Yao Shen watches the moment the smile disappears form the Crown Prince's face. Xin Hulei is sitting down on the same sofa he was when they first met. Except this time he's injured, covered in bandages everywhere. There's one wrapped around his eye, circling his head.
It's a heartbreaking sight, but Xin Hulei still has both horns -- like he told Yao Shen, that will come later.
"What happened to you?" the Crown Prince asks, rushing to his side. "Did you manage to use the relic?"
Xin Hulei glares at him with his visible eye and pushes him away, making him stumble into the other sofa.
"Did it amuse you?" he asks, his voice heavy and grating. "Did you enjoy lying to me, sleeping with me, knowing what would happen after?"
The Crown Prince's eyes widen. "I don't- I have no idea what you're talking about."
and there you have it folks! the reason why Si Wang orchestrated this whole thing. The reason why everyone said Yao Shen had so many "failed" past reincarnations -- all of it were Si Wang's attempts to get it "right" (what that means I'll leave up to your interpretation.)
We'll see more details about this in a moment, but in the meantime, I hope I'm not boring anyone with the flashbacks. I was super looking forward to writing this part of the ending and finally revealing how all of it fits together.
There's more to come of course but, this chapter is sort of special imo because it shows that somethings that were previously hinted at didin't go down exactly that way ;D