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墨書 Inktalez
When the "Buddha statue" lowered its head again, Mei Shuang panicked and closed her eyes.
She thought he probably wouldn't harm her; if he wanted to kill her, he would have done it by now.
At this moment, Mei Shuang's mind was filled with fear and confusion. How could a living statue stand in the Buddha Hall without anyone noticing? How did she happen to be the one to discover it?
The key question was how he appeared there in the first place. Why was he there? How had he descended from the Buddha Hall so silently? She clearly remembered that when she entered, although she hadn't dared to look closely at the row of statues, each one was in its place, with no vacancies... A series of questions left Mei Shuang's head spinning. To be honest, she couldn't believe that this "Living Buddha" was something only she had discovered. If she hadn't come, would no one have known?
Her final conclusion was that this was truly bizarre; the level of horror surpassed any adventurous experiences she had once boasted about as a thrill-seeker.
Mei Shuang held her breath tightly; her previous record for underwater swimming and diving—one minute and twenty seconds—was now put to use. In the eerily silent environment where one might hear phantom sounds, she could still detect his faint breathing nearby. The aura he emitted wasn't that of a monster or some peculiar "thing" with a foul or bizarre odor; instead, it carried a subtle, indescribable scent that reminded her of autumn leaves in a forest, perhaps even with a hint of Zen fragrance. Although strange, it was not unpleasant.
Before long, she sensed the "Buddha statue" rising. Was this a sign that he was leaving?
She quickly took a cautious breath and slightly opened her eyes just a crack. In reality, the light at night wasn't very good; with her barely opened eyes, she could only see what was right in front of her, while anything further away remained vague.
Suddenly, a voice above her spoke with a hint of confusion, muttering to itself, "No, no, they must have made a mistake... Shuang'er... she shouldn't be like this..."
Gasp!
Mei Shuang was startled. Shuang'er? Was he talking about her? She shouldn't be like this? Then how should she be? Even if his words were unclear, he was so close that there was no way she could have misheard!
Could this person also be someone familiar?
Mei Shuang felt flustered. Just how many people in this world knew her but whom she did not recognize?
“Shuang'er, my Shuang'er is not like this! She won't die!” The hoarse voice echoed with despair, reverberating through the vast hall, creating an eerie atmosphere that nearly made Mei Shuang jump up from the ground.
She wanted to ask who the person was. From his words, it seemed he should be a relative of hers, otherwise, why would he say “my Shuang'er”? But then she thought, curiosity killed the cat; perhaps he was just probing for information.
Regardless, from the context of his words, Mei Shuang sensed that this “person” was not quite sane.
Well, since he believed she was dead, she might as well embrace it; after all, what could one do about a dead person?
Moments later, footsteps suddenly echoed outside the hall—yes, footsteps.
When Mei Shuang confirmed that the sound was approaching from afar towards her direction, it resonated in her ears like the most beautiful music in the world. A wave of excitement surged within her. Damn it! Reinforcements had finally arrived!
Then, in an instant, calm returned to the hall.
At that moment, Mei Shuang experienced a vision; she slowly stood up from the ground...
The footsteps outside grew clearer. As the figure outside stood proudly like a deity at the entrance, the candlelight within the hall flickered back to life. Mei Shuang remained in the position she had been in while bending down to pick up papers from the floor.
Her mind had returned to clarity; she just hadn’t had time to gather the scriptures that had been blown away.
The footsteps outside startled her. She slowly straightened her back and looked out with confusion at the Sovereign who descended like a god.
Xiao Luo stood outside the hall with his hands clasped behind him, his gaze calm as he observed Mei Shuang, who still appeared dazed. He began to scan the interior of the hall.
Everything was as usual.
What had just happened felt like a dream. When Mei Shuang saw Xiao Luo, she momentarily failed to react. She couldn't even tell whether what had just occurred was a dream or if the current situation was a dream, or if she had never woken up from this dream at all.
She ignored Xiao Luo and lowered her gaze, realizing her hands were empty. She bent down to pick up the scriptures she had painstakingly copied earlier, then slowly walked to the table, carefully smoothing out each sheet before gently placing them on top of the stack of scriptures she had already written.
As she picked up the brush again, ready to continue writing, she suddenly heard the dull sound of bells and drums coming from the temple.
A new day had arrived.
The morning bell and evening drum were meant to awaken the ignorant beings.
This muffled sound of the bell seemed to have a penetrating power that struck deep into the heart. Mei Shuang's body jolted, and as the brush slipped from her hand and fell to the ground, she instantly became alert.
The confusion in her eyes vanished, and her mind became clear and awake.
Looking at Xiao Luo, who stood beside her with deep-set eyes, she could confirm that the terrifying scene moments ago was definitely not a dream. In her thoughts, she quickly stood up, forced a smile, and pretended to be surprised as she said, "Your Majesty? What brings you here?"
Seemingly caught off guard, Xiao Luo slightly furrowed his brows, his voice carrying an imperceptible coldness. "What? Do you not wish for me to come?"
"......"
Mei Shuang was left speechless, but inwardly she cursed, "You should have come when it mattered; now you're blaming me!"
She lowered her gaze, speechless.
What she was thinking was whether the Emperor had orchestrated this thrilling drama to uncover some secret or to verify something about her. Was his simple inquiry hiding some deeper meaning?
The answer was elusive.
Naturally, she could not answer easily, so she decided to feign confusion and innocence. With her striking black-and-white eyes, she pointed to the neatly arranged small calligraphy on the table. "I hope that if the Emperor comes, does that mean I have completed my task?"
Xiao Luo scrutinized Mei Shuang, a flicker of sharpness flashing in his dark eyes. However, no matter how he looked, he did not see the expected flaw.
The scriptures she copied were neatly written but in a different script.
In his sleeve, he still held a piece of scripture originally copied by Mei Shuang, written in a completely different style.
Indeed, she was not Mei Shuang, the legitimate daughter of Mei Manor; she had truly become another woman!
This person still occupied Mei Shuang's body, but her soul was undeniably that of another unrelated woman!
Of course, if Mei Shuang knew that the Emperor had confined her here under the pretense of having her copy scriptures for the Empress Dowager, orchestrating this terrifying drama to verify whether she was indeed the previous Mei Shuang, would she still feel so relaxed?
In fact, ever since he occasionally noticed abnormalities in Queen Meiru's arm at Weiyang Palace, Xiao Luo's unusual sensitivity had made him pay close attention to every move of Queen Meiru.
After checking the entry records from that night in the palace, he discovered that a eunuch from Weiyang Palace had entered and exited the palace with a waist token from Weiyang Palace.
The eunuch, according to the guards at the city gate, was quite unfamiliar; they only thought he was a new attendant from Weiyang Palace. The guards did not question him in detail out of respect for Weiyang Palace.
Afterwards, Li Gonggong searched through all the records of the palace maids and found no record of this person. Thus, it was plausible that the Empress had disguised herself as a eunuch to leave the palace...
When Xiao Luo received this news, he was utterly astonished!
That same night, he and his Empress both left the royal palace separately.
He was there to meet a mysterious guest, while Queen Meiru's target was her half-sister Mei Shuang. Therefore, Nangong Nuo's claim that Mei Shuang encountered an assassin that night was certainly not a lie.
He had never imagined that his Empress, the gentle and graceful woman, could actually be a ruthless and highly skilled assassin!
In this case, Mei Shuang's several narrow escapes were clearly due to Nangong Nuo's protection, but it could also be considered luck.
However, if it weren't for the secret letter from the Eastern Kingdom, he would never have thought that this woman named Mei Shuang could predict such a significant and confidential court struggle and stabilize the situation at the most precarious moment for the Jiu Rang Family in the Eastern Kingdom, thus avoiding a disastrous battle.
So now he could believe that this woman, with her swollen eyes and tears still lingering on her cheeks, was definitely not pretending to be someone else to evade responsibility for Mei Manor! After all, in such an environment and situation, no matter how strong one's mental fortitude is, one cannot feign such emotions.
Little did he know that Mei Manor had changed drastically; Queen Meiru's crimes were enough to implicate the entire Mei Manor. It was unfortunate that such a clever woman sensed impending doom and managed to slip away right under his nose.
Therefore, if this Mei Shuang was not the same as that Mei Shuang, he naturally had other ways to deal with her!
At the very least, he needed to provide a solid explanation to the Empress Dowager.
As the Emperor gazed at her, lost in thought for a long time, Mei Shuang couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy. She could never decipher the Emperor's thoughts, and he always seemed to strike her unexpectedly!
After the earlier incident, she was indeed startled, but it did not threaten her life. In fact, in this world, aside from life and death, everything else is trivial.
Fortunately, when Xiao Luo could no longer see any valuable information on her face, he waved his hand and sent Mei Shuang back to the Palace.
At dawn, lying on the moderately soft bed in the Palace, Mei Shuang tossed and turned; she had not slept a wink all night.
Because at this moment, if one thought that her sleeplessness was merely due to the punishment from this unpredictable Emperor for previously mentioning Chu Xiruo and keeping secrets about her whereabouts, it would be an underestimation of this Emperor.
Did punishing her really require such elaborate measures?
So what was the reason? Who exactly was this "Living Buddha"? Did he really doubt that she was not Mei Shuang?
And then there was Mei Ru—those nonsensical words before her death and her mysterious disappearance, along with those eyes in the darkness that seemed familiar...
Mei Shuang let out a deep sigh; this situation had become a tangled mess that she couldn't untangle...
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