Seeing this, Li Xiyu hugged the poetry collection and laughed merrily.
So, this guy Zhou Donglin could write such cute poems!
Song Jiaye was working upstairs and could hear Li Xiyu's laughter downstairs. He didn't know that she was so happy because of reading the poetry collection. He thought she was reading some jokes.
Laughter was contagious. When she laughed, he couldn't help but smile too. However, unlike Li Xiyu's hearty giggles, Song Jiaye's smile was fleeting. He couldn't laugh freely, as if there were always things weighing on his mind.
There were indeed things hidden in his heart, things about the Song family, the past full of mutual harm between him and Li Xiyu, and the scars of being abandoned in his youth.
All these burdens pressed on him, preventing him from laughing heartily like Li Xiyu.
Song Jiaye leaned back wearily in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose, which could relieve his stress a little.
Suddenly, he envied Li Xiyu very much.
After a near - drowning incident, she seemed like a different person, living happily every day. Maybe it wasn't so bad to forget the painful past.
Li Xiyu read the poetry collection for several nights and learned many unknown little secrets about Zhou Donglin.
At first, the poems were full of joy. But after Li Xiyu got married, she was unhappy, and he was also unhappy. His words were filled with pain, and the scenery he described was mostly desolate, as if there was only winter left in his life.
He stopped smiling and lived in a daze. Later, he cheered up and entered the court as an official because he knew she was having a hard time in the palace. All the court officials were ostracizing the Li family and her, the queen. He wanted to help her.
He was afraid she would be lonely, so he got a kitten. After training it to be docile and not scratch people, he sent it into the palace for her.
Li Xiyu remembered that kitten, but she didn't know it was sent by Zhou Donglin. She thought it was from her elder brother.
The kitten was named Snowball. It was a rare comfort for her in the palace. Unfortunately, after she was sent to the Cold Palace, she could barely take care of herself, let alone the cat. After they moved into the Cold Palace, Snowball got sick. A maid took it out, saying she was going to get it treated, but she never brought it back.
Now that she thought about it, it probably had died.
That cat was so silly. She knew her life in the Cold Palace would be hard, so she wanted to send it out of the palace to find another home. But it seemed to know what she was going to do. It hid under the bed and refused to come out. Later, Li Xiyu had no choice but to take it with her to the Cold Palace.
Just like Zhou Donglin.
She was already dead. Zhou Donglin should have lived his own life well.
But why was he so stubborn? After she jumped off the Star - Picking Tower and died, he even volunteered to guard the imperial mausoleum and spent the rest of his life alone. Regarding his long and lonely later life, Zhou Donglin only wrote a few words: Since you left, life has been boring. There's nothing much to talk about.
On the last page of the poetry collection, there were only two sentences:
The childhood sweetheart has aged. The green plum is nowhere to be found. The old days are like wine, but one flavor is missing.
That innocent and passionate young man was finally gone. It was as if the sunflower had bowed its head, summer had turned into winter, and loneliness had shrouded the rest of his life.
Li Xiyu never expected that when all her family members were dead and her relatives had left one by one, there was still someone who missed her so much, cared about her so much, and regarded her as the whole of his life.
She couldn't bear to imagine the scene of the aged Zhou Donglin waiting for death.
When she jumped off the Star - Picking Tower, she thought there was no one left in this life worth her attachment.
Song Jiaye had let her down.
And she, in the end, had let Zhou Donglin down.
Holding the album, Li Xiyu buried her head in the quilt and sobbed uncontrollably.
After crying all night, when Li Xiyu got up the next day, her eyes were swollen and puffy, and her whole face was bloated.
Seeing this, Sister Liu thought she and Song Jiaye had quarreled again last night. She took out some ice cubes from the refrigerator, wrapped them in a cloth, and lovingly handed them to Li Xiyu to apply on her eyes.
Li Xiyu's eyelids were so swollen that she could barely open them. She could only squint a tiny slit. Seeing this, Li Tong voluntarily took on the task of taking care of his great - aunt. He took the ice cubes from Sister Liu's hand, helped Li Xiyu sit on the sofa, let her head rest on the back of the sofa, then knelt on the sofa beside Li Xiyu and carefully applied the ice on her eyes.
When Song Jiaye got up and came downstairs, this was the scene he saw.
"What's wrong with your eyes?" he asked with concern.
Sister Liu was making breakfast. She walked out of the kitchen with a spatula in her hand, pulled Song Jiaye aside, and asked worriedly, "Mr. Song, what's going on between you and the eldest miss? Why did you quarrel again for no reason? Look at the eldest miss's eyes from crying."
"Crying?" Song Jiaye was completely confused by Sister Liu's words.
"Yes. Every time she quarrels with you, this happens. Her eyes are like two walnuts when she gets up the next day."
"She has been going to bed before it gets dark recently. I didn't even see her last night. How could I have made her cry?"
Hearing Song Jiaye's words, Sister Liu scratched the back of her head suspiciously.
"Then what's going on?"
At this time, Li Tong smelled something from the kitchen and shouted, "Aunt Liu, it's burning!"
"Oops, look at me. I still have eggs frying in the pan."
Sister Liu said and rushed to the kitchen in a hurry, leaving Song Jiaye puzzled.
Crying?
Wasn't Li Xiyu still laughing heartily a few nights ago?
Moreover, Sister Liu said this wasn't the first time Li Xiyu had cried like this, but this was indeed the first time Song Jiaye had witnessed it.
Or had Li Xiyu been deliberately hiding it from him before?
Song Jiaye walked closer to the sofa and asked, "What's going on?"
Li Xiyu didn't know how to explain. She often said she came from ancient times, but Song Jiaye didn't believe it. She said the poetry collection was written by her friend, and Song Jiaye didn't believe that either.
Song Jiaye had his own ideas, and she didn't want to explain too much.
She casually made up an excuse: "Didn't sleep well."
"Didn't sleep well and you need ice cubes?"
Seeing that Li Xiyu didn't want to say, Song Jiaye thought of Sister Liu's words. Although he couldn't figure out where he had offended Li Xiyu, he still asked, "Is it related to me?"
After all, Song Jiaye looked exactly like the one from ancient times. Coupled with reading Zhou Donglin's poetry collection in the past few days, it had reminded her of many past events she didn't want to remember. The resentment towards Song Jiaye that had been gradually subsiding came back again.
So, when Song Jiaye asked this question, Li Xiyu instinctively rolled her eyes and wanted to reply, "Don't flatter yourself."
Of course, when the words reached her lips, she regained a bit of reason and it became, "It has nothing to do with you."
It was still quite sharp.