Chapter 213 What’s so scary?
If the answer is no, I'll have to find a way to trick the tyrant myself. The methods I can think of right now are about as risky as asking a deity to send me a dream. The tyrant will definitely become suspicious anyway, so I might as well take advantage of the old man's favor and save myself the trouble.
Although Chu Liuzheng was afraid of death, she would not shrink from a decision she had made. Without hesitation, she nodded to Chen Xing, "Yes, I had a dream."
"Really, what did the immortal tell you?" Chen Xing moved closer curiously, his face so enthusiastic that it almost touched Chu Liuzheng's face.
Chu Liuzheng leaned back very skillfully, wondering if this girl was also this enthusiastic and so close when she looked at the corpse?
"It's hard to say." She pushed Chen Xing's head back, frowning slightly and looking a little distressed.
Chen Xing wanted to ask more, but Mi Yue picked up a piece of stewed radish and stuffed it into her mouth, "Eat well."
Chen Xing grunted twice in dissatisfaction while holding the radish in her mouth. Seeing that Si Yue ignored her, she had no choice but to bury her head in eating and stopped asking Chu Liuzheng questions.
She didn't ask, and the others didn't want to embarrass Chu Liuzheng, so they didn't ask.
Chu Liuzheng breathed a sigh of relief and drank his soup while thinking about his thoughts.
The person she wants to deceive is a tyrant who is full of cunning thoughts, so she has to think carefully.
*
When I woke up from my nap, the rain was still falling. It seemed to be getting lighter, but it was still cold.
Chu Liuzheng sat by the window to enjoy the breeze, hoping to clear his confused mind and simulate the process of deceiving the tyrant in his mind.
Moxiang was fiddling with silk flowers. Seeing her standing at the window in a daze, she gently reminded her, "The cold wind is giving you a headache. Don't catch a cold again."
"Got it." Chu Liuzheng agreed, returned to sit beside the brazier, and watched Moxiang make silk flowers.
Seeing her fingers moving flexibly and the silk flowers being made intricately, he couldn't help but praise her, "Sister, you have really skillful hands."
"My mother taught me all this," Moxiang chuckled. Her mother's voice and smile seemed to still be before her eyes. "My mother is the most skillful embroiderer in town. Not only is she good at embroidery, she's also adept at making these little things. When I was little, I couldn't sit still and played a lot, so my mother would use these little things to coax me into learning from her. I actually learned quite a bit."
Chu Liuzheng heard her mention her family for the first time and asked curiously, "Aunt is an embroiderer, so why did your sister enter the palace? I heard that your sister was only ten years old when she entered the palace."
The smile on Moxiang's face froze, and a hint of tears suddenly appeared in her eyes.
【It's over! Now I'm asking about something sad.】
Chu Liuzheng secretly hated his own broken mouth and was about to say something to comfort her, but Moxiang's expression had returned to normal. Seeing her apologetic expression, he couldn't help but smile and said, "It's all in the past. I'll tell you what you want to hear. I haven't told anyone else yet."
Chu Liuzheng didn't really want to listen to other people's sad stories, as she felt it was exposing their wounds, but she could see that Moxiang really wanted to talk about it at the moment.
"I want to listen." She nodded, choosing to be a quiet listener.
"It happened so many years ago. Where should I start?" Moxiang stared at the silk flower in her hand and couldn't help but curl her eyes when she thought of the gentle woman who gave her life.
"In fact, I was a posthumous child. Not long after my mother became pregnant with me, my father was conscripted by the government to repair the river embankment. He was washed away by a flood and was never seen alive or dead.
The flood destroyed the house, and my mother fled with the villagers while pregnant with me. Thanks to the villagers’ help, my mother was able to survive.”
"We all fled to Shijing Town and settled down in a nearby village. Not long after, I was born. My mother had a difficult labor and it took her a whole day to give birth to me. My mother always said that my father was blessing us from heaven, and I think so too."
There was a glint of light in Moxiang's eyes, but it quickly disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"At that time, my family had nothing. My mother lost a lot of energy after giving birth to me. We were poor and couldn't afford good food, so she never recovered and that's why I got sick."
"She was weak and couldn't work in the fields, so to support us mother and me, we had to go to town to find work. Before she married my father, she was an excellent embroiderer. The owner of the cloth shop was impressed by her skills and hired her as an embroiderer to embroider clothes for the shop."
"Aniang is diligent, and her embroidery patterns are beautiful. Her clothes sell well, and the shopkeeper is happy and often gives her tips. We save money and spend it, and our lives get better day by day."
Moxiang paused, her voice even softer, "But rumors started circulating in the village, saying that the money A Niang earned was not clean, and they wanted to kick A Niang out of the village."
She said it tactfully, but how could Chu Liuzheng not hear it?
[Damn it! A man who can make money is capable and that's natural, but a woman who can make money is being kept and subjected to adultery. This double standard has been around since ancient times.]
She secretly rolled her eyes and reached out to pat Moxiang's shoulder to comfort her.
Moxiang twirled the silk flower in her hand and continued to reminisce, "After being driven out of the village, my mother took me to rent a house in town. My mother had skills and was a widow, so many matchmakers came to propose marriage and persuaded my mother to remarry, but my mother, thinking of my father, refused."
"But widows are always surrounded by trouble. Living alone with my mother and children, there were always hooligans hanging around nearby. They would knock on my door in the middle of the night and even climb over the walls, which scared me to tears. Gradually, rumors started to spread, and even the owner of the house wanted my mother to move out."
Moxiang smiled bitterly and said, "Why is it so difficult for a woman to live alone in this world? Is it a sin not to marry? My mother just wants to stay with my father and me, why is everyone forcing her to do that?"
This is a difficult problem that has existed since ancient times, and in this world, Chu Liuzheng cannot think of a suitable solution.
She could only reach out and hug Moxiang, patting her back comfortingly.
"Mother is dead. They forced her to death." Moxiang rested her chin on her shoulder, tears streaming down her face as her voice became sobbing. "Mother was frail, but she was very strong-willed. She kept everything to herself and didn't say anything. She fell ill and passed away in just two months. I watched her breathe her last with my own eyes."
How old was Moxiang at that time?
Chu Liuzheng felt sad when he heard this and hugged Moxiang even tighter.
"I will enter the palace after burying my mother." Moxiang hugged Chu Liuzheng back, "I don't want to be forced to death by them like my mother. At least in this palace, I can stay single."
Chu Liuzheng was stunned, then realized something and asked, "You don't want to leave the palace after you turn 25?"
"I don't want to." Moxiang withdrew from her arms, wiped the tears from her face with a handkerchief, and said firmly, "I won't leave the palace."
When Chu Liuzheng heard these words, it was as if a firework exploded in her mind, leaving countless fragments and making her whole brain a mess.
She always felt that the palace was an oppressive cage, and that any living being that entered it would either wither or die, without exception.
But Moxiang's words made her realize that even a terrible place like the palace could be called a safe haven.
At least, it is a safe haven for Moxiang.
She was speechless for a moment, staring blankly at Moxiang's red eyes and asked, "Aren't you afraid?"
Moxiang asked back, "What are you afraid of?"
Afraid of the evil hearts, afraid of conspiracies and intrigues, afraid of... too many terrible things. Chu Liuzheng opened his mouth, looked into Moxiang's eyes, and couldn't say a word.
Moxiang looked at her and said, "Whatever I seek is in the palace, so what is there to be afraid of?"
Until the day he was on his way to the Yangxin Palace, Moxiang's words kept echoing in Chu Liuzheng's mind.
She didn't know why she was thinking about it, but she couldn't stop.
It wasn't until she stood at the entrance of the Yangxin Palace and Xiao Anzi came to greet her that she suddenly came back to her senses and smiled: "I have something important to report to His Majesty. I'd like to trouble you to pass it on."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
