The stars were fleeting, and Changsheng felt a little regretful: "The wind blew, otherwise we could have stayed longer."
This scene was so magical, like a fleeting dream, that Xie Wangzhi could not even remember what he was thinking before, and quickly asked, "What is this?"
"I don't know either." Changsheng squatted down beside Xie Wangzhi and stretched out his hand to show her, "It's actually powder, very light, it falls off when you blow, and it glows at night. I saw someone doing magic tricks in the East Market, and he used this, so I asked him and bought some."
He exhaled lightly, blowing away the remaining powder in his palm. There wasn't enough powder to make a ribbon, only a thin sliver of light. If you looked closely, you could see something flickering inside, like tiny fireflies.
Changsheng stopped and said, "That's it, nothing special, but I really don't know what it is."
"It's very beautiful." There are many unknown things in the world, and Xie Wangzhi doesn't have to know. She put her hands on her knees and looked at the palace wall opposite. "Thank you."
"You are right. Daming Palace is indeed a place where people are eaten. It's just that some people are trying their best to get in, and they always think they are eating people." Changsheng said in a relaxed tone, "What about you? Why did you enter the palace?"
No one had ever asked this question, and it was nothing to ask, but after all, the Chang'an Xie family was behind it. Xie Wangzhi hesitated, unsure if she could tell the truth to this boy she was not familiar with. She licked her lips: "Hmm..."
"If it's not convenient to say it, forget it." Changsheng didn't care much about things that he could listen to or not. He just got interested in Xie Wangzhi on a whim and had no intention of forcing her.
If he asked, Xie Wangzhi could just gloss over it, but his frank attitude made her feel like she was being a villain, so she made up her mind: "Then I'll tell you?"
Changsheng glanced at her and smiled: "Go ahead, I'm listening."
"Actually... I was born in the Xie family of Chang'an." Xie Wangzhi mustered up his courage and began softly, waiting for Changsheng to take over.
Changsheng was prepared to hear a tragic story, but who knew it would be this sentence? He was unable to react for a moment.
The Xie family of Chang'an was full of talents and lasted for hundreds of years. It inevitably declined during the previous dynasty. Others thought that this was the end of the family and lamented the sadness of swallows flying in front of the hall. However, after decades of silence, a branch of the family established itself at the founding of the country. It changed its name from Chenjun Xie family to Chang'an Xie family and restored the glory of the family.
There are many aristocratic and powerful families in Chang'an City, and the Xie family of Chang'an is one of the best among them. They are not inferior to the Cui family of Qinghe. If they really want to send their daughter to the palace, they can just put her in the harem instead of making her a maid in the Shangshi Bureau.
Changsheng thought that Xie Wangzhi might be from a side branch, so he asked tentatively, "Does your family mind?"
"I came here on my own accord. My father couldn't stop me." Xie Wangzhi lowered his eyes. "Now that I think about it, I entered the palace to avoid them."
“… hide?”
"Yes. My mother passed away a few years ago, and then my father remarried, who was also from the Wang family of Langya, and is still my mother's cousin." Xie Wangzhi paused, unable to say the word "mother". "Madam is well-educated and well-mannered, and everyone praises her for her way of dealing with people. Later, she also gave birth to her own children. She treats me very well, but I always feel that I still miss my own mother."
"Father and his wife have to take care of the new child, my brother is working hard to improve his career, and he also has to think about marriage. No one forced me to enter the palace, and no one treated me badly," Xie Wangzhi forced a smile, thinking of the lonely days he spent at home for the past two years, raised his hand and rubbed the corner of his eye as if unintentionally, "but I am redundant."
Changsheng squatted on the side and turned his head to look at Xie Wangzhi. The girl didn't notice his gaze and kept her head down. She had such a good background that she would be envied if she told others about it, but she kept it to herself. She was slapped on the palm of her hand for asking about something at the Shangshi Bureau, just because she felt she was "redundant".
Changsheng didn’t know what to say. He was silent for a long time, then patted Xie Wangzhi’s head and rubbed the top of her head.
Xie Wangzhi was dressed as a palace maid. Young palace maids of this age all had their hair in a bun with pearl flowers on the sides but no decoration on the top of their heads. When Changsheng rubbed her hair, she could feel it particularly clearly. She could even vaguely feel that her hair was messed up, and one of the pearl hairpins on one side was half loose.
She quickly raised her hands to protect her head and looked at Changsheng: "Don't touch my head, or you won't grow taller."
Facing the girl's almost condemning gaze, Changsheng was not bothered at all and put the pearl hairpin back on: "You touched me last time too."
Xie Wangyi choked and thought about Changsheng standing up: "Do you still think you are not tall enough?"
"How is this enough?" At fourteen, there is still a lot of growth to be made. For a boy of this age, Changsheng is considered tall, but when placed among a group of adult men, he looks short. Changsheng exhaled, "I have to be at least a bit taller."
"... How high must that be?" Xie Wangzhi couldn't imagine. "By the way, you just asked me this, can I ask you why you entered the palace?"
Changsheng thought that it was because he had no choice, but he certainly couldn't say that. After a little consideration, he reached out and turned Xie Wangzhi's face over to face him, and then moved a little closer: "Look into my eyes."
Xie Wangzhi had never been so close to a boy before. When he touched her for the first time, goose bumps appeared on her arms. But she didn't hate him at all, and she didn't think of pushing him away. Instead, she sank into those amber eyes.
Changsheng's eyes were very beautiful, slightly narrow, but not fully grown yet, retaining the roundness and childishness of a child, but the tail of the eye was slightly upturned, showing a taste between a boy and a man, and his eyes were full of spirit. Being so close, Xie Wangzhi even found that there was a fine golden color in the bottom of Changsheng's eyes, as if a handful of gold powder was rubbed into the light amber.
Her heartbeat suddenly accelerated at that moment, and her face suddenly turned red. This feeling was too unfamiliar. Xie Wangzhi quickly shrank back and distanced himself: "Your eyes...what's wrong?"
"It's not black, right?" Changsheng said with a smile, completely unaware.
People's eyes have different shades of dark and light. Xie Wangzhi has seen some with lighter eyes, but none of them look like Changsheng's. She was so confused that she blurted out what she had been thinking: "Like a cat."
"Like a cat?" Changsheng thought it was funny. "Actually, it looks like my mother. My mother is a Xianbei."
Xie Wang was stunned and stared at Changsheng stupidly.
"My father and mother were not in love. My mother was just a concubine who was sold to my father. My mother passed away very early. I don't even remember what she looked like. I only remember that her skin was very white and her hair was black like the Han people. But her eyes were very light in color. Under the sun, I thought they were golden."
Xie Wangzhi imagined it, then looked at Changsheng's face: "You are so beautiful, your mother must be a beauty."
"Maybe, otherwise my father wouldn't want my mother. But I should look more like my father's side. I heard that all his ancestors were rare beauties." Changsheng wasn't that hypocritical. Being a man, he didn't mind Xie Wangzhi praising his appearance. "But my father didn't want a Xianbei bastard like me. I'm an eyesore wherever I look. So here I am."
He felt very relaxed when he mentioned it. Anyway, from childhood to adulthood, there were too many people who openly or secretly called him a bastard. He would get angry at first, but later he got used to it. A few words said about him would not hurt him.
Xie Wangzhi couldn't do that. She knew how hurtful these words were, but she didn't know how to comfort Changsheng. To be able to have concubines meant that at least the family was well-off. To be an Aye, one had to be very cruel and cold-hearted to satisfy a moment of pleasure. A son with Xianbei blood was despised for this reason and sent to the palace.
After holding it in for a while, Xie Wangzhi suddenly rushed over, hugged Changsheng tightly, buried his face in his shoulder, and his voice trembled: "It doesn't matter. It's not your fault how you were born. It's your father's fault that you are here."
She definitely had no other intentions. This hug was firm, but Changsheng was stunned on the spot, as if he had been hit on the head with a hammer. Thousands of thoughts came to his mind, and at that moment he wanted to cry and laugh, but he could not think of anything.
He raised his hands and pretended to hug her, but he finally put his hands on Xie Wangzhi's shoulders and pulled her away. Facing her blank eyes, he said seriously, "There's one more thing I forgot to tell you. At the banquet, the thing you sent over was indeed the cherry blossom cake, right?"
Xie Wangzhi was puzzled and nodded: "What's wrong?"
“… it’s half-cooked.”
"How is it possible?" Xie Wangzhi was so shocked that he even forgot to ask Changsheng how he knew. "But, but a prince clearly said that he liked it... If it's half-cooked, how could it be..."
"… I heard from the eunuchs in Qingsi Palace that it was indeed undercooked. Think about whether anyone touched it when it was being cooked or before it came out of the pot." Changsheng sighed, "I guess you must have offended someone."
Xie Wangzhi recalled the situation at that time: "After putting it on the pot, I went to make pear soup... Pear soup, please wait until I get back... Shi Manqing! It was her, she told me that it was steamed and asked the palace servants to take it away."
It was a good thing that he could recall it, but Shi Manqing had already been dealt with, so he couldn't do anything. Changsheng felt a little regretful and licked his lips: "Anyway, be careful when you recall it, don't let anyone trip you up by accident."
Xie Wangzhi didn't expect Shi Manqing to be so cruel and really wanted to send her to death. The little sadness he had before disappeared, and he thought of Changsheng's words before: "By the way, you just said, it was Qingsi Palace? Is that what the Seventh Prince eats?"
Li Chengjing was a romantic man, but he had few children. He had three thousand beauties in his harem, but only a dozen children so far. Excluding those who died young, he only had two sons. One was the crown prince, and the other was the prince of Qingsi Palace. He had not yet been made a king, so he could only be called the Seventh Prince according to his seniority.
Changsheng nodded: "I guess so."
“… Then why did he praise me for my good cooking? Sakura cake needs flower juice, it will be astringent if it is not cooked well, and the taste of raw dough is not good either…” Xie Wangzhi racked his brains, wondering why this prince said that.
Changsheng looked at Xie Wangzhi with a smile, waiting for her to look up and praise him, "magnanimous", "kind-hearted", anything. Although it had nothing to do with him, he didn't mind being praised a few more times.
Facing his gaze, Xie Wangzhi raised his head abruptly, his face full of seriousness: "It seems that the Seventh Prince's taste is really weird."
Changsheng: “…”