Chapter 36 When will you learn to behave yourself...?

Hengbo turned his head and saw a fat man kneeling on both knees, his face showing both shock and piety.

She looked at Shen Guitang with a puzzled expression, but he didn't look at her and showed no intention of explaining for her.

Shen Guitang knew that Ji Run had mistaken Hengbo for Ji Jin. After all, putting aside the difference between men and women, the father and daughter looked at least seventy percent alike. He helped Ji Run, who really thought he had seen a ghost, over: "Brother Ji, are you seeing things? There is no one else here except Xiao Cui."

"Xiao Cui?" Ji Run rubbed his eyes and carefully examined Heng Bo's face. Something was wrong. Why did she still look so much like the former Crown Prince?

He moved closer to Hengbo, his small eyes fixed intently, as if trying to trace her face inch by inch. However, the more he looked, the more he felt she resembled him, and the more he felt she resembled him, the closer he moved.

Until the fat on his face was almost touching Yokohama's face, Yokohama, who could no longer bear it, finally grabbed his shoulder.

She looked at the large, white, pancake-like face that almost filled her entire field of vision, frowned, and then rolled her eyes at him with a hint of impatience.

But to everyone's surprise, Ji Run, who had been given the cold shoulder, was not only not annoyed, but instead breathed a long sigh of relief, patted his chest and said happily, "I really was wrong. He would never do such an indecent thing."

As he spoke, he patted Hengbo's arm and said, "I'm sorry, little brother, I misunderstood you."

Hengbo: ...Are you mistaken about my elegance? Is that what people say?

Ji Run then turned to Shen Guitang: "I can't blame my foolish brother for being blind. It's just that you, my dear brother, look too much like the late Crown Prince. I'm afraid even his own daughter, Shen Xiao, might not resemble him as much as Xiao Cui!"

Despite winning the comparison, Yokohama, who was inexplicably compared to himself, felt no joy whatsoever. Based on his words, Yokohama had already guessed that this Lady Hime had mistaken him for her own father.

However, she still had a question: where did this person come from?

But it seemed as if the tacit understanding between Shen Guitang and her had suddenly vanished. No matter how she tried to wink at him, he seemed oblivious, and hadn't even glanced at her since he appeared.

Upon hearing Ji Run's exclamation, Shen Guitang seemed to realize that he had mistaken someone for someone else, and feigned surprise, saying, "That's really strange. This is the first time I've heard of such a thing."

Ji Run walked to the coffin, which was more than half a person's height, and gently placed a hand on the lid. He didn't notice that Heng Bo's expression suddenly stiffened. He said to himself, "Those who saw the late Crown Prince either went with him or dare not mention it now. How come you've heard of him?"

Shen Guitang walked slowly to him, blocking his view of the coffin, and said with a smile, "In that case, Lord Ji is indeed one of the few who dares to speak frankly."

Ji Run sensed the sarcasm in his tone and her expression became somewhat unnatural. She changed the subject, saying, "I always feel uneasy here. Now that we've found Xiao Cui, let's leave the imperial tomb."

After he finished speaking, he strode away as if a ghost were really chasing him. However, after taking a few steps, he turned back and found that the two remaining people had not moved and had no intention of leaving.

He stopped in his tracks, his face full of confusion: "Aren't you leaving?"

Half of Shen Guitang's face was hidden in shadow, and the remaining half, illuminated by the candlelight, held an inscrutable expression. He asked softly, "Brother Ji, why do you think I, Shen, am hiding in the imperial mausoleum? Is it because I don't want to leave?"

Ji Run was startled and said in a deep voice, "You mean, the tomb-guarding army also...?"

The imperial tomb guards of the Great Jin Dynasty were mostly veterans wounded in battle and descendants of meritorious families. Their ancestors had shed blood and even lost their lives on the battlefield, and they themselves considered it an honor to guard the royal tombs. But now, simply because of a ridiculous factional struggle in the court…

His voice even trembled slightly at the end, and he swallowed the rest of his words.

Shen Guitang finally raised his head, and without any joy or sorrow, uttered a light, airy sentence: "None survived."

Although Ji Run had already guessed, he still felt an uncontrollable chill in his heart from hearing the answer from Shen Guitang. His lowered hand clenched into a fist and then gradually relaxed, with only the blue veins throbbing under his skin silently telling the story of his anger.

After a long pause, he finally managed to suppress the surging emotions that were trying to break free of their restraints. All the struggles and resistance ultimately boiled down to one sentence:

"That's terrible."

Shen Guitang chuckled lightly: "Who says it isn't?"

...

The body in the coffin had long since decomposed, and with the tomb leaking water unavoidably, the smell in the side hall was now almost unbearable.

Ji Run felt dizzy and nauseous after a while, but seeing that the two people showed no intention of moving, she weighed her options for a moment and ultimately let her physical discomfort overcome her mental fear.

He stood up from the ground, dusted himself off, and said, "I'll go out for some fresh air first. It's convenient to stay in the main hall and keep watch downwind. You can rest here with peace of mind, Brother Shen."

Shen Guitang was also leaning against the wall at this moment. Hearing him say this, he did not refuse: "My servant has injured his legs and feet and is not able to walk. I can only trouble Brother Ji."

As Ji Run's footsteps faded into the distance, the side hall fell silent once more.

After a long while, Hengbo couldn't help but squat down in front of him, dragging one leg: Where did he come from?

Shen Guitang watched her gesturing earnestly in front of him, but remained unmoved, not even sparing her a glance.

Hengbo now knew that he was unhappy. After thinking it over, she could only be because of her pretending to be asleep to deceive him and then secretly leaving. After all, she had clearly promised to protect him.

She sat dejectedly on the ground, her face shifting between frustration and confusion. In the end, she chose to remain silent, then braced herself against the ground and prepared to get up and leave.

However, just as she was about to stand up, a hand that looked thin and weak, but whose strength was only revealed when it was restrained, suddenly pulled her forcefully.

Hengbo didn't expect him to suddenly reach out and pull her up, and she lost her balance and fell into the arms of the person in front of her.

She was stunned for a moment before struggling to get up, but was tightly embraced by a pair of strong arms, forceful and brooking no refusal.

The light in front of her was blocked by his sleeve, plunging her into complete darkness. Her ear was pressed against his chest, and the pounding of his heartbeat stimulated her eardrums to contract and expand.

A strand of his black hair fell beside her nose, tickling her face slightly. If she got closer, she could smell the fragrance of soap.

And the sweet taste of licorice mixed in the pills still lingered in her mouth.

At this moment, all her senses were focused on him.

Shen Guitang stared quietly at the crown of the head of the person in his arms. After a moment, he gently rested his chin on the small, pitiful crown of hair and sighed softly. His low, husky voice was both helpless and gentle: "When will you learn to behave a little, my little princess?"

As expected, he felt the body in his arms stiffen. He loosened his arms slightly, patted her back gently with one hand, and whispered in her ear, "Don't be nervous. As long as you are in the Shen family, I will protect you. This is also a way of repaying the kindness of the late Crown Prince."

Speaking of the late Crown Prince, Shen Guitang finally released the person who had started to move around in his arms again, and said helplessly, "Let's close your father's coffin lid first."

As Ji Run approached the coffin, Shen Guitang noticed something amiss in Hengbo's expression and guessed that she might have done something.

Before Ji Run noticed, he walked inside as if by accident, only to find that the coffin nails on the coffin lid had disappeared.

Considering Hengbo's reaction, how could he not know that Hengbo had sneaked in and pried open her father's coffin while he was away? It's just that they returned a little too early, and Hengbo hadn't had time to clean up the scene of the crime.

Fortunately, Ji Run did not go to the other side hall where the Empress was located or the rear hall of the late Emperor first, otherwise he would have noticed that the smell of rotting corpses was particularly strong. Whether he could have guessed that the coffin had been opened is another matter.

After all, even Shen Guitang, who had been immersed in the Undying Pavilion for many years, found it hard to believe that Hengbo had pried open his own father's coffin.

Hengbo, however, clearly did not share Shen Guitang's concerns. After climbing out of his arms, she did not hesitate for a moment and forcefully pushed the lid of her father's coffin outward.

Shen Guitang: ...

It turns out I had misunderstood her; she hadn't actually had a chance to act rebelliously.

Unlike other burial objects used as decorations in the mausoleum, the coffins for storing the bodies were all regulated. Even if Ji Heng disliked his elder brother, the crown prince, he wouldn't risk being criticized to death by the censors by tampering with the coffin; he could simply make the rest of the coffin look shabby.

Therefore, it was quite difficult for Hengbo to push the thick rosewood coffin board in her current state. Seeing that she was about to fall, Shen Guitang could only apologize to the late Crown Prince in his heart and silently join the army of lifting the coffin board.

With his help, Hengbo had much less effort. As the coffin lid was pushed open, the badly rotten corpse inside the coffin gradually came into view.

Hengbo stopped moving when half of the corpse was slightly exposed inside the coffin.

As if unable to bear watching, Hengbo never focused her gaze on it. She took off the bundle that she had never taken off her back, even when she fled.

After finding a change of clothes, two leftover flatbreads, a water pouch, and some other small items, she finally picked up a wooden box.

The wooden box appeared ordinary and simple, but Shen Guitang immediately recognized that the carved patterns on it were a gift from the imperial palace, and the mechanism that sealed the box was extremely similar in style to that of Gongshu, the master of mechanical devices.

Hengbo casually turned the brass wheels inlaid on the box, manipulating the three wheels to the positions where specific symbols appeared. Then, with a "click," the spring inside the box opened its lid, and the objects sealed inside this already rare box were finally revealed to the world in the dark imperial tomb where no sunlight could reach.

The bright yellow brocade was folded into a neat square shape. Most people in the world had never seen it in person, but once it appeared, no one would doubt that it was an imperial edict.

However, this seems to be more than just an imperial edict.

Hengbo carefully unfolded it layer by layer until the grayish-white powder inside was revealed.

When Shen Guitang saw the rare look of nostalgia and melancholy on her face as she gently touched the gray powder, he instantly understood why she had come to the imperial mausoleum.

Presumably, these are the ashes of the former Crown Princess.

As she was about to place the grayish-white powder wrapped in the imperial edict into Ji Jin's coffin and prepare to close it, Shen Guitang pressed her hand down and, under Hengbo's questioning gaze, took out a dagger from his sleeve, cut off a strand of hair that had fallen across her forehead, and handed it to her.

"Let it stay with them in your place."

Hengbo lowered her eyes to look at the shiny hair wrapped in his white palm, but shook her head, her eyes filled with sadness.

Shen Guitang, unusually persistent, still stubbornly extended his hand towards her.

He didn't know what was bothering Hengbo, but he could tell that she wanted to stay with her parents. He wanted her to achieve her wish, even if she was the one standing in the way.

Hengbo turned her head away from him and staggered around to the other side of the coffin. Without Shen Guitang's help, she pushed with great difficulty, and with each bit of effort she exerted, a deeper stinging pain came from her shoulder.

She gritted her teeth, straining her cheeks, afraid that if she delayed even a little longer, she would lose her nerve and take the severed hair that represented her from Shen Guitang's hands.

The little child can understand the mother's determination to save the father, but will never forget the helplessness and fear of being abandoned.

The misunderstandings and resentments of her youth have finally morphed into her current escapism and self-abandonment. Upon hearing Shen Guitang's suggestion, Hengbo thought to herself, "My mother doesn't want me anymore, so I won't bother them."

However, as the coffin lid was slowly pushed open until it was completely closed, the longing and yearning for her parents that she had held for more than ten years finally condensed from an ethereal emotion into scalding tears, which fell drop by drop from her sore eyes onto the coffin lid that separated the living from the dead.

What a foolish child, despising himself for being abandoned by his mother, yet unable to stop missing the mother who abandoned him.

Outside the coffin lay a child who thought he was forever separated from his parents. In that world, which had returned to darkness, a single tear stubbornly pierced the barrier between life and death, returning like a fledgling bird to the forest, and nestled into the arms of two inseparable people.

It turns out, what people didn't know, the ghosts already knew.

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Author's Note: Mini-Theater:

Wangcai said: I want to repay the kindness of the late Crown Prince.

In Wangcai's hand: the coffin lid of the late Crown Prince has been lifted.