Chapter 65
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
Chapter 65:
Prime Minister Gu didn’t get angry, he carried a heavy burden for a long time, with a hint of fatigue in his eyes and brows, but he didn’t give up. He spoke again, "As the heir to the throne, Your Highness, do you really want to watch Daliang perish?"
"Isn’t it just the fall of a nation?" Liang Changfeng even chuckled, "It should have fallen twenty years ago. Why do you insist, Sir Gu?"
"Even if you don’t care about the people of Daliang…" Gu Chenxin raised his eyes to look at the screen, "Does His Highness not care about the lady behind it?"
Liang Changfeng glanced over but didn’t answer. Prime Minister Gu seized the opportunity and said, "The nest may be destroyed, but Your Highness…"
"Lady Chun," the Second Prince interrupted him with a call, "Come out and let Sir Gu see you."
Li Chunzhou remained calm when discovered, she casually walked out and stood next to the Second Prince, smiling as she said, "Sir Gu, there’s no need to use me as an excuse. If there really comes a day where I can’t go on, Lady Chun will handle it herself, so as not to trouble the Second Master."
Li Chunzhou was very perceptive, she didn’t want to let herself be controlled by others through Liang Changfeng, not because she had deep feelings for Liang Changfeng, but because she knew that someone as cold-hearted as Liang Changfeng would not easily submit to anyone. If others didn’t act, he would take care of himself.
People with warmth usually find it hard to stay in high positions for long. Li Chunzhou knew that the warmth she felt from the Second Prince was just an act.
After she said this, the two people in the room remained silent.
Li Chunzhou glanced at the motionless Second Prince in his seat, feeling confident in her earlier words, then looked at Prime Minister Gu, who was staring at her with an indescribable expression.
Li Chunzhou puzzled over her attire, finding nothing strange but rather exquisite and impeccable.
Her hair was elegantly styled, adorned with gold and silver jewelry. The elaborate hair accessories sparkled with a charming brilliance. The intricacy of her hairstyle was beyond imagination, each strand carefully styled like a piece of art.
Her attire was magnificent, with embroidered silk robes featuring gold and silver threads, embedded with pearls and gemstones that shimmered. The patterns were complex and ever-changing like blooming flowers, her makeup unique with carefully crafted eyebrows, light blush, and red lips.
The final grand sunset rays illuminated her, evoking thoughts of the upcoming future – beautiful yet fragile and fleeting, like the splendor and decay under the setting sun.
Li Chunzhou’s attire was exquisite, displaying a sense of faded brilliance akin to the end of an era, like the most dazzling moment in the sunset, radiant yet with a hint of decline, as if a brilliant dream was quietly fading away.
Daliang’s past glory and beauty have all faded away, and the prosperous era is about to usher in a withering dark night.
Prime Minister Gu stared at her face motionless, as if all his strength had been drained. His eyes were slightly moist, but there was a smile on his lips. His gaze never left her face as he whispered softly, "The building will collapse…"
Li Chunzhou immediately wrinkled her nose and was about to retort to what seemed like an accusation of being a "femme fatale," but she was interrupted by a sudden intrusion from outside the door.
The Second Prince’s guard entered and knelt on one knee, nervously saying, "Master, there are rumors among the palace staff that His Majesty… is not doing well."
"What?!" Prime Minister Gu abruptly stood up to leave, but as he rose, his frail body uncontrollably swayed. The Second Prince signaled, and Jian Yi immediately stepped forward to support him.
In his urgency, Prime Minister Gu took two unsteady steps in a hurry before stopping just before leaving, turning back to look at the Second Prince and saying, "Please consider carefully what I just said, Your Highness."
He then gazed gently at Li Chunzhou’s face with a complex expression that was hard to decipher, with a mix of nostalgia and faint bewilderment in his eyes.
Li Chunzhou remembered his recent unpleasant words, huffed, and turned her head away.
Her attitude was not befitting of a courtesan in the grand Shengjing City, completely a result of Liang Changfeng spoiling her with a bad temper.
Prime Minister Gu smiled nostalgically and said, "Lady Chun… long time no see."
Looking pensive, Prime Minister Gu gazed at Second Prince and Li Chunzhou, as if pondering the history of Daliang for six hundred and forty-eight years. In a moment, he returned to his usual calm self, nodded slightly at them, lifted his robes, and hurriedly walked on.
"…We will meet again on a certain day in a certain year."
With these words left for the two of them, he walked away without looking back.
After Prime Minister Gu left, Second Prince also departed quickly, as his father was seriously ill, and as a dutiful son, he needed to be by his father’s sickbed.
Meanwhile, Jian Hou was waiting for Second Prince in the palace.
***
With Second Prince gone, the Oiran position fell on Li Chunzhou as expected. But with Second Prince, who had the most votes for her, gone, Li Chunzhou no longer needed to entertain guests with drinks.
When Li Chunzhou returned to the courtyard and heard from Chihong that Xu Yanqu had visited, she asked in surprise, "Where is he? I didn’t see him upstairs earlier…"
Chihong pointed to a package of pastries on the stone table in the courtyard and said, "They’ve left."
Li Chunzhou walked over and saw her favorite Lotus Root Cake on the stone table.
They came but left without meeting. Is she angry? Hurt by what was said that day? Or doesn’t want to see the person she likes smiling at someone else?
Li Chunzhou stood there for a moment with mixed feelings, then sat on the stone steps and quietly started eating the pastries.
However, the pastries today weren’t as tasty as before. They were slightly bitter along with the sweetness. Li Chunzhou finished eating them all, feeling a bit bloated and uncomfortable.
She sat alone for a while, watched the sunset for a bit, then stood up and aimlessly walked two laps in the courtyard. She saw Ming Niang chasing butterflies and joined her.
Ming Niang wasn’t as agile, but Li Chunzhou caught a butterfly and gave it to Ming Niang.
Ming Niang carefully held the fluttering butterfly in her hands and quickly ran to Ming Xiang, who was building a fire, to give it to her.
Ming Xiang looked surprised and pointed to herself, asking, "Me? Is it for me?"
Ming Niang smiled and nodded, reaching out her hand towards Ming Xiang again.
Ming Xiang looked at Li Chunzhou with confusion. Li Chunzhou shook her head and said, "I don’t understand what Ming Niang is doing. When I came back, she seemed to be catching butterflies… The butterfly in her hand was just caught a moment ago."
Ming Niang is a mentally challenged person, so everyone in the courtyard treats her like a child.
Ming Xiang wiped her hands on her side after picking up firewood, then placed both hands under Ming Niang’s clasped hands.
Ming Niang opened her hands, and a white butterfly flew out, fluttering its wings freely by the simple stove. All three people’s gazes followed the butterfly slowly.
"Ming Xiang… it’s a butterfly." Ming Niang seemed to suddenly have a moment of clarity, embracing Ming Xiang’s head gently like a mother, and said clearly, "Fly with the butterfly."
She remembered Ming Xiang saying she felt like she was living as a bug.
Ming Xiang didn’t move, then after a while, a voice filled with sorrow and joy came from Ming Niang’s embrace, "Thank you… I will remember this for the rest of my life."
Ming Niang closed her eyes, patting Ming Xiang’s body as if she really saw her as her own child.
Li Chunzhou kept her head up, watching the white butterfly flying freely and effortlessly with the evening smoke from the low shed.
Flying out of the small courtyard, flying out of the brothel, also flying out of this impoverished and decaying era.
***
The day after the Oiran Contest ended, Li Chunzhou’s life remained calm to the point of boredom, even the crows that had been hovering over the Spring Flowers Tower disappeared completely.
Qi Leyuan cautiously watched out for the possible appearance of Jian Hou, almost to the point of being paranoid.
But Li Chunzhou continued to do what she needed to do without any rush.
It was on this peaceful day that Gu Lingfan returned.
While Li Chunzhou was halfway through her meal upon hearing the news, she immediately abandoned her chopsticks and ran out when the maid at the door didn’t even finish speaking, making sure to have Chihong pick a silver hairpin for the maid before leaving.
In the lobby of the Spring Flowers Tower, Li Chunzhou easily spotted Gu Lingfan, as she was surrounded by other girls, blocking her figure from Li Chunzhou’s view.
Li Chunzhou squeezed through the crowd, about to say something provocative, but then she noticed a bruise on Gu Lingfan’s neck.