Chapter 981: 460 Confession (second update) Chapter 981: 460 Confession (second update) Xiao Liulang remained silent, unsure if it was because he didn’t want to answer, or if he was unwilling to.

Princess Xinyang spoke again, “Forget it, let me start.”

Xiao Liulang sneered coldly, “Start what? Tell me you don’t want me, don’t want to see me, and are even unwilling for me to appear in the Capital City, so you specifically came to drive me away? Do I, not even have the right to stay in the Capital City anymore, is that it?”

Princess Xinyang’s pupils contracted sharply, as if she couldn’t believe it yet somehow it made sense to her. She lowered her eyes, hiding a fleeting complex emotion, “I didn’t come to chase you away, I just wanted to talk to you about what happened four years ago.”

Xiao Liulang turned his face away, “I don’t want to talk.”

But Princess Xinyang seemed not to hear his refusal at all, continuing as if talking to herself, “Where should I start? Maybe, from Xiao Su’s brother?”

Xiao Su.

This name struck like a heavy mallet on the sealed sea of knowledge, bringing surging memories from the depths of his mind.

The mother of Xiao Su was Chen Yunniang, and in this world, he only had one younger brother, the real Xiao Liulang.

Princess Xinyang said, “The year when Chen Yunniang passed away, with her dying breath, she asked her eldest son to take his younger brother to search for their father in the Capital City. Unfortunately, they were turned away by the servants of the Marquis Residence. No one believed them, and no one was willing to convey their message. That was until they happened upon Xiao Hen, the young Libationer returning from the Guozijian, and the Young Marquis of Zhaodu.”

As she spoke of Xiao Hen, her eyes fixed unwaveringly on Xiao Liulang’s face.

Xiao Liulang pursed his thin lips tightly, his fists slightly clenched.

He didn’t look at Princess Xinyang’s gaze.

Princess Xinyang looked at him intently, “Xiao Hen was kind-hearted. Hearing of Xiao Liulang’s background, he not only didn’t look down on him but was also moved by his tragic situation.”

Xiao Liulang thought of the first time he saw Xiao Su and the real Xiao Liulang. It was a face that bore a slight resemblance to his own, dressed in tattered clothes, shivering in a corner outside the Marquis Residence.

Out of curiosity, he went over and asked, “Who are you?”

“I, I am called Xiao Liulang. This is my guide, this is…” The youth took out the token that Marquis Xuanping had left for Chen Yunniang. It was an old-style token, and Marquis Xuanping had updated it more than ten years ago.

Nevertheless, Xiao Hen recognized it as a real token of the Marquis Xuanping’s Residence.

Xiao Hen asked curiously, “How did you come by a token of the Marquis Xuanping’s Residence?”

The youth looked at him fearfully, stammering with nervousness, “My, my mother gave it to me, she, she told me to bring the token, to the Capital City to find my dad. But, they, they, they wouldn’t let my brother and me, go in.”

Xiao Hen hummed thoughtfully, Naman Road, “He is your brother? You two don’t look alike. You look more like me.”

“Ah…” The youth was somewhat dumbfounded on the spot.

Xiao Su had by then guessed Xiao Hen’s identity. Whether it was using him or genuinely asking for help, Xiao Su knelt down and begged him to allow his younger brother to see their birth father just once.

Xiao Hen agreed, “Several big cases have occurred in the Capital City recently. My father is very busy; even I can’t see him. However, on New Year’s Eve, he will definitely come back to spend the evening with me. Then, I’ll take you to meet him! By the way, where are you staying?”

The two were staying in the Capital City’s cheapest Datong Inn.

Xiao Hen had them moved to a proper inn and arranged to have someone pick up the youth on New Year’s Eve night.

What Xiao Hen didn’t expect was that on New Year’s Eve, he had to go to the Guozijian, and the youth unexpectedly followed him secretly.

“What are you doing here?”

“I, I, I, can I come with you?”

“I’m not going back to the Marquis Residence so soon.”

“I can wait for you,” the youth insisted.

“Alright then.” Xiao Hen took the youth into the Guozijian.

“My mother has come!”

“Then I’ll hide!”

“No need, I’ll just explain it to my mother.”

“It won’t work, your mother will never let me off! Your mother is a Royal Princess, once she finds out I am Marquis Xuanping’s illegitimate son, I’m done for!”

The youth was so frightened that he trembled, with no other choice, Xiao Hen had to temporarily hide him in the corridor.

“Mother!” Xiao Hen opened the door full of joy for Princess Xinyang, “Are you here to pick me up?”

Indeed, Princess Xinyang had come to pick him up, but not to take him back home, rather to take him to hell with her.

Princess Xinyang tried to make her voice sound calm, but the fingers tightly clutching her handkerchief already betrayed her emotions. It just so happened that Xiao Liulang was sitting opposite her, with the desk conveniently blocking his view.

She said, “When you woke up, you were lying in the inn, with Xiao Su by your side. Xiao Su told you that he didn’t trust his own brother and followed him secretly on the road. He discovered that a big fire had broken out at Guozijian, so he rushed into the blaze to find his brother. But he didn’t find his brother; instead, he found you, barely alive, and had no choice but to carry you out. Then he told you he saw a man wearing a mask rescuing an unconscious woman from the fire.”

Xiao Liulang was slightly taken aback, “You… how do you know this?”

Princess Xinyang gave a faint smile, “Know what? How I know this story, or how I know Xiao Su? As a princess of the nation, it wasn’t too difficult to investigate the whereabouts of my son before his death, Xiao Su was discovered through my investigation, and the story was made up by me. Xiao Su never entered Guozijian.”

Indeed, he was worried about his own brother, but Guozijian wasn’t a place he could enter just because he wanted to.

Back then, Xiao Hen had indeed thought about this doubt, but besides this possibility, he couldn’t think of any other.

Xiao Liulang looked intently into Princess Xinyang’s eyes, “So who actually rescued me? Was it Long Yi?”

Princess Xinyang instinctively clenched her left arm.

When she carried Xiao Hen out from the blaze, a burning beam fell and almost struck Xiao Hen’s head. She raised her arm to block it and her entire arm got burned.

Even now it looked unspeakably hideous.

This time, it was Princess Xinyang who averted her gaze. She lowered her eyes and said, “There are things about that year you don’t know. The child was naturally timid and originally didn’t have the courage to follow you. It was Xiao Su who worried you would deceive them, and he insisted that they follow you closely. The two of them had temporary passes in the Capital City; New Year’s Eve was the last valid day. If Marquis Xuanping didn’t acknowledge this son, they would be dispatched out of the Capital City the next day.”

The death of Xiao Su’s brother has nothing to do with you; you shouldn’t keep blaming yourself.

Xiao Liulang touched the area under his right eye and said in a daze, “Then my teardrop mole…”

Princess Xinyang said, “I burned it off with a fire stick.”

“Why?” Xiao Liulang asked.

Because your mother had a mole exactly like that on her face, and I didn’t want those people to find you.

People change their appearance as they grow up, but the mole was simply too conspicuous.

These words, Princess Xinyang didn’t say out loud. She lowered her gaze and spread out the handkerchief in her hand, and said lightly, “Anyway…”

Xiao Liulang watched her intently, “You still haven’t answered me, who saved me from the fire? If it wasn’t Xiao Su, then who could it be?”

You clearly already know who it is, so why do you insist on forcing me to say it out loud?

Xiao Liulang’s eyes reddened slightly, “When I learned I was rescued by Xiao Su, I actually felt a sense of relief–it was Xiao Su who took me away, not you abandoning me. But now, you tell me that it was all your idea. You gave me to Xiao Su… you let him take me away from the Capital City… you got rid of me this way…”

She was the mother he had depended on for fourteen years!

Even if she personally sent him to hell, he couldn’t bring himself to hate her!

It was all his own sin; whatever end he met was deserved.

Yet, it still hurt…

Xiao Liulang raised his hand and quickly wiped away a tear that was about to fall, pretending he had never cried.

He gave a self-mocking laugh and looked out the window, “Besides, I caused your son’s death and took everything that belonged to him. I was originally just his substitute. Later, when the substitute turned into a disaster, would it be strange for you to want to rid yourself of me?”

Although he had long accepted this reality, psychoanalyzing himself day and night for four years, why did it still feel like a knife twisting in his heart when mentioned again?

He raised his hand to wipe his tears once more, stubbornly looking out the window, refusing to let her see his reddened eyes.

Was Princess Xinyang not feeling the same heartache?

He was never a substitute, not ever.

The first day she held him close, she knew clearly and distinctly that he was not the baby that had been in her womb.

But what did that matter?

He would cry through the night, finding peace only in her arms.

He wouldn’t take the wet nurse’s milk, forcing her, the prized princess of the royal family, to nurse him herself.

He was especially clingy, especially mischievous, especially good at making trouble for her…

But he would also accompany her silently on countless days when she felt disheartened.

Whenever she looked back, she would always see his little face, glowing with starlight.

The little guy, with hands behind his back and acting like a little adult, would tilt his head, his face full of pride as he raised an eyebrow, “I’m here, mother, no matter when you look back, Ahen is always here.”

She didn’t try to treat him as the son she had lost, but the little guy seemed to have his own unique way of being, his radiance was all his own. He shone like a little sun rising steadily.

He was her Ahen, who could never replace anyone nor be replaced by anyone.