After Being Kidnapped by the Crown Prince

But how could Zhao Xin listen to him at a time like this, “You promise me first.”

Zhao Zhi closed his eyes, his voice sounded a bit weak, “Okay.”

“You’re not allowed to lie to me!”

“I won’t.”

Zhao Xin hesitated for a moment, but for the time being, believed that her brother would not go back on his word. She was about to put the box down, but the box was really too heavy and her arms were already sore from holding it up for so long. The box accidentally slipped out of her hands and landed on the floor.

Zhao Zhi’s pupils immediately shrank, and he hastily ran forward, but he was a step too slow, and could only watch, with his own eyes, as the box filled with the ashes of her bones heavily hit the ground, with the fine ashes inside scattering everywhere.

The man ran too urgently, both of his knees ended up knocking on the ground, kneeling down.

Zhao Xin looked at him with a hint of fear in her eyes, she didn’t even dare to go help her brother up, and stammered, “Big brother, what’s wrong with you?”

Zhao Zhi was kneeling on both knees, with his waist slightly bent over, both of his hands were clutching in a death grip the ground, as several shocking and dreadful bloody blisters formed on his fingertips.

(67.1)

Zhao Xin was absolutely stunned, and stood at a loss in place. A hazy mist gradually gathered inside her eyes, the look on her face was blank, and vaguely fearful, as she watched her brother kneel motionlessly on the ground. His long black hair sliding down the side of his shoulders, with his head bowed, covering the side of his face, made her unable to see the expression on his face.

Zhao Xin lifted her heavy legs and slowly took two steps forward, calling softly in a low voice, “Big brother ……”

Zhao Zhi seemed not to have heard her, quietly and calmly, he bent over, and stretched out his pale hands, his movements were slow as he gathered the scattered ashes on the ground, taking them back into his palm little by little.

Zhao Xin stared at him while holding her breath, the silence in the study made her feel terrified, and at this moment, right in this instant, she did not even dare to speak.

The sandalwood box was very solid, only the ashes inside had suffered. The windowpane was open, and the autumn breeze was blowing into the room.

The ashes on the ground, with just a light blow of the breeze, drifted in the air, scattering.

Zhao Zhi did not seem to notice this, and it was unsure whether it was because he was using too much force, but his hands were trembling uncontrollably, every knuckle turned deadly white.

Because the ground was rough, the skin on the inside of his fingers was scraped, bright red blood beads slowly rolled down, along his veins, and dreadful bloody marks appeared because he was clutching the ground.

Zhao Xin was really scared now, she was arrogant and rash, but she had very little courage, she had never seen her upright and cold big brother being like this. She opened her mouth, and when she spoke, it seemed like she was about to start crying out, “Big brother, your hands are bleeding a lot.”

She realized that she might have made a big mistake, in the past no matter how valuable the things she smashed were, her elder brother would never really blame her, and would even less kneel on the ground in such a wretched state like he was now, trying to retrieve everything little by little as it originally was.

Zhao Xin bent her knees and squatted down, her eyes were red as she reached out her hand, “I’ll help you.”

“No need.” Two cold and indifferent words, with a low and dry voice.

It felt like Zhao Xin’s heart was being squeezed, and she didn’t dare to randomly move for a moment, afraid that her good intentions would end up in her doing bad things. She stood up, feeling aggrieved, with a dry and sore feeling in her throat. She walked to the window and put down the bracket on the wooden window to close it, to keep the autumn breeze out of the room.

Zhao Zhi was silent, burying his head as he took the ashes on the ground and put them back into the box little by little. His cold eyes were lowered, staring blankly at the box in front of him.

His hands were too dirty to even look at it, his palms were gray because of the ashes and they were also stained with dirty blood.

Zhao Zhi slowly stood up, the impact of his knees hitting the ground was so great just now that she felt pain just looking at them, Zhao Xin reached out to help him, but was forced to retreat by his cold gaze, so she withdrew her hands, embarrassed.

Zhao Xin still didn’t know why this box was so important to her brother. She also couldn’t imagine that those were Ming Zhu’s ashes. She asked, “What’s in this box?”

Zhao Zhi raised his expressionless face, the look in his dim eyes also looked indifferent, as he said, “Nothing, it’s nothing important.”

Not important? Zhao Xin didn’t believe it, for her brother to lose his bearing like this, how could it not be important?

Zhao Zhi’s thumbs were clutching the box, the snow-white skin of his thin wrists was covered with bulging veins.