Chapter 106 Letting Go, Letting Her Leave (Fake)
Two people, facing each other.
The courtyard was so quiet that for a moment you felt as if time had stopped, as if you were in a state of emptiness.
The night was like frost, covering Li Jin's face, making it impossible for Jin Shu to discern his expression—whether it was solemn or sorrowful.
“I told you, if Jin Rong stays with you and the Crown Prince discovers this jade, you won’t be able to protect him.” Li Jin took one of the pieces in his hand and handed it to Jin Shu. “This is the one you kept for Jin Rong.”
Li Jin took a deep breath: "I didn't want to drag you into this quagmire, but..."
As he said this, he glanced at Jin Shu and swallowed the words "I don't want to disappoint you" back down his throat.
For some reason, he was particularly concerned about her gaze. He especially hoped that he would at least be seen as a positive figure in her eyes.
Li Jin never had such thoughts. He never cared about how others viewed him. Everything he did revolved around his righteous cause and the Six Doors. As for anything else, he didn't care at all.
Jin Shu is the only exception.
She gently stroked the white jade pendant with her fingers, looking at Li Jin's backlit face with a mixture of disbelief and skepticism.
“These two jade pendants are a pair. They were tributes from the Western Regions envoys seven years ago when the Crown Prince got married. They were priceless, and there was only one pair.” He pointed to the one in front of him. “At that time, my brother Li Mu kept one for himself and gave the other as a gift to the Crown Princess Cen Shishi.”
“The exquisite thing about this pair of jade pendants is…” He stretched out his hand, gesturing for Jin Shu to hand over the jade pendants to him.
Despite her doubts, Jin Shu placed the jade pendant in his palm as he had expected.
Before him, bathed in moonlight, Li Jin carefully joined the two jade pendants together, following their patterns.
Under the moonlight, a continuous red thread ran from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the jade pendants that were joined together. It was like a magic trick under the moonlight, leaving Jin Shu stunned.
“This jade pendant is one of a kind.” Li Jin took a deep breath and placed both of them on the cushion. “Six years ago, on that night, the Crown Princess Cen was six months pregnant. Fortunately, an informant tipped her off, and she escaped a calamity. After that, I investigated for many years and finally learned from the faint clues that she went to Jiangnan.”
“For so many years, I have traveled south every year, ostensibly to enjoy the scenery, but in reality, I have been searching for them, mother and son.”
At this point, Li Jin fell silent. He looked at the two pieces of jade in front of him, his heart seemingly churning with immense emotions.
He never expected that the child would survive.
He never expected that, in the final days of Cen's life, Heaven would have the good fortune to let her meet this girl before him, who was not good with words, disliked crowds, lived in seclusion, relied on herself, and lived a life of perfect clarity.
“You can’t protect Jin Rong.” After a long while, he raised his head and looked at Jin Shu’s face. “But I can.”
Jin Shu sat there blankly, the huge shock creating a storm in her heart that she found extremely difficult to accept.
She looked at Li Jin and gave a dry laugh: "Who on earth put him in such danger? He could have grown up carefree in Dingzhou. Who made him homeless and forced him to come to this murky water in the capital?"
"I tried so hard to keep him out of it, yet you go to such lengths to drag him into it." Jin Shu looked at Li Jin's face. "Your Highness Prince Jing, who is always scheming and trying to win at every turn, what gives you the right..."
"Jin Shu." Li Jin's voice suddenly rose a few decibels. Under the cover of night, his magnetic voice, carrying a natural air of authority, swept over Jin Shu's face.
She bit her lip and said unwillingly, "I misspoke."
She was filled with resentment, unable to vent it or let it go.
But Li Jin spoke with a self-deprecating tone: "Calculating at every turn, winning at every step, is that the kind of person you see me as?"
His Adam's apple bobbed as he suppressed the intense emotions churning in his chest, emotions he couldn't even articulate, as if a thousand swords were piercing his heart. He laughed with unprecedented sorrow: "Jin Shu, Jin Shu, if you consider me a villain, then I, Li Jin, am willing to be a villain for the rest of my life."
Jin Shu paused, meeting his expression of utter agony.
“You’re right, I schemed at every turn, I won every step of the way, I’m a villain.” He paused. “But as clever as you are, why are you unwilling to think even a fraction further ahead?!”
"If honesty and openness can defeat the Crown Prince, clear the name of the wronged, and bring peace and prosperity, who would want to be a shrewd strategist who always seeks to win?"
"If sacrificing myself can bring peace and prosperity to the world, then I, Li Jin, am willing to lie at the entrance of the Hall of Supreme Harmony for all eternity, serving as the cornerstone of this everlasting peace!"
He laughed, but his laughter was filled with sorrow and desolation: "But it won't work. I have my bottom line, but my opponent is the Crown Prince who has no bottom line. I have to protect you all from such a person, whom I absolutely cannot lose. I have no other choice but to be cautious and to calculate every step carefully!"
"Do you understand all of this?"
Seeing Jin Shu frozen in place, Li Jin took a deep breath with great difficulty: "...This is the only time..."
He gritted his teeth and said, "You can take Jin Rong with you, but you must leave the capital, the farther the better. As long as I am alive, there will always be someone to protect you."
After he finished speaking, he sighed, got up, left the jade pendant that originally belonged to Jin Rong, and walked towards the courtyard gate without looking back.
The moment he pushed open the door, he hesitated, turned around, and smiled, turning his face to the side: "I'm sorry, I've disappointed you."
The full moon casts its clear light upon the ground.
On the stone table, the white jade pendant reminded Jin Shu of the night Jin Rong was born, of the woman in tattered clothes, covered in mud, the woman who, exhausted, used her last breath to lift the jade pendant and place it in her hand.
"I'm entrusting Rong'er to you."
Jin Shu took a deep breath and covered her face with her hands.
She did lose her composure just now.
Li Jin was right. In the torrent of power struggles between the court and the public, he was neither careful nor cautious, nor did he scheme at every turn...
A prince whose maternal clan withdrew from the stage of power overnight, and whose brother lost in the power struggle, how could he survive if he didn't do this?
Rumor has it that six years ago, Li Mu's entire Crown Prince's residence was wiped out, not even a single dog was left.
He was facing such a spineless opponent that even the slightest bit of weakness would be the key to his defeat.
Jin Shu glanced at the jade pendant on the stone table and gave a dry laugh.
This time, she had reached a crossroads where she had to make a choice.
The next day, Jin Shu, exhausted from a sleepless night, stepped into her room at the coroner's office.
On the table was a complete set of Jin Shu's new identity documents, the land deed for her ancestral home in the Jin family, and silver notes worth ten thousand taels of silver.
She stood there, stunned, realizing that she had somehow become Liu Cheng'an's adopted son, and remained there for a long time.
"If you don't regret it, then leave."
An unfamiliar voice rang out, and Jin Shu paused for a moment. She turned around and looked at the unfamiliar face sitting to the side with a nonchalant air, raising her eyebrows in surprise.
He was dressed in the black robes of the Six Doors, his hat was tilted to one side, and he tossed a small, sheathed knife in his hand, exuding arrogance. The corners of his mouth were crooked, just as exaggerated as his sitting posture.
However, after removing all that, Jin Shu couldn't help but take a second look.
She was petite and delicate, much like herself.
Looking at the person in front of her, Li Jin's words flashed through her mind, and she blurted out: "Bean sprout."
Li Qian paused, then abruptly stood up, took a deep breath, and straightened her back: "What's going on! Why are you all giving the same excuse! I'm way more knowledgeable than you, okay?!"
The childlike voice startled Jin Shu.
It's a woman!
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