Before this, Li Sunxun was treating them politely before but as soon as he heard Lin Xiao’s questions, it was replaced with hostility.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Li Sunxun said as he narrowed his eyes, glaring at Lin Xiao and Qin Yijun.
Hearing this, Qin Yijun immediately turned livid inside. He clenched his hands into a tight fist as he stared at Li Sunxun coldly. “You don’t know?” he asked. “Two years ago—”
“I have nothing to say to you. Please leave!” Li Sunxun roared out in anger.
Qin Yijun grits his teeth and almost lost his control. If it were not for Lin Xiao holding his sleeves, he probably would’ve went over to Li Sunxun to teach him a lesson and by then, it won’t end well for the older male.
Li Sunxun’s reaction was too strong and Lin Xiao’s suspicion deepened. ‘It looks like… I may have found my family…’ he thought. If it was anyone else, they might’ve been moved by happiness to have found their family but for Lin Xiao, he could only feel disappointment. Especially with how Li Sunxun is acting.
“Then, Houye do not have to say anything. Showing me his painted picture is enough. He might’ve been gone for two years… and maybe you even pronounced him dead but, there should still be a picture of him somewhere, right?” Lin Xiao asked.
True to his word, Li Sunxun truly did not say anything else to them. In fact, he was even turning his head, not wanting to see them. Seeing this stubborn old man, Lin Xiao could only sigh.
“Very well. Then how about this,” Lin Xiao took a few steps forward until they were only three steps apart. “Houye, look at me. Do I look familiar to you?”
At first, Li Sunxun appear to be reluctant to look at Lin Xiao, but one could see that he was actually struggling to contain his curiosity. In the end, he turned around and looked at the youth before him carefully.
Due to his age and injury that he suffered two years ago during his escape, his visions had turned bad. He narrowed his eyes, focusing on Lin Xiao’s face. Then, there was a change in his expression.
The changes on Li Sunxun’s face was something that Lin Xiao finds interesting. First, his eyes widened in surprise. Then he looked happy. But the happiness was short-lived as it was replaced with anguish, followed with a guilty expression as he seems to be thinking of something. But after a while, he once again looked at Lin Xiao with hostility. All in all, Lin Xiao could guess that Li Sunxun was feeling complicated, before finally deciding on one course of action.
“You! Get out of my residence! Now!” Li Sunxun roared out, making Lin Xiao frown.
‘I see. It looks like, it’s true that I was thrown away,’ Lin Xiao thought to himself. ‘Then, there is no need for me to be filial to them, is there?’ Lin Xiao was just about to walk away, leaving as Li Sunxun requested. But before he could even take a step, he heard Li Sunxun speak again.
“Did you think that by coming here, we’ll accept you?! You’re the reason why our family is reduced to this state! If only you were not born! Then we would still be living within the inner city!!”
Despite Lin Xiao not having his memories, he still feel pained in his heart. Not only was he thrown away by his family, but his very own existence was also being rejected. “Houye, please calm down…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Calm down? I will only be calm once you are dead!” as Li Sunxun said this, his hand went to his sword that was by his side. This made Lin Xiao be on guard and took a few steps backwards.
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“Li Sunxun, you actually dare say that right in front of Zhen!?”
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The oppressive energy made Li Sunxun shake in fear, and he could only stare at the Emperor in disbelief. “Y-Your Majesty… This hum—”
“Standing before Zhen and still not kneeling?” Qin Yijun ruthlessly cut off whatever words that Li Sunxun had wanted to say.
Li Sunxun immediately dropped to his knees and bowed down to Qin Yijun while saying: “This humble servant sees the Emperor!”
Lin Xiao, seeing that the Emperor had dropped his disguise, also wanted to kneel. Only, his arm was held in place, preventing him from lowering himself to the kneeling position. Lin Xiao looked up at Qin Yijun, feeling confused but the other’s attention had been focused solely on Li Sunxun.
“Li Sunxun, Zhen will remind you now. You and your family only managed to keep your life because it was what Li Fangming wished for. If it were not for him…”
Just from his voice alone, people could already sense the anger contained within. Li Sunxun, the sole subject to the Emperor’s wrath was already shaking with fear.
“This humble servant was wrong…” was all Li Sunxun could say. He blamed his bad eyesight for not seeing the Emperor, and he blamed his tongue even more for uttering something that is considered a taboo in the capital.
“Do you know where you were wrong?”
Li Sunxun hesitated before answering: “No one was allowed to speak badly about Xinglan Wang.”
“And do you know the punishment for those who were found out to be doing so?”
Li Sunxun only shivered as he pressed his head harder onto the floor. “Death is the punishment to those who speaks badly and slandering the Xinglan Wang.”
“Are you willing to answer the questions now?” Qin Yijun asked.
“Yes, yes! The son of this humble servant went missing two—”
“Forget it,” Lin Xiao said out loud.
Li Sunxun who had been cut off by his only looked up to look at Lin Xiao. What he sees was that Lin Xiao had a look of indifference on his face. He wanted to say more, but Lin Xiao beats him to it.
“I have lost interest. I don’t want to hear it anymore,” he told the older man whom, by now, he knew to be his father. Lin Xiao wanted to leave, but his arm was still being held by Qin Yijun.
Glancing up to the slightly taller male, Lin Xiao just gave him a perturbed look. “Has… Your Majesty finished playing around? Shall we leave?”
Qin Yijun saw this look and could only let go of Lin Xiao’s hand, fearing that if he were to press on, he would only end up making Lin Xiao run away. “As you wish.”
With that, the Emperor waved his hands and the surrounding guards around Li Sunxun returned to the shadows once more. Lin Xiao once again glanced at Li Sunxun, before finally turning away to leave with Qin Yijun following closely behind him. But just before his foot steps out of the training hall, he heard Li Sunxun speak.
“M-Ming-er…”
Based on the stuttering, Lin Xiao knew the other was scared, and nervous. He only took a deep breath before turning back to face Li Sunxun.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know who that is. I only thought that we looked similar, so I’ve decided to play on a little prank. I never expected you really did lose your son two years ago. You have my condolences for your loss, Houye.”
After saying that, Lin Xiao finally leave without looking back anymore. When they stepped out of the residence’s gate, they saw that the White Swan members were still waiting on them.
“Brother Lin, you were inside for a while. Did you find anything new from Houye?” Ruo An was the first to speak to Lin Xiao.
“No. Nothing new. Brother Luo, where will you be going next?” Lin Xiao asked.
“I will ask around to see where the twins were last seen,” Ruo An replied. Then after a while, he hesitantly asked. “Brother Lin, are you alright? Your face doesn’t look good, ah… did you accidentally ate something bad earlier? No, that shouldn’t be. After all, we ate from the same servings…”
Lin Xiao raised a hand to his face, covering it as he took a deep breath. He didn’t even realized that what happened inside the residence had actually affected him so much that it shows on his face. “I guess I over ate, Brother Ruo. Don’t worry about it,” Lin Xiao replied.
“Since Xiao-er is not feeling well, we will separate here,” Qin Yijun said in a decisive tone.
“Alright, then Brother Lin, go and take a rest,” Ruo An told Lin Xiao before turning to Qin Yijun. “Lord Bai, since we’re working on the same case, maybe we can share informations to make our work faster? Is there any way for us to reach you?”
“Just tell me where you are staying, I will send someone to act as messengers,” Qin Yijun replied hastily. After that, he took the liberty to excuse both him and Lin Xiao from the White Swan group, before going their separate way.
But when Lin Xiao seems hesitant to follow him, Qin Yijun could only persuade the other in a different way. “Are you not willing to give Zhen any face?”
It was only then did Lin Xiao reluctantly followed him. After walking for a while, he saw that there was a majestic carriage on the street surrounded by several guards. Compared to its surrounding, it truly looks out of place. Glancing at the Emperor by his side, Lin Xiao could only shake his head. ‘The Emperor sure is powerful. I don’t even know when he prepared this carriage,’ Lin Xiao thought to himself.
It wasn’t until he saw Bai Chenyi did he finally found out how it happened. “General Bai,” Lin Xiao clasped his hands together and saluted the other.
Bai Chenyi returned the salutation, before glancing between Lin Xiao and Qin Yijun. He continued this back and forth before confirming that there was something wrong between the two. But he decided to report to the Emperor for his findings first.
“Ruohan-tang ge…” Bai Chenyi began, and Lin Xiao who heard this way of address could only snicker inwardly. He decided to keep quiet to see the little show that Bai Chenyi is acting on. “I’ve already asked the officials stationed in the Guard Post. I have all their reports brought over,” he said to Qin Yijun.
“And they also provided me with carriage, saying that it would be easier to transport them,” he added.
“En. Good work. Where is Minghai and Sun Chengmei?” Qin Yijun asked.
“They should still be looking around for informations,” Bai Chenyi replied.
“Alright. They will return once they had enough. Lin Xiao is not feeling well, so we will be returning first,” Qin Yijun said before he pulled Lin Xiao towards the carriage.
Here’s an extra chapter this week! Because there is inksgiving event in tapas so I released extra. And it wouldn’t be fair if they have extra and here don’t have extra.
In any case, I made an inksgiving goal for the event!
- 10k inks – semi-censored extras chapter for this series
- 15k inks – uncensored extras chapter for this series
- 20k inks – uncensored extras chapter for this series with prompt given by readers
For no. 3, people should know that I barely have this thing called bottom-line for BL so… I am open to any suggestions.
PS: For those who have read the first version in Wattpad a few years ago… do you guys remember what happened in the carriage? 
I don’t i never read it in the wattpad wish i known about this amazing story early😭 thank u sooo much author for updating extra chapter😘