When they reached the end of the path, Mu Xueshi began to recognize the surroundings.
The room where he had awakened earlier stood just ahead.
Realizing Su Ruhan might soon leave again, Mu Xueshi suddenly grabbed his sleeve and asked breathlessly,
“Could you… pass along a message for me?”
Su Ruhan said nothing—but he did not refuse.
Seeing this, Mu Xueshi spoke in a voice tinged with desperation.
“Please tell the Third Prince… I never conspired with the Second Prince to harm him.”
“Because I only have one friend.”
“And that friend… is the Third Prince.”
His voice faltered.
Even Mu Xueshi felt the words sounded embarrassingly sentimental.
He waved his hand awkwardly and forced a bitter smile.
“That’s all. Tell him to focus on recovering from his injuries.”
“I’ll just wait here for whatever punishment he decides.”
Although Su Ruhan’s expression remained unchanged, his thoughts stilled for a long moment.
As an outsider, he knew very well that Mu Xueshi had no reason to harm the Third Prince.
But the sincere affection Mu Xueshi felt toward him—
Reminded Su Ruhan of the boy who had once relied on him since childhood.
Just as Su Ruhan turned to leave, a sudden, searing pain tore through Mu Xueshi’s abdomen.
He collapsed onto the ground, curling up like a shrimp as agonized groans escaped his lips.
At that moment, he noticed a pair of shoes appear before his eyes.
Shoes he recognized all too well.
The person standing there—
Even more familiar.
Joy surged within Mu Xueshi’s heart.
But the violent pain wracking his body left him unable to speak.
He could only stretch out a trembling hand toward the Third Prince’s ankle.
Before his pale fingers could reach him—
The Third Prince’s foot stepped down.
Hard.
He crushed Mu Xueshi’s hand beneath his heel.
Mu Xueshi felt his heart turn cold.
His body was too weak to pull his hand away.
Summoning all his strength, he lifted his head and looked up.
The face before him was the same one he had always known.
Yet it no longer carried the warmth he remembered.
The Third Prince looked down coldly at the beautiful face beneath him.
Strangely, the more sorrowful and pitiful that expression became—
The angrier he felt.
For a moment he even wanted to grind his heel into that delicate face.
Yet somehow—
He could not bring himself to do it.
Even the foot pressing on Mu Xueshi’s hand began to unconsciously lessen its force.
Once, he had exiled Mu Xueshi to a barren wasteland and watched as men lashed him with whips.
Back then, he had felt nothing.
Yet now—
After only half a month of living together…
After hearing Mu Xueshi circle around him day after day, sweetly calling his name “Xi”—
He had somehow been disarmed so easily.
The Third Prince snorted coldly and turned away.
There was no need to look back.
No need for pity.
Whatever illness Mu Xueshi suffered was his own problem.
He was not Mu Xueshi’s anything.
He was merely the son of Grand Tutor Mu—
Mu Xueshi’s younger brother.
With that thought, the veins on the Third Prince’s forehead bulged.
In the next instant, he leapt into the air and vanished.
Futile Devices Scans 
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