Chapter 106: Chinu's Self-Talk (III)

【Nonsense.

Truly nonsense.

If it weren't poisonous mushrooms, I wouldn't even pick them!

Do I really look like the kind of good-hearted person who likes to stew tonic soup?!

I vaguely still remember the anxiety I felt then, but what followed was a hint of surprise.

Among the refugees, everyone, to some extent, carries a look of misery.

There are not a few people who are starved to yellow skin and thin, their faces unrecognizable.

Now looking closely, those two figures, one big and one small, are exactly the pair of brothers with a considerable age gap I saw in the Mass Grave last early winter.

Only now, for some unknown reason, they were previously 'brothers,' but now they have become 'father and son.'

The child stared at the mushrooms in my hand, swallowing saliva, and kept calling out 'dad'.

The older man could only force a smile at me:

"This young brother, my child has been hungry for several days, really can't go on......"

"I see you've picked some mushrooms; I happen to come from a place of toxic mist and can recognize several kinds of poisonous mushrooms there, so I could help you identify a few. I don't know if you could be kind enough to give my child a bowl of soup?"

Give?

Give a ghost!

Still want soup?

One bowl of poisonous mushroom soup each, let's all die together and call it a ball!

One hour later.

I, Yu Hen, A Chou, that father-son pair, and a big man who relies on gathering firewood to share soup are squatting in a ruined temple drinking soup.

That man calls himself Leitie, saying he is an artisan with a family craft; his father and uncles were all conscripted for forced labor and died from overwork, dissatisfied with the Imperial Court, he fled.

That 'father-son' pair, the father calls himself Ouyang Yan, the son calls himself Ouyang An.

The Ouyang surname has existed for a long time; although rare, it is not unheard of.

This surname perhaps sounds nothing to others, and has no relation whatsoever to the surname of the King of An Nan.

But to my ears, this surname is a direct admission that they come from the An Nan royal family.

The surname of the King of An Nan is 【Shi】, but before the three dynasties, he was once enfeoffed at Ouyu Mountain.

An Nan was not originally a fief, and the first King of An Nan was not originally a prince, merely a pavilion marquis.

After several generations of cultivation, they finally earned respect in one region, were granted a fief, and made a prince.

Ouyu Mountain lies in the southwest of the Nine Provinces, and An Nan happens to be situated to its south; the south of the mountain is yang, so they took the surname 【Ouyang】.

If members of the An Nan royal family wanted to travel conveniently, they would disguise their intent......

Indeed, there is no surname more convenient to use than Ouyang.

I asked about their surname, and unintentionally asked why they ended up here.

Ouyang Yan felt a bit embarrassed, while the younger Ouyang An couldn't hide it.

He said:

"It's not that there is an extremely biased and muddled elder in the family, who neither educates nor supports the younger generation, is neither kind nor loving, and dislikes me and... my father."

"We had originally thought that if he didn't care about us, it wouldn't matter; we could go out and make a living, there would always be a way to survive, but we didn't expect to be squeezed again......"

"We really had no choice, so we tried various ways to escape! This time too, we were almost at our doorstep, then we jumped into the river......"

Ouyang An seemed full of grievance, crying while drinking soup, pouring out accusations like spilled beans against the elders' misdeeds at home.

Ouyang Yan, beside him, would occasionally interject to steer the conversation away from topics that occasionally revealed the truth.

Thus, after that meal, others could only guess from fragments, tacitly accepting that the situation of these two father and son was roughly——

The father married into a wealthy family, but failed to win the favor of his father-in-law; after his wife died, the father-in-law suspected him of killing his own daughter, and thereafter he faced various difficulties......

This idea persisted until two months ago, when a group of people fled everywhere, until they were caught by the constables of the Cangnan County Office and distributed everywhere.

After a period of time, those refugees who originally intended to settle down have basically settled down.

Only those with other thoughts, or those seriously ill or injured, did not leave.

Everyone originally thought no one would be selected, so they should be released.

As a result, finally, that constable, for some unknown reason, blurted out 'Tribute Workshop'.

And that final selected young lady, for some unknown reason, as soon as she opened her mouth, said......】

"Why don't you continue speaking?"

Du Shanü racked her brains, trying hard to interrupt Chinu's train of thought:

"Does the wound still hurt?"

Chinu said nothing, just remained silent.

The long night has fallen, the candlelight had gone out sometime ago.

The two had already changed clothes and lain in bed, curled up under the covers telling stories.

The bed is wide, the bedding soft and loose.

This should have been a comfortable, warm time, yet it fell silent due to a passage of life.

The sound of breathing was magnified in the darkness.

Chinu remained silent for a long time, seeming to finally turn from that years-long pain, coldly saying:

"No, that's not what you first said."

"You said, you only want Yu Baobao."

The autumn night was tranquil, suddenly turning chilly.

Du Shanü sighed in her heart, realizing she could not escape this fate tonight.

She tilted her head, leaned her face forward an inch, wanting to coax Chinu:

"...... Give me a kiss, okay?"

"Or, do you want it like last night......?"

Chinu is easy to coax.

Chinu, in fact, has always been easy to coax.

Du Shanü vaguely felt she had already found a way to soothe Chinu—just kiss his little mouth, rub his belly.

Chinu can always become well-behaved.

But tonight, it seems somewhat different.

Chinu refused her.

The sky was already dark.

However, the resentment here has only just begun to show a hint.

Du Shanü heard Chinu's voice, slightly hoarse and enduring, coming faintly from the darkness:

"You actually don't like me, right?"

These words were abrupt, like a stone dropped into a calm, waveless lake.

Du Shanü's patience was extraordinarily long tonight; she simply asked:

"Why would you have such an illusion?"

In the darkness, all things are unclear to see, indistinct to discern.

Chinu's brows and eyes were hidden in the chaos; after a moment, he only replied:

"Because, I always feel you are...... appreciating my pain."

"Every time, every time, only when I tell you how pitiful I am do you want to treat me well."

"But if I don't dig up my bloody past, you wouldn't think of me."

Just like, just like being left in the heavy rain this morning.

Just like, just like in the earlier dense forest......

He has to say how he was born into a lowly station, how he walked out of the Orphanage, how miserable he was, only then would he receive some promises and leniency.

And Yu Baobao doesn't need to do anything.

He only needs to stand there, and someone will love him.

The long night stretches on.

But this time, Chinu felt completely awake.

He propped himself up and sat for a long time in the darkness.

The moonlight was thin; Du Shanü couldn't see his face clearly.

However, at this moment, perhaps it is finally a good time for a heart-to-heart.

So good that even the Smiling Fiend finally wants to tear off that mask of eternal laughter, revealing his foul interior.

Du Shanü lay on her back, using her arm as a pillow behind her head; after several breaths, she slowly exhaled and said:

"Since you insist on saying that, I have no choice but to ask you something."

"Did you come to seduce me because you think I'm good, or merely because Yu Baobao likes me, so you want to take me away?"

?? The reason they say Chinu is like an awakened NPC is because sometimes he is indeed quite perceptive.

? This ruler-subject pair is also indeed more like a married couple......