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Zhou Chen did not respond to Xu Yuan's remark. He knew perfectly well what could be said and what absolutely could not. Matters of the Chancellor's household were best kept behind sealed lips.
For a while, both of them fell silent.
Xu Yuan kept his eyes on the young women dancing on the main hall stage, barefoot and graceful, long sleeves swirling as they moved, while his mind turned to his little sister.
Of course he knew the Fourth Miss of the Chancellor's Manor, Xu Xinyao. She was one of the female leads of Azure Point.
But until just now, Xu Yuan's impression of her had basically remained stuck in what he knew from his previous life. He had never deliberately gone digging through the Third Young Master’s memories about her.
That was right. When Xu Yuan called Xu Xinyao a bitch earlier, he had done it purely because he wanted to. No hidden agenda. That insult came straight from the heart. Back in his previous life, when he had viewed everything from a god's-eye perspective, he had never cared much for this heroine.
Still, after Zhou Chen's reminder, Xu Yuan began searching through his mind for information about this sister. Most of the memories were incomplete and blurry, but he could piece together the general shape of their relationship. At present, his relationship with his sister could be described as catastrophically bad.
Xu Yuan was not surprised by in the slightest. With how the Third Young Master had behaved, it would have been stranger if they had gotten along. Though one thing was worth mentioning. When they were children, the two of them had actually been fairly close.
Judging by his memories, he had even secretly liked this adopted little sister of his when he was young. Not sibling affection either. That kind of liked. It was because Xu Xinyao had always been gentle and kind. Living in the shadow of his two brilliant older brothers, the painfully ordinary Xu Changtian had been withdrawn since childhood.
Though back then, with both brothers around to keep him company and comfort him, that reclusive side of him had not been too obvious. But after Xu Changge and Xu Changan both came of age and left home to travel, it only got worse.
Fortunately, Xu Xinyao had been willing to stay by the side of this gloomy, shut-in child.
To put it a little more poetically, she had been the softest beam of light in his heart. But even that soft light gradually became a searchlight as they grew older, so bright it hurt the Third Young Master's eyes.
And the most important part was that this beam of light left too after staying only two years. After her interest and talent in formation arts were discovered, their father asked whether she wanted to go out and study the Dao properly.
The Third Young Master begged her not to leave, but she went anyway. Still just a little brat at the time, he saw it as betrayal.
And what came after was exactly as Xu Yuan had recalled before. The Third Young Master became a complete and utter shut-in.
By the time Xu Xinyao returned after finishing her studies, Xu Changtian had already become a completely different person.
Watching her formerly quiet and taciturn brother gradually go bad, the kindhearted Xu Xinyao naturally tried to stop him. But who was Xu Changtian? A freak of nature who would not turn back even when his own eldest brother whipped him with a belt. Did anyone really think a few words from an adopted younger sister were going to rein him in?
Usually, all her attempts achieved was this. Xu Xinyao would go complain, Xu Changge would come home from outside, and the Third Young Master would get hung up and beaten half to death.
By then, the Third Young Master’s personality had already twisted completely, and he pinned every last bit of it on Xu Xinyao. He started attacking her birth, calling her a bastard, even laying hands on her.
At first, Xu Xinyao's kindness kept her from giving up on this brother of hers. But there was only so much she could take. Xu Changtian just kept getting more warped.
And as the things he did in the Imperial Capital grew more absurd and more unrestrained, the siblings gradually split for good.
In less than ten years, their relationship had deteriorated to the point where they were practically no longer on speaking terms.
A trace of wistfulness flickered through Xu Yuan's eyes, but it quickly turned into something more amused.
Xu Xinyao was the definition of a perfect heroine. But when Xu Yuan had played Azure Point in his previous life, he had never been able to like the Fourth Miss of the Chancellor's Manor.
Now that he had inherited the Third Young Master's memories, though, his view of her had changed a little. As one of Azure Point's heroines, Xu Xinyao was unquestionably a qualified one. After the accidental encounter early on, she gave the story's protagonist, the one Xu Yuan had controlled, an enormous amount of material help.
At first, Xu Yuan had actually liked her quite a bit. Because really, who wouldn’t love a rich girl?
Xu Xinyao had quite a few romance routes in Azure Point that could all be completed. They meet, go on adventures together, and in the end fall in love. They meet, become enemies and lovers, and in the end fall in love. They meet, the hero saves the beauty, they go on adventures together, and in the end fall in love.
From the protagonist's point of view, Xu Xinyao really was perfect. Besides being rich, she was gentle, kind, thoughtful, and on top of that possessed real skill in the art of formations, enough to help the protagonist in a meaningful way.
But the problem was this. Back then, Xu Yuan had not only been able to immerse himself in the protagonist's role. He had also possessed a god's-eye view of every character in Azure Point.
And as Xu Xinyao's identity was revealed bit by bit, Xu Yuan gradually lost interest in her as a character.
In many late-game storylines of Azure Point, once the Chancellor's faction began to collapse and decline because of the protagonist's meddling, plenty of people chose to betray that old man, whether out of concern for their own interests or simply out of a desperate desire to survive.
And in those story branches, among the people who betrayed him, there was also Xu Xinyao, that high-born Fourth Miss. More than that, in some story branches, her betrayal was absolutely pivotal.
Xu Yuan had always believed that everyone had their own internal logic for how they acted. Because people were imperfect, that logic could be contradictory in places, even hypocritical in places. But no matter what a person chose to do, it ought to come from the position they themselves stood in.
And Xu Xinyao had completely betrayed her own position. Because she believed the story's protagonist stood on the side of justice, because she believed her adoptive father's actions had plunged the common people into misery and bloodshed, she chose to sacrifice her own family for the greater good.
Very noble. Very righteous. A touching little tale of a loving father and dutiful daughter.
At that thought, Xu Yuan suddenly felt like laughing. He did laugh twice, then slowly shook his head. He had not traveled much through the real Great Flame Empire yet, so he did not know exactly what the rest of it looked like.
But in Azure Point, the whole realm had long been roiling beneath the surface. The northern barbarians, the Ancient Abyss in the southwest, and the sects within the Great Flame Empire itself... many forces were already growing restless.
As the Fourth Miss of the Chancellor's Manor, Xu Xinyao knew all of this. But she wanted to find a solution that could balance all sides without resorting to force. She thought about it, and she acted on it too.
In many storylines, she kept striving toward that goal. Unfortunately, in every single one, her efforts ended as a joke. Because in that game of chess, one destined to descend into chaos, her father became the first to place a piece on the board.
It was like the collapse of a faith. She began to struggle. She began to waver. She... chose betrayal.
Betrayal. Xu Yuan let out a long breath, a trace of helplessness flashing through his eyes. Sure enough, no matter how pretty she looked in those memories, he just could not bring himself to like this woman. He was not asking her to abandon her beliefs and come help them. But the very least she could have done was stay neutral and not take either side.
Anyone could betray the Chancellor. Anyone except Xu Xinyao. He was the one who gave her a home when she was at her most helpless. He was the one who pulled her up from hunger and want and placed her among the clouds, gave her the best education, the best living conditions, the very best of everything he could offer.
The grace of raising her outweighed the grace of giving birth to her. He was not your birth father, yet better than one. Not her birth mother, yet better than one. Even her eldest brother and second brother treated her as though she had been born of the main wife.
And yet, when they least expected it, she chose to stab them in the place where they were most vulnerable.
