on the table, his tone tinged with sarcasm: "Your Highness, what do you think I, a hostage, can do about it?"
"Oh, don't play dumb. You're the seventh prince of the Hu Kingdom, once one of the most promising heirs. I don't believe you can stay quiet in the cold palace. Do you really know nothing about the situation in the Hu Kingdom?"
"Your Highness, you're joking. I'm just a hostage trapped in the palace. How could I possibly possess such extraordinary abilities?" Xiao Lin changed the subject, his eyes filled with inquiry. "I'm curious, why does the Crown Prince feel this way?"
"I heard that you, Prince, have close ties with the Prime Minister of the Hu Kingdom. Since he has already told you about the situation in the Hu Kingdom, why are you testing me? Why not ask him directly?"
Xie Jingyuan's face turned pale in an instant, and he slammed the table and stood up: "Xiao Lin! What nonsense are you talking about!"
"I'm talking nonsense?" Xiao Lin stood up and approached Xie Jingyuan step by step. The coldness in his eyes almost froze him. "The assassin you sent to kill me that day was carrying a token from the Prime Minister's Mansion of the Hu Kingdom. You also wrote a secret letter to the Prime Minister of the Hu Kingdom, threatening to poison the medicine I take every day and spread rumors that I was a spy for the Southern Kingdom..."
"You dare to say you didn't do this?"
With every word, Xie Jingyuan's body swayed. Finally, he staggered back two steps, pointed at Xiao Lin, and said in a trembling voice: "You...how do you know all this?"
Xiao Lin chuckled, but the smile did not reach his eyes. He clenched Su Manyan's hand, and the warmth of his palm was continuously transmitted to her. Only in this way could she feel at ease. He took a deep breath, suppressed the surging emotions, but did not answer Xie Jingyuan's question when he spoke: "I didn't come here today to argue with you about these things. I just wanted to help you for one person." He softened his tone and continued: "I just found out that you tried so hard to eliminate me because you thought I was the murderer of your mother. But the truth is, your father lied to you."
"What did you say?" Xie Jingyuan's eyes were bloodshot, and the veins on his neck were bulging. When he stood up, he knocked the chair over. His voice was hoarse: "Say it again! You still have the nerve to mention my mother! Do you really think I dare not kill you?"
The word "mother" undoubtedly touched his sore spot. How dare Xiao Lin? The Xiao family killed his mother, and yet they had the audacity to claim it was a lie!
If it was fake, how could his mother leave him? If it was fake, who would accompany him to eat the sweet-scented osmanthus cake made by his mother, who would coax him to sleep in the middle of the night, who would accompany him through countless days and nights of tossing and turning?
Xiao Lin's body had long since recovered, and he practiced martial arts diligently on a daily basis, so Xie Jingyuan naturally couldn't hurt him at all. When Xie Jingyuan was captured and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't break free from the other party's powerful restraints. Only then did he realize that Xiao Lin had been hiding his talents for a long time and that he had underestimated him.
"When did you get better?"
Xiao Lin waved his other hand to block Yingxiao's attack, and with a little force, he pushed Xie Jingyuan back into Yingxiao's arms.
"Thanks to the prince, I am almost recovered now."
Xie Jingyuan narrowed his eyes and looked at Su Manyan. What else didn't he understand? Su Manyan had always been on Xiao Lin's side.
He laughed in anger, "The King of Mobei is really good at tricking people. He has everyone in a mess. I made the wrong choice, so I lost. But how can you argue about my mother's affairs?"
"Your mother is my aunt."
"Queen Shuyi is Princess Wanning of the Hu Kingdom, my mother's younger sister."
Xiao Lin spoke calmly about this shocking royal secret, his tone calm, as if he was just talking about an ordinary matter. But Su Manyan noticed that the corners of his tightly clenched mouth were trembling slightly, and he was trying hard to hide the sadness in his heart.
Su Manyan couldn't bear it, so she used her wide sleeves to block her view and quietly clasped Xiao Lin's fingers. They felt cold to the touch. She shook them lightly with concern, offering comfort.
Xiao Lin wasn't a heartless man after all. His aunt had passed away, imprisoned in a foreign country for years, with even her remains nowhere to be found. How could he not be heartbroken?
"What did you say?"
Xie Jingyuan asked again, his eyes were bloodshot, veins on his forehead were bulging, and his face was flushed red.
It wasn't anger, but sheer disbelief.
Even Shadow Owl, who usually had a blank expression on his face, could not hide the surprise in his eyes.
Xiao Lin slowly walked to a nearby shelf, picked up a delicate little box, and handed it to Xie Jingyuan: "This is my aunt's jade pendant, exactly the same as the one I have. My jade pendant was given to me by my mother, and there is no other like it in the world. Open it and take a look, you should still remember it."
Xie Jingyuan opened the lid of the box with trembling hands. Inside the box lay a white jade ring with a crane pattern, which was exactly the same as the jade pendant his mother wore in his memory.
“Pah…”
Bean-sized tears gushed out, one after another hitting the cold jade ring, as if to wash away the dust that had covered it for the past twenty years.
He was like a homeless child who, after a long journey and countless miles, finally found his home, only to discover it was deserted. Between his eagerness to return home and the despair of homelessness, twenty years lay between him—enough to completely break him.
This despair was even more painful, and the anxiety accumulated over the past twenty years exploded like a snowball at this moment, leaving him hopeless.
Xie Jingyuan clutched the jade ring, which he had lost and found, tightly in his palm, pressing it to his chest, bending over and weeping uncontrollably. His faith collapsed at this moment.
In the past, his mother was his faith; later, when his father told him who murdered his mother, he took revenge as his new faith. Little did he know that this hatred was just a seed of deception, which slowly consumed him over the past twenty years.
How can he still look like a prince now?
The distress in Yingxiao's eyes was undeniable. As Xie Jingyuan's closest person, he naturally knew the details. He walked forward, embraced Xie Jingyuan in his arms, and patted his back with awkward movements. Thousands of words finally turned into just one sentence: "Don't cry, I'm still here."
Xiao Lin turned his face away, feeling uncomfortable. In his previous life, he and Xie Jingyuan were sworn enemies; but now, in front of Princess Wan Ning's bloodline, they were cousins after all.
Looking at the grief-stricken Xie Jingyuan in front of him, he seemed to see his gentle aunt and thought of his mother whom he missed so much.
"Don't look at it."
Suddenly, a pair of warm hands covered his eyes, and everything in front of him was instantly plunged into darkness.
Although Su Manyan hadn't recovered her memories of her past life, some of the marks engraved in her soul could never be erased. Her heart ached, and tears filled her eyes unconsciously.
According to Xiao Lin, Queen Shuyi was the mother who raised her in her previous life, but she ended up with such a tragic ending.
Su Manyan felt a surge of weakness. Looking at Xiao Lin's pale face, she couldn't bear it—she knew Xiao Lin's current state of mind was probably similar to hers. So, she stood on tiptoe and gently covered his eyes.
"I'm here."
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