Love & Legacy (Zhanyi)

23. Trust?

The prince spent the whole time dangling between the two options he had like a pendulum in a clock oscillating between the two ends not certain what to chose. His battle against himself began in the morning, the moment he received a message from Jiang Cheng with the information about his Loushi. Since then the prince was in a dilemma whether he should tell Zhan about this or not. His reasons for this were as clear as the water of the blue lake, which were for some unknown reason he felt that just the mentioning of the loushi made the officer aggravated which motivated him to believe that Zhan would never allow him to meet his former teacher. But at the same time, he also didn't have the heart to go against Zhan. He has been giving the officer a lot of trouble these past few days intentional or unintentional while all the other did was just worrying about the safety of the prince. He didn't really want to keep this from Zhan but how can tell him about meeting his mentor when the officer made it clear to him that he shouldn't reveal his identity to anyone.

The prince scarcely had someone in his life with whom he could feel at ease. It wasn't that he was lack of people around him, it's just that he couldn't be at ease with them. But around Zhan he realized that he could be relaxed, carefree, childish, clumsy, sometimes even a little weak still, the officer would look at him the same he always did without an ounce of change. Unlike the servants around him who would gossip behind his back when he didn't win one of his fights forgetting about all those he did, unlike his right-hand man who always expects him to be a responsible prince, unlike his uncle who wants him to be the future king. To be frank the prince couldn't blame them since he was in a position where there are a lot of eyes looking at him with a lot of expectations.

The first time they met, the way the officer helped him despite knowing his identity let alone his arrogant spoiled brat behaviour did the prince perceive that not everyone cared so much about the identity of another person before helping them. Still, he doubted that would things remain the same after his identity was revealed and for the first, he was proved wrong. Living with Zhan made him realize that it was only Zhan who never judged him the way the others did, who treated Yibo just any other person, not the future king. The fire accident incident made him realize that truth completely. He could already imagine how the others would have reacted to the same incident. Jiang Cheng would have probably said that 'How could your highness faint just because of some smoke?' his uncle would have just scolded him for being a troublemaker. But among all of them, it was only Zhan that scolded him because he was worried not about the prince but Yibo. That made the prince wonder maybe, just maybe even if he was no longer a future king or a prince this one person would still treat him the same as ever. And what kind of idiot would take the risk of breaking the promise he made to that person, the prince too didn't want to break the promise of facing dangers together he made to Zhan nor he wanted to do something that could make the officer angry, that was the last thing he would ever want, to be at odds with Zhan but, it didn't seem like he had a better option. He just couldn't stop thinking about the suspicions raised by the officer. He needed answers and he could get them from only one person whom he wasn't permitted to meet. Whom the prince could suspect the least of.

Though his mentor didn't directly pressure him still, Yibo knew that his mentor was putting a lot of efforts into him because he wanted to see him as the king. One of the reasons why he couldn't believe it was loushi behind this mess was because it was Yizhou who was determined to make him the future king more than anyone else even Lan qiren. His mentor made him realize that he had the potential and responsibility to take care of his people. Otherwise, why would the prince who always yearned for freedom would willingly take the throne, if it wasn't for the way his mentor motivated him? And now that he was just a step away from it why would his mentor try to stop him? It didn't make any sense. To be straightforward right now the prince couldn't even think wisely.