That night, Song Yihuan had a dream.
She dreamed of the encounter four years ago when she disguised herself as her elder sister and met Ji Lingchuan in the dilapidated temple outside the Imperial College.
Since she was thirteen, under the arrangement of her elder sister, she often disguised herself as her elder sister to attend classes at the Imperial College on her behalf. She lied that she was unwell and always wore a veil hat during classes. No one ever suspected her identity, not even the teachers.
She still remembered it was an afternoon in spring.
On that day, the course in the academy was archery on horseback, which was extremely disadvantageous for her. Afraid of exposing her identity, she summoned up her courage and skipped class. She hid in a dilapidated temple on the back mountain of the Imperial College and slept in the belly of the tattered Buddha statue.
Just as she was sleeping soundly, footsteps suddenly came from outside. Afraid of being discovered, she held her breath and remained motionless, fearing that someone would find out and expose her disguise as her elder sister.
She heard what the two people outside were discussing.
They were talking about how to convict a military general. That general used to be a river pirate who had committed countless killings. After fleeing to the border, he joined the army. Before long, he made military achievements and was promoted all the way. Finally, he became a general guarding the border city.
After he was enfeoffed as a general, he often distributed porridge and grain in the city to relieve the victims. At the same time, people in the city began to die mysteriously, and all of them were wealthy merchants. All their property was looted when they died.
However, since these were all unscrupulous merchants, it didn't cause panic among the city's people. Instead, people clapped their hands in approval. After several months like this, the government caught him red - handed in a wealthy merchant's house, and only then was it revealed that he was the murderer.
This incident caused quite a stir at that time. The common people, grateful for his frequent porridge distribution and his military achievements, knelt outside the border city government office to plead for him. But after all, he had committed a serious crime of taking human lives, and the victims also had relatives who didn't want to let it go lightly. It became a difficult problem.
That day, the two people held different opinions and argued fiercely outside. In the end, they didn't reach a conclusion and just left.
After the two people left, she walked out from behind the Buddha statue. Thinking about the case, she had an idea and thought of a possibly feasible method. After returning, she wrote down the method. The next day, she went to the dilapidated temple again and stuffed the solution she had written under the futon.
She originally thought that would be their only encounter, but when she went to the dilapidated temple again, she actually saw his reply under the futon.
In the letter, he thanked her for her help and even introduced himself as "Mr. Clever - witted".
Feeling guilty for eavesdropping on their conversation, she wrote a reply to him. On a whim, she called herself "Goddess of Yue Lu".
In this way, the two started to communicate through the dilapidated temple, and this went on for several months.
He often asked her some unsolvable problems, and every time she could find a tricky angle to solve them. After getting familiar with each other, she often complained about some trivial matters in the letters, such as being scolded by her mother today or being punished for doing something wrong.
At that time, her handwriting was still very immature, while his was already sharp and forceful. He even joked about it in the letter, so she made up her mind to practice her handwriting well to impress him.
Strangely enough, although the two had communicated for several months, except for that one day, they never met in the temple again.
She only knew from the letters that he was very busy and often had tasks at hand.
Until one day, he finally mentioned in the letter that he wanted to meet her.
She was tempted.
They made an appointment to meet in the dilapidated temple on the Lesser Fullness day. She had planned to go to the appointment that day, but unexpectedly, her concubine mother got into trouble.
Looking back now, even if the two had met successfully that day and she had learned his identity, she would definitely have kept a respectful distance from him.
The heir of the Prince's Mansion was not someone a mere concubine - born daughter like her could aspire to.
The several times they missed each other in the dilapidated temple had actually determined their fate. Maybe God also wanted to tell her that with such a background, she should not expect things that didn't belong to her.
Song Yihuan, who was in a deep sleep, frowned tightly. Tears uncontrollably slipped from the corners of her eyes, soaking into her temples and the pillow.
In the Surging Waves Courtyard, Ji Lingchuan was also trapped in a dream at this time.
Ji Lingchuan had another dream.
But this time, he didn't dream of any amorous scenes. Instead, he returned to a dilapidated temple that he was extremely familiar with.
It was an abandoned temple on the back mountain of the Imperial College. The roof had collapsed, the temple was covered with dust and cobwebs, and the candles had toppled over on the altar. It looked extremely shabby.
He dreamed that he and Ji Zihuan walked into this dilapidated temple one after another. They stood in the middle of the temple and began to argue.
They were discussing how to convict a military general.
He and Ji Zihuan held different opinions and argued fiercely in the dilapidated temple. In the end, neither could convince the other, so they just left.
Watching his former self walk out of the dilapidated temple without looking back, Ji Lingchuan was extremely anxious. He chased after himself, trying to stop him. Maybe his inner voice was too strong, so his dream self stopped and looked back at the temple.
Ji Lingchuan in the dream turned around, returned to the dilapidated temple, and walked towards the clay Buddha statue in the temple.
Ji Lingchuan felt his heart pounding violently.
Getting closer, and closer.
Just as he was about to look up and see the scene behind the Buddha statue, Ji Lingchuan suddenly woke up from the dream and found that he was covered in sweat.
The scene in the dream faded away. There was no dilapidated temple in front of him, but his bedroom in the Surging Waves Courtyard of the Prince Ning's Mansion.
Sitting up straight, Ji Lingchuan let out a long breath.
He took down the jar of green plums on the cabinet and took out one to put in his mouth.
The sour taste that made one frown spread on the tip of his tongue, just like his current mood.
When he first met that young friend, he hadn't led the Black Armored Army to defend the border yet, and Ji Zihuan hadn't ascended the throne as the emperor either.
It was purely by chance that the two went to the dilapidated temple to discuss matters, but neither of them at that time noticed that there was actually a person hiding behind that Buddha statue.
A young girl had heard all the content of his and Ji Zihuan's argument and left a solution for the two in the temple.
Once he thought that his newly - wedded wife was the old friend he had been searching for for a long time, which made his heart tremble with joy.
Now, he just learned that he had misidentified the person from beginning to end.
He and she had missed each other on the Lesser Fullness day. This time of missing was not just four years, and it was even possible that they had missed each other for a lifetime.
Of course, he could ignore the secular etiquette and take her as a concubine to keep her by his side forever.
But he couldn't forget what she had endured on the Lesser Fullness day, and he couldn't forget that their miss was because of the death of her biological mother, a concubine.
No wonder, no wonder Song Yixuan had said those words to him, hoping that he would not take Song Yihuan as a concubine.
The green plum on the tip of his tongue couldn't suppress the bitterness in Ji Lingchuan's throat and heart. He stared at the criss - cross beams above his head, his eyes as deep and solemn as the night.