The years I was in the human world

There were not many palace servants in Changle Palace. Since Chu Zhaoli steamed the osmanthus cake herself, there were not many people in the kitchen. Only Lu Zhouxue was watching the fire by the stove. The whole house was filled with the sweet fragrance of the cakes.

Hearing the noise of someone coming in, he didn't even look up. He just put firewood into the stove, used the tongs to stir the fire, and said in a fake tone: "Xiao Li'er's steamed cakes are delicious, but it's a pity that they are steamed for others. I am still benefiting from others' blessings."

"What do you mean? Does that mean I'll miss out on your food? Didn't you eat the most when we were kneading the dough yesterday?" Chu Zhaoli also laughed when he heard that. He chatted with Lu Zhouxue casually while taking down the steamer on top and cut off a few pieces of hot dough and stuffed them to Du Qiao. "Take it and eat it, girl."

The third prince who came along saw everyone having fun in the kitchen and something in his heart was touched. His biological mother passed away early and Concubine Xie did not like him. Although the emperor doted on him, he was still the sovereign after all. Such warm moments were rare for the third prince.

He looked at Chu Zhaoli's gentle face, and while he was yearning for her, he couldn't help but say sarcastically, "A gentleman should stay away from the kitchen. Let the palace maids do such trivial things. Why does my brother want to tarnish his reputation for nothing?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Zhouxue wondered who was so annoying and said such unpleasant things. Thinking of this, she raised her head and saw the Third Prince standing outside. She frowned. Chu Zhaoli gave him a look, but considering the latter's face, she didn't say anything.

Chu Zhaoli casually picked up a piece of cake, reached out and scooped up the Third Prince, stuffed it into his mouth, and said with a smile: "You are also a mischievous person. You said this deliberately to tease me. When has your elder brother ever had a reputation?"

The Third Prince stopped talking and ate the cakes quietly. After Du Qiao finished the one in his hand, he tugged at Chu Zhaoli's sleeve and asked for more. The young man helplessly said that she was a greedy boy and opened the steamer to get some for her. Lu Zhouxue, who was stoking the fire, was also given a piece.

He held his chin up to his hand and looked at Chu Zhaoli. In the courtyard, the young man was walking with fallen flowers, with the afterglow of the setting sun falling on his brows. He was sixteen years old, a generous young man, at the age of riding a horse and singing, but he already had a third of the elegance that he would have when they met in the final courtyard, with his sleeves full of elegance and the moonlight shining on his heart.

Could it be that this guy has become so old since he was young? Lu Zhouxue thought involuntarily, no, he is not old either. Xiao Fengzhuo, who is hundreds of years old, is actually a childish guy sometimes.

Du Qiao couldn't stay here for too long because Madam Du wouldn't allow him to. He asked for a few snacks and ate until he was half full. He pestered Chu Zhaoli to play for a while, then she said goodbye and left. When she left, she reluctantly said to him, "Brother Crown Prince, I'll come to play with you next time."

Chu Zhaoli smiled and nodded in agreement, then looked at the Third Prince who was hesitating whether to say goodbye and leave, and asked gently: "Where is Yun'er? Or will you stay and have dinner with me like before?"

"No, I'm here today to thank my brother for helping me out a few days ago. I'll take my leave now." The Third Prince bowed and was about to leave, but thinking of Chu Zhaoli's intimate attitude towards Du Qiao, he couldn't help but say,

"The Du family is very powerful and Madam Du intends for my fifth brother to marry Miss Du as his principal wife. My royal brother should not get too close to her, lest Madam Du becomes suspicious and brings trouble upon herself."

What the Third Prince said made sense, but it was unknown whether he was doing it for Chu Zhaoli's sake or because he was unhappy with the latter's close relationship with Du Qiao.

"I know what's going on. Thank you for your concern, Third Brother." Chu Zhaoli's tone was still gentle, but the smile on his face gradually faded. He wrapped a bag of osmanthus cake in oil paper and handed it to the Third Prince, "It's not as good as what the imperial chef makes. If you want to eat it, then eat it. If you don't want to eat it, just throw it out."

After Chu Zhaoli finished speaking, he stopped looking at the Third Prince. He took the steamer out of the pot and whispered something to Lu Zhouxue who was lighting the fire. The bright smile on her face was so dazzling to the Third Prince that he finally shouted out the malice that he had never expressed before.

"Look at how you look now, how can you be a prince? You are indifferent to others scolding you, and you are still on good terms with Du Qiao when the Du family slanders you maliciously. Even the servants can bully you and act wildly." The third prince became angrier and angrier as he spoke. He pointed at Lu Zhouxue who was making a fire nearby and said contemptuously, "Even if he is trash that I don't want, you still allow him to be rude to you. Chu Zhaoli, are you willing to be so lowly?"

There were few servants in Changle Palace, but there were some. When the palace servants outside heard the quarrel in the kitchen, they all hid aside, watching the quarrel carefully. They despised Chu Zhaoli, but were afraid that the Third Prince would vent his anger on them.

"What else?" The Third Prince thought Chu Zhaoli would be angry no matter what, but he wasn't. He just stood there, looking at him calmly, just like the attitude he had when he was bullied by the Fifth Prince and his men. "I didn't know that this is how Third Brother sees me?"

The third prince choked up and met those indifferent eyes. Besides being angry, he also felt a little confused. Yes, he wanted to get a different kind of feedback from Chu Zhaoli, but what was the difference between what he did and what those people did?

He opened his mouth, wanting to argue that he was not as shallow and arrogant as those people, he was just - a hand patted Chu Zhaoli's shoulder from behind, and then the Third Prince saw the eunuch he no longer wanted stood up from behind his brother and said in a very unfamiliar tone: "I will see you off, Third Prince."

Chu Zhaoli nodded and said "OK" helplessly. Then the eunuch with a beautiful appearance came towards him, with anger in his brown eyes that made people feel cold and frightened: "Third Prince, please come in."

Here it came again, the palpitations he had felt when he first saw Lu Zhouxue that morning. He felt that this slave who was kicked out by him seemed to be a little different. What exactly was it, the Third Prince couldn't say, but he still snorted coldly, and left in a huff - he would never admit that he was intimidated by a slave who had been kneeling at his feet and begging a few days ago.

"No need to see me off. I can go by myself." The third prince frowned and said unhappily. He looked at Lu Zhouxue back and forth and finally looked at her with disgust. He still didn't understand why his brother kept such a person by his side.

Coveting beauty? Now it seems that she is not that beautiful, not to mention she is a rootless thing. The third prince thought very inconsistently, and said: "My brother is stupid. Even if the palace people are lawless, you don't think you can bully him like this. If-"

"Your Highness, what you said is interesting. Aren't you also involved in bullying and despising him? When those messy princes and princesses bullied him, didn't Your Highness just stand by and watch?" Lu Zhouxue paused in opening the door, turned around, and looked at the Third Prince's face, which looked arrogant because he was no longer pretending.

"Or, Your Highness feels that you are special and different. Others mock, humiliate, and take advantage of others, but what you say is like a wake-up call, which is thought-provoking?"

The Third Prince stared at Lu Zhouxue. Although he did not answer, his eyes revealed this meaning. Lu Zhouxue could not help laughing, and his expression was quite sarcastic. There were no palace maids around, so he also revealed his true nature and said nonchalantly:

"What's the difference? They are just bullying him in their own right. As for his pain and helplessness, who cares? Who understands? Maybe there is still a difference. The Fifth Prince and his ilk are real villains, and you, Third Prince, are a hypocrite. That's the only difference."

Lu Zhouxue looked at the Third Prince with mockery in his eyes. He didn't want to be so fussy with a mortal boy and make things difficult for himself. But when he thought of the words the latter had used to scold Chu Zhaoli, he felt uncomfortable, and all his thousands of years of self-cultivation seemed to have been worthless.

"It seems that your royal brother has given you the confidence to speak to me like this." The third prince was hit in the sore spot and stared at Lu Zhouxue with a gloomy expression. He was not a very humble person. The leniency he showed in front of others was just an illusion. In essence, he was a narrow-minded and cruel person.

"Your Highness never seems to learn his lesson. Isn't the Sixth Prince's incident enough to make you careful with your words and actions?" Lu Zhouxue said nonchalantly. If the Third Prince didn't want the matter to get any bigger, he couldn't touch him, at least not at this critical juncture.

The Third Prince was obviously aware of this truth as well. His expression became increasingly gloomy and his gaze towards Lu Zhouxue gradually became fearful. What was there for him not to understand at this point? The person in front of him had only pretended to be submissive before, and this was probably his true face now.

It was indeed the spirit of a banished immortal. Not to mention the body, even the soul inside was sharp and proud. Unfortunately, the Third Prince had no desire to conquer her now, because he had been tricked: "How dare you use me?"

"Just treat others as they have treated you." Lu Zhouxue smiled back.

The third prince came out of Changle Palace with a gloomy face. Although he didn't like it, what Lu Zhouxue said finally touched his heart. The pastry in the paper package was warm and soft, with the same fragrance on his elder brother's sleeves. There was no doubt that this was made by Chu Zhaoli himself.

It was a very ordinary pastry, but in this deep palace full of flattery and intrigue, it was a rare bland taste. Many times, the Third Prince's dislike for Chu Zhaoli came inexplicably, perhaps influenced by the emperor, perhaps because of the rumors all over the capital, or perhaps it was his instinct to blend in with the crowd to preserve himself.

All in all, he couldn't really explain why he looked down on Chu Zhaoli. If he really had to talk about it in detail, he actually loved that person more.

When he was eight years old, his mother died of illness. For a helpless child, the favoritism of the emperor and his father was a death warrant. Madam Du had harmed him countless times, both openly and covertly, not to mention the Fifth Prince and his ilk who colluded with each other to bully him. He was the one who was bullied at that time.

Things started to change after Chu Zhaoli came out of the cold palace. First, the eldest sister he had never met turned into the emperor's brother, and Madam Du was alarmed and moved away most of the arrows she had used to attack him.

I heard from the palace servants that the eldest brother of the emperor was ambitious and quarreled with his father. He demanded that his mother, who committed suicide in the cold palace, be buried with the ceremony of the queen. Madam Du once gnashed her teeth and cursed: "In this way, he will be the eldest son. He is only ten years old. What a deep plan."

Yes, a ten-year-old child has such thoughts, isn't that frightening? The emperor thought so, and so did the third prince. It was not until the crown prince made mistakes again and again and was punished by the emperor that rumors of Chu Zhaoli being stupid and cowardly spread in the capital that the third prince gradually forgot that for a while, he also thought that his eldest brother was deep-minded.

These things had nothing to do with him, because the emperor made Chu Zhaoli the crown prince, and Madam Du no longer kept an eye on him. But the Fifth Prince thought that he had lost the favor of his father, and the bullying became even more severe.

The imperial palace was a place where people were treated differently depending on their status. His father was no longer partial to him, so even the lowly servants dared to boss him around. Of course, Chu Zhaoli's situation was not much better than his, but that person who could barely protect himself took extra care of him out of sympathy for him.

He had no mother, so apart from the regular items, such as knee pads, gloves, and quilts, no one cared to make them for him. But Chu Zhaoli would always send people to deliver things to him, such as insect repellent purses in the summer, warm knee pads in the winter, and extra snacks during the holidays. These were not rare things, but they were meticulous.

He once asked who made this thing. Chu Zhaoli said it was given by Concubine Xie Shufei. He believed it and thought for a while that Concubine Xie Shufei intended to adopt him as her son.

Sometimes the Fifth Prince bullied him, and his eldest brother would often stand up for him. Occasionally, there were physical conflicts, and Chu Zhaoli was usually punished. Whether it was scorching summer or snowing winter, there were always a few days every month when Chu Zhaoli had to kneel on the stone slab outside Chengming Palace for several hours.

Later, he registered it under Concubine Xie Shufei's name, and the bullying stopped. However, he found that Concubine Xie Shufei didn't like him as much as he thought. She was cold and indifferent. At first, he went to pay his respects, but after three consecutive days, the woman said indifferently: "We are mother and son who got married halfway. There is no need to pretend to be so affectionate. It's just hypocrisy."

Concubine Xie did not like him, and even felt a little disgusted with him, so he did not bother himself any more. The things that were sent by Concubine Xie in her name naturally had another explanation. At that time, the Third Prince still had some power thanks to the Xie family. A casual investigation led to a result that made him laugh:

Those things were made by Chu Zhaoli. A grown man holding an embroidery needle? Thinking of his elder brother's identity as a princess ten years ago, the Third Prince's expression was very strange. Could it be that his elder brother regarded himself as the "eldest sister"?

If she is the eldest sister, then everything makes sense, the Third Prince thought with amusement. Because of this inexplicable guess, when he regarded Chu Zhaoli as the eldest sister, he naturally loved her more and sometimes even developed a dependence on her like a mother.

But Chu Zhaoli was really a man, so most of the time, he was extremely contemptuous of him. He thought Chu Zhaoli was a joke, and since he had developed a sense of dependence and love for him, he would not be much better.

He didn't dare to face these things, so he was extremely mean to Chu Zhaoli, but he just wanted to be the one and only.