Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

31. You Are Not Wen Nianxuan

Translator: Flying Lines

“Retaking Lost Throne?” Su Jie doubted it as he had learned the melody from his mother. How come it seemed this old man had heard it before? Had they met when he was a little kid but forgot it? But Zhou Zaiyue was acting weird. He dropped right to his knees upon seeing him and kept using that honorific, being extremely humble. Why so? Su Jie was perplexed.

Before Su Jie could figure anything out, Zhou Zaiyue threw another bomb, “Your name isn’t Wen Nianxuan. Your family name is Su.”

These words of this old man sent Su Jie into utter shock as intention to kill involuntarily showed in his eyes. He came to Prince Rui’s Mansion with a malicious purpose while Zhou Zaiyue appeared in such a weird manner that threw him into a misty valley where unknown dangers lurked. And he instinctively got his guards up.

Probably having sensed the murderous air, Zhou Zaiyue, though with something unfathomable glinting in his eyes, didn’t become defensive and just stared at Su Jie with a clam look.

Su Jie suddenly sneered and uttered in great difficulty, with a trace of nostalgia coloring his tone, “My true name…is Su Jie.”

It had been a long time since he used that name or being called by this name. Now suddenly mentioning it, he was rendered in a moment of trance. The next moment, Su Jie beamed as he uttered some half-truth, “My name was Su Jie when I was little and later changed to Wen Nianxuan after being adopted by my parents surnamed Wen.”

He didn’t trust the old man and even if he did, he would never disclose his identity of being Prince Qin’s Man of Sacrifice. He owned Prince Qin his life and he was willing to devoted all his life to him. Therefore, he couldn’t let the old man know anything about his relation with Prince Qin, or he might put Prince Qin in an unfavorable situation. He must put his mission before his personal emotion.

Zhou Zaiyue, however, didn’t doubt his words because it was quite hard for him an old man to figure something like this. By no means would he know that Su Jie was here on Prince Qin’s order.

“Then where are Su Shuche and Jin Zheng? Has anything happened to them?” asked Zhou Zaiyue with a frown.

Su Jie was stunned, or to put it more exactly, terrified when hearing those two names. They were none other but his parents! Even Prince Qin didn’t know them but why did this old man know? Was this old man a friend of his parents? No, not likely, or Zhou Zaiyue wouldn’t show such respect to him.

At this point, Su Jie’s interest was piqued by what Zhou Zaiyue might know. It should have been a great pleasure to meet friends in strange places. But what Zhou Zaiyue brought him were confusions and surprises instead of the joy of reunion.

“Do you know my parents?”

“Su Shuche, Jin Zheng and I used to serve the same master. They were not your parents.”

Su Jie was a bit annoyed. He loved his parents dearly, though he barely remembered their faces after all these years, yet those two names were imprinted in his mind.

Now having heard Zhou Zaiyue claiming otherwise, Su Jie felt a bit irritated, “What are you driving at? Don’t tell me clichés like the household of your master was slaughtered and I was the only child left alive because Su Shuche and Jin Zheng had taken me away to escape the hunt of hitmen.”

“Yes, very close.” Zhou Zaiyue, as if not sensing the satire in Su Jie’s words, nodded, looking serious.

Su Jie sneered, his face sullen, and pointed at the door, saying in a stern voice, “Now get out. I’m not interest in your nonsense. I am the son of Su Shuche, and will always be.”

“That is not something you can decide. Please calm down and hear me out,” Zhou Zaiyue said and felt quite content to see that Su Jie had grown into such a grateful and responsible youth. Though he was a bit stubborn and refused to accept the fact, he still struck Zhou Zaiyue as a man of good character. He could even see his master in the boy.

In addition, Su Jie had been regarding Su Shuche and Jin Zheng as his parents since the very beginning. It was only natural that he would find it hard to accept such astonishing fact.