"So... should I leave again?"
Upon hearing Gu Lan’s words, Wei Chengyuan stood stunned for a while, dumbfounded, and asked.
There were still patches of dirt smudges on his face, and his eyes were wide open. Gu Lan thought he looked like he had grown a pair of drooping dog ears on his head.
Gu Lan: "That’s not necessary, making it seem like I’m ssing with you... Besides, I have sothing to tell you."
She looked towards Rong Heng: "Brother Hang, don’t you think Yuan looks familiar?"
Rong Heng glanced at Wei Chengyuan, his voice cold and indifferent: "Besides you, I never look at other n."
Gu Lan felt a numbness in her head and said: "Shut up!"
Only then did Rong Heng scrutinize Wei Chengyuan more carefully.
Such a tall stature, taking up so much space.
Familiarity he didn’t feel, just irritation at the sight of him.
Rong Heng’s eyes narrowed: "Earlier, when Wei Junzhuo wanted to speak to you alone, did he ntion anything about Wei Chengyuan besides the matter of Li Yuanju?"
Gu Lan: "Yes, Brother Hang, you also think Yuan and Wei Junzhuo are quite similar, right?"
Rong Heng: "No, I was just guessing."
"..."
Wei Chengyuan looked confused: "What are you guys talking about? Why can’t I understand any of it?"
Gu Lan furrowed her brow and silently moved a few steps away from him: "It’s been a while since we’ve t, Yuan, you’re getting dumber, and why do you sll so bad?"
Wei Chengyuan: "I... sll?"
He sniffed himself and imdiately pinched his nose, hastily explaining:
"Sorry, Lanlan, when I was traveling, I ran out of provisions and was too hungry. I had no choice but to eat a Heart Closing Pill, then I traveled continuously. The last ti I bathed was when I passed a small stream, and now it’s been ten days..."
Gu Lan twitched the corners of her mouth, feeling as if she too had beco slly, especially when looking at Wei Chengyuan’s face, she now felt that even Wei Junzhuo was not so noble and cold.
"Eating the Heart Closing Pill again, you think it can stave off hunger? No wonder you’ve beco dumber since last ti."
Gu Lan said, opening her palm with a serious tone.
"This ti, give all the Heart Closing Pills, you’re not allowed to eat a single one. Even if you develop antibodies and won’t lose your mory, eating them as als will make you an idiot. If you beco an idiot, I won’t want you."
Wei Chengyuan felt very aggrieved, but seeing Gu Lan say such harsh words about not wanting him, he reluctantly took out the small box from his pocket and handed it to Gu Lan.
Gu Lan opened it and counted; there were still more than a dozen pills inside.
Wei Chengyuan asked: "Lanlan, now can you tell what you wanted to say?"
She put away the Heart Closing Pills, gazed into Wei Chengyuan’s eyes, and slowly said:
"What I want to tell you is, Yuan, you still have an older brother... even an older sister."
"Older brother?" Wei Chengyuan’s eyes slightly trembled, repeating the words.
"They are General of Wei, Wei Junzhuo, and Princess Consort Jin, Wei Liuyu. You are a descendant of the forr Imperial Family of Wei Country."
After Gu Lan said it, she suddenly rembered what Marquis Gu once said.
He said that back when Wei Liuyu appeared in the Capital City to build a Wei intelligence network and fra Madam Zhou, she used the guise of "seeking relatives."
Isn’t it possible that Wei Liuyu wasn’t lying back then, that she really wanted to find Yuan? But at that ti, Wei Chengyuan might have been in the Northern Territory, beside Old Marquis Gu, so she naturally couldn’t find him.
Yuan is a descendant of the Wei royal family; did Old Marquis Gu know his identity?
Wei Junzhuo is stationed at the Southern Border of Yan Country, but Yuan was raised in the Northern Territory. Did he get lost or was he secretly plotted against by soone? Wei Junzhuo didn’t ask about Yuan’s specific identity, perhaps considering this point too.
As she pondered, Wei Chengyuan kept repeating "brother, sister," his amber eyes gradually turning murky and dark.
Rong Heng was the first to notice sothing amiss and called out: "Wei Chengyuan?"
"No..." Wei Chengyuan let out a low growl, his tall figure crashing to the ground.
"Yuan!" Gu Lan hurriedly called out his na.
Wei Chengyuan tightly closed his eyes, yet curled into a ball on the floor.
His muscles were spasming and trembling, arms hugging himself, groping on the ground, he hid in a corner and buried his head in his arms.
"Brother, sister... don’t... brother, save ..." Wei Chengyuan mumbled incessantly.
"Yuan, Wei Chengyuan, what’s wrong with you!?" Gu Lan urgently looked at him.
The man in front of her seed to recall sothing terrifying, such a tall and agile young man, now hiding in the corner, trembling, too afraid to even open his eyes.
Seeing him like this, Gu Lan’s heart ached, suddenly recalling how Wei Chengyuan used to like crouching under the tree stump at Step Lotus Hall, always so quietly.
"No, don’t... don’t bully him, and don’t..."
As Wei Chengyuan said this, he suddenly fell to the ground, dry-heaving with gut-wrenching intensity, his face imdiately turning pale as paper.
Gu Lan disregarded the filth on him, grabbing his arm, and shouted word by word next to his ear: "Yuan, look at ! You are Wei Chengyuan of Dingyuan Marquis Mansion! No other person has anything to do with you!"
Wei Chengyuan painfully opened his eyes, after seeing Gu Lan in front of him, he froze for two seconds, then hugged his head and beat the hard ground repeatedly.
"My head, it hurts, Lanlan, my head hurts so much—" Wei Chengyuan murmured, and soon, his forehead had turned a bluish hue.
"He must have gone through so bad experiences, and those experiences are related to Wei Country." Rong Heng squatted down, pressed a point on Wei Chengyuan.
Wei Chengyuan finally stopped trembling, he looked at Gu Lan, reached out a hand, gently stroked her soft hair, his gaze gentle like a harmless little animal:
"Lanlan... don’t worry, I will protect you."
After he said that, he fainted.
Gu Lan stared at him blankly, the warmth of his palm still seed to linger on her head.
After checking his pulse, Rong Heng shook his head: "His body is fine, it’s his mind that’s ill. I can’t treat the mind."
Gu Lan said: "The last ti he had such an episode, it was when he recalled the battle in Yunzhou. He blad the deaths of Old Marquis Gu and Aunt on himself, ate the Heart Closing Pill to forget, but this ti, it’s even worse."
Rong Heng lowered his gaze, recalling: "Do you rember the dossier I investigated about Wei Chengyuan back then?"
Gu Lan nodded: "The dossier said he was the adopted son of Old Marquis Gu, his father was General Wei Zheng under Old Marquis Gu’s command."
Rong Heng said: "When Wei Chengyuan was six, his father, Wei Zheng, died in battle, that’s when he beca Old Marquis Gu’s adopted son. In that case, Wei Zheng wasn’t his father, but a false identity created by Old Marquis Gu. Only Old Marquis Gu could forge those family records for him, and sothing happened to him in Wei Country before he turned six."
"These matters, I’m afraid, only Wei Junzhuo knows clearly."
Gu Lan narrowed her eyes, recalling Wei Junzhuo’s emotionless golden eyes.
The next day, Wei Chengyuan slowly woke up.
He rembered what Gu Lan said before he fainted, but he couldn’t think deeply about it; his face was still very pale.
"So, I’m not a mber of the Wei Family..." Wei Chengyuan’s voice was filled with loss.
He wasn’t Wei Zheng’s son, so he had no real connection to the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion. But he liked the mansion; he was ant to protect Lanlan.
"Since grandfather gave you the Wei Family identity, you are Wei Chengyuan of Dingyuan Marquis Mansion, and by giving you that na, it ant he had already regarded you as a true family mber." Gu Lan looked into his amber eyes and said earnestly.
The na of Old Marquis Gu of Dingyuan Marquis Mansion was indeed Gu Yuan.
And Yuan’s "Cheng" character, shared with Marquis Gu, Gu Chengluan, and Second Young Master Gu, carries the Old Marquis Gu’s "Yuan," sufficiently proving he is a mber of the Gu family despite not bearing the Gu surna.
Wei Chengyuan steadily looked at Gu Lan, before his eyes flashed fragnts of mories—he rembered a young Lanlan still in her swaddling clothes, babbling her first words with a child’s voice.
Once, confusion and helplessness were dispelled when he witnessed the birth of new life, hearing a newborn’s first cry.
From then on, Gu Lan beca his purpose for living in this world.
"We won’t ntion Wei Junzhuo again, nor Wei Liuyu, you are yourself."
Gu Lan realized that what pushed Yuan beyond his limits wasn’t the nas Wei Junzhuo or Wei Liuyu, but the terms ’brother’ and ’sister.’
Wei Chengyuan returned to his senses, smiled gently, and with resolve and stubbornness said:
"Lanlan, I will always be Wei Chengyuan of the Gu family, not soone from Wei Country."
Reviews
All reviews (0)