Chapter 21 Another Me

  I smiled and nodded... For more latest chapters visit:

  Aunt Zhang walked ahead of me, apologizing in a low voice: "I'm really sorry to trouble you, as long as the young lady can hold on, I believe it will be sunny after the rain."

  "It's okay, I can handle the work in the back kitchen, no big deal!"

  Zhang Ayi was taken aback for a moment, then nodded.

  As I passed by the 'flower' garden, I saw Yang Qing Dai and Mei Ling Hua standing there, seemingly arguing about something. When they saw me walking by, they shied away like they had seen a ghost.

  I frowned and asked Zhang Mama beside me: "What's going on?"

  They probably couldn't stay in the mansion anymore, I heard that these two days they've been saying that the mansion is haunted or something! Because of this, the prince even punished them.

  "Haunted?" I wondered in my heart, in this palace, apart from Xuan Yuan, who else could be haunting it? Little Purple Ghost had also returned to the palace to see her mother these past two days, where would there be any ghost to scare them?

  Originally, the work in the back kitchen was not complicated, and with Xuan Yuan Wu rarely eating at the palace, it saved a lot of trouble. At night, Xuan Yuan Wu suddenly asked the kitchen to prepare a good meal, saying it was to entertain guests.

  The aunt in the kitchen 'forced' me to send the last dish to Xuan Yuan's room.

  Xuan Yuanqi was grinning foolishly by the dinner table and when he saw me, he couldn't help but pull me down to sit beside him.

  "Mei Lingxue, you don't know, this guy, this guy, is killing me!" Xuan Yuanqi was holding his stomach and still laughing.

  Xuanyuan's eyebrows furrowed slightly.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Don't say it!" Xuan Yuan Mu glared at Xuan Yuan Qi.

  Xuan Yuan Qi couldn't help but laugh even more, then pointed to the inner chamber, where Xuan Yuan Mu's "bed" was, which used to be mine too.

  "I'm telling you..." Xuan Yuan Qi laughed so hard that tears were streaming down his face.

  Xuanyuan suddenly stretched out his chopsticks, stuffed a "chicken" leg into his mouth and said, "Don't need you to say it, I'll tell Lingxue about our husband-and-wife things myself, shut your mouth!"

  Xuanyuan Qi finally stopped smiling, wiping away tears and nodding "Alright, alright, your husband-and-wife business is absolutely your own business!"

  I heard this and was like a blind monk 'feeling' his way around, staring at them in confusion.

  Xuanyuan Mu said he wanted to entertain guests, so he deliberately let the kitchen prepare a table of good dishes for me.

  "Eat, eat! You've been cooped up in the woodshed for two days, my imperial brother almost got anxious to death!" Xuan Yuan Qi pushed the tableware towards me and suddenly burst out laughing: "Right, he's a dead man, won't get sick!"

  "Xuanyuan Qi, get out!" Xuanyuan Mu couldn't take it anymore, pulled him up from his seat and chased him out of the room.

  "Hey, that's very rude. You clearly asked me to accompany you, and acting should be done thoroughly. What if we're seen by the imperial spies?"

  Xuanyuan Qi resisted, but was finally invited out of the room by Xuanyuan Mu.

  "What on earth happened, why is he smiling like that?" I curiously asked him. Previously, he had driven me to the woodshed, all for show in front of the palace people. How could he let the Emperor shift his attention away from me? There was only one way - Xuan Yuan Mu didn't care about me.

  The emperor wants to strike at Xuan Yuan Mu, and the person he cares about is his weakness. So the emperor chose me, using me to give him a warning.

  "You'll know soon enough, just eat well for now, you're getting thinner!" Xuan Yuan Mu looked at me and then pinched my face.

  I was stunned, looked up at him, when I first met him, he treated me like a devil, scaring me with every little thing, and even wanted to eat me. Who would have thought that now he's so good to me?

  But thinking about it, a person who has been wronged, waiting in the small building for ten years, finally someone can help him, how can he not be anxious? But which one is the real Xuan Yuan Mu, this humble gentleman in front of me or that bloodthirsty devil in the small building?

  "What's wrong? Don't you recognize me?" Xuan Yuan Wu said as he moved his chair closer to me.

  "You, tonight is quite strange?" I replied with a smile.

  "Lingxue, I like you!" Xuan Yuan Mu stretched out his hand wanting to give me a hug, but seeing that I was eating, he put it down.

  I was taken aback, stopped the action in my hand, and looked at him strangely.

  "I said I like you, very much, to the extent of loving you, love you so much. I feel that my ten years in the Ghost Bamboo Forest was just waiting for your appearance! These past few days without seeing you, everything I do feels meaningless. I miss you, miss you so much..." Xuan Yuan Mu looked at me seriously and stroked my cheek.

  There was a moment when my heart was 'lost' and 'confused', the scene in front of me became so beautiful, I even heard my own heartbeat, it was so fast, as if it was going to jump out.

  Until Xuan Yuan's lips touched my forehead, I didn't react, and then I felt hot in the face and lowered my head.

  "Are you here for the funeral?" I couldn't believe that I had once stitched his dismembered body together with thread and needle in a coffin.

  "There is a little bit!"

  A pang of loss in my heart, the burning sensation on my face instantly turned icy cold.

  "But I like that brave and timid 'girl' who ran in the Ghost Bamboo Forest, she was very courageous, kind, intelligent, and beautiful." Xuan Yuan Mu said while putting food into my bowl.

  I stared blankly at him, feeling the high wall of self-protection in my heart crumbling bit by bit...

  I finally know what Xuan Yuan Qi is smiling about? I also know what Xuan Yuan Mu meant by "wait a while and you'll know"?

  After dinner, Xuan Yuan asked me to hide under the table. He cut many small holes on the tablecloth with scissors, so I could see clearly outside.

  As time passed bit by bit, the night color became more and more deep, suddenly a knock at the door sounded outside the door.

  "Dong dong dong, dong dong dong......"

  The sound is very rhythmic, neither slow nor hasty.

  I saw Xuan Yuan sitting at the edge of the table, motionless.

  Suddenly, the 'door' was pushed open and a woman in red walked in.

  I gazed out from the small hole, that "woman" had very long hair, she was turning around to close the "door", then...she turned around, I got a fright, it was actually another me?

  I was shocked, my mouth agape, and I couldn't believe it - how could there be another me? That little ghost Xuan Yuan Zi is a wisp of soul, the flesh-and-blood child in the small building who calls himself Xuan Yuan Wu is Xuan Yuan Wu's flesh-and-blood creation, so what about this one in front of me?

  My soul? Doesn't look like it? Am I dreaming? Just like that night when I accompanied the empress, at that time I saw a female ghost with white eyes eating me, it was just a dream...

  I'm a bit confused, am I under the table or not? Or is that person outside really me, and the one under the table isn't?

  I felt the tablecloth behind me move slightly, and after calming down, I pinched myself hard, it hurt so much, my senses returned, it wasn't a dream, everything was real.

  Gently change the angle and look at another me outside.

  She was dressed in red, walked lightly, had rouge on her face and lipstick.