“Hiss!”
When Jiao Yi heard the sound, his eyebrows instantly furrowed, he put down his massaging hand, came from behind Qin Yu in front of him, knelt down on one knee and looked at Qin Yu nervously, “Does it hurt?”
Qin Yu shook his head slightly, “It doesn’t hurt, it’s just…”
At this point, he paused.
Just what? Jiao Yi’s eyes became more and more anxious.
Being watched so intently, Qin Yu was in a great mood. He curled his lips, pinched a strand of hair that had slipped to his neck with two fingers, raised it and completed the second half of the sentence with compassion, “It’s just a little itchy.”
Jiao Yi sighed softly, stretched out his hand to put it behind Qin Yu’s head, “Your Highness, please stop scaring your subordinate.”
In the darkness, Qin Yu’s mind moved, and he held his hand that he had not yet had time to take back, turned his head and asked, “What if I insist on it?”
Jiao Yi was stunned.
Qin Yu narrowed his eyes and let go of his hand, but the next moment the other party took the initiative to hold him, “Then everything will be according to His Highness’ wishes.”
No matter what, I will accept it, as long as that person It’s His Highness.
Somewhere in the dark, a voice told him that he was born for His Highness.
The green smoke from the incense burner curled up on the side. The master and the servant, one sitting and the other kneeling, looked at each other, their eyes entangled and their hands clasped together.
The breeze blew in through the window lattice, fluttering the silk curtains, but could not remove the surging ambiguity in the room.
***********
In Yishu Pavilion, Qin Yuan looked at the elegant Xun Ling sitting opposite him, and his emotions fluctuated for a while, “I didn’t expect that I would see the Emperor again one day before I died.”
“The Demon Emperor’s words are serious, you are still in your prime years, it is too early to talk about the soul returning to heaven and earth. In the future…” Xun Ling paused, “Besides, I will come to the demon realm often in the future, and we will meet more often.”
Qin Yuan shook his head, he understands his own body the most, but no matter what, everyone likes to hear such good words, “I hope everything will be as the emperor said.” If possible, he also hopes to stay with Qin Yu for a while longer, although Qin Yu doesn’t need it.
Thinking of Qin Yu, Qin Yuan couldn’t help but feel heartache again. Looking at Xun Ling, he changed his mind and thought that it would be great if Xun Ling could come to the demon realm more often as he said, so that after he leaves, with Xun Ling’s support, Qin Yu will have a stable foothold in the Three Realms.
Can Xun Ling really be friends with Qin Yu? Qin Yuan had some doubts again. He had heard about the other party’s visit to Xingming Palace early on. Like everyone thought, Qin Yuan also thought that he went there to take care of Lin He.
But no matter what the outcome will be, as a father, he will always plan and fight for Qin Yu’s future.
At this moment, Xun Ling said, “You can say that you have watched me grow up. Why bother to be a stranger to others? Just call me Xun Ling.”
Qin Yuan responded, “Nephew Xun Ling, there is no need to be a stranger to me, you can call me uncle like you did when you were a child.”
Xun Ling wanted to have a good relationship with Qin Yuan, and upon hearing this, he immediately called him uncle.
Qin Yuan responded with a smile, “When you call me that, I seem to go back many years ago, when you were still a child and had just reached my waist.” As he said, he stretched out his hand and gestured slightly, and then said, “But in the blink of an eye, time has passed in a hurry.” He looked at Xun Ling with a pleased look, “You have grown up and are capable enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with your father.” There was pride for Xun Ling’s achievements in his words, but also for the loss of the past and the passage of time.
After hearing what he said, Xun Ling lowered his gaze and couldn’t take his eyes away from a dragon pattern decoration for a long time. His heart was filled with mixed feelings. It was not the same when he looked at Qin Yu. The child also grew up somewhere he couldn’t see. As he looks now, he has missed countless amounts of time that cannot be made up for.
Seeing that the atmosphere was almost set, Qin Yuan tapped the table and asked, “Do you still remember the first time you met my son?” Remembering that he had more than one son, even if one of them was dead, he hurriedly added, “I’m talking about my youngest son, Qin Yu.”
Xun Ling’s heart skipped a beat. He curled up his right hand and poked his palm with his fingertips. He said in a dry voice, “I remember, of course I remember.”
He turned his head towards the window, he said as his eyes looked to the clouds as white as snow, “I remember when I first saw him, he was still very young and couldn’t even transform into a complete human form. He had a pair of dragon horns on his head and a dragon tail behind him. He was also holding a snowball and trying to stack it on top of another snowball…”
Qin Yuan’s eyes widened. On the one hand, he did not expect that Xun Ling would remember one thing so clearly. On the other hand, “Are you sure this is the first time you have met?”
“Isn’t it?”
Seeing Qin Yuan shake his head afterwards, Xun Ling suddenly panicked. Obviously nothing happened, but his intuition told him that something unexpected was about to happen, and it was something he couldn’t accept.
Subconsciously, he wanted to look for support, but he could find nothing except the armrest under his palm, so he could only hold on to the armrest with his heart in his throat and ask in a dry voice, “Have I seen him before then?”
“Yes.” Qin Yuan nodded, “Actually, it’s normal if you don’t remember. After all, Qin Yu hadn’t broken out of his shell at that time.”
“Not broken out of his shell?!” Xun Ling was shocked. The shell had not been broken, which means it is still in the dragon egg, but he has only seen one dragon egg from before to now, in that empty palace.
That’s Qin Yu! How can it be?!
Xun Ling couldn’t accept it for a moment. He stood up and walked towards Qin Yuan. He stumbled several times and almost fell to the ground several times. However, Xian Nu who was behind him quickly supported him with quick hands and eyes, “Your Majesty!”
“Nephew Xun Ling, what’s wrong with you?” Seeing Xun Ling’s embarrassed posture, Qin Yuan stood up in a hurry, and was no less surprised than the servant. I’m afraid no one in the world has ever seen Xun Ling in such a miserable state.
“Uncle,” Xun Ling walked up to Qin Yuan, as if grasping a life-saving straw, his expression was difficult to distinguish, including panic and fear, helplessness, bewilderment and disbelief, “tell me everything. Tell me everything that happened that day.”
Listening carefully, his voice seems to be filled with blood and tears, despair and unwillingness.
“Okay, I’ll say it right away.” Qin Yuan was momentarily restrained by Xun Ling’s sudden emotional outburst. After he came to his senses, he immediately recounted the events of that day in detail. He had a hunch that this matter would not be harmful to Qin Yu, but…
What Qin Yuan told him was the same as what Xun Ling knew, except that the protagonist had changed. In the past, he had always thought that it was Qin Xuan he harmed, but now he knows that the other person is Qin Yu.
It’s Qin Yu! A voice in his head screamed. Qin Yu was the one he should swear to protect.
This was true intellectually, but emotionally Xun Ling couldn’t accept it. He couldn’t accept that the person he had been hurting was the person he had sworn to protect. Xun Ling even hoped that all this was false and that he and Qin Yu had no such connection.
After he tried his best to deny it, he finally found a flaw.
“Uncle, are you lying to me? Otherwise, according to what you said, Qin Yu should be the same as Qin Xuan, and roughly the same age as me. He won’t be many years younger than me like he is now.”
Hearing him mention Qin Xuan, Qin Yuan’s expression instantly darkened, “This is all because I was blind at the time…” He opened his mouth and recounted everything that had happened.
It turns out that in order to fight for power, the aristocratic family deliberately cooperated inside and outside to frame the Demon Queen and the aristocratic family behind the Demon Queen, but Qin Yuan just believed everything he was told. After a series of findings, he was disheartened. At that moment, a woman of humble origins comforted his soul at the right time…
But there is no such coincidence in the world. Qin Yuan realized this later, but everything was too late.
“Did Qin Yu emerge late because the Demon Queen was depressed and in poor health, which caused the disease while he was in his mother’s womb?”
“That’s right, that’s right.” Qin Yuan admitted.
It turned out that Qin Yu was already suffering even before he was born. Xun Ling tried hard to swallow the sweet taste in his mouth and asked, “Why is Qin Xuan so frail and sick?” Until the previous moment, he had always thought that it was his fault.
Qin Yuan let out a long sigh, “Because Qin Xuan’s biological mother took a birth-inducing potion when she was pregnant with him.”
As for the reason for doing this, you don’t need to think about it. Besides status and power, what else could be the reason? She wanted her son to be more valuable than his mother, she wanted to become the Demon Queen and she wanted her son to be born early, become the eldest son, and inherit the position of Demon Emperor in the future. The only consolation was that none of what she had planned came true.
***********
After coming out of Yishu Pavilion, Xun Ling went straight to Chengming Palace.
He wanted to see Qin Yu and didn’t want to delay for a moment, but when he was about to arrive at Chengming Palace, Xun Ling suddenly remembered the countless times he and Qin Yu had broken up on bad terms, and his steps suddenly hesitated. After this hesitation, he saw himself in the reflection of the river.
Is this me? The person in the reflection was in a miserable state. The robes that were originally spotless with no trace of dust were now covered in dust and dusty, the hair was messy, and there were even branches and leaves in the hair, which was a mess.
Even the most outstanding face has lost its former luster. At first glance, it looks haggard and pale, with sorrow between the eyebrows, bloodshot eyes and chapped lips without blood.
The more you look at it, the more disgusting it becomes.
No, Xun Ling took a step back. How could he go to see his Qin Yu with this ghostly appearance? Qin Yu didn’t like him to begin with, and seeing this look, he wouldn’t like him even more.
Xun Ling patted his face with his hands, trying to make it look more red. As a result, there is really blood on his face.
Xun Ling stared blankly at the wound on his palm that was bleeding continuously and smiled bitterly. No wonder he smelled blood. He thought it was because he bit the tip of his tongue, but it turned out that there was something there ah.
How was the wound caused?
He remembered that when the Demon Emperor was speaking, he clenched his hand and thrust his fingertips into it.
Xun Ling opened his hand with force and widened the gap between the wounds. In a moment, more blood seeped out. They slid down the veins on his palm, slid to his wrist and slipped into his sleeve. The sleeve was stained red in an instant, and the red blood dotted on the white clothes, like red plums on the snow.
Does it hurt?
If it does hurt, he doesn’t dare to feel pain. The pain Qin Yu has suffered before is a thousand or a hundred times worse than his. His pain is nothing now.
“Your Majesty, wait a minute, wait for this old slave!” Xian Nu finally found Xun Ling, who had disappeared as soon as he left the pavilion. “Your Majesty, why are you injured?” He was frightened when he saw the blood on Xun Ling’s face, “Oh, you have them on your hands too! Who hurt you?”
“Shut up!” Xun Ling wiped the blood on his face with his sleeves.
Xian Nu immediately shut his mouth. He suddenly remembered that no one could hurt His Majesty easily except His Majesty himself.
Xun Ling glanced at Chengming Palace in front of him and said in a hoarse voice, “Let’s go back to the Immortal Realm first.”
He wanted to see Qin Yu in his best appearance and tell him about his regret and love.
As if feeling something, Qin Yu looked outside the Chengming Palace through the window at that moment.
T/N – Hmm do I feel sorry for Xun Ling? No, not really. Well, it can be said that he was deceived in a way and it’s not entirely his fault. But I still have no pity for him. For someone who was slated to be Emperor of a Realm at the time to be unable to tell the difference between real and fake is sad. Yeah, he was fed with lies by Qin Xuan but he should have had the basic sense to investigate himself. Just my opinion anyway.
