Chapter 460 Confession (Second Update)
Xiao Liulang remained silent, it was unclear whether he did not want to answer or was unwilling to answer.
Princess Xinyang then said, "Never mind, I'll speak first."
Xiao Liulang sneered: "What did you say? That you don't want me, don't want to see me, and don't even want me to appear in the capital, so you came here specifically to drive me away? I don't even have the right to stay in the capital anymore, is that it?"
Princess Xinyang's pupils contracted sharply as she looked at him, seemingly incredulous yet also understanding. She lowered her eyes, concealing the complex emotions that flashed across her face: "I'm not here to send you away. I just want to talk to you about what happened four years ago."
Xiao Liulang turned his face away: "I don't want to talk."
Princess Xinyang seemed not to have heard his refusal at all, and said to herself, "Where should we begin? How about we start with Xiao Su's younger brother?"
Somber.
The name struck like a hammer blow, shattering the closed sea of consciousness and unleashing memories suppressed deep within the mind.
Xiao Su's mother was Chen Yunniang. He had only one younger brother in the world, who was the real Xiao Liulang.
Princess Xinyang said, "When Chen Yunniang passed away, before she died, she asked her eldest son to take her younger brother to the capital to find their father. Unfortunately, they were turned away by the servants of the Marquis's mansion. No one believed them, and no one was willing to inform them. Until they met the young Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, the young Marquis of Zhaodu, Xiao Heng."
As she spoke of Xiao Heng, her eyes remained fixed on Xiao Liulang's face.
Xiao Liulang pursed his thin lips and clenched his fist slightly.
He didn't look into Princess Xinyang's eyes.
Princess Xinyang stared at him intently: "Xiao Heng is kind by nature. After hearing about Xiao Liulang's background, he not only did not look down on him, but was also moved by his tragic experience."
Xiao Liulang recalled the first time he met Xiao Su and the real Xiao Liulang. It was a face that bore a slight resemblance to his own, dressed in tattered clothes, huddled in a corner outside the Marquis's mansion.
Curious, he went over and asked, "Who are you?"
“I, my name is Xiao Liulang. This is my travel permit, and this is…” He took out the token that Marquis Xuanping had left for Chen Yunniang. It was an old-fashioned token, which Marquis Xuanping had replaced ten years ago.
However, Xiao Heng still recognized that it was the genuine Xuanping Marquis's token.
Xiao Heng asked curiously, "How did you come to have the Xuanping Marquis's token?"
The boy looked at him timidly, stammering nervously, "My mother gave it to me. She told me to bring the token to the capital to find my father. But they won't let my brother and me go in."
Xiao Heng grunted and asked, puzzled, "Is he your brother? You two don't look alike; you and I look more alike."
"Ah..." The boy was dumbfounded on the spot.
Xiao Su had roughly guessed Xiao Heng's identity by then. Whether it was using him or genuinely asking for help, Xiao Su knelt down before Xiao Heng and begged him to let his younger brother see his biological father.
Xiao Heng agreed: "Several major cases have occurred in the capital. My father has been very busy lately, and I haven't even been able to see him. However, he will definitely come back to keep me company on New Year's Eve. I will take you to see him then! By the way, where do you live?"
The two lived in the cheapest dormitory in the capital.
Xiao Heng arranged for them to stay in a decent inn and made a promise with them that he would send someone to pick up the boy on New Year's Eve.
Xiao Heng did not expect that on New Year's Eve, he went to the Imperial Academy on business, and the boy secretly followed him.
What are you doing here?
"Can I...can I go with you?"
"I won't be returning to the Marquis's residence so soon."
"I can wait for you," the boy insisted.
"Alright then." Xiao Heng led the boy into the Imperial Academy.
"My mother is here!"
"Then I'll hide!"
"No need, I'll explain it to my mother."
"No, your mother will never let me go! Your mother is a princess. If she finds out I'm the illegitimate son of Marquis Xuanping, I'm finished!"
The boy was trembling with fear, and Xiao Heng had no choice but to hide him in the passage for the time being.
"Mother!" Xiao Heng opened the door for Princess Xinyang with great joy. "Have you come to pick me up?"
Princess Xinyang did come to fetch him, but not to take him back to her residence; rather, she came to take him to hell with her.
Princess Xinyang tried her best to make her voice sound calm, but the way she tightly gripped her handkerchief betrayed her emotions. However, Xiao Liulang was sitting opposite her, and his view was blocked by the desk.
She said, "When you woke up, you were lying in an inn with Xiao Su beside you. Xiao Su told you that he was worried about his younger brother and had been secretly following him. He discovered that the Imperial Academy was on fire, so he rushed into the fire to look for his brother. However, he didn't find his brother but instead found you, who was on the verge of death. He had no choice but to carry you out. Then he told you that he saw a masked man rescue a woman who was unconscious."
Xiao Liulang was slightly taken aback: "How...how did you know?"
Princess Xinyang smiled faintly: "How do I know anything? How do I know this story, or how do I know Xiao Su? As a princess of a country, it's not too difficult for me to investigate my own son's whereabouts before his death. I investigated Xiao Su, and I made up the story. Xiao Su never entered the Imperial Academy."
He was indeed worried about his younger brother, but the Imperial Academy wasn't a place he could just enter at will.
Xiao Heng had considered this possibility back then, but he couldn't think of any other possibility besides this one.
Xiao Liulang stared intently into Princess Xinyang's eyes: "So who exactly rescued me? Was it Long Yi?"
Princess Xinyang subconsciously clenched her left arm.
As she carried Xiao Heng out of the fire, a burning beam broke off and nearly hit Xiao Heng's head. She raised her arm to block it, and her entire arm caught fire.
It remains ugly to this day.
This time, Princess Xinyang avoided his gaze. She lowered her eyes and said, "There are things you don't know about back then. That child was timid by nature and originally didn't have the courage to follow you. It was Xiao Su who was worried that you were deceiving them and made him insist on staying close to you. The two of them had temporary travel permits in the capital, and New Year's Eve was the deadline. If Marquis Xuanping didn't acknowledge this son, the two of them would be sent out of the capital the next day."
Xiao Su's brother's death has nothing to do with you, so stop blaming yourself.
Xiao Liulang raised his hand and touched the area under his right eye, then said in a daze, "Then my beauty mark under my eye..."
Princess Xinyang said, "I burned it off with a fire stick."
"Why?" Xiao Liulang asked.
Because your mother has the exact same beauty mark under her eye, I don't want those people to find you.
As people grow up, their appearance changes somewhat, but this beauty mark under the eye is really noticeable.
Princess Xinyang didn't say these words. She lowered her eyes, unfolded the handkerchief in her hand, and said softly, "In short..."
Xiao Liulang stared intently at her: "You still haven't answered me, who rescued me from the fire? If it wasn't Xiao Su, then who was it?"
You already know who it is, so why are you forcing me to tell you?
Xiao Liulang's eyes reddened slightly: "When I learned that I had been rescued by Xiao Su, I actually felt a secret sense of relief—it was Xiao Su who took me away, not you who abandoned me. Now, you tell me that it was all your idea. You gave me to Xiao Su...you had him take me away from the capital...you used this method to get rid of me..."
That was his mother, whom he had relied on for fourteen years!
Even if she personally sent him to hell, he still couldn't bring himself to hate her!
It was all his sins, and he deserved whatever fate befell him.
But he feels pain too...
Xiao Liulang raised his hand and quickly wiped away the tears that were about to fall, pretending that he had never cried.
He chuckled self-deprecatingly, looked out the window, and said, "That's right. I killed your son and stole everything that belonged to him. I was originally his substitute, but then I found out that the substitute had become a menace. It would be strange if you didn't want to get rid of me."
I've accepted this fact long ago, and I've been numbing myself in my mind day and night for the past four years, but why does it still feel like my heart is being torn apart when it's mentioned again?
He raised his hand to wipe away his tears again, stubbornly looking out the window, refusing to let her see his reddened eyes.
Princess Xinyang was also heartbroken.
He was not a stand-in, never had been.
The first day she held him in her arms, she knew perfectly well that this was not the baby in her womb.
But so what?
He cried all night, only calming down in her arms.
He refused to drink his wet nurse's milk, forcing this precious royal princess to breastfeed him herself.
He's also incredibly clingy, incredibly mischievous, and incredibly good at getting her into trouble...
But he would also silently stay by her side during countless days when she was disheartened.
Whenever she turned around, she could always see that little face brimming with starlight.
The little guy, with his hands behind his back, looked like a little adult, tilting his head and raising his eyebrows with a smug look: "Yes, Mommy, no matter when you turn around, Aheng is always here."
She did try to treat him as her deceased son, but the little guy seemed to have his own unique abilities. He was full of his own unique temperament, and he shone like a rising little sun.
He is her Aheng, the Aheng who will never replace anyone and cannot be replaced by anyone.
(End of this chapter)
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