Fu Yanxi’s whole head was in a daze. After listening to this sentence, he opened his mouth and didn’t utter a syllable. He really never felt this so-called undercurrent surging, he just felt that everything was normal. Why did it become like that this morning?

He remembered what nonsense he had said yesterday and felt that his mind was in a mess. He was really just talking casually. Why did… everything come true this morning?

He was at a loss, and he didn’t know where to put his hands and feet. He only looked at Fu Yanran, who seemed to look as if nothing had happened, as if he was looking for the backbone.

“General Zhongyong is loyal to his master and eradicated treachery. This prince was distraught when he heard of the death of his father emperor, but the country cannot stay without a monarch even for a day. So I ask General Zhongyong to temporarily take the emperor’s place in order to revive the dynasty.”

Fu Yanran was very calm, he was even a little indifferent, as if he was walking through an emotionless script.

He actually knew all this a long time ago, and even took the initiative to contact Xie Ke.

Fu Yanran was different from other princes. He climbed up from the lowest point and had to be careful everywhere, for fear of falling back into the abyss again from a high place. In fact, he knew very well in his heart that although Emperor Qingyuan had some intentions, his chances of becoming emperor smoothly were very small.

Not to mention the Crown Prince and the Third Prince, even if they were stopped by the emperor, Fu Yanran had no background. What would he rely on to stand up at that time?

Back then, Emperor Qingyuan could make a comeback because the Xue and Lin families relaxed their vigilance, because he was the only imperial bloodline left to choose from and because Emperor Qingyuan indeed was very capable and very lucky. At that time, he met people like Xie Lin, who had great potential. But Fu Yanran looked at himself and felt that he basically didn’t have this possibility.

He couldn’t take risks, he didn’t want to take risks and let himself fall into the abyss again.

Under this mentality, Fu Yanran’s mind was sharper than others’, and he could see that something wasn’t right with Xie Ke.

But it was not that easy to rebel. Just like the Xue and Lin families a few decades ago, even though they had designed to kill the emperor, they still didn’t dare to change the dynasty. Rebellion is a crime of high treason; if you choose wrong words and a wrong name, you will be blamed by the world.

Even though the Xie family was loved by the people, Emperor Qingyuan wasn’t a perverse person and his ability to govern the country was indeed not bad. In this case, the rebellion on the surface wouldn’t work.

The current situation was designed a long time ago; the mantis stalked the cicada unaware of the oriole behind its back. It was the Xue and Lin families who had to carry the blame for the rebellion. Emperor Qingyuan was killed by them. The Xie family wasn’t at fault at all.

But the country cannot stay without a monarch for a day; this was Fu Yanran’s bargaining chip.

It was better to be the puppet emperor of the Xie family than to fall into the abyss and die without a whole body. The puppet emperor was also the emperor; at least he could let his mother consort and Ah Ye live a good life and protect the people he wanted to protect.

Compared with the hunting ground, the capital was calm. It wasn’t until last night that there was a sudden fire in Liuli Palace. The guards came when they heard the news, but the fire spread and could no longer be controlled. Only in the morning was the fire extinguished, and the entire Liuli Palace burned to a ruin.

It was said that the Imperial Noble Consort Yun was lying in her bedchamber because of her illness and didn’t escape. It was said that Wang Zhao was also in the palace because of his concern for his mother. Both mother and son perished in the fire. There were no ashes left.

But soon, this didn’t matter.

Even the emperor was dead, so who cared about a consort?

The gathering of the four countries was originally a happy event, and no one expected that the ending would be like this. But when something happened, it had to be resolved.

Xie Lin moved. He had done all these things and except for a little excitement at the beginning, when he saw Fu Yanran, he was already very calm.

He was not young either, a few years older than Emperor Qingyuan. He was covered in battle wounds. He also knew that his body would not last long.

He was originally encouraged by Xie Ke. He also felt that in his life, he had to get rid of the shackles of the “one person” from “under one person and above ten thousand people”, and to taste the taste of truly reaching the top. Now that he had done it, he could be regarded as having no regrets in this life.

These things would be handed over to Xie Ke sooner or later. After all, he was young and his future achievements would never be worse than Xie Lin’s own. But… where did this guy go?

Obviously it was all planned by Xie Ke behind the scenes; how could he disappear when these things happened?

Never mind the dislocation of his arm, it was just a lie to the emperor, a pretext. Xie Lin didn’t believe it. Xie Ke had some kind of magic about him. He could survive any injury. He was someone who came from the Gate of the Ghosts, how could he care about such a little injury as a dislocated arm?

But Xie Lin searched everywhere and didn’t find Xie Ke.

When he ran into Du Yin, Xie Lin stopped Xie Ke’s confidant and asked, “Where is Xie Ke?”

The corner of Du Yin’s mouth twitched, and he looked at the sky speechlessly.

What do you mean?

Xie Lin followed him to look at the sky, and after a while, he understood.

“It’s Wang Zhao again,” he sighed, “I’m about to wonder if he’s actually doing all this for Fu Zhiyu. What’s the hurry? Now that it’s like this, can Wang Zhao still run away?”

Du Yin thought for a moment and said, “That’s not necessarily true.”

Xie Ke’s heart was no longer on this before the melee. He originally wanted to achieve all this to protect Zhiyu. Now that Fu Zhiyu himself was a problem, Xie Ke couldn’t possibly put his heart and soul into these things.

The system came back in the afternoon. At that time, there was a sound of killing outside the tent, but Xie Ke’s hands and feet were cold because of the system’s words.

“I was actually checking Fu Zhiyu a long time ago, but I didn’t have a clue. This time I changed my approach,” the 027 system said. “I went to other systems and asked them if they had heard of any abnormal data. Many systems didn’t dare to talk to me because of the orders of the Lord God, but there is a new system that I have helped. It secretly told me that there used to be a person living in the Lord God’s space. It was an abnormal data of the ancient world. The Lord God couldn’t delete him, so he stayed there for a long time and often talked to the Lord God and other systems.”

Xie Ke didn’t speak, and the 027 system could feel him trembling all over.

“That data is most likely Fu Zhiyu,” the system concluded. “I have always wondered why he can come back with his memory after the reboot of the world. According to the rules of the Lord God’s bug deletion, even if he came back, at most it would be new data that came back with the world.”

“Then it wouldn’t be Zhiyu,” Xie Ke suddenly added at this moment, “If it was new data, it should be the Fu Zhiyu from the original text. I… sometimes I hope he forgets those bad things, and sometimes I’m even more glad that he remembers.”

The system was silent for a long time, and said, “Regardless of whether that abnormal data is Fu Zhiyu or not, you should go to him. Make everything clear. He is the party concerned. There is no doubt that he was hurt because of this matter. No matter what his attitude is after knowing the result, you shouldn’t keep it from him. Xie Ke, respect is not something you just talk about.”

Xie Ke’s fingers twitched and he didn’t answer.

“It’s your choice,” the system let out a rare sigh, “This is between the two of you, I won’t say anything.”

Xie Ke knew in his heart that he couldn’t let himself think about this for too long.

Zhiyu was leaving, he could more or less guess it.

It was the choice Zhiyu had made as soon as he came back; he wouldn’t stay in the capital for much longer. Xie Ke didn’t plan to stay in the capital either. Naturally, he would go wherever Zhiyu went, and no matter where he went, he had to protect Zhiyu. Xie Ke’s ability to protect him, after all, was different from his own ability. Zhiyu could not afford to do anything else to protect himself but to improvise.  

Now that Zhiyu was leaving, it was not that Xie Ke couldn’t stop him, but what was the point of stopping him? What was the point of following him? Zhiyu was still indifferent and wouldn’t change in the slightest because of his behaviour.

Zhiyu’s words, paraphrased by Shen Yang, somewhat made Xie Ke understand why he had been working hard but made no progress at all.

“The past between Zhiyu and me was too painful,” he said. “I… always thought that it was because I didn’t show enough love for him before that I made him so disappointed and uncomfortable, but it was not so. You see, I have been wrong all along.”

All his efforts were trying to repair the relationship between him and Zhiyu, but Zhiyu didn’t want to repair this so-called relationship with him.

“After I came back, I should have done everything for him, not so that we could start over again. The purpose was too strong and instead, I was getting farther and farther away from him,” Xie Ke seemed to think clearly. He stood up and said, “I… I’m going to find him. Zhiyu, he deserves to know all these things.”

The hunting ground was some distance from the capital, and when Xie Ke returned there, he already saw the billowing smoke floating over the palace.

“Zhiyu has already left,” he wasn’t in a hurry, took a deep breath and said, “I know… where he will go.”

There were only a few routes between the capital and Jiangnan, and the Shadow searched all night and found the trail in Jingyang City, not far from the capital.

In fact, Fu Zhiyu wasn’t surprised that Xie Ke came looking for him. As soon as he left the capital, he separated from Dr. Chen and the others, and travelled alone, just for this.

He met Xie Ke in the building of the chamber of commerce. Fu Zhiyu slept well last night and was in a very calm mood this morning. On the contrary, Xie Ke was all messy and looked a little out of his mind.

“After all these things have been successful, doesn’t General Xie feel happy?” Fu Zhiyu tilted his head to look at him, “I thought you would go celebrate.”

Xie Ke smiled bitterly, shook his head, and said, “Zhiyu, I was doing all this for you.”

“No,” Fu Zhiyu shook his head, “You are doing it for yourself. To get me is not for me. After all, I don’t want to be with you anymore. So, it’s just for yourself.”

Xie Ke couldn’t refute it. He looked at Fu Zhiyu, feeling hollow for a long time, and then said, “I… I won’t be like this in the future, Zhiyu, I will change.”

Fu Zhiyu didn’t listen. He smiled and said, “If you were really changing, you wouldn’t catch up and block me now.”

“I’m not stopping you this time, really not. You can go wherever you want.” Xie Ke hurriedly explained, “I just want to… make one thing clear to you. The truth about the previous life, I’m sorry, for various reasons, I haven’t made it clear to you before.”

The truth?

This word really made Fu Zhiyu a little bit interested in Xie Ke’s intentions, and he finally raised his head and looked directly into Xie Ke’s eyes.

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