CH 6

Chapter 6 Reunion 

“Where is that weird kid here, the one with different eyes? Why didn’t he come out?” 

Steward Lin knew who the other party was talking about, and hurriedly replied, “It’s a terrible coincidence, but he’s sick.” 

Bai Shilei asked straightforwardly: “How could he get sick so soon? Wasn’t he still running around on the street yesterday?” 

“This…” Steward Lin was embarrassed: “Little General Bai…” 

“What are you mumbling for? My second brother is just curious and wants to take a look. Do you want money?” 

Seeing his look, Bai Shilei knew that he was trying to fool them. He looked around in the courtyard and glanced at the door he just came out of.

“I don’t dare, I don’t dare.” Steward Lin followed him to look back at the wood shed. Knowing that he could not hide it, he had to bite the bullet and tell the truth: “He was disobedient yesterday and was beaten. Now he looks unsightly, so I am afraid of offending the two nobles.” 

“Where is the person? I’ll just take a look.” 

At this point, Steward Lini had to walk a few steps forward quickly and gently opened the wooden door of the wood shed.

Liu Zhongming followed, stepping across the threshold, he frowned at the bloody smell in the wood shed. Then, he saw someone close to the wall with their backs to them, curled up into a ball, lying on their side watching. On the dirty bedding of an unclear color, he seemed to be asleep. 

Maybe it was because of living a bad life, that person looked small, more like a child than a teenager. 

There were weal marks all over his bare narrow and thin shoulders, and there was still fresh blood in some places, which had not healed. There was hardly a piece of intact skin. 

Bai Shilei also followed in the door: “What is this place? Why is it so unpleasant?” 

“Excuse the room. Generally, there are no people here. Only when servants are disobedient, they will be brought over,” Steward Lin spoke with a smile. Then, he stepped forward and pushed Qu Chenzhou’s shoulders: “Little Brother Qu, wake up, get up quickly.” 

Qu Chenzhou cried out in his heart. 

He pretended to sleep before the door opened, hoping that Liu Chongming would leave here. 

What can he do even if he still has his yearning?

He had already harmed Zhongmong one life, how could he dare to face him again? For an ominous person like him, naturally, the further away he was the better. 

What’s more, their current identities were so different, why should he have unnecessary thoughts and worry? 

But as Steward Lin shook him fiercely, Liu Zhongming didn’t move. He didn’t intend to leave at all. He obviously couldn’t fool around like this, and the wound was so painful that he couldn’t help trembling. He couldn’t pretend to sleep anymore. 

“Little Brother Qu, get up quickly, greet the prince and little General Bai!” 

“Ste….Steward Lin……” Qu Chenzhou could only pretend that he had just awakened from his sleep. He turned over and sat up with difficulty, and braced his arms. He moved his knees, lowered his head and slowly crawled over to the two of them. 

Footsteps approached him, and in his drooping sight, a pair of rusty plum brocade boots soon appeared. 

“Greetings prince…” 

Before the words were finished, a smell of fishy sweetness suddenly surged into his throat. After being beaten last night, the blood that had been congested for the whole night had been stagnating in his throat. 

Before he could hold it back, he coughed up a blood clot suddenly. The white shoes were sprayed with scarlet red in an instant. 

Steward Lin was shocked, and before the nobleman became angry, he slapped him in the face: “You contemptuous thing, look at what you did!” 

Qu Chenzhou was beaten to the side and couldn’t even care about the pain in his face. He spat out two mouthfuls of blood, panted and then paused. He heard Steward Lin repeatedly beg him for mercy and urged himself to get up and plead guilty. 

He tremblingly stretched out his hand to wipe the blood stains on those shoes.

“No need to wipe it.” A familiar young man’s voice came over his head, asking him: “What is your name?” 

His ten fingers on the ground curled up slightly. He knelt back again, lowered his head and replied softly: “This slave… is called Qu Chenzhou.” 

One hand supported his arm to stabilize his body, and another hand supported his chin, making him raise his head. 

When their eyes made contact, more than ten years flashed by in reverse in the blink of an eye. 

If it hadn’t been for him being accustomed of maintaining a poker face during the years in the palace, Qu Chenzhou would almost have red eyes in his pair of eyes. 

This face and this shallow smile was so familiar. 

He seemed to be still in the courtyard of Jinxi Academy. The son of Yao Shilang’s family led people to force him into a remote corner, and ride him as a horse. 

Although he was the official Si Tian Guan appointed by the Emperor, his timid appearance was exactly what some of the aristocratic family members in the academy liked to bully the most, and he didn’t dare to speak out. 

He didn’t understand what he had done wrong, so he knelt on the ground and tried to shrink into a ball. 

The young man who walked out from the corner of the corridor drove away the aristocratic families. He stood not far away with such a smile and asked softly: “Qu Sitian?” 

He raised his head, looking at the shadow of the backlight with teary eyes. 

At that time, none of them thought that this encounter would be the beginning of the chaos in the world. 

Liu Zhongming was also sizing up the person in front of him.

Although he hurriedly glanced at the escaped Qu Chenzhou on the street some time ago, he didn’t really see him clearly at all. Now being stared at by these strange eyes so closely, it was as if he was being seen through. 

The tails of these eyes were curved upwards and the corners of his eyes were deep. They looked drunk but not drunk. They were full of infatuation and deep emotions. 

And the pupils of different colors, which were very different from ordinary people, were like fine jade under the sun. It shone brightly with a trace of calmness that did not match their age. 

These eyes only looked at him for a moment, then lowered their gazes to look at the ground. Like a treasure that was not easy to reveal, it disappeared in a flash. 

The small pointed chin rested in his hands, like a piece of soft nephrite——still such a small child. 

What was shocking was that a terrible scar bulged from his left cheek, across the bridge of his nose, then crawled over to his right eye. Except for the most obvious one, there were more than a dozen criss-crossing deep and shallow scars on his face, ruining this face. 

Liu Chongming could even imagine how angry the whip-holder was, so much that he deliberately lashed out on his face. 

Because of the slap just now from Steward Lin, his thin lips were still glowing with dark red blood. Against this pale little face, his childishness revealed a weird coquettish, magnificence and fragileness. 

“Second brother.” Bai Shilei watched him squatting while pinching his nose and urged: “Do you want to go? It smells so bad here and if my brother can’t find us in a bit, he’ll be anxious.” 

“En.” Liu Zhongming took out a handkerchief from his arms and wiped Qu Chenzhou’s blood from the corner of his mouth before he stood up.

Seeing the person in front of him bow his head and kneel at his feet, somehow, he felt uncomfortable. 

Or it should be said that this person had such a serene gaze, but kneeling in such a humble manner, it was as if there was a sense of disharmony. 

He glanced over, looking at the porcelain bowl on the ground, which contained half a bowl of mixed vegetables and rice. 

“Was he eating this?” 

Steward Lin rubbed his fingers in his sleeve uncomfortably: “Sir, don’t tell the boss. The boss only said to put him down and allow him to enjoy some wine, but he didn’t give him food. It was something I brought here secretly…” 

Liu Zhongming frowned, “What does ‘put him down’ mean?” 

Steward Lin realized that he had made a mistake, but he didn’t dare to talk nonsense to the prince. He answered: “After being caught yesterday, this person has been hanging here and was just let down now.” 

“Is this injury also from yesterday?” 

“Yes…” Steward Lin did not dare to meet Liu Zhongming’s gaze, he stammered: “He was hit…sixty-four whips.” 

Hearing what he said, Bai Shilei couldn’t help but tsk, “This Du Quan is too harsh, isn’t he afraid of killing the person?” 

Steward Lin bowed, but did not dare to speak more. 

Liu Zhongming stood for a moment, then he took out a small silver ingot from his purse around his waist, put the handkerchief into Qu Chenzhou’s hand, turned and left. 

It wasn’t until the wooden door closed again that Qu Chenzhou slowly straightened up, moved back to lying on the mattress with difficulty, rubbing the silver ingot in his palm.

Although it was a cold thing, wrapped in the familiar smell of the handkerchief, he seemed to be able to sense a little temperature. He put the handkerchief on the tip of his nose and gently bit his lip. 

Being reborn, he didn’t dare to ask too much, let alone get too close to Liu Zhongming. He only wanted to die quietly and only wanted to get a thin coffin after death. 

When Liu Zhongming walked quickly to the front hall, Bai Shilei was still babbling: “This Du Quan is too ruthless. How can he beat him like that? He looks even smaller than me.” 

“It’s not uncommon.” Liu Zhongming was calm: “He’s just a slave. Since he was sold, no one will ask if he is killed. There are many dead people in the mass graves in the north of the city.” 

Bai Shilei shrank his neck. 

Their family would never buy domestic slaves. Even if his father won a victory and took prisoners back into slavery, he would never leave them in the house. 

“This…” 

“This is too cruel, isn’t it?” Liu Zhongming looked into the distance silently, and sighed as if he was talking to himself: “On one hand, it is not moral conduct, treating people as cattle. On the other hand, they are begging for God’s blessing, how funny.” 

Bai Shilei didn’t know what he was talking about, so he couldn’t answer the conversation, he could only follow along. 

Before reaching the front yard, Bai Shiyan hurriedly came to face him: “Where did you two go?” 

Liu Zhongming sent Bai Shilei to play elsewhere, and stood with Bai Shiyan in the yard.

“I just went to the back with Shi Lei to take a look at the kid.” 

“No wonder you were willing to show Du Quan some face today to join in the fun.” Bai Shiyan understood who he was talking about: “Why? Want to buy him back? Don’t think about it, I heard that the little monster can’t do divinations now.” 

“What would you buy him for? To brag you got swindled? I don’t do business that loses money.” Liu Zhongming didn’t say much about what he saw in the wood shed: “There is no purpose, just a whim to come and have a look.” 

Bai Shiyan understood him. Knowing that he was definitely not a person who liked to watch something for it’s novelty: “Ahongming, what’s the matter? Why do you suddenly care about him so much?” 

Liu Zhongming knew that he couldn’t hide it, and he didn’t intend to hide it. 

“Shi Yan, last night… the dream was a little bit more.” He looked at the Begonia tree in the courtyard: “The man in the corridor raised his head.”