It was already past the third night watch and Gu Yun was exhausted. She originally wanted to go back and rest, but she was affected by Shen Yi's words. Her footsteps unconsciously turned towards the rear courtyard.
At this time, there were only a few lights in the entire capital. Changgeng had already fallen asleep. Gu Yun did not disturb the old servant outside and quietly entered his room. Borrowing the light from the snow outside the window, she reached out to pull up the blanket for Changgeng. Suddenly, she realized that the child was not sleeping well, as if he was having a nightmare.
"Are you not used to living in the Marquis fu?" Gu Yun thought as she clasped Changgeng's wrist with her ice-cold fingers.
Changgeng quivered fiercely and gasped as he woke up. The confusion in his eyes had not disappeared as he stared blankly at the person beside the bed.
Gu Yun gently shook his wrist and softened her voice, "Did you have a nightmare? What did you dream of? "
Changgeng did not say anything at first, but after a while, his scattered eyes gradually focused. His eyes that stared at Gu Yun seemed to be burning with two balls of fire in the middle of the night. Suddenly, he reached back and hugged Gu Yun's waist.
Gu Yun had a piece of Xuan Tie hanging on her shoulder, bringing with it the coolness of early winter. The cold iron was tightly attached to Changgeng's forehead. In a trance, Changgeng seemed to have returned to that bone-chilling, snowy night outside the pass. He shivered fiercely and only then did he free himself from the nightmare. He thought, "I'm still alive."
The gears of the clock in the room made a rustling sound as it turned. A brazier had already been raised and was placed horizontally in the middle of the room like a large pot. Thin white steam came out from below and was immediately swept away by a special bellows. Only the steam leisurely rose and circulated throughout the entire room, making it warm and cozy.
Gu Yun was stunned at first when she was suddenly hugged by him. Then, a strange feeling arose in her heart. This was the first time someone had used all their strength to rely on her. It almost felt like they were depending on each other for survival.
Of course, his usual frivolous attitude of "I am invincible under the heavens" was just an act. He was very clear about his own capabilities. If the Marquis of Stability really overestimated himself, the grass on his grave would probably be as tall as a person by now.
But at this moment, Gu Yun really had the illusion that she was omnipotent.
Changgeng's skeleton had already grown, but it was still as thin as a child's. Reaching out, one could vaguely feel the bones under his ribs through his thin inner clothes.
This thin body of flesh and blood weighed heavily on his body. Gu Yun thought to himself that he had to take care of this child as he grew up, just as the previous Emperor had hoped, to see him live peacefully and peacefully, to a hundred years old.
He was finally able to make up for the powerlessness he felt towards Ah Yan.
Gu Yun took off the armor on his shoulders and hung it to the side. Wearing his clothes, he climbed onto Changgeng's bed and asked, "Did you miss your mother — — I mean your concubine mother."
Changgeng shook his head.
Gu Yun knew that Changgeng couldn't hold back any deep feelings towards the previous Emperor. Perhaps it was to give him face, so he called the previous Emperor father. He then asked, "Then did you miss Brother Xu?"
This time, Changgeng didn't deny it.
Baihu Xu was the first good person Chang Geng had met in all these years. Although he wasn't very capable, he was generous and gentle. Chang Geng's stepfather had set an example for him. For the first time, Chang Geng realized that a person could live a peaceful life.
It was just that Xu Baihu was busy with military affairs and was always not at home. This allowed Gu Yun to take advantage of the situation and fill in the gap.
Seeing his tacit agreement, Gu Yun raised his head and looked at the fuzzy bed canopy. He suddenly felt a little uncomfortable and blurted out, "Brother Xu treats you better than me, right?"
Changgeng looked at him in surprise. He didn't know how he could ask such an obvious question.
This time, Gu Yun miraculously understood his gaze. He suddenly felt his heart being swept by a small cold wind. He said dryly, "That can't be helped. The Emperor's orders can't be disobeyed. You can only make do."
Changgeng, "… …"
Gu Yun laughed. Changgeng felt his chest tremble slightly and suddenly felt strange. The left half of his body felt uncomfortable at such an intimate distance and wanted to move further away. The right half of his body hated that he couldn't turn into a piece of paper and stick close to him.
The thoughts of leaving and staying seemed to divide him into two.
Just as he was fighting in his heart, Gu Yun's bad habit of being impulsive acted up again.
Changgeng's hair was scattered behind his back and unfortunately fell into his hands. He began to play with Changgeng's hair back and forth unconsciously. He didn't use much strength and only gently pulled at Changgeng's scalp.
Changgeng quivered and goosebumps appeared all over his body. The blood in his body changed from strolling to running wildly. It was as if he could hear the rustling sound of blood brushing against his blood vessels. An unknown source of heat spread to his limbs and bones, almost burning through his skin.
Changgeng suddenly turned over and got up. He snatched back his hair and instinctively said in embarrassment, "Don't do it!"
Gu Yun was afflicted with illness when he was young and grew up late. When he was twelve or thirteen years old, he was still a child. Therefore, he didn't treat Changgeng as an adult and didn't notice anything wrong.
He retracted his mischievous claws and put his hands behind his head. He said to Changgeng, "I'm not married and of course I don't have any children. I don't even have any brothers or sisters. It's inevitable that I can't take care of you well. If you don't tell me many things, I may not know them. So if you have any grievances, don't hide them in your heart, okay?"
His voice was low and pleasant to the ears. Probably because he was too tired, there was an imperceptible ambiguity in his voice. It pierced straight into Changgeng's ears, causing the hair on the youth's back to stand up and a thin layer of sweat appeared.
Changgeng was nervous and puzzled, "It's just a casual chat. Why do I have to be so nervous?"
"Your Highness, please forgive me," Gu Yun said with a smile and patted the side, "Come, lie down. Tell me what you dreamed of."
At the mention of dreams, Changgeng's inexplicable wildfire calmed down. He stared at Gu Yun for a while and forced himself to resist the desire to tell him everything about Wu 'er Gu. He first probed, "Shi Liu, is there a poison in the world that can cause people to go crazy?"
Gu Yun rolled his eyes in dissatisfaction, "Who are you calling Shi Liu?"
Gu Yun reprimanded him but didn't take it to heart. He paused and said, "There must be. The world is big and there are all kinds of strange things. Especially in those foreign lands, there are a lot of herbs that the Central Plains doesn't have. In addition, there are a lot of mysterious things that have been passed down from generation to generation. There are a lot of strange tricks that we don't understand."
Changgeng's heart sank. He tightly gripped the abandoned knife hanging in front of his chest.
Gu Yun asked curiously, "Why are you talking about this?"
Changgeng's fingertips were cold. He was struggling in his heart. In the blink of an eye, the truth came to light. He said in a muffled voice, "No, I dreamed that one day I became a lunatic and killed a lot of people."
Without waiting for Gu Yun to make an evaluation, Changgeng interrupted, "Dreams are all the opposite. I know."
He finally decided to keep Wu 'er Gu a secret. With his youthful spirit, Changgeng refused to admit that there was a possibility of him losing. He wanted to fight Wu' er Gu to the end and stay conscious until he died.
However, even though he had so much courage in his chest, he still didn't dare to ask what Gu Yun would think if he knew about this.
Changgeng thought that even if he was lazy and had ulcers on his feet, his adoptive father might not dislike him. But what if he knew that he would eventually become a hysterical lunatic?
He instinctively avoided talking about it and didn't want to delve into it. He only asked, "Have you also been haunted by nightmares?"
Gu Yun blurted out and bragged, "How is that possible?"
However, as soon as he finished speaking, Gu Yun remembered that Shen Yi had asked him to "be honest with Changgeng". He felt that he had bragged too much. He coughed dryly and added, "It's not … that. Sometimes when I sleep in the wrong position, I will have some messy dreams."
Changgeng, "Then what do you dream of?"
Gu Yun didn't like to talk about his feelings because he felt that it would be awkward to say it out loud. It was like stripping naked and running around the streets in front of people. He prevaricated, "It's a mess. I can't remember it when I open my eyes. Go to sleep quickly. If you don't sleep, it will be dawn soon."
Changgeng didn't say anything.
However, after a while, Gu Yun tilted his head and glanced at Changgeng. He saw that Changgeng's eyes were open and staring at him. He finally couldn't help but have a headache.
"Okay," Gu Yun sighed and racked his brains to recall. He said in a tone that was used to coax a child to sleep, "When I was young, I once dreamed that I was locked in a dark place. There was no movement around me. However, I knew that there were many man-eating beasts in that place, so I kept running. That day, I probably didn't stretch my legs. It's said that people who don't stretch their legs can't run fast in their dreams. In the end, I felt that my legs were made of cotton. The more anxious I was, the more I couldn't run."
Changgeng asked, "And then?"
Of course, he was scared awake. What else could he do?
However, Gu Yun refused to admit that he was scared awake. He painted a vivid picture and said, "Then I got impatient from running. I don't know where I pulled out a gold-threaded machete and stabbed the beast that was chasing me to death. After that, I woke up contentedly."
Changgeng, "…"
He actually wanted to hear a few serious words from Gu Yun's mouth. He was thinking too much.
Who knew that Gu Yun would ask seriously again, "Do you know what to do when you have a nightmare?"
Chang Geng hesitated for a moment, and once again believed him easily. He shook his head seriously, waiting to listen to his brilliant views.
Gu Yun said seriously, "The reason why you have nightmares is because there are night roaming ghosts in the house playing tricks on you. Ghosts are afraid of filthy things. In the future, remember to put a chamber pot at the door. It will definitely chase them away."
Changgeng, "…"
Changgeng was especially prone to taking other people's nonsense seriously. Gu Yun quickly discovered the joy of teasing him and laughed energetically in the middle of the night.
Changgeng once naively thought that his little godfather was here to visit him. Only now did he know that this fellow was here purely to amuse him!
He turned around angrily and turned his back to Gu Yun. The words "get lost" were written clearly on his back.
Gu Yun did not get lost. He watched as Changgeng's breathing gradually stabilized. Only then did he gently pull up the blanket for him and get up to leave.
Before leaving, Gu Yun wanted to take the shoulder armor that he had just taken off. Just as he stretched out his hand, he remembered that he seemed to have heard someone say that children were easily awakened in the middle of the night because their Yang energy was too weak. If they attracted unclean things, it would be better to use an iron tool to press down on the head of the bed.
Gu Yun had never believed such nonsense in the past. At this moment, he suddenly felt that there might be some truth to it. Otherwise, how could it have been passed down for so many years?
Thus, he left the shoulder armor behind and left Changgeng's bedroom wearing a single layer of clothing.
Marshal Gu might really be a ghost that could ward off evil spirits. Changgeng's second sleep actually did not have those demons and monsters pestering him. He slept until dawn.
Unfortunately, when Changgeng woke up, his complexion was worse than if he had not slept for the entire night.
He sat on the bed for a moment with an ashen face. He lifted the brocade blanket and took a look. He could not help but sigh with a sobbing tone. He curled himself into a ball and lowered his head to hug it.
It was the second time.
Changgeng could no longer deceive himself and others. This time, his dream was real and straightforward … He had blasphemed his little adoptive father in his dream.
He buried his face in the blanket and vaguely yelled. He was so disgusted by himself that he wished he could knock his head against the head of the bed and die.
This time, even the magic cloud-shaped scrap blade could not calm him down.
Just as the youth's heart was in a mess, there was suddenly a knock on his door.
Changgeng's painful and gloomy three souls were scared out of their wits. His first reaction was to hurriedly roll up the bedsheets into a ball. He fiercely clenched his teeth and forced himself to calm down. His legs were weak as he opened the door.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened the door, he received a second shock.
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