Tianyuan's reaction took Shen Xihe slightly by surprise, but only for a moment before she smiled faintly. Her gaze shifted and settled once more on Xiao Huayong. "Your Highness, you are truly difficult to fathom."
"Junzhu..." Xiao Huayong called out softly, his voice gentle and mellow. His warm dark eyes held the tranquil glow of a silver plate. "Do you truly wish to unravel me completely?"
Shen Xihe's gaze remained calm and unruffled as she stared at him in silence.
Above them, the ginkgo tree stretched its slender branches adorned with golden leaves, each one poised like a butterfly ready to take flight with the breeze.
The courtyard was so quiet it seemed devoid of sound. After a moment of locked gazes, Xiao Huayong spoke. "In this world, aside from newborn infants, everyone wears more than one face. I am no exception, and neither are you, Junzhu."
"You are mistaken," Shen Xihe replied coolly. "I have only one face, no matter who I face."
"Is that so?"
"Yes." Her tone was resolute. "I may keep secrets, but I will never disguise myself to achieve my goals. Shen Xihe disdains pretense. What I desire, I will pursue openly and clearly."
"Openly and clearly..." Xiao Huayong savored these words, then suddenly smiled. "Junzhu, had I lived so openly, I would not have survived to this day. I admire your candor, even envy it—but admiration and envy are all I can offer."
"Your Highness is no longer coughing?" Shen Xihe asked with a faint, ambiguous smile.
Xiao Huayong's lips curved slightly as he lifted a cup of tea and took a small sip. "Junzhu, my health is indeed poor."
"I believe you." Shen Xihe nodded, then continued to stare at him unwaveringly, her expression devoid of emotion.
"Why do you look at me like this, Junzhu?"
Shen Xihe replied, "I wish to know what kind of person you truly are."
"What kind of person?" Xiao Huayong murmured as if to himself. "I do not even know what kind of person I am. But since you ask, I can only say I am neither as complex as you might think, nor as simple as I appear."
Leaning slightly forward across the stone table, he closed the distance between them. "If you wish to know, Junzhu, why not stay by my side day and night and see for yourself?"
He drew so near that Shen Xihe, by merely lowering her gaze, could clearly see the tiny dark mole at the corner of his eye, which seemed to shimmer with a subtle allure. His voice was so gentle, so tender, it felt like a bewitching spell capable of plucking at the strings of one's heart.
Yet, seated across from him was Shen Xihe. Not only did she not retreat or evade, she instead lowered her gaze slightly to meet his eyes directly. Her placid pupils revealed her complete indifference.
After a long moment, Shen Xihe finally spoke. "Your Highness, I do not enjoy allying with the strong. I prefer to make enemies of them."
Xiao Huayong had always believed he understood Shen Xihe well, but now he found himself perplexed. "Why?"
"Alliances with the strong, once broken, become fatal enmities. No matter how powerful an enemy, if we have never joined forces and remain unknown to each other, even in defeat, total annihilation is unlikely," Shen Xihe explained slowly.
"But did you not ally with that person?"
"No. We merely reached an agreement for the present, pledging not to be enemies," Shen Xihe corrected. "If Your Highness is willing, we could do the same."
Xiao Huayong glanced at her, then lowered his head with a soft laugh. "I do not wish to form an alliance with you, Junzhu. I wish to join hands with you."
"Are you in love with me?" Shen Xihe asked without a change in expression."My desire to seek your hand is genuine, my intention to join hands with you is sincere." Xiao Huayong answered thus, "What matters most is that to me, you are my best choice, and I to you, are yours."
Shen Xihe acknowledged this statement: "Your Highness speaks truly. For me, you are indeed the best choice at present."
"Since that is so, why must you still test me? We..."
"Your Highness." Shen Xihe interrupted him, slowly rising to her feet. "Being the best choice now does not mean it will be so forever."
Leaving Xiao Huayong with a faint, meaningful smile, Shen Xihe bowed gracefully and departed leisurely with Biyu and Hongyu.
Clad in a thin primrose-colored cloak, her slender figure gradually receded into the distance behind the layers of falling Eucommia leaves.
Xiao Huayong did not laugh until she had disappeared from sight.
"Your Highness, did the Junzhu... believe you or not?" Tianyuan was completely unable to grasp Shen Xihe's thoughts.
"She originally had only fifty percent suspicion towards me." Xiao Huayong sighed softly. "I was careless."
Shen Xihe's sharpness exceeded his expectations. He should not have let her know that he was the one who exposed the Anxi affair.
Unexpectedly, Shen Xihe used the timing of his knowledge to deduce the entire situation, suspecting that he was the person she needed to guard against.
"Was it truly only fifty percent?" Tianyuan found it unreliable.
Could it be that His Highness was once again embellishing his standing in the Junzhu's heart? To him, the Junzhu sounded utterly convinced of His Highness's identity.
"Fifty percent suspicion, fifty percent testing." Xiao Huayong tilted his head back slightly, his eyes gathering a silvery glow as his disguise faded. "She suspects I might be him. If I were not, and she informed me of this, would I tolerate such a person's existence? I would surely take action, thus helping her identify this person who troubles her like a bone in the throat, would I not?"
Tianyuan couldn't help but press his lips together, rather curious about how His Highness would go about finding himself.
Xiao Huayong's eyes shifted, glancing sideways at Tianyuan. "Do not act rashly."
"???" Tianyuan had thought His Highness would create a decoy to confuse the Junzhu and clear his suspicion.
"Her mind runs deep." Xiao Huayong turned his gaze back to admire the fluttering golden leaves. "Even if I were truly not this person, if I were to search for him, I would inevitably expose many of my forces, precisely fulfilling her intention to probe my depths."
Her purpose in coming was threefold: first, to test whether he was the person she suspected; second, to make him aware of such a person threatening his throne; third, to wait for him to take action against this person.
"!!!" Tianyuan was inwardly shocked. Aside from His Highness, the Junzhu was the second person whose depth of cunning made him fearful.
"Let her suspect if she must." A soft leaf landed on his snow-white cloak. Xiao Huayong picked it up, pinching the stem between his fingers and giving it a gentle twist, causing the leaf to spin like a blooming flower. "It is better than letting suspicion turn into guardedness."
He no longer wished to deceive her. Rather than expending effort to dispel her suspicions, it was better to contemplate how to transform her current best choice into her permanent best choice.
As long as he remained her only choice, nothing else mattered. Once they could be together day and night, and their relationship transformed, even if her heart were truly iron-clad, he had plenty of ways to warm and soften it!
Thinking this, Xiao Huayong twirled the Eucommia leaf in his hand and slowly walked to the high platform. His dark eyes, unfathomable, turned towards the far east as his voice drifted away on the wind: "If it is now, then it shall be forever."Tianyuan followed this direction and accurately spotted a Wang residence.
Knowing that their Highness was about to eliminate all possibilities in their infancy, Tianyuan silently recited an "Amitabha" in his heart for all the Highnesses.
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