The thick branches blocked most of the moonlight.
A small amount of sparse moonlight filtered through the dense branches and fell mottled on Mo Chenyi's face.
His handsome features were hidden in the shadows, and his emotions could not be seen.
After a while, he laughed softly, "That's better."
Shen Feng was even more confused: "Your Highness, are we looking for living people or corpses?"
What responded to him was the falling leaves.
Shen Feng looked at the empty branches and scratched his head in confusion.
Then, he left quietly.
"Your Highness, the Fourth Highness is here." Not long after, someone from the second prince's house came to report.
Mo Jinming took back his thoughts.
He glanced at the hairpin in his hand and put it away carefully, "Bring him here."
"Let the kitchen cook some wontons and shrimp porridge."
"Yes, Your Highness." The servant bowed and stepped back.
A moment later, Mo Chenyi arrived at Mo Jinming's house with his head lowered, holding a wooden bamboo horse toy.
He was not as usual, sticking to Mo Jinming's side whenever he saw him.
Instead, he stood at the door uneasily, glancing at him timidly from time to time.
Mo Jinming looked at him with a gentle expression: "What's wrong?"
Mo Chenyi bit the corner of his lip, his eyes were wet, clear and harmless.
He carefully raised his eyes and looked at Mo Jinming: "Brother...brother..."
"Well, come and sit down. Second brother has asked the kitchen to prepare your favorite wontons. They'll be ready in a minute."
When Mo Chenyi heard this, his pupils trembled slightly.
His eyelashes were lowered, and his fingertips caressed the bamboo horse uneasily, "Brother, Chen Yi wants... wants... wants to ask brother..."
He muttered, unable to finish a sentence.
Mo Jinming chuckled helplessly: "Xiaosi, what's wrong with you today? If you want to ask second brother, just ask him."
With that said, he stood up and took Mo Chenyi's hand.
As soon as he touched his hand, Mo Jinming frowned slightly, "Why don't you wear more clothes? Your hands are so cold."
With words of reprimand in his mouth, he waved his sleeves, closed the window with his inner strength, and pulled Mo Chenyi to sit on the low couch.
He turned around and went to the inner room to get a cloak and put it on Mo Chenyi.
"Xiaosi, you need to wear more clothes when you go out to see your brother at night, do you know?"
Mo Chenyi pursed his lips and hummed in a low voice.
Mo Jinming raised his hand and touched the top of his hair, sighed softly, and looked at Mo Chenyi with a complicated expression, "What did Xiaosi just want to ask my brother?"
Mo Chenyi pinched the bamboo horse hard with his fingertips.
After a moment of silence, he slowly spoke, "Brother, if Xiaosi lied to you, would you hate Xiaosi?"
The young man's voice was clean and there was no trace of childishness.
Mo Jinming's heart trembled.
His hand rested on the top of Mo Chenyi's hair and he unconsciously raised it.
The color in Mo Chenyi's eyes suddenly turned cold.
The rich dark color slowly spread in his eyes.
Just as his mood gradually reached the edge of mania.
Mo Jinming asked softly: "Xiaosi, did you cast the cold poison on Ayan?"
The mania in Mo Chenyi's heart suddenly condensed.
He raised his eyes suddenly, with an extremely shocked look on his face, filled with sadness and disbelief, "Brother, do you think I am this kind of person?"
Mo Jinming met his sad and shocked eyes, and his heart felt as if he had been hit hard by a heavy hammer.
He turned away his eyes and said in a light voice, "Were those hundreds of thousands of soldiers three years ago caused by your poison?"
Mo Chenyi lost control and shouted: "No!"
He shook his head in panic: "Brother, believe me, it's really not me, I never did it..."
"Then why did you go to Xingming?" Mo Jinming closed his eyes slightly and interrupted him lightly.
Mo Chenyi suddenly stopped talking.
Mo Jinming slowly opened his eyes: "Xiaosi, second brother, I wish you had never left the palace."
Mo Chenyi suddenly laughed out loud, his hoarse laughter full of self-mockery, "Second brother, if I had not left the palace, would I have survived until now?"
Mo Jinming looked at his self-deprecating look and felt a sudden lump in his heart.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say that his second brother will protect you.
But he couldn't utter a single syllable.
If he hadn't been protected by his mother and concubine, he... probably wouldn't be alive now.
The fourth brother has pretended to be stupid since he was a child, just to survive.
He was not wrong.
Mo Chenyi put the bamboo horse in his hand on the table: "Brother, you carved this with your own hands and gave it to me as a birthday gift when I was ten years old."
His eyes fell on the roughly carved bamboo horse, and his voice was erratic, "Brother, do you still remember the blessing you gave me on my tenth birthday?"
Mo Jinming's heart trembled.
He slowly stretched out his hand, and just when his fingertips touched the bamboo horse, he suddenly retracted it.
"Brother said, please God protect me and help me regain my sanity as soon as possible." Mo Chenyi said softly.
He smiled uglier than crying: "At that moment, I really wanted to confess to my brother."
"But I'm afraid. I'm afraid that my brother will hate me for deceiving you and stop protecting me."
He raised his hand, the back of his hand passed from the end of his eyes, and his pale and thin fingertips tightly grasped the collar of his cloak, "Brother, I did not give the cold poison to the third brother, nor did I give the cold poison to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers."
After the sound fell, he stood up slowly and staggered out.
As soon as I arrived at the door, I almost collided with the boy coming with wontons.
"Your Highness, where are you going? Your favorite shrimp wontons are cooked, don't you want to eat them?" The boy held the wontons steady, looked at Mo Chenyi running out of the courtyard in surprise, and shouted loudly road.
"Xiao Si, stop!" As soon as the boy finished speaking, he heard a cold shout from His Highness.
Immediately afterwards, His Highness quickly chased His Highness the Fourth.
The boy blinked: "What's going on, Your Highness?"
His question was destined to go unanswered.
Mo Jinming quickly chased after him and grabbed Mo Chenyi's hand, "Xiaosi, second brother believes in you."
Mo Chenyi's fingertips suddenly pinched into the palm of his hand.
His eyelashes kept trembling.
After a while, he slowly raised his eyes and said, "Brother..."
Mo Jinming looked at his reddish eyes and sighed softly, "Let's sleep at the second brother's house tonight. We will go to the third brother's house tomorrow morning."
Mo Chenyi bit the corners of his lips and hummed softly.
The next day, when the two came to Mo Rongyan's house, they were told that Mo Rongyan and Su Ruotang had left the capital before dawn.
