Двойной бокс-сет

Глава 74

Upon seeing Xue Weiji unharmed, Wanlan breathed a sigh of relief. She lifted her weak leg to step over the threshold, but her leg wasn't raised high enough and her toes hooked on the threshold. As she was about to enter the house, she was stopped and stumbled forward. "Wanlan!"

Zhao Defang rushed over with a heart pounding in his chest, barely catching her as she was about to fall to the ground. Before he could even catch his breath, he was shocked by her high fever and his face turned pale on the spot.

You have a fever!

Yes, she has a fever. I hope Zehua won't scold her at this time.

Wanlan raised a faint smile, leaning weakly against Zhao Defang's chest as she looked at the man who stood motionless with his head half-lowered. She wanted to speak loudly to him, but the words that came out were just a light whisper:

"Young Master Xue, are you alright?"

The other person remained silent. Wanlan frowned, gripping Zhao Defang's clothes tightly with both hands to steady herself. She then took a step, wanting to get closer to the man to see what he was looking at, but the man holding her wouldn't allow it.

"Wanlan, we can talk about this another day. You need a doctor and rest now." Without waiting for a reply, Zhao Defang picked her up and carried her out, while calling out, "Lan Wu, take Young Master Xue down to rest. Lan Wen, quickly go and fetch a doctor. Xuan'er, stand guard at the door. If you see Lord Xue arrive, take him to see Young Master Xue. Whether he stays or goes is entirely up to Lord Xue."

He was already carrying his wife, who looked extremely unwell, in his arms as they hurriedly headed towards Tongxin Garden.

Chapter Seventy-Eight

I first learned about my origins the day after my younger sister turned one month old.

He was five years old that year.

He still remembered the full moon celebration the day before. The house was very lively. His mother brought many wives of high-ranking officials to visit his sister. Later, she invited them to go out to watch the show and have a banquet. He volunteered to stay and accompany his sister.

When his younger sister was born, she was quite ugly, all red and wrinkled like an old man. He decided to hate her at first sight because his father was very excited that day. He overheard the servants whispering that his father was not happy when he was born and had been silent for several days, as if he did not welcome him. This made him even more determined to hate the younger sister who made his father happy.

The reason he stayed that day was actually because he mischievously wanted to play a trick on his younger sister. But he never expected that the little baby who was all red and swollen a month ago would grow up to be as beautiful as a porcelain doll!

He stared in astonishment at the little girl sleeping soundly in her crib. Her delicate, fair face made him unable to resist reaching out and touching it. The smooth, slippery feeling made him smile, and in an instant, he overturned his previous feelings and decided to like this little sister!

However, the day after he decided to fall in love with his sister, he saw his father quietly moving towards the back door in the backyard. Out of curiosity, he carefully followed him and found that his father was talking to a young woman at the back door. The woman had a pair of slender and beautiful eyes, just like his. He watched as the woman indifferently stretched out her hand to his father, while his father silently placed a small gray bag in the woman's hand, said something in a low voice, and the woman chuckled and turned to leave.

Before he could turn around and leave, his father saw him.

In that instant, he saw panic and astonishment in his father's eyes, probably because he hadn't expected him to be hiding behind him. Although that strange look disappeared in a moment, he was absolutely certain he hadn't misjudged him.

Then that day, his father pulled him to sit on the stone bench by the well in the backyard and told him everything.

It turned out that the woman who had just left was his biological mother. She wanted to abandon the child because of an unmarried affair, but her father found out and brought her back. Unexpectedly, his mother started having labor pains that night and gave birth to a stillborn baby two hours later. In shock and grief, his father immediately conspired with the midwife to take the baby back as his mother's child, while his father, heartbroken, secretly buried the stillborn baby.

To be honest, when he finally learned about his background, he didn't feel anything. He was just curious about the woman who had just appeared, so he asked his father what she had taken.

His father told him that it was silver.

"What amount of silver?" he asked his father.

After a long sigh, the father said, "Your mother only recently learned about you and that you have become the young master of the Prime Minister's mansion. She used this to blackmail her into paying her money, as if she had sold the child."

He simply found it unbelievable.

The father said that his arrival was a blessing to them, and it didn't matter whether he was their biological son or not. The father also said that the mother must never know about this, otherwise she would not be able to bear it.

From that day on, his actions and words changed. He often thought that he was not his father's biological child, and that his father's only child was his sister, the sister he had disliked for a month. He felt ashamed, so he treated his sister very well. Whatever his sister wanted, he would do everything he could to get it for her.

He decided that, in order to repay his parents for raising him, he must protect his sister's happiness!

He first realized that his feelings for his sister went beyond sibling affection when he was ten years old and she was five.

That spring, the little boy next door, who often played with them, picked a bunch of small yellow flowers from outside and gave them to his sister, saying that he would marry her when he grew up. He was furious and beat the boy so badly that his nose bled and he ran home crying.

When he turned around to look at his sister, he found that she had fainted on the ground!

Half an hour later, he learned that his sister had congenital asthma, which had gone undetected before because everyone had been very protective of her. Today, the pollen from that bunch of small yellow flowers had caused her to suddenly fall ill and faint.

From that day on, the mother forbade her younger sister from going out freely, because the doctor said that pollen or animal hair could cause her to have allergies and fall ill. Not only that, the younger sister could no longer run and jump freely, and could not be exposed to any stimulation, etc.

That year, he knelt by his sister's bedside, raised his hand, and swore that he would protect her for the rest of his life and prevent her from ever having another chance to fall ill.

But he broke his promise.

When his sister was ten and he was fifteen, he injured the boy his sister had her first crush on, an incident that marked the beginning of their growing estrangement.

The incident occurred because his younger sister excitedly ran up to him and said she had fallen for a boy, but he firmly forbade her from liking anyone else. His sister shouted in disbelief, "Why?" Because his father had asked him to keep it a secret, he could not reveal his true parentage. In a fit of rage, he went and beat the boy his sister liked half to death, and warned him not to appear near the Xue residence or in front of his sister.

That year, my sister fell ill for the second time, and he made her angry.

His father reprimanded him for his impulsiveness, and his mother blamed him for hurting his sister. He didn't say a word, but just stood by his sister's bedside all night. Then, early the next morning, he packed his bags and left the home he had lived in for fifteen years.

It wasn't out of spite or impulsiveness; he figured out a lot of things that night.

He knew perfectly well that his feelings for his sister were not innocent, but he would always be the young master of the Xue family, and his sister would always be the young lady of the Xue family. They could only be brother and sister. If he didn't let himself get out of this situation, he would sink deeper and deeper into it.

After wandering the martial arts world for five years, his personality changed drastically.

Having shed the impulsiveness and naivety of his youth, he has gained composure and a cynical attitude. On average, he returns to the capital once a year, just to secretly catch a glimpse of his increasingly beautiful younger sister. However, because he is afraid to face her, he dares not stay at home, so his friends drag him to brothels to spend the night.

This seemed to be the sharp blade that shattered all illusions. Every year after that, during the few days he returned to the capital, he would stay in brothels every night, hastily meet his parents, and then hurriedly leave with his friends without ever lingering for a moment. He also dared not meet his sister until he discovered that his sister had someone else in her heart. He suddenly woke up from his drunken stupor, thinking that he could forget her, and suddenly panicked. Was his sister going to belong to another man?

Upon investigating the man, he was horrified to discover that not only was the man already married, but he also had someone else in his heart. The woman he was infatuated with was none other than his sister's close friend, Princess Deqing! And for this, he was willing to exploit his sister's feelings!

He tried to stop it, but it was too late.

His younger sister left home without permission for that man, dragging her ailing body south to Junzhou. He wanted to show himself to stop her, but he was afraid of facing her disgust. Later, due to his inadequate protection, his sister fell ill again in Junzhou. When her father brought her back to the capital, she was already too weak to breathe.

He was furious and vowed to take revenge on the man who dared to take advantage of his sister. However, his sister asked her father to take her to Luoyang to recuperate less than five days after she regained consciousness.

He knew that was his sister's excuse; she still wanted to be with that man.