In a few short days, Li Zhun had already become close buddies with Liu Fuyi. His enthusiasm was especially obvious. The words ‘Brother Liu’ came flowing out of his mouth as smoothly as silk and he would especially help him pour wine or order dishes. It was as if he was afraid of not being able to push all the good things the Li residence had to offer onto him.
When Liu Fuyi left to send the princess back to the palace, Li Zhun became worried and unhappy, always leaving early during meals. The moment Liu Fuyi returned to Jingyang Slope, he regained his radiance and immediately rushed about to prepare a feast.
There was once again another long, merry feast. Ling Miaomiao lightly pushed around the delicacies on her plate, staring silently at Liu Fuyi’s face. She felt a sort of misconception, as if Brother Liu’s face had become a bit rounder the last few days…..
Suddenly feeling a cold gaze sweeping over her from the side, she turned around to see Mu Sheng staring at her side profile unblinkingly.
What are you looking at me for?” Miaomiao held her chopsticks in her mouth as she asked doubtfully.
He immediately spun back around, “If you’re eating then eat, why are you staring at Liu Fuyi?”
Ling Miaomiao burst into laughter, lowering her voice and leaning closer to his ear, “Brother Liu is so handsome, if I don’t look at him, who would I look at? You? Moreover, Sister Mu is also watching Liu Fuyi, why don’t you bother her huh?”
Mu Sheng’s eyes turned dark abruptly as he had really been enraged this time. For the rest of the meal, he really didn’t bother her anymore.
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To make it more convenient for Chuchu to play, the two of them left their chairs and moved to the ground. Li Zhun called out for a servant to bring over praying mats, allowing the two to sit cross-legged, to prevent the cold from soaking into their limbs.
Liu Fuyi fished out a red string from his robes, both ends tied together into a knot. Holding it with her fingers and wearing a warm smile on her face, Mu Yao familiarly manipulated the string into the shape of a flower. Chuchu’s eyes were wide open and for a long time, she was so excited she couldn’t stop clapping.
The three of them quickly entered their own world, laughing and causing a veritable cacophony. They looked just like…. A harmonious family of three.
Li Zhun smiled as he watched from the side. After watching for a while, he exhorted, “Madam Shi’s stomach is feeling unwell so I’ll take my leave early. Brother Liu, will you please watch over Chuchu to allow this humble brother to look after the person inside?”
Liu Fuyi stroked Chuchu’s head, smiling as he nodded, “Brother Li, feel at ease and go. After Chuchu gets tired later, the wet nurse will carry her back.”
Li Zhun nodded and left with an assured mind. The young child servant beside him, also left with him, blindly following others.
After a tiring day, the wet nurse sat down in a circular chair nearby and started to nod off with her head askew.
For a while, the main hall only had the soft rustling of conversation and laughter.
Chuchu didn’t know how to play Cat’s Cradle1 [1] A game you play with a string where you try and manipulate the string into different shapes. and would often get the directions all mixed up. This time she managed to get herself locked into a dead end. Her eyes blinked continuously, completely at a loss as to how to continue, and her little mouth started to pout.
At the side watching, Miaomiao took a few steps forward and immediately returned the ‘dead end’ to the prior state with rapid hand movements. In the blink of an eye, the situation had been saved and Chuchu immediately started clapping upon seeing this.
Mu Sheng saw that all three of them were enjoying themselves greatly as they joined the game. He took a step forward as well, ending up right beside Ling Miaomiao.
Chuchu suddenly saw him approaching and the joyful expression on her face started to recede. She took a few steps back, leaning into Liu Fuyi’s arms and poked her head out to timidly look at him.
Mu Sheng scrunched up his brows, his footsteps pausing somewhat in embarrassment.
Liu Fuyi patted her back, “What’s wrong? He’s Brother Mu. You’ve seen him before.”
Chuchu didn’t want to play anymore. She wrapped both of her arms around Liu Fuyi’s neck and buried her head into his chest. Her voice was thin as she said, “I’m scared of this brother.”
“Chuchu…..”
“I’m scared……”
Ling Miaomiao looked over at the black lotus’s stiff face and clicked her tongue mentally. Who would’ve thought that this extremely deceiving youthful appearance that tricked both Mu Yao and Liu Fuyi would be immediately exposed in front of a child.
Mu Yao saw that Chuchu no longer wanted to play Cat’s Cradle and was also about to start crying. She felt some pain in her heart and turned to ruthlessly glare at Mu Sheng, “Ah Sheng, go outside and take a walk. You’re scaring her.”
Mu Sheng’s lips were tightly pursed as he turned and left, not leaving a single word behind. After two steps, he turned around again and pulled up Ling Miaomiao.
“Sister Mu told you to leave, why are you pulling me ah?!”
Miaomiao was having the time of her life playing and was naturally unwilling to stop. She shamelessly laid down on the prayer mat as if she was paralyzed. As such, Mu Sheng seemed to become even angrier. Pulling with one hand and using his other to wrap around her waist, he immediately picked her off the ground into his arms.
“Miaomiao, the room is stuffy and going outside for fresh air is good too.” Liu Fuyi gestured towards Ling Miaomiao with a bright smile showing brilliant white teeth. He didn’t seem to have the slightest intention to help her out.
The last person she could count on would be Brother Liu.
Ling Miaomiao dejectedly accompanied Mu Sheng out to feel the cold wind.
The youth had his head lowered as he walked, the watery film in his eyes flashed, “Are you that unwilling to come out here with me?”
“It’s both bright and warm inside. It’s dark and cold outside, not to mention the Yin-Yang Fissure. There’s danger everywhere. Who would want to come out?”
Mu Sheng paused for a moment, took off his cloak, and draped it over her body. The first time he had been anxious but this time, his heartbeat didn’t speed up in the slightest.
“You knew that it would be cold out, didn’t I tell you to wear more at night already?”
Miaomiao reached up to push back her hood, exposing her small, fluffy face to the outside. With a face full of innocence, she said, “I already wore more. Look, I’m already wearing the double-layered jacket I usually wear in autumn.”
Her eyes reflected the moonlight, looking just like a hooded elf.
Mu Sheng watched her for a moment: “…. then return my cloak to me.”
“I won’t.” Ling Miaomiao quickly tied the cloak tightly to her. She tilted her head and shot him a smile, revealing her proud expression.
She smiled widely at him for a moment then suddenly pointed up at the sky, raising her voice as she shouted, “Mu Sheng, look! The stars.”
The skies above Jingyang Slope also included the peaks of the four mountains surrounding it. Vast and boundless, the darkness above contained countless small stars. They were like the many small diamonds embedded into velvet, brilliant and flashing with illuminance.
“….. have you never seen the stars?” He also raised his head like her.
What a fuss just for nothing.
However the night was dark and despite knowing that there was danger in every corner because of the yin-yang fissure, when the wind that blew, it carried in it a fragrance that could intoxicate people. A fragrance of flowers, flowing through the atmosphere. Light and delightly, it seemed like the fragrance had come from the girl standing close by him.
She lowered her head, kicking a poor pebble on the ground: “You’re so boringggggggg.”
Having hit a ditch, Ling Miaomiao turned silent for a few moments. Then, as if something popped up in her head again, she happily shared with him, “Like I said, children can see things that adults can’t. Don’t you think Chuchu was just like that today? Being able to see things other people can’t?”
Mu Sheng’s deep ocean eyes looked at her fixatedly, “See what?”
She reached out and purposely poked him in the chest, lips curling up, “Your body’s constitution.”
Her fair, white hand pointed right to his heart. The pressure behind her finger wasn’t light nor heavy, but it made him think of that inappropriate dream he had before… he grabbed both of her hands and placed them against his boiling heart……….
This can’t go on…..
He retreated a few steps, leaving her touch. His face fell, “What is my constitution?”
But who would’ve thought that Ling Miaomiao would remain completely unaware of all this. She took a step forward, poking him harder than before, “Your insides are different from your appearance, the heart of a scorpion or snake….” She watched his face, thinking for a long time. As with before, her words were still in poor taste but this time she sputtered them out in anger, “In any case, you’re on a completely different path from what Brother Liu and Sister Mu are on.”
He grabbed her finger and Ling Miaomiao struggled for a moment but he stubbornly held on. His eyes grew increasingly bright, enough to scare a person, “Why aren’t we on the same path?”
Ling Miaomiao seemed as if she heard a joke, “They’re doing this for a good cause, for a righteous reason, willing to die for the common people. And you?”
The youth still watched her intently with those dark, watery eyes of his. He coldly grinned, an infinitesimal amount of ridicule welling up within, “What about you then?”
Ling Miaomiao pondered for a moment then smiled unexpectedly.
This smile of hers was akin to a cool breeze, immediately breaking apart the tense atmosphere. Everything that happened just a few moments ago, each and every step of the way, had all turned into rather ambiguous jokes.
“That actually might not be right.” She crisply replied, “I’m a petty person and when someone asks me an important question in life, I won’t answer so easily. However, if my family or the people I love are implicated or part of the situation, I’m willing to sacrifice myself for them so that they can live.”
Mu Sheng slowly relaxed his grip on her finger. He raised his head to look up at the stars above their head. His eyes were open without blinking. Miaomiao couldn’t guess in the slightest what he could possibly be thinking at that moment.
Below the lanterns, the wet nurse’s snoring already filled the room.
Li Zhun had gone to visit Madam Shi and the hall was rather empty. Yet, it was still warm and Chuchu was still playing Cat’s Cradle when all of a sudden she twisted her little head toward the screens hiding the inner rooms behind them.
Mu Yao was a little baffled, “What are you looking at?”
Chuchu rapidly spun back around, lips somewhat purple and trembled slightly, “Sister…..” Her small, deer-like eyes were filled with panic as she looked over, “Chuchu will tell you a secret.”
Mu Yao immediately grew wary and she moved closer to her, comforting her, “…What secret?”
“Madam Shi….. Can change faces.”
She raised her head, her small body shivering as her thin voice was suppressed even more, “Every night, her face changes to another one, a beautiful sister’s face, as she sleeps with daddy.”
She spoke very rapidly and then spun back around to look at the screen. Upon seeing that no one came out, she relaxed and somewhat nervously played with her own fingers. Teardrops rumbled in her eyes and her purple lips trembled, “I’m so scared…. I want my mother…..”
Mu Yao felt as if a thunderbolt had just struck her head. She and Liu Fuyi exchanged glances, noticing the astonishment within one another’s eyes.
The river’s water was cold and gurgling. The bright moon was like a hook.
“Ziqi, you have a mother right?” Miaomiao pursed her lips, treading carefully, “I’m not referring to Sister Mu’s mother but your mother.”
Mu Sheng turned to her and was silent for a moment. Then he answered, “Mhm.”
The two of them walked side by side, shoulder to shoulder under the stars. The trees swayed under the breeze, waves of green rolled back and forth. The soft gurgling of water seemed just like someone singing in a low voice. The girl wore his cloak, wordlessly walking alongside him, occasionally letting him inhale her faint but sweet scent.
The long cries of the crickets in the underbrush, the calm and comforting fall night. They were all the ingredients needed for one to spill the thoughts contained in one’s heart.
“If… your mother….” She deliberated over her words for a moment. Turning towards him, she continued, “was a popular lady of a brothel, a beautiful woman. What about then?”
Mu Sheng’s intonation was dry as he flatly denied, “What about it.”
If this person really existed, he would’ve definitely used all his strength to treat her well. To never let her feel the worries of being without a son. Reduced into prostitution…. And the suffering in his childhood was all for the sake of raising him. Anyone who dares to bully her, harm her or push her into the muddy puddle, he would seek out one by one and make them unable to reincarnate.
“Ok….” She idly led with another question, “How old were you when you separated?”
“The people in the Mu family said it was when I was three.” There was a mocking smile in the corner of his sneer, “I remember I was at least seven. As for the concrete details…..” He narrowed his misty eyes in helplessness, “I don’t know.”
Some sweat started to bead on her forehead, “Your mother loved you, you also loved her.”
“……….” He lowered his eyes, “She loved me and I loved her. But I never saw her again.”
“Mu Sheng, you have a missing mother. You love her greatly.” Her voice was low, as if trying to probe, “From young, you grew up at your sister’s side, the only care you had at your side was from her……..”
Feeling as if he knew what to expect next, the darkness in his heart felt like it was pinched. His temples and his heart suddenly both twinged in pain.
“… maybe she just so happened to fill this void… you might have… actually transmitted your love for your mother onto……..”
“Shut up.”
His face was pale white, the veins on his forehead on the verge of bursting. As he clenched his teeth rigidly, the killing intent usually hidden within his body was slowly released.
Just like a mad wolf on the verge of going insane, he stared at her. A current of violence suffused his dark pupils, piercing through the air, “Don’t speak anymore.”
The expression on the girl before him was one of flabbergast. In fact, there was a shred of rare pity within those eyes. A moment later, she raised her hand and made a placating gesture, as if making a compromise but also similar to a promise: “I won’t speak anymore. I’ll never speak again.”
She had messed up. She had been pleased with herself for a while but it had all just been her own subjective assumptions. She had rashly touched on his sore points and poked him right where it hurt. She had wanted to move the base of the tree but didn’t realize she was just an outsider, an outsider that didn’t even know how much importance he had truly placed upon this matter…….
Regret seized her heart, in her mind, everyone else was a fool, she was the only smart one
She had really… thought herself clever.
Mu Sheng took a step backwards.
Her words were like a curse lingering above his ears. They were like the soft, warm words of someone telling him to open his arms to allow others into his embrace. Then, using a sharp blade, they would ruthlessly cut into his chest and cut out all of the stubborn disease hidden within.
Was this really the case…..
Was this really what happened…..
His face was far from pleasant as he turned around, and quickly went back. Shooting out talismans around him, a tornado arose, taking in the little demons that gathered from the surroundings and ripping them apart. This left a trail of detached limbs on the road.
His fingers were tightly clenched into a fist, some blood dripping down from his palm. The sharper the pain the better. Only then could he take back some of the reason and dignity from amidst the upheaval of his mind.
How dare she say those words… she was absolutely just saying nonsense…
[1] A game playing with a string and you try to manipulate it into different shapes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_cradle
TLN: LOL whoops, nearly forgot to post hahaha. I was already in bed when I realized I didn’t post lol. Anyways, everyone enjoy! Phew, love is in the air peeps! Hoho, but things are about to take a turn….
I’m suspicious of Chuchu now, but that’s my romantic side trying to defend Madam Shi’s love. Thanks for the update!!
ahhh i really want to let the chapters pile up but i just cant :// these two chapters every week are some of the best parts of my week lol. this novel is just so addicting!!!
Thank you for posting this chapter! Cat wait to see what happens next (｡･ω･｡)
Oh dear oh no :(( Thank you for the chapter!!