She was so close that Xiao Jingcheng could clearly see the fine hairs on her face and her fluttering eyelashes, which were like two tiny brushes tickling his heart.
“Ahem.” Clearing his throat, Xiao Jingcheng also lowered his voice and said, “Didn't you see with your own eyes how Taoist Yuanzheng performed the ritual to restore my soul? Why are you still asking such a question?”
Right, she had clearly seen it. Wasn't it because this person in front of her had been harmed that he needed the purple qi and the qi of the dragon vein to wake up?
“I haven't seen it with my own eyes after all,” Jiang Mian mumbled.
“Why do you suddenly ask this? Did you see something when you went to the Li Mansion today?” Xiao Jingcheng asked knowingly.
He had returned to the body of the yellow dog today and followed them the whole way. Naturally, he knew that nothing had happened at the Li Mansion.
Sure enough, Jiang Mian said, “It's not that.”
She hesitated a little.
She had had that dream twice, and the content in the dream seemed to be connected. Only in the dream... Xiao Jingcheng was not the crown prince. Instead, the crown prince was her master-uncle.
But she felt that there was more than just a peaceful relationship on the surface between Xiao Jingcheng and Mo Zhizhang. There seemed to be some hostility. If she told him the content of the dream, would he be angry?
After some consideration, Jiang Mian said, “Well, I've had a very strange dream recently. In the dream, I was the young miss of the Li Mansion. My father and mother were both well, and they had another daughter.”
“In that dream, the Li family was not exterminated, and the State of Chu still continued. Everything was different from now.”
Xiao Jingcheng originally wanted to say that it was just a dream, but thinking of his own experience, he swallowed the words back.
“Do you think this dream has a meaning?” he asked.
Jiang Mian nodded.
“I'm thinking, could these things really have happened? Could there be, in a place we don't know, a continent like this, and a Li family from Luozhou? And I'm called Li... Li Shumian there.”
Xiao Jingcheng laughed. “If that's what you say, maybe there's also a Xiao family from Lingyang there. But whether there's me or not is uncertain.”
Jiang Mian moved her lips. She wanted to say that he was in her dream, and they had met several times.
Xiao Jingcheng said, “If there really is such a place, I hope...”
He lowered his eyes and looked at his own hands.
“I hope that Mother can marry the person she was supposed to marry.”
Jiang Mian was shocked.
The person Queen Shen was supposed to marry... wasn't that his imperial uncle, the current Emperor of Beisheng?
“Maybe, if Father hadn't interfered, Mother could have married Uncle according to the marriage contract between the Xiao family from Lingyang and the Shen family from Hexi.”
“Maybe they would have lived in harmony and grown old together.”
“But then, there wouldn't be me,” he smiled. “It doesn't matter if there's no me. As long as Mother can be happy for a lifetime, it's good enough.”
There was a tinge of melancholy between his eyebrows as he said such self - deprecating words. This made Jiang Mian's heart twitch slightly, and a feeling called “heartache” welled up in her.
“Don't think like that,” Jiang Mian said. “If this dream really has a meaning, if one day I can see you in the dream, I'll definitely ask for you now who your parents are.”
Seeing her seriously comforting him, Xiao Jingcheng's heart skipped a beat. He showed an even more pitiful expression. “Really?”
“Really. Let's pinky - swear!” Jiang Mian stretched out her little finger, and Xiao Jingcheng gently hooked it. He felt as if his heart was about to fly.
If she could see him in the dream, didn't it mean that they were fated?
Moreover, it was a fate destined across two lifetimes?
He didn't expect such a pleasant surprise today.
Jiang Mian sat for a while longer before getting up to leave.
After Jiang Mian left, Xiao Jingcheng immediately muttered the incantation and returned to the body of the yellow dog. He immediately controlled the body of the big yellow dog and followed behind her, sneaking into her room.
When she lay down to sleep, Jiang Mian silently prayed in her heart that she could continue the dream. But she slept soundly that night without a single dream. When she opened her eyes, it was already dawn.
Scratching her somewhat messy hair, she mumbled, “Why is it that when I really want to have a dream, I can't?”
They had already agreed yesterday to go and clean the Li Mansion today. After breakfast, Jiang Mian, Li Zhao, and Jiang Zhiqing were about to go out. Since many people had died there before, Taoist Yuanzheng also planned to go with them today.
Xiao Jingcheng had a special identity, and it was not good to leave him alone. So he also planned to go with them.
When the carriage left the post - house and set off in the direction of the Li Mansion, several people hiding in the dark emerged.
“Here they come. They're coming out. Hurry, let's follow them!”
“Judging from this direction, it seems they're really going to the Li Mansion!”
Xiao Jingcheng had a sharp sense of hearing. Even though the carriage was moving, he noticed that there were people following behind. He glanced at the big yellow dog and whispered in dog language to communicate with it.
When the carriage slowly turned a corner, the big yellow dog quietly jumped off the carriage.
When the carriage turned another corner, the big yellow dog, after gathering the information, jumped onto the carriage and lay beside Xiao Jingcheng, sticking out its tongue and relaying the conversation of the people following them.
【They always mention the eldest young master of the Li family.】
Xiao Jingcheng fell into deep thought.
The eldest young master of the Li family referred to Li Zhao. It seemed that these people were after Li Zhao.
He couldn't help but remember that before Li Zhao entered the city, he had specifically taken off the yellow talisman given by Taoist Yuanzheng and showed his true face.
The King of Chu had only massacred the entire Li family from Luozhou, not all the people in Luozhou City. This incident had happened nearly twenty years ago. The people of Luozhou who knew the Li family members had just grown old, not died.
Moreover, Li Zhao had been so famous in the past, and the Li family had done so many good deeds for the people of Luozhou. It was not surprising that he would be recognized.
It seemed that this was the intention of this Mr. Li, the secretary.
He didn't want to hide his identity as a member of the Li family anymore. It was not just for the purpose of leading Jiang Mian and Jiang Zhiqing to return to their ancestral home. There must be other intentions.
Soon, the carriage arrived at the Li Mansion.
Taoist Yuanzheng helped Xiao Jingcheng get off the carriage. In front, Li Zhao held a sickle in his hand, stepped forward, and forcefully pushed open the heavy door.
Jiang Mian and Jiang Zhiqing followed beside him. When the door was pushed open, a pungent, indescribable smell of decay over the years rushed towards them.
There was the smell of mold, the smell of dust, the natural smell of the grass and trees, and a faint smell of blood.
As if in response, the piled - up clouds were blown away by the wind, and the sun was fully exposed in the blue sky.
Threads of sunlight were refracted by the glazed tiles in the distance, passed through Li Zhao's hair on his head and his thin shoulders, and projected onto the screen wall behind the door.
And the relief of the golden carp sucking water on the screen wall seemed to come back to life.