Luzhou-Mond - Kapitel 87
"Are you upset that I didn't greet you first?" I teased Zinuo with a joke.
Zinuo handed me a basin of water and slammed it down: "Who cares!"
I smiled and shook my head, washed my face, and then, under Yin Yan's arrangement, took a comfortable medicinal bath. After getting dressed, I went to say goodbye to them, carrying a faint medicinal fragrance.
It turned out that shortly after I returned to my room that night, Shen Haoyu and the others were drugged. When they woke up, they were already in a carriage. Only the three of them from the room were there; the others were nowhere to be seen. They had all been disguised, and there was almost a fight when they first woke up, but they recognized their own voices. The driver told them that he had been entrusted to transport them to the capital and asked them to cooperate and not reveal their identities. When asked about the whereabouts of the others, the driver said he didn't know; he was only responsible for the three of them. Back at the Prince Qing's residence, the rest of the people gradually returned. As of the day before yesterday, only Gan Lin and I hadn't arrived yet.
I haven't heard Aunt Yun and the others mention Gan Lin. If Gan Lin was also taken away by them, did she slip away along the way?
In the evening, Shen Haoyu actually ate dinner with us. Zinuo and I didn't think it was anything wrong, but Yinyan insisted on serving Shen Haoyu first, refusing to sit with him.
"It's not like we haven't eaten together before," I said, taking a bite of rice.
Yin Yan shook her head and said, "The outside is the outside, and the Prince's Mansion is the Prince's Mansion. Rules still need to be followed."
I looked around: "Look, besides the four of us, who else is here?"
Returning to this scene, chatting, eating, laughing and joking together, I still feel joyful and cherish it all the more.
Despite repeated persuasion, Yin Yan refused to agree. Finally, Shen Haoyu spoke up: "Let's go together." Only then did Yin Yan awkwardly sit down.
After dinner, Shen Haoyu kept me behind, saying that Prince Qing wanted to see me. Thinking that Prince Qing would surely want to see me again sooner or later, I went to Qinzhu Garden with Shen Haoyu.
It was the same study. I went in, but Shen Haoyu was left outside.
Prince Qing sat upright behind his desk, on which lay a scroll painting. He gestured for me to come over. When I went to the desk, I saw a girl in purple sitting by a lotus pond, a smile on her lips and her eyes crinkling. She looked so innocent and romantic, even more radiant than the lotus flowers blooming in the pond. Her features were very familiar, but the paper and ink of the painting seemed to be quite old.
"Is this my mother?" I asked, knowing full well the answer. The bright young girl in the painting was quite different from the gentle image of my mother in the portraits I had seen, but they were both my mother.
"This is your mother when she was twelve years old, the summer I first met her..." Prince Qing looked tenderly at his mother's portrait. I hadn't seen Prince Qing many times, and this was the first time I had seen him with such tenderness on his face. That expression was both heartbreaking and touching.
Prince Qing suddenly looked up at me again, his eyes filled with pain, resentment, and anger: "When I learned that you were Ru'er and Mu Anqi's daughter, do you know how much I hated you? I searched everywhere for her, but I couldn't find her anywhere. Not only did she forget her old love, but she even married a thief and bore him children! I really wanted to..." But his tone suddenly turned sorrowful, "...but you are still her daughter. Your eyebrows are becoming more and more like hers, your eyes are becoming more and more like hers. How can I be so heartless?"
I silently observed Prince Qing. I hadn't personally experienced what he was saying, but I could understand. Facing a child born to another man by a woman you once loved, and perhaps still love, is indeed a situation where you can't love her, and you can't hate her. Is this the explanation for my predicament in Prince Qing's mansion all these years? But…
“Your Highness, I will not defend my mother, but you must know that she may not know the truth of what happened back then, and Marquis Qiyun was the one who took her away. If you know my mother, you should know what Marquis Qiyun meant to her at that time.” I am not sure what the relationship between my mother and Marquis Qiyun was, or whether my mother ever loved him, but judging from my name, she must have been grateful to him at least.
Prince Qing supported his forehead with his hand, his brows furrowed, as if struggling, but in the end he only said one sentence: "Go, your mother, and don't mention her to anyone else."
"Does the young prince know?"
Prince Qing waved his hand and said, "Yu'er only knows that you are the daughter of the Mu family. Don't tell him anything else. Let him go back too."
I withdrew as instructed, but as I reached the door, I added, "I am a daughter of the Mo family, not surnamed Mu."
Seeing me come out, Shen Haoyu immediately came to greet me. His tense expression relaxed slightly. Could it be that Prince Qing originally intended to do something to me, but in the end he didn't? We walked back to Qiufeng Garden in silence. When I was almost back in my room, I stopped and asked, "Young Prince, may I speak with you in private?"
Shen Haoyu led me to his study, and I asked him bluntly, "Young Prince, when did you find out that I am the daughter of Marquis Qiyun?" There was no need to ask, but I couldn't help it, especially after hearing what Prince Qing said. I didn't want it to be a setup from the beginning, and I secretly prayed that it was just a coincidence.
Shen Haoyu was a little embarrassed. He coughed lightly before saying, "I didn't know at first. I only recognized you after your duel with Zhang Shiguang. I told my father, and that's when he sent people to investigate."
I smiled wryly, secretly relieved. It turned out that the few Taekwondo moves I used to defeat Shen Haoyu and Zhang Shiguang had given me away. Sure enough, those who should know and those who shouldn't know already knew, and I was the only one foolishly pretending. I glanced at Shen Haoyu; it was rare that he hadn't bothered me or taken the opportunity to retaliate when he was so young.
“Huai’en, if you want to go back…” Shen Haoyu’s words were cut off by my harsh voice: “Young Prince, do you think I will go back? Do you think I can go back? I am Mo Huai’en.”
With that, she turned and left the study. What hypocritical talk about going back if I wanted to? Didn't he see on the way back that my own father sent people to kill me! Although he may not have known at the time that he was going to kill his own daughter, he was the one who unhesitatingly pushed his daughter's mother to her death and unhesitatingly drove his children out of the house.
It would have been better if I hadn't mentioned it. Thinking back to when we met in Pingcheng, Shen Haoyu and the others watched me and Zinuo meet Qi Yunhou without recognizing each other. On the streets of Pingcheng, Shen Haoyu introduced me to him as if nothing had happened. Was he laughing at me then? I clenched my fists in anger, feeling that my life had been so ironic all these years!
When I reached my room, I saw Zinuo leaning against the door, cautiously calling out to me, "Sister!" I quickly went over and hugged Zinuo's shoulders, which were about the same height as mine, burying my face in his clothes and whispering, "It's okay, I have you." It really was only Zinuo left. Although Aunt Yun was also a blood relative, there was ultimately little affection between us. The things she said to me were a mix of truth and falsehood, and I was too lazy to distinguish them. I just wanted to enjoy as much warmth as I could.
Why is it that, even though I had already guessed that Prince Qing and the others knew my identity, and Prince Qing had admitted it, my reaction was so intense when Shen Haoyu admitted it himself?
I leaned on Zinuo's shoulder, letting myself feel vulnerable for a while before finally lifting my head. Zinuo led me into the room. The anxiety and hesitation of the past few days, coupled with the inexplicable emotional breakdown just now, made me collapse onto the bed. I forced a smile at Zinuo and said, "I wish you were still as small as when you were little." That way, I could hold you while I slept, and I wouldn't be all alone.
"Sister, don't worry, I'll stay here and watch over you." Zi Nuo glanced at me worriedly, then moved a stool over and sat down by the bed, truly preparing to watch over me as I slept.
I smiled slightly and closed my eyes. Whether I was taking care of Zinuo or Zinuo became my support, I can't say for sure now. It's just that I have someone by my side to support me, and that's good enough.
Do not lean against the west railing to lock in the clear autumn. Chapter 72
Chapter word count: 3579 Update time: 09-08-20 15:03
More than ten days after returning to the Prince Qing's mansion, life returned to normal, as if we had never experienced the life-and-death ordeal of those two months. Yin Yan and Yu Ying still took such good care of Shen Haoyu, Zinuo went to his pigeon coop again, and I became a free spirit again, chatting here and interfering there every day, as if that moment of losing my composure was just a dream.
As the weather warms up, tiny green shoots emerge from the thawing frozen mud, creating a hazy, green expanse from afar. But upon closer inspection, most of it is still mud, just as the saying goes, "The grass appears green from afar, but is barely visible up close." I walked to Miyue Bay, where even the slender willow branches were showing a faint green. I wondered if the willows of Pingcheng had already covered the waterfront with greenery.
Pale yellow forsythia blossoms peek out from the branches, delicate and tender, still glistening with dewdrops, solemnly announcing to people: the harsh winter is over.
I lay lazily on the veranda, watching the migrating swallows busily gathering mud to build their nests, their chirping creating a lively scene. Suddenly, a silver swallow crept up behind me and then suddenly made a loud noise, startling me so much that I jumped up from my chair. It took me a while to calm my racing heart. "What a spoilsport," I said, annoyed. Startled, the two swallows had vanished without a trace.
"Someone is looking for you in the master's study. The master told me to come and get you." Yin Yan took the opportunity to lie down on the chair I had just been lying on, and closed her eyes slightly. "It was really comfortable. Don't waste this beautiful spring weather."
I glared at the silver swallow that had usurped my place, straightened my clothes slightly, and then walked toward Shen Haoyu's study, still wondering to myself, who would be looking for me? Since returning, apart from that somewhat abrupt meeting with Prince Qing, I had not seen anyone from Qiufeng Garden again.
As I approached the study, I could faintly hear laughter and conversation coming from inside. The voices sounded very familiar, so I quickened my pace. When I saw the person sitting below Shen Haoyu, I was both surprised and delighted. I didn't even bother to bow to Shen Haoyu and went straight to the person, calling out incredulously, "Master?"
Jiang Ming stood up, looked him up and down carefully, and then chuckled and said, "Isn't this Lin En? Oh, no, he should be called Huai En now."
"Master!" I called out to him again, my face flushed. I remembered that he had said he would help me cover up my secret identity and that he would surprise those who didn't know. Little did I know, they already knew all along.
Jiang Ming pulled me to sit down next to him: "It's been years since I last saw you, and you've changed so much."
Looking at Jiang Ming, who was no longer as unruly as before and had become much more composed, I felt a slight sense of loss. The subtle signs of hardship on his face also made my heart ache. "Master, you've gotten old!" I said with a lighthearted laugh, my tone cheerful, as if I were joking, but every word was sincere. A man in his thirties—I wondered what he'd been busy with these past few years, that had caused such a noticeable change in him.
Jiang Ming glared at me with some displeasure, which made me regain a little of my former feeling. "What do you mean I'm old? Your master is in the prime of his life, and I don't know how many women secretly admire me..." Jiang Ming narrowed his eyes, and I chuckled. Shen Haoyu also coughed awkwardly and picked up his teacup to cover up his embarrassment.
"When will Master give me a mistress?" I turned my head to look at Jiang Ming, who was still admiring himself. I thought he was much more composed, but it turns out it was just an act.