It was my fault?
I nodded to him: "Alright, let's leave now, so as not to delay the ministers' meeting."
“Aunt is absolutely right,” Ah Shi said, bowing to the ministers behind him. “Thank you all for waiting so long.”
The ministers waved their hands, saying, "You're too kind, Tenth Prince."
I watched as the ministers looked at Ah Shi with satisfaction, then gave the Crown Prince a defiant glance before nodding to everyone present in a perfunctory manner and leaving with Ah Shi.
On the way back, I was very happy and laughed all the way: "Oh my, it's so good to have a brain that's been reading a lot! Unlike me, a reckless brute, I almost got caught doing something wrong."
Ah Shi breathed a sigh of relief: "Wandering in officialdom is indeed different from being in the Imperial Observatory. I've been learning from my teacher for so long before I've even figured out a little bit of the ropes."
"Well done!" I patted him on the shoulder. "You've learned a lot. Now you can focus on preparing for the scientific expedition."
“Yes,” A-Shi nodded, “Thank you for your help today, Aunt. If it were up to me, I’m afraid I would never have been able to see Father Emperor.”
"I'm glad I could help you, don't worry about it."
At this point, Ah Shi bowed to me and said, "Then, Aunt, I'll leave the palace first. I need to go back and review my books."
Go ahead, but be careful.
"It's alright. I just appeared before all the ministers today. Even if he loses his composure, he wouldn't dare to do anything to me before the imperial examination."
"Okay, we still need to be extra careful."
"Yes, Auntie too." After saying that, Ah Shi nodded to me and then turned and left.
Watching his hurried departure, I felt a pang of emotion: "Children always have to grow up."
"Oh? So you're already calling Ah Shi, the child?"
I turned around and saw Mu Li, who was wearing the armor of the Imperial Guard. He smiled and came over to take my hand: "I heard that you took A Shi to cause trouble in the Imperial Study?"
"No, I didn't make a fuss at all," I tilted my head. "By the way, who told you that?"
"The soldiers below..." Mu Li smiled, "They all know about my relationship with you, so they will naturally be eager to tell me."
"That makes sense. Where are you going? Why are you dressed so formally?"
"I need to patrol around and see if there's anything I've overlooked while I've been away from the palace these past few days, so I can fill in any gaps."
I nodded: "Okay, I haven't been to the Imperial Kitchen in a long time either. I need to go and see how Chef Deng is doing. I'll be going now."
I had only taken two steps when Mu Li grabbed my hand: "Come find me tonight. I probably won't be going back for the next few days."
I blushed a little: "Why did I want to see you tonight?"
"Hehehe..." He laughed happily and tapped my forehead: "What are you thinking about? Have dinner with me."
"Oh, that works."
After we finished talking, I went to the Imperial Kitchen in a great mood, humming a song. I found the Imperial Kitchen bustling with activity as they prepared dishes. I looked around but couldn't find Chef Deng, so I grabbed someone at random and asked, "Where's Chef Deng?"
"I don't know!" The person I grabbed looked completely bewildered. "I haven't seen him for several days either."
Haven't seen him for several days? Could it be that Chef Deng is researching some new recipe again?
I strolled slowly toward Chef Deng's courtyard, only to find it eerily quiet. I knocked on the door: "Chef Deng? Chef Deng?"
There was no sound from inside. Could it be that Chef Deng went out?
I pounded on the door again: "Chef Deng?" After two poundings, the tightly closed door suddenly opened a crack; the door wasn't locked.
I pushed open the door and went inside. There were no candles lit in the room, and I didn't see anyone. What was going on?
I continued walking in and finally noticed a person lying on the bed, but I couldn't make it out clearly through the blurry screen...
I took two more steps closer and patted the wooden frame of the screen: "Chef Deng?"
The person on the bed remained unresponsive. Were they sleeping so soundly? I stepped over the screen, and the first thing I saw was Chef Deng's dark lips...
What happened? I quickly ran over, shook him, and called out, "Chef Deng?"
The person on the bed didn't respond; not even their arms moved. A thought popped into my head, and I cautiously reached out to check their breath—there wasn't a warm breath at all…
My tears streamed down my face. Undeterred, I touched his neck again. The veins that should have been throbbing were now silent and still, without a trace of movement… “Chef Deng? Chef Deng? Why? How could this be?” I pulled back the covers, only to find that Chef Deng had already dressed himself in his burial clothes. His hands were clasped together on his abdomen, his fingernails grayish-black from the lack of blood flow…
I reached out and touched his hand; it felt like touching a block of ice with absolutely no warmth...
"How could this be, Chef Deng? Why would you do this?" I shook his body violently, hoping that his cloudy eyes would open and look at me with kindness, saying, "Naughty girl, Xu..."
But no, the hands wouldn't open, and the eyes remained tightly closed, remaining completely still no matter how much I shook them...
I finally realized the inevitable outcome—Chef Deng was dead, he died by suicide.
I knelt on the foot of the bed, my whole body ice-cold, as if I were frozen in a lake hundreds of feet deep in the dead of winter... The lake was frozen, and my very breath was frozen solid. The ice was too high, freezing my throat, preventing me from moving even as I suffocated... And the ice was too thick, so thick that I was stiff and unable to move an inch in the icy water...
My mind was filled with questions like, "How could this be?", "How could this happen?", "How could it end like this?"...
In that instant, the spiritual power that had been enveloping the entire imperial kitchen under the protection of the Kitchen God collapsed and vanished without a trace...
I watched helplessly as the once plump corpse rapidly shriveled up, like a deflated balloon, revealing undulating wrinkles... These wrinkles quickly transformed into a jagged, towering mountain, separating me from Chef Deng... mercilessly severing the divide between life and death between us...
Just then, a faint buzzing sound grew closer. A fly? How could I let such a filthy creature touch Chef Deng? My brain raced. I drew my bone whip and lashed it out in the direction of the sound, but the fly swiftly dodged the sharp lash and continued its slow, meandering path towards Chef Deng…
No, absolutely not! I shouted, "Protect the peace!"
Baohe was at my feet in the next instant, holding a peeled osmanthus candy in his hand, which he was putting into his mouth. Seeing my displeasure, he immediately stood up: "What's wrong, Xu Yi?"
"There are flies! There are flies! Quickly, use your ghostly energy to cover Chef Deng! Don't let these things touch Chef Deng!"
"A fly?" Bao He paused, looked at the corpse on the bed, and frowned. "Xu Yi..."
"Quick!" I heard the buzzing sound again; the fly was back. "Quick, the fly is back! Hurry!"
"Alright!" Baohe tossed aside the candy in his hand and then released a wisp of ghostly energy to envelop the corpse on the bed...
I listened intently, and only when I realized that the buzzing sound hadn't entered the protective barrier of the ghostly energy did I breathe a sigh of relief and collapse weakly into a seat...
“Xu Yi…” Baohe took two steps closer to me, climbed onto my lap, and patted my head with his little hand, coaxing, “Don’t be afraid, it’s alright…”
"I'm not scared!" I stubbornly insisted, but tears kept falling from my eyes...
"Okay, then it's alright..." He patted my head again and repeated, "It's alright..."
"How can it be okay? How can it be okay? The person is gone! The person is gone! How can it be okay? Huh?" I shouted at Baohe in a state of near collapse, "The person is gone! The person is gone..."
My commotion finally alerted the others in the imperial kitchen. Two servants rushed in, but seeing my tearful, frantic outburst at the air, they hesitated to approach... Then they exchanged a glance, and one of them ran out to deliver a message...
Baohe's nose turned red too. He ignored my unreasonable behavior and just hugged my neck again: "Don't be sad, Xuyi, don't cry..."
I hugged Baohe's small body tightly, sobbing uncontrollably: "Waaah... Why, Baohe? How could Chef Deng die? Why? How could it... How could it... Waaah..."
The imperial kitchen servant who had been standing guard over us couldn't bear to see me sobbing into thin air; his face turned pale, and he left...
Before long, the supervisor and Muli arrived together...
I cried for a long time, but I've calmed down now. I just sit on the ground, unwilling to move. Bao He is sitting opposite me. When he sees someone coming, he runs over to find the supervisor: "Xu Yi, Xu Yi, she..."
The supervisor frowned when he saw the lifeless body of Chef Deng on the bed. He went over and first removed the ghostly aura shield from Baohe, then used his magic to thoroughly examine Chef Deng's corpse. Finally, he sighed, "He died of starvation..." Looking down at me, he squatted down to be at eye level with me, "Xu Yi, this was his own choice, and we should respect it..."
Choice? This word dragged me back into an abyss. I felt like I was floating in a falling wind, feeling both empty and heartbroken...
“It was me who gave him the right to choose…” I excitedly grabbed the supervisor’s sleeve: “It was me… Supervisor… It was me who gave him the choice… It’s my fault, sob sob sob…”
“It’s not your fault…” the supervisor sighed, “It’s his own fault… sigh…”
“Xu Yi…” Mu Li walked over and gently patted my shoulder: “Xu Yi, it’s not your fault, it’s not his fault, no one is at fault. Don’t take all the blame on yourself…”
But my mind was completely consumed by the guilt of 'I killed Chef Deng,' and I couldn't hear anything else...
"It's me..." I clutched my head in anguish, screaming, "It's me! It's me..."
My heart ached unbearably, and guilt overwhelmed me. It rushed towards me like a wild horse, shattering the armor of my reason and leaving it in ruins...
I was so engrossed in my emotions that I didn't even notice Baohe beside me starting to exude ghostly energy, baring his teeth at everyone around him...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
