Chapter 43 Who are you?
He Yan stared at me for a long time, then snorted softly and turned to leave.
I stood there on the stone steps, speechless for a long time. The events that had happened in recent days seemed to be automatically forming a straight line, yet they were also vaguely visible and hard to see clearly.
Suddenly, darkness fell, and a pair of large hands quietly covered my eyes from behind.
His lips unconsciously curled up slightly, but then, as if remembering something, they slumped down heavily, his smile vanishing completely.
I stood still and didn't say a word.
"Guess who I am?" A deliberately lowered voice rang in my ear.
I remained silent.
"I always guess it's you! You never guess it..." A muffled voice murmured from behind, carrying a hint of familiarity and a touch of strangeness.
In the past, when I couldn't guess correctly, it was just to tease him. But what about today?
"Who are you..." I heard my own voice ring out faintly, without any inflection, "...I can't see clearly."
He Yan's words were still stuck in my head...
"Dong Cheng attempted to murder my father, but he was executed early this morning. Liu Bei and the others left Xuchang overnight. Consort Dong, Dong Cheng's younger sister, has also been executed."
Then, according to the Records of the Three Kingdoms: In the first month of spring of the fifth year, Dong Cheng and others' plot was exposed, and they were all executed...
History has never changed. How ridiculous that I was so worried and recklessly jumping around, struggling and risking my life to protect a cunning fox covered in armor, with an army in front of and behind him.
Grinding my teeth, my whole body screamed that I was about to explode.
The hands covering my eyes slowly loosened, and someone leisurely walked around to my front.
The morning sunlight suddenly became a bit dazzling, and I couldn't help but squint slightly, looking up at the man standing in the sunlight, whose whole body seemed to be edged with gold.
In the sunlight, I couldn't see his expression clearly, only vaguely discernible a splendid bright purple robe, on which hung an oddly shaped, cheap jade pendant.
That was the jade pendant I snatched back from Emperor Liu Xie that day, and later returned it to Cao Cao.
"I've come to take you back to your residence, Xiaoxiao." He looked at me and smiled, his fair face glowing like jade in the sunlight.
I wanted to give him a smile, but my trembling, clenched fists involuntarily reached out to him.
He turned slightly to the side and easily avoided me, without breaking a sweat.
My fist stopped where he was standing; I didn't actually punch him.
“If it were Cao Cao, he definitely wouldn’t dodge.” Looking at him, I said calmly, “Because he knows I would never really hit him.”
Upon hearing this, he paused for a moment, then habitually narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Ah, what a blunder."
I looked at him, without saying a word.
A chill slowly spread through his heart. The person before him was no longer Cao Cao; he was Cao Cao, the all-powerful prime minister who held the emperor hostage to command the feudal lords, the prime minister who famously said, "I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me," the prime minister who, on my first transmigration, gave me sixty lashes I would never forget. (Young man: Wow, you still remember such a trivial matter? Pei Xiao explodes: Trivial matter? Sixty lashes! Sixty lashes almost left me half-paralyzed! Why don't you try it yourself!)
“Let’s go back to the manor.” He reached out his hand to me and smiled.
I instinctively took a step back.
His hands were exposed to the sunlight, motionless. His right hand, with its distinct knuckles, was covered in calluses from years of wielding a sword.
I was slightly stunned; the silver hairpin he had given me was still in my hair. Back then, he had helped Granny Wu, who lived next to the pastry shop, sell wheat and carried things for others, leaving his hands covered in scratches, all just to buy me such a cheap item.
"I have to go," I said hastily, head bowed, eager to escape.
He suddenly grabbed my arm with great force, making my hand ache slightly.
"Return to the manor." He spoke slowly, his thin lips parting slightly.
Just those two simple words made me give up the struggle without any backbone. Then, I became a little angry and embarrassed, and jumped up, "You were clearly all better, why did you lie to me?"
He laughed, not a smile, but a loud laugh, an arrogant laugh that looked down on everything in the world, as if he had already reigned supreme.
"Is that idiot really that good?" he asked with a smile.
I tensed up immediately and jumped up to defend him, "You're not allowed to call him stupid!"
"You're lying, I clearly heard you shout 'idiot' in your dream," he scoffed.
"If anyone's going to call out, it's only me. What's it to you?" I was stunned as I spoke. Why would I call someone's name in my dream?
The real fool is me. Did I have a brain short circuit or something? The amnesiac Cao Cao and the Cao Cao who regained his memory are the same person. He likes to curse himself and he's so happy about it. What does it have to do with me?
Without saying a word, he grabbed my arm and half-dragged me out of the warehouse.
"Yan'er, you've had a hard time these past few days. I'm sure your mother must be worried. Come ride with me in the same carriage." As soon as we stepped out of the storeroom, we saw He Yan waiting outside the door.
He Yan bowed respectfully and followed us obediently.
My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. That guy who'd been yelling "woman, woman" all the time was actually so polite? Poor kid, he's going to have a tough time with his stepfather...
I unleashed my extraordinary imagination.
Passing through a garden, they saw Liu Xie sitting alone in a pavilion, drinking by himself. He was still wearing a magnificent dragon robe, but the vibrant colors on the robe seemed to have faded and could disappear at any moment.
He looked up at us, his beautiful eyes misty, revealing neither sorrow nor anger.
Cao Cao pretended not to see anything and pulled me straight out of the garden.
I turned around and saw the young emperor still looking at me. His magnificent robes covered his thin body, making him look extremely weak and exhausted.
Between yesterday and today, he lost a trusted minister, he lost Consort Dong, and... her child, who was already five months pregnant...
I couldn't help but look at Cao Cao, grinding my teeth. As expected of Cao Cao, he could even lay a hand on a pregnant woman like that, resulting in the deaths of both mother and child.
Upon exiting the palace, I saw about a hundred people standing outside the gate, including Dian Wei and Xu Chu. At a glance, I noticed the strange little donkey and the man in the wide-sleeved blue robe.
He smiled at me, his face pale.
Suddenly, I felt an indescribable sadness in my heart. Had he lied to me too? So when Cao Cao was detained in the palace, I went to his place to discuss things with him, but I couldn't find a trace of him...
From beginning to end, I was the only fool.
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