“Your Majesty, I’m not angry.” As he lifted his head, Wang Dian looked at him seriously, “I just understood some things.”
“What things?” Liang Ye, probably feeling uncomfortable, leaned on his shoulder.
Wang Dian was silent for a moment and said softly, “You are the monarch of the Liang Kingdom, and I am just a person who suddenly appeared here, an unidentified person, at most just looking exactly like you. It’s already a great fortune to be appreciated and used by you. I… should be grateful and do my best for your plans. You spared my life, which is already a great favor. I shouldn’t not to know what’s good for myself.”
Wang Dian spoke calmly, but the aura around Liang Ye became colder and colder, “You are not the same as them, you are Zhen’s treasure, Zhen allows you to not to know what’s good for yourself.”
Wang Dian tugged at the corner of his mouth, but couldn’t laugh, “Yes.”
Liang Ye was stunned for a moment, lifted his head to look at him, “Why don’t you refute Zhen?”
“Refute what?” Wang Dian was puzzled.
“Say you’re not an object, ask Zhen to…” Liang Ye recalled carefully, frowning, “Respect you or something.”
Wang Dian couldn’t help but laugh, “Your Majesty, this is my wishful thinking, and besides, I don’t have any qualifications to ask you to respect me.”
Liang Ye’s head was already hurting badly, and Wang Dian’s words were cryptic. He felt like he was stuck in a quagmire, unable to understand, and could only stare blankly at Wang Dian, “Wang Dian, Zhen’s head hurts.”
“Then please rest well, Your Majesty.” Wang Dian smiled slightly, his expression and tone were full of respect.
Liang Ye leaned forward a bit, probably wanting to hug him or get a little closer, but then he stopped and backed away. After a while, he leaned in again and kissed the corner of his mouth, then got up and left.
Wang Dian silently stared at the faded curtain for a long time, then turned his head to look at the bowl of white jade soup on the table that was almost empty, and then picked up the bowl and sniffed it.
He couldn’t smell any medicinal herbs, and he took a light sip of the remaining soup at the bottom of the bowl, which was so bitter that he almost vomited it out directly.
He didn’t know medical skills in the first place, and smelling and tasting were of no use. He put the bowl back on the table, rubbed his swollen brow hard, and before he could sigh, his brain seemed to be gouged deeply by something sharp. The severe pain made him scream out, and for a moment, his entire brain was left with nothing but blankness and pain.
He couldn’t remember who he was, what had happened in the past, what he had just done, and all that was left in his brain was the overwhelming pain. It was as if his entire body was buried in ice, unable to feel the existence of his body, leaving only the pain that almost drove him mad.
After the bout of pain passed, he was panting heavily with cold sweat, his whole body trembling. The lingering pain seemed to spread from his brain to his entire body. He couldn’t tell where exactly it hurt, and he couldn’t find the specific location when he wanted to touch the painful place. It was dense and endless, traceless, and fell nowhere, making him want to tear or break something to drive the sense of collapse out of his body.
It took a full quarter of an hour before he escaped from that terrifying feeling, his memory gradually returned, and his perception of his surroundings slowly recovered.
When Wang Dian looked at the bowl of soup again, his eyes completely changed.
He just took a light sip.
After drinking this soup, memory blurring or loss might just be some kind of side effect. The real horror was the unbearable pain and the panic of the whole world being blank.
And Liang Ye started drinking it from the age of eight.
It would be strange if he didn’t go mad.
Wang Dian lay back on the bed, took out the token from a dark part in his arms, and his fingertips seemed to touch something, a bit hard. He took it out and looked at it. It was a slightly rounded small stone, somewhat familiar – very similar to the one that Liang Ye had used to hit the back of his hand before. He picked it up and knocked a half piece of tile on the pavilion eave like Liang Ye did, not knowing when Liang Ye had picked it up again.
He finally remembered that he came to find Liang Ye to stop him from drinking the white jade soup.
Liang Ye’s aggrieved cry of headache, the eager look before leaving, and the indifferent and exaggerated madness in his eyes flashed alternately in front of him, but in the end, it stopped at his lazy smile while pinching the small stone.
He pinched the small stone and looked at it for a while, then put it into the hidden pocket in his sleeve.
Childish, he wouldn’t pick up small stones anymore when he was eight.
Wang Dian slept drowsily in this sleeping chamber for a whole day, and it was not until midnight that he woke up with a splitting headache and got up from the bed to find water to drink.
Chong Heng silently jumped down from the beam of the room and poured him a cup of warm water and handed it to him.
“Thank you.” Wang Dian took it and drank it clean, and Chong Heng poured him another cup when he saw this.
“Tomorrow we will set off from Shizai Mountain to return to the palace for the ancestral worship ceremony. I need to go back to the imperial palace to prepare.” Wang Dian said, “What about His Majesty?”
“The Master doesn’t want me to tell you.” Chong Heng said.
“I have something important to ask him.” Wang Dian emphasized, “Very important.”
Chong Heng hesitated for a moment, “Come with me.”
Even at night, the palace was pitch black, the lantern’s light was dim, only illuminating a small area below. Occasionally, patrolling soldiers passed by. Chong Heng led him down a secluded path. It was near midsummer, and the sounds of insects and cicadas intertwined. Wang Dian was sweating profusely after not walking for long.
“Will he forget everything after drinking that white jade soup?” Wang Dian suddenly asked.
Chong Heng was silent for a while before he said, “Not necessarily, sometimes it’s just a bit of memory blur, can’t remember the details and trivial matters, sometimes it will lose a large chunk of memory. The Master… he can’t remember people’s faces very clearly now.”
“How long will it hurt if he doesn’t drink? Or will it always hurt?” Wang Dian asked again.
“I don’t know, the Master never says.” Chong Heng’s voice sounded very depressed.
Wang Dian continued to silently follow him forward.
Chong Heng stopped in front of a huge ginkgo tree, looked up and said, “The Master is up there, you go find him.”
Wang Dian looked up and stared at the towering ginkgo tree for a long time, “…”
Chong Heng said, “This tree is the Master’s, he doesn’t let me climb.”
After saying that, he turned around and left without hesitation, not giving Wang Dian another chance to speak.
The moon in the sky was big and round, and it seemed like a thin layer of frost had been sprinkled on the ground. Wang Dian stood under the tree for a while, found a place with fewer mosquitoes to sit down, took out a fan from his sleeve, and fanned himself to cool down.
About the time of one or possibly two incense sticks, a faint rustling sound came from the ginkgo tree. The dragon-patterned dark gold hem of a robe dangled from the tree branch above Wang Dian’s head, and a crumpled ginkgo leaf gently hit Wang Dian’s shoulder.
Wang Dian stood up and looked up at the moonlight.
Liang Ye was lazily leaning on the tree branch and smiling at him, still holding a crumpled ginkgo leaf in his hand.
“Your Majesty, do you still remember me?” Wang Dian asked.
“Don’t remember.” Liang Ye’s smile faded slightly, suddenly his eyes closed and his feet slipped, and he fell straight down from the tree branch.
Things happened too fast, Wang Dian subconsciously stretched out his arm to catch him.
Liang Ye hooked his foot and hung upside down on a tree branch a few inches away from him. He slowly opened his eyes, hugged his arms, and smiled brilliantly at him. The ginkgo leaves on the whole tree rustled because of his movement, and a few leaves spun down to the ground.
Wang Dian withdrew his hand without changing his expression.
Liang Ye reached out to pick up the leaf on his shoulder, using the sharp edge of the leaf to brush his chin, and muttered, “What are you looking for Zhen for?”
Wang Dian stepped back and took out a small silver lock from his sleeve, “Do you remember this, Your Majesty?”
“Don’t remember.” Liang Ye glanced at it without interest and continued to brush his Adam’s apple with the leaf.
Wang Dian subconsciously moved his Adam’s apple and said seriously, “The identity of that child is not simple. I have already asked Chong Heng to check it, but I still feel it’s better to ask for instructions. If Your Majesty has your own plans, I will not interfere.”
“No plans, Zhen has said, you can do whatever you want with the court affairs.” Liang Ye put the leaf back on his shoulder, uninterestedly said, “You came to find Zhen in the middle of the night just for this?”
“Yes.” Wang Dian said, “If Your Majesty has no other orders, I will retire. I will set off on time tomorrow.”
Liang Ye turned over from the tree, paused before pointing at his forehead and asked, “Does it still hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore, thank you for your concern, Your Majesty.” Wang Dian answered, “I’ll leave first.”
“Don’t leave.” Liang Ye looked at him somewhat irritably.
Wang Dian obediently stood still.
Liang Ye circled around him, reached out and poked the worm that had wandered to his wrist, “Zhen won’t take the worm off you.”
Wang Dian was silent and didn’t speak.
“You help Zhen.” Liang Ye stared at him, opened his mouth with some difficulty, his eyebrows furrowed tightly, as if he wanted to kill him at any time, or turn around and leave at any time, but he still reluctantly said, “Please…help Zhen, Zhen won’t use the worm casually in the future.”
Wang Dian raised his eyebrows in surprise, “Is Your Majesty serious?”
“Don’t call me Your Majesty.” Liang Ye seemed a bit angry, and the Liu Ye Sword in his hand rudely pressed against his neck.
Wang Dian hooked the corner of his mouth imperceptibly, “Is this Your Majesty’s sincerity?”
Liang Ye squinted his eyes, the blade quickly retracted into his hand, and he said in a stiff tone, “Change back.”
“What?” Wang Dian was stunned.
“Change back.” Liang Ye bent his fingers and carefully touched his Adam’s apple, looking at him eagerly, but his words were strong and determined, “Zhen wants the original Wang Dian.”
Wang Dian looked at him and didn’t speak.
Liang Ye habitually wanted to urge the worm, but remembering Wang Dian’s would rather die than surrender appearance before, he started to get annoyed again and turned to leave.
“Liang Ye.” Wang Dian suddenly called him.
Liang Ye abruptly stopped, turned his head and looked at Wang Dian with a surprised look, his eyes seemed to be shining in the moonlight.
Wang Dian took out a small stone from his sleeve and asked him, “What did you give me this for?”
<3
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