Obsessively Raised by My Doll 21

Chapter 21

The next day, the sun was bright.

Lu Dieqing realized she had had a rare good night’s sleep.

She stretched her body, lifting her head slightly from the quilt like a waking kitten, her eyes still hazy.

But she hadn’t forgotten to interact with her little wooden doll.

“Xinxin, it’s a new day.”

She picked up the little doll and pressed it against her cheek.

No movement.

Lu Dieqing’s body jolted, and she became fully awake.

Why is my Xinxin not moving again?

In her anxiety, Lu Dieqing even shook the doll, but the wooden figure, devoid of its spirit, was no different from any ordinary statue.

Perhaps because she had already been through this once before, Lu Dieqing, though disappointed this time, quickly pulled herself together.

“Is my method of spiritual awakening wrong? Or… did I not do something right, did I miss a key point?”

That shouldn’t be it. The puppetry manuals clearly state that the most difficult part of making a doll is the process before the spiritual awakening. As long as the awakening is successful, everything after that should be smooth.

Lu Dieqing sat blankly on the bed, staring at her wooden doll and thinking furiously. Her hair fell around her face, making her look even more like an adorable little creature.

She closed her eyes and began to recall the most important points in the puppetry manuals. Her slender, willow-leaf brows furrowed, making her face look like a pink dough ball.

The sky had truly cleared up. It wasn’t snowing today. The snow in the courtyard had been swept away by Lu He and her husband.

Lu He glanced at her daughter’s closed door and realized that her daughter hadn’t gotten up yet today.

“I’ll go check on Qingqing,” she said to Bai Ming, a little worried.

It wasn’t that she was overthinking it; it was just that she could count on one hand the number of times her daughter had woken up so late. Lu Dieqing had never been one to sleep in. She understood her parents’ hardships and would always rush to do any chores at home before finding a chance to go out and look around. When she was little, Lu Dieqing often wandered around like a little kitten secretly exploring the imperial city. It was only after she grew up that her personality became quieter, and she went to fewer places. It seemed she had also truly come to understand that this imperial city was not her home; it was not kind or tolerant to her and her parents.

Her home was far, far away. Before she was even born, she and her parents had already lost their homeland.

Lu He pushed the door open and saw her well-behaved daughter sitting in a corner of the bed, her little mouth murmuring as if talking to herself, her face filled with deep, contemplative confusion.

“Ahem.” Lu He coughed at the door.

Lu Dieqing looked over as if waking from a long dream.

“Mother?” She tilted her head, and the little wooden doll in her hand swayed in sync with her.

The scene was truly adorable.

Seeing her daughter’s dazed and innocent look, Lu He’s heart melted.

“It’s cold. Was the quilt too thin at night?”

She smiled, closed the door, and walked over to touch Lu Dieqing’s two small hands, checking their temperature.

Lu Dieqing shyly pulled her hands back, blinking her bright almond eyes and smiling at her mother.

“Not at all, not at all. Mother, I’m not a child anymore.”

Her mother had just treated her like a little baby, which made her feel quite embarrassed.

Lu He chuckled. “How are you not a child? To me, you’ll still be a child even when you’re a hundred years old.”

Thinking of the letter she had sent to the Shan royal family, the smile on Lu He’s face faded, and a sense of worry and reluctance appeared in her heart.

She was worried that after more than a decade in the Chaoying Kingdom, the already faint family ties of the royals had been worn even thinner. Will my mother, the Empress, be willing to take Qingqing back?

The reluctance, of course, was for the day she would truly have to part with Qingqing. This was the child she had carried for ten months and given birth to, the child she had raised from a tiny bundle to this size. She was destined to stay in the Chaoying Kingdom until she grew old and died; she could not return to Shan. If her daughter were truly taken back to Shan, she didn’t know if they would ever have a chance to meet again in their lifetime.

Thinking of being separated by a great distance in the future, though it wasn’t a parting by death, it was a parting in life where they would never see each other again. Hot tears almost welled up in Lu He’s eyes.

“Mother, what’s wrong?” Lu Dieqing was an observant girl and promptly noticed the change in Lu He’s emotions.

Lu He sat down, pulled Lu Dieqing into her embrace, and stroked the top of her head.

“I just feel that I’ve let you down…” Lu He choked up, holding her daughter even tighter.

This imperial city was like a cage.

Seeing her daughter so considerate and sensible, she would think, If she hadn’t been born and raised here, would my daughter be happier?

Lu Dieqing couldn’t bear to see her mother so sad. She quickly acted cute and coquettish, wriggling in Lu He’s embrace like a little monkey.

“Mother, Mother~ You gave birth to me, and you and Father have been with me as I’ve grown up. This life is already better than that of many people in the world. I’m very content! No one else has a mother as beautiful as mine!”

Perhaps because she had been practicing her sweet talk on the little wooden doll these past few days, Lu Dieqing found that she was especially good at speaking now!

Her mother’s eyes had been red, lost in some sad thought, but after her praise, she was smiling so much her face was about to bloom!

After Lu He left the room, Lu Dieqing gently tapped her own head.

“I still have to save money! I need to buy better materials to make a doll.”

She took out all her private savings from her treasured makeup box.

The little girl counted seriously. One, two, three, four, five…

She now had three taels and seven qian of silver.

If she wanted to leave the palace to buy good materials, she either had to ask someone, or…

Suddenly, a thought popped into her mind. Lu Dieqing’s heart began to pound violently, but she immediately pushed it back down.

I must be crazy!

Just now, I was actually thinking about whether I could use the waist token the Crown Princess gave me to leave the palace and buy the doll materials myself.

Pah, pah, pah, Lu Dieqing, you can’t do that.

Her Highness the Crown Princess gave you her personal waist token because she sees you as a fellow researcher of dolls. You already took advantage of it yesterday by using it for protection. If you use it again to leave the palace, that would be going too far.

Lu Dieqing’s heart was in turmoil, shaking her head one moment, tempted the next.

Finally, she managed to extinguish all her thoughts.

Forget it, forget it. I won’t go.

But!

Sob, sob, sob. Looking at the gold-plated waist token in her hand, Lu Dieqing found it hard to resist the thought of using it to leave the palace. She only had three taels of silver. If she asked someone to buy the materials, she would definitely have to give some to the middleman. If she went out herself, not only could she buy everything, but she could also…

She could also see the outside world again.

Lu Dieqing really, really wanted to see what was outside the imperial palace.

…

A quarter past noon.

At a small side gate of the imperial palace.

A slender figure, mixed in with a group of palace staff leaving to make purchases, stood in line waiting for the guards’ inspection. She clenched her small hands, feeling anxious.

The palace staff in front of her were all let through. When it was Lu Dieqing’s turn, the guard stared at her suspiciously for a few moments.

“Which palace are you from? Why do you look so unfamiliar?”

Even though Lu Dieqing had borrowed a maid’s clothes, her face was an unhideable beauty. The guard’s gaze lingered for a few moments, unable to look away, wondering when such a good-looking maid had appeared in the palace. Her beauty surpassed even that of the noble consorts in the rear palace; she shouldn’t be an ordinary palace maid.

Being questioned, Lu Dieqing immediately started to stammer.

“I… I am…”

Her lips parted a few times as she tried to come up with a lie, to just confidently say she was from Changning Palace. If the guard didn’t believe her, she could righteously take out the waist token to prove her identity.

But lying was so hard!

Her face flushed red, and she nearly buried her head. The guard’s gaze toward her grew more and more wary.

“Stammering and unable to speak. Your identity is suspicious!”

Just as the guard was about to apprehend her, a voice suddenly came from behind.

“She is with me.”

The guard was startled, and Lu Dieqing’s body trembled as well.

Everyone turned to look.

The Crown Princess, dressed in white, rode a tall horse, slowly approaching and stopping in front of Lu Dieqing.

The horse, as if knowing its master’s thoughts, even bared its teeth at the guard and snorted. Then, its hooves clopped on the ground as it circled around, shielding Lu Dieqing behind it.

Lu Dieqing froze, looking up in a daze.

On the tall horse, the Crown Princess was stunningly beautiful. Her lip color was a bit pale, but her eyes were exceptionally deep.

She gave the stunned little palace maid a smile.

“Tell me, am I right?”

—Are you not mine?