Chapter 23
Chapter 23
“Shengsheng, you smell like Xiao Ming.”
The moment Shengsheng Zhou returned to the residence Siran Ming had assigned her, a figure shot into her arms. Zhiyu Jiang sniffed all over her like an anxious hound.
After recovering from the fright, Shengsheng pulled her away.
“Why are you here? Didn’t Xiao Ming arrange somewhere else for you to live?”
Zhiyu pouted and refused to answer.
Shengsheng’s gaze sharpened. She shut the door, caught Zhiyu by the arm, and lowered her voice.
“Did someone bully you? Was it that Qingwan Xie?”
Only after repeated questioning did Zhiyu finally mumble, “I wanted something to eat, but those older maids said it wasn’t mealtime yet and wouldn’t give me anything. I’m so hungry, Shengsheng.”
She looked utterly pitiful.
“What? They refused to feed you?”
Shengsheng’s fury ignited.
Perhaps losing her memory in the fall had also made Zhiyu a little foolish. Or perhaps she had simply gone hungry for too many days. Whatever the reason, she had become extremely fond of food.
Shengsheng indulged her. Fruit, pastries, snacks–Zhiyu had never gone without during the journey.
Now the person Shengsheng had carefully raised all this way had arrived in the vast Yong Kingdom only to be denied a single bite?
Seeing Shengsheng’s anger, Zhiyu found the courage of a bullied child complaining to her parent.
“They called me an idiot too.”
That fed the flames into an inferno.
How dare they call the heroine stupid? The World Law would not need to strike them down. Shengsheng would do it herself.
She was about to drag Zhiyu to Siran and file a complaint when she remembered what had just happened in his study.
Her blazing anger went out as though drenched by a bucket of cold water.
Zhiyu watched her expectantly.
Shengsheng released a long sigh.
Zhiyu patted her with great consideration.
“Don’t be angry. A good sigh takes ten years off your age.”
How could Shengsheng not sigh?
Zhiyu’s older brother had entered his rebellious phase and become determined to marry her. Meanwhile, his little sister was being bullied.
Why was her life so bitter? How had one night transformed her from a pretty single palace maid into a glamorous widow raising two children?
“My poor, lazy husband died so young!” Shengsheng seized Zhiyu’s hands and lamented to the heavens. “He left me alone with you and your brother. I worked myself to the bone raising both of you, yet neither gives me a moment’s peace. My life is so hard! If I’d known, I would have followed you into death, Husband!”
Her voice was so desolate, her grief so convincing, that Zhiyu–despite understanding none of it–was swept into the emotion.
“Mother…”
Two lines of tears slid down her face.
Shengsheng gazed at her tenderly and wiped them away.
“Yes, my child?”
“Mother!”
Zhiyu threw open her arms.
“My daughter!”
Shengsheng welcomed her.
They clung to each other as if each were the other’s only support in the world.
Outside, Rong Li awkwardly withdrew the hand she had raised to knock and rubbed her nose.
Perhaps she should wait.
One could hardly interrupt such a profound moment between mother and daughter.
***
“Thank you for bringing him back.”
Shengsheng smiled brilliantly at Rong while holding a sleeping bird. He was nestled inside a gold basin carved with dragons and encrusted with multicolored jade and jewels.
“Wait a moment. I’ll return the basin.”
At her words, the sleeping bird opened his eyes and looked at her. Then he spread his wings over the basin, defending his ownership.
Shengsheng glared back.
Rong waved a hand.
“I don’t know when he flew into it. He seemed to like the basin, so I asked, ‘Your Majesty, may the bird keep it?’ His Majesty said that if the bird liked it, he could have it.”
Rong Li had served Siran Ming for many years. In her opinion, His Majesty had plainly fallen for the little palace maid from the Zhu Kingdom.
Not long ago, he had slapped her.
Now his entire attitude had changed.
A man’s heart was truly impossible to fathom.
“Then please thank Your Majesty for me. And thank you for the trouble, Guard Rong.”
Shengsheng Zhou smiled with perfect courtesy.
Rong waved away the thanks and left.
The instant the door closed, Shengsheng’s smile collapsed.
It was over.
Rong had definitely heard all that nonsense about her dead husband and children.
Would she think Shengsheng suffered from some terrible mental illness?
Burning with humiliation, Shengsheng glared at the bird in her hands. Irritation needed a target, and he was conveniently available.
“A golden nest or a silver nest can’t compare with your own shabby nest. Do you understand? That basin may be pretty, but after sleeping in it for a few nights, you’ll realize the nest I made is far more comfortable!”
Duan-bird turned his back on her to express his contempt.
Apparently, the preference for wealth over poverty was shared by humans and animals alike.
Shengsheng deliberately placed her handmade nest beside the golden basin, waiting for him to return to it voluntarily.
Three days passed.
When she checked again, someone had kicked her nest onto the floor. The culprit lounged in his splendid new home on the windowsill, basking lazily in the sun.
Shengsheng stared at him with a complicated expression.
Zhiyu Jiang came over and poured fresh water into the tiny golden saucer before him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked when she saw Shengsheng’s solemn stare.
Shengsheng frowned.
“Why do his fussiness, laziness, and expensive tastes remind me so strongly of someone?”
The motionless bird opened his eyes.
Zhiyu looked confused. “But he’s a bird. How can he resemble a person?”
Shengsheng paused.
True enough.
*If Fusheng Duan could turn into a bird, that species would probably have gone extinct long ago.*
She added:
*They’d all have died of laziness.*
Fusheng, who really had become a bird, closed his eyes again. For once, he felt no urge to refute her.
She was not entirely wrong.
His kind truly had died out.
“Come on. Enough staring at the bird. Let’s go complain to Xiao Ming.”
Shengsheng placed a piece of fruit in his dish, took Zhiyu’s hand, and led her outside.
Zhiyu nodded vaguely and followed wherever Shengsheng gently guided her.
After careful calculation and a great deal of restraint, Shengsheng had finally chosen the ideal moment.
This was the section where Qingwan Xie first moved against Zhiyu. The heroine was supposed to see through the scheme, grieve in silence, and be discovered by the male lead. He would then punish the vicious supporting woman and make an example of her.
The servants would never have dared neglect Zhiyu so openly without Qingwan’s instructions.
In the original novel, Siran had been overwhelmed by state affairs after returning to the palace. He neglected Zhiyu, whom he had forcibly brought back, giving Qingwan an opening.
As the female court official who managed the emperor’s private household, Qingwan arranged for a badly wounded maid to accuse Zhiyu of beating and abusing her.
Zhiyu was an outsider in the Yong Kingdom and had no defined status in the palace. Naturally, everyone turned against her.
Qingwan possessed the authority to expel her.
That was the scheme in the original story.
However…
Shengsheng’s footsteps slowed.
Siran insisted on eating all three meals with her and attached himself to her the moment his work ended. Hadn’t the original novel said he was so consumed by government affairs that he could not spare even a moment to see the heroine?