Chapter 167: Not of the Xiao Bloodline

"What are you talking about?" Shen Shuangning stared at him, baffled. "I've already married you."

"I mean in a previous life." Xiao Jingyuan said, "If in my previous life I were not the heir apparent of the Prince Yan's mansion, would you still be willing to marry me?"

Shen Shuangning originally wanted to say that this question was meaningless.

But looking at his eyes, she still thought it over seriously, then replied: "You're good-looking, and back then I was foolish; if you were a commoner, I would gladly marry you, but now it's different."

"Yes, Ningning has become clever now." Xiao Jingyuan smiled.

Shen Shuangning thought, having taken a big tumble once, I can't keep being foolish forever; moreover, this shouldn't be called cleverness, but clarity.

Shen Shuangning didn't bother arguing about these meaningless points, and spoke directly: "What exactly do you mean by this assumption? Heir apparent, please clarify."

Xiao Jingyuan didn't beat around the bush either, and said bluntly: "I am not Prince Yan's biological son."

"How is that possible?" she said, staring at the man before her, astonished.

Although she had already braced herself a little when he first raised that assumption, when he spoke so bluntly, Shen Shuangning still couldn't help being shocked.

Xiao Jingyuan's gaze, however, passed through the layered glazed tiles of the Prince's mansion and looked toward the distant horizon, as he lightly said: "When someone once told me that, my reaction was much like yours."

"Later I followed the clues and even went to ask my mother consort myself, after which I couldn't help but believe it." Xiao Jingyuan said calmly, "I am not of the Xiao bloodline."

Shen Shuangning was shocked beyond words, and instinctively asked: "If you're not of the Xiao bloodline, then who are you?"

A flicker of darkness passed through Xiao Jingyuan's eyes as he gave a faint smile: "I don't know either. Prince Yan once had a son named Xiao Ze, who died young; I am the one he brought back to the mansion."

The princess consort, in her early years following Prince Yan to the military camp, had given birth to a son, but due to premature birth and frailty, he was sent back to Jingcheng for recuperation, only to contract a sudden illness on the way and die.

At that time, only a few of the Prince Yan's closest veteran officers knew of Xiao Ze's existence, let alone the servants in the mansion.

After Xiao Ze's death, the princess consort was grief-stricken and incapacitated, until Prince Yan brought back a baby boy of similar age...

Who would have thought that Xiao Jingyuan was actually adopted by Prince Yan? After all, he resembles Prince Yan greatly.

He is equally brave and skilled in battle, equally unmatched in wisdom and courage, even surpassing his teacher. More importantly, the Prince Yan and his consort treated him as their own, early on naming him heir apparent and grooming him as the sole successor—what treatment could an ordinary adoptee receive?

Shen Shuangning thought for a moment, then took his hand and said: "No matter what, the Prince and Princess Consort have treated you well, haven't they? They taught you to read and practice martial arts, smoothing your path ahead—this kindness of upbringing is as weighty as Mount Tai, and you ought to feel grateful."

"Since you are already the heir apparent of Prince Yan, this twenty-plus years of affection and title are set; naturally you will inherit the mansion in the future, and no one can change that."

From Shen Shuangning's perspective, bloodline is certainly important, but over twenty years of companionship has already surpassed everything; Xiao Ze is now a thing of the past, and Xiao Jingyuan is the sole heir apparent of the Prince Yan's mansion, unshakable in his position.

But Shen Shuangning didn't realize that, ever since Xiao Jingyuan learned of Xiao Ze's existence, a rift had already formed between him and the princess consort.

When the guests in the pavilion had all left, only Prince Yan remained beside the princess consort.

She could no longer keep the smile on her face; she lowered her head and slowly covered her face.

She choked out: "Your Highness, Ah-Yuan... he ultimately resents me."

Prince Yan silently handed her a silk handkerchief, watching as her shoulders trembled slightly, a complex regret also appearing in his eyes.

Back when Prince Yan brought the infant boy back, border warfare was urgent; he hurriedly returned to his post in the northern frontier, leaving Lady Yuan in the pain of losing her son, forced to accept this child as a replacement for Xiao Ze.

At that time, Lady Yuan's heart could hold only Xiao Ze—there was no room for another child.

She could not accept that after her own son's death she would be forced to raise someone else's child, and even have to claim outwardly that it was her own biological son. Meanwhile, the spirit tablet of her real son had to be hidden, unable to be openly worshipped.

Thus Xiao Jingyuan's early years under her care were not pleasant.

She was harsh toward him, almost to the point of cruelty. When studying literature, any slight mistake earned him copying texts until late at night; when practicing martial arts, any slowness earned him a strike on the palm with a ruler.

Although he had already far surpassed peers his age, she was stingy with praise, rarely giving even a gentle glance.

More often than not, she simply did not want to see this child.

But what can a child understand? A child's nature is to cling to the mother and need her care.

Xiao Jingyuan had been cold-natured since childhood, not fond of speaking, aloof with everyone, yet uniquely drawn to this "mother consort." But whenever she saw him, she felt aversion—either pretending not to hear, or coldly ordering the wet nurse to take him away.

Looking back now, she was truly excessive then.

What she regrets most is that one cold winter night, during the New Year's celebration, he accidentally knocked over the eternal lamp; the princess consort flew into a rage and spat out harsh words.

"Get out, I never want to see you again!"

She drove him out, also chased away all the servants, and slammed the door shut hard.

"Mother consort, I was wrong, Ah-Yuan knows his mistake! Ah-Yuan won't leave!" Xiao Jingyuan cried outside, pounding on the door in apology: "Please, just pay attention to me..."

That voice went from urgent to hoarse, then to broken sobs, and finally faded away, swallowed by the wind and snow.

She thought the wet nurse had taken him away, and didn't open the door to check, until the next day when Yuan Zhenfeng's angry scolding came from the courtyard:

"Yuan Xiaoxiao, if you don't like him, send him to the military camp! Do you really have to freeze him to death to make up for your dead son?!"

Yuan Zhenfeng finished his tirade and took the child away; she didn't even have time to glance at him.

Only later did she learn that the child had knelt alone in the snow all night.

He remembered the punishment for his past mistakes, thinking that kneeling long enough would earn forgiveness, and so he knelt outside the Buddhist hall's door amidst the wind and snow, from dusk till dawn.

But what had he done wrong again?

By the time she finally regretted it and wanted to treat him a little better, Xiao Jingyuan had already stopped being close to her. Later he went to the military camp, and once he left, he stayed away for over ten years.

He wandered north and south, but his returns home were few and far between; she always heard of his news from others, watching him become ever more outstanding yet ever more distant.

At the crucial moment of Xiao Jingyuan's coming-of-age ceremony, she too was unable to witness it in person, her heart filled with regret.

So this time, when he was summoned back to the capital, she kept thinking that as long as he was happy, she would go along with whatever he liked—whether he favored a girl from any family, even a commoner, or even a man, she would never object.

As long as he could stay in the mansion, as long as he could be happy. I had thought the days were finally turning for the better, but he ultimately still learned the truth...

"It turns out the mother consort used to call me 'Ah-Ze' not by mistake, but because there really was such a person. Mother consort, you had already told me—wouldn't that have been fine? You taught me to act like a fool, vainly expecting any motherly love."

As he spoke, even a faint smile touched his face, his tone calm as if he were talking about someone else.

"Never mind, though I lack birthright, I still have the debt of upbringing. From now on I will still respect you as mother consort, dutifully filial, and do what the heir apparent of the Prince Yan's mansion ought to do."

Xiao Jingyuan paused, then said coldly: "But aside from that, my affairs are none of your concern, mother consort. I don't care about this heir apparent position."

Looking back now, his calm smile and unruffled tone hurt her more than any fierce accusation.

Like a dull knife, it slowly cut into her heart.

"Your Highness, it's all my fault, I'm to blame..." Lady Yuan clutched the silk handkerchief, tears dampening half of it, her voice full of regret.

If I had been a little kinder to him from the start, treating him like an ordinary mother does—loving and protecting him—would we not have come to this point? He wouldn't… wouldn't be so distant from me…

Prince Yan sighed; he could not blame his wife, for he too was at fault in this matter.

He gently patted his wife's shoulder to comfort her: 'I am also at fault.'

Back then he left in a hurry, without having time to sense his wife's feelings, hastily departing for the Northern Border and leaving the child in her care; she must have felt utterly anguished.

He had thought that as long as he gave the child a life free of want and let him grow up safely in the Prince's Mansion, that would be enough—but he never expected it would wound both of their hearts.

Prince Yan naturally regards Xiao Jingyuan as his own son, truly loving the child, but if he had to choose between Xiao Jingyuan and his wife, he would without hesitation side with his wife.

'The estrangement has already arisen; it cannot be dispelled with a few words.'

Prince Yan gazed out the window at the deepening dusk, his voice dropping: 'Things have come to this; let him be. Don't worry too much—I know Ah Yuan; even if he learns the truth, he will certainly not do anything harmful to the Xiao family or the Prince's Mansion.'

Yuan Shi wiped her tears, choking up as she said: 'I know… he has always been a good child, from childhood onward he never truly caused trouble; even though I treated him so harshly, he never said a single bad word about me in front of outsiders…'

The more she thought this way, the heavier her regret grew.

Prince Yan fell silent for a moment, then suddenly seemed to recall something: 'I see, Ah Yuan is very attentive to that child Ningning.'

'Ningning is also sensible and easy to talk to; you might as well treat her better, dote on your daughter‑in‑law more—seeing that, Ah Yuan might feel more at ease.'

The Princess Consort's eyes lit up upon hearing that.

'Indeed, Ah Yuan now cares most about Shen Shuangning; if she treats Shen Shuangning as her own daughter and lets Ningning speak more kind words in his ear, perhaps it could ease the mother‑son estrangement.'