Shen Qingzhuo wanted to kill these arrogant eunuchs who relied on their superiors to gain power, so he walked straight to the inner hall with a cold face and asked them to continue kneeling.
Especially Wang Gui, who was the leader today. If he guessed correctly, this person was the spy who informed the Eastern Palace.
When passing by the dumpling who was standing there straight, Shen Qingzhuo grabbed his thin little arm and told Xiao Dezi behind him, “Bring in the ruler.”
Xiao Shen stumbled after him into the inner room, his lips pressed into a straight line, and he said nothing.
Ridiculous. What mistake had he made again?
After a moment, Shen Qingzhuo took the ruler from Xiao Dezi and gave him a hint with his eyes.
Xiao Dezi stared at his master blankly. Suddenly, an idea came to him. He quickly left the inner room, closed the door, and stood guard at the entrance.
Then, everyone heard a crisp sound coming from the bedroom.
“Who told you to steal things from Master’s room?” Shen Qingzhuo scolded him harshly while hitting, “Do you admit your mistake?”
Xiao Shen stood in the middle of the inner room, his stubborn eyes revealing a hint of confusion, and for a moment no one knew what he was up to.
With a “pah”, the ruler hit the table again, “Do you admit your mistake?”
Shen Qingzhuo held the ruler in his hand and used his eyes to tell the dumpling: Why don’t you shout a few times to show your respect?
At this time, Xiao Shen finally reacted, his small brows knitted tightly, and after a long while, he managed to refute: “I am not wrong!”
“Not wrong?” Shen Qingzhuo said fiercely, “Today, I will beat you until you admit your mistake!”
There were two more crisp “pah, pah” sounds, and he began to push his feet further, asking softly, “How about you cry a few more times?”
If a child from an ordinary family is hit with a ruler, he will definitely cry loudly.
Speaking of which, the dumpling’s crying look should be quite cute.
Xiao Shen opened his eyes slightly, with an expression that showed he didn’t understand what he was saying.
Shen Qingzhuo spread his hands with a hint of regret, thinking that the show was almost over, put down the ruler, and pulled out a plain handkerchief from his sleeve.
He walked up to the dumpling and leaned over to wipe off the mud and dust on the little face.
Xiao Shen subconsciously turned his face away and took a step back.
“Why are you hiding?” Shen Qingzhuo frowned unhappily, stretched out his hand to pinch the small chin, and brought the dumpling back. “The handkerchief is clean, I’m wiping your face for you.”
Xiao Shen was forced to raise his face, and this time he did not dodge. A gleam of light slightly flashed in his dark eyes.
His fingers were cold, but his expression was serious, as if he was not wiping his face but repairing some valuable calligraphy or porcelain.
“Done.” After a while, Shen Qingzhuo released his hand and straightened his waist. “I helped you bully the eunuch who bullied you just now, so what should you say?”
Xiao Shen lowered his eyelashes and whispered back, “Thank you.”
“En.” Shen Qingzhuo nodded in agreement and threw the dirty handkerchief onto the table. “Go back and have a good rest today.”
After thinking about it, he felt uneasy again, so he raised his voice and called out, “Xiao Dezi!”
The gatekeeper, Xiao Dezi, immediately pushed the door open and walked in. “What does Young Master needs?”
“Send His Highness the Seventh Prince back to the cold palace.” Shen Qingzhuo said calmly, “Make sure he is sent back safely.”
Xiao Dezi: “Yes, Young Master.”
The door closed again. Shen Qingzhuo slowly walked back to the desk, tapped the table with his fingertips, and fell into deep thought.
He thought about it over and over again last night. Since the system said that it would be difficult for him to defeat the grown-up tyrant, then he had to find another way.
Except for those who are born with an antisocial personality, no one is born a villain.
The reason why Xiao Shen in the original book became a tyrant was largely due to his unfortunate childhood.
He had been bullied and humiliated since childhood in the cruel palace. From the words and deeds of those around him, he learned the law of the jungle and was cruel and ruthless.
Because he had never received a formal education, he had no reverence or compassion for life in his heart. He spent his entire life pursuing the pleasure of trampling everyone under his feet and slaughtering and torturing them at will.
If a son is not well educated, it is the father’s fault; if a child is not taught strictly, it is the teacher’s laziness. Now that he has the opportunity to become Xiao Shen’s teacher, he has the opportunity to correct it fundamentally.
Twelve years old is neither old nor young, just like a small tree growing wildly in the wind. What he has to do now is straighten this crooked sapling.
On a winter night, everything was silent, and the cold palace was especially silent.
Xiao Shen lay on the bed, shaking uncontrollably, feeling the quilt covering him as cold and hard as iron, pressing him so hard that he couldn’t breathe.
It was just a normal night’s sleep, but the bed in the cold palace became so unbearable.
He tossed and turned on the bed, feeling both hungry and uncomfortable, until he heard a scream that sounded like crying.
Xiao Shen was startled and immediately climbed down from the bed, staggering towards the main hall.
In the pitch-black main hall, his mother was crying crazily in the middle of the night, repeating the same sentence over and over again: “Xiao Lang, why did you betray me?”
In the past two years, his mother had been sleeping in a daze most of the time, and the number of times she went crazy had decreased a lot. Not sure what stimulated her again tonight, and she returned to her old ways.
Xiao Shen stood far away at the entrance of the palace. Seeing that she was just crying and was not in danger of life, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief and planned to go back to sleep.
Unexpectedly, Noble Consort Zhao mistook her son for him again through a hint of moonlight outside the door and suddenly pounced on him.
“Mother Consort, it’s me!” Xiao Shen was thrown to the ground by her, his slender neck was strangled, and he could only kick his legs with difficulty. “It’s me, Mother Consort, I’m not Emperor Father!”
“You lied to me, you lied to me, you killed my father, my mother, my elder brother, and my younger brother, Xiao Lang! Xiao Lang, you have such a cruel heart, you lied to me and made me suffer so much!” Noble Consort Zhao couldn’t listen to anything he said, and she strangled her son like crazy, “I’m going to kill you! Kill you!”
“Mother, Mother Consort.” Xiao Shen’s face turned purple, his kicking calves were broken to the extreme, and his frail body was completely unable to break free from his crazy mother.
His mind went blank, and his breathing almost stagnated. At this moment, Xiao Shen suddenly let go of his hands and gave up struggling.
His birth was a mistake. Rather than living like this, he might as well be strangled to death and return his worthless life to his mother.
The next moment, a thin figure flashed by, and with a “clang” sound, his mother who was strangling him was thrown down.
At the same time, Shen Qingzhuo also sat on his buttocks on the ground because he used too much force to pull her.
“Crazy woman!” Young Master Shen panted and cursed without any manners.
The book did not describe the abuse Xiao Shen suffered in his childhood in detail. It only briefly mentioned it in a few lines. Now that he had witnessed it with his own eyes, Shen Qingzhuo knew that when his mother went mad, she really wanted to strangle her son to death without any hesitation.
He took two breaths, propped himself up, stood up, and raised his hand to pat the dust off the lamb fur coat, still feeling a lingering fear.
What if he didn’t come to the cold palace tonight? Wouldn’t the dumpling be strangled to death by his own mother?
“Cough, cough, cough.” Xiao Shen lay on the ground dizzy, the redness on his face not yet faded. He covered his neck with one hand and kept coughing, like the wind coming out of a broken bellows, gasping for breath.
Shen Qingzhuo carefully turned back to check and found that Noble Consort Zhao had fainted. Only then did he feel relieved.
The original owner’s body was too weak. If the crazy noble consort got up again and fought him to death, he might not be sure of winning.
You can’t just be brutal and kill someone, right?
Shen Qingzhuo walked up to dumpling, waited for him to catch his breath, leaned over, and stretched out a hand. “Are you alright? I’ll help you up.”
The moonlight was like silver, pouring in from behind, casting a hazy and warm glow on his black hair.
Xiao Shen walked through the gates of hell and looked up in a trance, as if he saw the bright moon in the sky coming down to earth.
He had asked himself countless times, Are there really gods in this world?
If so, why didn’t they come and rescue him?
He waited year after year before he finally realized that there was no God in this world who could save him.
“Cough.” Xiao Shen struggled to prop up his upper body, as if he were bewitched, and slowly put his hand into the warm and cool palm.
Shen Qingzhuo clenched the little hand, thought for a moment, and simply picked the dumpling up horizontally, then turned and walked towards the side hall.
He once again gave him a princess hug and felt firsthand how light and fluttery the dumpling was. The little ball nestled in his arms pitifully, seemingly still not coming to his senses.
He was almost strangled to death by his own mother. He must have been completely terrified.
Walking to the bed, Shen Qingzhuo carefully put the dumpling back on the bed, stood beside the bed with his hands on his waist, and his breathing became heavier due to exhaustion.
“Mother Consort, she…” Xiao Shen sat on the bed and murmured something in a very low voice.
Shen Qingzhuo didn’t hear clearly, thinking that the dumpling was worried about his mother, and sighed softly, “Got it, I’ll move your mother back to the bed.”
The dumpling’s worries were not without reason. It was winter, and if she lay on the ground all night, she would probably be dead when she woke up the next morning.
So, Young Master Shen returned to the main hall, uncomplainingly moved Noble Consort Zhao to the bed, and then secretly looked at the sleeping woman in the dim moonlight.
Decades of hard times in the cold palace had completely destroyed her. Her long, dry, and frizzy hair covered most of her face, and there was no trace of her former beauty.
Regarding the case of General Zhao’s rebellion, the original book did not describe this past in detail, but Noble Consort Zhao’s father and brothers were killed overnight, her entire family was executed, and she herself was banished to the cold palace with an unborn child in her belly. Who wouldn’t go crazy if this happened to them?
However, being so crazy that she doesn’t recognize her relatives and wants to kill her own son is another matter.
Shen Qingzhuo sighed deeply, covered her with the quilt, and made sure she was still breathing before turning around and leaving.
Returning to the side hall again, Xiao Shen was still sitting on the bed in a daze. There was a half-lit candle on the table, and the trembling flame was swaying in the cold wind.
Shen Qingzhuo walked over, stuffed the hand warmer he had picked up into his arms, then took off his lamb fur coat and wrapped it around his thin body.
“I don’t want it.” Xiao Shen suddenly came to his senses and struggled awkwardly.
“If you still want to study and learn calligraphy, then find a way to get better as soon as possible.” Shen Qingzhuo warned in a cold tone, with a firm action that would not tolerate refusal.
Hearing this, Xiao Shen suddenly raised his little face and said in surprise and disbelief, “Are you willing to teach me to read?”
“How can I be your master if I don’t teach you how to read and write?” Shen Qingzhuo chuckled, “But let me be frank. If you want to learn real skills, you have to be mentally prepared.”
Xiao Shen lowered his head again, thinking that it was not that simple. This person would definitely find a way to torture him.
However, if this could really buy him a chance to study and learn calligraphy, he would be willing to be punished. He had always been like this anyway.
“Why, are you scared?” Shen Qingzhuo took two steps back and said in a neutral tone, “Are you afraid of me, or afraid of suffering?”
“I…” Xiao Shen wanted to say something but swallowed it back and finally asked only one question, “Why?”
Under the flickering light, the little wolf cub was staring at him, with two bright burning flames in his dark eyes.
This question was out of context, but Shen Qingzhuo understood it immediately and smiled faintly: “If I said that I had a nightmare last night and dreamed that one day many years later, I was cut into pieces by you, would you believe it or not?”
Xiao Shen’s pupils shrank instantly, his waist arched, and his fists on the bed unconsciously clenched.
It was a posture ready to attack at any time.
“Three thousand cuts ah, one cut at a time, slowly, it hurts so much.” Shen Qingzhuo seemed not to notice his abnormality, his voice was soft, and his tone was half true and half false. “So, in order to reduce the pain in the future, Master decided to treat you better now.”
Xiao Shen looked suspicious, obviously still not believing his lies.
Shen Qingzhuo didn’t expect him to change his mind so easily either. He took out several bottles and jars from his wide sleeves and placed them on the table. “These are medicines from the Imperial Medical. I have written down the usage and dosage and put them on the bottles.”
With his body wrapped in warm lamb fur, Xiao Shen felt as if he was buried in a soft and fluffy cloud, and he could smell the rich fragrance of winter plum at the tip of his nose.
His eyes were full of caution and confusion, but he couldn’t help but follow the movement of that slender and beautiful hand.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Shen Qingzhuo picked up the candle wick and chuckled, “Just think of Master still having a conscience and doing a good deed every day, alright?”
Xiao Shen sniffed unconsciously and remained silent.
“Cough, cough.” Shen Qingzhuo turned his face to the side, put his fist on his upper lip, and coughed twice. “Alright, it’s been a long night. Your Highness, take the medicine and go to bed early, and get well soon.”
After saying that, he turned around and planned to go back to Jiyue Pavilion.
It was freezing cold, and he took off his lamb fur coat and gave it to the dumpling. He was so cold that he couldn’t stand it.
After all, he was young and impatient. Just as he was about to step out of the door, he heard the low and hoarse voice of a young boy behind him.
“When does it begin?”
Shen Qingzhuo turned his back to the dumpling, a smile appeared on his pretty lips. “We can start whenever Your Highness wants to.”
The author has something to say:
Young Master Shen: My little disciple is so cute when he cries~
The grown-up disciple: Master is even cuter when he cries…
