ZHAO JUREN'S LAST LOVE
CHAPTERS. 23 Secrets Behind the Story

The night goes so fast, it is worth walking as the arrival of a thief, so fast, so short.

No one, Zhao Juren was sitting on the riverbank with the collapsed old bridge glazed pitifully before his eyes.  In silence he looked at the sun rising in the east, pale.

He was just waiting for the boat that seemed to pull over across there with no one on it.

“Please wait for the boat that will take you here. I can only escort you here, Mr. Zhao. After this let fate meet us either on another battlefield or at a different time. Take good care of yourself, we no longer owe each other after this. If the sky allows us will be met in response to a different story.” That was the last sentence that Xue Xue spoke before leaving, about a moment ago right before the light swept away the dew.

Zhao Juren stroked his sword head, still thinking of many things on his way as long as he walked with Xue Lian from the plains above the five-colored lake.

Half the night trip they spent unknowingly opened a crack in a bitter memory of the past.

“Jiu Fei is my foster brother, she is the daughter of the most talented spy family in Niangxi. I learned a lot from him even though I was almost eight years away from him. Jiu Fei left when she was eighteen for a mission to a war on the border. Unfortunately, he became blinded by love for his enemy so he chose to be a traitor to his own country.” The story simply flowed from Xue Xue's lips.

“I know, you know very well, because at the end of his life, Jiu Fei was in your arms. A monk at Sunyen temple told me that one morning you arrived there with a face soaked in tears, hugging the cold and stiff body of Jiu Fei's brother. And with your hands all morning you dug a tomb for him under a Wisteria tree, buried him with deep sorrow. You were the last person she saw before she closed her eyes.” Zhao Juren could hear Xue Xue Xue's voice resisting sobs.

“How do you know that?” Zhao Juren was stunned.

“I know right, all those stories. I even sent someone to come to Sunyen temple to make sure my brother was buried with respect.”

 Really, Zhao Juren was even at a loss for words upon hearing all of Xue Xue's statements.

“Sister Jiu Fei was the first to teach how to use a sword, older brother Jiu Fei who taught flying needles from iron fans. He taught me a lot of things that no palace should teach me.” Xue Xue continued, almost inaudible.

“And the person he loved the most was you, the young prince who was then a young general to Yanzhi. He's willing to die for you.”

“You're wrong! You're wrong people!” sergeant Zhao Juren.

 “I'm not wrong people.”

 “You are wrong miss, she..she is in love with the prince of the country Yanzhi.” The voice sounded bitter, spoken by Zhao Juren.

 “How could I be wrong? Isn't your name Zhao Juren?”

“I am indeed Zhao Juren but.but Jiu Fei fell in love with His Majesty Yan Yue, not me.” Zhao Juren swallowed her bitter-tasting saliva.

“Mr Zhao, how sad, even you two are separated by death without knowing a truth about your own heart.” Xue Xue took a breath from behind her veil. So heavy.

Xue Xue pulled something from within the pocket on the sleeve of her robe, a dull paper that was folded in shabby.

 “My sister and Jiu Fei always sent letters even when she was in the cup in Sunyen temple, but there was one letter that I never destroyed, that is how brother Jiu fei says that his body and heart are only given to one person in his life.”

 Xue Xue shrugged the letter in her hand, trembling Zhao Juren greeted her.

“Read later, so that you understand, why I feel indebted to save you. Thank you for being a protector to Jiu Fei. Thank you for making me feel so alone in a foreign place. All his family had died in punishment after his betrayal but in Nanxing he never forgot mine. We may be bloodless, but the brotherhood he instilled in me is so much thicker than blood. I have promised if there is a chance to repay all your kindness to Brother Jiu Fei, and the heavens grant it.”

That night, a strange reality seemed to tear Zhao Juren's heart even though he was still worried about what he heard.

The Land of Yanzhi even noted that if His Highness Yan Yue had ever fallen in love with a girl from Niangxi, she had been heartbroken for many years because the girl decided to become a Monk rather than become his wife. Travelers tell the tragic love story for nearly a decade, singing it in young fairy tales. Zhao Juren himself knew very well, Jiu Fei even sacrificed his life to save Yan Yue not once but many times. Jiu Fei willingly blocked the arrows for Yan Yue, Jiu Fei willingly ran away from Sunyen temple to hand over the secret documents about the queen mother rebellion plan.

Now, how could Jiu fei love him on Yan Yue's appeal?

Thousands of nights repeatedly arrived, the new year came, the new year passed, the time through the sidelines of the fingers quietly passed, it could even be seen through the veins, like clear water.

Zhao Juren had gone through that trajectory in agony and heartbreak until meeting a young concubine named Xiao Yi for a second heartbreak. The reality he heard sounded impossible and strange.

“Mr Zhao Juren, we are under the same sky but on different lands, if there is no greed and the world can be fair, maybe we can coexist quietly and maybe today I am holding a niece from that kind-hearted brother Jiu fei. But, reality is always different from dreams, nothing can really be realized with the word if.” Xue Xue chuckled

by oneself.

 Zhao Juren had no words, for the rest of her life this time she could only be stunned to hear a woman continue to talk nonstop in front of her.

It was their talk before Xue Xue decided to escort him to the river bank of the border between the land of Niang and the land of Yan.

"For a final request, before we're really going to part here, may I ask for one thing..." Zhao Juren had no idea for what reason to the point that she felt her chest pounding saying the plea just before Xue Xue turned around.

"What's that?"

 "Can I see your face Miss Xue Xue?"