Page 27

Although Lin Ling hesitated and said nothing, Shi Changyuan saw through his thoughts at a glance.

He handed the letter back to Lin Ling and sighed. "Fool."

Shi Changyuan placed the letter before Lin Ling, then tapped the passage describing the character with his finger. "Does this new character look familiar?"

Mushroom stared at that line, tilting his head as he thought seriously.

"A person?"

Shi Changyuan: "...Think again."

Mushroom had probably never been used as the inspiration for a storybook character before, so the possibility did not occur to him at all.

Shi Changyuan stared into Lin Ling's eyes. They looked at each other for a long while before he finally announced the answer expressionlessly: "This is you."

Mushroom immediately sucked in a sharp breath.

Once he learned that fact, the entire letter looked completely different—

Shi Changyuan watched every subtle reaction from Lin Ling, hoping to find Lin Ling's attitude toward this matter within them.

Or rather, his attitude toward Shi Changyuan.

"Th-this!" Mushroom was so shocked that he stammered for a long time, yet still could not say a single thing.

"...Since you do not care about her, I will not care either." Lin Ling truly did not know what to do. In the end, he looked calmly at the paper and decided to pretend he knew nothing.

After saying that, Lin Ling seemed to realize something. He suddenly looked up at Shi Changyuan and asked, "So you are pretending not to know too, right?!"

Shi Changyuan did not deny it.

Creative freedom was a symbol of open-minded customs and a stable society. Naturally, it also meant that those in power had stable rule and were "magnanimous."

Thus, Lin Ling came to terms with it. Since Shi Changyuan did not care, there was no reason for him to care either!

The corner of Shi Changyuan's lips curved slightly as he spoke slowly. "But does Lin Ling truly not mind?"

Only when Lin Ling looked over did Shi Changyuan continue. "You do not mind any possible development between you and me in Liu Xiangyu's storybook?"

"You do not mind storytellers recounting tales based on you and me before large crowds. From then on, whenever others mention one of us, they will inevitably mention the other."

Shi Changyuan paused and observed Lin Ling.

Lin Ling blinked. Just as he was about to say that he did not mind, Shi Changyuan spoke again, his voice low and unhurried as he altered the details, tempting Lin Ling and guiding him to imagine the scene—

"In the storybook, we might be husband and wife. Lin Ling would put on bright red wedding robes for me, and we would marry before everyone's witness. We would drink the wedding wine..."

"We would kiss, whisper against each other's ears, make love, inseparable from one another."

Shi Changyuan lowered his eyes, his tangible gaze falling upon Lin Ling's lower abdomen.

"Perhaps you would even give birth to a Little Mushroom for me in the end."

Shi Changyuan raised his eyes and fixed Lin Ling with a fierce stare, asking in return,

"Even then, you would not mind?"

After a moment of mutual silence, Lin Ling went whoosh, nearly turning into a red mushroom on the spot.

Every inch of exposed skin on his body turned so red it nearly seemed to burn. His earlobes looked ready to drip blood, and even the corners of his eyes were tinged red, giving him an entirely different air.

Before Shi Changyuan could speak again, Lin Ling instantly leaped onto the ceiling beam, reverted to his original form, and played ostrich.

Shi Changyuan looked up at him and magnanimously spared the mushroom, who had just suffered such a blow.

Yet even after several days, Lin Ling still avoided Shi Changyuan. He no longer went to the Imperial Study, and his door remained tightly shut, with no one allowed inside.

Even once, when Shi Changyuan stood outside his door, Lin Ling gently but firmly talked him into leaving.

Lin Ling hid atop the ceiling beam, reading the letter that had arrived from outside the palace that day.

Mushroom did not know he had been teased by a bad man. He only knew that seeing the person involved now made him unbearably embarrassed. Even when he fell asleep at night, he dreamed of the scenes Shi Changyuan had described.

The scenes in his dreams were even more vivid and detailed. Lin Ling could even feel their mingled breaths and every inch of skin pressed together. Even his newly formed spores mutated—no longer hallucinogenic, they became aphrodisiac spores, throwing all of Li'an Hall into chaos and even bringing misfortune upon passing sparrows.

For a time, Lin Ling considered simply packing his things and hiding out in the deep forests nearby.

After all, he could not stay in this palace any longer.

Mushroom had actually tried to resolve the matter. Lin Ling sent Liu Xiangyu a letter overnight, cautiously probing the creator's thoughts in his utterly clumsy handwriting and tactfully expressing his request.

In response, Liu Xiangyu directly sent back a proof copy that was already more than half finished, along with a confident reply—

[Fanfiction without smut loses its soul (crossed out). I will consider Young Master Lin's request as appropriate, but for the sake of an exciting plot, some things are indispensable. Why not read my new story first? ^-^]

Lin Ling: QAQ

Mushroom huddled atop the ceiling beam and read the proof copy. Its plot rose and fell dramatically, and its tangled love and hatred were wonderfully compelling. It looked destined to become a bestseller throughout the capital, and even Lin Ling could not help looking forward to what came next.

...If he had not been the protagonist.

Just as Lin Ling was about to dispose of the source of this evil, someone knocked on his door again. "Perhaps we should talk."

Lin Ling hid in his room without making a sound.

Then Shi Changyuan's voice sounded again from outside. It was very low and deep, and carried a hint of sadness. "If you mind, I can order Liu Xiangyu to stop, or impose a ban throughout the entire country."

Lin Ling slowly shuffled over to the door, wanting to hear more clearly.

"But you cannot avoid me and hate me over something that does not even exist."

The voice through the door became even lower, to the point that Shi Changyuan no longer referred to himself by title. "That is unfair to me, Lin Ling."

"...I-I do not."

The door before Shi Changyuan opened a small crack, and Lin Ling revealed one eye from behind it.

"I do not hate you."

"I just feel a little awkward." Separated by the door, Lin Ling looked at Shi Changyuan outside. "A ban would make far too much of a fuss. I-I just will not read it, then."