Chapter 169
Chapter 169
Shengsheng Zhou had planned to find an opportunity to test Siran Ming, but after seeing his reaction, she was now one hundred percent certain he had recognized her.
The worry kept her awake. She glanced at Zhiyu Jiang, who slept soundly beside her without a care in the world, then quietly climbed out of bed, threw on a robe, and went outside for some air.
The chill of the autumn night made her shiver. Looking up at the sky, Shengsheng sighed. Whatever else one might say, the ancient night sky held far more stars than the modern one.
Xiyuan Duanmu’s house might not look like much, but after wandering around it a few times, Shengsheng found it was quite large.
The fact that someone had even built a pavilion in the rear courtyard deserved a thumbs-up.
She had barely rounded the corner when she stopped. She had not expected someone else to arrive before her and claim the finest spot for admiring the moon.
Fusheng Duan was extremely perceptive. Before Shengsheng even spotted him, his eyes had already turned in her direction.
Glancing at the wine jar in his hand, Shengsheng frowned almost imperceptibly.
What a wreck of a body, and he was still drinking.
“My apologies. I didn’t know anyone was here.”
Shengsheng had just turned to leave when a gust swept past her. The man who should have been seated in the pavilion suddenly appeared in front of her, blocking her path.
Shengsheng stepped back and looked up at him. “What is the meaning of this?”
Fusheng voluntarily retreated, leaving her ample room to breathe. “Let’s talk.”
Shengsheng pressed her lips together. “I have nothing to discuss with you.”
With that, she tried to move around him. But as she brushed past, he caught her arm and hooked his fingers through hers.
Warm breath spilled against her ear. The man called softly and lingeringly, “Shengsheng Zhou.”
Every hair on Shengsheng’s body instantly stood on end. She stared at him in disbelief. “Your Highness the Noble Consort, have you gone mad from longing? Look carefully. I am Mosheng Song, not Shengsheng Zhou!”
Fusheng had barely parted his lips when pain suddenly struck his chest. He quickly turned away and covered his mouth.
Then he began coughing violently.
Shengsheng had never seen him like this and immediately panicked. She stepped forward and tugged at his sleeve. “What’s wrong?”
Blood ran between his fingers and dripped to the ground. Shengsheng’s breath caught. “Holy shit, Fusheng Duan, you’re coughing blood! Are you sick in the head? And you’re still drinking? Has this life treated you so well that you’ve grown tired of living?”
While she was still scolding him, a forceful yet gentle presence suddenly enveloped her, pulling her entire body into an embrace.
The man rested his head beside her neck. His voice was still hoarse, but his tone brooked no denial. “You care about me, Shengsheng Zhou.”
Shengsheng shouted, “Bullshit!”
That mighty roar nearly deafened Fusheng.
His ears ringing, he smiled and said cheerfully, “You admitted that you’re Shengsheng Zhou.”
Shengsheng pushed at him. “I’m telling you again, I’m not. Let me go right now, or I’ll call someone!”
Fusheng tightened his embrace. “Go ahead.”
Shengsheng: “…” What now? She still had some dignity left.
When she stopped struggling, Fusheng released a contented sigh. “I missed you. I never stopped missing you.”
Shengsheng’s eyes suddenly reddened. She thought, *Is he simply too good an actor, or am I an idiot? How can he say anything so easily? He makes it sound real.*
And how exactly had he recognized her? This was so far beyond absurdity that it had left absurdity behind.
“Will you talk to me? Just for a little while,” he said.
For once, a trace of pleading entered his voice.
Shengsheng was dumbfounded. Except when they were intimate, when had Fusheng ever spoken so softly?
Was this truly Fusheng Duan?
Had someone possessed his body?
Thus led by the nose, Shengsheng only came to her senses after Fusheng had draped his cloak around her and pulled her into the pavilion.
Glancing at the dazed Shengsheng, Fusheng thought, *If the imperial physician learned that I forced myself to cough up blood, who knows what new method he would invent to pour medicine down my throat?*
No matter. At least she was finally willing to listen to him.
“When I was young, I lived in an enormous house.”
Shengsheng Zhou came back to herself and realized Fusheng Duan had begun telling her about his past.
“I never met my parents. When I was eight, I suddenly fainted after celebrating my birthday. When I woke up, everything had changed.”
“Everyone began treating me with the utmost reverence. Every person who looked at me had a fervor in their eyes that I couldn’t understand. Even now, remembering those gazes makes me feel…”
“Afraid?” Shengsheng supplied.
Fusheng shook his head. “No. Like they were idiots.”
“Placing all their inexplicable hopes and ideals on a child–what else could they be but idiots?”
Shengsheng thought he had a point.
“Later, when I was a little older, the eldest man in the household told me about my origins.”
“He said I was a descendant of the phoenix.”
“Pfft!” Shengsheng covered her mouth, eyes narrowing into crescents as she looked at Fusheng beside her. “Sorry. It sounded a little too melodramatic. I couldn’t hold it in.”
Fusheng did not mind. He found it somewhat embarrassing himself.
After all, saying these things aloud carried an unavoidable measure of shame.
He gradually told Shengsheng that he descended from Qing Kingdom, which had fallen many years ago, and explained the duties and mission borne by its pure-blooded heirs. Shengsheng suddenly understood.
She understood the keys, and the words she had heard in the cave.
So that was it. This was the villain’s hidden storyline.
Only after he finished did Shengsheng ask the question she most wanted answered. “How did you recognize me?”
She had laid all her cards on the table.
The conflict between them had to be resolved eventually. Shengsheng was not one to hem and haw; some things were best clarified sooner.
If Fusheng had approached her this time for some benefit to Zhen Kingdom or anything of the sort, she had to make herself clear and let him know she would not be deceived so easily again.
“I’m different from ordinary people. I have my own methods,” he explained.
Shengsheng thought, *You certainly look different from ordinary people, but what good does that do?*
As though guessing her thoughts, Fusheng caught her hand and pulled her closer. Half his face melted into shadow, unable to conceal the sharpness of his gaze. “Back in Border City, you were in the cave too, weren’t you?”
Wanting nothing more than to sing a hymn to his keen perception, Shengsheng applauded. “Smart.”
Now Fusheng finally understood exactly where things had gone wrong.
“Idiot,” he muttered gloomily.
Shengsheng’s eyes widened. “What the hell? Did you just call me an idiot? Fine, I was an idiot. You played me like a fiddle, yet instead of apologizing, you insult me? Stay here and amuse yourself. This lord is done with you!”
She tugged at Fusheng’s cloak around her shoulders, intending to fling it over his head with domineering flair.
But that bastard Fusheng had tied a dead knot. Unless she removed her own head, she would not be getting the cloak off anytime soon.
Taking advantage of her furious embarrassment, Fusheng hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap.
He pressed something into the hand of the enraged Shengsheng, who bared her teeth and tried to bite him.
She looked down. A single little flower rested alone atop a plain hairpin.
Was this not the hairpin she had passed on to someone else?
“The farmer said he felt too embarrassed to accept your possession and asked me to return it.”
Shengsheng tightened her fingers around the hairpin. Fusheng’s warmth still lingered upon it.
Had he kept this against his body all along?
“This hairpin was carved by the mother I never met.” It had accompanied him throughout his childhood, the only maternal love he had ever known.
He spoke awkwardly. The word *mother* remained far too unfamiliar to him.
“A servant who once attended her said she hoped I would give it to the girl I loved when I grew up.”
Seeing the surprise on Shengsheng’s face, Fusheng held her around the waist and buried his face against her body without changing their position. His muffled voice asked, “Do you think I would give something like this, for no reason at all, to a woman I merely intended to use?”