"It's not raining, why are you wearing a raincoat?" Li Yang wasn't afraid at all; in fact, the appearance of the man in black seemed to have slightly piqued her interest. She had often heard stories told by storytellers about these nocturnal wandering heroes.
He robbed the rich to help the poor, coming and going like the wind, which she greatly envied.
He didn't speak, but moved and turned his face to look at her. His face was covered by a straw hat and could not be seen clearly. She could only vaguely feel that he had a pair of cold eyes that quietly fell on the corners of her eyes and eyebrows.
Li Yang carefully climbed down the tree, jogged over, and looked up at him from under the wall: "Are you a thief who came to steal things?"
The man remained silent.
Can't you speak properly?
The man remained silent.
So he's mute! Li Yang concluded that the man was mute, feeling a pang of pity, but also curiously asked, "Are you very skilled in martial arts? Could you help me catch some cicadas? I want to show them to the person I like."
The man turned around, as if to leave.
Li Yang repeatedly called out to him: "Hero, don't go! If you help me catch cicadas, I won't tell anyone that you came to the palace to steal things tonight, okay? Otherwise, I'll go and call the guards, and then you won't be able to escape."
The man stopped, meeting Li Yang's smug yet expectant gaze. After a moment's thought, he jumped down, hastily dodging Li Yang before he could get close, drawing his longsword with his left hand and leaping onto a tree. The flashing blade dazzled Li Yang. A moment later, however, he jumped down, silently placing a sword full of cicadas before the dumbfounded Li Yang.
Li Yang exclaimed in surprise, then, remembering it was late at night and quiet, she lowered her voice and chuckled softly, looking up at the person a foot away from her with genuine admiration: "Dumb girl, you're really amazing. I wish I were as amazing as you. If Ye Ling doesn't like me, I'll threaten him."
Four
The three days passed quickly, but Li Yang still clung to the porcelain bottle and refused to come down from the tree.
Whenever palace servants or guards approached, she would scream incessantly until all the crows in the courtyard flew away, leaving everyone looking at each other, unsure of what to do.
They waited like this until evening, when Ye Ling arrived.
He gazed at Li Yang, who was hiding in the treetops acting like a rogue, and frowned, signaling the guards behind him to drag her down. Seeing that he was so eager to send her away without saying a word, Li Yang panicked for a moment and shouted at him: Ye Ling, I don't want to leave.
Ye Ling glanced sideways, coldly staring at her: "Ye Ling is not someone you can call." He turned away, letting the guards climb the tree and forcibly pull the evasive Li Yang down. Li Yang didn't understand where the bright-smiling boy she knew had gone, or why Ye Ling was so cold before her now. She pushed away the guard beside her, still unwilling to give up, and grabbed his arm, showing him the cicadas in the porcelain bottle. Her voice was seven parts grievance and three parts persistence: "Don't send me away. I caught ninety-nine cicadas for you, please take a look, okay? You've caught these cicadas for me before."
Ye Ling's profile remained indifferent. He suddenly turned and snatched the porcelain bottle from Li Yang's hand, then impatiently tossed it aside. The sound of shattering porcelain made Li Yang freeze in mid-air, staring blankly at the sound.
The porcelain vase was shattered, and the ninety-nine cicadas that had consumed three days of her time were now lying on the stone slab. The sun was blazing, blinding her, but she couldn't tell if it was from her tears or the blinding sunlight.
Ye Ling shook off her still-clutching hand, shattering her unrealistic expectations with a sharp rebuke: "Yes, I caught ninety-nine cicadas for you, even missing my scheduled coronation time because of it. I also promised you we'd be together forever, but I was sixteen when I made that promise. The Ye Ling who said those things and did those things when I was sixteen is gone, you know that? Are you going to cling to this for the rest of your life just because of a joke I made when I was young?"
Li Yang heard everything, and the courage she had once possessed, fueled by memories, slowly vanished. She collapsed in front of Ye Ling, covering her face and shaking her head desperately, unable to believe it.
But, but you did say that, didn't you? How can you go back on your word?
Ye Ling turned her face away resolutely, lowered her eyes, and started to leave, but was unexpectedly grabbed by Li Yang. She was still unwilling to give up, even after being rejected to this extent: I don't want to go.
She spoke each word softly, as if crying and sorrow had exhausted all her strength. Ye Ling couldn't help but turn around, and when she met her still bright and lively eyes, her heart skipped a beat, and she quickly turned her head away as if pricked by a needle.
Beneath his loose robe, his fingertips pinched the web of his hand hard, the pain forcing him to grieve over the cruelty of this clear-eyed situation.
You may stay, but I will never set foot here again in my entire life.
five
Within a single day, the entire palace knew where Li Yang was.
She took her cousin Shu You's place in the palace, which angered the emperor. She was banished to the cold palace without being favored and ordered that no one should approach her.
The surrounding area, including flowers, trees, and shrubs, was transplanted, turning Li Yang's residence into a completely secluded and desolate palace.
Ye Ling's attitude was clear: he would not accept her. If she persisted in her pursuit, she would remain in this small place, waiting until her eyes turned red and her hair turned white, but he would not respond to even the slightest bit of her passion or love.
Memories are just memories; the past is the past. She clung to them, while he had long since discarded them like trash.
Fortunately, Li Yang still had that dying hen, and as night approached, the mute would occasionally come to listen to her pour out her heart. Although they would not respond to her or tell her what to do, at least Li Yang was not alone.
She could persevere. She wanted Ye Ling to see that even in the face of adversity, she would not give up.
Amidst the chaos of the imperial harem, just as everyone was quickly forgetting about Li Yang, a third fearless person arrived in her desolate courtyard. It was the brother of the palace maid she had saved by the lotus pond that day, the top scholar chosen by the emperor himself, with a handsome face and a smile as warm as a spring breeze, yet he was shy by nature, blushing involuntarily after saying just a few words.
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