Thinking of these things that he could not fully understand with his IQ and experience, Ning Que slowly closed his eyes in the sun and began to reconstruct Zhuo Er's extremely dark face in his chaotic mind. He strengthened his confidence and sorted out his messy and confused thoughts. The spring sunshine shone on the rockery in the vestibule of the Princess Mansion, on the bamboo chair, and on his body. The brightness was just right, and the warmth was just right. Gradually, the coldness of spring that he had accumulated in the old library was all out.
"Are you basking in the sun? But … Mom doesn't let me. "
A crisp voice sounded behind the chair. Ning Que opened his eyes and looked back. He saw a little boy's face peeking out from the rockery. His dark and healthy face was blushing like an apple. His long eyelashes were very beautiful, but his expression was a little timid.
Ning Que looked at the little black face and somehow thought of Zhuo Er. He felt a little sad. He stood up from the chair and bowed slightly to the little boy he had not seen for a long time. He said softly, "Greetings, little prince."
The timid little boy was Xiaoman, the stepson that Princess Li Yu brought back from the grassland. Ning Que had a lot of contact with the little boy on the way from the City of Wei to Chang 'an, especially after the bloody battle on the Northern Mountain Road.
"Why doesn't Her Highness let you bask in the sun?" he asked with a smile.
"Mom said it's easy to tan." Xiaoman looked at Ning Que seriously and explained, "I'm mom's son, the grandson recognized by His Majesty, and the proudest noble of the Tang Empire. So I can tan, but not too much."
Ning Que could not help scratching his head when he heard the little boy's answer. He could imagine the discomfort of a child from the grassland after coming to the rich and prosperous Chang 'an City. He just did not expect that the Princess would love and educate the little prince so strictly. He explained with a smile, "It's good to bask in the sun occasionally."
It was quiet in the vestibule. The little boy looked around and found that the teaching nannies and palace maids did not notice that he had sneaked out. His little face lit up and he jumped to the bamboo chair. He pulled Ning Que's sleeve and looked at him with expectant eyes. He said, "Can you tell me a story?"
Ning Que was stunned. He didn't expect the little boy to recognize him, and he didn't expect him to still remember the fairy tales by the fire. Looking at the little boy's expectant eyes and the quiet vestibule, she thought about how she had nothing else to do but bask in the sun, so she smiled and sat back on the bamboo chair. She gestured for the little boy to sit beside her and said, "I don't know how to tell stories. The ones I told you last time should be called fairy tales."
"What's the difference between fairy tales and stories?" Butchie asked curiously.
Ning Que replied, "The story is very complicated, but the fairy tale is very simple, and very happy."
Xiao Man laughed happily and said, "Then I want to listen to fairy tales."
Ning Que recalled some scenes from the past and could not help but smile. He said, "This happens to be what I'm best at."
Xiao Man moved her body closer to him and prepared to listen attentively.
Ning Que thought for a moment, looked at him and said, "You are a little prince on the grassland. Then I will tell you a fairy tale about a little prince, okay?"
Xiao Man said excitedly, "Okay, okay."
Ning Que lay on the bamboo chair and looked at the sky. He said, "There are pythons in the forest. They are very big. After they catch their prey, they don't need to chew it. They just swallow it directly and then sleep for six months, using this time to digest the food in their stomachs."
Xiao Man opened his eyes wide and said in horror, "… That's terrible. Don't they say that fairy tales are all happy?"
Ning Que glared at him and thought that he was not as obedient as Sangsang used to be. He said, "It's just the beginning. Don't worry … When I heard this story, I was more interested in the things in the forest, so I drew a picture according to my imagination. It was a big python swallowing a big beast. I showed the picture to other adults and asked them if they were scared. They said, 'What's so scary about a hat?'"
Xiao Man clapped his hands excitedly and said, "I see. You drew the snake as the edge of the hat and the big beast as the middle of the hat. Is your picture not good?"
Ning Que was speechless and continued, "I didn't draw a hat. It was a snake swallowing a beast. Those adults, like you, couldn't understand it at all. So I just drew the situation inside the python's stomach."
Xiao Man looked at him in confusion and asked, "Isn't it a fairy tale about the little prince? Where is the little prince? "
"He will be out soon." Ning Que explained, "He will be out in a little while."
…
…
It didn't take long for the teaching nannies and palace maids of the Princess's Mansion to find the vestibule. At this time, the Princess also finished catching up with Sangsang. Ning Que took the little handmaiden's hand and ran away under the suspicious and resentful eyes of the nannies and palace maids. They finished their visit to the Princess's Mansion as quickly as possible.
Walking on the quiet streets of Southern City, the big black umbrella tightly wrapped in coarse cloth kept patting Sangsang's thigh. The master and handmaiden walked quietly for a while. Suddenly, Sangsang said something out of the blue, "The Princess is a good person."
Ning Que looked up at the sky above the street that was separated by the sycamore trees. He looked at the clouds that were getting darker and darker and said, "It looks like it's going to rain."
Sangsang wanted to say something, but Ning Que didn't want to say those things. So the former said something out of the blue, while the latter looked up at the sky and said it was going to rain.
Sangsang stopped and looked up at him. She asked, "Young master, why don't you like her?"
Ning Que felt that it was necessary to let the little handmaiden know his true thoughts. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Because I don't think she is a good person in the traditional sense, although she is really good to you."
For some reason, Sangsang showed a rare stubbornness on this issue. She said seriously, "If Her Highness is not a good person, then why did she go to the grassland? Why is she so good to Xiao Man? "
Ning Que looked at her quietly and suddenly said, "If she is a good person, then why did she go to the grassland? Why is she so good to Xiao Man? I don't think that all stepmothers in the world are bad people, but I have never seen any stepmother like her who regards Xiao Man as more important than her own life. "
The same two questions could prove that Her Highness was a good person in Sangsang's eyes, but it became the opposite in Ning Que's eyes. She didn't understand what he was trying to say and looked at him in confusion.
At this moment, rain gently floated down from the sky of Chang 'an in the deep spring. Ning Que untied the big black umbrella from her back and opened it. He continued to walk forward and said, "There must be something wrong when things are abnormal. Her Highness's stepmother is still so young. Is she overflowing with maternal instinct? In my opinion, it's too early. I think it's empathy. She transferred her feelings for the Chanyu to the little boy … In this case, she seems to have a lot of apologies for the Chanyu who sleeps on the grassland. "
"Only we, the border army, know how great the Chanyu was. But such a great figure was so inexplicably murdered by his idiot younger brother and usurped the throne?"
"Young master, what are you trying to say?"
"What I want to say is that Her Highness will probably regret it for the rest of her life. Because Chanyu should really love her, and he is the only man in the world who dares to really love her."
"I don't understand."
"Nothing."
After a long silence, Sangsang suddenly said, "Do you think Her Highness killed Chanyu?"
Ning Que didn't answer her directly, but said, "It seems that your usual stupidity is indeed an act of laziness."
Sangsang lowered her head and walked under the black umbrella. She slightly clenched her small fists and said, "Where's the evidence?"
"There are many things in this world that don't need evidence."
Ning Que looked at the drizzle falling outside the umbrella and said, "When she went to the grassland, she could not only defuse the attacks of some swindlers in the empire, but also gain His Majesty's pity by showing weakness in the battle with Her Majesty. She could also win the respect of the Tang people and even develop her own power on the grassland. But she couldn't stay on the grassland forever. His Majesty is getting older, and the successor has to be decided as soon as possible. So she needs to come back. As the woman Chanyu loved, there is only one way for her to come back."
Sangsang lowered her head and whispered, "But Her Highness was only twelve or thirteen when she decided to marry to the grassland."
"I started killing Horse Gang when I was twelve or thirteen. A person's ability is not necessarily proportional to his age." Ning Que held the big black umbrella and gradually quickened his pace. He shook his head and said, "What I said just now was that Her Highness had a reason to do that and could benefit from it. But in my opinion, the most convincing thing is what I said before."
"We all know how great the young Chanyu was. Such a great man is hard to be framed and killed, unless the killer is the one he trusted and loved most."
Sangsang lowered her head and pursed her thin lips. She whispered, "Anyway, it's all your guess, young master."
Ning Que said, "I also hope that my guess is wrong. I also hope that the world is full of fairy tales, where the prince and the princess live happily ever after. But you see … the prince on the grassland is dead, and the princess comes home."
Sangsang raised her head, and a drop of rain slid down her dark cheek. She looked at him and asked angrily, "Young master, why is the world in your eyes always so dark?"
Ning Que stopped and looked at her silently. After a long time, he said coldly, "Because the world I saw was so dark from the moment I survived to the moment I found you in the pile of corpses by the roadside."
After saying this, he also felt that he had lost his composure. He strode to the front of the street in embarrassment. He didn't know whether it was the shadow cast on his spirit by the old library of the Academy, or because he was about to kill someone, but he always felt that the rain outside the big black umbrella was not so refreshing and seemed a little gloomy.
Sangsang stood in the rain and looked at his back. Suddenly she quickened her pace and caught up with him. She caught up to the big black umbrella and the guy, and then reached up to grab the corner of the sleeve of his right hand that was holding the umbrella and never let go again.
The conversation between the master and the handmaiden could be heard from time to time under the big black umbrella.
"I thought you were going to scold Her Highness as an idiot again."
"Don't be emotional about anything. You will only hurt others and yourself in the end. So she is indeed an idiot."
"Then why didn't you scold her just now?"
"I will scold her less in the future, because those emotional idiots … are all poor people."
…
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
