The former residence of the Crown Prince, even if not favored by its master, still had dedicated personnel who came to sweep and clean at intervals.
When the carriage returned to the city, Li Suichuan had already finished handling matters and returned. He seemed extremely familiar with the route to the Eastern Palace, able to find the vermillion gates of the Crown Prince's residence even with his eyes closed.
Wuzhui followed behind the carriage with grievance, carrying his own reins in his mouth.
Having been harshly whipped by his master, Wuzhui knew that the fragrant scent in the carriage could no longer be touched. But animals were more perceptive than humans in certain ways. Wuzhui changed his usual habit of chasing Shang Cizhou and began to draw near to Rong Mu.
When Rong Mu, a flower, lifted the carriage curtain and saw Wuzhui's characteristic large front teeth, his heart shivered with cold.
Having lived two lifetimes, he never thought there would come a day when he'd worry about being chewed up by a horse.
Rong Mu propped his head, lazily yawning: "Your Majesty, may I freely choose my chambers in the Eastern Palace?"
Shang Cizhou watched his improper sitting posture, his fingertips slowly rubbing together: "Except for my main hall and the locked places."
Rong Mu couldn't sit still, leaning forward to ask: "It's rare to be able to live outside the palace. I heard the Crown Prince's residence is no less impressive than the palace. Is this truly so?"
"You certainly have a good mentality," Shang Cizhou lowered his eyes to look at him. "Do you know, once people discover that 'Attendant Rong' has moved into my unwanted old mansion, what will they say about you?"
Rong Mu appeared much happier than when accompanying him in the palace: "Say I've fallen from favor? Say my death is imminent? Or perhaps say that tomorrow Your Majesty might kill me?"
"Leaving the palace is easy, but returning is harder than ascending to heaven. Once you lose imperial favor, those leeches watching you in secret will swarm upon you. Then Attendant Rong, do not come to me crying."
Rong Mu's expression was calm. He feared no leeches. They were all human—why should someone not human fear these flesh-and-blood mortals? It would be good enough if he didn't pretend to be a ghost to frighten people.
"These matters need not trouble Your Majesty," the young man spoke with smiling eyes, his face showing none of the displeasure at being investigated and tested.
"I am someone who can find life even when pushed to dead ends. My current greatest trouble comes from Your Majesty's unpredictable moods. If Your Majesty treated me with more sincerity, I would truly thank heaven and earth."
Shang Cizhou glanced at him without speaking. The carriage soon stopped before the vermillion gates of the Eastern Palace.
Li Suichuan looked at everything here unchanged, only the people were no longer those of that year. He couldn't help but feel nostalgic in his heart, not knowing why His Majesty wanted to place Rong Mu here. Besides the small attendants who came daily to sweep, this place was usually like a dead palace.
Rong Mu poked out his head: "We've arrived?"
Li Suichuan's eyes were complex: "We've arrived."
Rong Mu avoided Wuzhui's large head, jumping down from the carriage. When not in the imperial palace, he always appeared more at ease and lively.
The carriage curtain was hooked on a silver clasp. Shang Cizhou sat properly in the carriage, watching the young man walk forward and touch the great gates of the Eastern Palace.
The vermillion gates were majestic and heavy, displaying the imposing manner of Great Shang's Crown Prince. Rong Mu curiously jumped up and patted the door knockers. His fair fingers formed a strong color contrast. After quite a while, an old servant finally came out to open the gate.
Uncle Dong rubbed his sleepy eyes, not knowing which young master had the audacity to disturb the Eastern Palace again. As the vermillion gate opened a small crack, a pair of smiling, slightly upturned eyes met his gaze.
Rong Mu properly performed a greeting: "Greetings, old sir. I am Rong Mu, commanded by His Majesty to reside here briefly."
Uncle Dong's old eyes were blurred. After squinted for a while, he said: "Go, go, go. His Majesty would never concern himself with this place. Young master, go play elsewhere. Do not come here again—"
Rong Mu hurriedly used his hand to stop the gate: "Ah, wait—"
"Uncle Dong."
Liu Dong was startled, looking up to see Li Suichuan on the tall horse.
"Young General? How could you come here?!" Then Uncle Dong's entire body trembled, looking incredulously at the black carriage that had been quietly stopped outside the gate. After a long while, two lines of turbid tears actually flowed down.
Rong Mu watched this old man almost tumble out, falling to his knees on the stone steps of the Crown Prince's residence with a thud.
Rong Mu was slightly startled, then heard this Uncle Dong knock his forehead against the ground: "This old servant respectfully welcomes His Majesty. May His Majesty be well!"
It was clearly a simple sentence, yet Rong Mu heard the full bitterness within it—as if since the Crown Prince's ascension, this place had never welcomed its master again.
This Uncle Dong was presumably an old servant from Shang Cizhou's childhood.
After a long while, a pair of black boots stopped in Uncle Dong's vision. Then a hand helped him up. Shang Cizhou's expression was unclear in the twilight, but Rong Mu felt the strange quietness of this person standing here.
Shang Cizhou said in a deep voice: "I have not come for a long time. Is everything well in the Eastern Palace?"
Uncle Dong cried and laughed, even more incoherent than Rong Mu: "Thanks to Your Highness's concern, everything is well, everything is well. The old servants are all here. Your Highness's chambers are clean and incense is burned daily. The paths are swept every day by servants. The water of Jade Lake has risen after several spring rains. In previous years it was only black, scorched mud. This year, somehow, some brocade carp swam in from somewhere... All are good omens!"
Li Suichuan coughed nearby, pulling the excited old servant: "Uncle Dong, you're sleep-muddled. His Highness is already His Majesty!"
Uncle Dong's entire body trembled, about to kneel again to beg forgiveness, but was stopped by Shang Cizhou.
"It is nothing. I am not seeking to punish."
Rong Mu looked at Shang Cizhou in surprise. This person's... attitude toward the Eastern Palace was not like his usual cold, hard, and unfathomable manner.
Nor was it the completely indifferent appearance he had imagined. Rather, it seemed like deliberate unwillingness to face or mention.
Uncle Dong was extremely excited. When he came to his senses, he remembered Rong Mu who had knocked earlier.
He looked around twice before seeing the young man leaning against the vermillion gates of the Crown Prince's residence with folded arms, his manner leisurely and at ease, as if returning to his own home.
Uncle Dong's eyes blurred for a moment. After a few breaths, he bent to salute: "This old servant did not know the young master came with His Majesty. This old servant was rude just now."
Rong Mu hurriedly straightened: "No matter, no matter. Uh, how should I address you? May I also call you Uncle Dong?"
Liu Dong wiped his tears: "If the young master does not disdain this old servant."
Rong Mu smiled, saying brightly: "How could I? Uncle Dong, I am Rong Mu! From today, I will temporarily live here! Oh, and my flower—my person and my flower together, all moving into the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace!"
Uncle Dong made two affirmative sounds. The excitement of seeing his old master in his heart could not yet subside. He watched Li Suichuan carefully carry out a large lotus vat from the carriage.
The exquisite bud reflected against the vermillion gate background, pure and flawless, swaying in the wind, making people's hearts cherish and love it, involuntarily drawn to such vitality.
Uncle Dong hurriedly stepped forward to help, moving Bi Jiangxue before the vermillion gates. Shang Cizhou watched their series of movements, his eyes distant and deep, seemingly lost in thought.
Rong Mu saw them busy and walked forward to pat the Emperor's arm: "Your Majesty? Do you regret letting me out?"
Shang Cizhou's eyes flickered, turning to look at him: "No. I suddenly recalled an old matter."
Rong Mu said casually: "What matter?"
Shang Cizhou was silent for a long while before speaking in a low voice. His voice was magnetic and deep, mixed with the cool evening wind, inexplicably making one's hair stand on end.
"I only remembered that seven years ago, here, I exterminated the Qi clan to the ninth degree, killing three hundred and eighty-six people. The heads chopped off that day were finally piled into a mountain of corpses.The flowing fresh blood extended from beneath my feet all the way to Changping Street. Three days later, my feet were still sticky. The old people of the Eastern Palace were frightened to death or fled. Only the loyal servant Liu Dong and a few death guards remained."
Rong Mu froze. For some reason, he felt that Shang Cizhou at this moment seemed somewhat dazed. He involuntarily softened his voice:
"Why was Your Majesty so enraged? Was it because your foster mother was unkind?"
Shang Cizhou's black sleeve hem floated slightly. His gold and jade belt outlined a lean waistline. He slowly said:
"Foster mother unkind, birth father unjust, brothers killing each other—like being in the flames of karma, burning my heart and lungs until it forcing me onto the dragon throne."
In this instant, Rong Mu heard his own heart gradually beating faster with extreme clarity. This feeling was not out of attraction, but another strange, elusive... empathy.
Bi Jiangxue... actually had an empathy function?
He had heard rumors of this tyrant's past experiences, but being present was always more impactful than hearsay.
Shang Cizhou lowered his eyes, his sharp expression completely restrained:
"The Qi clan had a son named Shang Cixie, my fourth younger imperial brother by a different mother. He was accustomed to mocking me then. I did not bother with him. But he committed a great wrong. Because of this matter—guess what I did to him?"
Rong Mu did not speak, but he knew with his toes it was nothing good.
"After my ascension, I enfeoffed all the imperial princes. Only him—I sliced him into a thousand pieces, slaughtered him thoroughly. Oh... and before his hypocritical mother. Although I have forgotten what Shang Cixie did that year, to this day when I recall this punishment, I still feel delighted about Qi woman's pig-like screams."
Shang Cizhou's face carried a strange smile as he spoke. "Since then, everyone feared me. Even Li Suichuan said I had changed. Only these few old people of the Eastern Palace still treat me as the Crown Prince who did not take things to the extreme."
Rong Mu's chest seemed to have a large hole broken through, with cold wind whistling in. Was Bi Jiangxue's effect this obvious...?
Looking at Shang Cizhou like this, he actually felt that the tyrant when quarreling with him was better. At least then, Shang Cizhou was not this lifeless, rejecting-all manner.
"...I'm sorry," Rong Mu suddenly said.
The Emperor looked at him: "Why apologize? You did nothing wrong. Rather, it is I who constantly test you, toy with you, use you, anger you, and make you live in this abandoned Eastern Palace."
Rong Mu stood beside him with folded hands, his head just reaching a bit above the Emperor's shoulder.
"I apologize for a sentence I once spoke impulsively." Rong Mu looked at the wide, flat stone path before him, unable to imagine how tragic that day was:
"Your Majesty stands above all people, protecting the common folk. Even if those around you do not love you, the people who live well because of Your Majesty's wise governance will love you, will thank you. Your Majesty is solitary and cold,, thinking you receive no love from others—you simply have not felt the most sincere trust of the people."
Shang Cizhou slightly turned his head, looking at the young man beside him with fluttering clothes.
"That I can still stand here well is also relying on the trace of benevolence Your Majesty leaked. Your Majesty probably does not understand me well. If I truly did not want to bother with someone, I would absolutely not speak the words 'temporarily reside in the old mansion.'"
Rong Mu's expression was as pure and kind as ever: "I will, as when I came to Ziyuan Hall, mysteriously appear and mysteriously disappear, making Your Majesty unable to find a second Rong Mu even if you search heaven and earth."
Shang Cizhou looked at him: "You indeed have secrets I do not know."
Rong Mu nodded indifferently: "Neither big nor small. Your Majesty's curiosity is useless. Unless you torture me severely, perhaps I cannot withstand the imperial prison's tortures and will reveal a little... Would Your Majesty do that?"
Shang Cizhou tilted his head slightly. The displeasure from recalling old matters had somehow disappeared, leaving only the sly, clever light in those lively brows and eyes of the person before him.
Perhaps the old matters of the Eastern Palace stirred his heart. Shang Cizhou spoke truthfully for the first time from his heart: "Toward you, I do not wish to do so."
Rong Mu's mouth slowly curved up, finally unable to resist revealing a little white canine tooth. His eyes were extremely bright, looking at Shang Cizhou:
"Precisely because I know Your Majesty will not kill me, and will occasionally protect me, although I cannot immediately be grateful to you, I will also absolutely not truly hate you."
"Perhaps one day, I too will love you like those people who received kindness... as long as Your Majesty believes in others and treats them with sincerity."
Rong Mu said this while waving his hand: "Your Majesty, handshake. Do you know how?"
Shang Cizhou's eyelashes moved. For the first time, he felt the gates of the Eastern Palace were not so cold.
Uncle Dong had specially lit the tall main gate lanterns. The two figures gradually merged under the light.
As in the Gilded Hanging Lantern Tower, Rong Mu once again could not bear it and take the initiative to approached Shang Cizhou, who caused him trouble.
The young man's thin, white fingers grasped the Emperor's large, distinct-knuckled hand, gently shaking twice, smiling with curved eyes as he felt the other's stiff movements.
"Come find me to play, Your Majesty. Or come eat with me."
Shang Cizhou looked at those smiling eyes. For some reason, the corner of his mouth moved involuntarily for an instant.
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