Chapter 42: The Mind of Youth
She came, and the consequence was that he became a human being again.
The place was full of ferocious beasts, and he had thought she was one too, but she was a fawn who had strayed into the Colosseum by mistake.
When he was seven or eight years old, he liked to raise goldfish. He would lie by the water's edge and gently stir the water with his palms. If it stayed still long enough, the fish would think it was a reliable reef.
He would wait for them to swim into his palms. He would be patient enough to slowly close them and restrain them until the little fish were completely crushed into a pool of flesh and blood. Then he would let go and let the running water wash his palms clean.
Jiaoran was no different from the little goldfish he crushed in his childhood, except that he needed more patience.
The outcome of this game is not about freedom.
It was freezing cold, and she took his hand and pulled him into the house. They passed by the sleeping maid, and he almost kicked the woman who was keeping watch outside the door.
Her hand made him tremble uncontrollably.
Jiaoran walked to the bed, touched the inside of the quilt with his hand, and used the warmth of his palm to warm the bed for him.
She was like a walking stove. He had heard that women were always afraid of the cold, but she was different. She was extremely warm even in winter.
She was leaving. After putting him to bed, she would go back outside the door and leave him alone in the dark night.
"There's a snake."
"where?"
He urged her to check every possible place in the house where a snake might hide, including under his bed.
Jiaoran patted his body with dust on his face, and then told him seriously that snakes haven't woken up yet in this season.
This trick didn't work, so he had to resort to the strategy of inflicting pain on himself.
I showed her his injuries and told her that the frostbite became very itchy when it got warm in the bed.
Stay a little longer, he thought to himself.
Jiaoran rummaged through the medicine box, and soon brought out a bottle of medicine and poured out a few pills.
"That's it."
He was helpless. The disadvantage of not knowing how to read was that she couldn't even take the medicine correctly. He still had to teach her a few words.
It is clearly safflower danshen pills, not snake oil ointment at all.
She lowered her head and rubbed the medicine foam for him. A strand of her long hair fell beside his wrist, making him itchy.
However, the blind cat caught a dead mouse. He had bruises from being hit, and Jiaoran happened to find the right person.
She dozed off several times and seemed to be feeling sleepy.
But he didn't want to let her go yet.
"Tell me a story, I can't sleep."
Jiaoran didn't respond, and it seemed that he was determined to leave, leaving him alone to sleep.
The Governor's Mansion is so dark, and stories are best told in the dark. If she can't tell them, then he is the right person to tell them.
His story was just as eerie and terrifying as he was. As expected, Jiaoran was so frightened after hearing the ghost story that all his sleepiness disappeared. He looked around, swallowed his saliva, and didn't say anything about leaving.
Mu Jin turned over and closed her eyes. She couldn't help laughing, and the bed board trembled slightly. "I'm sleepy. You go out."
Of course she didn't dare to go out. Mu Jin was good at scaring people, and it was no problem for him to scare an innocent girl.
She just sat there beside his bed, thinking he was asleep.
She woke him up and told him the little stories they each treasured, and she didn't sleep all night.
It was almost dawn, and it was still half dark. Mu Jin had just closed his eyes for a while when he felt a body beside him. She had fallen asleep leaning against his bed.
Showing half of the face.
Her nose bridge is not straight up and down. There is a beautiful and delicate curve slightly below the eyebrows and slightly above the nose bridge. She has a beautiful nose.
Mu Jin couldn't help but want to touch her along the bridge of her nose.
She was right at his fingertips, yet he didn't dare move.
The light was about to go out, and Mu Jin waited quietly.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three——
Destroyed!
He and Jiaoran were once again shrouded in the darkness that was about to disappear.
But he was not afraid. He preferred living in the dark to living in the sun, as it gave him peace of mind.
Perhaps he had become a beast like his uncle, only able to growl in the dark night.
Mu Jin's hand hovered beside Jiaoran's face, following the shadow of her nose without touching her once, and finally successfully touched the nose that he had always been curious about.
Like achieving something remarkable.
He was just worried that if he stroked the air, there would be a sound, and if the sound woke her up, she would respect and fear him like Xiaoju.
As soon as the sun comes out, he will return to that indifferent expression.
The days go by.
Jiaoran was living a more comfortable life. "This green robe doesn't look good on you, young master."
He stopped wearing it because she said it looked like a small vegetable in the field.
She casually replaced the withered flowers in his room and opened the window to let in the wind whenever the weather was fine so that he could breathe fresh air.
She made the atmosphere in Siyu Garden less heavy.
He opened his eyes and felt that there was no sharp silver hairpin under his pillow, so he pretended not to care and asked casually.
Jiao Ran said, "Oh, I thought you took it casually and forgot to put it back in the box. Do you want it now?"
What else could he say, "Thanks, I meant to put it up but forgot."
Jiao Ran said it was fine, "Don't put anything sharp next to your pillow. By the way, sir, did you have a nightmare before, saying that putting a sharp object under your pillow can ward off evil spirits?"
“Yes…yes.”
Jiao Ran said, "Don't be afraid, sir. Next time you dream of monsters or demons, call me. I will drive them away for you as soon as I hear them."
Zi, Chou, Yin, and Mao, every hour had been arranged for what to do, and he hated it.
But when Jiaoran came, she became his new playmate, and her well-organized and meticulous daily life was no longer boring.
She didn't let him pick up the broken inkstone, and she put away all the sharp objects in the house properly. She rubbed his cold hands with both hands to warm them up. Once, she even reached into his quilt while he was asleep to feel his feet to see if they were still cold.
He tried his best not to wake up and let her put the hot water bottle at his feet.
A terrible thought flashed through his mind.
Jiaoran fell in love with him.
If you don't love him, why do you care about him so much?
He spent three or four days thinking about this strange question, and the answer he got shocked him.
It was not Jiaoran who fell in love with him, but he, Mu Jin, who fell in love with Jiaoran.
Almost as if it were a matter of course, she came, stayed with him day and night, lived with him, and gave him the most humble and incomprehensible thing that no one else had ever given him - love.
He couldn't control his feelings. Just think about it, for a freak who had never received true love from others, was imprisoned, isolated in a deep house, beaten, used, concealed, and deceived, how could he not be moved when suddenly one day such a person came and treated him sincerely and naturally, and treated him like a normal person.
Jiaoran is indeed like grass, but at the same time she is also like a branch growing on the edge of a cliff and dancing in the wind. She doesn't care where she is. As long as she wants to be numb, she will stay motionless and be immersed in her own thoughts. As long as she wants to be happy, she will go out to have fun and chat with others with a smile.
She didn't even realize that she was completely different from the people in the Governor's Mansion. Everyone here lived with masks on, but she only used her own face.
He has lived for more than ten years and has always been wondering what freedom is.
Perhaps it's like a string of lanterns fluttering outside a restaurant on the long street, or a turtle wallowing in the mire outside the city, or perhaps...
Until Jiaoran came.
He understood that Jiaoran was what he wanted.
If he is with her, no matter whether he is in hell or on earth, he will no longer have to pursue the illusory freedom, because Jiaoran is his freedom.
He hoped that time would not come.
In the past ten years, he had never longed for time to stand still so much. On the contrary, Jiaoran was looking forward to Changshi's return.
He could see Jiaoran's urgency; she was truly a spy who couldn't disguise herself.
In the early morning, he spread out paper and pen to copy the calligraphy of his predecessors. Jiaoran then held her cheek and looked out the window. If you didn't know, you would think she was waiting for her lover to come back.
Mu Jin asked her to pour him a cup of tea. She walked over and poured him a glass of cold water.
He secretly felt helpless, it seemed that he had indulged her too much.
The flowers outside were in bloom, and the flying petals, carried by the spring breeze, circled in the air and landed on the paper where he was writing. He flicked them away in frustration.
Jiaoran leaned half his body out of the window, opened his hands to catch the petals falling from the tree, and when his hands were full, he came over with a smile, spread out his hands and said proudly, "Look, sir, I caught the spring day."
He raised his head slightly and glanced at her without commenting. She was the only one who dared to say such fantastic words in front of him every day.
Mu Jin tried his best to ignore her, including turning his face away and not saying a word when she was changing his clothes, and when she asked him if he wanted to drink the remaining chicken soup, and if not, she would drink it all, he just hummed softly and ignored her.
However, these actions did not arouse Jiaoran's suspicion at all.
She was busy doing what she wanted to do, waiting anxiously for the person she wanted to wait for to come.
His prayers were never effective, the gods never listened to his devout prayers, and the Chief Secretary still came back.
He failed to kill Cha Che, and this time, as long as he comes back, he will inevitably become a new variable and hinder their plans.
Mu Jin had long expected that Chai Che would not be so easy to deal with. Although the Chief Secretary was a cunning man, he underestimated Chai Che's martial arts and strategies. He was able to live safely in the Governor's Mansion for so many years, and was sent to the capital to grow up. He is still in good health today, which shows that he has his own wisdom. He is not like Chai Hui who was scared crazy by his uncle, nor is he completely different from their eldest brother who smiles but hides a knife in his heart, not to mention his sisters who are used as pawns by his uncle to win over his colleagues and guests.
Now that he has grown up, it is more difficult for his uncle or aunt to control him.
Chache's return was definitely bad news for them.
Seeing Jiaoran and Changshi flirting with each other, Mu Jin felt inexplicably annoyed.
He repeatedly urged Mu Jin to follow his orders and marry Miss Cheng, the woman whose face he had no patience to see. The sooner they got married, the sooner they could carry out their plan of taking advantage of the situation.
But Mu Jin didn't want to. Even seeing Cheng Yuan made his eyes hurt.
If what the Chief Secretary said was true, what paths would he and Jiaoran take? He didn't dare to think too deeply.
Jiaoran took his place in having her blood drawn every six months, but she might not be able to endure such excruciating pain.
He still remembered gritting his teeth. The moment the sharp weapon pierced his body, the chill and severe pain swept over him like a tide.
Every inch of skin was screaming, every vein was trembling, and blood spread along the patterns on the stone slabs, warm yet with a biting chill.
Sometimes a thin needle would fly out from the top of his head, and his blood would be drawn along the needle upwards. He never knew where the blood was sent.
All I remember is that every time his breathing almost stopped, his vision was blurred, and only the pain in his heart was clear.
Could Jiaoran endure such pain? He didn't dare to think too much.
The Chief Secretary's patience was almost exhausted.
After searching late into the night, he came to Siyu Garden again.
Such opportunities are rare, and the Chief Secretary always manages to seize every opportunity. He didn't get annoyed in the past, but now that he reminds and urges him again and again, he can't help but want to kill the Chief Secretary directly.
The smoke seeped in silently from the crack in the door, crawling like a cunning snake.
The night watchmen were fast asleep and no one noticed.
The people in Silly Garden then fell down one after another as if pulled by invisible ropes, and finally fell asleep.
His jade ring fell to the ground with a crisp sound, but fortunately, it did not break.
The candlelight gradually dimmed.
He woke him up and repeated their agreement with him again, and Mu Jin's ears were almost callused.
The Chief Secretary was so anxious to get the book "Gao Shan Shou".
Seeing that he did not agree, he put a dagger across his neck.
"You think you can leave this damn place without my help?"
Mu Jin didn't dodge or evade, "Now it seems that you are more anxious than me."
"Okay, at worst we can both die together, and you and your uncle can report me. I can't wait for even one night in this long night in the Governor's Mansion."
"It seems that you have put life and death aside."
The Chief Secretary smiled and asked, "What is holding you back?"
Mu Jin froze in place and slowly began to get nervous. His fingers had already touched the only hard object in his hand, the jade ring.
He walked to the door, walking lightly, and saw that two women had fallen to the ground. The cotton pad under the knees of one of the women was soft and firm. Her body, which had been a little thin when she was in Mianyuan, had become white and plump, like the fresh petals of a white magnolia after the rain.
"Oh, so that's how it is."
Mu Jin's methods were too crude and his mind was too simple. In front of an old hand like Changshi, he was just a child.
"Are you in love with Jiaoran?"
"No!" he denied flatly.
"It seems to be true."
He knew that Mu Jin had a new weakness.
The Chief Secretary's dagger was no longer across his neck, but turned towards Jiaoran who was sleeping soundly.
There was a loud bang, and his dagger was knocked away by a hard object.
The jade and the weapon collided, making a crisp sound.
Mu Jin's voice was icy, sharper than the weapon that had just been placed on his neck. "If you dare to touch her, I will leave you with nothing and leave you dead without a burial place."
Changshi swallowed the cold tea and calmed down a bit. He didn't want to push Mu Jin too far, so he spoke again, his tone a little softer. "So what do you want to do?"
Okay, he gave in.
In fact, it is not difficult. These people have always been determined to achieve their goals. Making them admit defeat and then giving them what they want in exchange is the only solution Mu Jin can think of.
"Just follow my instructions."
The Chief Secretary licked his cracked lips and smiled strangely, "Of course I will obey your orders, sir."
Mu Jin was still too young. He could not see through people's hearts and thought that people outside were as easy to deal with as the maids and servants in his mansion. He did not even understand that sometimes people's words of submission were just signals of some kind of action.
The wedding is getting closer.
He still maintained a normal daily routine, knowing when to visit his uncle, when to paint, when to come back from Qingbi Garden, when to have dinner, breakfast, and when to close his eyes to rest.
He no longer looked at Jiaoran's back.
No longer carefully distinguishing her voice among a crowd.
But he couldn't do it. After Jiaoran left for a while, he asked them, "Where is Jiaoran?"
Xiaoju did not hide anything from him and told him everything about how Chai Hui had intimate conversations with her.
It is better to do it today than to wait for a day, so he made up his mind today.
Let the prey walk into the trap on its own.
Mu Jin didn't know how he could say those words so innocently.
He could even calculate something from a bowl of clear soup and make Jiaoran trust him completely. Compared to Chai Hui, Jiaoran would naturally not doubt him, who was kind and gentle. She firmly believed that Chai Hui had put medicine in the soup.
How could she believe that a man knew nothing about such things? She was really naive and trusting of men.
But he couldn't reveal too much that night. He was worried that Jiaoran would see through all his disguises. Once she knew what kind of person he was, would she still be willing to be with him?
She thought he was a soft silk flower placed in a box, and probably never imagined that he was actually a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
