Chapter 700: Shi Ren Boon
"My Lord, what you are teaching me is that I am obsessed with Xin'er and I failed to consider the overall situation and think so much..."

"It's not that you can't consider it, but that you don't want to consider it." Zhao Yuan exposed Liu Xunyi's thoughts with one sentence, making him look embarrassed.

"My Lord, actually I..."

"Xunyi, I know you have been holding a grudge, right?" Zhao Yuan said bluntly, "You endured humiliation and lurked beside Luo Tianjin, and went through countless hardships and survived many deaths. Now you have finally returned to Lin'an. You should have been promoted and admired, and you should have soared to the sky. But the result is completely different. Since you returned to Lin'an, not only did you not feel the glory of a hero's triumph, but you were placed under house arrest, excluded, made things difficult for you, and ignored. You were even pointed at and wrongly criticized. The cold eyes of your colleagues, the betrayal of your brothers... Everything was not only far beyond your expectations, but also made you discouraged and even resentful."

"I……"

"No need to rush to explain, let me finish what I want to say." Zhao Yuan waved his hand to interrupt the terrified Liu Xunyi and continued, "In the past few months, you have deeply felt the taste of being abandoned and isolated. You have made great contributions to the court, but no one cares about you. You could have been highly valued and had a bright future, but it ended in a sloppy way with 'promotion of one level'. You had the opportunity to live together with Zhao Xin and finally become a couple, but you were instigated and torn apart. The gap between your efforts and rewards is so great that you feel extremely unfair and even feel bullied. You feel wronged, depressed, and angry... Therefore, you want revenge, revenge on Qin Wei, revenge on me, revenge on the court, revenge on the emperor, revenge on everyone..."

"No!" Liu Xunyi could no longer suppress his inner excitement and interrupted, "I am not seeking revenge. I just want to take back everything that belongs to me with my own ability..."

"You think about others in everything and take others into consideration, but others never understand you. Instead, they will sell you out, use you, and abandon you without hesitation for their own benefit." Zhao Yuan did not refute, and continued to talk to himself, "Xunyi, you have resentment! Hate! Anger! Therefore, you began to re-examine your heart, and your behavior gradually changed. Since others don't care about your life or death, why should you care about them? Right?"

"I……"

"Although you don't know how brutal the intrigues in the court are, you know the pros and cons of the marriage between Song and Mongolia." Zhao Yuan smiled bitterly, "You know better than anyone what the consequences of destroying the marriage and taking Zhao Xin away will be. It's just that you have had enough of the cowardice and humiliation of repaying evil with kindness, so you want to change your ways and learn to repay tooth for tooth, blood for blood!"

Zhao Yuan's words were so heartbreaking that Liu Xunyi was timid and covered his face in dismay. He wanted to refute, but he had no way to refute.

"You know that Zhao Xin is the key to the peace between Song and Mongolia, but you still want to take advantage of her. Why?" Zhao Yuan said bluntly, "You know that your chances of success are slim to none, but you still want to gamble everything on it. Why?"

"I……"

"I know this even if you don't tell me, because you want revenge, you want to destroy the marriage, you want all the civil and military officials, and even the millions of people of the Song Dynasty to be buried with you!"

"No!"

Liu Xunyi's face turned pale, his eyes were filled with panic, his legs softened and he knelt on the ground, shaking his head repeatedly: "I have never thought of letting the officials be buried with me, and I have never thought of harming innocent people..."

"Perhaps you don't think so, but... you are doing it." Zhao Yuan looked at the unhappy Liu Xunyi with a complicated gaze, and said with pity, "As the saying goes, 'There must be something hateful about pitiful people, and there must be something miserable about hateful people.' Xunyi, I know you have suffered a lot of injustice, I know you are unwilling to accept it, and I know you have no way to express your pain. But do you know what the origin of all the tragedies is? What is the biggest fault in the whole thing?"

Liu Xunyi slowly raised his head, looking at the serious Zhao Yuan with a sad look, and said self-deprecatingly: "The origin of the tragedy is that I fell in love with a woman I shouldn't love. The biggest fault is... I was trapped by love and fell too deeply."

"No!" Facing Liu Xunyi's self-mockery, Zhao Yuan resolutely shook his head, "The origin of the tragedy is the misunderstanding between each other, and the biggest fault is the self-righteous concealment."

"This...what does this mean?" Liu Xunyi's eyes changed and he looked confused.

"Xun Yi, I must apologize to you!" Zhao Yuan said guiltily, "At the beginning of this matter, I misunderstood you as a person who was reckless and lawless for the sake of personal love. It is also because of this that I concealed everything from you and perfunctorily dealt with everything, causing you to misunderstand us more and more, and your resentment grew deeper and deeper."

"My subordinates dare not!"

"Qin Wei hid the fact of your marriage and used lies to alienate your relationship. I restricted your freedom and forced you to give up your entanglement with Zhao Xin. The young prince told us about your sending the letter to the palace. All of this was actually to prevent you from acting impulsively and causing a huge disaster. In the end, it was all for your own good." Zhao Yuan said helplessly, "Who would have thought that this would backfire? The more you deliberately conceal something, the more likely it is to cause trouble. You, Liu Xunyi, are even more stubborn. The more you are told not to do something, the more you insist on doing it. Even if it means going through mountains of swords and seas of fire, or sacrificing your life, you will not hesitate."

"In front of the Marquis, I will not hide any of my thoughts..."

"If I had known this, I would have told you the truth from the beginning." Zhao Yuan smiled bitterly, "I have always been worried that you would delay your work in Luoyang City because of Zhao Xin. In fact... I was worrying too much. With your character, no matter how bitter your heart is, you will never do such foolish things as losing the big picture for the small, or sacrificing the public interest for the sake of personal interests. Therefore, I just said that the origin of the tragedy was mutual misunderstanding. We misunderstood you as a hero with a weak temper and a sentimental heart. You misunderstood us as having ulterior motives and being sweet-mouthed but treacherous. The biggest mistake was the self-righteous concealment, which was my fault. I wanted to hide the truth, but unexpectedly... I pushed you into a desperate situation and made you do something stupid. Alas!"

After saying this, Zhao Yuan stood up suddenly. Under Liu Xunyi's bewildered gaze, he slowly stepped forward, bowed to Liu Xunyi, and said earnestly: "This matter is my fault, I apologize to you today!"

"My Lord, you must not do this!"

Liu Xunyi was horrified and hurriedly held Zhao Yuan's arm with both hands, saying in panic: "How dare I, a humble person, accept such a great gift from the Marquis! No! Absolutely not!" "Xunyi, in fact, I have been reflecting on my mistakes these few days. Whenever I think of how we used to talk about everything, and now you and I have become enemies, I can't help it..." Before he finished speaking, Zhao Yuan was already in tears, with snot and tears on his face, choking repeatedly, "I regret it in my heart, I really wronged you... I should have explained everything to you long ago, I should have discussed the way forward with you long ago. The fault is mine, I have always treated you as an ignorant child, that's why..."

Having said this, Zhao Yuan covered his face and cried, unable to speak for a while.

Looking at Zhao Yuan crying bitterly, Liu Xunyi couldn't help feeling sad. His eyes turned red and were instantly covered with a layer of tears.

"No matter what, you have to believe in me!" Zhao Yuanqiang suppressed his sorrow and said word by word, "Everything I did was not meant to hurt you. On the contrary, I wanted to save you and didn't want to watch you ruin your bright future because of a love affair..."

"You are the Marquis who raised me up, and you are good to me... How could Xunyi not know that?" Liu Xunyi said sadly, "If the Marquis wanted to harm me, Xunyi would have been dead on the street long ago, how could she be alive today?"

"Xunyi, I really... I really don't want a misunderstanding to cause a rift between you and me." Zhao Yuan tightly grasped Liu Xunyi's arm with both hands, wishing he could put all his strength into his fingers. His inner excitement was obvious. "You and Zhao Xin are not destined to be together. This is God's will. You must not go against God, otherwise you will hurt others and yourself sooner or later! I beg you, for the sake of my saving face, please let go!"

"Xunyi will remember every word of the Marquis's teachings..."

"Tonight, you and I, father and son, must speak out all the secrets and grievances that have accumulated in our hearts. No one should hide anything!" Zhao Yuan waved his hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of his eyes, and said righteously, "Both you and I have tasted the pain of concealing things, so I don't want this matter to get bigger and bigger, and to cause more mistakes!"

"Master Hou..."

"Xun Yi, what are you thinking? Tell me!" Zhao Yuan asked in an unquestionable tone, "How can this matter be resolved to satisfy you? Is there really no other way except to get Zhao Xin back?"

When Zhao Yuan asked the last question, a hint of uneasiness flashed in his eyes when he looked at Liu Xunyi, and his tone became obviously much more solemn.

"The Marquis just said that the chance of me and Xin'er being together... is better than nothing." Liu Xunyi laughed bitterly, "What's more, the Marquis was sincere to Xunyi, how could Xunyi be so heartless and not tell good from bad? For Xin'er, I no longer dare to have any extravagant hopes..."

When Liu Xunyi said the last words, two lines of sad tears could no longer be held back and flowed down silently.

"No need to be so cautious in front of me!" Zhao Yuan interrupted with an unhappy look on his face. "You can be perfunctory in front of outsiders, but you must tell the truth in front of me! I hope that you and I can really resolve our grievances tonight, and not just pretend to be nice. If you make a mistake again tomorrow morning, I will be blamed for it! Do you still have a grudge against me after all this? Do you want me to kneel down before you tell me what's in your heart?"

"Xunyi dare not!" Liu Xunyi said in fear, "The words from the bottom of my heart just now are enough to make Xunyi feel ashamed and embarrassed. How dare I pretend to be cautious and lie to cover up now? Since the Marquis asked me, Xunyi naturally dare not hide anything. Every word I said just now is true. For Xiner... I dare not have any extravagant hopes anymore..."

"Are you really willing to let Zhao Xin marry a Mongolian? Is this matter over?"

"I am unwilling, but I have no choice. The princess's marriage is a righteous act for the country and the people. How dare I disregard the survival of the world for my own selfish reasons..."

Looking at Liu Xunyi who was hesitant and insincere, Zhao Yuan hesitated for a moment and asked suspiciously, "You really have nothing else to ask for?"

"I dare not ask for anything. I only have one unfulfilled wish..." Liu Xunyi was struggling internally, as if he didn't know whether he should say it out loud, and said intermittently, "If I can fulfill this wish, Xunyi swears... there will no longer be a trace of resentment in my heart."

"Tell me!" Zhao Yuan's eyes narrowed, and he urged, "What is your wish? As long as I can do it, I will grant it!"

"I..." Liu Xunyi's eyes lit up, as if full of hope, but he hesitated to speak, as if he had some reservations, "I..."

"What about me?" Zhao Yuan was anxious and pressed, "Just speak frankly, there's no need to hide anything!"

"I...I want to see Xin'er and say goodbye to her...face to face!"

……

(End of this chapter)