Chapter 47 [Interaction between the young couple]
Silas finally got his wish and replaced the perch with a new one.
As soon as Lex hung the pole with the rope, it excitedly flew up, jumping from one side to the other, seemingly testing the new pole to see if it was sturdy.
It didn't even hear Mela calling its name.
Mela looked at Lex helplessly, but was surprised to see him hand her a small whistle, about the thickness of a knuckle.
“It was made from leftover wood,” Lex explained.
Making a new perch for Silas didn't require many materials, but in order to be perfect, Lex brought back a lot of spruce wood. As expected, the finished product made Silas fall in love with it at first sight and had to hug it and rub his face against it again and again.
The remaining piece of wood was used by Lex to make the little whistle in Mela's hand.
Mela tried putting the whistle to her lips and blowing it.
The sharp sound startled Silas, causing him to stagger and nearly fall off the perch.
"Mera, what are you doing? That whistle just now almost made my ears explode," Silas complained.
"How about this?" Mela blew the whistle again in a different way.
This time it's much better; at least Silas doesn't sound so harsh anymore.
However, if Silas had known beforehand that Mela would become addicted to whistling, it would have desperately tried to persuade Mela not to carry the whistle with her at all times.
Otherwise, it will be like now, where we can hear whistles sounding like death knells all the time.
"What...what's wrong now?" Silas dragged his heavy body to Mela's side, his voice very weak, as if he had been doing heavy work for three days and three nights straight, revealing a sense of exhaustion.
"It's nothing, I just wanted to see if either of you or Lex was free to do me a small favor right now."
As she spoke, Mela gestured toward a flowerpot with blue bubble flowers not far away. No one knew what she had just done, but the soil in the flowerpot was now pitted and uneven, and some of the flowers had fallen to the ground.
"I just checked the roots of this 'Bauhinia' plant and found that the new soil isn't well-aerated enough, which is suffocating its roots. Since you have some free time now, could you go and catch some earthworms for me?"
It turns out he wanted to catch some earthworms to loosen the soil.
Silas breathed a sigh of relief. What was so difficult about that? It would go right away and take the opportunity to escape for a while, so as not to be disturbed by Mela's whistling any longer.
It simply couldn't take it anymore.
Ever since Lex gave them the whistle, Mela has been finding things to do for them, not so much to order them around, but to find opportunities to blow the whistle.
Even ringing a bell for a dog doesn't work like this.
Silas couldn't help but feel smug. Now that it was gone, Lex was left to suffer alone. Why did he have to send a whistle? Wouldn't it have been better to send something else that wouldn't make a sound?
Even Lex probably couldn't stand Mela's antics any longer. Several days later, he quietly made a new small flute, which finally stopped the whistling.
Mela held the small flute with obvious delight, eagerly bringing it to her lips and playing a tune intermittently.
“This is…” Silas listened intently for a long time, and recognized a certain familiarity in Mela’s broken melody.
"It's the lullaby I used to hum to you when you were little." Mela tapped Silas on the head lightly with her flute. Did she really play it that badly?
Silas held his head in his hands, furious but unable to speak out, only grumbling, "Then call Lex over and see if he can tell."
Lex, who was inexplicably dragged into this, calmly listened to Mela's nonsense and successfully put an end to Silas's attempt to stir things up with a simple "I've never heard of this piece before".
“How could that be? Didn’t your mother sing you lullabies to put you to sleep when you were little?” Silas didn’t believe it and strongly suspected that Lex was lying.
"Silas, speak properly." This time, Mela really hit Silas on the head with her flute, making him cry out in pain.
“It’s alright,” Lex said instead.
"Did I say something wrong?" Silas finally realized something was off from Mela and Lex's attitude, but he turned to look at Mela and then at Lex, not understanding what they were talking about.
This wasn't a good topic for Mela to discuss. She hesitated for a moment about how to explain it to Silas, but Lex preemptively answered, "My mother died when I was six years old."
Lex's mother, Lillyrus, was a queen praised by everyone. She was not only beautiful and gentle, but also managed everything in an orderly manner. Even the usually arrogant Princess Neuf was obedient to her.
However, ever since giving birth to Lex, Lillie's body has become extremely weak, and her face has been pale for many years.
Worrying about too many things also triggers her headaches.
Therefore, Lillieles arranged for two tutors to accompany the lively and active Lex in advance.
Young Lex, like any strong and healthy little boy, couldn't sit still. He would often sit in the study for a while before his mind wandered to the butterflies flying by outside the window, or the occasional bird that flew by. He just couldn't concentrate on Fernando's teachings.
There was no other way, so Fernando had to deliberately switch the order in which he taught Lex with Cherk. Cherk would spend the mornings with Lex to help him burn off his excess energy, and once he was tired enough, he would be able to sit quietly in the study and talk with Fernando.
In the evening, after having dinner, Lex quickly fell asleep in bed, so Lilyles didn't need to sing him a lullaby to lull him to sleep.
Of course, Lillieles definitely loved the child she had finally given birth to, but things just turned out differently. When Lex turned five, under Fernando's tutelage, he had already developed the demeanor of a young crown prince, and Lillieles no longer needed to coax him like an ordinary child.
As for the news of Lillieles' death, even Mela, who was far away in White Pine Town, heard about it. She heard that King Nurenger IX held an exceptionally grand funeral for her, and all the nobles were invited to the royal city to mourn the queen's passing in the church.
Then, in November of the same year, Nurenger IX quickly married a new queen, the current Queen Elijah Jude.
Although the matter was widely discussed among the nobles, it never reached the ears of commoners like Meera.
So much so that many people still think Elijah was a good queen.
If it weren't for Lex, Mela wouldn't have cared at all about the true nature of the current queen.
However, the thought of Lex, who was only six years old at the time, experiencing his mother's funeral and his father's wedding one after the other would make anyone feel a mix of emotions, like a spilled spice bottle.
“…I’m sorry, Lex, I didn’t mean to poke at your wound.”
After hearing the whole story, Silas immediately lowered his head in shame and honestly apologized to Lex.
"It's okay. So much time has passed. I'm no longer the helpless child I once was." Naturally, I won't be trapped in resentment with nowhere to vent, only able to hurt those close to me.
Moreover, Lex knew very well that when his mother died, Silas was just a fledgling in the nest, how could he possibly care about human affairs?
It hadn't even met Mela yet.
"Alright, let's talk about something happier," Mela said, breaking the faint sadness that hung in the air.
Only at times like these does she reveal a woman's gentleness and tolerance, a stark contrast to her usual girlish liveliness and agility.
This also made Lex realize that Mela, who was standing in front of him, was indeed twenty-six years old, with a mature charm in her smile and frown.
"What are you daydreaming about? Did you hear what I just said?" Mela suddenly moved closer to Lex, staring at him strangely for a long time.
She had just restored Silas's energy, and he started bickering with her cheekily. When she turned her head, she found that Lex's gaze had drifted elsewhere, as if he had sunk into another dimension.
“Sorry, I was just thinking about something else,” Lex said, subtly creating a little distance between himself and Mela.
Too close.
He was so close that he could clearly see Mela's smooth, egg-like skin, her furrowed brows, and her slightly pursed lips.
Time seems to have been exceptionally kind to Mela, leaving not a single trace on her face. The fine smile lines that occasionally appear with her expressions only make her look more charming.
If those wealthy women who desperately seek to stay young met Mela, they would surely pester her for the secret to maintaining her youth, Lex suddenly thought.
Mela would probably say she doesn't know.
But in Lex's view, the fact that she didn't have to endure the torment of marriage, the troubles that men bring, or even their unpredictable tempers, and worry about a whole host of things for them, was perhaps what made Mela different from any other lady.
Those noblewomen may appear cheerful and smiling on the surface, but whose eyes don't harbor bitterness and worries?
Mela looked at Lex, who had drifted off into thought halfway through his sentence, and decided to ignore him. She was more concerned about her soon-to-bloom blue bellflower than Lex.
Clusters of bell-shaped flowers grew towards the moon, and tiny dewdrops, the size of beans, clung to the petals, shimmering with blue fluorescence—it looked absolutely beautiful.
When daytime comes, they close their petals again, like transparent bubbles, and you can clearly see the dark blue stamens inside.
Unfortunately, the flowering period of blue bubble bells is not long, only about half a month.
However, there is still some time before it blooms, and Mela is not the kind of person who would be saddened by its premature withering.
*
That evening, Mela took out the small flute that Lex had given her, put it to her lips, and gently began to play.
It was a lullaby her mother used to hum to her when she was little.
It was also a piece she used to comfort little Silas.
Although it wasn't exactly a beautiful tune, Silas gradually drifted off to sleep to the familiar melody.
Lex lay on the blanket and slowly closed his eyes as well.
Mela stopped after confirming that Lex was really asleep, taking it as her comforting the six-year-old Lex who didn't yet know how to cope with sadness.
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