Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

39. Weak Moments

Translator: Flying Lines

Unknowingly, tears began to stream down Su Jie’s cheeks. He was but a boy of eighteen years old, an age supposed to laugh and enjoy life to its full. But all these years he had been tortured by guilt, not from killings as an assassin but from killing his childhood playmates.

“There there, just cry, then you’ll feel better.” Zhou Zaiyue stood up, spreading his arms to hug the vulnerable boy before him. Su Jie, without hesitation, ran into the old man’s embrace, feeling his arms so strong and soothing with the power to erase all the sadness and sorrow.

He felt love, care and trust, which he never had, in the old man’s arms, where he let his guard and disguise down and cried like a little kid.

He didn’t even shed a tear when Su Shuche and Jin Zheng died, nor when he killed his playmates or when the Death Gu Poison caused unbearable pain, because for years, nobody cared. But now in the arms of the kind old man, he cried his heart out, as if to shed all the tears he had been holding back for years.

Not until quite a moment later did Su Jie manage to regain calmness. Now looking at Zhou Zaiyue, he felt a bit embarrassed.

Zhou Zaiyue was wearing an amicable smile, appearing gentle and comforting like the serene sky after clouds dispersed.

“The Guqin Master lied to me,” Su Mo said after a moment of silence, his voice bland without any emotion coloring his tone, and his face still wet with tears but with a look unusually calm.

“Prince Qin…is not my benefactor.” Su Jie uttered the sentence with great difficulty, his throat tight, his fists clenched and his heart wrenching in pain.

Su Jie was never a fool who had long doubted the cause of the famine in his hometown, yet he had been fooling himself not to think about it so that Prince Qin was still his benefactor, and that he could still pledge his misplaced loyalty.

Now truth revealed, he could no longer pretend like nothing had happened. Everything changed.

Su Jie evaded Zhou Zaiyue’s eyes and said in a low voice, “I have to find the evidence. If Guqin Master killed my parents, then we’re sworn enemies.”

Zhou Zaiyue was worried. What he feared most was that Su Jie rushed to them in anger and got himself exposed. That Death Gu Poison was troublesome too. He exhaled deeply to calm himself before saying, “I’ll have my men investigate the truth about what happened in the village you stayed. But I’m afraid that won’t be an easy task. It’s been too long and evidence would be hard to gather. Before we get anything solid, you should stay put. That Death Gu Worm could kill you at any moment.”

“I get it.” Su Jie knew what was the right thing to do. He wouldn’t rush to question the Guqin Master.

“And…” Su Jie, with a somewhat embarrassed look, said after taking a deep breath, “Thanks for your kindness and guidance, I am deeply indebted to you.” While speaking, he even bowed respectfully to the old man to show his heartfelt gratitude.

Zhou Zaiyue didn’t say anything like the disparity of their identity and accepted it with great casualness.

“I’ll find a way to rid of the Death Gu Poison in you. But it may take quite some time…And I’ll inform Ju Liandao that I found you.” [Note: Ju Liandao means the giant Scythe]

Su Jie nodded but then said somewhat hesitantly, “I might not be worthy of that throne you mentioned…”

“No worries. Ju Liandao and I will help you. Only you’re worthy of it.” Hearing Su Jie admit his true identity, Zhou Zaiyue was overjoyed. “Only you are entitled to claim the throne.”