The years I was in the human world

After Xiao Ling finished speaking, without waiting for the two to react, he stepped over the threshold and walked in, heading straight to the reception area in the front hall. Chu Zhaoli looked at Xiao Ling's still elegant back, and before Lu Zhouxue could react, he made a move on him.

"Xiao Li'er!" Lu Zhouxue's face changed. It was true that Xuan Dujun was gentle, but that was in the God Realm. No one knew what kind of person Xiao Ling was after being dismembered by the Wuxiang people and fallen into the mortal world. But there was no doubt that he was a god of war.

As expected, the weak Chu Zhaoli was no match at all. After just three or five moves, Xiao Ling easily pushed him against the pillar. There were Buddhist beads wrapped around the tiger's mouth that was holding Chu Zhaoli's throat. He half-opened his folding fan to cover half of his face, still respectfully saying, "I'm sorry, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

"Let him go." Lu Zhouxue kicked up a dewy kapok branch on the ground and used it as a sword to block Xiao Ling's moves. The latter closed the folding fan in his hand to block his sword, and then turned his wrist to press the branch down, and then the fan opened with a "swish", and the edge of the fan brushed Lu Zhouxue's throat.

A bloody line immediately appeared on Lu Zhouxue's throat. His skin was slightly cut by Xiao Ling's fan. The latter also suffered a bad fate. His right forearm was scratched by his branch, leaving a long and narrow bloody wound, which was even more shocking to look at.

"You've become stronger." Xiao Ling withdrew his hand as if nothing had happened, and did not treat the wound on his arm. He let his sleeve slide down to cover the bloody wound.

"Are you here just to cause trouble today?" Lu Zhouxue ignored him, protecting Chu Zhaoli behind him, and looked at Xiao Ling coldly, "Xiao Ling, since when did you start to bully others by relying on your seniority?"

"I told you, I just came to see him." Xiao Ling said lightly.

"You come here uninvited?" Chu Zhaoli sneered and retorted, "Grandmaster, please go back. How can I, a puppet prince with no power and influence, deserve your visit?"

Xiao Ling frowned upon hearing this. He didn't like what Chu Zhaoli said, but he didn't seem to intend to explain anything. His eyes moved back and forth between the two of them, and finally landed on Chu Zhaoli. He said something inexplicable, like advice, but also like a prophecy:

"Since you have escaped the disaster in Jiangzhou, why don't you stay away from it? It's best to leave the royal capital. If it is not necessary, Chu Zhaoli, I don't want to embarrass you intentionally, and I don't want your life."

Xiao Ling just left after he finished speaking. He did nothing else and said nothing else. It was just as confusing as when he came.

Chu Zhaoli, however, seemed relieved and collapsed to the ground after Xiao Ling left. Lu Zhouxue helped him up, but found that he was shaking. She frowned and asked softly, "...Are you afraid of him?"

Chu Zhaoli closed his eyes, as if trying to calm himself down. After a long while, he stopped shaking, nodded slowly and said, "Yes."

"Why?" Lu Zhouxue asked, reaching out to hug the pale man into his arms, and kissed him on the lips soothingly, "It's okay."

"...He almost killed you." Chu Zhaoli touched Lu Zhouxue's neck with some fear, pressed his handkerchief gently on the blood line, and said with lingering fear, "Mianmian, you almost died, did you know that?"

"It's okay, don't be afraid, he can't kill me." Lu Zhouxue grabbed Chu Zhaoli's cold hand and tried her best to comfort him, "You saw it, the wound on his hand is even more serious than this."

"No, Mianmian, you don't understand. Never mind. None of this matters." Chu Zhaoli hugged Lu Zhouxue tighter and said like a frightened bird, "Remember, from now on you must avoid him and stay away from him. I beg you, I beg you, otherwise you will definitely die in his hands!"

Lu Zhouxue didn't understand why Chu Zhaoli reacted so violently, but when she lowered her eyes to meet the boy's pleading eyes, she couldn't help but think, since he begged like this, she should just agree to him. Why must she fight with Xiao Ling to win or lose in the boy's heart? What's the point of that? "Okay."

"Mianmian, do you know how my mother died?" When lying on a bed to rest at night, the candles around were extinguished and there was silence. Chu Zhaoli suddenly spoke.

Of course Lu Zhouxue knew how his mother died. It was Xiao Fengzhuo himself who told him. He also knew why Chu Zhaoli was considered unlucky and not favored by his father. He also remembered:

"When Queen Duanshu gave birth to a legitimate son, the whole country should have celebrated. However, unexpectedly, a storm came in the middle of the night. Queen Duanshu, who had given birth safely, suddenly heard a raccoon cat crying shrilly. She was so frightened that she passed away. A rare landslide occurred in the southwest of the capital, causing countless deaths and injuries. For a while, the child was considered a bad omen."

"The Imperial Astronomical Observatory observed the celestial phenomena at night and predicted that this child would bring disaster and misfortune, and that anyone who was close to him would not have a good end. The king, who had lost his beloved wife overnight, hated him to the core, but because he was the only child of Queen Duanshu, he paradoxically made him the crown prince."

It's just that Lu Zhouxue couldn't say that he knew, and Chu Zhaoli seemed to have another story about the truth of his mother's death: "In fact, sometimes, I don't even know how my mother died."

Lu Zhouxue did not respond, but just looked at him quietly, raised her hand and stroked his shoulder, motioning him to continue.

“What happened back then was not a secret. If Mianmian asks the old people in the palace, she would know a general idea. Everyone said that my mother died of hemorrhage due to shock when giving birth to me, so the imperial teacher said that I was a ‘comet that brought disaster to the world’. But that is not the case at all.” Chu Zhaoli said softly, as if he was going to uncover some dusty secret.

"Do you know how I found out?" Chu Zhaoli asked, and answered himself without waiting for Lu Zhouxue to answer, "Because she was killed by me."

Lu Zhouxue's expression changed slightly, and Chu Zhaoli looked dazed, as if he was lost in some distant memories.

"She hated me and was willing to abuse me, so I cursed her viciously, and she couldn't stand it, so she stabbed the scissors into her throat." Chu Zhaoli said, while gesturing on his neck, "Mianmian, look, this is the spot where the scissors went in. There was blood all over."

Hearing this, Lu Zhouxue felt something was wrong, but he couldn't react for a moment and Chu Zhaoli continued talking to himself.

"But she didn't die immediately. She still wanted to kill me, so she pulled out the scissors and stabbed them into my chest again." Chu Zhaoli said sadly, tears seemed to well up in his eyes. "She died in front of me, but everyone said that my mother was Concubine Qin, who had a deep love with my father, and died of hemorrhage during childbirth."

"But in fact, she didn't love my father. On the contrary, she hated him to the core. Although she was once his wife, she was just an abandoned concubine in the cold palace without even a name when she died. She was buried with the rites of an empress. It was my father's own decree. Although I think my mother might not want to be buried with him after her death." Chu Zhaoli said,

"Things started to get weird after she was buried. My father called me over and scolded me, saying that I had evil intentions and was trying to raise myself as the heir to the throne by going before the Imperial Master. In fact, I didn't go anywhere. I was just keeping vigil. But during those few days, everyone ignored this matter."

"After that day, my mother went from being a deposed concubine in the cold palace to being the long-dead Concubine Qin, and I, who had lived with her for many years, suddenly became a prince living in seclusion in Changle Palace." Chu Zhaoli smiled bitterly, "The Imperial Master also knew about this, or he was the culprit who quietly replaced everyone's memory."

After Chu Zhaoli said this, Lu Zhouxue understood. What Xiao Ling used in the whole thing was not even some advanced magic, but it was terrifying enough for mortals.

"Mianmian, the Imperial Preceptor is a very scary person." Chu Zhaoli slowly talked about an old story, "My second sister's mother, Concubine Li Xiuyi, has an obscure family background. The reason she was able to enter the palace to accompany the emperor was because her niece, Li Lanyin, was favored by an immortal. In terms of seniority, I have to call that person sister."

"Li Lan, because of the prestige of the immortal sect she joined, looked down on the court of the mortal world. Her enemies once openly demonstrated at the court meeting, threatening to raze the royal capital to the ground. With a wave of her hand, tall buildings were destroyed. Such abilities are outstanding even among the immortal sects."

Li Lanyin? Lu Zhouxue's heart skipped a beat. He had some impression of this name. She was Zhu Huangyuzhao's mother, and later became an evil ghost under Xiao Yueheng's command. However, he had never expected that they had known each other so long ago and had such a relationship with each other.

"But that man, along with the fifteen people who came with him, all failed to survive the Imperial Master for even a stick of incense. They died at the Imperial Master's hands, and their bones were buried under the steps to the Moon Palace." Chu Zhaoli's usually calm face was filled with fear of Xiao Ling. "The Imperial Master may seem gentle and harmless, but in fact he is ruthless and cruel."

"Then why did you dare to fight him just now?" Lu Zhouxue looked at the young man who was obviously very afraid of Xiao Ling, but dared to fight that man. She felt that he was adorable in his contradiction. "You were not afraid of him then?"

"I'm not afraid of him killing me, because he won't, Mianmian. Although I can't explain why, the fact is that when I was first crowned the crown prince and Madam Du had troubled me time and again, the Imperial Master helped me." Chu Zhaoli said with a wry smile, "But he is indeed not a good person."

Chu Zhaoli couldn't understand what the National Master wanted to do, but Lu Zhouxue knew a little bit about that person's motives. It was nothing more than the disaster caused by Heaven's Choice of Master. Part of His origin was in Chu Zhaoli. Xiao Ling intended to suppress Heaven, so naturally he did everything he could to prevent Chu Zhaoli, who had the origin, from growing stronger.

Now Xiao Ling has seen him in the past. With that man's wisdom, it seems that it is not difficult for him to understand why the trap set for him by the Ghost Mansion and the Final Court a hundred years later was so tight and precise, which was clearly premeditated.