!!!!!!!!!
Oh no! She had completely forgotten about Chao Ning!
Was it too late to stop him now?
She hurriedly gave Rong Mian her token and instructed her to dispatch a team of personal guards to intercept Chao Ning along the route—to claim he was ill and turn back.
Falling into Yu Lingxin’s hands would be like a lamb walking into a tiger’s den! Even if she didn’t think Tan Kingdom currently had the strength to support Yu Lingxin doing anything to Chao Ning, it would still be easy for him to make things difficult once Chao Ning was on his turf.
In her previous life, Chao Ning had been dragged down because of her. She couldn’t let that happen again in this life.
“Sending a message to whom—so urgently?” Yu Lingxin had entered at some point, silent as a shadow. Jiang Nong frantically gathered her letters together, folding one over the other.
Rong Mian caught her cue, curtsied to Yu Lingxin, and hurried away.
Yu Lingxin sat down beside her unhurriedly, poured himself some tea, and glanced at her letters: “So many people thinking of you? Can you even keep up with them?”
Normally, they weren’t that good to her—never thinking of her when something good came along. But when trouble arose, every single one of them would cry, throw fits, and threaten suicide, shoving her to the front. How did they have the nerve to write to her?
Right—how wouldn’t they? He’d forgotten: these shameless people were only so brazen because Jiang Nong indulged them. She fell for that crying, fit-throwing, suicide-threatening act every time.
Jiang Nong tucked them into her box and said, “Not that many. Oh—I forgot. To you, it’s probably quite a lot, since not a single person thinks of you.”
Such words couldn’t hurt Yu Lingxin. He had always known that no one cared about him. It seemed the only letter he had ever received—from childhood to now—was the one Jiang Nong had sent him. Pity he’d burned it. “Who says no one thinks of me? Don’t you think of me? Dare you say that from your past life to this one, there hasn’t been a single day you didn’t think of me?”
“All I think about is wanting you dead!”
“Still, that means you think of me every day—how is that different from caring? Think about it,” Yu Lingxin propped his cheek on his hand and turned her face to make her look into his eyes. “Put your hand on your heart and think—aren’t there more hours in the day when you hate me so much that you think of me more than anyone you love? Whether awake or dreaming. What does that mean? It means that in your heart—whether love or hate—my place is bigger than everyone else combined. I matter more to you than any of them.”
He reached out and tapped lightly over her heart.
If you love someone, you must love all of them—good and bad, alive or dead—and keep them in your heart and mind every moment. If you can’t do that with love, then hate them to that same degree—hate them so much that you think of them constantly, that their shadow haunts you like a ghost, clinging to you without end.
Jiang Nong was stunned by his words for a moment.
Such twisted logic!
Jiang Nong rarely dreamed, and even more rarely dreamed of anyone—but now she even dreamed of Yu Lingxin, either terrifyingly or dying in ways that deviated from his previous life.
His presence in her life was too overwhelming.
It seemed like everything in this life revolved around Yu Lingxin—everything she did was for him, either wanting him dead or wanting him alive.
From another angle, what Yu Lingxin said wasn’t entirely wrong.
She drifted into a daze, thinking: how could she minimize thinking about someone she hated?
Could thoughts be separated from likes and dislikes? Could emotions be controlled? When she forced herself not to think of someone, didn’t that still count as thinking of them—perhaps even more than usual?
The moment her gaze wandered, Yu Lingxin knew she’d taken his words to heart again, falling into some internal debate, reasoning with herself.
Oh my, so easy to fool—taking everything he said so seriously.
Yu Lingxin reached out and squeezed her cheeks: “Alright, go ahead and write back to your lover right in front of me. I’m your lawfully wedded husband—you don’t need to consider my feelings at all.”
“He’s my brother, not a lover! Besides, what right do you have to say that? Who’s the one who can’t even show his face in public? Think about it yourself!” Jiang Nong stared at him in horror, trying to remind him that among the three of them, he was the one who had snatched love away by force and risen through coercion. How could he have the nerve to say such a thing?
Yu Lingxin’s hand tightened slowly around his teacup, veins bulging, though his tone remained light: “Fine, not a lover—your beloved brother, then. If you insist, then we’ll have to talk about who was the one who abandoned and betrayed the other first.”
Again! Always bringing that up!
Jiang Nong truly didn’t understand why Yu Lingxin kept harping on that matter—it had been so long, just a trivial thing.
She couldn’t be bothered to argue with him. She locked the box and put it away.
Yu Lingxin’s gaze fell on the lock, loaded with meaning.
So precious about the letters from Chao Ning?
Their relationship oscillated between good and bad—the palace attendants had grown accustomed to it, automatically withdrawing the moment their first words turned sour.
Jiang Nong and Yu Lingxin didn’t even know what they were arguing about. In any case, they went back and forth, neither letting a single word fall to the ground. If left unchecked, they could keep arguing right up until the moment they fell asleep.
Rong Mian rushed in with a panicked expression, gasping for breath: “Y-Y-Your Highness! Bad news! It’s too late—Prince Chao Ning has already arrived at Fengye City!”
She blurted it all out in one breath, only then noticing that Yu Lingxin was still there, cup in hand, giving her a stiff, mirthless smile. Jiang Nong waved her hand to dismiss her.
Yu Lingxin turned back to Jiang Nong: “So that’s why you were in such a hurry—sending word to your lover. What are you afraid of? It’s not like I’ll eat him. If you treasure him so much, why not just have him made into a lantern and keep him by your bedside forever? I’m quite skilled with my hands—I’ll personally do the carving for you.”
Jiang Nong held her head. She’d said it so many times—he’s my brother—but Yu Lingxin kept calling him “lover” over and over. She had nothing to say to someone like him, but still couldn’t help reminding him: “Chao Ning is a prince after all—the most favored among the Emperor of Dang’s many sons. If anything happens to him here, the Dang Emperor will not let you off.”
Yu Lingxin took a slow sip of tea. After a long pause, he said leisurely, “Warning me for your lover’s sake—Jiang Nong, you’ve got more guts than me. But this isn’t something I can control either. A man may have no intention of harming a tiger, but a tiger may have a heart to harm a man. Who knows—if he discovers how bitterly we bicker behind closed doors, he might think you’re being wronged here, or catch wind of something, and decide to strike first against me.
Oh dear—but if I recall correctly, Chao Ning is neither accomplished in letters nor martial arts. If he tries to deal with me and I accidentally fight back and kill him—what then~”
He spread his hands apart in a gesture like a firework exploding: “How pitiful—dead again, and so young.”
Jiang Nong bit her lower lip hard.
Given Chao Ning’s personality, if he truly discovered anything, he would definitely fight Yu Lingxin to the death. Yu Lingxin was too venomous—Chao Ning was no match for him. Chao Ning must not find out that their relationship was wrong!
After thinking it over, she stiffly revealed eight teeth in a smile at Yu Lingxin, took the initiative to refill his tea, rested her hands beneath her chin, and leaned toward him: “Then let’s make sure he doesn’t find out. I believe Your Majesty, for the sake of peace between us, would be willing to play the part of a loving couple with me—just like back in Xi Kingdom.”
Yu Lingxin leaned lazily against the soft cushion, arms spread wide, not even raising his eyelids: “I shall consider it.”
Jiang Nong had also considered this: why would such an indolent person as Yu Lingxin be willing to accompany her skating on that freezing snowy day?
Wasn’t it simply that what he couldn’t have was always the best—that restless, burning urge hadn’t yet faded?
She reached out and traced the center of Yu Lingxin’s palm.
His fingers trembled slightly—a flash of poorly concealed surprise crossed his eyes.
Jiang Nong felt a glimmer of hope. She took his hand and shook it gently—but failed to notice that after that brief moment of surprise, his gaze had turned to ice-cold hatred.
A sharp crack came from the other side. Jiang Nong looked over and was startled.
Yu Lingxin had crushed the cup in his hand. Porcelain shards pierced his palm, and blood dripped drop by drop onto the carpet.
She was still holding his other hand. At the sight, she gripped it tighter in fright and instinctively leaned toward his shoulder. After a moment of shock, she exclaimed: “Why did you crush the cup? So much blood!”
Jiang Nong quickly reached over to grip his bleeding wrist and called for someone to summon the imperial physician.
She had been kneeling on the other side, but reaching over to press on his wrist forced her to bend forward, leaning across his waist. Strands of her cool, ink-black hair cascaded over his chest, carrying her fragrance, mingling intimately with his own—as if she were actively nestling against him, close and affectionate.
With his good eye, Yu Lingxin could clearly see that the tension in Jiang Nong’s grip on his pulse was not feigned.
And at that very moment, Jiang Nong’s lover—her beloved brother—Chao Ning, was already standing at Fengye’s city gates, having sneezed three times in a row.
The weather was clear and sunny. Riding was forbidden within the city, so he dismounted, stretched his arms wide, and grinned brightly, imagining the scene of meeting Jiang Nong.
“Why is Your Highness so happy?” His attendant, seeing him so joyful, grinned stupidly along with him. After laughing for a while, he finally thought to ask.
“Tsk tsk tsk, you have no idea,” he said excitedly, raising his left hand. “On one hand—my dearest little sister!” He raised his right hand. “And on the other—my sworn brother, who’s been through life-and-death with me! They’ve tied the knot—a match made in heaven! How could I not be happy? Pity I missed their wedding. Now that I’m about to see them, I haven’t been able to sleep well for days.”
He clasped his hands together, let out a dreamy chuckle, and showed everyone his dark circles.
In his previous life, none of those dark events had happened. Yu Lingxin—that honest, kind, righteous, and brave young man—had married his sister. Chao Ning was genuinely happy about it. After all, he wasn’t a bad brother; he wanted his sister to find happiness.
He had even brought them a wedding gift on this trip.
Chao Ning entered the palace in high spirits—and was greeted by the sight of the young couple, who had apparently reached some kind of accord, looking every bit the newlyweds: deeply in love, inseparable, devoted as a pair of mandarin ducks.
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