What If...I Remember?

Chapter 36

A/N: So here's a slight warning that there are is one or two negatively connotated words of uhm one being sexually suggestive, and just ignore it if you don't know what it means...but meanwhile here's a confrontation of Le Xu by Ye Hua, and hope you guys enjoy it :) [I personally had so much fun writing it lmao]

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"Your Highness, there's been an issue at the Hall of Beautiful Youths-" Jia Yun had yet to finish when a chorus of greetings from the maidservants outside cut him off, and Bai Qian came stumbling into the room, "Ye Hua...please..." "Qian Qian, calm down. I cannot help you like this..." Ye Hua was positively surprised by her barging in, and Bai Qian wore an expression mixed with anger and helplessness as she was forced to sit by his side, "Ye Hua...A-Li was taken."

"A-Li was taken?!" Ye Hua's eyes flashed with worry, "Have you found him back?" In reply, Bai Qian nodded her head, but a shake of her head followed right after, and Ye Hua was rather confused as he asked her gently, "Qian Qian, did you find him or not?" "I did find him." Bai Qian started, and Ye Hua frowned when she bit her lip. There was definitely a "but" coming around the corner. "But your mother said that I wasn't fit to look after A-Li. And she gave A-Li over to Su Jin, making her the one in custody of A-Li's education and everything."

"Su Jin?!" Ye Hua slammed his table unintentionally, his eyes meeting hers as they burned with anger, and Bai Qian nodded, "I tried to dissuade her, but she wouldn't let me speak. Ye Hua...A-Li cannot be in her hands...she will never treat him well..." Bai Qian was sniffling back some tears now, her tone begging, and Ye Hua hugged her at once, not bearing to see her cry, "Qian Qian...I will go plead with my mother now."

"Were you hurt?" Ye Hua suddenly realised that if A-Li had been taken, there were definitely people around to keep him hostage, and Bai Qian definitely would have needed to fight. "They fled upon seeing me, Ye Hua. But Xiao Jiu is severely injured; she tried to take on the whole party of the attackers alone." Bai Qian recalled her niece standing outside, waiting for her to return, and she let go of Ye Hua, looking into his eyes in hope that he might have some useful suggestion.

"Then take her to Zhe Yan, or summon the Medicine King. Actually, take her to Zhe Yan. Things will spread if you summon the Medicine King, and I doubt that will aid me in earning A-Li back." Ye Hua suggested, and Bai Qian nodded, agreeing with his idea, but still rather desperate to have A-Li back as she gripped his hands again, "Ye Hua...please..."

But Bai Qian didn't get to finish it, for Ye Hua had pulled her lips into a kiss, and by the time she came back to her senses, Ye Hua was already striding out of the room, on the mission to save his son back from the hands of Su Jin.

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"Crown Prince." The maids greeted, and Le Xu exchanged glances with Su Jin. "Ye Hua greets Mother." Ye Hua bowed as he entered the room, and Le Xu nodded at him, signalling for him to sit, before she spoke plainly, "I don't suppose you heard about A-Li being taken?" "I did, Mother, which is why I'm here. Qian Qian has told me that A-Li is now in the care of Su Jin, and Ye Hua is here to retrieve him and bring him back to his Qing Yun Hall." Ye Hua responded, his eyes fixed on A-Li, who slept on the bed behind Le Xu, and Le Xu spoke sharply as she lifted her head, "No. You would place him in the reach of Bai Qian."

"What is wrong with Qian Qian, Mother?" Ye Hua pretended not to know of his mother's opinion of Bai Qian, and Le Xu sniffed, taking a long drink from her cup, before she looked at her son, eyes burning with disapproval, "Ye Hua, what kind of woman leaves a child to her servant? And what more, an incapable servant! Back then, we kept Nai Nai, because she was most loyal to Su Su, and she knew most about her, but she is not a bright one, and Bai Qian should've known better than hand A-Li to her!"

"I believe Nai Nai is very capable. She has proved herself a rather reliable servant, and caretaker of A-Li. As does Qian Qian." Ye Hua replied, his gaze cold and vacant, and Le Xu lost her temper at last. "What do you see in this Bai Qian, Ye Hua?! What do you see in her?!" Le Xu stood abruptly, hitting a tray in the midst, and Su Jin rushed quickly to clean up the spilled tea from the tray. "Qian Qian? Qian Qian is capable of standing up for herself, and she's well-versed in her martial arts. She is rather stubborn, but she stays by her values, not willing to do anything against them, and the fact that she is not like other women, in the way that they are insistent on flinging themselves upon myself." Ye Hua could have said more, but just these few lines were enough to set off his mother's bomb.

"Stays by her values? Stubborn? I think it is not as you say, Ye Hua, but instead absolutely atrocious unrepentance!" Le Xu was struggling to control her fury, and by now Ye Hua had completely forgotten about getting A-Li back, instead more focused on correcting his mother's bias, "Where is the unrepentance, Mother? Qian Qian tells right from wrong, and I most certainly agree with her scale of it." Ye Hua rebutted coldly, and Le Xu trembled with anger, even as Ye Hua thought to himself, 'I agree with her, mother, even if that means you're on the scale of evil, Mother.'

"She has bewitched you, my son! You would never have talked back to me like this. What is it? The way she calls you in the bed chamber? Or her most attractive figure and features, perhaps? Ye Hua, you didn't even know her, and you two were bound only by a marriage agreement! Yet you have fallen so deep, my son...could it be that she already is such a master in seduction, that no matter if you were blind, you could still fall so deeply for her?" Le Xu threw a tray at her feet in her fury, the cracking of the wood echoing in the room as Ye Hua lifted his head slowly, looking at his mother with a firm gaze, "Mother, are you suggesting Qian Qian is a slut?"

"I-...no! I most certainly am not!" Le Xu was struggling to express herself. Indeed she thought Bai Qian as quite the foxy woman, and she did think Bai Qian used Ye Hua for her own satisfaction. But yet she couldn't say that, for she would offend Qing Qiu, and she would most certainly be punished for stirring inter tribal conflict. "I meant, you have never touched Su Jin at all. Some would think she might be barren for you to abandon her so." Le Xu tried to sound more positive, but Ye Hua only felt disgust as he turned his gaze onto Su Jin, who was pretending to be shy and abashed as she widened her eyes in fake shock, "Mother!"

"I will not touch her, Mother, for Su Su would never forgive me." Ye Hua spoke curtly, and Su Jin was flabbergasted, before she sputtered, her voice higher several pitches, "And you mean Su Su would forgive you for touching Bai Qian?!" "Whyever not? Bai Qian never did anything against her." Ye Hua stared at Su Jin, watching as her face turned red with anger, and Le Xu cleared her throat, "But she ill-treated A-Li. That is Su Su's son. How would Su Su not have a grudge against her?"

"From what I always saw, Qian Qian never once treated A-Li less than she treated her only niece, Bai Feng Jiu. She treated A-Li as her own." Ye Hua turned back to his mother, ignoring Su Jin as he bowed, resorting to begging, "Ye Hua implores you, Mother, to return A-Li to Qian Qian. She is most devastated by your taking away of A-Li and then handing him to Su Jin." "She can wait, then. Give Su Jin two weeks with A-Li. I want to see, between the two of them, who is truly the one better for A-Li." Le Xu refused his plea, and Ye Hua could only grit his teeth as he bowed, "Ye Hua thanks Mother."

And even as he turned to leave, Ye Hua was sure that Bai Qian would either lock herself in for the next two weeks, or finally seek her revenge on Su Jin.

And neither of them were good at all.

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A/N: Well, well, well...easy to guess what's up next, isn't it? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Look out for the next chapt ;)
Z, out