Chapter 300: I Had a Dream
Minister Dong glanced at the betrothal gift list and instantly felt as if winter had arrived, inexplicably feeling a chill.
After the snowfall, the people of the capital all felt as if winter had arrived.
The snow scenery at Taia Temple was stunning.
The temple roofs were brilliantly colored; as a thousand-year-old temple, it possessed the heavy solemnity of history.
Once covered in snow, it looked even more sacred.
As if it truly possessed Buddha-nature.
Can’t ski, can’t dive, can’t swim, can’t rock climb, can’t…
Princess Huiyun looked at the little sprout in front of her. It had been agreed that she would stay to comfort and accompany her, but now she felt a sense of overwhelming worry and frustration.
A few days ago, she still felt that although the little one was naughty, she was quite fun, and sometimes even felt they were quite compatible.
At this moment, her scalp felt a bit numb.
She wished she could turn back time.
“Go make tea?”
“Boring.”
“Burn some incense.”
“Don’t want to go.”
“Then let’s build a snowman; you must go.” Princess Huiyun said loudly.
“Okay.”
Princess Huiyun couldn’t catch her breath.
She dragged the little one to the courtyard, where the servants had already prepared the snow.
Mianmian was about to grab it with her hands, but Princess Huiyun caught her hands and put gloves on her.
It was quite magical; they were Princess Huiyun’s swimming gloves, slippery and pitch black.
Wearing them kept the cold at bay.
Princess Huiyun felt she had only played with this when she was three, and never again afterwards.
She hadn’t expected that decades later, she would be here building a snowman to coax someone.
Mianmian liked snow and enjoyed building snowmen.
Aside from not liking to memorize long ancient texts, she was quite excellent at tasks and in physical education class.
She even built the snowman very seriously.
Princess Huiyun wanted to interact and play with her freshly minted dear granddaughter, and while she was at it, recall her own childhood.
She kept helping.
When the little one ordered her around, she didn’t spare any effort.
“Grandma, help me shape the sticks—yes, the curved sticks. Use the snow, and make sure to press them firm.”
At first, Princess Huiyun was quite happy.
The little one was close to her, without any distance between them.
Ordering her, a dignified princess, to do manual labor, without the slightest hesitation.
But when she participated enthusiastically and helped out, she saw the sticks being pieced together one by one—it looked like a skeleton?
Then she saw the little one sitting to the side, very seriously holding a knife and chiseling ice.
Watching her hand hold the knife, first shaving the ice into an almost circular shape, then chiseling out two holes, and then chiseling out a row of teeth?
Watching a large lump of ice in her hands quickly turn into a crystal-clear skull?
Finally, it was placed on the skeleton.
So, her dear granddaughter had built a skeleton out of snow?
A human corpse?
The kind without skin or flesh?
Pure bone?
Princess Huiyun broke down.
Not only did she break down, but she was also extremely nervous. Looking at this snow-white skeleton, she nervously kept picking at her right hand with her left.
“What is this? Where did you see this?” Princess Huiyun asked as gently as possible.
At the same time, she had eight hundred apologies she wanted to utter in her heart.
Her imagination was running wild, and she couldn’t breathe.
What kind of terrible scene would make a seven or eight-year-old girl build a skeleton while making a snowman?
How could a normal person ever see such a thing?
She didn’t even know that a skull was hollow in the middle? And had such curves?
And leg bones? Segment by segment.
┭ ┮ ﹏ ┭ ┮, to tell the truth, this snowman was stunningly beautiful.
Especially the skull chiseled out of ice; it looked like it had been carved from a massive piece of transparent jade—it was very beautiful.
It even felt like a smiling skull; although it had no skin or flesh, the bones were still smiling.
Heaven knows what a pure ancient person would feel upon seeing such a snowman.
Even Princess Huiyun—who had an abnormally strong heart, suffered from intermittent mental episodes, and often sought extreme sports to trigger hormone secretion as a motivation to keep living—couldn’t handle this.
She looked at the snowman, then looked at her dear granddaughter.
Princess Huiyun wanted to scoop up her granddaughter and turn away.
Seeing her seriously working on the toe bones, ┭ ┮ ﹏ ┭ ┮.
Meanwhile, the shadow guards who had been protecting them from the surroundings had initially just thought their master seemed to be in a good mood today, as she hadn’t engaged in extreme sports and had started building a snowman instead.
Since the master had reunited with her family, the activities she engaged in were much simpler.
On a snowy day, one old and one young—no, Princess Huiyun really didn’t look old—an ageless goddess and a not-so-young little girl building a snowman together; the scene was actually quite beautiful.
But when they saw what was finally built, the shadow guards in the trees nearly fell out.
What the hell is this?
How could such white snow be used to build something so terrifying?
Humans naturally feel fear toward the bodies of their own kind and similar things.
For example, human-faced birds, or human-faced fish…
It is hardwired into the human genetic sequence to be more afraid of things with similar genes.
If you threw a monster at them, everyone could work together to kill it, and they might even try roasting it.
But if you threw a monster with a human face at them, they wouldn’t be able to do that; they would have psychological barriers.
Princess Huiyun looked at the snow-white, crystal-clear skeleton and watched her granddaughter adding the toe bones. She couldn’t help but ask, “Mianmian, where have you seen these things?”
Jiang Mianmian answered briskly, “In a dream.”
Princess Huiyun cautiously asked, “What kind of dream?”
Mianmian sighed.
Princess Huiyun saw the little one speaking in half-sentences and sighing with such an old-fashioned air, and inexplicably, her hands felt itchy.
Mianmian said, “Wait for me, Grandma. Wait until I finish these toe bones, then I’ll tell you slowly. The dream is very long.”
Princess Huiyun looked up at the sky, still very tempted to pick the little one up, knead her, roll her into a ball, and kick her out.
After finishing the snowman.
Perfect.
Mianmian looked at her work; it was too good. If she had a mobile phone, she would definitely post it on Moments.
She looked back at Princess Grandma, who seemed to be grinding her teeth—what a strange little habit.
Princess Grandma should still have her original teeth at this age. Mianmian silently thought about whether she should ask, but decided not to; she felt that if she asked, she would get a beating.
Princess Huiyun looked at the little one’s expression. She didn’t know what the child was thinking, but inexplicably felt it was better not to ask. She figured that if she did, she wouldn’t be able to resist beating her, as she felt the child was thinking about something dangerous.
After building the snowman, they returned to the room. The princess touched the little one’s hands; they were indeed icy cold and frozen red. She had her soak them in warm water first before handing her a hand warmer.
Because someone who is freezing cold might not even realize they are getting burned if they suddenly touch something very hot.
It needed to be done gradually.
When the princess was doing these things, she felt a sense of daze; so, she was also capable of taking such careful care of someone.
After playing in the snow, they went inside to change into warm, soft clothes. Sitting on a cushion that felt like it had floor heating, drinking tea and eating snacks, Mianmian began to tell Princess Grandma about that dream.
“This is actually a dream Elder Brother had. Elder Brother told Father, and I overheard it, so then I dreamed it too. But this dream is very scary. Grandma, are you ready to listen?”
Mianmian sat up straight and looked seriously at Princess Huiyun in front of her.
As an ancient princess who loved rock climbing, bungee jumping, diving, and all sorts of highly suicidal sports, her mental state definitely had some issues, more or less.
To put it bluntly, she was mentally ill; to put it nicely, she had “princess syndrome.”
Sigh, she really was a princess, and she really was sick.
If you’re sick, you need medicine.
Some medicine is taken orally, some is taken through the ears, and some is taken through the heart.
Thank you for reading + listening 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
