The horse carriage continued to move slowly and it was very quiet inside. Bai Yihao reclined in the seat in a comfortable manner. His eyes were as bright as stars and he had a faint smile on his face. He expertly took out a pot of tea from a hidden compartment beside him with his slender fingers. Then he fetched two teacups from under the table before he picked up the teapot, poured a cup of tea, and handed it to Mo Xuetong.
After that, he poured another cup for himself and turned to look at Mo Xuetong’s red and swollen face. A hint of gloom flashed in his eyes, but it immediately turned into a warm smile. Taking out a jade-white porcelain bottle from his arms, he asked with a smile, “Do you want me to apply medicine for you?”
“No!” Mo Xuetong refused lightly.
“All right!” Bai Yihao did not make things difficult for her. He pushed the porcelain bottle in front of her and said, “Then you apply some medicine on yourself later, or ask Qing Zhu to do it for you. Your wound would be healed when you wake up after some sleep.”
Mo Xuetong nodded and accepted the porcelain bottle without any resistance. No matter what, the moment she regained consciousness, she had already thought through everything with her eyes closed. The only person who could persuade Princess Royal was Bai Yihao, her nephew. They were on the way to the Yan Kingdom. In a foreign place and in the face of a man like Bai Yihao, she had to be in top shape for what came next.
“When can I go back?” She did not think that her thought could escape from the eyes of a smart man like Bai Yihao. As such, she went straight to the point. It was no use playing tricks in front of him.
“You are my fiancee. Why do you want to go back?” Bai Yihao stated leisurely, picked up the teacup in front of him and took a sip. Then he caressed his brows to alleviate the tiredness and heaved a long sigh of relief before he leaned back comfortably.
No matter what he did, the handsome young man in snow-white clothes was pleasing to the eye. As he gave a gentle smile, he was exceedingly charming!
However, Mo Xuetong would never be able to guess what the person opposite was thinking, so she would never conceitedly think that Bai Yihao really cared about her. She asked directly, “What do you want me to do to let me go?”
Whatever Bai Yihao’s purpose was to capture her, she would have preferred to know it.
“Didn’t you call me cousin just now? Why don’t you call me that anymore when you’re facing me?” Bai Yihao frowned, as if he was very confused, and asked gently as his affectionate gaze landed on Mo Xuetong.
He was referring to the fact that Mo Xuetong called his cousin in front of Qing Zhu just now in order to show her that she could rely on him.
“You are my cousin, so whether I call you that or not, it’s impossible that you’re not my cousin,” Mo Xuetong replied lightly.
What she said was the truth. No matter what, part of the blood in the two’s veins was the same, and it could not be changed by any scheme.
“My mother has been engaged to you for me, but I have never seen you before. Now that Third Aunt was unwilling to get involved in this kind of thing, I thought she didn’t want you to get involved in it either. Thus, I didn’t take it too seriously and didn’t even take the initiative to find you. My mother said that you can marry someone else if I don’t marry you when you turn 15 years old.” Bai Yihao seemed to be explaining. He turned his head and looked out of the window. The cloud satin fluttered and flickered, which made him look like an unparalleled, handsome immortal from heaven.
His eyes looked brighter than usual, and he uttered in a very low voice.
Mo Xuetong remained silent for a while. Then, she also turned her head to look out of the window and asked lightly, “Then why did you still take me away by force?”
In all her past life, she had never seen Bai Yihao. She had never thought that the cold-blooded Emperor would have such a relationship with her. Probably no one had taken the engagement seriously. Anyway, it was just a contract between the sisters—Bai Yihao’s mother and her mother.
When the contract expired and she was not helpful to Bai Yihao, the engagement was automatically broken off. And she didn’t even need to know it!
The whole affair concerned her marriage, but she was the one who had the least say!
Mo Xuetong thought of the pain of burning in the fire in her past life, and her heart was filled with resentment and anger.
“Tong’er, you are in breach of contract!” Bai Yihao remarked seriously.
Immediately, anger burned in Mo Xuetong’s eyes. She bit her lips but could not suppress the anger in her heart. Then she turned around, glared at him, and snapped coldly, “What’s the point of talking about this matter now? This engagement is a non-essential agreement. No one will really take it seriously. I can marry someone else after I turn 15 years old. Bai Yihao, don’t you think it’s too hypocritical?”
Whatever it was that made Princess Shuanglan and her mother make this engagement for her and Bai Yihao, Mo Xuetong felt that it was a joke from beginning to end. She thought of her past life. If someone paid a little attention to her, how would she end up like that? Given Bai Yihao’s strength, it would be easy for him to help her if he wanted to.
However, what was the end?
She still had no idea about this matter when she was about to die!
She didn’t know anything and didn’t understand anything. She was so sad that she broke off her feelings and helplessly set fire to herself. When she was framed, where was he? When she was disfigured, where was he? When she married into Sima Manor, where was he? And when the fire burned her skin and she was wailing in despair, where was he?
Her heart hurt so much that she could hardly breathe! Her eyes were slightly red and moist. She didn’t ask him to treat her as his fiancee. At least they were relatives—even close relatives, but he didn’t even help her.
However, in this life, he mentioned the engagement in front of her!
Her calm heart was filled with pain. She closed her eyes and painfully tried to suppress the hatred in her heart.
All the time, he had known about it, but she had been kept in the dark.
“Tong’er, maybe it was my mother who made a mistake and affected your life… But no matter what, you are not 15 years old yet. I have already mentioned it to Second Aunt and asked her to marry you to me.” Bai Yihao’s tone was calm and his smile was gentle. He turned around and his eyes looked affectionate.
He said these words on assumptions. He looked so affectionate and solemn, as if everything should be like this. Mo Xuetong was furious and could not suppress her emotions anymore. She suddenly stood up and the blood in her chest was churning, as if all the blood in her body had rushed into her head at that moment.
When she needed help the most in her past life, he did not lend her a hand; now she lived a happy life in this life and had gotten married smoothly, but he threatened her with the marriage contract. “Bai Yihao, I don’t care what your mother meant or what she threatened my mother with. You’d better hope that the poison in my mother’s body has nothing to do with your mother. Otherwise, all the connections between us will only be enmity.”
She had pondered the meaning of Nanny Ming’s words countless times. Every time, an incredible answer would surface in Mo Xuetong’s mind. The antidote to the poison could only be found in the Yan Kingdom. Then where did Auntie Fang get the poison? Auntie Fang was just a concubine who wasn’t loved by her father back then, and the Yu family had not recognized her yet; thus, she didn’t have enough money or access to get that kind of poison.
That was when Princess Shuanglan traveled to and from Cloud City most frequently. If Mo Xuetong’s mother did not agree to her request, according to Princess Shuanglan’s style of doing things, which was as decisive and cruel as men, maybe she would deliberately send the poison to Auntie Fang in order to threaten her mother to go to the Yan Kingdom with her.
Ever since this suspicion had been formed in her mind, the more Mo Xuetong thought about it, the more she felt that it was possible. Before she came to the capital, she had gone to the old manor in Cloud City. She had walked into Auntie Fang’s rooms especially and found a few suspicious things. The cloth used to wrap items was extremely luxurious, and Auntie Fang definitely could not afford to use it.
At that time, she thought that it might come from the Yu Manor. Now she thought of that piece of tribute-like cloth. According to the Yu Manor’s status, they might not be able to use it.
“Tong’er, are you trying to say that my mother poisoned Third Aunt?” Bai Yihao looked at Mo Xuetong and noticed that she was biting her lower lip, trembling and stiffening and her eyes were wide open. A dark light flashed in his narrow eyes but his expression was as calm as water, without a hint of mood swing.
“Didn’t she?” Mo Xuetong asked back.
She thought that it was just a suspicion and she would not say it out loud and that she could face Bai Yihao calmly. It turned out that she had always minded it. Even thought she had no evidence, she believed that it was the truth.
“Tong’er, my mother died a long time ago. Not long after she returned to the Yan Kingdom, she died in the hands of the Empress in order to hide evidence of your mother’s connection to her.” Bai Yihao held a calm expression on his face. His thin red lips opened slightly as he stated slowly. It was as if he was just telling an ordinary matter. Only a hint of deep pain flashed across his eyes.
Mo Xuetong could see that he also had a deep affection for his mother!
His mother had been dead? How could it be? Anger disappeared from Mo Xuetong’s face like a tide and her eyes spontaneously landed on Bai Yihao’s face, which was obviously a little lonely. His face looked as gentle as usual, but there was a little sadness in his smile.
“At that time, my mother wanted to unite with her several sisters to avenge our maternal grandfather. But except for her, the other two seemed to have no intention to do it. My mother didn’t give up, so she traveled back and forth between the Yan Kingdom and the Qin Kingdom again and again. Her leaving the palace was a secret, but it attracted the attention of the Empress many times. In order to get the evidence of her colluding with the enemy, the Empress killed her.”
Bai Yihao said in a light manner, but Mo Xuetong could feel his sadness. Back then, she was still very young, and so was Bai Yihao. When he was still a child, Princess Shuanglan had passed away at an early age and left him, a child, alone in the palace. It wasn’t easy for him to survive. If he still wanted to do something, it would have been quite difficult.
He was the noble Crown Prince, but he had traveled far away to another country to be a hostage. Perhaps he had his own plans in this matter, or perhaps he had no choice but to do so. Even though the Empress had to acknowledge him on the surface, how could she treat him sincerely? How did a little child survive in the cruel palace and even become so successful?
Mo Xuetong sighed. Her childish and beautiful features were covered with a layer of sadness. At this point, she was no longer in the mood to question Bai Yihao. She sat back down at the table, softened and could not help but ask, “How old were you when Elder Aunt passed away?”
Her mother was dead and so was Bai Yihao’s mother. Between these sisters, who was right and who was wrong…
“I’m only five or six years old. I can’t remember it clearly!” Bai Yihao’s voice was as gentle as usual.
But how could he really not mind it at all?
“Why did you bring me here?” Mo Xuetong had calmed down and changed the topic. She picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip. Then she put it down and looked at Bai Yihao. He had been looking sideways and was not looking at her. At this moment, he turned his head with a smile on his face.
“Tong’er, are you also poisoned?” He knew that she did not like to mention the engagement again, so he deliberately avoided it. Then, he poured some tea for Mo Xuetong again with a smile and said gently.
“Yes, I was poisoned by Mo Xuemin.” This matter could not be hidden from him, so Mo Xuetong told him the truth.
“Give me your hand!” Bai Yihao said softly. He stretched out his hand and placed it on Mo Xuetong’s outstretched hand. He lowered his eyes and his long lashes landed on his jade-white face, casting two long shadows on it.
