Mercenary Princess - Chapter 52
Volume One, Pear Blossom Courtyard, Melting Moon, Chapter Fifty-Five: Change (Part One)
Perhaps believing that family scandals should not be aired in public, Dongfang Lie used forceful means to prevent the inside story of the fire at Cining Palace from being revealed, and used the excuse of a calamity to cover up the truth.
When the Empress Dowager passed away, the entire court mourned. For a month, all weddings, funerals, and other celebrations were forbidden, and all entertainment activities were prohibited. Every household was required to hang white banners in front of their doors to comfort the Empress Dowager's spirit in heaven.
The funeral was a grand affair, lasting a full week. After the funeral, the palace seemed to return to its usual tranquility. The palace servants went about their duties in an orderly manner, just as they had before the Empress Dowager's death.
Perhaps due to his usual estrangement from the Empress Dowager, the news of her death did not cause Dongfang Yao much grief. After a few days of melancholy, Dongfang Yao, like a newly hatched grasshopper in spring, resumed his bouncy life, restlessly darting around the palace and stirring up trouble.
"Your Majesty..." Kicking open the door to the Imperial Study, Dongfang Yao skipped and ran joyfully toward Dongfang Lie, who was seated on the throne, without waiting for the guards to announce her arrival.
Out of the corner of his eye, Dongfang Lie glanced at Rongyue standing to the side, and unsurprisingly saw the overwhelming excitement on her face the moment Dongfang Yao entered. A mocking sneer curled at the corner of his lips. He lowered his voice, not loud but just loud enough for Rongyue to hear clearly: "Liu Rongyue, do you still harbor that laughable expectation? Ha, look at Yao-di, has he ever seen even a trace of you in his eyes? If the Prince of Xiang has no 'memory,' then what can a goddess's heart do! I advise you to put away your ridiculous delusions and obediently be your servant!"
Every vicious word pierced Rong Yue's weak spot, leaving her heart riddled with holes, unrecognizable, and excruciatingly painful! She stared blankly at Dongfang Yao approaching, watching him impatiently push her away, watching him throw himself into Dongfang Lie's arms with a pure smile, watching him shake someone else's arm and pout, watching his barely parted lips reveal a secret about another man, watching him…
A sudden wave of dizziness rushed to her head. She stumbled a few steps, her vision blurred, and she felt as if the world itself was in chaos! An unbearable soreness welled up in her nose, and her throat tightened, a choking ache in her heart. Rongyue's heart was filled with sorrow and grief, but no one could understand. From this moment on, he was no longer her Yao-gege, and she was no longer his wife. Their relationship had truly come to an end. Fate brought them together as a bond, and its end as enlightenment, but she would rather be bound forever than experience this moment of enlightenment…
“…Brother, this servant…is quite strange!” Dongfang Yao pointed at Rongyue, his brows furrowed with doubt.
The word "servant" made Rongyue's breath catch in her throat, her thin shoulders trembling like cicada wings. Turning her stiff neck in disbelief, her sorrowful eyes met Dongfang Yao's hesitant gaze.
"What's strange?" While asking with a smile, Dongfang Lie kept glancing at Rongyue, whose expression was pale.
"Brother, look at her, why is she wearing a dog leash? It looks so strange..." Frowning in confusion, Dongfang Yao shoved the frozen Rongyue: "I say, you servant, why are you wearing a dog leash?"
Her heart felt as if it had fallen into a thousand-year-old icy pool, chilling her to the bone. She couldn't help but shiver. Rongyue suddenly realized that winter had come so early this year…
After a long while without hearing Rongyue's reply, Dongfang Yao's temper flared up, and he kicked Rongyue, saying, "I'm asking you another question, you servant!"
Just as the embroidered dragon and gold-painted soft-soled black boots kicked towards her, she, who could have dodged the blow, straightened her spine and took the merciless and cruel strike head-on. Her weary and weak body finally collapsed to the ground, her feigned strength crumbling. Lying on the cold jade slab, Rongyue pressed her face against it, letting the coolness of the stone seep through her pores and into her body, reaching her very internal organs. Her heart…
"Alright, Yao-di, it's not worth getting angry over such a lowly servant! Look at how excited you were just now, huh? Tell your brother, did you find something fun again today?" Seeing that frail, thin body lying on the cold, jade-stone steps, as if abandoned and desperately alone, Dongfang Lie felt a strange tremor in his chest. This tremor made him change the subject to help her out of the predicament.
The mention of playing immediately ignited a bright light in Dongfang Yao's eyes: "Brother, let me tell you..."
...
Half an hour later, Dongfang Yao, having finished his conversation with Dongfang Lie, jumped off the dragon throne and left the imperial study in high spirits, never once giving Rongyue a gentle look...
After Dongfang Yao left, the luxurious and magnificent hall returned to a deathly silence. All around was quiet, except for a faint, low sob coming from beside the dragon throne…
Stepping down from the dragon throne, Dongfang Lie approached Rongyue with suspicion, only to be astonished to find that this once arrogant and stubborn woman, who refused to bow her head, was actually weeping, her face hidden behind her hand! Crystalline tears seeped incessantly from between her fingers, forming a shallow stream that dampened her long, flowing black hair. Her heartbroken sobs were unbearably desolate, without resentment or complaint, only pain, sorrow, grief, and helplessness…
"You're crying..." He stared blankly at Rongyue's falling tears, his heart trembling. He had seen many women cry: those with pear blossoms in the rain, those sobbing softly with resentment, those silently weeping, those crying and tantrums, even those wailing loudly... Those affected women were nothing more than trying to gain his pity and favor through their cheap tears! Having seen so many crying women, he had gradually become accustomed to it, his heart indifferent. But why did this woman's tears so easily touch his heart, causing his normally unmoved heart to ache inexplicably...?
As if under a spell, Dongfang Lie's only thought at that moment was to stop her from crying. He gently lifted her from the ground and held her in his arms, softly patting her back: "Don't cry, be good, don't cry..."
In her sorrow, she always longed for a warm arm to lean on. Now, Dongfang Lie's arm was indeed warm, just as she had hoped. However, the unfamiliar presence made it clear to her that no matter how warm his arm was, it wasn't the arm she truly desired…
Tears flowed even more unrestrainedly, the overwhelming loneliness that had gripped her during countless dark nights washing over her once more. She knew that from now on, she would be alone again, standing utterly alone in the vast expanse of heaven and earth…
On this day, Dongfang Lie, unusually kind, removed the shackles from her body and allowed her to rest for a day.
Little did Rongyue know, the instant Dongfang Lie pulled out the gleaming black iron key, a barely perceptible glint flashed in Rongyue's eyes...
In the dead of night, all was silent.
Rongyue handed the blueprints to the man in black in front of her and solemnly instructed him again: "A slight error can lead to a huge mistake. You must not make the slightest mistake."
The man in black clasped his hands in a fist salute: "Understood, subordinate."
"Go."
"Your subordinate obeys." After the gust of wind swept by, the man in black was nowhere to be seen.
Looking in the direction the man in black had gone, Rongyue sighed inwardly at the numerous experts of the Netherworld Sect.
Fortunately, Huo Ming had arranged for Ye Ming to take over his shift before he left; otherwise, she would have been completely isolated and helpless, with no one to turn to for help...
Since that day, Dongfang Lie's treatment of her had changed. He no longer picked fights or verbally abused her for no reason. Instead, he seemed like a different person. Not only did he pick fights much less often, but he would also speak softly and gently to her from time to time, asking if she was alright. Even more surprisingly, he would occasionally give her an extremely tender smile. Perhaps she was used to being abused, but his gentle treatment instead of hitting or scolding her made Rongyue uneasy. The gentler he was towards her, the more afraid she became, and the more her heart pounded. She would rather he give her a good beating than look at his gentle, handsome face that made her feel fearful.
Picking up the wolf-hair brush, Dongfang Lie casually tossed the scroll to Rongyue: "You read, I'll write."
With his hand fully dipped in thick ink, he gracefully tugged at his right sleeve with his left hand, while his right hand hovered half an inch above the paper, poised to strike.
Unrolling the scroll, Rongyue looked at the crooked, scribble-like characters and helplessly closed it, tossing it back into the air: "Illiterate."
His expression darkened further. Just when Rongyue was convinced he would erupt in fury and relive his brutality, his demeanor quickly returned to normal. Setting down his writing brush, he picked up a scroll and strode towards Rongyue: "Illiterate? But I heard from Xuyao that Murong Luo of Bucheng is a genius unparalleled in a century! Not only can he compose poetry on the spot, but his accounting speed is also unmatched in the world today! If you don't want to study, just say so. This lame excuse is so flimsy that even a three-year-old wouldn't believe it!"
The scroll was shoved back into his hands: "Read it! If you don't, you'll be keeping watch for me tonight!"
Her delicate brows furrowed in displeasure. Frankly, she'd rather scrub toilets than keep watch for him! But the problem now wasn't that she didn't want to study, but that she genuinely didn't know how! Why wouldn't he believe her?
Resigned to her fate, Rongyue unfolded the scroll again. Looking at the characters that didn't resemble words, she could only frantically search through the original owner's memories, hoping to match them with the few remaining characters in her mind.
Her lips moved again and again, and she hesitantly uttered the words she thought might be correct: "Han ge... Yi... Feng? That word seems to be the character for 'wind,' but it also seems to be the character for 'have'..."
Looking at Rongyue, who was deep in thought with her brows furrowed, Dongfang Lie suddenly chuckled and reached out to turn the scroll in Rongyue's hand over: "You're holding the scroll upside down!"
He's holding it upside down? Staring blankly at the overturned scroll, Rongyue realized that she couldn't recognize a single character anymore. This made her extremely suspicious that Dongfang Lie had made a mistake, and that this was the way it should be held upside down.
Rongyue's suspicious gaze made him chuckle: "It seems you really can't read! I'm starting to wonder if you and the Murong Luo that Xuyao mentioned are the same person?"
He walked back to the desk, picked up the wolf-hair brush on the inkstone, and said, "Then compose a poem as you please, so that I may see just how extraordinary this so-called genius really is."
"Casual?" Upon hearing these two words, Rongyue's lips curled into a strange smile. "You asked for this!"
Her eyes swept across the room, her red lips slightly parted: "Outside the city, earthen mounds of earth; the filling is in the palace." Seeing Dongfang Lie pause, Rongyue scoffed: "Why did you stop writing?"