Chapter 45

An eerie silence fell.

After a long moment, Ye Shu finally asked hesitantly: "You… how long have you been here?"

…And how much had he heard?

The smile on Jin Wang's face faded slightly. "Not long."

He paused, then added: "Though — I followed you from the beginning."

"…"

So he had heard everything.

Ye Shu felt a chill surge up from his back, cold enough to make his whole body shudder.

Jin Wang had been feigning intoxication tonight. As for why — he had likely been testing whether Ye Shu would actually leave with Xiao Huan. His earlier worries had been justified. This man had clearly seen that something was off between him and Xiao Huan.

Jin Wang stepped forward and reached out to take Ye Shu's hand. Ye Shu recoiled half a step, like a startled animal.

His hand hovered in the air for only a moment before Jin Wang easily drew him close.

"Cold?" Jin Wang held his hand. "Your palm is sweating. Are you afraid I'm angry?"

The color had drained from Ye Shu's lips. He pressed them together slightly.

Jin Wang wrapped one arm around him, his palm smoothing slowly up and down his back. "I'm not angry. Don't be afraid."

Jin Wang pressed his brow against Ye Shu's cold forehead. His eyes were gentle. He gave a quiet smile. "Little fool — you chose to stay for my sake. I'm too pleased to feel anything but happy. Why would I be angry?"

Ye Shu's eyes were faintly panicked. "I…"

"Let's go back first. It's too cold out here." Jin Wang said.

He had the attendants bring the imperial palanquin and helped Ye Shu in.

Ye Shu still hadn't come out of the shock from before. He was in a daze, and only when they were back inside and Jin Wang reached over to remove the fox fur from his shoulders did he come back to himself.

He had been brought back to Yangxin Hall.

Jin Wang set the fox fur aside and smiled. "I asked earlier whether you wanted to come back to Yangxin Hall, and you didn't object. You're not allowed to change your mind now."

Attendants brought warming ginger soup. Jin Wang took it and scooped out a spoonful to feed Ye Shu, who dodged away. "I— I'll do it myself."

Jin Wang didn't insist.

He dismissed the palace servants from the hall, and the two of them sat side by side on the small couch.

Ye Shu held the soup and sipped it slowly, glancing sideways at Jin Wang.

Jin Wang's expression still gave nothing away — but the suffocating weight of presence that had surrounded him earlier had dissipated. He genuinely did not seem to be angry.

In fact… there was even a small note of happiness?

Ye Shu asked: "If I had actually left with Xiao Huan just now — would you have killed me?"

Jin Wang paused, then said: "No."

"Would you have locked me up?"

Jin Wang set the bowl aside and thought for a moment. He shook his head. "I don't know."

"Tonight I kept thinking — if you truly wanted to leave, should I hold you back or not." Jin Wang's eyes dropped. His expression dimmed slightly. "It's easy to hold a person's body. Holding their heart is another matter. If your heart is not with me, even if you stayed this time, you would always find a way to leave eventually."

"That is why… I went there alone tonight."

He had gone there only wanting an answer.

Ye Shu understood what he meant. His voice had gone somewhat dry. "You… how could you do that — if I had actually left today…"

"Then I would have gone and brought you back." Jin Wang smiled and stroked Ye Shu's hair. "Xiao Huan thinks taking you to his fief makes everything simple. He underestimates me."

"What I want — I never give up on lightly."

Jin Wang looked into Ye Shu's eyes and said earnestly: "This, too, is something you taught me."

Ye Shu's eyes stung. He lowered his head. "…Not me."

Jin Wang asked: "What did you say?"

"I said — not me." Ye Shu didn't dare look at him. His voice was quiet but clear. "Jin Wang — what I told Xiao Huan just now wasn't a lie. I'm not the Ye Shu you know. I… I've been deceiving you all along."

Jin Wang's hand on Ye Shu's back went still for a moment — then slowly withdrew.

Ye Shu couldn't stop his own hands from trembling. He drew a deep breath and tried to keep his voice steady.

He couldn't manage it. He could barely string words together clearly.

Ye Shu spoke in disjointed fragments, stumbling through it — the transmigration, the novel, his real identity, and all the lies he had told — he said all of it.

As he got further along, his voice trembled worse and worse. "…That's everything. I'm not the Ye Shu you know. I don't know where the real Ye Shu went. I… I don't deserve the way you've treated me."

The hall was silent for a long stretch.

Ye Shu didn't dare look at the other person's expression. But he could feel that gaze — steady, unmoving, on him.

Time stretched out in the silence. Ye Shu felt like a piece of meat being slowly cooked over a low flame — tormented, suffering — nearly driven to madness by the sensation.

"Done?" Jin Wang asked suddenly.

Ye Shu gave a slow nod.

Jin Wang let out a sigh, leaned over, and opened his arms toward Ye Shu — as though wanting to hold him.

Ye Shu stood up by reflex and stepped away from the embrace.

Jin Wang looked up. His tone was unreadably even. "What — you won't let me hold you?"

"I…" Ye Shu met Jin Wang's eyes in a panic — and found no anger there.

Jin Wang stretched his shoulders and settled back on the small couch. He said idly: "Didn't you say earlier, that after confessing, I could deal with you as I pleased?"

Ye Shu nodded. "…Yes."

"Then come here."

Unable to read his intentions, Ye Shu hesitantly inched half a step forward, then another half step — and was pulled directly into Jin Wang's arms.

Jin Wang settled Ye Shu into his lap and held him from behind, resting his chin on Ye Shu's shoulder.

"The time before this — I put you through hardship." Jin Wang said quietly.

Ye Shu froze.

"You came to a world that was entirely unfamiliar, with no one to turn to, even your life under threat. That must have been frightening."

Ye Shu's eyes suddenly went red at the rims.

Jin Wang said softly: "You hadn't done anything wrong — yet you had to take responsibility for things you never did, and be treated that way. I'm sorry. I put you through hardship."

This was the second time Jin Wang had apologized to him.

But why?

Wasn't he the one who had done wrong? Why was this person apologizing? Why was this person comforting him?

Unless…

Ye Shu pushed Jin Wang's hand away and looked up with eyes that had gone completely red. "Did you… did you already know?"

Jin Wang was quiet for a moment. "I couldn't know your identity. But I had a general sense that something about your identity was wrong."

"Why?"

Jin Wang said: "The day Xiao Huan came to the palace, I told you that we had gone south to manage flood relief and passed through the Duke Protector's fief, and that you had suggested I befriend him. Do you remember?"

Ye Shu didn't answer. Jin Wang continued: "It was indeed you who suggested I befriend him — but the location was wrong. We never went to the fief. I came to know the Duke Protector when he came to the capital years ago to celebrate the late emperor's birthday."

Ye Shu understood in an instant.

No wonder Xiao Huan had always said he had wanted to take the original host away from the capital — not keep him at the fief.

They had never even met at the fief.

From that moment, Jin Wang had known he was not the real Ye Shu.

Or perhaps he had harbored suspicions even earlier.

Ye Shu's fingers curled tight. He pressed on: "Then why — why did you still treat me so well? I was clearly not…"

His voice still carried the residue of weeping. It sounded deeply aggrieved.

Ye Shu knew clearly that he shouldn't be like this. He was the one who had deceived Jin Wang's feelings first — whatever the circumstances, deception was wrong.

He should have been sincerely apologizing to Jin Wang, telling him the truth, not weeping melodramatically and making others comfort him instead.

But he couldn't stop himself.

The better Jin Wang treated him, the less he could hold back.

Ye Shu's lashes trembled, beaded with tears about to fall.

Jin Wang tilted his face up and looked into those red-rimmed eyes. "A Shu, we have known each other for over ten years."

"Ten-odd years of living side by side, supporting each other through everything. Do you really think that isn't enough for me to know you?"

Ye Shu didn't understand. "What are you saying…"

"I'm saying — I don't believe you're a fraud." Jin Wang said, clearly and deliberately. "I don't believe you were replaced by someone else. I don't believe the person before me and the person I knew are two different people."

"You are the Ye Shu I know. No one else."

Ye Shu even forgot to cry.

So he had said all of that, and this man thought he was lying?

How did this person's mind work???

He sat up and said urgently: "I really didn't deceive you — it's impossible that I could…"

"Don't be anxious. I'm not saying I don't believe what you said." Jin Wang cut him off and asked with patience: "You said your memories from early childhood were fragmented?"

"…Yes."

Jin Wang asked again: "You said that from a young age your legs were paralyzed, but one day you woke up and they had suddenly recovered."

"…Mm."

Jin Wang smiled quietly. "You see — you've already told me the answer."

Ye Shu still didn't understand.

"Had you not brought this up today, I would almost have forgotten." Jin Wang placed his hands on Ye Shu's legs and said softly: "When I had just met A Shu, his legs were not nimble — not unusable, but as though he had never learned to use them."

"He was already seven or eight years old at the time, yet he moved like a child who had only just learned to walk."

"He said he had been paralyzed in both legs as a small child, and had only recently been cured."

"Later, when the two of us left the cold palace and I regained my status as a prince, I had an imperial physician examine him." Jin Wang looked at Ye Shu with seriousness. "His legs were entirely healthy — with no trace of any previous illness."

Ye Shu went blank.

He had been crying too hard. His mind was a muddle, and he seemed to have lost all capacity for coherent thought. After a long, dazed stretch, he said faintly: "The original host was also once disabled? So I ended up transmigrating into this because we were similar? That's… quite a coincidence."

"…"

An expression of profound speechlessness settled over Jin Wang's face.

"What is wrong with you — sharp when you shouldn't be, and completely dense when you should be sharp." Jin Wang looked at him helplessly and gave his cheek a gentle pinch. "There's another possibility we could consider."

"Isn't it possible… that you are him?"