V2C113

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In the few short days she spent in the Imperial Capital, Zhu Yan finally met her best friend whom she had not seen for a long time.

“I would have never thought that you would become my sister-in-law, Ah-Yan.” The breeze blew from the lake, dispelling the scorching heat of the summer day, and Xueying, the Princess of the White Clan, looked at Zhu Yan and sighed – she and Zhu Yan were of the same age, and they grew up together as sisters since they were young because their mothers were cousins. However, in recent years, they had drifted apart, and rarely found the time to spend some moments chatting together.

“The things in this world are unpredictable.” Zhu Yan replied with an absent mind, folding a piece of paper she was clutching in her hands.

“What are you doing?” Xueying was surprised to see that her lady companion was folding a paper crane with the candy wrapper – there were already dozens of paper cranes, in all sorts of colors, stacked busily on her cabinet. When the last one was folded, Zhu Yan held the handful of paper cranes made of sugar tissue in her hand and blew vigorously – instantly, the paper cranes fluttered up from her hand and scattered like snowflakes towards the sky.

Xueying was astonished, “Are you… using magic spells? Isn’t it forbidden to use magical arts in secret in the Imperial Capital?”

“It’s in my own backyard… who would care about that so much?” Zhu Yan muttered in disbelief, her face a little tired – although paper crane messaging was a minor spell, sending out dozens of paper cranes at once was still a bit taxing. She picked up her teacup and took a sip, addressing her best friend, “The little shark I fostered got lost during the war, and I’ve been searching for him for a while now… after sending so many paper cranes out, I still haven’t got any news back.”

“A shark again?” Hearing this, Xueying couldn’t help but give her a harsh remark, “You really like sharks.”

Zhu Yan was not in the best mood, “What, do you have a problem with that?”

“That’s fine with me,” Xueying murmured, secretly displeased and blunt with her long-time friend, “but my brother doesn’t like sharks – you don’t want to bring this little shark with you when you marry over into my family, do you?”

“What? Bai Fenglin doesn’t like sharks?” When Zhu Yan heard this, she couldn’t help but laugh coldly, “He goes to the Star Ocean Cloud Pavilion quite often!”

“What?” Xueying was taken aback, “How do you know that?”

“I…” Zhu Yan’s mouth spoke too fast, in an instant she almost spilled out the truth to Bai Fenglin’s sister about his visit to the brothel, and immediately hesitated, embarrassed to mention that she also went to the flower house, and could only shake her head vaguely, exclaiming, “I just know… Anyway, I must get that little brat back! I promised his mother I would look after him, I cannot leave him behind.”

“Yunhuang is so big, how can you find anyone out there?” Xueying sighed, “Besides, you are about to get married, so how can you still be concerned with other things? Let’s talk about such trivial matters when the big wedding is over.”

As soon as the big wedding was mentioned, Zhu Yan stopped talking and just lowered her head, starting to play again with her candies.

“What, you don’t seem to be happy? Could it be that you don’t want to marry my brother?” Xueying looked at her peer’s depressed appearance and frowned, “Ah-Yan, why have you suddenly lost so much weight recently?”

Zhu Yan barely pulled herself together and smiled, “Haven’t you lost weight too?”

“My thing is because… alas.” Xueying sighed, wanting to say something but then stopped, for a moment raised her head, stared at her and spoke, “Ah-Yan, my brother is a flirtatious and arrogant person with an inflated self-esteem, he used to have many female companions around him. But after meeting you, things have changed. He likes you very much – but the question is, are you also fond of him?”

“I…” Zhu Yan froze for a moment, unable to answer.

In any case, even though the marriage was a settled matter, she was unable to say a word against her heart.

“Could it be that you are still in love with that shark called something Yuan?” After all, she had been her best friend for many years, so Xueying quickly and presumptuously guessed the reason for her mumbling, and with an angered heart, a disdainful expression suddenly appeared in her eyes, “You’re the County Princess of the Red Clan, how could you be charmed by a filthy shark slave? What’s so good about that guy? Compared to him, my brother is like a god above the earth!”

“A god above the earth?” Zhu Yan became pale, “You’re speaking backwards, aren’t you?”

“You…!” Xueying’s face flushed and she was also about to lash out, but held back stiffly – the two of them glanced at each other across the table, both with unfriendly eyes.

Finally, Zhu Yan curbed her anger first and sighed, “It’s rare for the two of us to meet each other, so let’s not quarrel over these matters.”

Xueying, after all, was gentle by nature, and when she saw her best friend give in, she immediately eased her tone as well, murmuring in embarrassment, “I didn’t come here to argue with you today either.”

Zhu Yan let out a bitter laugh and looked at her best friend, “I’ve never seen you quarrel with anyone since childhood. You are quite defensive of this brother of yours.”

“Among the dozen siblings, he was the one who took the most care of me.” Xueying said softly, “Even after my birth mother died, he did not treat my household coldly, and often sent gifts whenever there was a festive day to pay his regards.”

Zhu Yan secretly sneered in her heart – that guy was a man with a honey tongue and had a meticulous mind, so he naturally did a good job with this bit of pretense. Xueying had grown up in a deep harem and was not familiar with the worldly affairs, so this small effort had bought her over. In terms of kinship, Bai Fenglin would have never placed Xueying above his younger sister, born from the same mother.

She burst out laughing, refraining from dismantling the situation to her friend, and simply smothered herself in a sip of tea.

After all the experiences she has gone through, she indeed has grown up a bit and has been able to hold back many of the words that otherwise would have escaped out of her lips.

Xueying pondered for a while, but she couldn’t help but say, “That little shark is nowhere to be found, so even if you feel bad, don’t show it in front of my brother – he’s a narrow-minded person. And don’t ever mention anything about that Zhi Yuan!”

“Is that so?” Zhu Yan frowned, her heart recoiling in disgust.

Perhaps it was because they hadn’t seen each other for so many years, but this time she and Xueying felt noticeably alienated from each other, unable to carry on even a single conversation, they no longer had the same intimacy they used to have when they were young. After all, the path towards adulthood was long and diverging, and at this point in time, the two childhood friends were no longer on the same trail – as it turned out, all relationships in this world have a way of withering and shifting, whether they are friends or lovers, they cannot escape the fluctuating tides of fate.

Zhu Yan secretly sighed in her heart, but just as she was thinking about this, the next moment, Xueying reached over and suddenly took hold of her wrist, tears falling from her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” She was startled and snapped to attention.

“Ah-Yan, what should I do? I feel… like I can’t hold on any longer.” Xueying choked back a sob, and her eyes turned red as she gazed at her, lowering her voice and not allowing bystanders to overhear, “Shi Yu… Shi Yu he hasn’t come back until now! I’m about to go crazy!”

Zhu Yan came back to her senses, “What? Is the Crown Prince still missing?”

Xueying nodded, dropping another string of tears and choking back a sob, “He’s been missing for two months now… the Imperial Guards had been searching all over Yecheng, but there’s still no sign of him at all, I’m scared he…”

“Don’t imagine nonsense!” Zhu Yan’s heart pounded, but her mouth comforted her friend, “He always likes to play around, it’s not like you don’t know him. You just have to wait a little longer.”

“But…” Xueying opened her mouth to speak, “I simply cannot wait.”

Zhu Yan was startled, “Why? Is your father forcing you?”

“I… I…” “Xueying just shook her head, lowered her weeping red eyes, fiddled blankly with the tea cup in her hand, and stopped talking.

After a long time, she spoke softly: “That day, we sneaked out and arrived at Yecheng. He insisted that he wanted to see what an unbroken shark tail looked like. I couldn’t resist him, so we went together on this trip by the sea… but just as we reached the Dragon Slaying Village near the Qunyu Square, the war erupted in front of us. He pulled me back and when we turned a corner, a sudden white flash of light appeared in front of me and I fainted.”

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