After deceiving the villain, I was forced to love him.

Chapter 234 Snow and Moonlight II

"Plus..."

"Please speak freely, young master."

"Do you still remember Dr. Zhao's diagnosis of you six years ago, young lady?"

"Remember"

"Actually, there is another diagnosis that I haven't told you about."

"What?" Actually, she probably already guessed it even without being told.

"The five internal organs are congested, and the seven emotions penetrate to the bone."

"..." Bai Li Ce remained silent.

Xi Ze wasn't really determined to save people to the very end back then; he just felt that women had it tough in this world.

Especially for someone as free-spirited as her, to be driven to suicide by drowning, she must have endured countless terrible things.

So he doesn't intend to comfort her now, nor does he want to use the guise of "concern" to pry into her past that she doesn't want to remember.

He simply poured a cup of tea and placed it gently yet firmly in front of her, saying, "Although I poured this tea, I didn't ask you if you were thirsty, if you liked tea, or what kind of tea you wanted before I poured it. So you can choose not to drink it."

"You don't need to be grateful for someone giving you a cup of tea."

"And don't think that you have no other choice but this cup of tea."

“But what if someone insists I drink this tea?” Bai Lize’s eyes reddened slightly.

"That's that person's fault too."

"Sages face no dead ends, and wise men are free from difficulties."

"Whether you were powerless to resist in the past or will have no choice in the future, you must remember that it was not your fault."

"..." Bai Li Ce looked at Xi Ze and suddenly felt much relieved.

It's like that stone that's been weighing on my heart for so long has finally disappeared.

Perhaps this is not a story within a story, but his very real life.

He was reborn from the mire, but will live on in disgrace, and may die a horrific death.

This should have been a very sad and painful thing.

But he doesn't seem to be like that now.

So for the first time, she tried to confide in Xi Ze as a real person, "I think..."

"It's because I forgot some very bad things that I had to remember."

"I was terrified, instinctively rejecting it, but reason told me I needed to remember it quickly so I could..."

Seeing that she paused thoughtfully, Xi Ze immediately guessed, "Can't you say what comes next?"

Bai Li Ce thought for a moment... then nodded honestly, and then shook his head.

"I do not know either."

"Then don't say it." He got up and walked to the zither table to the side, casually and freely plucking a few strings, but the tune was out of tune.

"As for the things you've forgotten, since subconsciously you find them terrifying."

"Then how about..."

Looking at Baili Ce's bewildered face, Xi Ze smiled and said, "Taking a break~"

Bai Li Ce was taken aback... then suddenly understood, "Absolutely right."

After that, she never dwelled on those unpleasant but important memories again. As Xi Ze said, if she couldn't remember them, she wouldn't think about them for the time being.

Some things, when the time is right, you'll naturally know how to choose.

"What if you can't remember?" she asked curiously after dinner.

"Then..." Seeing the expectation in her eyes, Baili Ce teased her deliberately, "I'll let you herd cattle~"

"You brat!" The beautiful woman stomped her foot angrily, then looked at Xi Ze beside her. "Young Master, look at her!"

Xi Ze ate without looking up, saying, "I'm not getting involved in your business."

The beauty immediately glared at her angrily, crossed her arms, turned her head to one side, and her face clearly said, "If you don't apologize to me, I'm not done with you today."

"Okay, okay, my beautiful lady," Bai Li Ce said, picking up a vegetable ball for her with the chopsticks he used to serve the food. "It was my fault, please forgive me~"

The pride of the evening tea lasted less than five breaths... then the clouds parted and the sun shone through, "Hmph, that's more like it."

Taking a bite of the meatball, "And you?"

"..." Bai Li Ce was also surprised that she would ask that question.

Xi Ze simply picked up a large chicken leg and stuffed it into her mouth, saying, "Eat yours."

......

As the years went by, under the tutelage of his master, "Master Guai," Wancha's martial arts skills became increasingly proficient. He was adept at all kinds of weapons, including swords, spears, and halberds, and repeatedly achieved great feats in conquering cities and territories.

This not only dispelled the rumors that "she got her current status because she slept with the regent."

She became the only great general in this time and space, giving many women other options besides marriage, and ensuring that the city she guarded had not been invaded by foreign enemies for nearly ten years.

Xi Ze remains a powerful, deceitful, and infamous regent.

He was either constantly being targeted by those who wanted to get rid of him but couldn't, or he was constantly being verbally abused by remonstrating officials.

Bai Li Ce, fearing he would get sick from being idle, took the exam and became a farm official.

While teaching poor people to read and write, he also diligently studied, researched, and taught farming, and unknowingly spent ten years with the two of them.

During this period, they also sponsored many orphans without parents.

However, none of the three wanted to affect the children's future because of themselves, so they raised them as adults in the name of Liu Guang's younger brother and sister.

In the eleventh year, the emperor who had been personally helped to the throne by Xi Ze and who had always tried to sideline Xi Ze, but was ultimately sidelined by him, finally died with resentment after a serious illness.

Since the emperor had not left any heirs, after much deliberation, Xi Ze selected a boy from among the children they sponsored, secretly arranged for him to become a member of the imperial family, and then devised a plan to have other ministers put him on the throne.

In the thirteenth year, the young man gradually revealed his extraordinary political talent and skills, managing political affairs in an orderly manner, and seizing some military power by starting with Xi Ze's confidants.

In the fourteenth year, Wan Cha returned to the capital in great triumph. However, due to a relapse of his old injuries, he returned to his residence to recuperate, where Baili Ce and Xi Ze stayed by his side day and night.

She didn't want to stay cooped up in the mansion all day, so the two of them put aside all their affairs and accompanied her to travel all over the beautiful country... In the end, they buried her in the place she chose.

In the fifteenth year, Xi Ze returned power to the emperor, the country was at peace, and the borders were safe.

After retiring from officialdom, Baili Ce spent his days joking around with Liu Guang's younger siblings, eating and drinking for free at Xi Ze's house, being picky and choosy, and occasionally complaining that his zither playing had been unpleasant for over a decade.

In the sixteenth year, Xi Ze used his last bit of power to send away all his confidants, including Liu Guang's younger brother and sister, erasing all traces of them.

He went to see the evening tea with Baili Ce one last time, buried his zither there, and then returned to his residence to live out his retirement.

From fishing and teasing cats, to arguing and bickering with some old men and women who didn't know his identity, and imitating Bai Li Ce's sarcastic remarks to others.

As if he had exhausted all his strength, he finally spent more than half a year living this stable but meaningless, yet very interesting life.

Although he never won an argument.

"I beg you, next time we argue, could you please not start by saying 'hello'?" After serving tea and snacks and sitting around the stove, Bai Li Ce had reminded him eight hundred times already.

It's one thing to greet someone with "hello" when you start an argument, but to bow while cursing their ancestors is another.

Xi Ze, however, remained as gentle and composed as ever, saying, "I'm used to it..."

Lying in the rocking chair with his eyes closed, listening to the soft, gentle sound of snow, enjoying the leisurely time, he didn't think there was anything wrong with saying sorry while arguing.

But as he held the hot water bottle she had placed in his hand, Xi Ze suddenly remembered things from his childhood.

Back then, his family would sit around the stove like this, with the elders chatting casually and him playing and joking with his younger siblings.

When their mother felt particularly playful, she would even get them to build a snowman.

He was older and always felt that he should set an example in everything he did, and he was often the most enthusiastic about building snowmen.

But his younger sister always liked to do the opposite of what he did. Even in prison, when people wanted to humiliate him, she was always the first to rush in...

"Is it time?" Xi Ze opened his eyes, not daring to think any further.

Bai Lizhe paused for a moment... then continued playing with the snowflakes, "I thought you were asleep."

"I slept for a while." I mimicking Baili Ce, I reached out to catch the falling snowflakes. Each snowflake melted in my palm in no time, yet each one was unique and varied in shape.

Therefore, even if it is fleeting, it is still an unparalleled beauty.

"But how did you know?" She hadn't said anything.

"You've been much quieter these days."

I caught the prettiest snowflake with a leaf and gave it to him. "I never thought I'd be able to stay here for so long."

"So you remembered it a long time ago?" Seeing the exquisite and intricate patterns on the snowflakes, Xi Ze immediately thought of the phrase "a place of outstanding natural beauty".

But he carefully placed the withered leaf back into the snow, watching it blend into the snow until he couldn't tell which leaf it was.

“…I guess so.” After thinking for a while, Baili Ce tightened the blanket covering his legs with a wistful expression.

She didn't want to say goodbye, so she could only talk about herself: "Perhaps it's not that I can't remember, it's just that deep down I've never dared to face it."

She simply couldn't believe that she had lived such a terrible life at one point.

"So you prefer to believe that this is the real place."

"I've stayed here for so long not because you've trapped me, but because I've trapped myself."

"Therefore, you really don't need to feel that I stayed because of you."

"But you have to leave, right?"

"..." Bai Li Ce did not answer.

Xi Ze got up and walked into the snow, deliberately making a crunching sound as he stepped on it, just like when his little sister would deliberately ruin his snowman when he was a child.

He doesn't like parting either.

But he couldn't stay trapped in that dream filled with the wails of blood relatives forever.

Similarly, he cannot allow another soul to remain trapped here forever.

"Girl" Xi Ze stopped walking in the snow.

"I am here"

Snowflakes drifted down on him, making the small courtyard seem utterly colorless, just as the book says: "Even if jade is broken, its whiteness remains; even if bamboo is burned, its integrity remains."

He was not defeated, he did not bend his spine, and he will always be that spotless young master.

“We have known each other for over twenty years and spent sixteen years together. You and Wancha are like blood relatives to me.”

"I know."

"But I never asked your name."

"..." Baili Ce lowered his eyes slightly, feeling very guilty.

Because of this, Wancha had argued with her several times.

If it weren't for Xi Ze mediating, and the fact that as time went on, "girl" became her code name, things would have been really difficult.

"I'm not telling you this to make things difficult for you, I just want to tell you that a name and origin never mean anything."

As for evening tea...

Xi Ze smiled slightly, his smile bright and clear. "She often complains to me that it's all your fault for showering her with sweet words for eighteen lifetimes, making her look down on everyone else."

"You're listening to her nonsense!" Baili Ce immediately retorted, "She loves listening to it!"

Hmph, women~

She doesn't know who the great beauty is?

"Then why have you never praised me?"

"You're so good-looking, my limited vocabulary can't even begin to describe a tenth of your handsomeness." Honest advice is hard to swallow, so it's better to ignore it.

Therefore, she only ever speaks sweet words.

Xi Ze shook his head with a smile, his face showing utter helplessness, but inwardly he was secretly pleased, "You really are..."

She took a deep breath, and her smile gradually faded. "I am destined to be childless and die a tragic death, but I don't want any of you to see what I look like after I die."

"Do you... understand?"

"..." Meeting his clear, unfathomable eyes, Baili Ce almost opened his mouth, but his emotions were too complicated to speak...

The young emperor has grown powerful; from any perspective, Xi Ze must die.

She couldn't change the outcome, but she didn't want Xi Ze's body to be left unburied after his death.

But if it's his own will... He looked at him and gave a faint smile.

He also let go of the knot in his heart that he had been carrying for the past sixteen years.

"it is good"

"Thank you," Xi Ze said, bowing deeply with his sleeves clasped. He then bowed three more times, putting all the sincerity of his life into this gesture.

Looking up, she was no longer in the courtyard.

That's fine.

She would not fawn over him because of his wealth and status.

He never fawned over him because of his high position and power, but secretly despised his ruthlessness and filth.

Even more fortunately—

Unlike Wan Cha and Liu Guang, she did not witness his downfall and wretched state.

So she shouldn't stay here.

Just like the snow and moonlight that will never change no matter how many times the world changes, they should always remain just snow and moonlight.

......