Chapter 85: Cheng Shizhu
Everything that happened in the ancient world after she left felt like watching a “timeline of major events” from an outsider’s perspective for Xiao Luohan, who had completely detached herself from that environment.
The Crown Prince of Daying died, plunging the country into chaos. Beiliao invented “new firearms,” catching Daying off guard and forcing them into retreat.
—These were also the scenes she and Jiang Xue had witnessed through the window in the “mindscape.”
At the same time, after reading the letter, Xiao Luohan’s mother kept Shizhu by her side. Soon, both of them were taken out of the palace by the late Empress’s maternal family and settled in the Jiang household.
Almost immediately afterward, a coup took place in the Beiliao imperial palace. The Emperor of Beiliao, coerced by the Jiang family, wrote a “self-criticizing edict” and abdicated. The incompetent Second Prince inherited the throne, obeying the Jiang family’s every command.
Three years later, the new emperor abdicated, and the second young miss of the Jiang family—the late Empress’s younger sister—ascended the throne, changing the era name to “Liuzhao,” meaning “Though we are far apart and cannot hear each other, I wish the moonlight to flow and illuminate you,” commemorating the deceased eldest daughter of the Jiang family and Xiao Linghan, who had been secretly helping them.
After that, it was a long period of reform and change, a hundred years passing like a fleeting moment.
“I sent dreams to your mother and Shizhu. They’re both happy for you,” the red fox said. “Shizhu is old, but she’s attentive, so your mother kept her by her side, often asking her to tell stories about your life in Daying.”
She didn’t elaborate on Xiao Luohan’s mother’s reaction after hearing Shizhu’s stories.
To err is human. Even if Xiao Luo could completely understand her mother’s choice at the time, and knew that her mother had done it for her own good, she had still been sent to the gates of hell by her closest relative, almost dying in Daying. It was difficult to be completely without resentment.
Xiao Luohan didn’t ask further, only nodding. “Did they… did they both have a peaceful end?”
“Your mother was frail. In her old age, she suffered from common ailments, but she could still take care of herself. It was just that the pain would become unbearable during flare-ups,” the red fox continued. “Shizhu, on the other hand, suffered from various illnesses due to a lifetime of hard work.”
“When the pain became unbearable, she begged your mother to grant her a quick death. Your mother couldn’t bear it, so she secretly had someone replace the poison with other medicine, planning to tell Shizhu the next day that ‘Heaven doesn’t want you to die,’ hoping she would live a little longer and see the changes in the world.”
“But that night, after taking the ordinary medicine, Shizhu, holding the portraits of you and her deceased daughter, passed away peacefully with a smile on her face.”
The red fox paused. “I know you care about Shizhu, so I witnessed it until the very end. When her soul dissipated, a little girl carrying a rabbit lantern came, and they left hand in hand, smiling.”
“Shizhu… she was happy even though she didn’t see you after death. She even told me, ‘I hope I can still make chili dipping sauce for Princess Zhuìyù in the next life.'”
“Her death deeply saddened your mother. They had depended on each other for the latter half of their lives. Less than half a year later, the Jiang family held your mother’s funeral. According to their wishes, their ashes were buried on a mountain overlooking Beiliao.”
Xiao Luohan remembered that both her mother and Shizhu were very particular about cleanliness. Compared to being buried and having their bodies slowly decompose, they would indeed prefer to be cremated and have their ashes stored in urns.
She opened her mouth, but couldn’t say anything.
She hadn’t been present during that long period of time and didn’t know where to start, whether to talk about her mother or Shizhu.
She felt her voice choked with sobs—tears blurred her vision again, wetting her cheeks, her collar, and the red fox’s fur.
A soft touch on her face, not fur, but a tissue with a faint fragrance.
“Why are you crying so much?”
She heard Jiang Xue’s soft voice nearby. “Did you have a nightmare? I should have taken the sleeping pills and joined you in the dream…”
“If you dare take those pills recklessly, I won’t prescribe any medicine for you!” Dr. Qi’s voice interrupted, exasperated.
Xiao Luohan pursed her lips and couldn’t help but say, “It wasn’t a nightmare…”
It wasn’t bad news, but hearing that the two elders who had treated her best in the ancient world had found peace, even fulfilling their wishes in death, had moved her deeply.
After waking up, while eating the black rice and goji berry porridge Sister Cheng made, Xiao Luohan slowly recounted the “dream” to everyone.
Jiang Xue, also easily moved, started crying as soon as she heard that Shizhu had been taken care of.
“I was wondering why Xiao Linghan was so quiet after returning. So she was weaving another dream,” Jiang Mei said, frowning and rubbing her forehead. “Now she’s truly exhausted. I don’t know if she’ll be able to wake up when I visit the Xie family elder during the holiday…”
This person… this soul, although another version of herself from a parallel world, was quite different from her in her way of doing things.
Jiang Mei muttered softly, deciding to read through Xiao Linghan’s memories, from her childhood to her death, during the New Year’s holiday, to understand her thought process and habits.
She had come home specifically to explain the situation to her sister and Xiao Luohan. Now that she had explained everything, and Xiao Luohan had also woken up from her dream, she said goodbye and returned to work.
At the sisters’ insistence, Dr. Qi still gave Xiao Luohan an IV drip of glucose. After the drip was finished, she removed the needle, took the medical waste, and left.
Sister Cheng, still worried, brought two glasses of brown sugar pearl milk tea. Jiang Xue, her eyes swollen from crying, hugged the milk tea, took a sip, and said in a trembling voice, “That’s great, Elder Sister Red Fox’s wish… her wish has been fulfilled, and she’s also come over…”
It was clear that her mind was still processing everything.
This was understandable. Being hit by two major pieces of news at once, first Elder Sister Red Fox’s “resurrection,” and then the establishment of a prosperous era for women in a parallel world she had interacted with, she felt like she was dreaming.
“It’s a pity I couldn’t help,” Xiao Luohan said, still feeling regretful.
It took Jiang Xue half a glass of milk tea to recover. She shook her head. “We probably already helped unintentionally.”
“We provided the manufacturing ideas and usage principles for the ‘new firearms,’ and Elder Sister Red Fox also referenced the social system that has been successfully implemented here for many years—you’ve been reading history textbooks, haven’t you?”
“Just like we don’t know when Elder Sister Red Fox learned to type in pinyin on the phone, she must have also learned a lot while you were studying.”
“Contribute what you can within your abilities. We ‘planted willows unintentionally and they grew into shade,’ not ‘didn’t help at all.'”
After all, it was a dynastic change in another world, involving too many aspects. What could two inexperienced underage students like them do?
Xiao Luohan understood what Jiang Xue was saying.
She just felt a sense of regret and subconsciously felt like a deserter for leaving that world, not sharing the burden with those women.
Jiang Xue, good at face-to-face communication and observation, noticed this from her behavior.
But she decided to stop there. Some things had to be figured out by Xiao Luo herself. Overemphasizing it would only be counterproductive.
After Xiao Luohan had more or less come to terms with this, Cheng Shizhu, who had finished her “winter break job” at the milk tea shop, was also brought to the Jiang family’s home by Sister Cheng.
Cheng Shizhu’s appearance resembled a tall and slender bamboo, with delicate features and a silver lock pendant around her neck, a “longevity lock” that Sister Cheng had given her when she was young, for protection.
She was usually busy with both her studies and part-time jobs, so she had cut her naturally curly hair very short, with bangs only reaching her eyebrows, and even dyed two strands lime green, looking very stylish.
But her voice was as sweet as syrup, making people want to be close to her.
“Is this Xiao Luo, who came from ancient times?” she asked with a smile as soon as she saw Xiao Luohan. “She’s so cute and gentle. I heard everyone likes you, so count me in, okay?”
Xiao Luohan had seen a portrait of Shizhu’s deceased daughter in the dream Elder Sister Red Fox had shown her.
She had thought that portraits in ancient times would be different from the actual person, but after seeing Cheng Shizhu, she suddenly understood what it meant for “someone to step out of a painting.”
“Shizhu… Jiejie,” she said, a little awkwardly using this new form of address, but thinking that this name was given by the Shizhu here to her beloved daughter, she deliberately used it a few more times to get used to it.
The three hit it off and, after introductions, sat in the study and chatted.
Cheng Shizhu hadn’t been admitted to her desired major in university and had been preparing for the transfer exam for the past two years, so busy that she barely had time for part-time jobs. During the break, she didn’t want to talk about her studies, just mentioning it briefly. Seeing that they were both drinking homemade milk tea, she asked, “Do you have any favorite teas, fruits, or ingredients?”
Seeing their puzzled looks, she smiled even brighter. “Even ‘dark cuisine’ recipes are fine. As long as you can name it, I’ll make you a delicious drink to go with my mom’s cupcakes and cookies!”
“Sure! Then I’ll call A-Xi over!” Jiang Xue immediately took out her phone. “She loves experimenting with strange recipes, but I wouldn’t dare drink the things she makes…”
But if it was Shizhu Jiejie, that was a different story!
Xie Xitong, upon invitation, arrived with her cat, but the usually gentle white cat, upon seeing Cheng Shizhu, stared at her wide-eyed for a few seconds, then arched its back, its fur bristling, and even hissed.
“Oh, it still holds a grudge after all this time!” Cheng Shizhu clicked her tongue and explained to Xiao Luohan, “A-Xi asked me to help bathe and trim its nails. I was doing it just fine, but it suddenly struggled and started bleeding. It was hurt, so it clung to me.”
“Jiang Xue and I were baking dried fish in the kitchen. They were freshly baked, and Xixi, with its keen sense of smell, smelled them and started making a fuss,” Xie Xitong added. “It even scratched Shizhu Jiejie’s hand.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m often scratched when rescuing stray cats near the school. I’m used to it, my skin is thick,” Cheng Shizhu said, taking off her gloves and rolling up her sleeves, revealing her “cat rescue battle scars.”
Xiao Luohan was a little worried. “I heard that you have to get a rabies vaccine immediately after being scratched by a stray cat…”
“I did, I’m very careful about this!” Cheng Shizhu smiled and pulled down her sleeves. “I can’t let Mom worry about such small matters!”
As they chatted, the white cat meowed repeatedly in Cheng Shizhu’s arms, finally bribed by the dried fish she had brought from her roommate, reluctantly settling down in her lap.
