"Behaving badly?" Tears rolled down Lu Zhan's cheeks, gathering as beads at the tip of his chin, "Are you ignoring me because you are afraid that I will be bad? If that's the case, at least ask me a few questions every once in a while to see if I meet your expectations, right? Not hearing, not asking, not responding ......" His eyes snapped, and he roared steeply, "Is this the way you thought about teaching me!"
Tai Guifei bowed her head with a slight chest like a child who made a mistake, "I'm sorry."
She's a broken woman, and she knows she's doing it all wrong.
"I don't want to be sorry," Lu Yi grinned, voice as low as a whisper: "I want mother consort ...... not so disgusted with me. I just want to stay by your side, can't I not talk? Why do you have to let Sister lead me elsewhere? I have done my best to minimize myself, and you make me feel that I am loathed by you even when I breathe."
"I'm sorry." The daiyoukai showed her repulsion again, a sign that she needed to be alone.
The grief on her son's face was suffocating her.
It would have been better if she had simply thrown herself into the well years ago, but she was afraid of causing trouble for her son, and the only thing an invalid like her could do was to cause less trouble for others, and she couldn't even do that, she just ran away.
Lu Yi closed his eyes in despair, and after a moment's reprieve, he opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried his best to calmly inquire: "I heard that Mother Consort used to chase after Third Brother, who was playing Cuju, to fan himself and wipe away the sweat, so how did you chase after him? Third brother ran so fast, mother consort also do not feel tired? Can you also chase after me and fan me once, just like what grandma said, and applaud me as well."
Tai Gui Fei raised her head at her son's words, her gaze puzzled, "This is the first time you've asked Mother Consort to do something for you."
Lu Yi pursed his lips and nodded with a bitter smile, "May I?"
Tai Guifei didn't answer, giving her son a rare probing look, "I thought you were different from Lao San."
"Different?" Lu Zhan laughed to himself, "Mother Consort would still find me different? I sometimes worry that if I were to meet Mother Consort outside the palace, Mother Consort might not even recognize me."
Tai Gui Fei turned her head to the window for a while before she focused again and turned back as if she had suddenly realized that her son was beside her.
Sluggishly recalling what just happened, she revealed a numb look again and muttered, ''Lao San he only needs to be happy himself, as long as his needs are met, he is happy. Yi'er, you are different, you always want to make this palace happy, this palace is already exhausted just by living, you always want to draw me into doing something, it's been like this since I was a child, you are always so alive and pestering me, but I am always distracted, and when I come back to my senses, I find that your whole little face is lost and broken, I'm so scared and tired, I can't do anything well, is it not good for you to just pretend that I'm dead?"
"Why are you so tired?" Lu Zhan stepped forward and grabbed his mother consort's withered shoulders, frowning, "Is Father that important to you? If he doesn't come, I can still amuse you!"
Tai Guifei tilted her head and looked at her son blankly: "Your father? He ...... he's not important anymore, once upon a time I thought he was important, I thought it would be good if he came back, then he came a few times as well, and I realized that he couldn't save me, I don't want to see him anymore, he's the one who made it hard for me, this has nothing to do with you, it has nothing to do with you ...... "
She suddenly reached out and stroked her son's cheek, her eyes showing rare horror, "God, why do you want to settle these scores on yourself? How ...... do you look so much like me? Never ...... don t become like me ......"
Lu Zhan's eyes lit up in a trance, as if in this moment, the path to his mother's heart was suddenly lit by some tacit agreement.
Nearly twenty years of separation, because of some commonality in the blood, had brought this mother and son closer than they had ever been before.
Lu Yi slowly knelt down on one knee at Tai Gui Fei's knee, tilted his head up to look at her, and spoke solemnly, "I am your own, naturally like you, and love to take care of things like you do, since mother consort is tired, give me all the burdens, and let me be the one who puts them to good use."
*
After returning to the mansion, Xue Yao paced back and forth in the backyard alone.
It was a headache, and last night's subliminal release had left his feelings for Lu Qian completely wrapped up in hormones.
He tried to remember Lu Qian's chubby appearance to resist the heartbeat that accelerated from time to time, but at the moment the little brat in his memories was even holding the milk jug, a sprightly image of a man with a sword and a painful drink, so handsome that it made one's legs go weak.
Xue Yao could only find another way to start recalling all the big piggy crimes of Lu Qian's own father, forcibly dividing the pot all over Lu Qian, concluding that this kid would also turn into a ruthless and philandering big piggy in the future.
In the evening, someone came to the door looking for Xue Yao, supposedly with a eunuch-like attendant.
Because the concierge didn't recognize him, Xue Yao guessed that it might be a warm baby coming to his door to look for him, and rushed to the front hall to greet him, and it was actually Lu Jinan.
"Your Highness, King Rui?" Xue Yao hurriedly stepped forward and saluted, "If there's something you need to tell me to go to the royal residence, why do I need you to come here in person? Please do it!"
Lu Jinan smiled, "I'm just passing by and came to say hello to you, I've already taken care of Aunt Po, so you don't have to worry about it."
Xue Yao hurriedly nodded and thanked him.
"Seventh Brother let you out of the palace so early this morning?" Lu Jinan saw that Xue Yao didn't look quite right, so he said with concern, "Are you not feeling well?"
"It's just that I didn't sleep well in the previous two days, so I'm taking an early leave to go back to the house to rest today, thank you for Your Highness's compassion." Xue Yao nodded in reply.
Lu Jinan nodded and laughed, "Why are you so formal when you face me alone, but every time the seventh brother stands beside you, you are like a different person? You're quite good at being a fox and a tiger, without seventh brother to back you up today, shouldn't this king take the opportunity to settle accounts with you?"
Xue Yao looked up in embarrassment and was about to explain when she saw Lu Jinan pull up the corner of his mouth, revealing a bad smile that got the better of his joke.
"Looks like you're really afraid of me." Lu Jinan found Xue Yao very interesting.
Inside and outside the court, most of the ministers and eunuchs are afraid of King Ning Lu Qian, because of the King's eccentricity and inscrutability.
Lu Jinan has always been generous and reasonable, but this Xue Yao, usually respectful to him, once he saw his seventh brother, he became careless, and could not wait to ride on the head of the seventh brother to make a good fortune.
What was even stranger was that his seventh brother, who had no patience for anyone, was really willing to indulge Xue Yao.
Xue Yao didn't feel that there was anything wrong with his differentiation, the little fat cub was one of his own, "Mister Xue honors Your Highness, so I should be courteous."
"Then you don't honor the seventh brother?" Lu Jinan absently turned his head to survey the surroundings, intending to savor the calligraphy and paintings hanging on the walls of Xue Yao's residence, but his eyes were drawn to a bow and arrow arrangement placed in the eastern corner.
Lu Jinan felt very serious, so he quickly walked over and raised his hand to remove the ox horn bow, checking the words engraved in the center of the bow wall interior, and as expected, the engraving was Lu Jinan's watchword.
"This bow ......" Lu Jinan looked sideways at Xue Yao in wonder.
"Ah! This bow is exactly the ox horn bow that you gifted me before, and it has lacked maintenance in recent times ...... " Xue Yao thought to himself that it was finished! The gift given to him by the Crown Prince back then had been discolored by his accumulation of dust!
"I gave it to you?" Lu Jinan revealed a surprised expression, staring down at the bow and arrow for a moment of careful recollection, and finally remembered.
"Wasn't this bow snatched from my tent by Old Seven during the fall hunt a few years ago? How did it become my gift to you?"
Xue Yao was bewildered at first, his mind quickly searching for memories of this bow-
Many years ago in the paddock, by the bonfire under the moonlight, Xue Yao was chatting with a group of royal sons and said that he lacked an ox-horn bow, and the next day when he woke up, a small eunuch sent a bow, saying that it was "given to you by His Highness".
At that time, Xue Yao did not know "His Highness" is which His Highness, the Prince, five cubs, six cubs are suspected all over the place, but did not think ......
Lu Jinan suspiciously tilted his head to gaze at Xue Yao's face and said with concern, "Why are your eyes so red? I'll give you this bow as a gift, I won't take it back, so don't get agitated."
The author has something to say:
Seven pups chasing his wife's code: start small, build a strong foundation, and grow thick and thin.
The little bald bunny covered his mouth with a snap!