The secret is revealed
During the days since she came to the temple, Su Manyan had been haunted by nightmares day and night, causing her great distress and worry.
The red wedding curtains in her last dream had become blurry. The unclear faces of the newlyweds were lingering in her mind, but now when she recalled it, all that was left was endless red, so red that it was almost blood-red.
This time, she was immersed in the dream and returned to that night of love as a bystander.
Even though the powerful Crown Prince tried his best to stop her, he was ultimately no match for the Emperor's stubbornness. The girl finally donned her red wedding gown, a red veil on her head, and sat upright on the bed.
Su Manyan could see the girl twisting her slender white fingers, and sweat oozing out from between her fingers. It was not difficult to see her nervousness and panic at the moment.
When the groom's footsteps were heard in the corridor and the wooden door was pushed open, Su Manyan and the bride held their breath together.
——It’s Xiao Lin.
This time she saw the groom's face clearly.
Xiao Lin was born handsome, and now he was wearing a jade crown and a red wedding dress. When he met those affectionate eyes, Su Manyan finally understood what the saying "A spring night is worth a thousand gold" meant.
But this understanding did not bring Su Manyan true joy. If the price of knowing this truth was to see Xiao Lin become someone else's groom, she would rather never understand it in her life.
She looked at the way Xiao Lin looked at the woman on the couch, watched him take a deep breath, hurriedly tidy up his already extremely neat clothes, and then walk forward carefully, for fear of disturbing the person in front of him - every subtle movement made Su Manyan's heart feel sour.
Later, the two were very close to each other. Xiao Lin reached out and lifted the red veil. The corners of their red clothes were entangled with each other. No matter how you looked at them, they looked like a perfect couple.
Su Manyan turned his face away, unwilling to look anymore.
Xiao Lin raised his lips and promised softly, "Princess, please rest assured. I will definitely treat you well."
The words were spoken softly, yet they seemed to echo in Su Manyan's ears. The sweet words murmured like the tongue of a poisonous snake, and the warm breath was shrouded in a hint of coldness and dampness, sending a tingling sensation through her body.
These words of love had never been said to her, but her heart was still moved for a moment...
Was it joy or pain? She herself couldn't tell, only the tear sliding down her eye was silent but more eloquent.
She could not remember what happened after that, and her consciousness fell into chaos again.
When he slowly awoke, the dim candlelight shone on the beams of the house, as if a vast, burning cloud had gathered inside the house, pressing down so low that it made Su Manyan breathless. Not only was the light low, but it also spread in wisps, making it look more like fog than cloud.
The candlelight made her eyes sore, and she wiped them lightly with her fingertips, which were wet.
——Ah, so she was crying.
She glanced around and looked at her dry clothes and bedding before she realized that she had returned to the meditation room.
Suddenly returning to a warm and familiar place, the sense of security returned. Su Manyan relaxed his body, spread out his limbs, stared blankly at the lotus carvings on the beams, his thoughts gradually drifting away.
She was able to lie in bed safely, so she guessed that it was Xiao Lin who brought her back. The scene in the dream was still vivid in her mind. She could never have imagined that the groom was actually Xiao Lin. But Xiao Lin was clearly not married yet? Could he be busy...
My thoughts drifted back to a long time ago—the cold bottom of the well, the numbing corpse, and the jade pendant Dingdang dropped...
Jade pendant!
That jade pendant is exactly the same as the one Xiao Lin is wearing!
Su Manyan hurriedly touched her pocket, but her fingertips touched her new white undershirt. Only then did she realize that her clothes had been changed from the inside out.
She lifted up the collar and found a white cloth wrapped inside.
Was it Xiao Lin who helped her change her clothes?
Su Manyan sat on the bed, a thousand thoughts and speculations flooding her mind. If Xiao Lin had changed her clothes, wouldn't he have discovered that she was a girl?
She pinched the corner of the quilt tightly, and wrinkles appeared on the quilt, twisted and uneven, just like the furrowed brows between her eyebrows.
The worry brought by this incident was so heavy that she temporarily put the whereabouts of the jade pendant behind her and stopped thinking about it.
Until Xiao Lin pushed the door open.
He obviously hadn't expected Su Manyan to be awake at this moment, holding a wooden tray with a bowl of black medicine on it. When Xiao Lin met Su Manyan's eyes on the bed, he even paused in his movement to close the door.
After pausing for a few seconds, he strode to the bed, placed the wooden pallet on the table with a "dong", then sat on the edge of the bed and gently placed his hands on Su Manyan's shoulders.
His movements were gentle, like a butterfly gently kissing her shoulders and neck.
Su Manyan had originally thought she'd only been unconscious for a few hours, but judging by Xiao Lin's appearance, it seemed she'd been unconscious longer than she'd imagined: his beard was stubbled, his eyes bloodshot, the dark circles beneath them thick with bruises, and his lips chapped. He stared at her, unblinking, his grip on her shoulders tightening, as if he feared she'd slip away at any moment.
She seemed to be able to read so many complex emotions from those dark eyes.
Su Manyan was about to ask, but she felt a little scared of Xiao Lin at the moment. But before she could say anything, he suddenly hugged her in his arms.
The hug came without warning. To Su Manyan, it might have been a celebration of joy between two close friends after a life-and-death separation; but only Xiao Lin knew that hidden within the embrace was the excitement of a long-awaited reunion—this was their first hug since their reunion, and he had waited a lifetime for it.
"What's wrong? I'm fine, aren't I?" Su Manyan noticed that Xiao Lin was in a bad mood, raised his hand and patted his broad back, patiently comforting him.
"From now on, don't leave me alone." Xiao Lin's long-suppressed emotions finally surfaced, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything harsh. After pondering for a long time, he finally spoke this request with a somewhat aggrieved tone. Finally, he sighed softly, "Finally, I found you."
Su Manyan's heart was full of comforting Xiao Lin at the moment. She thought that the "found" he mentioned referred to her recovery after her death. She did not think about it too much, but just followed his words and spoke soft and comforting words.
When they released their embrace and locked eyes, they realized how close their faces were. Su Manyan turned her head slightly, and their noses almost touched. Their scent blended at that moment, accompanied by the flickering candlelight, lingering between their eyebrows, on their noses, beside their lips, and in the hollow of their necks...
Su Manyan subconsciously wanted to step back, but when Xiao Lin saw her step back, he took the initiative to move closer, deliberately shortening the distance between them.
Su Manyan:?
However, Xiao Lin said confidently: My wife, why are you being so distant and polite to me?
Su Manyan naturally couldn't guess what Xiao Lin was thinking at the moment, and simply thought it was the emotion of surviving a disaster that was playing tricks on her. However, after meeting his eyes again, the heat on her face gradually subsided, and the ambiguous atmosphere just now dissipated, her consciousness suddenly returned - she finally remembered the incident of "her daughter's identity being exposed".
Su Manyan looked at Xiao Lin with a hint of hesitation. She steeled herself and pushed away Xiao Lin's arm, keeping her distance from him. She turned away, tugged at a corner of the quilt, and asked hesitantly, "Did you change my clothes?"
When Xiao Lin heard this, his ears instantly became hot, and even the tips of his ears turned red. "Yes... I'm sorry, the situation was urgent just now, and your clothes are all wet."
"So you saw everything?"
"You found out everything?"
When the two sentences were spoken at the same time, Su Manyan felt as if a knife was placed across his neck. He tensed his body like a prisoner waiting to be tortured to death.
She closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembling slightly, bit her lip, and her face turned pale. But the expected "judgment" did not come.
The atmosphere in the air did not become as tense as she had imagined. She opened her eyes in confusion and turned her head cautiously, only to see that Xiao Lin's face was completely red from neck to cheeks.
So, he was feeling embarrassed?
Su Manyan understood instantly - Xiao Lin had known about her female identity for a long time, but had been hiding it and pretending to be ignorant.
Perhaps she should have anticipated this outcome. Xiao Lin's past actions had long hinted at his knowledge of the secret. She had once thought his covert protection was "favoritism," but now she understood it was his willingness to be her "accomplice," diligently covering up her lies.
Just like before, when it was drizzling outside the window, she took out her sunny doll and prayed for clear weather. Later, no rain came down on it, so she thought it was the magic that worked. But in fact, it was Xiao Lin who had been behind her, quietly holding an umbrella for her.
She never needed the ability of "Nuwa mending the sky" because she had her own, unique "Sunny Day Doll".
"You..." Su Manyan knew she could no longer hide the truth. She had come alone to this strange, alien world, desperately guarding this crucial secret, especially from Xiao Lin. But in the end, he already knew everything. She no longer wanted to lie, and she couldn't.
"You...!" Su Manyan stood up excitedly, leaning forward slightly, and stubbornly met Xiao Lin's eyes, wanting to find the answer from his eyes - at least now, to make things clear.
Xiao Lin finally recovered from his blushing state. He looked at Su Manyan's pretending to be strong, her dark eyes sparkling with light, and found her so adorable. His heart felt like it had been tickled by a kitten, neither too light nor too heavy, and it softened completely.
This "little mushroom" has already planted countless seeds in his heart.
Xiao Lin knew how anxious she was. He extended his broad palm, pressed her thin shoulders, and half-heartedly helped her lie down to rest: "You just woke up, you need to rest well, don't get upset."
"Why rush? Nothing in this world is as important as your safety."
Xiao Lin carefully tucked the corner of her quilt. He wanted to withdraw his hand, but his fingertips were greedy for her body warmth. He touched her head reluctantly and murmured to himself, "When you think it through, tell me. This matter is between you and me, don't be afraid."
They both knew exactly what "this matter" referred to. Su Manyan felt dizzy and light-headed. Although she was still feeling the grogginess of having just woken up, Xiao Lin's understatement made her feel a bit hazy, as if she were floating in the clouds, without any sense of reality.
What seemed like a huge matter to her was actually covered up by him so nonchalantly.
She couldn't help but widen her eyes and asked anxiously: "Aren't you curious?"
"You're already here, so why would you run away? Don't worry, think it over first. Don't worry about my feelings."
Xiao Lin looked at her tense and confused face and couldn't help but find it funny - she probably didn't understand why she could be so calm.
You really can't blame him for this.
The person he held dearest to his heart had met with misfortune, and now that he had returned unharmed, his heart was filled with gratitude and joy, and all other emotions had long been suppressed to the bottom.
Moreover, he also knew about their past life connection. He saw Su Manyan's past life experience clearly in his dream; the hatred of the extermination of the family in the past life must be settled one by one.
But there was no rush for these. In this life, he would hold A Yan's hand tightly, step by step to the pinnacle of power in the Hu Kingdom, and take back everything that belonged to him.
Seeing Xiao Lin's calm and confident demeanor, Su Manyan finally felt relieved. She just didn't know how System 625 would torture her.
But on second thought, now there is someone who has shared her secret, and it is the person she privately considers to be the "closest person". She doesn't have to worry about it in the future, and she finally feels a sense of relief.
Su Manyan caught a glimpse of the flickering candlelight beside her, which made her involuntarily think of the wedding night in her dream - Xiao Lin in a wedding dress, and Xiao Lin who was preparing to feed her medicine spoonful by spoonful in front of her, the two figures gradually overlapped.
Her mouth opened slightly, then slowly closed again, and she finally decided not to ask any more questions. Let this tender moment linger a little longer.
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