HRPM – Chapter 490 Even the pitiful have their hateful aspects.

Jin Luoluo was just wondering whether she should sneak into the palace where Yang Ruoyao was staying to have a look.

Suddenly, she noticed lights flickering on the small river not far away. One white lotus lantern after another floated gently on the water, swaying with the current.

There was a lonely, melancholy beauty to the scene.

She slowly walked over, curious about who was being so sentimental by setting floating lanterns adrift.

Besides, on a festival like this, if someone was going to release lanterns, they should at least use pink ones. These ghostly white lanterns looked more like something used in a funeral procession.

“Bad-luck star?”

Jin Luoluo stared in surprise at the person standing by the river lighting the lanterns.

It was Xiao Che.

Xiao Che looked up and was equally surprised to see her there.

“What are you doing out here again?” he asked in a low voice.

The thought that she had probably come out to meet his Seventeenth Uncle for a rendezvous irritated him, yet there was nothing he could do about it.

“I couldn’t sleep, so I came out to enjoy the cool night air. Is that any of your business?”

Jin Luoluo crouched beside the river and curiously watched him place one lotus lantern after another onto the water.

Inside each lantern were jeweled hairpins and golden butterfly ornaments.

Weren’t these the accessories the bad-luck star bought today?

“Hey, what are you doing? Putting jewelry inside the lanterns? Don’t tell me this river flows past Yang Ruoyao’s courtyard, and you’re hoping she’ll pick them up downstream. That’s actually pretty romantic. I can’t believe you came up with something like this to win a girl’s heart. That’s amazing!”

“No.”

Xiao Che lit the fifth lantern and quietly watched as the five lanterns drifted farther and farther away with the current.

For once, there was a faint sadness in his eyes.

“Then what’s this for? Don’t tell me you’re doing it just because you think it’s fun.”

Jin Luoluo was genuinely curious.

“…These lanterns are for my five princess consorts.”

Xiao Che stood silently by the river for a long time, watching the lanterns gradually disappear downstream.

His voice sounded distant, almost dreamlike, heavy with sorrow and guilt.

Jin Luoluo didn’t know what to say.

For the first time, she felt Xiao Che was rather pitiful.

Yang Ruoyao had unjustly caused the deaths of his five wives, yet he remained completely unaware of the truth, carrying instead the stigma of being a man whose wives were doomed to die.

No matter how cold and ruthless he could be, they had once been his wives. He must have grieved for them in his own way. That was probably why, in the middle of the night when no one was around, he had come here to release lanterns in memory of his deceased wives and pray for their souls.

Then again, pitiful people often had something blameworthy about them as well.

If he had never become entangled with Yang Ruoyao, if he hadn’t defended and protected her so blindly, none of those tragedies would ever have happened.

Those were five young women whose lives had been cut short.

If Yang Ruoyao bore the guilt, then Xiao Che should bear at least half of the responsibility as well.