Chapter 599
A Dream of Yellow Millet, Just a Dream of Ah Zhi
Chapter 599 A Fleeting Dream, Just a Dream of Ah Zhi
The moonlight gently spilled onto the table.
If you ask why she's not asleep so late at night... well, you'd have to ask someone who's been staying in her room.
With the curfew brought forward, they couldn't buy enough candles, and many wooden slips rustled and slid between his fingers.
Before he could speak, he looked up and saw that beautiful face.
She lit the few remaining lamps and held them up. Her brow furrowed slightly as she thought of the glance she had given Ying Zheng during the day, her expression filled with sorrow. "I've thought about it over and over, but something doesn't seem right. I've heard from the people in the city that His Majesty the Emperor has toured the country more than once already, and it seems that this time he'll have the mausoleum city sealed off? Has anyone here offended the court?"
Li Xian comforted her, saying that this was not true; the emperor's arrival simply coincided with the day they set off.
Xu Zhi's brows smoothed out, and she smiled, "It would have been nice to see my old friend sooner."
She sat down opposite him and said quite naturally, "Come back early after your house call tomorrow. I promised Ah Yan today that I would make him some things he's never seen before. We can say goodbye to Aunt Yan's family tomorrow night."
Li Xian's hands never stopped carving characters. He had worked as a clerk and an inspector, and his carving speed was so fast that it startled Xu Zhi.
However, listening to her talk was quite a distraction for him.
"You should have enough to send to that little brat."
Li Xian wanted to say that over the years, Xu Zhi had actually done a lot of things she wasn't good at. She even spent a lot of time explaining classics to her adopted brother, Hu Hai, with Chunyu Yue. Li Xian even felt that it was a mistake that Meng Tian's youngest daughter was born cute... Li Xian felt that he was exceptionally broad-minded because he would stand up for a rabbit.
Meng Ye took the toy that was supposed to be given to Fugui.
He wouldn't allow a single rabbit to be treated poorly.
But it was only because Fugui was his rabbit, the rabbit he gave to her, Ying Hehua's rabbit.
Their rabbits.
As Li Xian said, “You’re not good at this, why bother? Besides, I think he’s much better at weaving bamboo baskets and winnowing trays than A-Zhi.”
Xu Zhi rolled her eyes at him, "...Can't you speak like a human being?"
He immediately shut his mouth, but Ke Jian's intensity increased considerably, which Xu Zhi noticed. She suddenly realized that Li Xian was a man of many thoughts.
Perhaps it won't take long before Xu Zhi smiles at others more often, and she'll realize that this is simply jealousy.
In the past, if she had been constantly around him like this, he would have already grabbed her and made his point to her through his actions.
But after she lost her memory, she was healthy in body and mind, and her thinking was sound. She regarded everyone around her as kind people and seemed to have no suspicion that anyone would harm her.
He looked at her intently and said, "You went to plant rice not long ago, and you haven't fully recovered yet. You should rest well and not bother to do anything for others."
She thought for a moment, "I've been bothering Uncle Yan and the others for a long time lately, and I don't have anything to repay them with. I thought I'd grant the child's request, since it's not a demanding request."
Li Xian stopped carving with his knife. "We'll set off at 5:15 AM tomorrow. Your aunt is waiting for us in Kuaiji."
"Hmm. You said Auntie is waiting for us in Kuaiji?" Xu Zhi paused for a moment. "Kuaiji? I've heard that's not a safe place."
As she spoke, Xu Zhi coughed involuntarily.
"A-Zhi?" he asked nervously.
She raised one hand and waved it lazily. "What could possibly be wrong with me?" she said.
"You don't look well, shall we stay a few days?"
Fortunately, the candlelight was flickering, and Xu Zhi nudged him to his feet, saying, "It's up to you to decide. But look, the candles have all burned out. If you've finished carving, you should go and rest early."
The lamp was placed on the table, and the yellow and red candlelight made her cheeks appear flushed.
Countless times, endlessly, I was captivated by the shimmering light in her eyes and hair.
He looked at the words on the bamboo slips, every single one pointing the finger at Zhao Gao, Xu Fu, and himself. His early deeds had been somewhat tainted, driven by scheming and self-interest.
While others were realizing the error of the meteorite, he had already gone a step further. Ying Zheng had already arrived at Lingcheng, paid his respects to Wang Jian in the south, and was returning to Xianyang, inevitably passing through Shaqiu.
No one knew better than him what would happen in the sand dunes, not even Xu Zhi, who could possibly know better than him, a firsthand witness.
He had to meet with Ying Zheng before that.
If he were to meet her father, the events in the underground palace would likely be difficult to explain.
The crucial point was that he also understood Han Fei's principle at this critical juncture—that Xu Zhi, having lost her memory, would suffer the same torment as Mo Qi if she returned to Xianyang Palace. Mo Qi had reincarnated six times, remaining melancholic and dying tragically. He absolutely did not want Xu Zhi to suffer such pain, just as he had at the beginning, he did not want her soul to be tainted by filth and bloodshed.
He held her hand tightly and said he couldn't bear to part with her. He couldn't bear to see her cry, couldn't bear to see her sad, couldn't bear to see her in pain... What he couldn't bear most was letting someone else love her.
The summer breeze was warm, as was her question.
Xu Zhi tilted her head and asked, "What is love?"
He was stunned for a moment. What is love? That was a brilliant question, too direct.
Li Xian racked his brains, trying to recall everything, but he was stunned for a long time. In fact, he could say it was like going all in, never regretting it until death... or something like that.
He could easily choose one.
Her dark eyes gazed at him, clear, bright, and pure. Was it like her love for Zhang Liang, where she would rather be wounded herself than not fight for his survival?
Li Xian was even more ruthless than her. He laughed to himself, blaming himself for being so stupid that he could finally think things through.
He could give up everything and return to purgatory, at the cost of being cut in half.
As long as she is safe and sound.
After a long while, she didn't hear his reply.
All I heard was his counter-question, "What is love, what do you think, A-Zhi?"
She didn't pause for a moment, smiled at him, and then gently withdrew her hand from his...
His heart sank.
She slowly walked towards him, a smile unlike any other she had ever seen, and looked him straight in the eye in an unexpected and direct manner.
She opened her arms and hugged him. "Jingqian, your heart is beating so fast." Then her eyes curved into crescent moons, "Is this proof that you love me?"
Before he could react, a warm smile spread across his lips.
The soft touch made his eyes freeze suddenly; this simple little courtyard felt like a vast, boundless wind.
Her voice drifted slowly into his ear, "If love is the sound of a heartbeat, then you know, I love you too."
Actually, Xu Zhi is right.
But Li Xian in this life could never understand that what was engraved on that red stone was not just a name, but also destiny. The frequency of their heartbeats came from the other's heart.
The next day, when Xu Zhi went out, the grass was still green, and the buzzing of cicadas in the summer made this confrontation seem a bit too leisurely.
But the person involved had no such feeling at all.
Xu Zhi realized she had been deceived. "What makes you think the emperor will kill us? Why should I believe you?"
"Your arrival means you believe it, doesn't it?" The visitor smiled.
"I have no grudge against the emperor, why would he want to kill me?"
Zhang Cang held up the silk scroll he had retrieved from Han Fei in front of her, asking, "Should I address you as Princess Ying Hehua, or as a descendant of the Xu family?"
The valuable piece of cloth was covered with notes written in a mix of Russian and English, and Xu Zhi surprisingly found that she could understand part of them. —A meteorite falling from the sky has provoked a great wrath, leading to the massacre of a hundred miles.
Xu Zhi's mind went blank.
"What Ying Hehua, what descendant of the Xu family?"
Zhang Cang didn't want to waste words with her, so he stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, please don't play dumb with me."