Gan Qiongying had a dream.
She had had similar dreams a few times before, but they were all very short. This dream was exceptionally long and felt much more real.
It felt so real that even when she realized she was dreaming, she couldn't escape it, and felt as if she were actually there, becoming a character in the dream.
"Sister!"
"Sister!"
A child's voice rang out, growing louder and louder until it was right next to my ear.
Gan Qiongying suddenly opened her eyes and found a little baby standing in front of her.
His eyelashes fluttered, and his big eyes were endearing. His little face was still covered in dirt. His mouth opened and closed, revealing his incomplete baby teeth, and he called out, "Sister, sister."
The sunlight was so strong it was blinding. Gan Qiongying raised her hand to shield her eyes. She stared at the little baby for a moment, then looked around and found herself in a dilapidated courtyard.
This dream felt so real...
Gan Qiongying got up to look around, but the baby followed behind her and grabbed her hand.
Gan Qiongying looked down and found that her hands were covered with red marks, big and small, as if she had been scratched by something. What shocked her even more was that these hands were clearly those of a child.
Gan Qiongying took a few steps to the water vat in the courtyard and saw a young face, no more than ten years old.
She shook her head slightly, and her reflection swayed accordingly. She opened her mouth, and her reflection did the same.
"Sister, here, have this..." The baby held a dirty, root-like thing in her hand and handed it to Gan Qiongying, smiling as she said, "It's sour, but delicious."
Gan Qiongying stared at the dimples at the corners of his mouth, felt dizzy, and then lost control of her body.
She felt as if something was squeezing her, not her physical body, but rather her soul. Her perspective shifted, and she became an observer, yet trapped within a small body.
Gan Qiongying saw herself take the stem, put it in her mouth and chew it. The sour and astringent taste instantly filled her mouth, so astringent that she almost cried.
"Is it delicious, big sister?" the little dumpling asked.
Gan Qiongying heard herself reply, "Delicious, Changsheng is so good."
For a long time afterward, Gan Qiongying watched the siblings live in this dilapidated courtyard from this eerie, bystander's perspective.
They searched for anything edible, including the rats that had drowned while stealing water from the water tank.
One night, a wicked old woman broke into the courtyard and tried to take the little baby away, finally confirming Gan Qiongying's suspicions.
"Young lady, this old servant advises you to give Liu Lang to this old servant." The wicked old woman was burly and thick-waisted, with a face full of fat. She and two maids stood with their hands on their hips blocking the doorway, like an insurmountable mountain.
Gan Qiongying looked up at her from the perspective of the two children.
"How dare you!" Gan Qiongying heard "herself" say, "I am the daughter of Princess Huixian! Liulang is the youngest son of Prince Hui! If one day Prince Hui, or my uncle, ascends to that incomparably noble position, I will surely tear you treacherous servants apart by chariots and subject you to slow slicing!"
The girl's delicate voice carried the desperate cries of a cornered beast. She clutched a sharpened wooden stick in her hand, protecting the little dumpling behind her, using her frail and thin body to fight against the vicious servants who were like mountains to them.
Perhaps it was because her gaze was too sharp, like a lone wolf untamed in the wilderness, that the wicked old woman did not dare to step forward for a moment, but she was very impolite in her words.
"Prince Hui? Your uncle?" The wicked old woman sneered and spat, "Princess Huixian's bones have rotted away, she died such an undignified death, and she was carrying a bastard child. She is a disgrace to the royal family. Who in the capital still remembers you, the daughter of a princess?"
"Are you really that precious? How did you end up being thrown into this godforsaken palace?"
"As for Liu Lang, the Queen Consort, whom Prince Hui married with proper ceremony, has many children. How could she possibly remember the bastard child born from a night of pleasure with a lowly palace maid?"
"Besides, you probably don't know this, but when Prince Hui went to war in the north, he fell from his horse and went missing in the chaos of battle. You actually expect him to ascend to heaven? Hahahaha..."
"Give me that brat, and you, little girl, can continue to hang around here. We're not some vicious criminals. You just need to know your place and serve us well from now on!"
The old woman stopped talking nonsense, gave a wink to the people around her, and immediately rushed forward to snatch the person away.
Gan Qiongying had never felt so angry and helpless in her life. She watched as "herself" grabbed a tree branch and fought desperately against these wicked servants, while listening to her younger brother behind her whimpering like a kitten.
She wished she could transform into a wild beast, or even a dog, to tear those wicked servants who were trying to kidnap her brother to pieces, even if it meant her death!
But she was just a teenager after all, as fragile as a blade of grass swaying in the wind compared to the little baby she was protecting.
She was knocked over by the oncoming object, and the branch she was tightly clutching pricked one of the people, but accidentally pierced her own abdomen as she was being pushed over.
The little dumpling was caught and kicked and screamed incessantly.
"Sister! Sister! Sister, save me!"
Gan Qiongying collapsed to the ground, her heart burning with anguish and her internal organs feeling shattered. She gritted her teeth, pushed herself up from the filthy ground, pulled the branch out of her stomach, and began stabbing at the people like a madwoman.
"Release Changsheng!"
"Let my brother go!"
"Let him go!"
At that moment, she seemed to have truly turned into a mad dog. Blood gushing from her waist and abdomen soaked through her tattered dress. She stabbed the wicked servant who had snatched her beloved younger brother, causing him to scream in agony.
"Ganlin! Bite her! Bite her hard!"
The little bundle of flesh tucked under the arm, the harmless child with a smile like a kitten, eyes crinkling and dimples, shut his wailing mouth upon hearing this and bit the person holding him hard.
The entire palace seemed to have turned into a hell at that moment. Screams and cries pierced the night sky, and three adults were unable to control two children.
The wicked old woman couldn't stand it anymore, so she threw the child in her arms to the ground.
The child had no chance to dodge; with a "thud," he fell to the ground, crashing into the stone pillar by the door, and fell silent instantly.
"Ah—" Gan Qiongying felt her throat was being torn apart. She rushed forward and hugged the child.
When they turned him over, his head was covered in blood, with a hole punched in it.
"I'll kill you all—" At this moment, Gan Qiongying felt like a wild animal thrown into boiling oil. She grabbed the blood-stained branch and used it as a claw, staggering as she lunged at the three men.
The three men were terrified. They yelled that they had gone mad as they backed away and quickly slammed the courtyard gate shut.
Gan Qiongying slammed her fist against the door, banging on it repeatedly, her throat filled with hoarse screams, like a vengeful ghost crawling down from hell.
Meanwhile, the three men outside the door were pressing their wounds in surprise and disbelief, muttering, "Dead, right? Good thing he's dead. If he's dead, we can finish our job. We don't necessarily have to send him out..."
"If they die inside like this, it won't be our fault. We can just say they injured themselves!"
"Yes, yes, lock the door tightly. Anyway, the orders from above are just to kill the younger ones..."
"Lock her up!" came the old nanny's vicious voice at the end. "Lock that wretched girl up too!"
Gan Qiongying was exhausted at this moment, and she crawled towards the baby, whose life was unknown, trembling all over.
The outer gate was blocked, and the sound of the lock falling echoed in the dilapidated palace at midnight. They were going to lock the two children to death in this courtyard.
Gan Qiongying clutched her abdomen and fainted while holding the baby.
The dream twists and turns here, like a painting that has been muted.
Gan Qiongying was finally able to return to the state of being forced to experience everything and resume being an observer.
She saw the girl and boy as two pitiful, still-weaned wolf cubs, without the protection of adult wolves. Even if they triumphed over the invaders, covered in wounds, they would still die in the end.
Gan Qiongying confirmed her guess: the two children were indeed Duanrong and the Emperor in their youth.
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