The room was full of books
I have walked among men for a long time and witnessed many desires.
That day, however, he received a message from Baohe: Xu Yi, come quickly.
Since I severed the karmic ties with the dynasty, only Baohe and Yingzi outside the palace remember me, and Axi outside the palace.
Baohe knew why I had gone; if it weren't for something, he would never have sent me a message asking me to return.
So I went back.
Baohe was waiting for me at the Imperial Observatory. He had already put on a human skin and looked just like a middle-aged man.
"What happened?" I asked Baohe.
Baohe calmly led me to a small room next to the Imperial Study and said, "You'll know once you go in and take a look."
I frowned in confusion and went into the house. Inside, there were several large shelves, piled high with different picture books and other books.
There were several tables and chairs nearby, and the messy surfaces showed that people were copying things every day. I picked up a piece of draft paper from the table and saw that it was full of tattered pieces, recording my words.
How could this be? How could Ah Shi still remember me?
I walked to the shelf next to me, opened the books and scrolls, and found them filled with stories about me, my words, my deeds, my portraits…
However, due to the influence of the rules of heaven and earth, many of the neat lines of text that were originally recorded have become incomplete, revealing many gaps.
I already know the reason for this situation.
Before I severed the causal link, Ah Shi had meticulously recorded my deeds, including what I said and what I did...
However, due to the influence of the laws of heaven and earth, those densely packed characters became incomplete, and even the paintings were stained and their original appearance could not be seen. But he still sent many people every day to copy these incomplete characters and then compare them with other records, trying to piece together my life and his memories.
I breathed a sigh of relief and called out in my heart, "Ah Shi."
A moment later, hurried footsteps approached from outside the door. Someone was chasing after Ah Shi and admonishing, "Your Majesty, please slow down!"
When a series of rapid footsteps stopped at the door, Ah Shi didn't rush to open it. Instead, he instructed the servants who had followed him, "Guard this door and don't allow anyone to come near."
Then came the sound of carefully opening the door.
I turned to look at A-Shi, who exclaimed, "Auntie?"
He moved very close to me, stopped in front of me, reached out to touch my cheek, but then left his fingers untouched.
He was old, with wrinkles on his face, but his eyes, as bright as ever, looked at me: "Really... really is you?"
“It’s me,” I sighed, put down the book in my hand and said to him, “Ah Shi, you shouldn’t have kept these incomplete records. They will affect your memory. And under the backlash of the rules of heaven and earth, not only you, but even those who copied the records will slowly become mentally impaired.”
He lowered his head, like a child who had done something wrong: "I...I want to remember my aunt..."
"This is not right, Ah Shi, don't continue!"
He remained silent for a long time, not raising his head for a while, but his tone was firm: "I...I don't want to..." He looked up at me: "On this point, I don't want to listen to my aunt."
When he said this, I could clearly see a deeply hidden thread of emotion stir within him.
Love? Does he like me?
My frowning expression caught Ah Shi's eye. He seemed to realize something and scratched his head sheepishly, "I forgot, Auntie should be able to see everything clearly now."
"This shouldn't be... Ah Shi..."
Before I could finish speaking, he interrupted me: "I know this is not right, Aunt, but I don't want to control it, and I can't control myself."
I don't know how to advise him. In my opinion, the best way is to cut off this emotional ties and then destroy all the records in the room.
After a long while, I came up with a way to offer advice: "Ah Shi, if I were you..."
“But Aunt, you are not me!” He interrupted me again.
At this point, I knew that even if I were one of the parties involved, I couldn't persuade Ah Shi.
He won't listen to me, and he won't be willing to listen to me.
But he remained the diligent and capable emperor, a reliable support for his harem, and a solid backing for his children.
I cannot hurt him, and I cannot let him slowly become mentally impaired.
I took a book off the shelf, filled in all the missing text, and handed it to him: "Ah Shi, I need to destroy all the other books in this room, but you can keep this record I gave you."
He happily took the thick book, his eyes shining as he flipped through it: "I knew something was missing. It turns out my aunt likes to eat delicious food and promised to win me a lantern... No wonder I never wanted to throw that lantern away..." He became happier and happier as he flipped through the pages.
I waited quietly for him to go through all the records, and for him to look at me with sparkling eyes again: "Thank you, Auntie."
“Yes,” I nodded, “With this book, you won’t need to find someone to copy it anymore, and this room won’t be needed either.”
“Okay,” he agreed readily, “I’ll be satisfied as long as I have this book.”
“Hmm,” I nodded, then with a wave of my hand, all the books and picture books in the room disappeared, and the next second, I was gone.
In the empty room, Xu Zheng looked at the book in his hand and the blank shelves all around, feeling somewhat bewildered as to why he was there.
He opened the thick book with a puzzled look, but only saw characters like "姑" (gu), "许" (xu), and "自" (zi) that couldn't be connected at all.
A profound sense of desolation welled up within him, and tears streamed down his face involuntarily, as if someone important had betrayed him…
He could only weakly murmur, "Why did you lie to me?"
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