Chapter 146 Regret
Lan Wu had never seen Chu Mingheng cry before, and now she found it both novel and amusing.
She didn't cry much when she died, but Chu Mingheng cried instead.
"I have already made a very quick journey. When I returned to the palace..." Chu Mingheng paused for a moment, as if recalling something.
Lan Wu spoke up for him: "You saw my... when you came back."
Chu Mingheng took a deep breath and said, "I saw it."
"They all told me bad things about you, but I didn't believe a single word they said."
As he spoke, Chu Mingheng's voice grew lower and lower, his voice dry and hoarse, sounding suppressed, like snowflakes falling softly in winter. Only by holding Lan Wu tightly in his arms could he relieve his despair and sorrow.
“I have avenged you and killed them all. They confessed and begged for mercy in front of you, but I didn’t think you would like to hear it, so I made them mute before they knelt and kowtowed in front of you.”
The details of how he dealt with the culprits were too gory to recount, and Chu Mingheng was worried that Lan Wu would be frightened if she heard them, so he deliberately omitted them.
"With you gone, I have no choice but to go to Yilan Palace to see you every day, and I miss you so much."
"I didn't let any of the people in your palace leave; they're all the same as when you were here."
"They're just clumsy; I asked them to find several paintings, but they couldn't."
Chu Mingheng said somewhat dejectedly, "In the end, I found it myself."
Lan Wu felt something wet on her neck. With some effort, she moved Chu Mingheng's head away, gently pushed it to the side, reached for a handkerchief to wipe it clean, and then met a pair of red eyes.
She felt a pang of sadness and took a handkerchief to wipe away the remaining tears on Chu Mingheng's face.
"Who told you to be so arrogant? You're used to being an emperor, used to being fawned over."
As a result, once he stumbled, it was too late for regrets.
"It's all my fault." Chu Mingheng put away Lan Wu's handkerchief, carried her to the bed, covered her with a brocade quilt, and held her in his arms again.
"I miss you so much," he said. "Sometimes I can still hear your voice, hear you laughing in the house, and hear you say you want new clothes and jewelry."
But when I opened the door, you weren't there.
"Sometimes I even forget you're not here. I think that when the flowers bloom in spring, you must have gone to the Imperial Garden to see them."
Lan Wu peeked out from his embrace, her bright black eyes gazing at him intently.
Chu Mingheng seemed to have guessed what she was thinking and realized he had said too much, so he changed the subject: "It's alright, I'm fine now. Look, wasn't my performance just now quite good? Only you would recognize me."
As he spoke, he seemed particularly delighted, and couldn't help but hug Lan Wu and kiss her cheek: "How did you recognize me, A Wu? You still like me more, don't you?"
How should Lan Wu say this?
It can't be that Chu Mingheng's somewhat crazy and fierce appearance is what made her recognize him, right?
Lan Wu turned her head to avoid his kiss, but when she couldn't avoid it any longer, she reached out and pressed her hand against his lips: "...You recognized me just like that."
After saying that, Lan Wu looked at him seriously again and said, "You can't stay like this forever. When will you be able to remember everything?"
Chu Mingheng remained silent.
Lan Wu let him hold her for a while, then suddenly asked him, "Shall we ask Master Huifan tomorrow? He'll surely have some solutions, right? They all say he's very capable."
Chu Mingheng refused: "Why would I look for him? What can I do? I'm perfectly fine, there's nothing wrong with me."
He made it clear that he didn't want to agree.
Lan Wu naturally understood what he meant.
Unexpectedly, Lan Wu didn't continue to press him for an agreement. Instead, she turned her back to him, looking like she didn't want to talk to him anymore.
Chu Mingheng's hands, which were wrapped around her waist, were pulled down by her without him uttering a sound.
"Awu?" Chu Mingheng called out to her and hugged her again.
Lan Wu hid again.
The bed is only so big; no matter how hard you try to hide, you'll eventually be cornered. When there was nowhere left to retreat, Chu Mingheng suddenly heard a few sobs coming from her direction.
His face darkened, and he propped himself up on his arms, turning the person back over to see Lan Wu's tearful eyes.
"Awu? Alright, alright... Don't cry, Awu. I'll listen to you... I'll listen to you. Go see whoever you say you want to see. Don't cry, Awu."
Chu Mingheng could never do anything about her tears.
“I don’t know if you remember, but when we went to see Master Huifan last time, he said that you can’t go on like this, you’ll die… Do you want to die? Do you want to leave me all alone?” Lan Wu gripped his clothes tightly, looking at him resolutely. “You bestow titles upon me today, but once you die, they will definitely not let me off easily.”
Do you want them to hurt me again?
"Awu!" Chu Mingheng interrupted her urgently, his gaze fixed on her, his voice strained, "Don't say such things, Awu, please, don't say such things again..."
Lan Wu paused for a moment, pursed her lips gently, and good-naturedly stepped forward to wrap her arms around his neck, saying, "Okay, I won't say anymore."
"Then you will come with me to see Master Huifan tomorrow."
"Okay." Chu Mingheng gently stroked her hair, from the back of her neck all the way down to her lower back. He seemed to be thinking about something, but he didn't let Lan Wu notice. He just patted her soothingly.
"Are you sleepy? Take a nap, I'll watch you sleep."
Lan Wu was indeed a little sleepy, and it was getting late, but she refused Chu Mingheng's offer to watch her sleep.
“You should sleep by yourself. You finally managed to get some sleep, and you even had a fever this afternoon. You should be resting properly.”
Although there was no court session for three days after New Year's Eve, it was quite late tonight, and Lan Wu was worried that Chu Mingheng might suddenly have some kind of problem, so she perked up and watched him for a while.
The candles in the hall were still lit, and when she went down to put them out, Chu Mingheng pressed her down on the spot.
"You stay here, I'm leaving."
After saying this, he got off the bed and went to extinguish several candles in the hall, but he didn't extinguish them completely, leaving one candle on the table still burning.
Chu Mingheng came back and asked her if she could leave a lamp on.
The lamp wasn't very bright, and besides, the curtains were drawn when they slept, so Lan Wu didn't think there was anything wrong with it and generously agreed.
With the curtain closed, the room was dimly lit, but not completely dark. With the help of the dim light, Chu Mingheng gradually made out Lan Wu's face.
Lan Wu also opened her eyes and looked at him. The moment their eyes met, she urged him to go to sleep.
"I woke up very early today, you should go to sleep early, and I'll go to sleep too."
Chu Mingheng seemed to smile, said "okay," and then closed his eyes.
The surroundings were quiet. Lan Wu's gaze gently swept over Chu Mingheng's face. There was no difference in his face, but the Chu Mingheng in the previous life after her death and the Chu Mingheng in this life had different personalities.
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