Chapter 24 Spring Snow
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To thank him, Qu Chenzhou stood up, bent over for courtesy, then sat down again.
“Have you had dinner?”
“I have.” The steward here didn’t treat him poorly.
“That’s right, I brought back some posset, eat some then go back.” Liu Zhongming took out the bowl that was still warm and asked when he passed over the spoon, “Do you like sweets?”
Qu Chenzhou hesitated, then took the spoon.
Nobody was born to hate sweets, especially for someone like him, who hadn’t seen any sweets in Qisheng Building for a year and a half. Logically speaking, he should have liked sweets.
But his previous experience made his body strongly resist this taste. At least in his previous life, even in the palace, he had never eaten a sweet dessert.
Liu Zhongming lowered his head and ate two bites before he realized that Qu Chenzhou hadn’t moved his spoon: “There are no outsiders here, you don’t need to be so cautious.”
“No…” Qu Chenzhou replied softly, “I don’t eat sweets.”
“Not used to it?” Liu Zhongming didn’t understand this. Even a person who looked cold like his third brother would not refuse sweets: “Try it, my mother’s posset is very good.”
Qu Chenzhou held his spoon and slowly dipped it into the soft curd and tasted a bite—that’s right, he should try to put aside the past and try a bite of the sweetness.
The curd rolled in his mouth along the tip of his tongue, and the strong sweetness stimulated his cheeks to ache.
He frowned, barely swallowed, and his face gradually paled.
Liu Zhongming just noticed his strangeness. Before he had time to ask, he turned his face away and vomited abruptly.
Not only just the posset he swallowed, but also his dinner.
Liu Zhongming was horrified. He hurriedly stepped forward to support his somewhat shaky body with one hand, while calling people in to clean up the mess.
“What’s the matter?” He had never seen anyone who had such a big reaction to sweets. He suspiciously tasted a spoonful from that bowl. It was no different from his.
Qu Chenzhou’s chest moved up and down. He resisted his mouthful of nausea, and replied softly: “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you like this?” Liu Zhongming asked.
The stranger the person in front of him, the more he wanted to find out, and every time he saw that peace inadvertently torn apart, he couldn’t help but overlap the person in front of him with the person in his dreams.
After the servant had finished cleaning up, he closed the door and retreated, leaving only two people in the bedroom.
Qu Chenzhou looked down at their hands that were clasped together and he took a step back, withdrawing his hands.
Many things were involved in the entanglement between them in their previous lives, so he can’t say it. However, some things were only related to him, and they were not secrets.
As long as the other person went to Qisheng Building and asked casually, everyone would know about it. It was a conversation that many people in the building talked about as a joke.
“Please don’t mind this sir, this is a sickness… from my childhood.”
Liu Zhongming handed him a glass of water and waited for him to continue.
He nodded in thanks, took a sip slowly, and calmed down.
Speaking of the past, his heart was calm with no waves, as if he was telling another person’s story.
“I vaguely remember that when I was very young, I used to like to eat candy. Then one day, my father said that he would bring me to the market to buy me candy.”
Liu Zhongming thought of the papers that Fang Wuyang brought back and his heart tightened.
“My dad bought me a bag of candy, then asked me to follow the other person into the carriage, saying that he would take me home.” Qu Chenzhou looked at the swaying shadow in the teacup, and slightly lifted the corners of his mouth: “Then I was sold to Qisheng Building.”
Except for this incident, other memories from a long time ago have all been blurred. He didn’t even remember how he cried and struggled along the way. He only remembered the melting candy in his hand that was too painful to swallow.
Since then, he could no longer eat anything sweet.
The room was suffocatingly quiet for a while. He drank the entire glass of water to dilute the uncomfortable taste in his throat, and apologized: “I’m sorry.”
Liu Zhongming’s life was too far off from this story. He could only feel desolation and depression at his home, but never thought that there would be people who would not even have a home.
“You…” When he spoke, he heard the dryness in his throat: “Do you hate your parents?”
“Hate?” Qu Chenzhou looked at him calmly: “There is only love and hate for people you can’t forget in your heart. For strangers, I can’t speak about them at all. I have forgotten their looks a long time ago, so naturally, I can’t talk about hate.”
In this gaze, in just a few words, these years of his depression and dejection turned into a monstrous surge, which rushed towards Liu Zhongming, then was swept away lightly by a hand.
He didn’t know if he could maintain such a calmness if he was stuck in a situation where he was so desperate physically and mentally like the other party. He also wondered what kind of environment could create such a person.
Someone seemingly childish but mature, seemingly crazy but rational, seemingly simple but complicated, seeming humble but cold and arrogant, seeming fragile but tough.
As if he could see through him, Qu Chenzhou smiled: “Prince, everyone in this world has their own sufferings and they know their own sufferings. No one can help except for themselves. So there is no need to complain or sympathize with others. Continue forth with gritted teeth, there will always be an end.”
Maybe the atmosphere was just right tonight or maybe it was a rare opportunity for the two to get together like this again, so he didn’t deliberately remain silent, nor did he conceal himself.
He didn’t understand the troubles of Zhongming before when he was young. He only knew that he had relied on Zhongming, blindly following suit even though he could see clearer than anyone else.
That hand had held him, allowing him, who was crawling in the dust, to gradually stand up at the highest point.
Then this time, allow him to take the young Zhongming out of the fog, even if there is only a little chance.
Liu Zhongming seemed to have been led by these words. He was stunned for a long time, and for a while, he forgot that he was a high-ranking son of a Marquis and the other party was just a humble slave.
He even felt that he had turned back to when he was a child and because his schoolwork was not going well, he would irritably drop his pen and paper. Then, his brother would pick it up for him and gently pat his head.
“Zhongming, don’t worry, do a little bit at a time.” His older brother’s smile was like the spring of April: “Everything has its order, just wait for the flowers to bloom. You don’t understand these words now, but just remember, one day you will understand.”
His tears flowed slowly down his cheeks. He didn’t even think about wiping it or even thought about the other party’s status and how he could say such words.
It had been too long. For the first time, the pain in his heart could flow out. He no longer held on with his guts and he was at unprecedented ease.
Only then did he remember that he was only seventeen years old. He should be at the age of being willful and presumptuous.
Qu Chenzhou just sat with him like this, watching his tears slowly dry up before pouring the water and passing it over.
“Thank you Prince for thinking about bringing back desserts for me today.” Qu Chenzhou stood up when he saw him gradually calm down: “It’s getting late, Prince, please rest early, this slave will leave first.”
“No!” Seeing him about to retreat, Liu Zhongming didn’t even think about it. He suddenly jumped up and grabbed the iron chain in Qu Chenzhou’s hand: “Don’t go!”
Although the person was held back, he was so embarrassed that he didn’t know what to say.
If Bai Shiyan saw this rare appearance of him losing his manners, it would be more than just making a joke about him, he would even worry about whether he really fell into the demonic dao.
“Don’t go.” His throat rolled out. He could only murmur and repeat himself.
He didn’t know if it was because of the unexpected tears that emptied his heart and he needed something else to fill it up, or because in such a quiet night, those dreams that seemed so real would come uninvited.
Qu Chenzhou didn’t ask about the reason and came back to sit down in good faith.
One person seemed to have forgotten his past and present life, and one person seemed to have forgotten his responsibility and doubt. Just like that, very quietly, no one spoke.
The lamp oil gradually reached the bottom, and the fire flickered a few times, returning the night to tranquillity.
The watery moonlight poured in and shone onto the feet of the two of them.
“The moonlight is so beautiful.” Qu Chenzhou sighed softly.
Maybe God’s treatment towards him really wasn’t that unkind.
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