Chapter 16 : What Will Make You Happy?

He (He Songning) tugged at his lips, then raised his hand to pat Xue Qingyin’s neck, like he was patting a puppy.

He lowered his gaze and caught sight of Xue Qingyin’s snow-white and soft neck… It no longer looked like patting a puppy.

For a moment, he thought Xue Qingyin resembled a docile rabbit.

Obedient?

He Songning found it somewhat ridiculous.

That word would never be associated with Xue Qingyin.

He quickly dismissed the thought and spoke softly, “The other day, when you ran off by yourself from the riverbank, do you know how long I searched for you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“…” He Songning was momentarily speechless.

Xue Qingyin began to recall things one by one from her memories of the original body: “Every time I cried because of anger, you never came to find me.”

“When I was eight, I had a quarrel with Xue Qinghe, and you said I should yield to her as the legitimate sister. I ran away in anger, even falling on the way. You didn’t come to see me; you only had your servant deliver medicine. But I know you went to see Xue Qinghe that day.”

“It was the same on my tenth birthday…”

He Songning listened carefully, his gaze darkening, and a trace of gloom appeared.

Xue Qingyin held a grudge to such an extent?

Xue Qingyin was getting into the mood of her little performance. She buried herself in He Songning’s neck and whimpered, “I’ve never understood. You’re my real brother, so why do you always care about Xue Qinghe and never about me? You don’t know how much it hurt when I fell. I bled so much…”

It seemed as though she was letting out all the grievances she had suffered over the years.

He Songning only felt a chill on his neck.

It was Xue Qingyin’s tears.

Xue Qingyin was crying hard.

He Songning could still smell the fragrance of the powder on her, the scent of summer lotus flowers, mingled with a faint medicinal fragrance. She had been taking medicine these last few days.

The gloom in He Songning’s eyes slowly faded.

Xue Qingyin wasn’t holding a grudge.

It was just a childish complaint.

For the first time, He Songning listened patiently to her cry.

Xue Qingyin didn’t know how long she had been crying.

Why was this person not reacting at all?

He really was cold-hearted!

Xue Qingyin sniffled, losing interest quickly, and released her hold on He Songning.

She turned her head and said in a low voice, “You can leave now.”

After all the crying, even the hairpin on her head was crooked.

The pendant swayed as though it might fall off any moment.

At first glance, it gave an impression of fragile, wind-blown beauty.

“Still angry with me?” He Songning asked, looking at her side profile.

Xue Qingyin said nothing.

“What would make you happy?” He Songning asked, his voice seemingly devoid of warmth.

Xue Qingyin turned her head back. “Naturally, you should be good to me! From now on, only recognize me as your sister!”

He Songning immediately became suspicious.

He knew exactly how Xue Qingyin felt about him. How did she suddenly change her mind and only ask him to be a good brother?

He Songning stared at her. “Qingyin, do you remember when you used to say you wanted to marry me?”

Xue Qingyin was momentarily stunned.

The original body’s mind seemed to be shocked.

To be so direct with He Songning… wasn’t that almost equivalent to telling him—I know your true identity, I know you are the emperor’s illegitimate son, and I know you’re not a son of the Xue family?

Someone as suspicious as He Songning would probably have murderous thoughts at that moment!

Xue Qingyin took a deep breath, then raised her face, full of confidence, and said, “Yes. Back then, I heard from Mama Wu that even the coldest of men, once married, would become gentle, like… what was it called again? Soft and tender. I thought, if I marry Big Brother, Big Brother will definitely treat me well, far better than he treats Xue Qinghe!”

He Songning’s lips twitched.

All of this fuss was just to compete with Qinghe for superiority?

Her childish and unreasonable behavior was just because she had a silly, immature mind.

Xue Qingyin whispered, “I once thought about the older brother of Ren Luoqing, thinking he could be my brother, and even argued that I wanted to marry him. Unfortunately, Ren Luoqing wouldn’t agree.”

He Songning: “…”

So that’s why she fell out with the Ren family?

Just because he was indifferent to her, she wanted to snatch someone else’s brother?

Xue Qingyin sobbed, “Okay, I know now. I’m willful and spoiled. No one wants to be my brother. You can go. I’ll never be good to you again.”

He Songning raised his hand and pressed his swollen forehead, sitting next to her.

After Xue Qingyin said that, he actually felt some patience.

“Since you know your temper isn’t good, you can change it in the future.” He Songning said indifferently.

Xue Qingyin:

What kind of comfort was that?

Xue Qingyin shook her head repeatedly. “No, no.”

She turned her head again, her sobs becoming softer.

He Songning was briefly stunned again.

When did she cry so tenderly and pitifully?

Xue Qingyin choked out, “I’ll be bullied.”

“You are the daughter of a Minister, and your mother has always protected you. Who would dare to bully you?” He Songning frowned.

Xue Qingyin thought to herself, It’s a good thing you’re not bullying others!

“My mother said that the ones who hurt you are often the ones closest to you. When she first married, she was gentle and kind to the servants. But… when she was pregnant with you, one of her maids climbed into my father’s bed. Did she treat my father badly? Did she treat that maid badly?”

“Others gave my father a concubine, and that woman later poisoned my mother.”

“My mother said that as a woman, one should be a bit more willful. If she had been more forceful and rejected that concubine for my father, how could I have been poisoned in the womb? How could I suffer so much pain in my bones during rainy days?”

“If she hadn’t been soft, Big Brother, you might have been poisoned by that concubine too.”

He Songning: “…”

He fell silent.

He had never heard these things before…

Since childhood, he knew he wasn’t the biological son of his “mother,” Xu Shi. Naturally, his feelings for her were distant.

Xu Shi was often mad and unreasonable, treating Xue Chengdong that way, and treating Xue Qinghe similarly.

Xue Qingyin was just as willful and unreasonable as her mother.

He Songning had never known that Xu Shi had slowly turned into the person she was today.

“There are many things Big Brother doesn’t know…” Xue Qingyin said, and she even shed a few genuine tears for Madam Xue. “Big Brother didn’t know that when I was ill, my mother stayed by my bedside day and night, regretting not being forceful enough in the past.”

“But she never told Big Brother any of this… She said the Xu family can’t help, and Big Brother’s future can only rely on Father. She didn’t want Big Brother to become estranged from Father, so she always said only good things about him to you and never spoke of her own hardships…”

“Mother said I must never become like her—trying to protect my loved ones but failing to do so.”

“She hoped Big Brother and I would become close. That was her only hope in life. But I ruined it…”