Chapter 54 Life Story
"Miss, please come this way." The maid led them through a moon-shaped door and into a small courtyard.
Princess Anping was sitting by the window, holding a book in her hand, "Rufei, you're here."
The maid quickly left Jiang Fei behind and walked forward, closing the window in one swoop. She then bowed apologetically to Jiang Fei and said, "Miss, please come in."
The maid entered the room and asked, "How do you serve her? Don't you know that the princess can't stand the wind?!"
The other two maids lowered their heads and dared not answer.
Princess Anping smiled and said, "It's nothing, I just want to get some fresh air. Rufei, come and sit down."
"Princess." Jiang Fei walked forward and sat down on the embroidered cushion in front of the bed.
She looked around. Although she didn't know much about antiques, all the utensils in Princess Anping's room were very exquisite, except that the room was a little small.
The maid served the tea and left.
Princess Anping's face looked a little pale, and her complexion was worse than the last time she was at Liu Mansion.
Jiang Fei originally wanted to say some words of comfort, but felt that comfort was futile.
"Don't look like that." Princess Anping smiled. "I'm much better now. But you, are you still sick and haven't recovered yet? Why do you look so bad?"
Jiang Fei touched her face. She thought her illness was seventy percent fake and she had recovered long ago. However, Pei Jing and the corpse kept flashing in her mind.
"Maybe it's because the weather is too hot."
Princess Anping took her hand and said, "Thank you for reminding me last time. It's a pity... I still couldn't save it."
Jiang Fei had also wondered about this.
She had clearly saved the princess, but things were still developing according to the original plot. I wonder if it was an automatic correction made by the plot.
If that's the case, does it mean that no matter what she does, she can't change the ending of anyone in the book, including herself?
"Are the maids around you reliable?" Jiang Fei asked.
Princess Anping nodded, "Now I'm reliable. After this incident, my mother replaced all the maids around me and only kept the two I brought with me as a dowry."
"That's good." Jiang Fei held Princess Anping's hand with her backhand, "Don't think too much. Taking good care of yourself is the most important thing. The princess is still young and will have children in the future."
Princess Anping shook her head, her eyes suddenly reddened, "Not anymore."
Jiang Fei's heart was shocked, and she really wanted to sew her mouth shut. She was really talking about something that was irrelevant.
"Let's not talk about this anymore." Princess Anping said, "Thank you for the lotus. I plan to plant it in the pond in the Princess's Mansion as a prayer for the deceased child."
Jiang Fei was puzzled, "Don't plant it here?"
Princess Anping shook her head. "I don't like it here, and that child probably won't like it either. It's almost noon, so why don't you stay and have lunch with me? Why are you here so late today?"
"I was delayed on the way." Jiang Fei hesitated for a moment and said, "I met Prince Zhaoning on the way."
Princess Anping's expression changed slightly. "You'd better stay away from this person."
Jiang Fei raised her eyebrows and looked at Princess Anping. Princess Anping was also a royal family member and might know more than what she, a "reader", had read in the book.
"Why?"
Princess Anping frowned slightly, "After all, he is a pitiful man."
Jiang Fei thought of Pei Jing standing in the middle of the road. He was not excited or crazy after killing someone, but a confused, helpless and contradictory person.
"Why is he pitiful?"
"It's a long story," Princess Anping said. "If you want to hear it, I can tell you when I have some free time."
Jiang Fei nodded repeatedly, "I want to listen."
Princess Anping thought for a moment, "Where should I begin? It was probably from the day he was born that it was decided that he would be a pitiful person..."
Pei Jing's father, Prince Ping, was the younger brother of the current emperor. Unfortunately, he died young, leaving behind Princess Ping and the unborn Pei Jing.
Six months after King Ping's death, his wife died of complications during childbirth, leaving Pei Jing an orphan.
The nanny who took care of him in the palace saw that he had no adults to protect him and was very powerful in the palace. She often beat and scolded him, and even made him kneel down and eat dog food on the ground.
Hearing this, Jiang Fei couldn't help but ask: "Then why didn't he tell others?"
Princess Anping lamented, "He's been like this since he was little. How could he know that this is wrong? He only knows that if he listens to Nanny, he'll have food to eat, and even if he gets beaten, he'll still have food to eat."
"What happened next?" Jiang Fei asked softly.
"Later..." The princess sighed, "When he was six years old, the emperor happened to visit Prince Ping's mansion and found him curled up in a doghouse, covered in wounds. The emperor wanted to take him out, but he refused, saying that if he did, he would have nothing to eat."
"The Emperor, enraged, conducted a thorough investigation and discovered that the nanny who had cared for him all those years had not only embezzled his funds but had also often locked him up in the woodshed and beaten him. Even more terrifying, to keep him obedient, the nanny had lied to him, saying that all children in the world grew up this way, and that children who weren't beaten wouldn't grow up. He actually believed her."
The hot steam from the teacup rose, forming a thin mist between the two people.
Jiang Fei suddenly remembered the rainy night on Tingquan Mountain. She asked Pei Jing if it hurt, and he replied that he liked the pain.
She thought it was a joke at the time, but now it seems that it might be true.
Because for Pei Jing when he was a child, pain meant having food to eat. As a member of the royal family, he lived like an ordinary person.
Princess Anping continued, "The emperor was furious and executed Nanny and hundreds of servants in Prince Heping's palace. He was then taken to the palace to be raised. However, life in the palace was not easy, and he was bullied by the other princes."
Jiang Fei tried hard to recall the description of Pei Jing in the book.
All we remember is that he usurped the throne and killed all the descendants of the previous emperor. He was avenging the young and powerless Pei Jing.
Jiang Fei asked, "Since the Emperor has brought him to the palace, will he not care about him?"
"Yes," Princess Anping said in a low voice, "but the harem is under the control of the Empress. You know, the Emperor is busy with government affairs, so he doesn't have much time to pay attention all the time. For Pei Jing, this kind of bullying is nothing compared to the past."
A person who only now realizes that food can be free of sand, quilts can be soft and fluffy, and that one does not have to kneel to eat, can tolerate those bullying if it is in exchange.
People who have only bitterness in their lives will cherish it if they accidentally taste a little sweetness.
Jiang Fei was silent for a long time. She thought of Pei Jing standing in the middle of the long street with pain in his eyes.
It turns out he has been like this since he was a child, licking his wounds alone in the dark, not even knowing what a normal life is.
She seemed to understand why he became a madman. If she had lived like this since childhood, she might be even crazier than him.
"Until he was ten years old, he disappeared from the palace. It was over half a year before he was found. No one knows what happened during that time, but from then on, his personality changed drastically. He no longer lived in the palace, but returned to Prince Ping's mansion. It was then that the emperor named him Prince Zhaoning."
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