Chapter 582: Chapter 582

Fang Chuning’s heart tightened. Xie Jue was tearing open his own wounds to comfort him, but Fang Chuning didn’t need Xie Jue’s kind of solace. No matter how sad or disappointed he was, he didn’t want this bloody and tearful embrace.

"When I was young, I really wished I was the Marquis’s son."

"Why? Still unwilling to part with your father? Afraid I’d take him away?"

"No!" Xie Jue hesitated to speak, his gaze lingering meaningfully on Fang Chuning’s face before silently looking up at the moon. His expression was so peculiar that it aroused Fang Chuning’s curiosity.

Fang Chuning asked, "Then why?"

"If we were brothers, how could we have walked down the aisle together back in Beiman?"

A strange silence settled between them. Whether it was an unspoken understanding or the feeling that those memories were too taboo, they had never discussed them in depth. Each time the topic arose, they tacitly changed the subject. It seemed as if the memories from Beiman were forbidden—for both Fang Chuning and Xie Jue.

To this day, Fang Chuning still didn’t know what kind of attitude Xie Jue held toward that Chapter of their lives. In such tense and dangerous circumstances, they had unexpectedly played the role of a married couple.

"So, you knew who I was when we went through the marriage ceremony?" Fang Chuning snapped out of his thoughts, slightly surprised. He hadn’t considered this before—after all, he had been drugged, his aura altered, his voice changed. He had convincingly portrayed a woman, and he had no idea at what point Xie Jue recognized him. He had never asked.

The bitterness and frustration in Fang Chuning’s heart were healed. Xie Jue was like the brightest light in his life, always unintentionally illuminating the darkest recesses of his soul and soothing his old wounds accumulated over the years.

"Did you recognize me right away?" Fang Chuning asked curiously.

"No!" Xie Jue had not recognized him immediately. Back then, when Fang Chuning disguised himself as a Beiman Woman, he truly played the part convincingly. At the time, Xie Jue had been young, and Fang Chuning resembled the Princess—so strikingly beautiful, he was like a statue carved from jade. His frame was slender but also thin like that of a youth, and when he wore the heavy dresses of the Beiman and styled his hair like a woman’s, he was so convincing that Xie Jue didn’t recognize him at first glance.

"Then when did you recognize me?"

"Figure it out yourself."

Fang Chuning rested his chin on his hand, his gaze playful as he looked at him. "Was it when the Great Prince got you drunk and I went to support you?"

Fang Chuning arched his brow and let his gaze brazenly sweep over Xie Jue’s neck. "Was it when I teased you on the snowy mountain?"

"Ah, true. If you had recognized me then, how could you have kissed me only to kick me into the river? At the time, I was the daughter of Beiman’s Right General—you had such nerve."

"You were the one being audacious, weren’t you?" Xie Jue chuckled lightly.

"Then when exactly did you recognize me?"

"Figure it out yourself."

"Ting Feng..." Fang Chuning leaned against his neck, his tone soft and teasing.

Now that was going too far.

But Xie Jue didn’t want to say, and he certainly wouldn’t. His lips were tight, and even Fang Chuning’s coaxing didn’t work. After being defeated yet excited, Fang Chuning asked, "So, you recognized me, and that’s why you agreed to marry me?"

Fang Chuning’s joy overflowed, and he couldn’t help but lick his lips. "No wonder... that wedding night wine—you drank it so obediently."

"Fang Chuning, I didn’t know you’d drugged the wine," Xie Jue snorted coldly. Because he’d recognized Fang Chuning, he had let his guard down completely—only to find that Fang Chuning had drugged the ceremonial wedding night wine.

Fang Chuning coughed lightly, his guilt showing. "...An accident."

"Really?" ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by novelꞁire.net

Whether it had been an accident or a deliberate plan, only he knew for certain.