Chapter 194: Admit The Obvious
"Brother...!" Shenzhen was already on his feet.
Jun Haoxuan didn’t move. "Is it true?"
Shenzhen opened his mouth to speak, then stopped, the words dying before they could form. No answer came.
Bai Ziru rose immediately and stepped in front of him.
"Haoxuan," he said carefully, "calm down..."
Rong Yue’s brow lifted faintly.
Jun Haoxuan didn’t even look at Bai Ziru. His hand lifted slowly, fingers brushing against one of his horns as if he was grounding himself.
"How could you?" His voice wasn’t loud but it was enough. "Why would you do something like that?"
His gaze locked onto Shenzhen. "Hiding the Dragon Crystal inside him without his consent."
He took a step forward. "Without mine."
The pressure in the air shifted noticeably.
"Do you have any idea," he continued, voice tightening, "what you’ve done to him?"
Shenzhen lowered his head. His hands clenched at his sides.
"I..." His voice shook. "I know. I’m sorry, brother."
Jun Haoxuan’s expression hardened, the air turning brittle. For a moment, it looked like he might say more, something far worse, but then his gaze landed on Bai Ziru, who remained standing there, silently shielding him.
His jaw tightened, the unspoken words a heavy pressure behind his teeth, but he forced them down, his focus shifting entirely to Rong Yue.
Rong Yue hadn’t moved. He remained seated, slowly lifting his glass as if the suffocating tension was nothing more than a light breeze. He was completely, infuriatingly unbothered.
"Rong Yue." Jun Haoxuan spoke the name like a final sentence before turning away, his stride leaving no room for refusal. "Come with me."
Rong Yue clicked his tongue softly. Annoyed.
He poured himself another cup before standing, wine jar still in hand.
Behind him, Shenzhen’s composure cracked.
"I invited you here," he snapped, anger bleeding through now, "so we could have a peaceful evening and you chose to expose something that should have stayed buried!"
Rong Yue didn’t even look at him at first.
"Don’t rewrite this," he said calmly. "We all failed to notice his presence."
He took a step forward. "And I certainly didn’t tell you to hide the crystal inside Ningyan."
Rong Yue turned his attention briefly to Bai Ziru. "Handle him. He’s a problem."
Bai Ziru let out a quiet breath. "I’m aware."
His hand tightened on Shenzhen’s arm. "He’s my husband."
"And I’m happy for you," Rong Yue hummed lightly, then walked off, following Jun Haoxuan without another word.
He stepped onto the stone path and found the divine beast king standing by the bridge, looking down at the water as it flowed beneath.
Rong Yue slowed, then walked up beside him, the wine jar still in his grasp.
He didn’t wait.
"Are you going to stand here and brood," he said, lifting the jar slightly, "or admit the obvious?"
He paused. "You are in love with Ningyan."
Jun Haoxuan glanced at him, surprise flickering across his face. Then it faded.
"It’s not about that," he said, looking away again. "It’s everything surrounding it."
Rong Yue took a slow drink.
The water below reflected distorted fragments of sky and light.
"There’s nothing complicated about it," he said calmly. "If you want to punish Shenzhen, do it quietly."
He took another sip. "Don’t go too far."
Jun Haoxuan didn’t respond.
So Rong Yue continued. "If he hadn’t hidden the crystal, the Lans would have taken it that night. Whatever you’re dealing with now would be far worse."
He paused, letting the weight of his next words sink in. "You wouldn’t have met Ningyan like this. You wouldn’t be married to him."
Jun Haoxuan’s eyes flickered.
"And Jun Yongrui?" Rong Yue added. "would still be alive."
That one landed. Hard.
"Everything that happened after..." he tilted the jar, "started there."
Jun Haoxuan’s expression tightened, the heat of his anger cooling into something much sharper.
"It did," he said slowly, his voice dropping an octave as the truth finally took hold. "Didn’t it."
Rong Yue’s lips curved faintly. "Yes."
A pause settled between them.
"And you?" Jun Haoxuan looked at him again. "Did you really not know?"
"I wanted the crystal." Rong Yue didn’t hesitate. "He wanted Bai Ziru."
He shrugged. "It was a transaction."
Jun Haoxuan huffed softly under his breath. "That sounds like Shenzhen."
His expression eased, the tension finally bleeding out of his shoulders. Then, his golden eyes flashed, a sudden spark of blue flickering beneath the surface.
"Ningyan has returned."
Rong Yue froze. "Oh."
That was all he said.
Jun Haoxuan was already moving, vanishing from the bridge in the next moment.
Rong Yue remained exactly where he was, his gaze focused on the wine jar in his hand. He finally opened it and drank the rest in one long, steady gulp.
^°^
By the time they arrived at the Azure Dragon Clan, Zhi Ruo was already asleep in Ningyan’s arms, curled in against him.
Hai Miao and Yue Mian, on the other hand, were wide awake, eyes bright, taking everything in with open wonder as the palace stretched endlessly before them.
It was... new. All of it.
Ningyan adjusted his hold on Zhi Ruo.
It still felt unreal.
She was a forest qilin.
He hadn’t expected that.
Unlike Hai Miao, whose serpent traits surfaced in flickers, the girls hadn’t shown anything yet.
They just looked like children.
Liu Ruobing stepped forward, already summoning attendants.
"Take them," she instructed gently. "Get them settled."
Ningyan hesitated for a moment, his fingers curling into the fabric of her clothes. His grip tightened, then finally loosened as he let her go with a visible reluctance.
Liu Ruobing noticed. She smiled softly.
"We should hold a dinner tonight," she said. "A proper welcome. Let the family meet them before word spreads across the realms."
Ningyan blinked and then offered a smile that was both strikingly bright and entirely genuine "I’d like that."
"Of course you would," she laughed.
At that moment, someone else approached, causing Ningyan’s smile to disappear as if it had never been there at all.
Han Yunyi.
Liu Ruobing greeted her warmly, stepping forward into an embrace, their conversation flowing easily with questions about the journey, the children.... Normal. Too normal.
Yunyi’s gaze flicked toward Ningyan.
Ningyan didn’t acknowledge her. He turned and walked away as a sudden tightness constricted his chest. A faint purple glow flickered at the edge of his vision, but he inhaled sharply and forced it back down.
He took a step and then another before coming to a sudden halt as someone blocked his path.
It was Lan Meishan, without his glasses and bearing the same face but an entirely wrong presence. Everything about him was off, a familiar image that felt fundamentally different.
"You’ve returned," Meishan said, slowing as he approached, his emerald eyes sharpening.
Ningyan didn’t soften. "Has he?"
Meishan’s smile faded. "...No."
That was enough.
Ningyan walked past him without stopping. "I want him back."
Then, without looking at him, "Until then... stay away from me and my children."