The imperial chariot stopped at a remote palace.
Unlike the palaces in the center of the harem, this place is extremely deserted. Along the way, the palace walls on both sides are mottled and peeled off, and the roadside is covered with thick snow, which is a sign that it has not been taken care of for a long time.
After Jin Wang ascended the throne, he disbanded the late emperor's harem and closed all the palaces, so the Leng Palace was naturally the same.
Just after a snowfall last night, Ye Shu asked the imperial chariot to stop outside the courtyard, and stepped on the soft snow to the wooden door.
The wooden door has been weathered for a long time, and it can no longer be closed. Standing in front of the door, you can feel the cool breeze coming from the crack of the door.
Ye Shu's heartbeat was inexplicably faster, he took a deep breath, pushed open the wooden door and stepped into the courtyard.
The yard was not as bleak as he had imagined.
The courtyard is not big. There is a bare peach tree covered with snow in front of the courtyard. There is a stone table and four stone benches under the tree. There are only two huts in the yard, and a few potted plants are placed in front of the house, and they have been carefully pruned at a glance.
Ye Shu walked into the main room directly opposite. The furniture and furnishings inside were simple, but they were cleaned cleanly without a speck of dust.
He looked up and saw that the damaged roof in his memory had been repaired, and the windows on all four sides had been re-attached to ensure that the cold wind could not penetrate.
It has been clear that there has been no one here for a long time, but there are traces of people living everywhere.
Ye Shu walked into the back room.
No matter how clean it is, it can't change the shabby environment here. There is only a hard board bed in the back room, covered with a thin mattress, the fabric has been washed a little white, I don't know how long it has been used, and it is full of traces of mending.
The living expenses in the palace are distributed regularly and quantitatively by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but no one will send these to the cold palace.
In the most difficult time, the original owner could only go to other palaces, pick up some things that others don't need, mend and clean them by himself, and barely make ends meet.
Ye Shu sat down at the small table by the window.
The table leg was missing a corner and was padded with small pieces of broken tiles. When he raised his eyes, he saw faint scratches on the wall in front of the table.
They are two humble little people.
The little stickmen sat side by side, the taller one had his arms around the other and was smiling happily. While the other is relatively restrained, just slightly curved the corners of his mouth.
All traces of the growth of the two teenagers are completely preserved here.
Ye Shu's eyes suddenly became sore.
He got up to leave, but accidentally touched the corner of the table with his toes.
The short table case was light in weight, and it was slightly shifted by him, but the things engraved under the two small figures were exposed.
It was a line of handsome small characters.
— "Ye Shu and Jin Wang, the fifth spring."
Ye Shu froze immediately.
The height of this line of small characters happened to be a little shorter than the table case, so Ye Shu didn't notice it immediately. More importantly, it is not the seal script that Changlu is used to, but the simplified characters that are only used in modern society.
The blood on Ye Shu's face faded quickly. He stood where he was, his eyes fixed on the small words, and it took him a while to notice his abnormal heartbeat.
It was... his own handwriting.
This is what he was looking for.
Ye Shu, who was still young back then, used this obscure and unique way to leave a unique mark that proved his identity.
Ye Shu closed his eyes and breathed for a long time.
Jin Wang did not admit the wrong person.
It wasn't the so-called original owner, he was the only one with him from the beginning to the end.
Ye Shu closed his eyes, the tip of his nose felt sour.
Suddenly, there was a strange noise outside the yard.
The sound came from behind the hut, Ye Shu collected his mood and walked over following the sound.
There is not much snow behind the house, a weedy path extends to the corner, and a small doghouse is built with bricks and straw.
It was built by Jinwang for the little yellow dog Awang they raised when they were young.
Ye Shufang stepped lightly, walked over carefully, and pushed aside the grass in front of the kennel.
A small yellow dog turned its back to him, holding a stolen bone in its front paws, gnawing happily.
As if sensing that someone was approaching, the little yellow dog turned around, and met Ye Shu's suspicious eyes with a pair of round, dark eyes.
Ye Shu: "..."
Little yellow dog: "!!!"
The little yellow dog jumped up with an "ah", and wanted to run out in a panic, but accidentally bumped into the edge of the kennel, almost collapsing the kennel.
"Aww..." The little yellow dog was dizzy from being hit, and staggered to Ye Shu's feet.
Ye Shu silently took half a step back.
The dog's first bark just now didn't sound like a dog barking, but rather... a human voice.
The little yellow dog shook his head, sat down at Ye Shu's feet, raised his head innocently: "... woof?"
"..." Does it sound so guilty
Ye Shu narrowed his eyes suspiciously: "Awang?"
The little yellow dog looked at him: "Wow."
This obviously couldn't be Awang.
Perhaps it was because they had suffered a lot with the two since they were young, Awang died on the eve of Jinwang's ascension to the throne, and they buried him in a place with green mountains and beautiful waters outside the palace with their own hands.
But this dog looks too much like Awang.
The back of the little yellow dog is light yellow, but the abdomen and four paws are snow white. Both in appearance and coat color, it is exactly the same as Awang.
Ye Shu thought for a while: "Are you Awang's son?"
"..."
The little yellow dog didn't answer.
Intuition flashed in Ye Shu's mind, and a guess emerged faintly. He shook his head and said to himself: "Let's take it back to the Hall of Mental Cultivation and ask Jinwang..."
Then, he called out loudly, "Come here!"
"No, no, no!" A young male voice sounded from behind Ye Shu.
Ye Shu's expression froze, and when he turned around, the little yellow dog waved its two front paws anxiously.
"Just now... were you talking?"
Before waiting for an answer, several servants had pushed the door open and entered: "My lord, what are your orders?"
The little yellow dog said anxiously: "Don't let them see me!"
Ye Shu took a look at it, turned his head to look inside and said, "It's okay, you guys go out first."
The servants paused and said obediently, "Yes."
There was only one person and one dog left in the courtyard.
Ye Shu asked, "Who are you?"
The little yellow dog sat down on the ground, and his voice was a bit more vicissitudes: "The person who brought you here."
Ye Shu looked even more puzzled.
The little yellow dog shook its tail uneasily, scratched its ears again, and said vaguely, "That's right... this is the book world, of course you can't just enter it if you want, so..."
Ye Shu: "So?"
"I am the system guide of the world in the book."
Ye Shu looked it up and down.
"Hey, I'm not the main body now, I'm just living on this little yellow dog."
It was gradually snowing outside, and the little yellow dog jumped into the house through the window, shaking the snow off his body skillfully. Ye Shu walked in slowly, closed the door, and sat down at the table.
Ye Shu asked: "Now we can talk about it, what's going on?"
"There are thousands of worlds in the book, and the one we are in now is just one of them." The little yellow dog explained, "After the small world in each book is formed, the characters in it will develop self-awareness. , or because of the lack of plot logic, which leads to changes in the plot direction.”
"My job is to find suitable hosts to enter the small world, assist them guide the characters in the book world, and fix wrong routes."
"..."
Ye Shu pressed his temples, his mind was full of questions and he didn't know where to start asking: "...that is to say, you pulled me into this world more than ten years ago?"
The little yellow dog said slowly: "Actually... this is your second time entering here."
Ye Shu: "What do you mean?"
"More than ten years ago, you entered this world for the first time, and the task you got was to help Jinwang become the king, and the reward was to heal your legs."
Ye Shu was taken aback.
"Three years ago, when Jin Wang became the throne, your mission was considered complete. According to the procedure, we will erase all your memories in the small world and send you back to the real world." The little yellow dog said, "The time between the real world and the small world The flow rate is different, you have been in the small world for ten years, but only a few days have passed in the real world."
"When cleaning the memory, it will affect part of the host's original memory, so you don't have a deep memory of the things before the time travel. However, from the time your legs were healed, to the time you transmigrated into the book, you have lived in the real world for more than ten years. , you should remember these, right?"
Ye Shu nodded.
But he felt something was wrong again: "Since I left three years ago, why have I lived outside for more than ten years and only been here for three years?"
The little yellow dog hesitated for a moment, and said slowly: "Many years have indeed passed here."
Ye Shu frowned suspiciously.
"After you leave, this body will be taken over by the system program, and continue to complete the plot in the book." The little yellow dog lay on the small table, its tail wagging slightly, "Ye Xiang conspired to rebel and was executed by Jin Wang, all of which were not wrong But since Ye Xiang was executed, the plot got out of control."
"It should be said that Jin Wang lost control."
"He became more and more tyrannical, and even provoked wars everywhere, causing people to live in dire straits."
“… All in all, that storyline ended up being so far off course that we had to choose to do it all over again.”
"We tried many times, and even matched hosts for other characters in this world, trying to fix the plot, but it didn't work."
"In the end we found out that the reason for the deviation of the story is you."
Ye Shu's eyes moved slightly.
The little yellow dog said: "The host who can match is hard to come by. Once matched, it is unique. Therefore, we can only find you back."
Ye Shu couldn't help asking: "Then why didn't you show up when I first came in?"
"Well..." The little yellow dog paused for a moment, then grinned at Ye Shu, "You also noticed that when we restarted this time, we changed the basic settings of this world."
It looked at Ye Shu's slightly swollen abdomen.
"..." Ye Shu wrapped the fox fur tightly angrily.
"And..." the little yellow dog thought for a moment, but still told the truth, "There has never been such a thing as asking the host to rework before. If it gets out, we will be in trouble."
Ye Shu was annoyed: "Then what if he kills me as soon as I slip in?"
"..." The little yellow dog said seriously, "Death in the small world will not affect the real safety, the host can rest assured."
Ye Shu remained silent.
The little yellow dog sighed: "As for me... More than ten years ago, I used that little dog named Awang as my host, and I came to visit you from time to time to understand the progress of the task. But now, because I couldn't complete the task for a long time, I was banned The main system punishes, if the task cannot be completed in one day, I will stay here for one more day."
Ye Shu looked at its wagging little tail, endured it, and still couldn't help asking: "Then you never thought that you can do other things, such as...be a human being?"
"What else can you do in the palace, be a eunuch? It's better to be a dog."
Ye Shu: "..."
The little yellow dog scratched his ears, and said again: "Anyway, that's the way it is. We are also desperate. After the task is completed, you can get whatever reward you want."
Ye Shu didn't answer.
After a long time, he sighed softly: "Whether you are paid or not, let's talk about it later."
"You said that the previous story line deviated from the original plot, so what happened to him... in the end?"
"At the end of that story line, Jin Wang sent troops to wipe out the two countries of Xixia and Dayan, and plunged the entire Central Plains into dire straits. On the night of his return to court, Jin Wang set fire to this cold palace, and finally... died in the sea of flames."
When Ye Shu returned to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, it was already sunset.
The servant had just helped Ye Shu off the imperial chariot, before he had time to hold an umbrella for him, Ye Shu had already walked quickly into the hall.
Jin Wang lay on the small couch facing the gate of the palace again.
Seeing him coming back, Jin Wang smiled slightly at him: "Where did you go, I've been waiting for you for almost two hours."
It was snowing heavily outside the house, and Ye Shu was already covered in snow after walking a few steps. The snow was quickly melted by the temperature inside the house, and the surface of the fox fur was slightly wet. Coupled with his pale face, he looked rather embarrassed.
"What's the matter?" Jin Wang restrained his smile a bit, and ordered, "What are you doing in a daze, change your clothes for the young master, and prepare a bowl of ginger tea."
Without waiting for the servant to take orders to do it, Ye Shu quickly walked up to Jin Wang, bent down, and hugged him tightly.
—"You performed so well in those years, Jin Wang couldn't face the betrayal of 'you' and the shadow of executing 'you' with his own hands."
- "He has a great psychological deviation and has become a real tyrant, a complete lunatic."
—"On the night when the class teacher returned to the court, Jin Wang set a fire in the cold palace, and finally... died in the sea of flames."
Ye Shu's body trembled slightly, so much that it almost pressed Jin Wang's wound.
Jin Wang naturally sensed his strangeness, and his voice softened a bit: "What happened?"
Ye Shu muffled: "... I'm sorry."
I'm sorry for leaving you in the first place.
Sorry for deceiving you like that in the past.
I'm sorry for my vacillating attitude before, which caused you so much grievance.
Tears rolled down his cheeks, and Jin Wang's shoulders soon became wet.
Ye Shu closed her eyes and repeated softly, "I'm sorry."