Obsessively Raised by My Doll 19

Chapter 19

Tonight, the moon was full.

Lu Dieqing held the little doll and went to look at the moon in the courtyard.

The snow always fell heavily when one wasn’t paying attention. The ground was once again covered in a considerable layer of snow. Illuminated by the bright moonlight, the entire courtyard lit up.

“Xinxin, I used to come out to the courtyard to look at the moon often.”

Lu Dieqing was in an extremely good mood today. Her bright eyes were so gentle they seemed about to drip with light, and the curve of her lips was soft.

But this time, I’m watching it with Xinxin!

I’m not alone anymore. I’ll always have my little doll to accompany me!

Compared to Lu Dieqing’s happiness, the wooden doll, true to its name, seemed a bit wooden and unresponsive.

Zheng Xuening, adjusting to this wooden doll’s body, leaned against Lu Dieqing’s embrace. She glanced at the moon, then back at the Little Princess of Shan.

—What’s so good about looking at the moon?

She had suffered from insomnia due to headaches for years, watching the moon above her head night after night after night. The moon was the same every day.

Zheng Xuening didn’t like the night, nor did she like the moon. The desolate moonlight was too lonely and cold, making her… feel that the night was even longer.

On many nights, she would curl up in a small corner of the grand hall. After dismissing all the palace staff, she would let herself be tormented by the splitting headache, becoming a pathetic figure worlds apart from the noble Crown Princess.

Perhaps she was even worse off than the white cat her mother, the Empress, had raised back then.

For many years, Zheng Xuening had felt as if she were trapped in the year her mother had passed away. She couldn’t get out, and there was no path to be found.

The imperial palace was too big.

But tonight seemed a little different. With the naive Little Princess of Shan by her side, what she felt was no longer the desolation and coldness of the moon.

The moon didn’t seem so detestable anymore.

But Lu Dieqing’s foolishness remained unchanged, just as it was when they first met.

Lu Dieqing noticed the little doll’s silence. Seeing that she wasn’t speaking, she said patiently, “Xinxin, you don’t like looking at the moon?”

Ever since she had brought Xinxin out of the house, the little doll had been silent. Did she not like the scenery outside?

“Or do you feel cold?”

After saying this, Lu Dieqing didn’t hesitate at all. She tucked the little doll into her collar, leaving only the doll’s head exposed.

When taking care of the little doll, she was truly gentle and considerate, as well as generous. Whatever she had, she was willing to take it all out and stuff it onto the little doll.

Zheng Xuening felt a little dazed.

Lu Dieqing was not like other girls at all. If she developed an affection for someone, that affection would become overly sincere, even as scalding as a little sun.

Although the young girl was thin, she already had the soft curves of a young woman. When the wooden doll was tucked inside, Zheng Xuening practically froze, her soul tensing up.

Thump-thump-thump-thump.

The sound of a heartbeat, one after another, came right next to Zheng Xuening’s ear. She was so close to Lu Dieqing that for a moment, she couldn’t tell if the heartbeat was the other’s or her own.

But she was just a wooden doll right now. Where would a heartbeat come from?

“I’ll hide you here to keep you warm. You’re not cold now, are you?”

Lu Dieqing was completely unaware of the little doll’s stiffness. She even felt a little proud. After successfully re-awakening the spirit, she was a very qualified puppeteer, doting on her little doll to her heart’s content, absolutely not letting Xinxin feel disappointed!

Some things, losing them once is enough.

As the little doll Xinxin, having just come into this world, perhaps she didn’t even know what joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness were. It didn’t matter. She would teach Xinxin one by one.

Lu Dieqing was a completely different person from her weepy self of the past few times. She was bright and gentle. Even a person made of iron, when faced with this girl, would probably not be able to resist being melted.

Zheng Xuening felt herself being held in an embrace, pressed against a warm, soft heart, and for a moment, didn’t know what to say.

She stared wide-eyed at Lu Dieqing.

But the Little Princess of Shan was smiling like a carefree, silly rabbit, completely unaware that such purity could get her caught by a hunter by the ears and eaten.

Often, Lu Dieqing gave her the feeling that she was a cold stone, and the other was a silly rabbit trying to warm the stone with its fur.

—Did she really think a stone would melt like ice when warmed?

“What is your name?” Zheng Xuening finally took the initiative to start a topic.

The Crown Princess, hidden beneath the wooden doll, discarded the memories she had gathered from her investigation during the day. Though she knew everything about Lu Dieqing, she insisted on asking her in person.

“Lu Dieqing.”

Being asked a question with such concern by the little doll for the first time, Lu Dieqing’s happiness was visible to the naked eye. The smile on her little face was much brighter.

“You awakened me. Who do you want me to kill?” Zheng Xuening asked again.

The girl, who had been watching the moon in the courtyard with her little doll, had the smile freeze on her face after hearing those words.

“No, Xinxin.”

Lu Dieqing was almost a little frightened. Her fingers stroked the little doll’s head as she gently tried to reason with it.

“Why would you suddenly say something like that?”

Seeing her soft appearance, Zheng Xuening couldn’t help but think of the scene from today, when Matron Li and her gang of wicked servants had surrounded her.

“Whoever bullies you, wouldn’t it be good for me to kill them for you? If you weren’t being bullied, why would you perform the spiritual awakening to summon me?”

The little doll’s tone was indifferent, but the meaning it conveyed startled Lu Dieqing.

“That’s not it…”

Lu Dieqing was terrified. She almost felt the helplessness of a parent whose child was about to go astray before they had even been properly raised.

She lifted the little wooden doll, which had just been warmed up, out from her collar.

“Xinxin. There are good people and bad people in this world. Bad people sometimes do wrong things, but being punished doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be killed. And besides, I wasn’t being bullied…”

The little girl’s eyes went wide. Like a little teacher pretending to be serious, she tried to set the doll straight. When she spoke that last sentence, however, her voice grew even quieter.

It was just that this little teacher was far too soft and cute. She had no intimidating presence; she was simply adorable.

“Every country has its laws. Only outlaws and bandits would speak so casually of killing and bloodshed.”

The young girl possessed a childlike innocence. As she lectured with such seriousness, Zheng Xuening felt the urge to pinch her cheek, just to shatter that pure aura.

“If you don’t pull out the weeds by the root, they will only grow back stronger. If you don’t kill them, their next retaliation will only be more vicious. How will you defend yourself then?”

Zheng Xuening had never considered herself a good person. Especially in the position of the heir apparent, with so many coveting her seat, how could she make an example of some to warn the others and maintain order without a few iron-fisted methods?

She saw herself as a black inkstone, and Lu Dieqing as a bolt of unfurled white silk. It made her want to take her ink and stain that silk, bit by bit, until it was dyed completely in her own color.

This was the first time the little doll had spoken so much.

Lu Dieqing was shocked by her earth-shattering words. Her lips parted, and her fingertips trembled.

“I…”

Why does it have to be about killing?

She only wanted to become a puppeteer because she felt insecure. She was occasionally given a hard time and felt her situation was difficult; she just wanted a little doll to protect her and to improve life for herself and her parents.

But she had no desire to become a great, evil demon who killed people.

Lu Dieqing was gentle by nature. Even though she felt in her heart that what the little doll said was wrong, for a moment, she couldn’t find the words to argue back. She could only stand there, her glistening eyes wide.

The little girl looked utterly terrified.

Zheng Xuening watched her for a moment, her tone taking on a bewitching quality.

“Didn’t you want me to protect you? Tell me who has bullied you, and I will take care of them for you. How about it?”

The reawakened little doll seemed to possess something more than before, something indescribable. She seemed somewhat malevolent, like an intangible energy trying to slowly seep into and corrupt Lu Dieqing.

“Is it Matron Li? She bullies you, right?”

It seemed that if this pitiful Little Princess of Shan just nodded, Matron Li’s head would fall the very next day.

Lu Dieqing was a little frightened, her gaze avoiding the doll.

Zheng Xuening leaped from her fair, tender palm and began to inch her way up the girl’s arm.

“Why aren’t you looking at me? Hmm?”

For some reason, Lu Dieqing found it hard to breathe at that moment, and her heart began to race. She was both afraid of this little doll… and yet, she kind of liked it.