Chapter 147 "Love is the greatest thing in the world..."
When Shen Lingyue arrived at the courtyard, she saw that Shen Mingda was still unconscious and asked, "Didn't you say that he had already taken the antidote? Why hasn't Second Brother woken up yet?"
Shao Minqing arrived a little earlier than her and sat by the bed to explain, "He was briefly conscious just now. Doctor Wen said that this means the antidote is working, but his body is still repairing. He probably won't fully regain consciousness until tonight."
Shen Lingyue breathed a sigh of relief, then thought for a moment and asked in a low voice, "When Second Brother wakes up, how are we going to explain Aunt Liu's matter to him?"
In order to sabotage the marriage, Aunt Liu went so far as to poison Shao Minqing.
Although Shao Minqing was lucky, the bowl of lotus seed soup was accidentally drunk by Shen Mingda, who took her place on the brink of death.
If it weren't for Shen Lingyue and Yan Yi finding a way to ask Princess Tong'an for help, and the two skilled physicians, the Wen family, Shen Mingda would probably be in grave danger.
However, this does not change the fact that Aunt Liu's motive for murdering Shao Minqing was that she was Shen Mingda's biological mother...
Shen Lingyue felt a headache coming on just thinking about it. With all this commotion, could her future second brother and sister-in-law still get together?
Shao Minqing smiled faintly and patted her hand reassuringly, "Don't worry, I've already discussed it with Madam Zhao."
"Huh?" Shen Lingyue blinked. When did these two get together?
She said in a sour tone, "Miss Shao, my mother seems to really like you."
How could Zhao Lan, after causing such a life-or-death situation, actually reach an agreement with Shao Minqing, her... betrothed daughter-in-law?
Shen Lingyue scratched her head, "Ugh, this relationship is way too complicated..."
"Hey, don't take it to heart. Madam Zhao still loves you the most." Shao Minqing jokingly pinched her cheek.
The two women, who were about to become sisters-in-law, chatted to pass the time. Shen Lingyue listened to Shao Minqing recount her experiences of going south with her father to buy timber, and she was amazed.
The two were chatting enthusiastically until they heard a faint sound behind them.
"Mingda, Mingda?" Shao Minqing leaned down and gently called his name.
Shen Mingda opened his eyes, still a little dazed, until he turned his head and met Shen Lingyue's concerned face. His memory returned instantly, and he blurted out, "Third sister, don't forget to give me the good wood."
He heard it all clearly even in his dreams!
Shen Lingyue: ...
She was both amused and exasperated. She blinked hard a few times to force back the tears welling up in her eyes, and said with feigned displeasure, "Fine, I'll buy it. Do you think I'd renege on my debt?"
Shen Mingda chuckled, then pulled Shao Minqing's hand and sat up, looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings with a blank expression: "Where is this? Why am I here?"
Shao Minqing probed subtly, "Do you remember what happened before you fainted?"
Shen Mingda frowned and tried hard to recall: "I remember I snuck out of the Imperial Academy to find you, and then I saw my aunt. I even drank the lotus seed soup she cooked... Strange, then why can't I remember?"
Shao Minqing secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Physician Wen was right. Although the poison in Mingda's body had been cured, his memory was still affected, resulting in confusion and gaps.
Then the story she and Madam Zhao had agreed on could come in handy.
Shao Minqing deliberately put on a stern face and snorted heavily, "Don't mention your aunt to me. How can there be such a heartless mother in the world?"
"Huh?" Shen Mingda, unaware of what was going on, tugged at her sleeve and asked cautiously, "Did she make things difficult for you? Or did she say something unpleasant?"
"No, she actually deliberately used moldy lotus seeds to make a sweet soup to harm me!"
Shao Minqing pretended to be angry, "In the end, you stupidly drank it for me and were tormented by that poisonous lotus seed until you were unconscious for several days. Don't you think she's hateful?"
"I'm so sorry, I really didn't expect her to do something like this..."
Shen Mingda looked guilty and remorseful, then patted his chest in lingering fear. "Luckily, I was the one who drank that bowl of lotus seed soup. Anyway, I'm tough and can handle anything. See, I'll be fine after lying down for a few days."
He laughed carelessly, completely unaware of how dangerous the situation had been a few days earlier.
Seeing that he was still comforting her at this moment, Shao Minqing felt a mix of emotions.
She suddenly felt an impulse and pulled Shen Mingda over to hug him tightly.
Shen Mingda was taken aback at first, his handsome face instantly turning red. After a while, he carefully raised his hand and gently patted Shao Minqing's back.
"It's alright, Minmin, look, I'm perfectly fine now, aren't I?"
Shao Minqing tightened her arms, her voice muffled: "Madam Zhao already knows about the crimes committed by Aunt Liu and has punished her by sending her to the Jinzhou estate to reflect on her mistakes for three years. She is forbidden from interfering in our marriage again."
Shen Mingda lowered his eyes, his eyelashes trembled, and he whispered, "Auntie... she did something wrong this time, so it's right for Mother to punish her."
Anyway, three years will pass quickly. By the time Auntie comes back, his and Minmin's child might already be running around.
When the time comes, for the sake of the child, his aunt should be able to forgive his choice, right?
Shen Mingda comforted himself in this way, and a smile returned to his face.
...
Shen Mingda managed to talk to them for a while before falling into a deep sleep again.
Shao Minqing tucked him in and went outside with Shen Lingyue.
“That’s right, this is the decision that Madam Zhao and I made together.” Shao Minqing explained to her, “Your second brother is kind-hearted. If he knew the truth, he would feel a hundred or a thousand times more remorse and regret than he does now. He might even feel that he is the one who harmed me… This is not the outcome I want to see.”
The night was deep. She looked up at the crescent moon on the horizon, a slight smile playing on her lips, her face gentle.
"I hope that he will be happy every day from now on, doing what he wants to do, and never have to carry those heavy emotions."
The idea that hardship and trials make people grow is utter nonsense.
If one can always enjoy happiness, who would be willing to suffer hardship and torment?
Shen Lingyue listened with tears in her eyes: "Second sister-in-law, if you were a man, I would want to marry you."
Shao Minqing burst into laughter, then playfully lifted her chin, mimicking the tone of those greasy men outside: "Little lady, it's a pity we're not destined to be together in this life."
After exchanging a few jokes, Shen Lingyue belatedly realized, "Where's Aunt Liu? My mother really sent her to the estate?"
Shao Minqing composed herself and waved her hand, saying, "That was just an excuse. People from the Princess's residence came this afternoon and took her away. They seemed very serious, but I didn't dare ask any further questions about the specifics."
She and Zhao Lan had agreed to first lie to Shen Mingda, saying that they had sent Aunt Liu away, and then quickly arrange their marriage so that he would be too busy to think about anything else. After a year or two, they would write a letter claiming that Aunt Liu had died of illness on the estate.
Shen Mingda might be sad for a while, but as long as he doesn't know the truth, this sadness will eventually be soothed by time.
“That’s why I said that Madam Zhao loves you the most.” Shao Minqing smiled at her. “She knows that you and Mingda have a deep relationship. Even though Aunt Liu once harmed you and Madam Zhao hates her to the bone, she doesn’t want to make things difficult for you.”
If it were up to Zhao Lan's vengeful nature, she would definitely tell Shen Mingda the whole truth, watch him turn against Aunt Liu and her son, drive Aunt Liu to the brink of mental collapse, and then personally send her on her way.
But doing this only provides temporary relief. In the long run, Shen Mingda will inevitably become estranged from the Shen family, and Shen Lingyue and Shen Mingda will no longer be able to get along as freely as before.
Shao Minqing had also calculated this point, which is why she dared to go to Zhao Lan to discuss and work together to weave this white lie for Shen Mingda.
"Did Mother do this for my sake?"
Shen Lingyue was stunned by the unexpected details and remained speechless for a long time.
"Madam Zhao said that perhaps it was the Bodhisattva's blessing that brought you back from the dead. So she is willing to grant my request, which is to accumulate good fortune for you."
Shen Lingyue stumbled back to Danyue Pavilion, Shao Minqing's words still echoing in her ears.
Pei Jinghuai was dozing off on the bed when he heard footsteps. He forced himself to get up and took a few steps forward when Shen Lingyue rushed over and hugged him tightly, sobbing softly in his arms.
Her crying startled him. "What's wrong? Wasn't Second Brother's poison cured? Has it gotten worse again?"
Shen Lingyue shook her head, only hugging him tighter, sobbing, "I miss my mother..."
Pei Jinghuai breathed a sigh of relief and patted her back to comfort her, "What's there to cry about? I'll take a few days off and go back with you to visit your mother-in-law."
Shen Lingyue shook her head again, that wasn't what she meant. Her mind was in turmoil, and she didn't even know how she should face Zhao Lan in the future.
Her biological parents have been gone for many years, so long that she has almost forgotten what it feels like to be loved by her parents. She once thought that she had grown up and could live well on her own.
But ever since she came to Daye and took the place of the original Miss Shen, she has the care of her older siblings and the love of her mother. In moments of happiness, she often feels a pang of guilt, as if she has stolen something that should not belong to her.
So she wanted to make it up to them. She accompanied her eldest sister to confront her brother-in-law's mistress, she tried her best to bring her eldest brother and sister-in-law together, and she learned to be a good daughter who wouldn't cause her mother any worry...
She thought that this would make her feel a little more at ease, but it wasn't until Aunt Liu's poisoning was exposed that she realized that the original Shen Lingyue had been murdered. No one knew about her grievances, and no one paid for her justice.
This shouldn't be the case.
Just because "Shen Lingyue" has come back to life doesn't mean that none of this ever happened.
If there is one person in this world who must know the whole truth, that person is the mother who gave her life.
Otherwise, she wouldn't know how she would feel to face Zhao Lan again.
She didn't want to be a despicable thief.
Shen Lingyue cried uncontrollably and fell asleep in a daze, clinging to Pei Jinghuai.
In a daze, it seemed as if she was having a lucid dream.
"...The Goddess of Mystery?"
Looking at the distant golden outline, Shen Lingyue was overjoyed. "You've finally decided to come all the way from Yan Yan's place to see me?"
She said, "We all came from the same place, so why can she only watch secondhand broadcasts every time?"
The golden light remained silent, slowly drifting away into the distance.
Shen Lingyue subconsciously chased after him, running for an unknown distance, before suddenly disappearing into a beam of white light.
The scene before my eyes suddenly changed.
She seemed to be floating in the air, watching from a third-person perspective as another version of herself sat in the lecture hall, impatiently flipping through textbooks, her little face scrunched up. Before long, she couldn't hold on any longer and fell asleep on the table.
Is this... the real Miss Shen?
The scene flashed by like a slideshow, as if the video had been sped up. She watched as Shen Lingyue gradually adapted to everything in what was originally her world, becoming more and more at ease. She even dyed her hair a dazzling gold and swayed freely at the music festival, laughing heartily.
Shen Lingyue: ...Ahhh, I don't want to be a blond guy!
She sat up excitedly, only to realize that it was already daylight outside, and she was still lying on the bed in Dan Yue Xuan.
Pei Jinghuai lay on his side next to her, one arm under her neck, the other hand originally resting on her body, but she pushed it away when she got up.
He opened his eyes, and the first thing he did was reach out and touch her forehead, then he breathed a sigh of relief.
"You suddenly had a high fever last night, it scared me to death."
Pei Jinghuai didn't sleep well that night. First, he tried every means to pry open her mouth and force-feed her medicine. Then he wet a handkerchief and wiped her whole body over and over again. It wasn't until dawn, when he felt that her body wasn't so hot anymore, that he dared to doze off for a while.
Looking at the two dark circles under his eyes, Shen Lingyue felt a pang of heartache and guilt. "I'm sorry, I was too impulsive yesterday..."
Pei Jinghuai covered her mouth, grabbed the back of her head with his large hand, and pressed her against his chest.
"You don't need to apologize to me." He stroked her hair gently, his voice hoarse with weariness. "I just want you to be well and stay with me for a long, long time."
He was really frightened by how she looked last night.
Ever since Aunt Liu's poisoning incident came to light, Shen Lingyue has always seemed absent-minded, and sometimes the way she looks at him makes people feel uneasy.
He didn't know what she was thinking or what she was afraid of; he was only worried that one day he would really lose her.
Until last night, that intense emotion reached its peak. He held her burning fingertips and kissed them again and again, constantly describing their future, as if only in this way could he pull her back from that inescapable nightmare and bring her back to his side.
Now it seems he succeeded, right?
Pei Jinghuai gently held her, feeling a long-lost sense of joy at having regained what he had lost.
Shen Lingyue leaned against him, and after a long while she finally spoke softly, "I want to go back to the Shen family today."
Pei Jinghuai immediately said, "I'll go back with you."
Shen Lingyue shook her head: "No, I have something I want to say to Mother alone."
Avoiding the issue is not an option; she will eventually have to confront it.
...
Zhao Lan looked at her youngest daughter kneeling in front of her, and felt dizzy.
"Moon, what are you joking with your mother? Are you still half asleep?"
Shen Lingyue shook her head, her eyes clearer and more determined than ever before.
“I don’t want to lie to you anymore. Aunt Liu really did kill your own daughter, which is why I took her body…”
She clenched her fists, as if trying to encourage herself, but tears still involuntarily streamed down her face.
“I didn’t want to come here either. My real home is a thousand times, ten thousand times better than this place…”
What do fine clothes and delicacies, what high-ranking noble families, do they really care about them?
No matter how powerful the old emperor was, he would never have needed air conditioning or a flush toilet in his lifetime.
Zhao Lan looked at that familiar face. Her daughter, whom she had cherished like a precious jewel for twenty years, had actually had her soul secretly replaced long ago, and she had never noticed?
She claims to have done her best for her children, but isn't that also a dereliction of duty?
“…Good child, the ground is cold, get up first.” Zhao Lan pulled Shen Lingyue to sit beside her, trying her best to suppress the sobs in her throat, and asked softly, “You said you dreamed of my Yue’er last night, she… went to your world, right?”
Shen Lingyue nodded earnestly and recounted everything she had seen in her dream.
Zhao Lan listened attentively, asking questions about every word she had never heard before, trying to visualize a completely new picture in her mind.
So it was a world without emperors and generals?
It turns out that women can also sit in the same school as men, enjoy the same education, and go out to work to earn money to support their families. Marriage is no longer the only way out.
Cooking skills, needlework, music, chess, calligraphy, and painting are no longer the standards for judging whether a woman is virtuous and gentle. As long as you have money, you can buy beautiful clothes and delicious food anytime.
There are also long fire dragons and iron birds flying in the sky, capable of teleporting people thousands of miles away within a few hours, allowing them to travel all over the beautiful land...
Zhao Lan imagined it, marveled at it, and finally let out a long breath.
"That is indeed a better world."
Her moon seemed to have reached the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss in Buddhism, where she went to enjoy bliss.
“Child, I understand your feelings. You didn’t have to tell me all this. We could have remained mother and daughter.”
Zhao Lan gently wiped away the tear stains from Shen Lingyue's eyes with a handkerchief. Looking at her eyes, which were swollen like peaches from crying, Zhao Lan felt even more heartbroken.
"It was my carelessness and underestimation of the enemy, and my lax management of the household, that led to the death of my daughter. How can I blame you for this?"
She tried to smile and said to Chen Lingyue, "I should thank you. Thank you for keeping my Yue'er alive, even if we never meet again."
That night, Shen Lingyue did not return to the Marquis's residence. She slept with Zhao Lan, reminiscing about everything from her childhood to adulthood.
“There is a very famous story in our area. In the magical world, there was a great evil so feared by everyone. A prophet said that he would die at the hands of a boy, so the great evil so feared that he would strike first and kill the boy when he was born to prevent future trouble.”
"But he failed because the boy's parents protected him with their lives. The power to resist the most cruel and evil magic in the world is love."
"Love is the greatest magic in the world."
Because of her mother's love, "Chen Lingyue" was given a second life, and a miraculous journey of exchanging souls took place between them.
Shen Lingyue's voice gradually faded; she had fallen asleep.
Zhao Lan gently stroked her cheek, her eyes filled with pity, regret, and relief.
She lost a daughter, but didn't she also gain a daughter?
This child lost her biological parents at such a young age and grew up stumbling and struggling on her own, yet she still managed to develop such a warm and bright personality, making everyone around her love her without even realizing it.
You can see the world from a single leaf; from her, you can tell that her original world must have been very, very good.
In this way, she can rest assured that Yue'er is living alone over there. If she is given more time, she will be able to find her own path.
Zhao Lan gently closed her eyes.
I wonder if tonight's dream will allow her to see that better world?
-----------------------
Author's note: (holding up the microphone for an interview): If you were given a chance to go back to the modern era, would you be willing?
Moon Child: (Silence) (Thinking) (Heart fluttering)
Pei Er: Wife, wife, wife! [crying][crying]
//You wouldn't believe it, would you? Not only did Aunt Liu lead to the Empress's death, but she also unleashed our Yuezai's inner demons [doge emoji]. Only now has she truly achieved enlightenment (just kidding).
//I forgot to mention, there will be a short side story about the young couple returning to the modern world together; they won't be separated~~
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