As soon as she returned to Yu's house, Mu Lingsu hid in the pharmacy, fearing that Shen Qingyu would look for her. Even if she and Shen Qingyu were empty-hearted, there was nothing to say, not to mention that he wanted her to find something to say. Between them, what they talked about was the old things in the palace before, wasn't it? She was really fed up, and she felt sad again when she mentioned it. In order to avoid this unpleasantness, she simply hid herself and waited until Shen Qingyu forgot to look for her before she went out.
But by the time I had hidden away, it was already past dinner time.
Mu Lingsu thought that Shen Qingyu hadn't come to see her for such a long time, and must have gone out for something else, so she wanted to go to the kitchen to cook two dishes to fill her stomach. Unexpectedly, she ran into Shen Qingyu just after turning the corridor.
"Lingsu, I asked the housekeeper of the Yu Mansion and found out that you didn't eat, so I specially brought you some food." Shen Qingyu actually had a food box in his hand. He held the food box in front of Mu Lingsu's eyes and made it light up, as if to say that he really had something to talk to her about. "Eat first."
Without waiting for Mu Lingsu to lead him into the house, he went straight into the pharmacy. Mu Lingsu couldn't just chase him out, so she could only follow him.
"Wait a minute, Your Majesty." Seeing that he was about to serve her food, Mu Lingsu walked over in two steps and quickly snatched the chopsticks from his hand, "I'll do it myself."
She really couldn't do anything about Shen Qingyu, and she couldn't tell him directly "Your Majesty, please go back", so she could only watch his actions and stop him immediately if she saw something was wrong.
Perhaps, Shen Qingyu's understanding of their relationship was still stuck in his childhood, and he thought that she was still the daughter of the imperial physician, the eldest daughter of the Mu family who was doted on by the queen.
Mu Lingsu didn't know how to explain to Shen Qingyu so that he would understand that they were no longer in the same relationship as when they were children, and she could no longer get along with him without any barriers as when they were children. She could only face him with the courtesy of a monarch and a subject, and watch him carefully.
The most profound lesson that the family change brought her was to put herself in the right position in front of different people. In the past, she relied on the Queen's favor to be unrestrained in the palace and treated the princes and princesses as equals. As a result, the Queen used her father as an excuse to murder Concubine De, causing her father to become a victim of the harem struggle, and the family's financial situation plummeted from then on.
In Mu Lingsu's eyes, she was the culprit who killed her father. So, even though she was a daughter, she still chose to shoulder the burden of the entire Mu family, not for anything else, just to atone for her sins.
Shen Qingyu noticed her unnaturalness, but he didn't think it was because of him: "Ling Su?"
"Your Highness." Mu Lingsu came back to her senses, hid the myriad thoughts in her mind, and bowed to him.
"You..." Shen Qingyu wanted to say something to her, but couldn't find a suitable topic. After thinking about it, he asked, "How have you been these years?"
For some reason, Shen Qingyu had a thousand words to , but now that they were face to face, he found that no matter how many words he had in his heart, he couldn't say them out loud. He was always confident that he could speak well, but when faced with the beauty he hadn't seen for many years but still missed, he was speechless in an instant. He wanted to ask her if she was okay, if she still liked the cakes in the palace, and if she would still treat him like before and tell him everything that was on her mind.
But he seemed to have answers to these questions.
She was living a good life, no longer liking everything in the palace, and she would no longer tell him everything like before. Times had changed, and she was completely different from before. She became distant from him, and even let go of her hatred, and became so close to Yu Linzhi. Even if it was for money, with his understanding of Mu Lingsu's temperament, she and Yu Linzhi would never be so peaceful. After all, it was Gu Cheng's strong advice that persuaded the emperor to order Mu Lingsu's father to be exiled.
"You don't have a good relationship with your father?" He couldn't solve the doubts in his heart, so he asked. In his opinion, Mu Lingsu's behavior was abnormal, and there must be something hidden.
Mu Lingsu was surprised that he could ask about her father, and the question was very strange. She couldn't react for a moment to why he asked such a question: "Why do you say that?"
"He is obviously the descendant of the enemy who killed your father, but you don't hate him."
Shen Qingyu really didn't understand why she could forget the tragic death of her adoptive father, put aside her deep hatred, and smile at Gu Cheng's grandson. She was obviously a person who had a clear distinction between love and hate, and had always respected his adoptive father. She should hate Yu Linzhi to the core, so how could she be Yu Linzhi's doctor?
After hearing what Shen Qingyu said, Mu Lingsu didn't want to refute at all. She had expected that he would blame her, thinking that she had forgotten that her father was dead, that there were many factions in the court between her and Yu Linzhi, and that she had been driven out of the palace by his mother.
She wanted to forget, but it was impossible. Her father was arrested, and she had no relatives in the huge palace. She asked the queen to show some leniency, but the queen ignored her. She didn't dare to ask Shen Qingyu for help, but she just hoped that he would ask about it, but she didn't hear him mention her father until the day she left the palace.
Of course she remembered, but it was meaningless to bring it up again. The queen was still the queen, the eldest son was the crown prince, and she had fallen into the status of the daughter of a criminal. The glory of her family was dimmed by guilt. Everything in the past, whether it was wealth or blood feud, had been completely severed from Mu Lingsu.
Today, she finally changed into a new soul, but Shen Qingyu repeatedly forced her to recall those old things, and she was already helpless. If he continued to accuse her without reason, she could only keep avoiding him and try her best not to take the initiative to bring up this topic that made her feel unhappy.
"If it is what Your Highness wants, should I kill Yu Linzhi the first time I see him after leaving the palace to avenge my father?" Mu Lingsu put on a serious and calm expression, and said every word seriously, "If I really acted in this way, I am afraid Your Highness will only be able to see me at my grave today."
Mu Lingsu stared at Shen Qingyu's eyes filled with shock and surprise: "I was in danger back then. If it weren't for Yu Linzhi's rescue, I would have been lucky enough to have a grave. If I was unlucky, I would have died without a burial place."
How could she forget those disputes between the government and the opposition, but Yu Linzhi saved her and gave her a place to settle down. He never mentioned the family hatred, so she kept silent. At that time, compared with revenge, she needed to live well more. All the women, children, old and young in the Mu family were waiting for her to support them, and she couldn't just take revenge on impulse. Besides, if she really wanted to take revenge, wasn't the real culprit Shen Qingyu's mother, the current queen mother?
"Then you can't forget who killed your father."
Shen Qingyu thought of the way she and Yu Linzhi talked and laughed, and the way she fell asleep in his arms, and she always felt unhappy. It would be fine if they were no longer close, but why was Yu Linzhi so close to her? They were enemies with a deep blood feud, people who could never live in harmony, but they could be so close.
As soon as these words came out of Shen Qingyu's mouth, the resentment that Mu Lingsu had tried her best to suppress was suddenly aroused. She originally wanted to ignore it, but since he brought it up on his own initiative, she didn't have to endure it deliberately.
Her expression changed drastically, and she was very excited: "Who could have killed him? My father was loyal to the Queen, who else could have persuaded him to accept the death?"
She guessed that Shen Qingyu must not know the truth of the past, and the queen might even put all the blame on her father and Concubine Lu De, and told Shen Qingyu a lot of lies. But since he mentioned her father's death, she didn't have to endure it anymore.
"It has always been only your mother!" Mu Lingsu recalled the scenes of her father being punished, her eyes were red, tears were already gathering in her eye sockets. But she couldn't cry. No matter how sad she was, she didn't want to cry for the pain of losing her father, which would only make her father's spirit in heaven worry about her. She had to pretend that she didn't feel any pain and live well, so that she could comfort her father's unjustly dead soul.
Shen Qingyu had never expected that Mu Lingsu would start to blame his mother without any warning. Confused, he asked, "What does this have to do with my mother?"
"You, you don't think that my father was killed by Concubine De." Mu Lingsu felt that every deep breath she took to calm herself down had to use up all her strength, but in order to speak clearly, she could only suppress the trembling of her voice caused by her excitement. "Concubine De's intention to murder the Empress could have been a big deal, but His Majesty suppressed it and only demoted the third prince born to Concubine De to a poor place as a king, and then gave the position of crown prince to your brother."
Her eyes were so sharp that Shen Qingyu thought his body was pierced .
"Doesn't this explain the problem?" Mu Lingsu's teeth were about to shatter. "Your Majesty knows that the Queen is the mastermind, and you are the only one who has been kept in the dark!"
If we talk about the most terrifying thing in the deep palace, this is it. The emperor loves Concubine De Lu the most, but he is afraid of the power of the queen's family. Even if the king of a country knows that it was the queen who harmed Concubine De, he still has to side with the queen. It is better to say that he is giving in to the power behind the queen rather than compromising with the queen.
Shen Qingyu only now learned this earth-shattering secret. Before, he had never thought that his mother would lie to him one day. He was naughty since he was young, so he was not liked by his father, the emperor. Only his mother had always loved and raised him wholeheartedly. In his mind, his mother was perfect and could not possibly have anything to do with the darkness of human nature. He never expected that today, he would learn all this from the mouth of his beloved.
"How is that possible?" Shen Qingyu still couldn't believe what Mu Lingsu said.
"Why would I lie to you?" Mu Lingsu could guess that he couldn't accept it for a while, just like she couldn't accept her father's death. She could understand the Queen's painstaking efforts to protect Shen Qingyu, but when she saw Shen Qingyu standing on the moral high ground to accuse her, she felt unfair and wanted to drag him in.
In the struggle between the government and the opposition, who can stay out of it when they are obviously involved?
Since Shen Qingyu was the son of the Queen, he was already in the game. As a price, the friendship between him and Mu Lingsu was ruined. Mu Lingsu could no longer just hope for his well-being as before. She could not calmly watch Shen Qingyu enjoying his happiness while stepping on blood and blood, and then pretending to be a victim and blaming her.
He never asked about her difficulties over the years, just like when she was kneeling in front of Fengzao Palace. He saw with his own eyes that she was having a hard time, but he turned a blind eye.
"Forget it, now everything is over, let it go." Shen Qingyu was still in shock, and Mu Lingsu didn't want to continue this topic. Everything had been said, and she had no intention of continuing to entangle. She had already satisfied her desire for revenge just now, and it satisfied her very well.
Only then did Shen Qingyu remember to take a look at her.
This glance seemed to penetrate the more than ten years of their acquaintance and the eight years of their separation. Her former appearance could no longer be reproduced in front of him. At this moment, Mu Lingsu was just another person wearing the same skin but with a different soul.
He wanted to call her name, but the courage to speak had already disappeared. He was afraid that if he called her, she would not respond because "Mu Lingsu" was someone else.
"sorry."
He apologized for all the years he owed her. Eight years, from Fengzao Palace to Lin'an, from fifteen to twenty-three years old.
Too late.
"Why?"
Yu Linzhi was lying on the couch in his yard reading a book. Before he had finished reading half of it, Shen Hanyan ran in in a panic and started to "order" him to send Mu Lingsu back to Suzhou immediately. Of course, Yu Linzhi would not listen to her.
Shen Hanyan is the queen's daughter in the palace, but this is outside the palace, in Yu Linzhi's own home, and she is "incognito" and has not revealed her identity, so he doesn't have to be afraid of her at all.
Yu Linzhi threw the book onto the stone table and changed into a comfortable position: "Miss Mu provokes you, doesn't it mean she didn't greet you?"
"More than that!" Shen Hanyan's expression was "arrogant and domineering". She glared at Yu Linzhi and said, "This princess has never liked her. You must know that. Wherever this princess stands, she will not be allowed to act presumptuously in front of me."
"So," Yu Linzhi propped up his upper body and adjusted the soft pillow behind him, "as long as you are in the Yu Mansion, Xiao Mu must disappear?"
He thought Shen Hanyan was stupid when she was a child, but she didn't expect that her brain didn't improve much when she grew up, but her temper became worse and worse. Yu Linzhi was bored and wanted to trick her.
Shen Hanyan was simple-minded and didn't realize there was a trap behind these words: "Of course."
Yu Linzhi stretched out his voice and said, "Then, Princess Yongjia, please excuse yourself and move out of the Yu Mansion and stay at the inn."
"You..." Shen Hanyan just understood Yu Linzhi's intention, and her face turned red in anger, "How dare you! How dare you humiliate this princess? Aren't you afraid that this princess will destroy you?"
Yu Linzhi was still lying there, not even looking at Shen Hanyan: "No matter how powerful your Highness the Princess is, she is still afraid of your Eleventh Brother."
Isn't it easy to deal with her?
As long as he turned around and told Shen Qingyu about her, she would immediately admit her mistake.
He was actually quite annoyed with Shen Hanyan. She was noisy and unruly, and she was also silly, so he never wanted to talk to her. Last year, Shen Qingyu brought her to play, and she insisted on bringing back the Ru kiln hollow carved mandarin duck porcelain pillow left by his grandmother to the palace. He almost beat her up. Fortunately, Shen Qingyu took the initiative to take her out and teach her a lesson, otherwise she would definitely be beaten.
"Don't use my eleventh brother to pressure me!" Shen Hanyan was very unconvinced.
"Then please don't use your princess status to pressure me all the time." Yu Linzhi was too lazy to say more to her, "Don't think about it, Xiao Mu won't leave, go back and have some snacks and go to sleep."
Shen Hanyan was so excited: "This princess must let her go. It's okay for her to be the daughter of a criminal. Anyway, you are a commoner and it won't affect you in any way. But..." She thought about it and chose a more serious wording, "She keeps pestering my brother all day long. I'm afraid she wants to learn from her sister, Crown Princess Mu, and climb up the ladder to become a princess."
After hearing this, Yu Linzhi did not immediately respond to Shen Hanyan's words, but remained silent, not knowing what he was thinking.
Shen Hanyan mistakenly thought that he had listened to her words, and planned to press on: "She is just a foxy girl, relying on my royal brother's unforgettable old love, she wants to become the Princess of Yiyang and restore the Mu family!"
Reinstatement?
Hearing this word, Yu Linzhi suddenly woke up from a dream. He had almost forgotten that Mu Lingsu was born in an official family and his family had fallen into poverty. Over the years, he had pretended to forget their feud at first, but now he had long been accustomed to not thinking about the hatred between them. He also forgot that Mu Lingsu might need someone to help her get revenge. It was the queen who caused her family's misfortune. If she wanted to start with the queen's son...
He didn't dare think about it anymore.
If Mu Lingsu insisted on taking a risky move, the consequences would be unpredictable. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that the crown prince's position was unbreakable. Among the dozen princes, the once favored Shen Qingyu had long been disliked by the emperor. After the age of 40, the harem had not produced another prince, so the emperor only liked the crown prince. As the queen's legitimate son, Prince Yi Yang, no matter how much he won the queen's favor, it would be difficult to persuade the emperor to go to great lengths to overturn the case and vindicate Mu Simiao.
Could Mu Lingsu have anticipated this? If she had, could she accept these facts?
"Do you think your brother will marry her?" Yu Linzhi was a little flustered when he asked. He was just unsure of Mu Lingsu's thoughts, and he was afraid of getting the answer. Even though he knew that Shen Hanyan's answer might not be accurate, he still didn't want to get a definite answer.
Shen Hanyan thought about it very seriously and said, "Of course it will. As early as eight years ago, when Mu Simiao was in trouble, my royal brother had already mentioned to our mother about taking her as a concubine, otherwise Mu Lingsu would still be in Fengzao Palace now." The implication was that the queen had originally wanted to keep Mu Lingsu in the palace, but after Shen Qingyu proposed to her, Mu Lingsu was driven out of the palace.
The reasons behind this are really intriguing.
But Yu Linzhi was sure that Mu Lingsu would never marry Shen Qingyu. What was the use of Shen Qingyu liking her? The queen was so good at wielding power, how could she tolerate the two most outstanding daughters of the Mu family becoming her daughters-in-law in succession? I was afraid that the possibility of choosing the granddaughter of Gu Cheng, the mortal enemy of the queen's family, or Yu Linzhi's cousin, as the Princess of Yiyang was greater than choosing Mu Lingsu.
When he thought of this, he was actually a little happy. Although he was very satisfied with the result of this speculation, after the joy flashed by, Yu Linzhi suddenly realized that something was wrong.
What does it have to do with him no matter what happens between Mu Lingsu and Shen Qingyu? It obviously has nothing to do with him, why does he care so much and secretly hope that they are not together?
No, he couldn't go on like this.
His dependence on her over the years seemed to have begun to lead him to another path. Although he didn't know where this path would lead, he could guess that this path would not be easy.
He was frail and sickly, and was a wanted criminal of the imperial court. He was destined to die early anyway, so how could he let her get involved?
He looked at Shen Hanyan, his voice became so soft that it was hard to understand: "When I first met Mu Lingsu, I just thought she was plain and annoying." But he didn't expect that the two of them would eventually become close friends who would be together for life and death. Perhaps this is what people call fate. They used to have a bad relationship. Later, in the face of countless life changes, in the face of fate, in the face of circumstances, they became each other's rare support.
Perhaps he had been bedridden for many years, and his mind had become fragile, so he wanted to keep someone by his side, to accompany him for a long time, to care for him. Even the bad first impressions he had had faded away silently over time.
"She is annoying, but my eleventh brother just doesn't like those noble ladies, and doesn't like those daughters of ministers. He just likes her." Shen Hanyan looked up at the starry sky, rarely revealing her melancholy and worries in her heart, "Tell me, what's so good about her? I also want to learn from her."
Is she okay?
Shen Hanyan's question may not be intended for him to provide an answer, but Yu Linzhi felt that this question not only stumped Shen Hanyan, but also stumped himself. He didn't like her in the past, and even hated her a little, but why did he want her to stay with him now?
His reason told him that this was unusual. But after careful consideration, he could not come up with a very convincing answer. What was unusual? There was obviously no change between them, but everything was different.
Shen Hanyan had been waiting for Yu Linzhi's answer, but she couldn't get any. She was a little impatient and asked loudly, "Why don't you answer me?"
She knew from childhood that Yu Linzhi and Mu Lingsu had a bad relationship, and thought that she and Yu Linzhi should have "shared the same hatred for the enemy" until now, and that they both hated Mu Lingsu. She thought that the answer she could never find would definitely be found by Yu Linzhi, who had known Mu Lingsu for many years.
"I don't know." Yu Linzhi said lightly.
He couldn't sort out his thoughts and could only give this answer to Shen Hanyan. He was a little timid and didn't dare to ask himself further whether Mu Lingsu was good or not, and what was good about her that could make him eliminate his hatred and get along with her like this.
Although Shen Hanyan was still young, she was quite sensitive to feelings. She glanced at Yu Linzhi's expression and suddenly felt that she seemed to have seen it on Eleventh Brother's face. It seemed that after Mu Lingsu left the palace, when she mentioned in front of him that Eleventh Brother's things were still left in the room where Mu Lingsu used to live, he didn't say anything, and then he had this expression.
She was very familiar with this look.
Shen Hanyan suddenly felt a little contemptuous and said, "It seems that I asked the wrong person. You just like her." Seeing that Yu Linzhi had no reaction, she asked again, "How can you like her? Can she forgive you for killing your father?"
After she finished speaking, without giving Yu Linzhi a chance to refute, Shen Hanyan left angrily.
Yu Linzhi turned a deaf ear to her every move. He just raised his head and wanted to talk to himself, but he didn't know what to say.
There are bright stars everywhere, but not a trace of moonlight.
Since Mu Lingsu met him, he hadn't felt that any woman around him caught his eye for a long time. It was like the starlight, which was only bright and dazzling when there was no moon. But when the moon appeared, not a single starlight could be seen.