I didn't raise you well
Wu Qi had never imagined that leaving the capital would one day be a flight. She clicked her tongue twice. The sun replaced the moon, and the distant light chased away the night. When the sky was fully bright, she even wondered if all of this was just a dream.
An absurd dream.
When the dream ends, not so many people will die. When I open my eyes, I will see Yi Shen by my bedside. Then the two of us will go to Cizi Pavilion together, see Master Sun again, and have fun with my friends. There will be no separation like we have now.
Will the blood in my dreams be warm? Will the corpses in my dreams die with their eyes wide open? Everything in my dreams, stripped of all reason, is nothing but absurdity. As long as she is in her dreams, even if plains turn into cliffs and raindrops into sharp swords, she will not be afraid.
But all of this is not a dream.
Those people are dead, including Zhou Liuhu.
Wu Qi didn't think Zhou Liuhu could survive, but he knew he couldn't go and die. To claim revenge while ignoring the disparity in their abilities was ultimately just expressing resentment without any real results.
If revenge could be achieved simply by talking, then evildoers wouldn't be so free.
Therefore, she will not speak, but will only wait.
Waiting for the day she emerges victorious.
The dim road gradually became clear. The two of them rode together on a horse, galloping forward. There were no flowers to accompany them, nor frost or snow to see them off. Even the clouds were almost the same as yesterday. Behind Wu Qi was still Yi Shen's chest.
Through countless trials and tribulations, he is still there for me.
Wu Qi asked, "Yi Shen, if we head south, where will we go?"
Yi Shen asked, "Where do you want us to elope to?"
To call an escape an elopement is something that probably no one in the world would ever do again. After a moment of thought, Wu Qi suddenly remembered a place his mother had been to—Changru Town.
The fruits and melons in Changru Town are sweet and fragrant, and the sunshine is excellent, making it a perfect place for people who are prone to mold to visit.
"Yi Shen, I feel like I'm getting moldy."
Yi Shen hugged Wu Qi tightly and whispered, "Then let's go sunbathe."
Wu Qi smiled, clenched his fist, and raised it as if to encourage himself, having made up his mind.
"Yi Shen! Let's go to Changru Town and let me get some sun."
“Okay. Let it air out in the sun, it won’t get moldy,” Yi Shen said.
They had left the capital's winter behind, traveling south by horse and carriage. In the rain, they encountered green-tiled houses with blue bricks, where a man wearing a straw raincoat had set up a simple shed to protect a table and was painting. Wu Qi, wearing a straw raincoat, stood under Yi Shen's umbrella and said, "Young Master Yi, would you like to paint in the rain?"
Yi Shen tilted the umbrella slightly. "I'll listen to you."
"Alright! Since you're going to listen to me, I can't let you suffer! How about this, let's have a contest, and whoever loses has to grant the other a request, how about it?"
"Can."
After saying that, the two of them really prepared to paint in the rain. Unfortunately, they got so carried away that they didn't even have a pen, let alone a table. Luckily, the man overheard their bet and voluntarily lent them what he had with him that day.
The three of them found a pavilion in the middle of a lake and sat down.
Wearing a straw raincoat, Wu Qi squinted and picked up his pen, glanced at it briefly, and then began to write. In contrast, Yi Shen did not write as quickly as Wu Qi. He did not look at the pavilions and black tiles in the rain, but only glanced at Wu Qi twice before picking up his pen.
This time, it was Wu Qi who stopped writing first. After waiting and waiting, Yi Shen carefully finished the last stroke.
The man looked at Wu Qi's painting and thought to himself, "It is a good painting, with excellent color and technique. However, the green bricks and gray tiles in the rain are supposed to be a pleasant and leisurely place, so why does this girl's painting exude an indescribable sorrow?"
When that person looked at Yi Shen's paintings, all that remained in their heart was surprise and admiration.
—In the distance, there is a pavilion in the middle of the lake in the rain, with bricks and tiles as a backdrop; nearby, a woman is engrossed in painting, her hair hanging down, her flower hair ribbon pale in comparison.
The girl in the painting is Wu Qi. What puzzled the man was that Wu Qi rarely paused while painting today; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she completed the painting in one go. The painting depicted a scene in the rain, but in this young master's brushstrokes, the girl's brows were slightly furrowed, and the painting on the table was actually...
Withered, no, moldy peach blossoms.
Wu Qi took Yi Shen's painting and stared blankly at the peach blossom. At first glance, the flower did look like it was moldy, but upon closer inspection, one would find that the peach blossom was not moldy, but rather striving to grow and peel away the mold.
What is depicted in the painting reflects what is in the heart.
The man, who had initially intended to judge the outcome as an observer, was now thankful he hadn't been fixated on determining a winner between the two. Colors may vary in shade, skills in skill, but how can one measure the victory or defeat of the emotions depicted in the painting?
After the rain stopped and the sky cleared, Wu Qi put away Yi Shen's painting and said, "You painted me so beautifully, I can't throw it away."
Yi Shen put away Wu Qi's painting and said, "I am not in the painting. You can add me later."
The notions of winning and losing dissipated lightly in their conversation. They bid farewell and left. For some reason, the man suddenly realized—winning and losing, in the face of kindred spirits, seemed unimportant.
The two of them set off south, and along the way they met a few people who drank and played cards together, took a boat, climbed trees, and lay down on the dry, soft ground where spring had not yet arrived. When they passed an ancient temple, they saw someone swindling and deceiving them, so Wu Qi exposed the person and turned away gracefully.
When passing by the temple, Wu Qi stopped.
A sense of tranquility pervades the temple; no one makes a loud noise, for fear of disturbing the gods. Just standing at the temple gate, one can smell the scent of incense that has accumulated over the years, mixed with the aroma of dust.
Yi Shen asked, "Shall we go in and take a look?"
Wu Qi shook his head, "No need. I believe that if there are truly gods in this world, they would also love me."
Even though she killed many people.
Yi Shen said, "Then let's go."
Wu Qi grunted in agreement and turned to leave.
After eating, drinking, and playing for more than half a month, they finally arrived at Changru Town. With the spring equinox approaching, Changru Town was overflowing with a variety of fruits. Many fruits unseen in the capital were extremely common here. Wu Qi, saying "The world is so vast," accepted the fruit her mother-in-law gave her and took a bite.
It has a sweet and refreshing fragrance, as if it has been soaked in the dew pool that the fairy goddess quietly collected.
With just one bite, Wu Qi fell in love with the fruit.
Seeing that Wu Qi enjoyed the food, the old woman sent him some more the next day. Their two families were neighbors; the old woman was one of the wealthiest people in Changru Town, and she was known for her cleanliness, keeping her courtyard spotless and occasionally doing the cleaning herself. As for why Wu Qi and Yi Shen lived next door to such a wealthy old woman, it was entirely because Yi Shen, worried that Wu Qi wouldn't be comfortable, had spent a fortune to buy the place next to hers.
Wu Qi asked, "Did you bring this much money with you when you came out?"
Yi Shen replied, "My parents were afraid that I would mistreat you, so they allocated all the nearby estates and shops to me. They are now under your name, as is the place we live here."
Unbeknownst to her, Wu Qi had acquired properties and estates in both the north and south. She took a bite of the fruit, "Sweet!" Then she casually offered the fruit to Yi Shen's lips, and Yi Shen took a bite as well.
He has spent a lot of time and money decorating his home these days. He doesn't do everything himself, but everything in the house has been approved by him.
The cushions and flowers, the pattern of the carpets on the inner room floor, the pattern of the bed, the roundness or squareness of the tables and chairs, the quality of the bowls and chopsticks... everything, big or small, was decided by him after comparison. If Yi Shen was difficult to please, that was indeed the case. In order to find a satisfactory pattern for the bedding, he sent people to the neighboring city to buy fabric. But after being with Yi Shen for a while, those purchasing people also roughly understood Yi Shen's preferences.
Dark colors are disliked, and bright colors are unnecessary; soft and bright colors are best, and the patterns should also be light. Apart from the necessary hard items such as beds and chairs, try not to buy hard items that are easy to bump into or knock over. In addition, many of the items ordered by this young master are pink.
For some reason, they were paid to do the job, so they simply did as they were told. Only when it was almost finished did they realize—everyone else had a golden or silver nest, but this young master had built himself a soft, luxurious one?
Stepping inside feels like being embraced by clouds and sunshine; it's as if all the hardships will disappear after a good night's sleep.
Of course, the lady who lived in the same soft-bedroom as this young man did indeed do just that.
Aside from eating, drinking, and having fun, Wu Qi did nothing but sleep. It was as if she had just experienced a disaster, and her qi and blood were both depleted, so she needed to sleep and rest. Sometimes she slept on the couch in the house, sometimes she lay directly on the ground, fortunately there was a thick blanket that Yi Shen had chosen on the ground, sometimes she slept on the rocking chair in the yard, but most of the time she was in Yi Shen's arms.
The purchasing agent may not know, but the maid in the house knows perfectly well.
—It's not that the lady wants to sleep in the young master's arms; it's that the lady had just fallen asleep when the young master arrived, as if nothing in the world could compare to holding the lady in his arms.
Today, the lady took a pillow and blanket, found a spot on the floor, rolled around a bit, and decided to sleep there. A little while later, the young master arrived, and surprisingly, even he, a man of such stature, lay down on the floor to sleep alongside her.
He held the young lady in his arms and said, "Xiao Qi, I'm here."
The lady, still half asleep, took some of the blanket from herself and covered the young master with it, finally saying, "I missed you so much, Yi Shen."
After closing the door, the maid exclaimed enviously, "Such love exists in the world!"
Another maid said, "They have no shortage of money, are childhood sweethearts, their parents often write to each other, and they eat, drink, and have fun every day. Moreover, the young lady and the young master are exceptionally good-looking; it would not be an exaggeration to say that they are a perfect match in the world."
The maid lamented, "When will I ever be able to live like that?!"
"We're already living the good life here! The lady and gentleman have good tempers and never scold us. They pay us several times more than others. The household is mostly women, with only a few men on the periphery, and there are people watching over us in the shadows. It's easy work, good money, and safe. We should be happy!"
"Yes, yes, yes! Thinking about the wages, we should be secretly happy."
"Stop going back on your word, where's the soup the young master asked you to make?"
"Oh no! I forgot, I'll go right away."
In other places, this would surely have earned them a scolding, but here, they only felt that the young master cared a lot about the ladies, even deciding what they ate each day according to their preferences.
When the maid brought in the cooked chicken soup, Wu Qi had just woken up and was nestled in Yi Shen's arms, draped in a blanket, trying to wake herself. Seeing the maid enter, she showed no intention of getting up from Yi Shen's embrace, instead raising her face to give the maid a sweet smile.
"Just put it on the table, thank you for your hard work."
The maid hurriedly said, "It's no trouble at all." Then, blushing, she went out, her mind still filled with Wu Qi's smile as she closed the door.
The chicken soup was perfectly cooked; the lid was lifted, and a fragrant aroma filled the air. Yi Shen ladled out a small bowl and placed it beside Wu Qi. "Would you like a small bowl?"
It has to be said that Yi Shen had an incredibly accurate grasp of Wu Qi's preferences; he could avoid eating anything she disliked. Wu Qi took the small bowl of chicken soup and finished it.
She touched her belly and said, "I've gained weight."
Yi Shen also touched her belly and said, "You haven't gained weight, you've lost weight."
"Really? I've been eating too much these past few days, I'm sure I'll gain weight." Wu Qi stood up and stepped onto the scale. She had been eating non-stop these past few days and had become quite relaxed, so she was sure she would gain weight. But when she stepped on the scale, she found that she had not only not gained weight, but had actually lost two pounds.
Yi Shen wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, reaching over her shoulders and neck, staring at the numbers on the scale.
Because of his arrival, the numbers on the scale kept changing and never reached a definite value.
Wu Qi asked, "How come I've lost weight?"
She was genuinely puzzled. She ate plenty and slept enough, so why was she still losing two pounds? She didn't know, but Yi Shen did—she seemed carefree, but the dark clouds in her heart grew heavier. Even when she was asleep, she would either have nightmares or shed tears. Therefore, she always needed to clear her mind for a while after waking up before she could pull herself out of her dreams.
He dared not let Wu Qi wake up on his own, nor did he want to see Wu Qi fall into a nightmare, or shed tears while asleep.
Therefore, no matter what he was doing, as long as Wu Qi wanted to sleep, he would always drop everything and stay with her.
Wu Qi was getting more and more sleepy, while Yi Shen wasn't as sleepy. What he did most often was to hold Wu Qi in his arms, coax and kiss her, and pull her back to the human world from those dreams filled with blood and death.
She was clearly not a person who liked to cry, yet she shed all her tears while she was asleep.
Yi Shen said, "You've lost weight; it's my fault for not taking good care of you."
He couldn't let Wu Qi continue sleeping like this.
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