Chapter 54: Childhood Story "Kill me! Kill me! Kill me quickly...
In the main hall of Tingyun Pavilion, two gilded Suanni incense burners were emitting thin smoke, and white mist was swirling around. The person sitting upright on the armchair was looking at the misty smoke with his face slightly tilted, his eyes focused, as if he was lost in thought.
The noise and footsteps outside the pavilion came and went quickly, until gradually, only the rustling of snow falling on the eaves, bending the branches of the trees, faded away. The wind whistled in the darkness, and the candle wick flickered, sparkling. Li Jieyi slowly exhaled and rubbed her brow.
Suddenly, there was a whisper of voices outside the corridor. Li Jieyi raised her eyes and glanced casually, seeing a crimson figure walking past the window. He had black hair tied in a jade crown, a smile on his lips, and his posture was as straight as a pine tree. He walked slowly, as if walking on the moon, with an indescribable handsomeness and elegance.
Li Jieyi's hand holding the teacup trembled slightly, and she stood there in a daze. The long-dormant memories in her heart began to stir. Her eyes followed the man under the frosty moonlight. The man she remembered day and night overlapped with the figure in front of her. She almost couldn't control her voice and wanted to call out that name.
Her expression rarely showed such obvious fluctuations, and there seemed to be great shock and surprise in her eyes. She was reluctant to blink, holding her breath, and slowly stood up, moving very lightly, as if she was afraid of waking someone in a dream. She carefully reached out her hand to touch his face.
Chu Qi looked at the shadow that suddenly approached the tip of his shoe and said softly, "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to the Princess."
After a long silence, Chuqi heard the person above his head let out a soft "ah", like a sigh from someone waking up from a dream, accompanied by deep disappointment and infinite sadness. He caught a glimpse of her taking a step back, and her movement of turning back was a little hesitant.
Nanny Guan, who was serving in the main hall, saw Li Jieyi's misconduct clearly. Looking at Chuqi's tall back, which was as slender as a pine or a cypress, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart.
In the years after Song Jiusi's disappearance, Li Jieyi still made his share of clothes every year. She stubbornly believed that he would return one day, and she held on to this vague belief for twenty years. Month after month, it became her habit to pay tribute to the ancients with new clothes.
Others may not know, but Li Jieyi knows that he actually prefers brightly colored clothes in private, such as the crimson straight robe that Chuqi is wearing.
When Nanny Guan first saw Chuqi walking towards her from afar wearing this dress, she suspected that she had seen a ghost. The appearance was secondary. The posture and outline were so similar that in the dim candlelight, it was almost indistinguishable from the real thing. But when you looked closer, you could still clearly tell the difference between the two people.
Song Jiusi was, in my memory, strikingly handsome, his eyes tinged with the elegance of years. His conversation was warm and refined, steeped in poetry and literature, and his actions possessed the composure and ease of someone who had weathered many ups and downs. On ordinary days, Song Jiusi wore a relaxed smile and was affable. But when he drew his sword into battle, his eyes would reveal a deep, murderous intent. Consequently, no one dared to act presumptuously in his presence—with one exception, of course.
It can be said that the emperor now advocates both civil and military affairs in the hope that talents like Song Jiusi will emerge.
Nanny Guan glanced at Chuqi and thought to herself: This young man is obviously a bit immature. But... being young also has its advantages...
Nanny Guan lifted the wine pot on the small red clay stove, poured the wine, and then stayed with the two of them to chat. When she left, she considerately closed the door.
Li Jieyi found it a little funny and sighed and shook her head. Chuqi heard the door close and her mind moved slightly. Before she turned around to look, she heard the person above her ask, "Where did your ear beads come from?"
Chuqi replied: "It is the pearl and jade decoration on the longevity lock."
"Do you still remember what the longevity lock looked like?"
Chu Qi thought carefully and measured the size with his hands. "I only have a small half of it on my hand, so I don't remember the whole thing. I just remember that the necklace was engraved with peony branches, and this bead was on the silver lock..." Chu Qi's voice became lower and lower. In fact, the longevity lock he described was no different from those of other people. But seeing that Li Jieyi was listening attentively, Chu Qi continued, "I don't know why, but there seems to be a small mark on the inside of the longevity lock."
Chuqi recalled the shallow dent and seemed to be familiar with the mark at that time. He would often rub it subconsciously, so that the part of the collar was obviously smoother and shinier than other places.
Li Jieyi smiled faintly, recalling the past: "It was your brother who knocked on it."
Ever since Li Jieyi commented on the "beautiful earrings" in the enclosure, Chuqi had a feeling that she had seen the material of the jade before, and thought that she might know some clues, so he came to ask for advice. After hearing what she said, it turned out that she not only had clues, but also seemed to be familiar with her own life experience!
He has a younger brother! Turns out he has a younger brother!
Her eyes fell on Chuqi's face, taking in his nervous, anxious, and expectant expression. Li Jieyi couldn't face such an earnest gaze calmly, so she lowered her eyelids and said slowly, "Your brother has been fond of swords, guns, sticks, and clubs since he was a child. Once, when I was a guest at the general's residence, he pestered me to become his disciple. I casually suggested that he practice the basic skills first, and he immediately imitated me, doing horse stance, leg stretching, and waist bending, and even snatching a small stone lock..."
Chu Qi was surprised. A general's mansion? So his father was a general? Chu Qi smiled, but he felt a little lonely and melancholy. He felt like a stranger. These people were clearly his closest family, but he couldn't remember them at all.
"Later, when he was standing still, he lost his balance and fell down. His brow bone hit the longevity lock, scratching it. He was so angry that he wanted to split the longevity lock, but when he saw your uncle and I watching from the side, he didn't dare to do it..."
"It was this longevity lock that caused me to go in the wrong direction at first..."
Chuqi's gaze met Li Jieyi's, anticipating that what she was about to say might reveal something about his past. He leaned forward, as if on the verge of standing up, not even realizing it. His heart was pounding, his palms sweating. But Li Jieyi's gaze was too heavy, its sorrow far surpassing its joy, giving him a bad feeling. This premonition made him restless, his body reacting with a familiar rhythm: his breathing quickened, his chest tightened, and he gradually felt dizzy. His body was resisting the answer.
He suppressed the discomfort in his stomach and tried his best to hear the next sentence clearly: "I thought the person who survived was your brother."
Sadness flooded in like a tide, and Chuqi's ears were buzzing.
Li Jieyi's question about the ear beads' origins wasn't a test, but rather a glimpse into how much he remembered from the past. The ear beads were made of blood-thread jade, a type of Lantian jade that was extremely rare. Its base was icy jade, with numerous red threads running through it, like the blood from a newly hatched bird's peck.
Song Jiusi crafted a longevity locket for each of her two nephews: one with a lotus-shaped bell pendant, the other with a peony-shaped animal pendant. Song Jiusi personally polished and inlaid each bead, and she memorized their texture and pattern. The moment she saw them in the enclosure, she knew she had found the right person.
She had expected to return empty-handed this time, but she accidentally heard that there was a scholar named Chuqi on the list of the special examination, whose life story was a mystery. With a thought, she sent someone to retrieve Chuqi's life story, and the more she read, the more surprised she was. She had searched all over the world for him, but she had never expected that he had, through his own hard work, step by step, come to everyone's attention.
"Your father is Li Mingzhe, Marquis of Wuding, the General of Eastern Zhejiang. Your mother is Song Lingyi, the Deputy General of the Huainan Navy. Your surname is Li and your given name is Linyuan. You have an older sister, Li Shuyu, who is three years older than you, and a younger brother, Li Zaichuan, who is two years younger."
Chuqi was choked with sobs and unable to speak, his clothes already wet with tears. For the first time in his life, he hated himself for being well-read and knowledgeable in history.
During the last month of the late emperor's reign, Crown Prince Li served as regent.
His father, Li Mingzhe, had offended a close minister of the Crown Prince Li and was framed for corruption and treason. General Pinglu was imprisoned overnight, and his mother, Song Lingyi, was implicated, leading to both being dismissed and exiled. While exiled to Hainan, the Li family of twenty encountered Japanese pirates. First, Li Mingzhe's younger brother, Li Mingzhi, was poisoned and blinded, and his wife disappeared without a trace. The Li family reported the case to the authorities, but no one responded. Later, Li Mingzhe was assassinated and severely wounded, but the authorities simply attributed it to bad luck and the bandits' rampage. With no one to turn to for help, the Li family, some wounded, some maimed, and some dead, were relentlessly pursued by the Japanese pirates, who disguised themselves as bandits, torturing them like a cat toying with a mouse. Finally, the head of the family, Li Mingzhe, was hacked to death while trying to protect his wife and children. His head was impaled on a spear and paraded through the streets. The public, believing him to be the pirate leader, cursed him and applauded him.
As for the rest, Chuqi only remembered what was written in the book: "Women were humiliated and killed by the hands of thieves, and young children were thrown into the ditch. Everyone who saw it shed tears, and the whole world was saddened by the news."
Li Jieyi closed her eyes and said in a trembling voice, "We found your mother and your sister on the cliff..."
When Li Shuyu was abducted and put on horseback, he looked at his mother with red eyes and cried out heartbreakingly: "Mother! Kill me! Kill me! Kill me now!"
Song Lingyi reached for the quiver, aiming it at her daughter's immature back, her tender throat, and the heart that brought joy and love.
The bowstring stretched to the point of breaking, the muscles in her arms tensed to the limit, and Song Lingyi's tears rolled silently. Three arrows streaked through the air. She saw her daughter's eyes widen instantly, a long cry of pain escaping her throat. Then she dropped the bow and arrow, drew her sword, and committed suicide.
"Their clothes are very neat and clean."
Chuqi understood the meaning of this sentence, but was still heartbroken.
"At the time, the Japanese pirates were wreaking havoc, killing and burning. Several children's bodies had been burned to pieces, and I could only identify them by their figures and tokens. During the interrogation, I discovered that a servant of the Li family had jumped off the cliff holding a child. After a search, we found half of a longevity locket at the foot of the cliff. It was the one your brother often wore. It's a shame that the old servant didn't make it until we arrived. I still don't know if the child survived the fall, but I didn't find any remains of the child at the foot of the cliff, so I refused to give up."
The world was vast, and finding a child among millions of people was like searching for a needle in a haystack. This was especially true given that she had been searching based on Li Zaichuan's age and characteristics from the outset. After years of searching with no results, Li Jieyi began to wonder if her efforts were in vain. Then, one day, a sudden inspiration struck her: Could the missing child be Li Linyuan? She expanded her search by two years, but this undoubtedly made the task even more difficult.
Li Jieyi's hands, covering her face, began to tremble violently. "All of this could have been avoided! I am to blame for all this..."
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