Chapter 282 Childishness
Yuan Hongqu looked up at Zhao Huajing disapprovingly.
"I told you not to come, but you insisted. Now that you're here, you start bossing my people around. What, you want to act like the Empress? Isn't the palace enough for you?"
Just like many years ago, Zhao Huajing slightly raised her chin, gazing at Yuan Hongqu with a look of adoration.
"Sir~"
Her tone was still like that of the innocent young girl she once was, and her eyes were exceptionally clear:
“You haven’t taught me properly all these years. If I don’t show off my power, why would anyone be afraid of me or respect me?”
Yuan Hongqu's heart stirred. Her relationship with Zhao Huajing ended suddenly and decisively because she had lost her memory.
She lost more than twenty years of her original memories, but she never felt that she had amnesia.
Because her memories of the modern world were intact, she experienced a cognitive bias when she met Daiyu.
Yuan Hongqu believed that she transmigrated while she was in prison, and then happened to gain a spatial ability after meeting Daiyu.
Yuan Hongqu always regarded her memories before meeting Daiyu as her original experiences, and considered them separate from her current self.
Although she now knows that the person in the world of Dream of the Red Chamber for the past twenty years was also herself, she still feels that the person she was before and the person she is now are somewhat difficult to reconcile.
This led Zhao Huajing to believe that Mr. Yuan was angry with her and had never truly forgiven her.
In reality, Yuan Hongqu was unable to completely merge her current self with the self she was before she met Daiyu.
This has led to the current contradictory situation: sometimes she feels particularly sorry for Zhao Huajing, placing her on the same level as Daiyu, while other times she feels that Zhao Huajing is the Empress and she should keep her distance from her...
Just like now, when she heard Zhao Huajing questioning Mi Ling, she blurted out that sentence for no reason. After saying it, she was startled. According to the system of this feudal society, she had taught the Empress a lesson. Would she be punished for it?
Unexpectedly, Zhao Huajing was not angry at all; on the contrary, she was overjoyed.
This is the same Mr. Yuan who taught her and accompanied her as she grew up!
When she was still at the academy, Mr. Yuan's teachings to her were comprehensive and complex.
It wasn't just about teaching her by words and deeds; he would also take her to observe things firsthand. Back then, Mr. Yuan spent just as much thought and effort on her as he does on his junior sister now.
So when she saw how much Mr. Yuan cared for Daiyu now, she wasn't sad. After all, it was much more difficult for Mr. Yuan to take care of her back then than it was now.
At that time, Zhao Huajing's situation was far worse than Daiyu's is now.
She was sent to her maternal grandparents' house with a reputation for being unfilial to her parents, where she was practically invisible.
Although Daiyu's mother had passed away, she had a father who loved her dearly. Even when her father, Lin Ruhai, became the Governor-General of Liangjiang, he declared in court that he would never remarry, just so that his daughter could live freely and not be looked down upon by a stepmother.
Zhao Huajing's father remarried while still in mourning...
"Granny is so strict, Senior Sister. Was Granny always like this?" Daiyu found it quite amusing, as she rarely saw Yuan Hongqu's serious side.
Normally, Yuan Hongqu would never be serious with Daiyu. The most severe thing she would do was repeat a sentence twice. If Daiyu still didn't listen the third time, Yuan Hongqu would give in first.
“Yes.” Zhao Huajing pouted slightly, looking pitifully at Daiyu. “The teacher is very strict. Didn’t you see that at the academy?”
“The old lady has always been kind and gentle; I have never seen her raise her voice.”
Daiyu shook her head blankly, unaware that she had been led astray by Zhao Huajing.
"That's because you're still young. When you grow up, Master will teach you just as strictly," Zhao Huajing said deliberately.
My junior sister has never looked so silly and dazed before; it's really funny to tease her!
"Granny~" Daiyu said softly, looking at Yuan Hongqu in disbelief.
Yuan Hongqu couldn't help but chuckle, and glanced speechlessly at Zhao Huajing.
Is it fun to scare children?
Zhao Huajing chuckled, "Sir, my junior sister is much cuter than I was back then. You always said I wasn't childish enough and made me do things that children do, but I still didn't know what childishness was. It wasn't until I spent a lot of time with my junior sister that I finally understood what childishness was."
As she spoke, her eyes began to redden.
"That's the arrogance, spoiledness, and foolishness that children develop when they know they are loved and pampered."
Daiyu was stunned for a moment, wanting to explain, but looking at Zhao Huajing's red eyes, she was at a loss.
"It's not too late for you to know now." Yuan Hongqu looked at Zhao Huajing. "So, do you still want this?"
As if by magic, she pulled out a palm-sized lollipop from behind her back and handed it to Zhao Huajing.
Zhao Huajing chuckled, her heart filled with emotion.
“Sir, so you haven’t forgotten.” She took the lollipop.
Zhao Huajing remembers very clearly that her first lesson with Mr. Yuan started with a lollipop.
"Granny, I want one too. Now that you have my senior sister, you don't love me anymore." Daiyu rolled her eyes, looking at this and that, before finally fixing her gaze on the lollipop.
She had seen the lollipops that Granny Yuan made before, but Granny Yuan had never made them this big. The malt and pear syrup lollipops that Granny Yuan made for her were only the size of a small silver spoon.
Yuan Hongqu then gave Daiyu another lollipop, a small one shaped like a flower.
Daiyu was unhappy.
"How could you be so biased, offering me such a small lollipop?"
Zhao Huajing's lips curled up high, even though she knew she shouldn't have such emotions: her master was thinking of her, the sorceress hadn't stolen her master's soul, and this was the first time Zhao Huajing had met Yuan Hongqu since their reunion. She wasn't filled with anxiety or fear, but rather with a joy and relief welling up from her heart...
Mi Ling watched the interaction between the three of them, feeling somewhat at a loss. Just now, the Empress had scolded her. She probably thought it was because she was worried that Mr. Yuan would get tired, so she blamed her for not doing a good job and that she would have to trouble Mr. Yuan.
"Mi Ling, you can go back now. We can talk about other things tomorrow when I go to the academy." Yuan Hongqu's words finally rescued the embarrassed Mi Ling, who hurriedly bowed and left.
No sooner had Mi Ling left than a specially designed carriage drove up and stopped in front of the Lin family's house.
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