Returning to being alone
Bai Er is gone, without a trace.
Wu Zi was carried back to Wu Youmen on a stretcher and never appeared in the world again.
The world seems so vast, so vast that people who were together yesterday are now scattered in different directions...
The world seemed so small, so small that all one could see was the view of the capital city.
I don't know if the supervisor also wanted me to break things off completely with Wu Zi, but he didn't put me in Wu Zi's old room. Instead, he set aside a small room for me in his own courtyard. I was carried to the small room, completely unable to move, and could only waste my days staring at the beams above my head...
Ever since the divine punishment, I have been unable to sense any spiritual energy, ghostly energy, or resentment around me. The supervisor would occasionally come to see me, and I had asked him this question before. His aged voice sighed, "Alas, this is the divine punishment."
This... is divine punishment...
Therefore, I could no longer sense the spiritual energy around me, nor could I absorb ghost energy and resentment for my own use. I became an ordinary, powerless skeleton.
I gave a bitter laugh and asked the supervisor, "I have no power right now, so how can I do good deeds and exorcise demons?"
"Logically speaking, your body has been baptized by heavenly lightning, so your soul and skeleton are now inseparable and extremely solid, and they will not separate again. Although you have no magic power at all now, there are also not many ways to kill you. And because of your special constitution, you can communicate with all demons and ghosts. Try to reason with them, and we will give them whatever they want as much as possible. If we really can't, we will destroy them."
"So it's all about enduring hardship? Like training a hawk, if you can persevere, you'll succeed?"
"Hmm, little Xu Yi does have some talent! I didn't expect you to be able to walk this path." After saying that, the supervisor shook his head and left.
I continued to stare blankly at the wooden beams above my head, waiting for my body to recover.
I don't know how long I stayed in that small room. When I felt that my body was no longer drowsy and I could move, I propped myself up and listened to the dull 'crackling' sounds coming from all the joints in my body. Accompanied by the flying dust from my bones, I finally opened the door that had been tightly closed for so long...
Snow was falling in the yard, everything was a vast expanse of white, seemingly extremely clean...
I found myself walking into the yard, looking up at the pure white snowflakes floating left and right in the sky. I could feel them softly falling on me, but I didn't feel any chill...
Just as I was marveling at it, I heard a piercing scream from beside me: "Aaaaaah, the skeleton, the skeleton moved, the bones came alive..." Then the voice rushed into the warden's room, babbling on and on about: "Warden... Warden, there's... there's... there's a bone that's alive..."
I looked down at my bare skeleton, pursed my lips, and thought, "Well, it is indeed quite intimidating..."
A moment later, the supervisor came out of the room. He looked at me kindly, stroked his beard, and said, "Little Xu Yi, you can move now?"
“Hmm,” I nodded, and habitually bowed to the supervisor. The supervisor nodded back, but the face of the little boy behind him, who had just been frightened, turned even paler… I thought about it for a moment. A bare skeleton without flesh, giving a proper bow to someone, was indeed a bit frightening…
He was indeed startled, stammering, "You...you...you're a person?"
“Of course,” I nodded heavily, “I just don’t have flesh and blood, what’s the big deal… my cultivation level isn’t high enough!”
"Huh?" He was stunned for a moment, then cautiously looked at the supervisor's back. The supervisor nodded: "Red-faced skeleton, that's true, you really haven't cultivated enough." Hearing the supervisor's words, the boy pouted aggrievedly and replied with a "Oh".
Then the supervisor looked at me and introduced me: "This is Xiao Shi. You can ask him for help if you need anything in the future."
"Xiao Shi?" I remembered my identity and title, and asked the supervisor, "He wouldn't also have the surname Xu, would he?"
"Yes!" The supervisor nodded in agreement. "He is your nephew."
Now it was my turn to be shocked: "I have such a big nephew?"
The child was even more shocked than I was: "She's my aunt?"
The Imperial Astronomical Bureau Chief did not answer Xiao Shi's question, but looked at me and said, "The Crown Prince is already married, so he is already considered a young nephew." After saying that, he breathed a sigh of relief: "Originally, it should have been Qing who succeeded him, but he went on a journey and his return date is uncertain... It just so happens that the royal family also intends to intervene in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, so they sent Xiao Shi here."
Is this... a power grab? I asked, puzzled, "Then where will you go after this?"
"I'll still be in the Imperial Observatory. From now on, I'll just stay here and keep things in order. I'll wait until there's a true successor before I go back to reincarnation."
"Wouldn't that mean being trapped in the Imperial Observatory for life?"
"Sigh... what can we do?" The supervisor looked at me and sighed, "Things are unpredictable!" Then he went back to his room.
Because of the saying "life is unpredictable," I fell silent for a moment. I hadn't even noticed when Xiao Shi arrived. He grinned and raised his innocent face to ask me, "Auntie? Are you hungry?"
I wanted to roll my eyes at him, but being a skeleton without eyelids, I could only say nonchalantly, "How am I supposed to eat? Would I eat on top and it fall off the bottom?"
He immediately shut up, and after a while he asked me timidly, "Then shall I make you some clothes?"
"Making clothes?" I looked at him impatiently and asked seriously, "Do you know what's scarier than a skeleton?"
"What is it?" Curiosity gleamed in his eyes.
"It's a skeleton dressed in human clothes, do you even have a brain?"
"Oh," he said weakly, shrinking back slightly. After a moment, he turned his head back and suggested, "Then I'll make you some more masks and gloves. If you wear them all, outsiders won't be able to tell anything is wrong."
I thought about it for a moment and nodded: "Okay."
He laughed happily and replied repeatedly, "Okay, I'll go prepare now, Auntie, wait for me." Then he ran off like the wind.
Children's happiness is so simple; like Ah Shi, being recognized by others can make them happy for a long time...
Perhaps, many people in this world live like this?
I didn't know where to go or what to do... I wasn't hungry or tired, and it seemed like I didn't need anything for my body anymore. I stood blankly in the yard, letting the snowflakes slowly pile up all over my body...
As evening fell and candlelight illuminated the surroundings, Ah Shi draped a cloak over me. He turned to me and tied the cloak's belt for me, a hint of pity in his eyes: "Auntie, have you been standing here all day?"
I couldn't say I had nowhere to go, so I lied and said, "I'm watching the snow."
"Watch the snow?" Ah Shi asked doubtfully, "What's so interesting about snow?" After a while, he agreed, "You can go look under the eaves. How about I get you a chair?"
Once I was seated, he lit a basket of charcoal for me at my feet—the finest silver charcoal, something I'd never enjoyed while I was alive. It seems Ah Shi is quite a popular figure in the royal family.
I looked at Ah Shi, who was squatting to the side fanning the charcoal fire, and asked him, "Ah Shi, why did you come to the Imperial Observatory?"
"It wasn't my choice to come; I was chosen by the Imperial Observatory..."
"And what about your mother?"
"She's long gone."
I fell silent. Perhaps the recliner that Ah Shi had brought was just too comfortable, because I unknowingly fell asleep...
When I woke up, I found myself covered with a thick blanket, and there were still a few embers of embers in the charcoal fire at my feet. Next to me was a table with a light blue dress, flesh-colored gloves, and a silver mask on it.
The supervisor was sitting on the other side of the small table, drinking tea. He didn't look at me, but simply greeted me, "Awake, little Xu Yi?"
“Yes,” I nodded.
"Xiao Xuyi, you'll be alone for a long time to come. You need to adjust well."
"Okay," I nodded again, but after a while, I still couldn't give up and asked, "Supervisor, is Wu Zi ready?"
The supervisor looked over with sharp eyes and said bluntly, "Xu Yi, don't ask about anyone or anything from before. That's all in the past, isn't it?"
"Yes," I couldn't deny it. I didn't know how my skeletal frame could cry out tears, but they definitely dripped onto the blankets... I sank back into the recliner and didn't ask any more questions.
Perhaps because there was really no difference between me being asleep and awake, Ah Shi only glanced at me after returning, helped me adjust the blanket, and then said to the supervisor, "Supervisor, I think we should patrol more at night from now on."
"Oh?" The supervisor's tone revealed his confusion: "Aren't you usually most afraid of patrolling the palace at night?"
“Yes,” Ah Shi chuckled, “There are strange noises everywhere, which is really scary… but it’s not good for Aunt to just sit there all day. I want to take her out for a walk to get some fresh air. Besides, with her there, I should be fine.”
"Oh?" the supervisor asked curiously, "You only met your aunt yesterday, and you trust her so much today?"
"I... I just felt that my aunt wouldn't hurt me." Ah Shi scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
“Alright!” The supervisor readily agreed: “Your aunt has been asleep for so many days, she needs to learn more about the palace. Let’s start today and have her patrol for a month!”
"Huh? A month?" Ah Shi was stunned. "I just wanted to do more patrols, not a whole month of continuous patrols! Supervisor..."
"Didn't you say we should patrol more often? It's settled then!"
"Supervisor...no...Supervisor, just a little less, just a little less..." Ah Shi clasped his hands together and looked at the Supervisor, displaying a weak and submissive tea ceremony-like demeanor...
I watched coldly from the sidelines and finally understood why he was able to live a better life than me, even though we both lost our mothers.
Because he's so good at acting cute and being unreasonable!
Okay, that's what I'm missing.
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