Ye Wanmian wordlessly tugged at the corner of her lips, forcing a smile.
She had said long ago that once he regained his memory, he would surely regret it.
The man in front of her was the real Crown Prince Xiao Jingcheng. As for the innocent "Goudan" from a few days ago, who was as naive as a child, it was just a personality that emerged during the chaos of his memory after his soul returned.
She was still too greedy.
He had only shown a bit of tenderness unconsciously, yet she had developed a delusion she shouldn't have.
A man like him would never admit that he had behaved like a dog, "begging for mercy" from a village woman when he was unaware.
Xiao Jingcheng was born a son of heaven.
Unlike her, who was born like a cattail. Although she had grown up in the Ye family and was accustomed to the prosperity of the capital, at the core, she was still a cattail.
They were never from the same world.
Taking a deep breath, Ye Wanmian carefully and preciously placed Dahuang on the bed where Xiao Jingcheng had slept and which still retained a bit of warmth.
Then she turned around and bowed respectfully to Xiao Jingcheng. "This commoner woman, Jiang Mian, pays respects to the Crown Prince."
Xiao Jingcheng's pupils suddenly constricted, and he narrowed his eyes dangerously. "I'm really surprised. An unremarkable village woman can actually recognize my identity at once."
Although he was still sitting, he had already tensed all the muscles in his body. As long as the woman in front of him made any strange move, he would take her life immediately.
"That's because I and Your Highness are old acquaintances."
Ye Wanmian raised her head and gave Xiao Jingcheng a faint smile.
"Old acquaintances?" Xiao Jingcheng's face was cold. "I don't remember ever meeting you."
A sharp pain shot through Ye Wanmian's heart. She took a deep breath and said, "Your Highness is busy with state affairs. Naturally, you've long forgotten this commoner woman. But this commoner woman remembers Your Highness clearly."
How could she not be familiar with him?
He had been the nightmare she couldn't escape in these years. Every time she thought she could live a peaceful life, he would forcefully break into her dreams, awakening her memories and uncovering her wounds again and again.
"I wonder if Your Highness still remembers the Spring Banquet two years ago? At that banquet, Your Highness received a love letter and found the person who wrote it out in public."
Xiao Jingcheng frowned slightly. Her words were like fishhooks, hooking onto the fragments of memories in his mind. The events of that year gradually came back to him.
Yes, there was indeed such a thing.
At the Spring Banquet that year, he had received a love letter out of the blue. The letter was full of admiration for him, overflowing with the feelings of a young girl.
He was burdened with heavy schoolwork and rarely left the Eastern Palace. He hardly ever met the noble girls in the capital. This love letter didn't touch his heart. Instead, he thought it was strange.
He immediately asked Bu Hua to investigate. In the end, it was found that the person who wrote the letter was the eldest daughter of the Ye family, the imperial censor. He had forgotten her name. He only remembered that this eldest Miss Ye was not the Ye family's real child. She was a girl that Lady Ye had accidentally taken the wrong child with in the countryside many years ago and shouldn't have appeared in the capital at all.
The Ye family...
Thinking of the Ye family, he naturally thought of the Ye family's marriage with Xiao Yixuan.
Letting out a soft laugh, he said coldly, "I wondered who it was. So it's you. What, wasn't the lesson I gave you two years ago enough? Two years later, you still have wild hopes of climbing onto the dragon and attaching to the phoenix?
"Do you think you can get rid of your humble origin and live a life of luxury forever?"
After two years, hearing these words from this man again still hurt Ye Wanmian's heart.
Especially...
Last night, they had caught fireflies together, made firefly lanterns together, and rewarded the dogs in Dongli Town together.
Ye Wanmian's fingers were trembling slightly. She tried her best to control her emotions so as not to reveal the slightest bit in front of this man. She straightened her back and said word by word in front of him,
"Whether Your Highness believes it or not, even though all the evidence pointed to me at that time, the love letter two years ago was not written by my own hand.
"Handwriting can be imitated, and the servants and the boss of the bookstore can be bribed. If Your Highness didn't see it with your own eyes, the words of others can be false."
"Didn't I see it with my own eyes?" Xiao Jingcheng sneered and pointed at the simple bed behind her. His eyes were full of scrutiny. "Since you know who I am, if you have no feelings for me, why did you share a room with me? I don't need to teach the former Miss Ye the principle that men and women should not be in the same room, right?"
Ye Wanmian moved her lips but didn't know what to say for a moment.
Should she tell him that she had taken pity on him when he had been crouching outside her door like a poor dog every day and had kindly let him in?
But if he remembered, he wouldn't have questioned her like this.
Even if he remembered, would he admit it?
She said hoarsely, "I really have no feelings for Your Highness, and I never want to be anything to Your Highness."
Thinking that he had seen through her thoughts, in Xiao Jingcheng's eyes, this sentence of hers was just a pretext. Women always liked to play hard - to - get.
"It's good if you don't. Remember your words now. Don't let me catch you playing tricks in front of me in the future." Xiao Jingcheng said. "Now, you should tell me properly why I'm here."
Ye Wanmian glanced at him and said, "This matter has to start when Your Highness was assassinated."
She sorted out her thoughts and told in detail what had happened after Xiao Jingcheng had been assassinated and gone missing, how the guards of the Eastern Palace had searched everywhere for his whereabouts, and everything that had happened after they had come to Dongli Town.
Hearing that the news of his disappearance had spread all over the world, that Bu Hua had searched house by house and put up missing - person notices everywhere, he frowned tightly.
Hearing that the Kings of Mu, Xuan, and Ning had led troops to Dongli Town to investigate the case and had found his "body" on the beach in Dongli Town, his expression became even colder.
Catching the details, he couldn't help but look up at her. "Wait a minute. Do you mean that the Kings of Mu, Xuan, and Ning didn't recognize that the body wasn't mine, but you, a mere village woman, did?"
Ye Wanmian paused in her speech. After hesitating for a moment, she still nodded.
Xiao Jingcheng raised his right hand. As the crown prince, besides learning how to handle state affairs, he also had to practice martial arts. Due to holding weapons all year round, there was a thin layer of calluses on his palm. But that hand was indeed long, clean, with distinct joints, and well - maintained.
Tsk, even after two years, she still remembered what his hand looked like so clearly. This woman still said she had no feelings for him?
Women were really duplicitous.
Did she think she could win his pity like this?
Then she was wrong.
Xiao Jingcheng asked, "And then?"