“This set of clothing… is what you wore on the day you were imprisoned.”
“Huh?”
The sound slipped from Mu Xueshi before he realized he had broken his own rule.
He immediately shut his mouth again, pretending to be indifferent.
Seeing the puffed-up look on Mu Xueshi’s face, the Third Prince could hardly suppress his amusement.
Every move Mu Xueshi made was transparent to him—simple and easy to read. Precisely because of this simplicity, the prince could effortlessly guide his emotions.
“If Young Master Xue has no interest, then this prince need not say more.”
Mu Xueshi snorted.
He decided that this time he absolutely must teach the Third Prince a lesson.
He kept his back turned stubbornly for a while… but soon his curiosity began to win.
Slowly, his small head shifted as he attempted to sneak a glance over his shoulder.
Unfortunately, the moment he looked—
his gaze collided directly with the Third Prince’s.
The prince’s eyes were deep and unfathomable.
Mu Xueshi’s, by contrast, were clear and bright.
When their eyes met, Mu Xueshi was the first to surrender.
He snorted again and quickly darted aside, grumbling angrily,
“Don’t try to bewitch me. My self-control is very strong.”
The Third Prince chuckled softly and handed something to him.
Mu Xueshi looked closely—it was the same set of clothing the prince had been examining.
“Put it on,” the Third Prince ordered.
Mu Xueshi refused, turning his head away without responding.
The Third Prince had been ready to lose his temper, but the moment he saw Mu Xueshi’s handsome face, his anger simply dissolved.
Rather than waste more words, he acted directly.
With firm movements, he removed Mu Xueshi’s current clothing and forced him into the old garments.
Although the clothes had gone over a month without care, a faint fragrance still lingered upon them.
Even so, Mu Xueshi said nothing, allowing the prince to dress him however roughly he pleased.
No matter how forceful the movements became, Mu Xueshi clenched his teeth and remained silent.
Yet the stubborn resolve he clung to shattered instantly at the prince’s next words.
“This… is who you truly are,” the Third Prince said calmly.
Mu Xueshi found himself at a loss for words.
He had never imagined that the only thing the Third Prince had brought back from the Grand Preceptor’s residence was this—this object capable of awakening memories, of recreating the Mu Xueshi who once existed.
Because the prince did not truly like the person Mu Xueshi had become now.
If he did not carry the identity of Mu Xueshi, the Third Prince would never have drawn close to him.
In the end, everything circled back to one point:
He was Mu Xueshi.
Only because of that identity had all these favors come one after another.
To Mu Xueshi, the Third Prince had already become the most important person in his world aside from Aunt Chen.
And yet—
this person did not even know who he truly was.
The Third Prince also noticed something strange.
From the moment Mu Xueshi put on those clothes, even his aura had changed.
His expression grew rigid and distant.
The indifference in his eyes deepened.
For some reason, seeing Mu Xueshi like this filled the Third Prince with a long-forgotten sense of fear—like the childhood nightmare in which Lin Yue had been captured before his eyes.
All the earlier laughter and playful teasing vanished completely with the change of clothing.
That night they slept on the same pillow.
But Mu Xueshi lay awake the entire time, his wide eyes staring into the darkness.
Everything from the day replayed again and again in his mind.
The warmth of riding together.
The embarrassment in the bath.
The loneliness beside the table.
Each moment seemed dazzling—yet unreal, like a dream.
Mu Xueshi almost wished it had only been a dream.
That he would wake up in his own home, with messy hair, rushing off to school with the same ugly face he had always had.
Or perhaps he had already died beside that lost lakeshore, and all of this was nothing but his imagination.
He found himself missing those carefree days when he had no worries.
Back then, even when people mocked him, he could forget it in a moment and laugh again without restraint.
Now a single careless sentence could shatter his fragile happiness completely.
He felt exhausted in a way he had never known before.
He wanted to shout inside his heart:
“I want to go back to being carefree!”
But the only answer that echoed back was a cold, mocking voice:
“You’re only dreaming.”
Mu Xueshi took a slow breath and tried to shift slightly farther away, hoping to sleep a little farther from the Third Prince.
But suddenly his chest tightened.
The Third Prince’s powerful arm pulled him back at once, pressing him firmly against his chest.
Mu Xueshi closed his eyes.
Quietly, he savored that borrowed warmth.
Futile Devices Scans 
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