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The atmosphere momentarily fell into an eerie silence.
After a while, Ye Shu spoke hesitantly, “How… How long have you been here?”
……And how did you hear?
Jin Wang held back a smile. “Not long.”
He paused and then added, “But I got here just when you did.”
“……”
Jin Wang had been faking his drunkenness that night. As to why, it was probably to test whether he would leave with Xiao Huan. His worries from earlier had proved correct; the man had indeed noticed that there was something off between him and Xiao Huan.
Jin Wang advanced step by step and extended his hand to Ye Shu, but the latter flinched a half step back as if frightened.
His hand hovered in the air for a scant moment before he effortlessly pulled Ye Shu over.
“Cold?” Jin Wang took his hand in his. “Your palms are all sweaty. Afraid I’ll be angry?”
Ye Shu’s lips were pale, slightly pursed.
Jin Wang folded Ye Shu into his embrace with one hand, gently stroking his back with his palm. “I’m not angry. You don’t have to be afraid.”
Jin Wang pressed his forehead against Ye Shu’s cold one, with his eyes gentle, he smiled lightly. “Little fool, you are willing to stay for me, I am more than happy. How could I be angry?”
Ye Shu’s eyes looked somewhat panicked. “I……”
“Let’s go back first. It’s too cold here outside,” Jin Wang said.
He ordered for the imperial palanquin to be brought, and helped Ye Shu climb into it.
Ye Shu had not yet recovered from his fright and only came back to himself when they entered a room and Jin Wang reached over to take off his fox fur wrap.
Jin Wang had brought him back to Yangxin Hall.
Jin Wang put his fox fur coat aside and said with a smile, “You didn’t object when I asked you if you wanted to go back to Yangxin Hall. You can’t go back on your word now.”
A servant brought them a bowl of ginger soup that would help dispel the cold. Jin Wang took it, scooped up a spoonful and tried to feed it to Ye Shu, but the latter avoided it. “I-I’ll do it myself.”
Jin Wang did not object.
He dismissed the palace servants in the hall with a wave, leaving the two of them alone, sitting side by side on the small couch.
Ye Shu held the bowl of ginger soup and took a small sip before turning his head to look at Jin Wang.
The look on Jin Wang’s face was still unreadable, but the stifling, oppressive feeling around him had already disappeared, and he seemed truly devoid of anger.
On the contrary…… He was even a little happy?
Ye Shu asked, “If I had really left with Xiao Huan earlier, would you have had me killed?”
Jin Wang froze and said, “No.”
“Then, would you have locked me up?”
Jin Wang put the bowl aside. After a moment of thought, he shook his head. “Don’t know.”
“Tonight, I have been thinking, if you really want to leave, should I make you stay or should I let you go after all?” Jin Wang collected himself and his expression slightly darkened. “It is easy to capture people, but hard to capture their hearts. If your heart is not here with me, even if you stay this time, you will still keep looking for chances to leave in the future.”
“And so……I followed after you today alone.”
He went there just to get an answer.
Ye Shu understood his intention. His voice suddenly became a bit hoarse, “How……How can you be like this. If I had really left today……”
“Then I would woo you back,” Jin Wang smiled as he stroked Ye Shu’s hair. “Xiao Huan thinks that taking you to their fief would make everything fine, that time and tide would be favorable. He underestimates me too much.”
“I never give up easily on what I want.”
Jin Wang gazed into Ye Shu’s eyes as he added seriously, “This is something you taught me as well.”
With sour in his eyes, Ye Shu lowered his head. “……It wasn’t me.”
Jin Wang asked, “What did you say?”
“I said, it wasn’t not me.” Ye Shu did not dare to look at him. His voice soft but clear, “Jin Wang, what I said to Xiao Huan earlier today was not a lie, I am not the Ye Shu you know. I……I have been deceiving you.”
Jin Wang’s hand stroking Ye Shu’s back faltered, before slowly withdrawing.
Ye Shu could not contain the trembling of his hands as he took a deep breath and tried to keep his voice steady.
But he was not able to. He stumbled to even construct basic sentences.
Ye Shu spoke incoherently as he spluttered out everything about the transmigration, the original story, his true identity, and the lies he had told.
When he reached the end, Ye Shu’s voice shook more and more. “……That’s how it is. I’m not the Ye Shu that you knew. I don’t know where the real Ye Shu went. I……I’m not worthy of your kindness.”
The hall was silent for some time.
Ye Shu did not dare to turn his head and look at the expression of the man beside him, but he couldn’t ignore the feeling of the latter’s gaze upon him.
As time grew lengthy in the silence, Ye Shu felt like he had been put on fire, slowly sizzling and being tormented, almost driven mad by such feelings.
“All done?” Jin Wang suddenly asked.
Ye Shu nodded slowly.
Jin Wang sighed as he leaned over and opened his arms towards Ye Shu, as if he wanted to hug him.
Ye Shu reflexively stood up and avoided his embrace.
Jin Wang looked up. With his tone indistinguishable between joy and anger, “What, you won’t let me hold you anymore?”
“I……” Ye Shu frantically met Jin Wang’s gaze, but there was no indignation in the latter’s eyes.
Jin Wang stretched his body on the small couch, saying leisurely, “Haven’t we agreed that I would respect your decision after the confession?”
Ye Shu nodded. “…Mnm.”
“Then won’t you come over?”
Ye Shu could not fathom his thoughts. He hesitantly moved half a step forward, then another half step, before being pulled directly into Jin Wang’s arms.
Jin Wang made Ye Shu sit on his lap, embracing him tightly from behind, with his head resting on the other’s shoulder.
“Those earlier days were indeed unfair to you,” Jin Wang suddenly said softly.
Ye Shu was taken aback.
“You came to this strange world having neither friends nor relations. Even your life was under threat. You must have been terrified, mustn’t you?”
The rims of Ye Shu’s eyes suddenly reddened.
Jin Wang said softly, “You obviously hadn’t done anything, yet you were blamed for those things anyway and were also bullied like that. I’m sorry, I have wronged you.”
This was the second time Jin Wang had apologized to him.
But why?
Wasn’t he the one who was in the wrong? Why should this man apologize?
Ye Shu’s mind was in complete chaos. He looked at Jin Wang in a daze until the latter tenderly brushed his cheeks with his fingertips. “Don’t cry, A-Shu. I’m here, so don’t cry.”
Was he……crying?
Before Ye Shu could think it through, he felt a warm touch brush upon his eyelids.
Jin Wang was kissing away his tears.
Ye Shu cried even more than ever.
He tilted his head to avoid Jin Wang’s lips. Wordlessly, tears rolled down his cheeks like broken strings of beads.
Jin Wang was unable to do anything with him. He did not dare to touch him again, but just stroked his back repeatedly.
This placation proved to be quite effective, as Ye Shu’s trembling body slowly calmed down.
Jin Wang carried him to the inner chamber and called for hot water to be brought. He then wrung out the silk handkerchief himself to clean the other’s face.
Ye Shu tilted his head in an attempt to hide. Jin Wang said, “Don’t move. You have turned into a spotted cat from all that crying, let’s clean you up.”
Ye Shu pursed his lips and ceased to evade him.
Jin Wang helped him clean away the tears on his face. Then, he took another warm handkerchief to wipe over Ye Shu’s eyes and held him close to his arms.
“You seriously should not cry anymore,” Jin Wang sighed. “Should you keep crying, physician Feng will again blame me for not treating you well and causing you to be upset all day long while being pregnant.”
Ye Shu gasped lightly and asked in a low voice, “Why…Why are you…”
Why are you not the slightest bit shocked.
Jin Wang’s affection for the original owner spoke for itself. He should have been furious to learn that he had taken his place under false pretenses. But instead of being angry, he even apologized to him and comforted him.
Unless……
Ye Shu pushed away Jin Wang’s hand. Looking up with a pair of red eyes, he asked, “Had you already……guessed it?”
Jin Wang was silent for a moment. “I couldn’t guess your identity, but I gathered, more or less, that there was something amiss about you.”
“Why?”
Jin Wang said, “On the day Xiao Huan entered the palace, I told you that we had once set off to the south to deal with flooding, and that you proposed that I befriend him, remember?”
Ye Shu did not respond. Jin Wang continued, “It was indeed you who proposed that I befriend him, but the location was different. We have never been to the fief. I became acquainted with the Lord Protector when he came to the capital to celebrate the late Emperor’s birthday several years ago.”
It suddenly dawned on Ye Shu.
No wonder Xiao Huan kept saying that he had once wanted to take Ye Shu out of the capital to let him stay in the fief.
They had not met in the fief at all.
Jin Wang knew from then on that he was not the real Ye Shu.
Or perhaps at an even earlier time there had already been some doubts in his heart.
Ye Shu curled his fingers firmly as he continued to ask, “Then why are you…why are you still being so nice to me, when I’m clearly not…”
His voice still had a sobbing tone in it, which sounded so aggrieved.
Ye Shu was aware that he shouldn’t be like this now. He was the one who deceived Jin Wang’s feelings first. No matter what underlying reasons there were, it was never right to be deceptive.
He should have apologized properly to Jin Wang and explained the actual facts to him, instead of crying melodramatically and letting the other party comfort him.
But he couldn’t help himself.
The better Jin Wang was to him, the more he could not help himself.
Ye Shu’s eyelashes trembled slightly, heavy with tear droplets that were trying not to fall.
Jin Wang looked up to see those reddened eyes. “A-Shu, we have known each other for more than ten years.”
“After more than ten years of spending time together and assisting each other, do you think it has not been enough for me to understand you?”
Ye Shu did not understand. “What are you saying……”
“What I mean is that I don’t believe you’re a fake,” Jin Wang said seriously with each word, “I do not believe that you have been substituted, that you are a different person from the one in the past.”
“You are the Ye Shu I know. There is nobody else.”
Ye Shu even forgot to shed tears.
Had he said so much that this man thought he was lying?
How did this man’s brain work??
He sat up and said anxiously, “I swear I’m not lying to you. I couldn’t possibly……”
“Don’t be anxious. It’s not that I don’t believe what you said,” Jin Wang interrupted him and inquired patiently, “you said you had a memory lapse in your early childhood?”
“……Yes.”
Jin Wang inquired again, “You said that in your early childhood, you were disabled in both legs, but one day you suddenly recovered.”
“……Mhm.”
Jin Wang smiled softly, “You see, you’ve already given me the answer.”
Ye Shu still doesn’t understand.
“If you hadn’t mentioned this matter today, I would have almost forgotten.” Jin Wang placed his hands on Ye Shu’s legs and gently said, “I had just made friends with A-Shu when he was not able to use his legs. Not that he couldn’t, but that he wouldn’t.”
“He was already seven or eight years old at the time, but acted like a child who was just learning to walk.”
“He said he was disabled in both legs as a child and had just been cured not long ago.”
“Later, when I left the Cold Palace with him and my status as a Prince was restored, I asked the physician to examine him.” Jin Wang looked at Ye Shu and said seriously, “His legs were perfectly healthy. There was no sign that he had ever suffered an affliction.”
Ye Shu froze.
He had just cried too hard. Now his mind was a jumble of confusion, as if he had already lost the ability to think. Ye Shu froze for a long time before saying in a trance, “The original owner was also once disabled? So I came here because I’m a lot like him? That…That’s quite a coincidence too.”
“……”
Jin Wang’s eyes suddenly turned blank.
“What’s with you, you’re not smart when you’re supposed to be, and you get one hell of an idea after another when you’re not,” Jin Wang felt rather helpless and gently pinched Ye Shu’s cheek. “We can definitely take another guess.”
“There’s a chance that……you are him.”
(Mini Theatre)
Ye Shu: That is beyond the scope of the book.