Yan Yihuan froze and looked up at Li Xuanming in shock. He had wanted to ask how he knew about that, but then he remembered this man was the emperor. If he wished to know something, even Zhengyangzi would not dare conceal it.
“To do such things before marriage, isn’t it only for a moment’s pleasure?” Having said this much, Yan Yihuan threw caution aside, “I may have been playful in the past, but I knew what should and should not be done. If someone were unwilling, I would never force them!”
Back in Linjing, Yan Yihuan enjoyed the company of beauties and often visited places of pleasure, but at most, he only dared to kiss and embrace. One reason was for the sake of the Residence of King Yan’s reputation, and another was that he himself truly did not wish to be so casual.
Yet when he met the emperor when he(LXM) was under the alias Zhao Chufeng, Yan Yihuan did not know why he became so entangled, relentless, and unwilling to stop. If not for the fact that Yan Yihuan never imagined he would be pressed beneath him, perhaps they would have shared the bed long ago.
“You think I would do such things with just anyone? That I would worry if he had eaten cold food or if he were dressed too lightly? Bathe and dress him with my own hands, and let him sleep peacefully on the dragon bed?!” Li Xuanming’s face seemed full of anger, yet his heart was completely desolate, “You feel nothing. Turns out, no matter if it’s favor or love, you truly feel none of it.”
Feel what? The kind of love Zhengyangzi had spoken of?
Yan Yihuan felt wronged. He clearly could like people, and there were some people he disliked too, so why did Li Xuanming and Zhengyangzi say he did not understand love?
If he did not like Li Xuanming, how could he have gone out of his way to please him, allowing him to do this and that? Since childhood he had never hidden anything from his family, except for this one matter.
Yes, it was something that could not see the light of day. But if he truly did not like Li Xuanming, he could have told his family and found a way to escape. How had everything suddenly become so incomprehensible?
The more his grievance piled up, the more it turned into anger, yet his body was too frail to withstand such surging emotions. Yan Yihuan trembled with fury, his eyes reddened as he pointed at Li Xuanming and choked out,
“Then why did you lie to me from the very beginning, Zhao Chufeng? Why aren’t you Zhao Chufeng!”
Li Xuanming was caught off guard by the sudden accusation. At the start, it could hardly be called deception. His trip to Linjing had been secret. How could he have used his real name?
Later, he had planned to let Yan Yihuan remain in the capital under the pretext of recuperation, not wanting him to be too entangled in court affairs. Who could have expected the kidnapping incident? Only then had he revealed his identity and kept him by his side.
“The name Zhao Chufeng was not meant to deceive you. My mother consort’s surname was Zhao, and her ancestral home was in Chu. ‘Chufeng’ was a name she chose out of homesickness. Aside from a few elderly palace attendants, no one knows it.”
“So what.” Yan Yihuan felt lightheaded, as if countless people were swinging hammers inside his skull, the roaring pain intensifying, “You are the Emperor. Whatever you say is right. But to me, it is still a shameful matter. Once Big Brother Xu’s case is clarified, I will return to Linjing. I—”
“Return to Linjing?” Li Xuanming was pierced by the words “shadowed affair,” his heart twisting in pain, though his face grew even colder, “Do you think you can still go back?”
“What…?” Yan Yihuan felt as though his heart had stopped beating. He lifted his head blankly, “What do you mean?”
“Your father and eldest brother have led thirty thousand troops into King Qin’s territory. Zhen has long known of King Qin’s rebellious intent. You too know well enough the relationship between the Qin and Yan families. Without King Yan’s beloved youngest son in hand, what do you think he would do?”
“Will he be loyal to Zhen, or to that so-called rightful King Qin?”
“Will he sweep away the Northern Di rebels for Zhen, or join forces with them to storm the capital?”
The barrage of questions left Yan Yihuan almost unable to breathe. In that instant, every hair on his body seemed to stand on end, his fingertips beginning to go numb.
He knew. He knew it all too well.
His father and eldest brother were loyal to King Qin. They had long plotted to rebel against the court. Now that they had truly gathered together, it could only mean an uprising was inevitable!
As expected, the Emperor had known everything, and his own status had not been fake either. He truly was nothing more than a hostage.
It was all his fault for being so carefree these past few months, almost believing he had merely changed locations to continue being a pampered young master. He had even forgotten that the one who seemed closest to him was in fact the Son of Heaven, who could summon clouds with one hand and scatter rain with the other!
A surge of blood rushed to his head. In an instant, his ears were instantly overwhelmed by a deafening roar. Even the scene before his eyes began to blur, flickering between light and dark. Yan Yihuan wanted to say something, yet his gaze remained fixed straight ahead, his eyes already empty.
“Yihuan? Yihuan!”
Amid Li Xuanming’s frantic calls, Yan Yihuan’s eyes finally closed, and he fell into endless darkness.
—
No matter how chaotic the world might be, Qingxiao Temple stood apart from it, untouched by worldly dust.
Since its founding in the previous dynasty, it had endured for centuries. Although it had been ravaged by war more than once, even when only broken walls remained, the Daoists stayed where they were, unmoving as mountains.
Once, there had even been an emperor who declared that the mountain hollow where Qingxiao Temple stood was too small and proposed relocating it, planning to build grand halls with gold-paved floors and white jade pillars.
Yet the Daoists who guarded the temple remained unmoved. Gradually, a legend spread that Qingxiao Temple had been established there to receive a reincarnated immortal back to the Heavenly Court. They had waited for hundreds of years, and still that person had not arrived.
On the back mountain of Qingxiao Temple, a Daoist in purple robes walked slowly up the winding path. Following behind him was a young Daoist. They were Zhengyangzi and Tong Ziruo.
Tong Ziruo’s steps were hesitant. Only after repeated deliberation did he quicken his pace to catch up and ask, “Master, there is something this disciple does not understand.”
Zhengyangzi stopped and turned back with a faint smile, “You wish to ask why I spoke only half the truth to His Majesty?”
Tong Ziruo nodded. Since the Emperor and Third Young Master Yan shared a bond carried over from a previous life, then wasn’t Yan Yihuan’s destiny as empress simply a natural progression, and a joyous outcome for all?
In his view, whether Yan Yihuan understood love or not hardly mattered. They were fated to be together anyway. As long as the Emperor understood, wouldn’t that be enough?
“Because this was decreed by the Founding Patriarch,” Zhengyangzi said, turning back around and continuing up the path. “Back then, when Patriarch Daoist Buzhou helped Emperor Xuanwen extend the life of his beloved, an edict was left that no one in later generations was to be told about the Fate of the Empress. It was said he did so because he did not wish for his beloved to suffer the pains of love again in future lives.”
Tong Ziruo faltered, thinking that although the intention had been good, it was not Yan Yihuan who suffered from love now, but the Emperor.
The emperor clearly cherished Young Master Yan with all his heart, but alas, Yan Yihuan’s six souls were incomplete, missing the soul of love.
But if his master were to find a way to restore that missing soul, what if Yan Yihuan, after coming to understand love, realized he did not love the emperor at all? Or what if he realized he did love him, yet the two still could not be together, what then?
At that moment, Tong Ziruo began to understand. Indeed, the Emperor must not be allowed to learn of the Fate of the Empress. Otherwise, how could he possibly give Yan Yihuan a choice? He would surely disregard Yan Yihuan’s wishes and bind him tightly at his side.
“Sigh… truly, there is no such thing as perfection in the world…”
