hotmtlnovel Chapter 1929 Events at Midnight
Chapter 1929 Events at Midnight
Lu Zhaoling was stunned.
“We didn’t know at first,” the old Duchess said in a low voice, “but for some reason, in the middle of the night, our doors and windows suddenly started banging, waking me and the Duke up.”
"When we woke up, we saw that the doors and windows were wide open. But there was no wind that night. The Duke thought that a thief had sneaked in, but no matter how he checked, he couldn't find any trace of anyone having been there."
"Besides, if it were really a thief, there's no way they would open the doors and windows so wide and make such a commotion, as if they just wanted to wake us up."
Lu Zhaoling listened attentively without interrupting.
She felt that the old Duchess must have been holding this in for a long time and had been wanting to tell someone about it.
The old Duchess continued, "When we woke up and saw this situation, we naturally thought of the Prince and the Crown Prince who were still staying at the manor. These two must not be harmed. So the Duke and I quickly put on our clothes and went to the guest courtyard to see with our own eyes that they were alright."
"When they arrived, they saw the prince standing in the middle of the courtyard, dressed in a single garment and barefoot, with his eyes open and no expression on his face. He just stood there blankly."
Lu Zhaoling's heart jumped.
"Both the Duke and I were terrified. We called out to him, but he didn't respond."
"The Duke said at the time that some people suffer from sleepwalking, and it might be like the Prince."
Lu Zhaoling nodded.
Sleepwalking, that's possible.
But in all the years she's been with Zhou Shiyue, she's never noticed that he has this problem.
Moreover, Zhou Shiyue used to be a person who couldn't sleep soundly and was very vigilant, so it's unlikely that he has sleepwalking disorder.
She didn't speak, waiting for the old lady to continue.
“I also thought it was very likely, so I told the Duke that we shouldn’t wake him up, but let him go back to his room on his own. At most, we could only gently guide him and call the Prince back to his room.”
"But, right after the Duke called the Prince's name, the Prince heard it, his eyes flickered, and he looked towards us. At that moment, his gaze was quite strange..."
The old Duchess visibly tightened her grip on Lu Zhaoling's hand.
Lu Zhaoling couldn't help but ask, "What's so strange about it?"
"His eyes didn't look like those of a confused child sleepwalking. His eyes were very clear, and his expression was also very strange. How should I put it? He didn't look like the prince during the day; he looked like a completely different person."
"The old Duke wasn't this old back then. He was usually a rather strict person, and the younger generation was afraid of him. But at that time, he actually felt that the Prince put pressure on him."
The old Duchess said, "Later, the Duke told me himself that when he saw the Prince at the time, he almost wanted to kneel down. I was completely stunned at the time."
Lu Zhaoling immediately recalled the scene in the ancestral temple where the ghosts of Du Bing and his soldiers appeared, and the imposing aura Zhou Shiyue exuded at that time.
Maybe that's how it is?
If that's the case, then Zhou Shiyue on that night also experienced events from his previous life.
"And then?" she asked.
The old Duchess sighed and said, "Later, we saw that his face was really pale, and it was cold at the time. He was thinly dressed and barefoot, and we were afraid that he would get frostbite, so I ran to get his outer garment and shoes, thinking that I should put them on him first no matter what."
"As a result, after we put his coat on him, he closed his eyes and collapsed. The Duke quickly caught him and carried him back into the house. We didn't dare leave that night, so we stayed by his bedside, but nothing happened that night."
"Does he remember the next day?" Lu Zhaoling asked.
"I don't remember."
The old Duchess said, "When he woke up the next day and saw us by his bedside, he asked us if it was because his son and grandson were ugly that he wanted to look at them more?"
The old Duchess couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and laugh as she said this.
"The Duke was furious. I asked the Prince how he slept last night, and he said he slept well and didn't have a single dream. But he noticed the dirt on the soles of his feet and questioned us for a long time about what we had done to him last night."
Lu Zhaoling found Zhou Shiyue's reaction at that time both amusing and somewhat heartbreaking.
Zhou Shiyue probably really doesn't remember what happened that night, right?
Otherwise, would he bring up the strange things that happened back then?
"To be honest, Your Highness, the Duke just told me that your mystical arts are very powerful. Today, your First Mystic Sect even revived the Emperor in the palace. The Duke asked me to take you to the guest courtyard for a look around, and also to see where we are staying, to see if there is anything amiss, and whether it has any impact on the Prince from back then."
The old Duchess said sincerely, "The room where the Prince lived back then has never been occupied by anyone else since then."
Lu Zhaoling was surprised.
She and Zhou Shiyue had initially guessed that the old Duke wanted her to help with the feng shui of the Duke's mansion, and thought that the Duke probably didn't want to waste her skills, since she was already there, he might as well use them.
But they were wrong.
The old Duke's purpose was actually this.
Moreover, no one has lived in that room since, which means they've remembered this incident for over a decade.
For over a decade, they haven't told anyone about this; they're really tight-lipped.
Zhou Shiyue himself probably didn't know that the old Duke was still keeping a secret from him from more than ten years ago.
If it weren't for the fact that I wanted to show her Zhihui's letter from back then, the old Duke wouldn't have thought of bringing this up.
Moreover, it was because the old Duke had witnessed their abilities firsthand today that he decided to tell her about it.
Lu Zhaoling wanted to tell Zhou Shiyue as soon as possible that he owed the old Duke and Duchess a huge favor.
Zhou Shiyue is unaware of this.
The old Duchess led Lu Zhaoling to the guest courtyard.
"Although no one lives here, the other houses have been inhabited. The courtyard has not been changed either; not a single tree or blade of grass has been added or removed. It is basically the same as it was back then."
The old Duchess said to Lu Zhaoling, "We can't find anyone suitable to ask about this, and we feel it's not appropriate to just say it out loud, so we can only use this clumsy method. We were thinking that if the Prince suddenly remembers one day and wants to come back here to visit, we can give him an explanation. Nothing has changed much."
Lu Zhaoling stood in the small courtyard and looked around.
It's very clean here.
She stood in the same spot where Zhou Shi had stood in his reading room back then.
This is what the old Duchess pointed out.
"The prince stood right here, facing that direction."
Zhou Shiyue was not facing the door at the time.
He was facing a tree.