The messenger looked around in confusion at the roomful of attendants who had somehow grown even more tense because of his announcement. Unable to understand what was happening, he could only keep smiling ingratiatingly.
Nalan Xuan could not be bothered to say more. Since they had already torn away all pretense, Feng Xuanyi’s dream should be over as well. Whatever came, he would meet it head-on. To tell the truth, he had been waiting a very long time for this direct confrontation.
Seeing Nalan Xuan walk straight outside without saying a word, Ji Yu finally recovered from his daze. He snatched the heavy cloak hanging over the screen, hurried after him, and draped it over his shoulders.
Nalan Xuan rode in the phoenix carriage reserved for consorts summoned to attend the emperor, with two large red lanterns hanging on either side. Everyone in the palace knew what the carriage meant. No one with any sense would dare delay it. Those who saw it moved aside, and those who heard it coming lowered their eyes. Nalan Xuan had assumed the night would bring another exhausting struggle and that a violent clash with Feng Xuanyi was inevitable. Instead, he had barely arrived at Yuliu Palace and had not even warmed his seat before the first person to greet him was not Feng Xuanyi, but Feng Xuanyi’s younger brother, Feng Xuanzhen.
Feng Xuanzhen entered with a face dark enough to resemble a god of slaughter. He said nothing, did nothing, and simply stood there staring at Nalan Xuan. Understanding at once, Nalan Xuan waved everyone away. After a flurry of retreating footsteps, only the two of them remained in the great hall. In an instant, the air seemed to congeal between them, thick and unmoving.
“If Your Highness has something to say, then say it plainly. It is already late, and I do not have time to waste sitting here with you. Either state your business or turn around and leave. I won’t see you out.” There was not a single polite word, only blunt impatience from the start.
Whether in disbelief or because he had expected exactly this, Feng Xuanzhen’s gaze was sharp as lightning, scraping inch by inch over Nalan Xuan as though he wanted to see straight through him, or perhaps as though rage was the only weapon he could use when striking him physically was out of the question.
“You are far too ruthless!” The words came through clenched teeth. Feng Xuanzhen had ultimately failed to suppress himself, or perhaps from the moment he heard what Nalan Xuan had done and came here against all reason, he had never intended to suppress anything.
Nalan Xuan froze for a beat, having expected some earth-shattering declaration after Feng Xuanzhen had held himself back for so long. Then he burst out laughing. “Your Highness flatters me. I hardly deserve such praise. Compared with your imperial brother, I would never dare proclaim myself the greater master of ruthlessness.”
“You!” Feng Xuanzhen fought to control the trembling hands hanging at his sides, suppressing the urge that had nearly driven him to step forward and strike Nalan Xuan. His fierce gaze fixed on Nalan Xuan’s faintly smiling face as though he wanted to burn a hole through it. His chest rose and fell violently. He drew a deep breath, and when he spoke again, his voice was ice-cold. “I remember what I told you when we brought you back to the palace. Do not think you are the only one who was hurt. Do not think you are the only one who compromised. And do not think you are the only one who gave something up. You use another person’s love and tolerance to do whatever you please. You are desperate to draw a clean line between yourself and him and desperate to take revenge, but in the end, how are you any different from him?”
Nalan Xuan merely gave the visibly furious Feng Xuanzhen a bland glance. With the air of someone who could not be bothered wasting words, he remained silent.
“I once sympathized with you. When I first met you at Prince Rong’s Residence, you were so innocent you seemed like a blank sheet of paper. Everything in your eyes, every word and every action, was full of love for him. But I also knew that falling in love with someone like Imperial Brother was both your good fortune and your misfortune. That was why I did everything I could to help you. And you, meanwhile, have done everything you can to destroy all of it, to destroy yourself and Imperial Brother with it!”
“Did I hear that correctly? Tsk, tsk. Even his own younger brother knows how miserable it is to fall in love with him. That tells me he deserves everything that happened to him. He brought it on himself.” Nalan Xuan deliberately twisted Feng Xuanzhen’s meaning and laughed with arrogant delight. Then the laughter stopped. He relaxed into the thickly cushioned chair, propped his chin on one hand, and studied Feng Xuanzhen with open interest for a long moment. In the flat tone of someone stating a fact, he asked, “You love him, don’t you?”
He did not miss the way Feng Xuanzhen’s body went rigid. The smile in Nalan Xuan’s eyes deepened without ever reaching their depths, and he pressed directly on the wound. “You love your own brother. Your Fifth Imperial Brother, Feng Xuanyi.”
Feng Xuanzhen had arrived in a fury, his gaze burning and never once retreating, yet now he turned his head aside to avoid Nalan Xuan’s almost gentle eyes.
Silence stretched between them. Feng Xuanzhen neither admitted it nor denied it. He looked like a child caught red-handed doing something wrong, suddenly at a loss before an elder. Only after a long time did he cover himself with a rough, gruff reply. “What does that have to do with you?”
How could Nalan Xuan fail to see through such obvious stubbornness and strain? “Let me guess. You have loved him all these years, but he does not know, and you have never said anything. The reason is simple. You know his nature too well, his cruelty and his heartlessness. So you want to tell me the difference between us is that you loved him while knowing you could not allow yourself to love him, while I loved him without even realizing it, and so I was doomed from the start?”
“You know nothing about what he went through as a child. You have no right to deny him.”
“Then let me tell you this. I do not care about his past, and I have no desire to know it. All I know is that anyone who betrays me must pay the price. That is all.”
Feng Xuanzhen stared at the utterly unreasonable Nalan Xuan in disbelief for a long while. Perhaps this was a deadlock destined never to be untangled. Love belonged to two people. No matter how much one side yielded or accommodated, as long as the other remained twisted against it, the result would only be torment for both.
After hearing that, Feng Xuanzhen, who had been burning with anger moments before, actually calmed. He watched Nalan Xuan in silence for a long time, as though he had finally understood the man’s words and actions. His gaze gradually became sympathetic. The person before him no longer looked like a man willing to injure himself simply to hurt the one who loved him most, but like a vulnerable creature using the last of its strength to keep every weapon raised, desperately guarding against the enemy’s intrusion or any crack in its own shell.
“Very well, then. Esteemed Her Majesty the Empress, this prince only wishes to ask you a few simple questions. I hope Her Majesty will not begrudge me an answer.” Since meeting Nalan Xuan head-on only provoked resistance, perhaps it would be better to follow his logic instead. This might be the last thing Feng Xuanzhen could still do for Imperial Brother.
Nalan Xuan raised one brow but said nothing.
“When Her Majesty first approached Imperial Brother, did you have another purpose?”
Nalan Xuan’s answer was simple. “You already know the answer.”
“Then why is it that only you are permitted to approach Imperial Brother with schemes and ulterior motives, using his favor to achieve your goals, yet Imperial Brother is forbidden from noticing your schemes and using you in return?” Feng Xuanzhen pressed forward step by step, giving Nalan Xuan no room to catch his breath or twist the argument. “If you calculated from the very beginning how to use the ‘love’ between you, then why could Imperial Brother not use that same ‘love’ to achieve his own ends? More importantly, Imperial Brother never abandoned you, much less tried to have you killed. The moment he inherited the throne, he made you empress. Even knowing you had approached him with another purpose, he still accepted you. Perhaps he could not untangle the reason then, but can you truly still not see it now?”