Chapter 118 Dreaming of Past Life
It is spring time, and the peach blossoms in Lin'an are about to fade.

As soon as the Peach Blossom Festival ended, visitors from other places left one after another, and the city gradually lost its former bustle.

On the lake, most of the pleasure boats were empty.

Ye Chenxi and Chu Shaozhen were making a fuss, saying that they were unable to watch the fireworks display or the dragon dance on the lake during the Peach Blossom Festival, and they begged someone to treat them to another show.

Chu Xiaoyan spread his hands: "Don't look at me. I spent all the money I saved at the wedding."

"I'm poorer than all of you." Chu Shengxi said, "My parents died early, and I'm the only one supporting the Xiaoye Palace, and I can barely make ends meet."

"Ah..." Chu Shaozhen looked at Ye Chenxi and the others: "How about we pool our money together, right?"

A young man said, "I gambled away all the banknotes I brought with me the night before I was arrested."

Ye Chenxi glared: "Why are you so poor?"

As he was speaking, the door of the room was pushed open from the outside.

Chu Anlan, who had just finished brewing peach blossom wine with Ye Wanqing, stood at the door with a peach blossom scent all over his body and a cheerful face: "Hey, are you all here?"

Seeing him, the young men were like hungry wolves seeing their prey, their eyes glowing green: "An Lan, you came at the right time!"

Chu Anlan was alert: "If I run now, will it be too late?"

Teenagers: “What do you think?”

Ye Chenxi was the first to rush over and hugged his thighs: "Brother-in-law, you came at a perfect time! We want to watch the dragon dance and the fireworks."

Chu Anlan pretended to kick him: "You only call me brother-in-law when you have something to do. If you don't have anything to do, you can play by yourself without me... Ye Chenxi, what are you up to?"

Ye Chenxi hugged his legs tightly and started to act like a spoiled brat: "I don't care! I want to see the dragon dance! I want to see the fireworks!"

Chu Anlan laughed.

……

In the evening, Ye Wanqing was copying scriptures by the window when Chu Anlan came to find her.

The young man walked to the desk and bent down: "Are you still helping the prince copy scriptures?"

"Yes." Ye Wanqing nodded: "It's almost finished. When we return to Beijing, we will send it to Rongguang Temple to burn it."

Chu Anlan sat on the desk: "Humph!"

"What's wrong?" Ye Wanqing asked with a smile.

Chu Anlan said tartly: "You light a perpetual lamp for a person who only appears in dreams, copy scriptures for the prince, and pray for Ling Xuan's wife and children. What place do I occupy in your heart?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Wanqing put down her brush and looked up at Chu Anlan seriously: "My Lord, are you jealous?"

"How is that possible?" Chu Anlan denied: "I have never liked eating sour things since I was a child."

Ye Wanqing chuckled: "But why do I feel a sour taste?"

Chu Anlan snorted and replied, "Either you smelled it wrong, or the swill bucket in the restaurant across the street has gone bad."

Ye Wanqing followed his words and said seriously: "Maybe, the swill bucket really is rotten."

Why does Chu Anlan feel even more sour?
He said righteously: "He didn't empty the swill bucket on time! He doesn't care about hygiene! I will go to the government office and sue him! Fine him, fine him severely!"

Ye Wanqing lowered her head and smiled.

Seeing her laugh, Chu Anlan couldn't help but laugh too.

After laughing, Ye Wanqing asked, "I heard from Qianxi that the prince is going to invite Chenxi and the others to watch fireworks and dragon dance performances tonight? It's getting dark, why don't you go over to accompany them?"

Chu Anlan sat on the desk, picked up a brush and turned it in his hand: "I don't want to accompany them, I just want to accompany you. Last night, I had a dream, and I forgot everything when I woke up. Just now when I was about to go out, I suddenly remembered some scenes in the dream, so I wanted to come to find you."

Dream?
Ye Wanqing asked: "What dream?"

Chu Anlan twirled the brush: "Well... Actually it's not a big deal, I just dreamed that I was dead..."

Ye Wanqing was stunned.

Chu Anlan continued, "In fact, the night I first arrived in Lin'an, I dreamed that I was dead, but I didn't take it seriously. In the dream, the sky was dim, peach blossoms and paper money were floating in the wind, and there was no living thing. I heard someone calling my name, but I couldn't hear who it was. The voice seemed to come from the horizon..."

Then he asked, "Qing'er, is that you?"

Ye Wanqing's heart seemed to be tugged by something.

What he dreamed about was his past life, right?
The yellow sky was probably the scene when Yinxu Mountain collapsed. When Prince Dun and his wife came to Lin'an to build a tomb for him, it must have been the season when peach blossoms were in full bloom.

Looking at Chu Anlan's clear eyes, Ye Wanqing spoke slowly: "Dreams and reality are opposites. Whoever dies in the dream will live a hundred years..."

"Really?" Chu Anlan asked, "Why is your voice hoarse? Did you not drink any water today?"

Ye Wanqing wanted to nod, but also wanted to shake her head.

Chu Anlan stared at her, then jumped down from the desk and poured her a cup of warm tea: "Your throat is uncomfortable, so you should talk less. Drink some water and continue copying the scriptures. Tonight, I won't accompany them, I will stay here with you."

Ye Wanqing stared at him: "Okay."

Chu Anlan grinned: "Hehe..."

He went back to his room and got a storybook. He sat crookedly opposite Ye Wanqing and began to read the storybook with great interest. When he saw something interesting, he couldn't help laughing.

Looking at the lively young man in front of him, the haze in Ye Wanqing's heart was swept away.

……

After nightfall, Liao Fuyu knocked on Ye Wanqing's door and said, "Qing'er... An Lan is here too?"

After not seeing her for a few days, she seemed to have lost some weight.

The first time she saw her, Ye Wanqing was a little surprised: "Fu Yu?"

During this period, Chu Xiaoyan has been secretive and tough, not allowing anyone to visit Liao Fuyu in the room, including Ye Wanqing.

Although they lived on the same floor, Liao Fuyu never showed up.

Ye Wanqing asked someone to serve tea.

Liao Fuyu sat down and said with a wry smile, "I haven't been feeling well these past few days and have been lying down. I'm sorry to have made you worried."

Ye Wanqing asked her, "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah!" Liao Fuyu nodded: "I'm much better."

Ye Wanqing didn't want to ask about other people's affairs: "It's good that everything is fine..."

After that, the room fell silent.

Liao Fuyu clutched her sleeves awkwardly.

Since getting married, all her energy and attention have been focused on Chu Xiaoyan, and unknowingly, she has become much more distant from Qing'er.

She felt bitter, but didn't know what to do.

That night, Chu Xiaoyan returned to the houseboat and saw their names carved by her on broken porcelain pieces.

Chu Xiaoyan drew out his dagger and was about to erase the name.

She reached out to grab it and cut her finger.

When Chu Xiaoyan saw her struggling, he suddenly became angry. He dragged her down the pleasure boat, robbed a passerby's horse, took her to the riverside, and boarded a small boat.

The boat rocked on the river all night.

The next day, her body was covered with bruises, her lips were cut and swollen, and she had difficulty even getting up.

But Chu Xiaoyan left her behind and only asked the maid to take her back to the inn.

These days, she didn't dare go out and see anyone.

She didn't even dare to see Qing'er, her best friend.

Whenever it was late at night and everyone was asleep, she would cover herself with the quilt and keep convincing herself in her heart: Chu Xiaoyan was the husband she chose herself.

She liked him, so she could tolerate everything he did to her.

What's more, isn't it the same between men and women?

Although Chu Xiaoyan's actions and methods were a bit rough, she still liked him.

She liked doing intimate things with him, and only then did she feel that she owned him wholeheartedly.

(End of this chapter)