During the day, Imperial Physician Jiang brought me a new prescription for medicine and painkillers. It was bitter, quite bitter, like the suffering of the world. But thinking of the pain I'd felt that night, I swallowed the two large bowls of medicine.
"My lady, the emperor is here." Xiao Cui ran in excitedly. My hand, which was playing with the porcelain cup, froze in place and I took a deep breath.
"Your Majesty, long live the Lord." I greeted Song Heng as he entered. Today, he was only wearing a light yellow casual suit, not as cold and majestic as usual. He walked past me, sat down on the mahogany couch, and said softly, "Get up."
I stood up with my head still lowered, Xiao Cui stood behind me. The yard was filled with the noisy chirping of insects and the occasional croaking of frogs, making the house exceptionally quiet.
He seemed to be looking at me all the time. I maintained a polite attitude and waited for him to speak. Time seemed to stand still.
"Miss Mu, come and sit down." He finally spoke, looking up at Xiao Cui: "You can go down."
"Yes." Xiao Cui looked at me before she left. Her eyes were full of confusion and surprise, which made me a little confused. Did I do something wrong again?
He and I sat on either side of the couch, fortunately there was a small wooden table between us.
"Miss Mu," he said, resting his right arm on the table. "I came here today to ask you to help me solve some of my doubts."
My eyelashes trembled slightly: "Your Majesty is a man of great talent and profound knowledge, and I am just a woman. I dare not say that I can solve your doubts..." I have exhausted all my 18 years of Chinese language skills.
He turned his head to look at me: "No problem, just chatting."
I had no choice but to turn around and meet his eyes that were like deep pools.
"There is a hibiscus bird in my Yangxin Palace. It used to jump up and down, chirping melodiously, and rarely stopped."
He said calmly, "But for some reason, he's been acting out of character lately and has become quiet and docile. What does Miss Mu think of this?"
She even "crying softly," are you sure she's not "abnormally noisy"? ...It seems the emperor still has a lot of respect for my original second female lead.
"I'm just guessing, maybe the bird suddenly received a divine revelation, an epiphany, and realized that being able to eat, drink, defecate, urinate, and sleep properly is the ultimate happiness in the world. Why bother making unnecessary noise and disturbing people's peace?"
"Oh? Where does this divine revelation come from?"
"Perhaps I ate something bad, and after this life-or-death experience, I suddenly realized that most things in the world are fleeting, like a flash in the pan. Apart from life and death, nothing really matters. Naturally, I became at peace."
In fact, most of these words were borrowed by me from Imperial Physician Jiang. During the day, I curiously asked Imperial Physician Jiang how he could always look so calm and composed.
He smiled as gently as always: "I have followed my master to cure illnesses and save lives since I was young. After seeing the separation of life and death, I feel that most things in life are short-lived and fleeting. Apart from life and death, there is nothing else important." I nodded thoughtfully at the time, but I didn't expect that it would come in handy that night.
Song Heng looked at me quietly, as if wondering how credible my words were. Then he said slowly, "Princess Ru Shuang has been very fond of this hibiscus bird recently. Do you think it will peck her?"
After all this talk, it turns out you're just worried about the heroine. Are you asking me or threatening me? I rolled my eyes internally, but on the surface I had to maintain a gentle and polite smile.
"Since the bird has received divine inspiration, its temperament will naturally change and it will treat everyone the same." I then added sincerely, "What's more, the bird will be happy to be close to the princesses, as they are innocent and lively."
Song Heng gently stroked the jade ring in his hand: "Okay."
The conversation tonight seemed to go particularly smoothly. I was so lucky that he didn't chase me to ask about my stay in the palace or where I bought the syrup.
After he left the yard, I stretched and prepared to go back to my room to sleep. Xiao Cui came over and said, "My lady, why didn't you ask me to prepare tea today?"
"Huh?" I turned to look at her with my hands still in the air.
"In the past, when Your Majesty came, you would immediately ask me to brew your favorite drink, 'Mengding Ganlu', and then sit beside Your Majesty. But today, I waited for you for a long time and you didn't give me any instructions. I was worried that you were still under the influence of the poison."
I was wondering why they were staring at me so much that it gave me goosebumps. So, it turns out there was this story.
I twisted my neck to stretch my muscles and said, "No need to prepare anything, let's keep it simple. He'll talk about it later." Since the Hibiscus Bird has been reborn, let's do it thoroughly.
"Ah? Oh." Xiao Cui nodded as if she understood something.
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