CH 95

From now on, I will never lie to you again.

Rong Ting got up from his nap and saw Empress Mother standing before his desk, writing.

He walked over, glancing down curiously. He had never seen Empress Mother practicing calligraphy; naturally, he was a bit surprised.

Song Yuan’s writing wasn’t very good. She knew that in ancient times, let alone a virtuous lady from a prestigious house, even a pretty daughter from a humble family could toss her down several streets in the four arts1. At that time, Mother had invited several masters to teach her, but after practicing for a long time, her handwriting still was not good.

“‘I only hope his heart’s like mine. Surely, we won’t betray our longings2!’?” Rong Ting read the words she’d written on the paper and looked at her in puzzlement. “Empress Mother, what is this?”

Song Yuan smiled, asking him, “How is my writing?”

Rong Ting wanted to betray his conscience and lavish praise3, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it and could only answer tactfully, “It’s alright.”

“Really? I wrote this so badly, but it’s already the result of a long time practicing. And now it’s been a long time since I last used a brush, so I’m a bit rusty. Normally my level is a bit better than this.”

Rong Ting sighed. “It’s clear that Empress Mother has already done her best.”

“You don’t know, but my mother was so anxious at that time, thinking that I couldn’t play the zither well. All I could make was noise. I also couldn’t write poetry, and as for Go, I was even more blind. But my Gomoku4 was super amazing! Your Emperor Father never beat me.” Song Yuan paused. “Not to mention painting, my embroidery… ai, I pricked my finger, and it created a psychological shadow.”

“What does this sentence mean?” Rong Ting asked her.

Song Yuan looked pleased. “At the time, your Emperor Father was already writing me baffling poems. I couldn’t understand them, and it would make me very angry. Later, I thought of letting him expand his vision, so I thought of this poem. What a pity that I could only remember this one line, and all the ones before and after were handed back to the teacher. So I just replied with this on the paper, and guess what your Emperor Father did?”

“Emperor Father… should have been very touched?”

Song Yuan seemed to have found a confidant. “You also think he wouldn’t be human5 if he wasn’t moved, right? But he blew up. He angrily rushed over and asked me who wrote this poem for me. He really understands me; just one look and he could see it wasn’t me who wrote it. But he also misunderstood and thought that someone else wrote it for me, and then I revised it and gave it to him…”

Rong Ting also smiled, his heart greatly unburdened.

Before, he had always thought that in Empress Mother’s heart, all her memories of ancient times would make her unhappy. Thinking about it now, that didn’t seem to be the case. Empress Mother also had happy moments in ancient times.

That’s great.

“Emperor Father indeed knows Empress Mother well.” Rong Ting continued, “Empress Mother, do you resent Emperor Father?”

“Resent? Not at all.” Song Yuan shook her head, eyes fixed on the words ‘Surely, we won’t betray our longings!’ “He also has many things that are out of his control. Within the scope of his abilities, he’s already given me everything he can.”

Rong Ting wanted to ask, then in the future? Do you and Emperor Father still have a future?

But he didn’t ask. He felt that he no longer wished to figure out the matters between his parents.

He believed that his Emperor Father was the most intelligent person in the world, and his Empress Mother was the warmest person in the world. The answer to this question, they must be able to figure it out themselves.

“Empress Mother…” Rong Ting snapped to attention and sniffed the air. Suddenly, he felt an ominous premonition. “What’s that smell?”

Song Yuan’s heart thumped. Quickly and calmly6 tossing the blame, she answered innocently, “It has nothing to do with me, really. It’s your Emperor Father who had someone send it over.”

“Emperor Father sent it over? How could that be! Emperor Father almost vomited when he smelled it in the supermarket today!” Rong Ting looked up at her with an accusing gaze. “Empress Mother must not lie.”

“I swear to God I’m not lying. It really was your Emperor Father who sent it over. Gugu, let me tell you, this durian can’t be thrown out. This is Musang King! It’s very expensive; it’d be a pity to throw it away. Don’t you worry, I’ll get rid of it in the shortest time possible! You just need to bear with it for two days.”

Rong Ting’s expression turned strange. “Two days??”

Did this mean that in the next two days, his nose would suffer such cruel damage every time he opened the refrigerator?

“I can’t finish eating in one day.” Song Yuan looked at him again. “Your love for Empress Mother isn’t even enough to bear it for two days?”

Rong Ting: Was this not emotional blackmail?

He sighed helplessly. “Then how many days is Empress Mother’s love for me?”

Song Yuan: “…”

This kid’s pretty good.

“My love for you is forever. Can I exchange forever for your two days?”

“…Father Emperor habors evil intentions.” The greatest change in Rong Ting was that he could now speak frankly about his Emperor Father’s “bad deeds.” “Emperor Father didn’t think about my feelings at all; he only thought of you, Empress Mother. Am I or am I not his own son?”

“Didn’t we do a paternity test before? I’m pretty sure you’re his son, biologically.”

Because of the durians in the fridge, even the Yakult was baptized with that smell. This made the Yakult fanatic Rong Ting find it a bit unbearable, and he decided to temporarily abstain from Yakult for the next two days.

To express his protest, when Rong Ting practiced his calligraphy today, he deliberately wrote the words “Horrific stench.”

Before, he used to think that apples were the most difficult to eat fruit in the world, but Empress Mother always said apples were good for him, so he could only accept eating apples without their skin. Now, compared to this durian, he declared that he had wrongly blamed apples. Apples truly worked hard and tasted delicious.

Didn’t Emperor Father also hate durians? But because Empress Mother liked them, he gave them to her, as though briefly forgetting that there was another person in the house who hated durians.

After months of observation and fumbling, Rong Heng could now operate the computer’s basic functions. He settled both lunch and dinner in the hotel dining hall. After returning to the room, he would read newspapers and books as usual. Suddenly, a thought popped up in his mind. In the past, she used to write some strange numbers on paper.

Later when he asked her, she pointed to the six numbers on the paper and said, this was her phone’s unlock code.

The eleven-digit number was her phone number.

The nine-digit number was her QQ7.

She said she was afraid she would forget even the most basic things after staying a long time here. She had to go over them often so she wouldn’t forget.

He didn’t understand what she was talking about at the time. Once he came to her world, he slowly came to understand. He applied for a QQ number online, just to figure out how to see her Q Zone. This took over an hour…

Song Yuan’s Q Zone had a question set up. You could only enter if you answered correctly.

The question: Who do I like the most?

Rong Heng sat at the desk, fingers unconsciously tapping the surface.

Slowly, he typed out his answer–Rong Heng.

Incorrect answer.

Rong Heng’s mouth twitched, and he expressionlessly typed out Song Haiping and Chen Linjing’s names. Not long after, the page loaded, and he entered her Q Zone.

As soon as he entered, there was a burst of music.

So noisy.

Rong Heng fumbled for half a day before finally finding the mute button.

What did she talk about? He clicked to look.

There were quite a few posts. He read through them one by one, but they were all about the worries of a young woman. She even posted if she had a bad haircut.

In fact, looking at her Q Zone was very interesting. The message board was filled with comments from her girlfriends and friends. The things she talked about were also some of her feelings at that time. It turned out that she was like this in her teens. Finally, he clicked on her diary.

There were only a total of 4-5 diary entries. Based on the publication date, she probably wrote it when she was 17-18.

He braced himself and clicked on one.

“Dad seems to be dating again. Everyone says little kids don’t remember much, but for some reason, I have a very deep impression of something that happened when I was 4-5. At the time, Mom and Dad hadn’t divorced yet. One day, Dad told Mom he was going on a business trip, so Mom took me to the amusement park. Mom was driving, and I liked to look outside while driving in the car. That day, I saw Dad together with an auntie.

“Dad lied. He lied to my mom and also to me. Later, for a long time–maybe it was several years?–I would always doubt Dad. Dad always wanted to take me out to play on the weekends, but sometimes he would call and say that his company was very busy and that he would come pick me up at night. I always thought, was Dad lying again?

“Mom said she hates cheating the most, and so do I. I would secretly cry when I was a kid. If in this world, even my dad lied to me, who else could I trust? Everyone says that they all wear masks in adulthood, but I don’t want to. I want to be truthful to others. I don’t want to lie to the person I love, so I hope that the person I love also won’t lie to me. Is this really too much to ask?

“They say that sometimes people will tell white lies. If the interactions between people are all truthful but cruel, then I want to compromise. I’ll give him three chances. If he wants to lie to me many times, then I won’t forgive him.

“I won’t be so unlucky, right? I hope that the person I meet in the future is very honest!! Please! This is my seventeen year old wish~”

Rong Heng read these words, thinking, and couldn’t help but laugh.

This was your wish when you were seventeen?

Then she was truly unlucky. After finally falling in love, she ran into a man who crafted plots and machinations all day long.

He thought for a while, returned to the message board, and left an anonymous message: As you wish.

From now on, I will never lie to you again.

[1] 琴棋书画: zither, Go, calligraphy, painting

[2] The final two lines of Li Zhiyi’s 卜算子 (I’ve seen it translated as Song of Divination and as River Song), a poem describing lovesickness. Translation used came from here. Alternative translation is “I wish your heart will be like mine,/Then not in vain for you I pine.” Translation from here

[3] 彩虹屁吹: to spew rainbow farts

[4] 五子棋: also known as Five in a Row. It uses Go game pieces and a Go gameboard, but it’s played completely differently.

[5] raws said, “if he wasn’t moved he wasn’t Chinese” LOL but went with something more understandable

[6] 脸不红心不跳: face not blushing, heart not pounding

[7] raws say “Penguin,” which in English is known as QQ. Penguin refers to QQ’s icon/mascot

Cheese: just a sudden thought while translating this chapter, but one thing that i find interesting about this novel is the depiction of divorce. a lot of novels will either have the divorced couple absolutely hate each other and ultimately end up in a “neither can live while the other survives” situation, or they divorce because of misunderstandings and end up back together, as loving as they’d been when they first got married. the depiction in this novel is a more realistic middle ground where they’re clearly NOT going to get back together (i hope, because that’d be doing clj dirty), but they still clearly prioritize their child and are willing to cooperate for her sake.

Also side-eyeing when rong heng put in his name as the answer for the q zone password lmaooo

(ps this is my last stockpiled chapter so now i gotta tl every week again *stress*)