The daughter of the emperor is reborn to be beautiful and cool, and the King of Zhenbei loves her wi

The footsteps behind me are getting closer.

Shen Nanzhi came over.

He knew she would be angry, resentful, and even distance herself from him.

This is as it should be.

Whether for herself or for the Shen family she values, this is the wisest choice.

He deserves to suffer all of it.

Xiao Chuyun suppressed his fear and anxiety, and finally mustered up the courage to turn around, and saw Shen Nanzhi reaching out her hand to him.

Xiao Chuyun thought she would be angry because she was deceived and cheated, but at this moment her eyelashes trembled slightly.

There was emotion, grievance, sadness, tears in those bright eyes, as well as emotions that Xiao Chuyun could not understand, but there was no hatred and anger as he thought.

Is this the calm before the storm?

At that moment, Xiao Chuyun didn't even dare to have the slightest hope.

He stood there, neither avoiding nor giving way, waiting for her questioning or slapping.

However, Shen Nanzhi's raised fingertips did not turn into a slap, but gently fell on the side of his cheek.

Xiao Chuyun thought about the thousands of possibilities between them after the truth was revealed, but he never expected Shen Nanzhi to say, "This mask is too ugly."

Shen Nanzhi moved his fingers.

Following her eye signal, Xiao Chuyun took off the fox mask that seemed to be smiling but not smiling.

The face beneath the mask was a face covered by another sheepskin mask as thin as a cicada's wing.

His identity is just like his personality, hidden behind one mask after another. Sometimes even he himself cannot tell which is real and which is fake.

When he faced Shen Nanzhi as Xiao Chuyun, he tried his best to restrain and endure. He tried to be a gentleman, to be self-disciplined and polite, for fear of scaring her or displeasing her.

When he put on the mask and acted as Xiao Yanchu, he was afraid that he would have any connection with Shen Nanzhi, and was also afraid that she would find out something, so he behaved in a completely different manner.

Moreover, he would also be grateful for the disguise of these layers of masks, which made him different from when he was Xiao Chuyun, who was afraid of upsetting her and disliking her and was full of worries. Perhaps it was because of his inherent bad nature, he occasionally couldn't help teasing her. He found it cute and lively to see her angry and jumping up and down.

He is so divided and so hypocritical.

Thinking of this, Xiao Chuyun dared not look into Shen Nanzhi's eyes anymore.

But Shen Nanzhi did not remove her hand from the side of his face.

She looked at the sheepskin mask under his mask and couldn't help but frowning and said, "So there is another mask underneath, no wonder."

If it weren't for the unfamiliar jaw he saw at the time, Shen Nanzhi would have recognized him long ago.

Her fingertips were warm and fell on one side of the mask, but Xiao Chuyun's heart turned completely cold.

The expected trial had not yet come, and Xiao Chuyun's heart had already been broken into pieces.

Seeing that Shen Nanzhi hadn't found the trick to remove the last layer of the mask for a long time, Xiao Chuyun pointed behind his ear. He was going to guide her finger to remove it, but when he was about to touch her, he became frightened and hurriedly and carefully avoided her. He removed the last layer of disguise himself, revealing a face that was extremely familiar to Shen Nanzhi.

But Shen Nanzhi just held the face in one hand, thinking about something, and did not say anything.

Xiao Chuyun's breathing seemed to have stopped.

Seeing Shen Nanzhi's lips move slightly and she was about to speak, Xiao Chuyun closed his eyes in despair. He really didn't want to meet the coldness and determination in her eyes.

But the next moment, she asked, "Did my injuries cost you a lot?"

Although he didn't know what exactly happened, Shen Nanzhi finally recovered after half a day.

She is not a flash of brilliance.

When she was ready to die together with him, as she exhaled the depressed air in her chest, not only did the piercing pain in her lungs not come as expected, but her original internal energy seemed to become more than twice as strong.

No wonder she felt that she was in better shape than in her heyday when she faced the fake Master Huiming.

She should have died from the shattering of her internal organs, but instead of dying, her internal strength suddenly improved dramatically after recuperating for several days. It must be something he did.

At this point, Shen Nanzhi thought of the evasive look in Lu Pianpian's eyes when she mentioned Xiao Chuyun after she woke up. Even if Shen Nanzhi was a fool, she could guess a little bit.

I just don't know what price it cost him.

Xiao Chuyun turned his head away, not daring to look into her eyes, and just said lightly, "Not bad."

He said so, so that's it.

Shen Nanzhi's heart moved, and she couldn't help but raise her hand to hold him. She wanted to say something to him, but she didn't know where to start.

She is not a stubborn or pedantic person.

So what if Xiao Chuyun has the blood of Prince Ning?

He is just a victim, and his birth was never his choice.

From giving her his vital heart-protecting pill to exposing his identity and stepping forward to save her from Xiao Qian'an at the critical moment of life and death.

Also, during this period of time, although it was called kidnapping and detention, and his attitude seemed bad on the surface, he never really offended her. Not only did he take good care of her body, he also took better care of her than she was at home. Moreover, after seeing what Qin Suyi and Master Huiming did, Shen Nanzhi could see that he was also trying to protect her.

If Shen Nanzhi's guess was correct, on the day when the Shen family performed the ritual, Qin Suyi and the monks who had already arrived in her yard were planning to kill her with the help of both inside and outside forces, but it was his people who took her away first.

In his previous life, in order to avenge her, he reborn as Xiao Yanchu, killed all those who had hurt her, and broke through the restrictions of the imperial mausoleum guards to send her to the afterlife.

In order to protect her in this life, he personally designed and severed the ties with those Ning Wang rebels. Now, he is neither Xiao Chuyun nor Xiao Yanchu.

But no matter whether it was Xiao Yanchu or Xiao Chuyun, no matter in the past life or this life, he tried his best to protect her.

He has done so much for her, how could Shen Nanzhi still be obsessed with those feuds and causes and consequences that he should not bear.

She hesitated and hadn't figured out how to start the conversation when she saw Xiao Chuyun was about to leave.

Xiao Chuyun, who was very good at martial arts, seemed to have some unsteady steps at this moment.

Shen Nanzhi hurriedly blurted out, "Prince."

Xiao Chuyun did not turn around. He turned his back to Shen Nanzhi and said with his eyes downcast: "Xiao Qian'an and Shen Chang'an are almost here. Miss Shen is safe."

Having said this, he walked away.

The flustered figure seemed to be afraid of hearing the determination in Shen Nanzhi's mouth, and even had a bit of embarrassment of fleeing in panic.

"Xiao Chuyun!"

He didn't respond when she called him "Prince", so Shen Nanzhi called him by his name.

But he still didn't stop. Shen Nanzhi became anxious and followed him in one step.

She grabbed his sleeve and whispered, "Where are you going?"

Xiao Chuyun lowered his eyes, but did not look back at Shen Nanzhi. His tone was still gentle but firm as he said, "If Miss Shen is willing to cover up, I will continue to be Xiao Chuyun. I should be on my way to Yuzhou now. If Miss Shen is unwilling, it will only be a return to my original identity, and everyone will call for my death. Where I go is entirely up to Miss Shen."

It was because of the secret of his life experience that he never dared to get close to her easily, and never dared to have any inappropriate thoughts.

Even though he was already engaged to her, he was still worried about losing her.

He didn't want to keep deceiving her, but he had to.

Because he knew clearly that the moment the truth came out would be the moment she broke up with him. Before, he could at least still have hope, but at that moment, even all hope was gone.

That's why he is so contradictory.

She knew that no matter how well he disguised himself, she would be able to detect the clues after spending enough time with him. She also knew that many of his actions had revealed flaws, and he should have been more careful to hide this identity. If he insisted on doing so, with his calculations, it might be possible for him to continue deceiving people.

But it was always a thorn between them.

It is the fear and torment that I feel every time I face her.

On the one hand, he was afraid that she would know because the consequences would be too much for him to bear.

On the other hand, he also hoped that she would know so that his empty joy could end sooner and he wouldn't have to suffer from the anxiety of gain and loss every day.

Although it was difficult, at this moment, Xiao Chuyun finally felt relieved that everything was settled.

However, although he had long lost his fear of life and death, when faced with this final moment, he became extremely panicked and instinctively wanted to escape.

But a slender hand grabbed his sleeve.

Although he clearly didn't use any strength, Xiao Chuyun felt as if his entire body was imprisoned by those fingertips, unable to move at all.

At that moment, he didn't even have the courage to look back.

Shen Nanzhi only heard Shen Nanzhi whispered, "So will you be Xiao Chuyun or Xiao Yanchu in the future?"

Xiao Chuyun's throat rolled, and his voice was a little hoarse as he said, "Does it make any difference to Miss Shen?"

Shen Nanzhi nodded: "Yes."

Xiao Chuyun turned around in surprise, and when he turned around he met Shen Nanzhi's lively eyes.

She looked up at him and said seriously: "If you were Xiao Chuyun, I would leave with you, if..."

At this point, Shen Nanzhi paused, his eyes dimmed, and he gritted his teeth and said, "If you were Xiao Yanchu, I would beat you up first."

Xiao Chuyun never expected Shen Nanzhi to say such a thing.

He was completely stunned, seemingly unable to react.

But Shen Nanzhi had already grabbed his sleeve, her eyes fixed on his face, which was originally extremely handsome, but now reminded her of Xiao Yanchu's extremely annoying face.

Thinking of his pranks, how he deliberately lied to her, scared her, and used sugar-roasted chestnuts to trick her into tracking her, making her frightened these past few days, Shen Nanzhi couldn't help but rush over and raised her hand to pinch his cheek hard.

Shen Nanzhi was finally able to vent her anger.

"I told you not to bully me!"

Xiao Chuyun was already on the edge of falling, and before he could come to his senses, Shen Nanzhi suddenly pounced on him. He staggered and lost his balance, and was knocked backwards by Shen Nanzhi.

With his skills, he could stabilize his body and completely control the situation by just flipping his ankle.

However, at this moment, he could not exert any strength at all. Only the instinct to protect Shen Nanzhi in his arms made him raise his hands to protect her. He fell heavily to the ground, and his back was hit by the stones on the ground. It was excruciatingly painful. Shen Nanzhi, who was protected in his arms, was unharmed. But when Xiao Chuyun looked up, he saw that her eyes were red and her eyelashes were full of tears.

Xiao Chuyun's heart suddenly panicked.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to knock you down..."

He thought that Shen Nanzhi was hurt by the fall, or that she was upset by the previous grievance, or that she was resisting his sudden intimacy.

Xiao Chuyun no longer cared about the pain in his body. He raised his hand to support Shen Nanzhi and struggled to get up from the ground, but Shen Nanzhi held his chest.

He lay on the ground and looked up at her, while Shen Nanzhi, who was in her arms, propped up one hand at his side and also looked at him with red eyes.

The moment their eyes met, before either of them could speak, Shen Nanzhi's tears flowed across her eyelashes and landed on his face.

The scorching temperature made Xiao Chuyun's heart tremble.

"Miss Shen..."

Xiao Chuyun was a little at a loss.

Unexpectedly, Shen Nanzhi asked, "Why do you keep calling me Miss Shen?"

Xiao Chuyun frowned slightly, not quite understanding what Shen Nanzhi meant.

Shen Nanzhi continued, "I always thought you only proposed marriage to me because we were suitable. You always called me Miss Shen and always behaved like a gentleman. You kept a distance from me because of our original agreement, not because you liked me."

In fact, without knowing Xiao Yanchu's identity, Shen Nanzhi had doubts many times whether Xiao Chuyun was so different and cared so much about her because he liked her. But every time she heard the ordinary words "Miss Shen" and saw his cold and dignified appearance, Shen Nanzhi felt that she was overthinking.

Except for a few times of forced physical contact in critical moments, there seemed to have never been any crossing of the line between her and him.

The only time was when she woke up from a serious injury, and he quietly came to her yard to see her. The hot lips that fell on her ear at that time... made Shen Nanzhi blush and her heart beat fast, but he never expressed his love for her out loud. Shen Nanzhi tried to figure out his thoughts and also wondered if that was a move he made because he had just experienced life and death and was worried about gains and losses.

After all, their daily interactions were far too polite and distant compared to those between other engaged men and women.

Even Chang'an's cousin, who realized his feelings late and pursued Liu Jingya, could make others' ears burn when he was with Liu Jingya.

However, she and Xiao Chuyun never seemed to be so relaxed, casual, intimate, or ambiguous.

Although she believed in him and he protected her unconditionally, Shen Nanzhi felt that this relationship was more like an alliance of life and death rather than making her believe that Xiao Chuyun liked her.

She was sensitive by nature, and since they hadn't confirmed each other's feelings yet, it was inevitable that she would overthink.

Now that the truth has come to light, Shen Nanzhi realizes his restraint and forbearance.

However, there was inevitably a hint of resentment in her tone: "Miss Shen, Miss Zhang, Miss Wang...what's the difference in sound?"

Xiao Chuyun, who was already like a drowning man, moved his lips and was about to explain, but he heard Shen Nanzhi say again: "Forget it, just call her like this for now, and there is no need to change it. Anyway, when we get married in the future, we will call you Madam."

As she spoke, she finally released her hand that was pressing on his chest and prepared to stand up, but Xiao Chuyun grabbed her wrist instead.

His eyes were bloodshot, and he, who was always cold and reserved, didn't even have time to control his expression. He asked in disbelief, "What did you just say?"