Zheng Xiao Mistake: The Mistake of Rebirth Provoked the Cold Master

The weather turned cold after winter came, and it was even colder and colder in the imperial prison.

As Zhu Zheng walked down the stone steps step by step, the cold air rose from her feet.

This was her first time in two lifetimes. The stale air was damp and dead silent. The black stone seemed to be covered with a layer of water droplets, forming tiny icicles. When she stepped on them, it sounded like breaking jade.

Fang had issued an amnesty, and the surrounding cells were empty except for a cell at the end, which had a dim light on. A figure beside the wooden desk flickered in and out, looking up at her.

Zhu Zheng took the last few steps hurriedly, and whispered softly, "My Lord..."

Rong Yan was silent for a while, and as usual, he said "hmm" very softly.

Both of them tacitly did not mention that he was no longer the Grand Tutor.

It was daytime outside. There were a few round windows high up on the stone wall, through which a few beams of blinding white light shone straight down to the ground.

It happened to be where Zhu Zheng was standing.

A three-finger-thick cast iron bar separated the two people. The cell was not big, with a pile of thatch and a simple wooden table, but it could barely be considered clean.

Rong Yan did not stand up. He sat far away, his face looked a little haggard, but the sickly look did not detract from his appearance. He was neatly dressed in a plain white gown, with a belt tied loosely in his hair. Even though all the makeup had faded, the elegant aura of a man as pure as ice and snow still surrounded him.

There were pens, ink, paper and inkstone on the wooden desk, and a pile of thin paper neatly stacked. He held the pen in his right hand and a piece of ink stick in his left hand, grinding it slowly and methodically on the rough inkstone.

At first glance, he still had his usual strict habits, but the thin light and shadow in the cell didn't fall on him at all, making it hard to ignore the chilling coldness around him.

Before Zhu Zheng came, she thought about many scenarios of seeing him again. Most likely, he would be a lonely figure, suffering from inhumane torture.

That's why he refused to see her.

Fortunately, it was not as she thought. Zhu Zheng felt relieved to see that he was not treated harshly.

But if he wasn't being treated harshly, why did he refuse to see her?

Obviously other people who wanted to see him... were able to do so easily.

Zhu Zheng stood in front of her for a long time without saying anything. Rong Yan's hand stopped on the inkstone and his eyes swept across her face.

A beautiful face, wrapped in a furry cloak. The bright sunlight outside seemed to still stay on her, with a bright warm breath, like a small stove with soft light scattered around.

The misty eyes seemed much calmer, as if they were hiding a lot of thoughts.

After a while, he was the first to speak, "Are you okay?"

Except that it was a little hoarser than usual, it was just like a chance greeting when encountering someone on the way back from flower-viewing on a quiet moonless night.

not good.

Very bad...

Zhu Zheng felt so aggrieved by his short question that her eyes were filled with sadness, but she knew very well that she couldn't and shouldn't complain today.

She wrapped herself in a cloak over her mourning clothes. Before coming, she looked in the mirror and saw that her face was as pale as a ghost. She put on some rouge to cover it up.

Zhu Zheng pursed her lips and said directly, "Sir... let's make peace."

The ink stick was worn off for a long time before Rong Yan asked in a low voice, "Why?"

Reconciliation is reconciliation, there is no reason why.

Zhu Zheng had never thought that he would ask this question, and continued hesitantly, "Because... a lot of people are hoping that we can reconcile..."

Rong Yan lowered his eyelashes, "Really?"

Seeing that he didn't believe her, Zhu Zheng hurriedly said, "There are really a lot of people, my sister and His Majesty, Young Master Fang and Old Master Fang, Commander Nie, Liu Feng and An Fengxue, as well as your junior apprentice brother and my master..."

Rong Yan listened to her trying her best to collect names and asked softly, "Anything else?"

She slowed down her voice, "And me..."

Rong Yan looked up at her. When he was nervous, his expression was always tense and he even forgot to blink.

After a long while, he chuckled briefly and lightly.

"Okay." His eyes were still on her face, and he said in a calm tone, "Let's make peace."

A smile also appeared on Zhu Zheng's lips, and the tension just now eased a lot, but the smile was not real yet, and she heard him say something in a low voice.

"Let's go back."

Rong Yan suddenly looked away and lowered his head to grind the ink.

"It's cold here, don't come here again."

As soon as he lowered his head, he seemed a thousand miles away from her.

Just for a moment, Zhu Zheng really thought that dawn was just around the corner.

An Fengxue once said that Rong Yan had never thought of escaping unscathed. She thought it was an exaggeration. He would always look around before he went, and he was so brave as to even try to get the skin of a tiger. How could it be so difficult for him to leave a way out for himself?

He was just dealing with Gong Yixiu, a monkey in human form. With his intelligence, he could not bear to end up dying together with his enemies.

But he did it anyway.

It took Zhu Zheng a long time to figure out what he was thinking.

It was clear that he wanted to die.

The day when she understood his thoughts, it was a stormy day. Zhu Zheng suddenly felt cold all over and remembered him preaching at Chengxu Mountain. At that time, it was like watching a white crane flying away, unable to catch it or hold it tightly.

Watching the clouds and snow, reading scriptures and writing poems, painting birds and deer on the bluestone slabs, her parents always said one thing and meant another. Did she really not miss those days at all?

"Is it because I made you sad?"

Zhu Zheng's voice trembled slightly. "Come out, I will comfort you. I am really good at comforting people..."

Rong Yan's knuckles turned white as he twisted the ink stick, and he said calmly, "I'm not sad."

"Sir..." Zhu Zheng held the cold window grille.

"Can you come closer so I can see you?"

Rong Yan paused. The inkstone was already full of ink, and the overflow had stained the paper beside it into a black mass. The paper was a mess and it was impossible to tell what was written on it.

He was silent for a long time, and finally stood up and walked to the brighter place closer to Zhu Zheng.

His eyes, which had been in the dark for so long, were a little afraid of the light, so he squinted subconsciously.

Rong Yan's clothes were thin, almost half transparent when illuminated by the sunlight. The white air from his breath, with the faint ups and downs of the wrinkles on his clothes, looked like a white phantom.

He still held the roughly cut ink stick in his hand, resting it on the window grille, separating him from Zhu Zheng's hand. There were several long scratches on his wrist bone and the back of his hand, as if they were caused by thatch.

Wearing so little, his hands must be very cold.

Zhu Zheng thought so and stretched out her hand unconsciously, but before she could touch him, he pulled his hand back.

"Are you ready?" He stepped back.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his calm gaze enveloped her, like the inkstone on the table, dry and moist.

Being stared at by these bottomless eyes, I could only think that I owed him a lot.

Zhu Zheng lowered her eyes to hide the disappointment in them. After a while, she pulled the corners of her mouth silently, "You don't allow me to see you now?"

Rong Yan paused, "No, I'm not allowed..."

"My Lord, why do you want me to marry someone else?" Zhu Zheng suddenly changed the subject, "You didn't even ask me if I was willing..."

Rong Yan looked at her intently, his expression slightly dark, "If you don't want to get married, then it won't work."

"I didn't say I didn't want to get married."

Zhu Zheng suppressed her temper, took a deep breath, and continued, "Sir, are you pretending to be confused? Who else can I marry now except you?"

Rong Yan was stunned for a moment, and said in a bitter tone, "You are joking."

"What are you laughing at? Is there anything funny?"

Zhu Zheng stared at him intently, "I have already called off the marriage you arranged for me. My lord, I was too high for you before, but now a sinner and a disaster star are a match made in heaven."

The sunlight was blinding, and her voice was not loud, but it sounded powerful in the dead silence of the prison.

But Rong Yan just remained silent, staring at her with his wet eyes, making her feel unreasonable and powerless and futility.

A thin layer of mist appeared in front of Zhu Zheng's eyes, but she was still smiling. After a while, she spoke with a desperate move.

"Why don't you say anything, sir... Didn't you say you would do whatever I asked of you? Aren't you the one who can't let me go..."

Rong Yan looked away and heard his own hoarse voice, which sounded cold.

"Let it go."

Deliberately, he added, "...I've let it go a long time ago."

Zhu Zheng was stunned.

In the dim candlelight, the sound of an iron bell could be heard from somewhere in the distance, echoing in the empty air. The icicles on the window holes were dripping, making a harsh sound.

"Say it again." Zhu Zheng said.

Rong Yan didn't say anything else and remained silent again.

From the moment they started talking, Zhu Zheng had been encouraging herself in her heart. She knew that this would not be an easy task, and she thought of many ways to persuade him, but she rejected them one by one.

He was determined to hit the wall, and she, a little pony, could not pull him back.

As it turned out, this was indeed the case, not to mention that no matter what she said, it was like being pulled at a tangled mess of threads. The more she tried to untie them, the more she found herself indifferent to the dead knot.

Zhu Zheng concealed the dull pain in her heart and tried hard to keep her voice steady.

"I don't know if you are lying to me. If all this is the path you planned, then is this the last sentence you left for us?"

Rong Yan closed his eyes, a trace of fatigue flashed in his eyes, he took a half step back, and disappeared into the darkness where the sunlight could not reach.

"Zhu Zheng."

He called her suddenly.

"… forget about me."

Zhu Zheng's face turned pale. She had put in all her effort to see him, but he only left her with a few broken words.

"You bastard!"

"Why should I listen to you? I just don't want to forget..." Zhu Zheng gritted her teeth and said, "You can be a cool and elegant gentleman, but I will hate you for the rest of my life!"

Zhu Zheng was so angry that she said something cruel and ran away.

The cell returned to calm. The place where she stood was swept by the hem of her skirt, and light dust floated in the air, as if sprinkled with gold.

Rong Yan crushed the ink stick in her hand into pieces, which fell to the ground in small pieces, still maintaining the same posture, as if she was still standing there.

The thin and shallow sunlight stretched his shadow very long, melting it into the dim darkness.

Zhu Zheng didn't go far.

She stopped at the corner, her eyes were sore. She tilted her head back and wiped them roughly with the back of her hand. The heat turned into a coolness that spread across her face.

He took a few deep breaths, and finally took a deep breath, holding the breath in his throat.

She wouldn't be so stupid as to really leave. In order to come in to see him, she didn't know how many people she had begged. She wished she could have three heads and six arms so she could dig a hole under his feet.

It's just a little bit sad, just bear with it.

After wiping away her useless tears, Zhu Zheng first carefully recalled the prison break plan that Nie Ruke had written to her.

No, the prison break is still too slow. Maybe after seeing her once, he will feel that there is no regret in his life, and then he will end his life somehow.

I can't just leave like this today.

If it weren't for the pile of iron bars and wooden sticks in the cell, she would have rushed in, hung him upside down and shook him hard to see if she could shake out the icicles in his head. If she didn't have time to shake them out, she would just knock him unconscious with the stick and take him out first.

When Zhu Zheng came back, Rong Yan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he looked at her in shock.

The rouge on Zhu Zheng's face faded away a little, revealing her red eyes.

"I didn't have time to tell you just now..."

"I'm pregnant."

Rong Yan looked visibly dazed for a moment, but Zhu Zheng didn't give him a chance to speak. That mouth could only make people angry when it spoke anyway.

"Just because you said 'forget me', you think you can be a heartless man? Where did you learn this shameless trick from, sir?"

"You know how we spent that night. Until dawn, you..."

Zhu Zheng's tongue froze and suddenly got stuck.

"…Anyway, I'm pregnant."

"If you have any conscience, use whatever evidence you have against someone and ask him to let you out and marry me."

"If you happen to have no conscience towards me, then I'll do whatever you want. We are an orphan and a widow and we have to accept our fate as hard. I will take care of you, the child of a criminal, and live a lonely and helpless life for the rest of my life."

After Zhu Zheng finished speaking, she turned around and walked away, still muttering to herself as she walked.

"I'm here today to ask for justice. I've bribed the jailer with your money and am temporarily staying in his house. Sir, you can take your time to think about it. I won't leave until I get a reply."

Zhu Zheng walked to the corner, stopped suddenly, and looked back at Rong Yan.

He was still standing there stupidly, the not-so-generous sunlight making the area beneath his feet half-bright and half-dark. His blurry shadow was reflected on the wall, making him look particularly lonely.

Finally, I couldn't help but slow down my voice.

"My Lord, it's going to snow. Don't make me wait too long..."