QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead

Chapter 183: Don't remember everything

Xi Zirui wakes up with a start in the white limbo space.

His fury is nearly blinding.

Ni Ni rushes to defend herself. "It wasn't Ni Ni, Host. Ni Ni didn't do anything!" 

It's a paltry reassurance, whoever's fault it is, Xi Zirui still ended up dead. 

"Show me, show me everything that happened."

---

In the end, Xi Zirui should have known he was asking too much of Bai Mi.

She couldn't afford to keep Su Xueyi alive, and it only took him a few hours after Xi Zirui's 'death' to start making threats.

Obviously the pressure increased around him, after Liao Min's convenient escape and Xi Zirui's and Han Yu apparent deaths. The gruesome implications of how Liao Min had disposed of the bodies was too much for the regular person to consider -- the guards might have taken some of their horror out on Su Xueyi's face.

That's when he demanded to see the youngest princess so that he could share some sensitive information.

To her credit, Bai Mi tried to hold off, but Su Xueyi made things hard for her very early on.

She conferred with Ji Limei, and asked her for advice. On the one hand, Xi Zirui had dutifully kept his end of the bargain, on the other hand, that Su motherfucker was getting on her nerves.

Ji Limei had an inkling as to why Xi Zirui might have been so adamant that they don't let Su Xueyi hang for the crimes he had a hand implicating him in.

But even so, she encouraged Bai Mi to follow her intuition with a kind smile.

Bai Mi's intuition was to get rid of Su Xueyi as soon as possible before he could create any more problems for her.

She wouldn't hear about Xi Zirui's 'actual' death, many years later, when her position as Xin's first female Emperor was already solidified. By then she only felt a twinge of regret at not thanking the brother who had helped her achieve her current position.

Bai Mi never married, which all the court officials thought was for the best, as it would have been a disaster to have a male figure so close to the throne -- after all, there was no such thing as an Emperor Consort.

This served Bai Mi just fine, who named a few promising successors from the bevvy of brats her sisters whelped.

If anyone commented on how close her handmaid served her, Bai Mi would find way to cut off any wagging tongues.

Peace reigned in Xin, and in its border territories. That promise Bai Mi did keep.

The Empress Dowager always found it odd that the late Emperor would die so soon after naming his sister his heir, and never quite warmed up to Bai Mi.

Their relationship was frosty all the way until the Empress Dowager's death. Before her death she made sure to edify some public works in Xi Zirui's name -- something Bai Mi didn't contest -- and commission several glowing biographies of his short life.

As her death approached, the Empress Dowager consoled herself with the knowledge that at least the nation was prosperous, and its citizens happy. She had fulfilled her marital duty to her late husband, in this at least.

She died without learning that her lovechild had been raised well in a peasant family not too far from the capital, and that her granddaughter had been just a few rooms away from her at every moment in the last years before her death.

Han Yu insisted on taking Xi Zirui back to his and Liao Min's ancestral lands, insisting he had made a promise. Liao Min didn't fight him, her only concern was arriving there as soon as possible.

He was subdued once they arrived, unable to show the elation expected of him at having returned. He was mostly silent for the first few weeks after Xi Zirui's simple burial.

Liao Min tried to draw him out on occasion but to no avail.

Han Yu was one of several Kings, there were others interested in doing the work he left behind. 

One day he took a horse into the prairie and never returned.

Some people searched for him, but when multiple search parties turned out empty handed, they gave up. 

Liao Min had a bad feeling about it, she went back to Xi Zirui's burial mound and found the earth disturbed. It sent a chill down her spine, and yet she could imagine Han Yu enlisting some stranger's help for something of the sort.

She couldn't say she understood what connection he had with the Emperor of a people who tried to destroy their own, but she accepted that perhaps she wasn't meant to.

She never told anyone about Han Yu's final resting place, respecting his wishes.

---

Xi Zirui chuckles bitterly at how predictable everything was in the end. All his careful planning doesn't mean anything if other's people's whims can bring it crashing down at any second.

As always, the futility of trying to wrest some happiness from the Transmigrator 4000's brutal parameters almost crushes him. 

He tells Ni Ni he doesn't care about any System rewards, he only wants to go back.

This time, he'll try something else. He'll tell the Shopkeeper about what Ji Limei told him, and try to bargain with her.

The Shopkeeper wants out, but Xi Zirui will only help her if he has some assurances too.

---

Her pinched features come into view just as Xi Zirui blinks his eyes open in the Transmigrator 4000's chair.

The Shopkeeper no longer pretends to like seeing him. They glare at each other for a moment before Xi Zirui recognizes there's no point to their pissing contest.

"I found out somethings," he says, and begrudgingly tells her everything Ji Limei shared.

She listens attentively for a moment, her expression not showing any changes, until it finally opens into a big wide grin.

"I think I know what I need to do."

Befores she can leave, Xi Zirui holds her back by the wrist. "Listen, I know you lied to me about Han Yu, and a whole lot of other things. I don't care, I will cooperate, but I need some assurances first."

And then he tells her in as much detail as possible what he wants for him and Han Yu.

She sighs dramatically. "That's all? How about a palace made of jade while you're at it?"

Xi Zirui glares at her. "I'm being dead fucking serious, if you don't find a way to do what I want, I swear that the moment I can, I'll do this all over again, and this time around I'll make sure you're sucked into the Transmigrator 4000 too."

"To think I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I should have known this was all your fault." 

It the Shopkeeper wasn't his biggest fan before, now she looks ready to tear his head off.

"Haven't you caused enough chaos?" she asks, her brilliant eyes narrowed into thin slits.

Xi Zirui grins at her. "Fuck around and find out."

She vanishes through a side door after that. Some times passes until she returns, some of the confidence having ebbed away from her face.

"Okay, so I don't know how to get us out yet, but I think I might have found a way for you to get your memories back, and maybe undo this whole mess."

Xi Zirui glares at her. "Remember what I told you."

She starts tapping buttons in the machine with a pointed scowl. "How could I forget."

Xi Zirui feels his conscience ebbing away, he doesn't fight it. He closes his eyes and envisions the future he wants with Han Yu.

---

Xi Zirui feels a billowing breeze caressing his cheek. He tries to hide from it, trying to stay asleep a little longer by nuzzling into the bedding beneath him. It's only after a few moments of lazy indulgence that he remembers what he's supposed to be doing.

He jumps out of bed with a start and nearly falls flat on his ass. Everything feels slippery, from the silk sheets to the jade floor, Xi Zirui looks around him in shock to find towering walls and columns carved from, if not jade, at least jadeite. 

It's a more impressive sight than he has ever seen. He tries to get up but only manages to get himself tangled in the sheets further. That's when he notices he's wearing robes made of several sheer layers, so thin he barely feels the weight of the fabric.

Before he can get his muddled thoughts in order, the wide carved doors to the room he's in flutter open with a burst of energy and Bai Mi saunters inside, wearing similar robes to Xi Zirui's her silky black hair pinned in a flowing waterfall on top of her head.

She smirks as soon as she sees him. "Brother, sleeping the day away again? What will mother say?"

Her words slam into Xi Zirui like a truck, and so do all the memories locked behind them. 

Suddenly, Xi Zirui remembers who he is and every detail of his life. He remembers everything.