Kiyomi Tsuki and His Fox

Chapter 208

“When my maternal grandfather was alive, Uncle He was our family’s steward. After my maternal grandfather passed away, the family property was seized by Li Tieying, and Uncle He was dismissed from his position as steward. Because my maternal grandfather had been kind to Uncle He, Uncle He did not leave and stayed to secretly take care of my late mother and my uncle.”

Kiyomi Tsuki gulped down a mouthful of tea.

"Coincidentally, Aunt He was also pregnant. Five days before my mother gave birth to me, Aunt He gave birth to a son. Uncle He bribed the midwife and, after my mother gave birth to me, swapped me with his child. For safety, he also concealed my gender, allowing me to live as a girl. Sure enough, as soon as Li Tieying received the news that my mother had given birth to a boy, he immediately ordered someone to take the child away. But no one knows why he didn't kill the child. Instead, he sent the child away to fend for himself. My mother was very sad. Not long after, she pretended to miss her son and took me back from Uncle He. Li Tieying probably also felt indebted to my mother, and since I was a girl, he didn't suspect anything and let my mother keep me."

"Does this feel like a case of 'the prince being switched at birth'? May I ask a question while I'm at it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Are you Li Tieying's son, or the son of that poor scholar?"

Li Lin remained silent.

Kiyomi Tsuki hurriedly said, "Never mind, never mind."

Li Lin said bitterly, "My late mother said she didn't know either."

Upon hearing this, Qingjian Yue's mood instantly plummeted, as if a basket of rotten cabbage leaves had been smashed against it. After a long pause, to distract herself, Qingjian Yue asked, "Then, is Uncle He's son still alive?"

“Of course he’s still alive.” Li Ying couldn’t help but laugh. “Has the young master forgotten Li Lin, whom you made a fool of in front of everyone?”

Qing Jian Yue's mouth dropped open. "You mean, you mean, your double? Wait, wait, I'm a little confused. Uncle He's son is your double, and you're a girl. You're a grown man, pretending to be a girl?" Qing Jian Yue tilted her head to look at him. "With your looks? You're not ugly, but if you're pretending to be a woman, I'm afraid it'll be obvious at a glance, right?"

Li Lin didn't speak, only smiled expressionlessly. Suddenly, he turned his back and peeled off a layer of human skin from his face. When he turned back, Qing Jian Yue jumped in fright, so suddenly that he knocked over the tea on the table, causing the white fox to jump up as well. Qing Jian Yue looked as if she had encountered a ghost, pointing directly at Li Lin, her body trembling violently, as if she had contracted a terrible illness and was about to die.

The white fox jumped up excitedly, exclaiming, "Oh my, beauty!"

"Does the young master still remember me?"

"Are you that? That? That woman?"

Memories flooded into Kiyomi Tsuki's mind like a tidal wave. Three years ago, she recklessly barged into the headquarters of the Sky Eagle Sect, only to fall into Luo Buqun's trap. Dragging her heavily injured body, she stumbled into a woman's boudoir like a headless fly.

She emerged silently from behind the fluttering gauze curtains. Without a doubt, she was the most beautiful woman Kiyomi had ever seen. In the lamplight, her skin was as translucent as snow, her features as if sculpted by a master craftsman, perfect as if she had stepped out of a painting. Yet, she was as cold as if she came from the frigid Tian Shan Mountains, her eyes gleaming with an icy light that had never melted. She was proud, filled with a sacred and inviolable nobility; she was lonely, radiating an aura of solitude; she was dark, for Kiyomi saw in her terrifying despair and death, so much so that he always believed that he had seen the goddess of the night that night.

“You burst into my room covered in blood, your eyes filled with hatred and anger. You are clearly a woman, yet while you were unconscious, you kept saying, ‘I am a man.’ Looking at you in your despair and pain, it was like looking at myself.”

Tears of sorrow fell like rain as Kiyoshi Tsuki said in a trembling voice, "So, you said you would help me, that you would help me take revenge and destroy the Sky Eagle Sect."

That night, my mother left me.

"You must be in a lot of pain?"

"No, my heart is filled with the same anger and hatred as yours."

"But how did you do that?"

“I know Li Tieying too well. His greed is insatiable, even a mountain of gold couldn't satisfy him. After seizing my late mother's fortune, although he expanded it considerably over the past decade with Luo Buqun's help, he was still not satisfied. Tianlong Fortress was too powerful for him to touch; Kang Boying, though young, was resourceful and had Tianlong Fortress backing him, so he couldn't touch him either. Therefore, he set his sights on the weak Lu Family Fortress. Just then, the Xu Lan incident happened, and I changed back into men's clothing and confessed everything to Li Tieying. To gain his trust, I volunteered to impersonate Xu Lan and infiltrate Baishi Manor. Although Li Tieying was skeptical, he felt it would be a waste not to use someone as talented as me. So, he agreed.”

"You wanted to use Lu Family Fortress to destroy the Eagle Sect, but how could Lu Family Fortress possibly obey you for no reason? That's why the disaster happened three years ago."

"Yes, I want to incite hatred between the Lu Family Fortress and the Sky Eagle Sect. On the one hand, it's to gain Li Tieying's trust, and on the other hand, it's to warn the Lu Family Fortress and Lu Qingcheng. Because at that time, Lu Qingcheng was no match for Li Tieying at all."

"Was it you who secretly sent someone to escort me to Master Lu's place in Yunnan?"

"I told you, I would help you destroy the Sky Eagle Cult and avenge you. The condition is that you help me find what I want."

"If you wanted to kill Li Tieying and destroy the Sky Eagle Sect, you have already achieved your goal. If you wanted Li Ying dead, that would be easy. If you wanted to get back the family property that your mother had been embezzled, I believe that Master Kang, Young Master Long, and Qingcheng are all reasonable people."

"Do you remember what you said in my room that night?"

"If I can walk out of that house alive, I will kill every single member of the Sky Eagle Cult, not one of them."

"Yes, I felt the same way you did back then."

Kiyomi Tsuki and Li Lin locked eyes.

"Are you happy?" Li Lin asked.

"ah?"

Kiyomi Tsuki was taken aback.

"Are you happy?" Li Lin asked again.

After a moment of stunned silence, Kiyomi Tsuki suddenly understood something, and her eyes shone with a crystal-clear light.

Are you doing well?

Li Lin asked the third question, then stopped and silently looked at him.

"I am unhappy, my heart is filled with boundless hatred; I am not joyful, my heart is filled with a storm of anger." Tears of sorrow blurred his vision. "I am not living well at all, because I have lost myself. I don't know if I should be a man or a woman?"

Li Lin asked softly, "Are you happy now?"

"Yes, I am very happy because I no longer have hatred in my heart."

Are you happy right now?

"Yes, I am happy, and I have calmed my anger."

Are you doing well?

"Yes, I'm living well. I've found myself. I'm a woman."

"Thank you, I found what I was looking for."

"congratulations."