Reveal the truth
Xiao Lin supported Su Manyan's shaky body, gently stroking the back of her slightly cold hand with his fingertips, trying to dispel her trembling with the warmth of his palm. The morning light from outside the window filtered through the carved window lattice, casting fragments of light and shadow in his eyes, but it couldn't hide the deep and unfathomable heaviness.
"Ayan, please sit down and listen to me slowly." He helped her sit down at the table, poured a cup of warm tea and handed it to her. Seeing that her fingertips were still trembling slightly, he finally reached out and wrapped her hand and the teacup in his palm. "The woman mentioned in the letter is none other than your mother in your previous life."
"Mother?" Su Manyan raised her head suddenly, her pupils dilated with shock. The tea in the cup rippled slightly, splashing on the back of her hand, bringing a slight heat to her touch, but it was far less than the turbulent waves surging in her heart. "But I'm clearly... I'm just an ordinary person. How could my mother be her? How could I be from here...?"
She panicked, her words incoherent. Xiao Lin's words seemed to her to have many flaws. She was clearly a person who traveled through time, so how could she be entangled with this world in past and present lives?
But she had been blinded to it, for reasons unknown. She panicked, desperate to clear her name. "Xiao Lin, listen to me... I lied to you. I'm not from this world. I... I'm not Ah Yan, and I'm certainly not a princess. I..."
Acid filled her nose and eyes, tears were about to fall, and she finally told the secret she had concealed for a long time. She unloaded the heavy burden, but the waiting trial made her a little nervous.
What would Xiao Lin think? Why didn't he say anything? Did he not trust me? Was this heavy love stolen because of my identity as the Princess of the Southern Kingdom?
But she knew very well that Xiao Lin had guessed wrong. What should she do now? Would he take back all his love for her?
"Xiao Lin, I..."
"You are Su Manyan."
Su Manyan widened his eyes and stopped talking.
"You have never been an ordinary person, nor are you a passer-by who accidentally broke into this world." Xiao Lin's voice was low and firm, and every word seemed to carry a thousand-pound weight, slowly hitting Su Manyan's heart.
"In your previous life, you were the legitimate princess of the Southern Kingdom, nicknamed A'yan, just like you are now. Back then, although the relationship between the Southern and Hu Kingdoms wasn't as close as it had been a hundred years ago, they still maintained a superficial peace. That was until your father proposed a marriage, hoping to use this marriage to stabilize the situation in the Hu Kingdom."
He paused, his gaze drifting out the window, as if catching a glimpse of a past life through the morning light: "The day you married into the Hu Kingdom, the red wedding dress stretched from the Southern Kingdom's palace all the way to the city gate. You were wearing a bright red wedding gown, sitting in the bridal sedan. When you lifted the curtain to peek at me, your eyes were full of sparkling light. I knew then that I must protect you for the rest of my life and never let you suffer even the slightest injustice."
Su Manyan's heart suddenly sank, and fragments of memory suddenly flashed through her mind—a red wedding dress, the swaying curtains of a sedan chair, the faint sound of horse hooves, and a pair of eyes filled with tenderness. Those images came so suddenly that she subconsciously clenched Xiao Lin's hand. "I... I seem to have some impression, but I can't quite place it."
"Don't worry, our memories will slowly return." Xiao Lin gently patted the back of her hand and continued, "After you marry me, we'll plant your favorite crabapple trees together in the palace, watch the sunset over the desert of the Hu Kingdom together, you'll teach me to write Southern poetry, and I'll take you on a Hu Kingdom horse. At that time, my second brother, Xiao Ye, was already eyeing the throne. Seeing that I had you, the Southern Kingdom princess, as my support and that I had earned my father's trust, he began to plot against us."
Mentioning Xiao Ye, his tone took on a chilling edge. "He first bribed the historians and falsified the family tree, claiming my mother was a spy sent by an enemy nation. He then spread rumors in front of my father, saying you and I were secretly colluding with the Southern Kingdom to seize the throne. Over in the Southern Kingdom, your father was already wary of my influence in the Hu Kingdom, and with Crown Prince Xie Jingyuan fanning the flames, he tacitly agreed to Xiao Ye's scheme."
"Xie Jingyuan?" Su Manyan frowned, thinking of the prince in the letter who colluded with the Prime Minister of the Hu Kingdom. "Why would he do this? Didn't he and I have a bad relationship in my previous life?"
"In your previous life, you were half-siblings, and he treated you very well." Xiao Lin's eyes were a little complicated. "Your mother died early, and you grew up in the Queen's Palace. Xie Jingyuan always protected you at that time. If anyone dared to bully you, he would be the first to stop it. But later, your father told him that your mother died of fright and dystocia because the Xiao family army led by my father was chasing your uncle - this was a lie made up by your father, but Xie Jingyuan believed it."
He sighed, "From then on, he considered me the murderer of his mother. Coupled with your father and Xiao Ye's instigation, he thought that as long as I died, you could return to the Southern Kingdom and be with him. He didn't know that we had already understood each other by then, and he didn't know that his so-called 'protection' would eventually become the force that pushed you into the abyss."
Su Manyan's eyes flushed slightly, and a vague image emerged in her mind again - a young man in a bright yellow prince's robe, squatting in front of her, wiping the tears from her face, and whispering, "Don't be afraid, Yan, your brother will protect you." It turned out that those familiar feelings were all remnants of memories from a past life.
"Wait, didn't you say that my mother was... Then why did I grow up in the Queen's Palace?" Su Manyan was puzzled.
"They said I didn't explain clearly." Xiao Lin was annoyed. He gently brought the person into his arms, and his broad palm stroked the person's hair to soothe the shock. "The woman in your mind is my aunt, Queen Shuyi of the Southern Kingdom. Your mother was a concubine in the palace and passed away after giving birth to you. The queen was kind-hearted and took pity on you, so she brought you up by her side and raised you as her own. That's why you and her are very close."
"Then in the end...how did we die?" Her voice was choked with sobs. She knew the answer but still couldn't help asking.
Xiao Lin's body stiffened, and he gripped her hand even tighter. "Xiao Ye fabricated evidence of our rebellion and forced the emperor to abdicate in front of our father. I took you and escaped from the palace, intending to go to the Southern Kingdom to seek justice from your father. However, when we reached Fengya Slope, we were blocked by people sent by Xiao Ye and Xie Jingyuan."
"The assassin in Fengyapo... was he sent by them?" Su Manyan suddenly remembered the assassination attempt he had encountered in Fengyapo before. It turned out that it was not an accident, but a recurrence of the tragedy in his previous life.
"Yes." He nodded, his voice filled with pain that was hard to conceal. "You were already pregnant with our child at that time. I tried my best to protect you, but there were too many of them. You were shot by a poisoned arrow while trying to shield me...
Xiao Lin's eyes also reddened. The reason why his dark side was so high in this life was because the pain in his previous life was too profound. "After you died, I carried your body back to kill you, but Xiao Ye threatened me with your ashes. In the end, he imprisoned me in the Heavenly Prison and forced me to drink Crane's Beak Red. Before I died, I swore to the gods that if I could live again, I would make those who hurt you pay with blood. I must protect you and never let you suffer again."
"So you used the black line curse to exchange with the gods and restarted this life?" Su Manyan finally understood why Xiao Lin had black lines on his body and why his blackening value was so high at the beginning.
"Yes." Xiao Lin raised his hand and gently wiped the tears from her face. "But I also lost my memory at first, and it wasn't until those days in Ci'en Temple that I regained my memory. But I didn't expect that even if we forgot each other and changed our identities, we could still fall in love with each other. And you came back too. I didn't recognize you at first, but every time I see you, I feel at ease, just like when you were by my side in my previous life."
He smiled, his eyes full of tenderness: "Ayan, I will never let anyone hurt you again in this life. Whether it's Xie Jingyuan, Xiao Ye, or those who have plotted against us, I will seek justice one by one."
Su Manyan leaned in his arms, tears falling silently, and the confusion and entanglement in her heart disappeared. It turned out that she was not a time traveler, but had returned to the world she was supposed to be in; it turned out that her fate with Xiao Lin had long been engraved in the time of a previous life.
"Xiao Lin," she raised her head, looked into his eyes, and said softly, "I seem to remember something. I remember the crabapple trees we planted in Hu Country, and the time when you took me horseback riding and almost made me fall off."
Xiao Lin was stunned for a moment, then laughed, the pain in his eyes replaced by tenderness: "You cried at that time and said you would never ride a horse with me again, but the next day you dragged me to the horse farm again."
"I didn't!" Su Manyan hit him, but his heart was full of warmth.
At this moment, there was a slight sound of footsteps outside the door, followed by the voice of the young eunuch: "Your Highness, the Crown Prince is here and said he has something important to discuss with you."
Xiao Lin and Su Manyan exchanged a glance, their eyes growing colder. Xie Jingyuan's arrival at this time was probably not a good omen.
"Got it. Let him wait in the hall." Xiao Lin said in a deep voice, then looked down at Su Manyan, "You go back to your room and rest first. I'll go meet him."
Su Manyan shook her head and held his hand tightly: "I'll go with you."
Xiao Lin naturally didn't want to drag her into this mess. He frowned and was about to refuse, but the words were on the tip of his tongue. He remembered Su Manyan's identity as the "Crown Prince's traitor" and secretly realized that his little princess had always been more clever and intelligent than he had imagined.
Seeing that he didn't say anything, Su Manyan thought he was still unwilling. She shook their connected hands and looked up pleadingly with her big, wet eyes.
Xiao Lin's heart was pounding, and he waved his hand: "Let's go!"
Who can resist a little princess who's deliberately trying to be cute? She can't.
Su Manyan followed behind him, smiling.
"Watch! The male protagonist's dark value has dropped to 40%. Host, please keep going!"
Su Manyan smiled even more happily.
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