Chapter 86
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Chapter 86:
The mute boy jumped in surprise, looked up at Li Chunzhou, stared for a while before finally stuttering, "I’m called… Ahu."
Li Chunzhou paused, remembering that before returning to this time period, the emperor had asked if she could call him "Ahu" again.
It turned out that the skinny and weak mute boy was Liang Yongyuan.
No wonder he knew her, but at that time she didn’t know him yet…
While Li Chunzhou was lost in thought, Liang Yongyuan lifted his head again and asked quietly, "Which palace maid are you?"
"Huh?" Li Chunzhou thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled mischievously, "I’m not a palace maid, I’m a female ghost attached to this tree…"
Liang Yongyuan was really scared and took a few steps back. Li Chunzhou smiled even bigger and said, "Only people close to death can see me~"
Liang Yongyuan got scared and immediately ran back. While running, he fell down, got up, and continued running without stopping.
Li Chunzhou couldn’t help but smile, her ears finally quiet, then she sat with her legs crossed, staring at the moon.
…
Even though Li Chunzhou scared Liang Yongyuan the night before, maybe because nobody really paid attention to him, he came back the next night. This time, he brought some plums, hesitantly asked Li Chunzhou if she wanted to eat them.
Li Chunzhou waved her hand to refuse. Liang Yongyuan couldn’t even have two full meals a day, so Li Chunzhou would not take his supper.
She listened to the sound of a chipmunk below nibbling on plums. Sitting on the tree, she looked up at the moon that had been the same for forty years, judging from Liang Yongyuan’s occasional grimaces that the plums were probably sour.
After Liang Yongyuan finished the plums, he nervously started talking to Li Chunzhou again. He talked about everyday life matters, no one ever listened to him seriously. So when Liang Yongyuan talked about these things, his face was always excited like a child.
Li Chunzhou just listened and occasionally responded softly. She was good at fulfilling others’ need for care and was a good listener. Even though Li Chunzhou rarely spoke up, she always gazed at the other person with moist eyes, satisfying their desire to talk.
Once upon a time, Li Chunzhou used to watch different men talk big in front of her with a smile on her face, but deep down inside, she would secretly laugh at their self-centered boasting about their desire for attention and admiration.
Compared to those men, Liang Yongyuan seemed somewhat cute, being just a child. Instead of praising himself, his actions seemed more like wanting a chance to speak and express himself.
Li Chunzhou looked back and forth, thinking of Li Zhexuan’s words in her mind, "Found Jian Hou, it’s in the pond east of Imperial Garden."
"What did he turn into?" Li Chunzhou asked.
["A goldfish," came the reply.]
Li Chunzhou chuckled again, leaving Liang Yongyuan puzzled under the tree.
Li Chunzhou looked down at the slim figure of the child, wondering why Liang Yongyuan was so thin now, and how he would look like in forty years.
Could it be because he often went hungry as a child, that now when he has enough to eat, he can’t control himself…?
But it didn’t matter to Li Chunzhou, she didn’t care.
"Go back early, it’s cold at night," Li Chunzhou said softly.
Liang Yongyuan hesitated and said, "But I don’t want to leave yet… I’m not cold at all!"
Li Chunzhou, feeling helpless, tried to explain more clearly, "I just want to be alone for a while, Liang Yongyuan, please don’t bother me."
Despite her gentle tone, under the moonlight, her flawless face carried a chilly demeanor, which Liang Yongyuan belatedly understood.
Despite being born in the palace, Liang Yongyuan was often ignored and mocked, lacking social skills and likable qualities. Even his caretakers did not like him.
Holding back tears, Liang Yongyuan lowered his head in helplessness. He knew he was destined to be an unpopular child, no matter how hard he tried to change that fact.
Sobbing, Liang Yongyuan walked towards Chonghua Palace, his cries carried by the evening breeze. Seeing his pitiful state, Li Chunzhou felt a headache coming on, wondering how Daliang’s fate had fallen into his hands.
"Hey, I didn’t say we won’t see each other again…" Li Chunzhou called out, sounding frustrated but her eyes never leaving Liang Yongyuan.
She whispered to herself about Li Zhexuan, "Why is your father so annoying?"
Li Zhexuan didn’t say yes or no. He felt conflicted. As Liang Changfeng, he didn’t like his incompetent father, but to Mi Hongbao, Liang Yongyuan was a good uncle.
"Really?" Liang Yongyuan’s round eyes looked at Li Chunzhou seriously. "So… you haven’t told me, what’s your name?"
"Want to know my name?" Li Chunzhou lazily played with her hair, "Alright, next time you come to see me, go to the pond in the Imperial Garden and find a fish with golden eyes. Bring it to me, and then I’ll tell you my name."
Liang Yongyuan nodded eagerly, as if he suddenly had a clear goal in his life.
Li Chunzhou watched him leave, holding her chin in her hand, until he disappeared from her sight.
But the next day, Liang Yongyuan didn’t come to see her. On the third day, the fourth day… Li Chunzhou still didn’t see Liang Yongyuan.
On the fifth day, just when Li Chunzhou thought Liang Yongyuan had forgotten about it, he came with a big-bellied ceramic jar.
He looked a bit thinner than five days ago, coughing occasionally. His eyes sparkled as he showed the fish to Li Chunzhou, happily saying, "I found the fish. Can you tell me your name now?"
Li Chunzhou said disapprovingly, "Oh, I thought you forgot about me, you forgetful person."
Liang Yongyuan quickly explained, "No, no, I’m… sick. The doctor won’t let me go out, no matter how much I say, the nanny doesn’t want me to come out."
As the one taking care of the prince, not paying attention to the prince in private is a small matter, but if something really happens to the prince, the people around Liang Yongyuan won’t survive. That’s why he was forced by the nanny to rest in bed for a few days.
As soon as he got permission from the doctor, Liang Yongyuan came to see her while holding the fish at the head of the bed.
Li Chunzhou snorted, was about to say something else, then suddenly realized, squinted at Liang Yongyuan’s face with a complicated expression, and asked, "You… didn’t get sick from fishing in the river, did you…?"
Li Chunzhou originally thought that even if Liang Yongyuan’s status was not good, he should have servants around to do things. She had no intention of sending a six or seven-year-old child to fish in the river for her, no matter how unreasonable she was.
But now, it seemed that Liang Yongyuan probably really went to the river to look for the golden-eyed fish by himself, and most likely went that same evening because Li Chunzhou had been watching the situation around the Imperial Garden during the day – to prevent Jian Hou from possessing other creatures without her knowing.
She hadn’t seen Liang Yongyuan in the past few days, not anywhere.
Seeing Liang Yongyuan coughing pitifully from time to time, Li Chunzhou sighed. She floated down from the tree. In the past half month, Li Zhexuan had regained some level of consciousness, widening Li Chunzhou’s range of activities and allowing her to condense into a palm-sized entity.
Li Chunzhou was silent for a moment, touched Liang Yongyuan’s head with her hand, and said, "Just call me Lady Chun."
Then she used the same hand to take out the goldfish from the jar and carefully examined it in front of her. She confirmed from those golden eyes that this fish was indeed Jian Hou.
Li Chunzhou still remembered when Jian Hou ordered someone to kill Chihong. She expressionlessly pinched Jian Hou, watched him struggle in her hand with his mouth wide open, played with him for a while, then put him back in the jar. After confirming he was not dead, she took him out again to "threaten" him.
She didn’t know if Jian Hou’s current mind could still think, or if he understood the concept of "revenge", but whether he knew or not didn’t matter to Li Chunzhou. She just wanted to make him suffer, to make him suffer like Chihong did before she died.
Liang Yongyuan stared blankly at her series of inexplicable actions, asking questions here and there, and Li Chunzhou calmly answered him.
Such a scene, to those who couldn’t see Li Chunzhou, appeared as Liang Yongyuan talking crazily to a maple tree, his mind unclear.
Despite various suspicions and speculations in their hearts, the palace people maintained a solemn appearance, speaking seriously as if forever enveloped in gloom. Their smiles were elusive, as if bound by an invisible force, like faces distorted by long-term repression, unable to show true emotions.
The grandeur and oppressive atmosphere of the palace intertwined, creating a picture filled with contradictions, not easily understood at a glance, with each corner hiding countless unknown stories and secrets.
Liang Yongyuan noticed the palace people’s quiet gossip and strange looks nearby, and he sheepishly fell silent.
Li Chunzhou casually raised her head to glance in the direction he was looking, then looked around at the palace walls enclosed by red walls, and said lightly, "Don’t worry about how they talk about you, you will become the emperor in the future anyway."
The only owner of this palace.