The Prime Minister's Darling
Chapter 951 - 951 435 The Story of My Life (Part 3)

Chapter 951: 435 The Story of My Life (Part 3) Chapter 951: 435 The Story of My Life (Part 3) Princess Xinyang didn’t hand him the bowl and chopsticks, instead she turned and placed them on the stove.

Xiao Liulang had not expected her to suddenly wake up, nor had he expected her to condescend to come into the small kitchen. Princess Xinyang had not expected to enter herself either.

The two of them thus unexpectedly faced each other.

It was not the back of the head, not the back, nor the vague sleeping face swallowed by the darkness of the night, but a clear full face under the broad daylight.

Stripped of his fourteen-year-old’s immaturity, he had acquired a restraint polished by the years. Though he turned just nineteen in over three months and should be at an age of youthful naïveté, he had already become prematurely steady.

He had grown taller, but his cheeks seemed to have thinned out.

The fourteen-year-old Xiao Hen was a pampered young marquis, the bright moon in the sky, but now he had fallen into the dust, a fine jade covered in grime, turning into a lonely little stone seemingly abandoned by the roadside.

Princess Xinyang didn’t know where to rest her gaze for a moment, whether on his face where the tear mole was no longer present or on his legs that could not walk with strength.

He seemed to have been chiseled by a knife into sharp cold edges, or as if he had been skinned and stripped of a layer of flesh and blood, exposed thus bloodily to the gaze of those informed and uninformed.

Every step he took left a bloody footprint.

Xiao Liulang’s eyes were bloodshot.

Is this punishment enough? Are you satisfied with this pain? Have my filthy sins been thoroughly redeemed?

Princess Xinyang watched him steadily and then suddenly staggered, bracing herself against the scorching stove with one hand.

Xiao Liulang’s gaze flickered, his hand instinctively reached out, but it froze mid-air at her resistant expression.

Princess Xinyang trembled slightly, she took one last look at him, clutched her chest, and ran out without looking back…

By the time Gu Jiao finished treating the patients in the Medical Hall and came over to the small courtyard to check on Princess Xinyang’s condition, she was informed that Princess Xinyang had already left.

Gu Jiao quirkily raised an eyebrow, “Was planning to have her stay a few more days.”

These mother and son truly act in the same way.

Wishing to see, yet not taking the opportunity to properly meet.

Xiao Liulang the latter did not have to come, but he followed when he heard that Princess Xinyang had fainted. After Gu Jiao set up an IV drip for Princess Xinyang, she went to consult patients. Xiao Liulang had been watching over her all the while.

Little Xiao Hen was playing in the courtyard.

It was also Xiao Liulang who called Gu Jiao to remove the drip midway.

Afterward, Xiao Liulang took Little Xiao Hen into the room to watch over while he went to prepare some food.

But she hadn’t even taken a bite of the food he made.

Gu Jiao was almost done with her work. She tidied up a bit, took Little Xiao Hen to wash his hands, and returned with Xiao Liulang to Bishui Alley.

She had thought it over—the safest place was by Princess Xinyang’s side, and after that, it was Bishui Alley. Isn’t there a saying that the most dangerous place is oftentimes the safest?

Who would have thought that Xiao Liulang would be staying right at his own home?

The family of three had just left the Medical Hall’s back door when Yujin hurried back to the Medical Hall with an anxious look.

Princess Xinyang had fainted again.

Gu Jiao had just given her fluid replenishment, so logically she shouldn’t overexert herself so soon.

Gu Jiao looked at Little Xiao Hen and then at Xiao Liulang. She could choose to take Yujin’s carriage, letting Xiao Liulang and Little Xiao Hen take Little Sanzi’s carriage home, but she paused for a moment and still boarded Little Sanzi’s carriage.

Yujin’s carriage took the lead.

They were headed to Vermilion Bird Avenue.

See, Princess Xinyang moving to the Princess Residence was indeed to avoid Xiao Liulang.

Once Xiao Liulang left, she moved back.

What does this tell us?

It goes to show that seeing Xiao Liulang upsets Princess Xinyang even more than going to the Princess Residence.

This time, Princess Xinyang truly suffered a heart attack, her breath failing to come through and causing her to faint.

Gu Jiao administered a tranquilizer, and her pulse temporarily stabilized.

But she couldn’t afford too many of these incidents, or it might pose a danger to her life.

“Did the princess experience some kind of shock? Just now, in the Medical Hall, her pulse was all over the place,” she asked as she packed up her medical supplies, turning to Yujin at her side.

Yujin was astonished by Gu Jiao’s strange medical methods, but she simply thought of her own lack of knowledge and did not doubt that they were altogether alien to the Six Nations.

She answered Gu Jiao’s question, “The princess… is feeling distressed, emotionally.”

Little Xiao Hen went to play in the courtyard. She glanced at Xiao Liulang beside her and said, “There are some things that the princess hasn’t even told me, but I think she fainted from distress because of… Lord Xiao.”

Xiao Liulang felt an endless bitterness welling up in his heart, and a dull pain in his chest.

He looked at Princess Xinyang, who lay unconscious on the bedchamber.

Do you despise me that much?

Fine, I understand now.

I will never appear before you again.

Xiao Liulang turned and walked away, with moonlight spilling down, casting a frost-like sheen over his lone figure.

Gu Jiao stayed behind to monitor Princess Xinyang’s condition.

Little Jingkong was in the courtyard looking at the flowers.

The flowers here were both big and beautiful.

He wanted to pick them.

But he couldn’t pick the wildflowers outside, so he could only look.

He stood with his little hands behind his back, drooling over the flowers incessantly.

Suddenly, Long Yi came over.

Initially, Long Yi hadn’t paid much attention to the little fellow. In the eyes of the Dragon Shadow Guard, children were no different from stone stumps.

However, at that moment, Little Jingkong started rubbing his little hands together, wanting to mess with the flowers— he really couldn’t hold back anymore!

Long Yi caught his troublesome little hand.

Little Jingkong lifted his head, looking confused but trying to appear serious as he said, “It wasn’t me, I didn’t, I, um, uh…”

His eyes darted around, reminiscent of Little Xiao Hen when he used to get into mischief years before.

His entire presence was suffused with Xiao Liulang’s aura, even his little expressions were identical.

Long Yi glanced at Little Jingkong and then inside the house at Xiao Liulang, and his mind stopped working for a moment!

Gu Jiao made sure Princess Xinyang was truly out of danger before she got up to leave.

Yujin wanted to pay the medical fee, and Gu Jiao didn’t refuse.

Gu Jiao left the mansion, found Xiaosan’s carriage still there, and climbed aboard.

She had thought Xiao Liulang had already taken Little Jingkong back, but to her surprise, both the big and the small one were sitting in the carriage. The difference was that Xiao Liulang was awake, whereas Little Jingkong was nestled in his arms, sound asleep.

“He has eaten,” Xiao Liulang said. “He wanted to wait for you.”

It seemed like an explanation for why he hadn’t gone back.

Gu Jiao uttered a sound of agreement, perceiving the truth without voicing it.

It was true that Little Jingkong wanted to wait for her, but he could have waited inside the mansion. The fact that he stayed was half because he was waiting for her and half because he was waiting for Princess Xinyang to be safe.

Relationships in this world were never entirely fair. Often, when parents hurt their children, the children don’t stop loving their parents; they just stop loving themselves.

Gu Jiao sat down next to Xiao Liulang, and Xiaosan snapped the whip. The carriage wheels creaked as they turned on the silent avenue.

The noise was quite loud, conveniently covering the conversation between the two.

“The princess is fine now,” Gu Jiao told Xiao Liulang.

Xiao Liulang’s eyes were downcast, his emotions inscrutable. He hummed in response, pulled up his slipping coat, and covered Little Jingkong’s entire body with it.

Little Jingkong slept soundly, not knowing what he was dreaming of, his saliva making a slurping sound.

Actually, part of the reason Princess Xinyang felt so unwell and fainted today was due to Little Jingkong’s blunt remarks. The speaker meant no harm, but the listener took it to heart. How could Princess Xinyang have expected the hardships Xiao Liulang had been through these years?

Gu Jiao pinched the little guy’s cheek and withdrew her hand, her gaze sweeping over Xiao Liulang’s face seemingly inadvertently.

Afterward, she looked away.

But she kept an eye on him from the corner of her eye.

“Do you want to know about my parentage?” Xiao Liulang suddenly asked.

“…Yes,” Gu Jiao did not deny it.

She did not know when, but she had become curious about his affairs, wanting to understand him, the good, the bad, the proud, the embarrassing… she wanted to know it all.

She rarely asked proactively if he chose not to tell her.

But if he brought it up himself, she naturally wouldn’t be polite with him.

After all, one might not find another such opportunity; the atmosphere was not always this ripe for sharing.

“Even if my parentage is filthy, you would still want to know?” Xiao Liulang sneered, “You’re going to regret it. Regret marrying me, regret being so good to me, and you might even regret knowing me.”

Gu Jiao looked at him, puzzled.

Xiao Liulang scoffed, “I am not Princess Xinyang’s biological child, I’ve already told you that, but I never told you who my real mother was.”

“Yes,” Gu Jiao responded to him.

Xiao Liulang’s expression inexplicably softened, “Actually, there’s nothing that can’t be said. My mother was a prisoner of war, no, not even that. She was less than a prisoner, just a female slave from Yan Country.”

“Princess Xinyang and that slave became pregnant in the same month, and gave birth in the same month. The princess’s son was born half a month earlier. On the night I was born, the Marquis Residence was attacked by assassins, and both the child and I were poisoned.”

“There was only one antidote.”

Hearing this, Gu Jiao seemed to understand.

She didn’t interrupt Xiao Liulang, waiting quietly for him to continue.

Xiao Liulang smiled faintly with a mix of helplessness and scorn, “I was just a slave’s son; how could the antidote ever be for me? To let me have the antidote, the slave stole Princess Xinyang’s son and cruelly killed him. Then she hung herself.”

Gu Jiao had guessed the rest after hearing there was only one antidote, so she wasn’t very surprised by what followed.

Or maybe she was too cold-blooded.

Her parents in her past life were right—she was indeed a monster.

Xiao Liulang still wore an expression of casual detachment, as if what he was talking about was not his own story but an insignificant tale, “Princess Xinyang was unaware and thought they were taken away by assassins, that the assassins killed them. She lost her son, I lost my mother; she said, perhaps we were destined to be mother and son. She decided to raise me as if I were her own child.”

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