Chapter 18

Lin Ling looked at Shi Changyuan outside the door and, his earlobes red, emphasized,

"You're not allowed to look either!"

Chapter 18

Mushroom personally proved that running away was shameful but effective.

After his awkward emotions faded, only Lin Ling's mutated spores had yet to return to normal. He did not dare go out and see anyone until late autumn.

He had read quite a few storybooks. If he failed to control spores with this kind of effect, it could cause a huge mess! This was often the beginning of misunderstandings and deeply tragic romances.

Mushroom did not want to get involved at all.

"Achoo—"

Lin Ling, who had been practicing calligraphy in the Imperial Study for two months, sneezed two or three times in a row before complaining to Shi Changyuan, "Someone's talking about me behind my back!"

Shi Changyuan had someone shut all the doors and windows. "The late-autumn weather is cold and windy. You may have caught a chill."

Many of the tall trees in the palace had already shed all their leaves. Looking at the desolation beyond the window, Lin Ling was suddenly glad he had taken Shi Changyuan's advice and decided to set out in spring.

"I'm so sleepy. I really want to sleep."

Whenever the wind blew on Lin Ling, he could barely keep his eyes open, as though he had developed hypersomnia. Out of the twelve double-hours in a day, he spent nearly half asleep, and spent the other half dozing off. His appetite had also noticeably increased.

Eating more and sleeping more—this was practically a sign that certain animals were about to hibernate.

Shi Changyuan wrapped Lin Ling in a cloak and placed a warming flask in his arms. "You can't sleep yet."

The moment the warming flask was placed in Lin Ling's arms, he immediately became a little more alert. He nodded.

In recent days, Lin Ling had grown sleepy earlier each day, and the time he remained awake had become shorter and shorter. Shi Changyuan was deeply worried.

It was only the end of autumn and beginning of winter. The first snow had not even fallen yet. If Lin Ling were allowed to sleep as he pleased, then by the time winter truly arrived, he might not have even a moment of wakefulness left.

Shi Changyuan was artificially controlling Mushroom's sleeping hours.

Seeing Shi Changyuan's tightly furrowed brows these past few days, Lin Ling comforted him. "Don't worry. I don't think it's a serious problem. Maybe mushrooms of my kind just need to hibernate."

Shi Changyuan looked at Lin Ling and asked, "Did you have these symptoms before?"

Lin Ling shook his head, paused, then seemed to nod faintly as he explained, "I'm not entirely sure, but you know, you can't see mushrooms in winter. Everyone turns back into spores and hides underground then."

"Before I gained sentience, I spent most of my time sleeping and staring blankly into space anyway, so I never noticed that I was a mushroom that needed to hibernate."

Lin Ling recalled those repetitive days. "But I won't turn back into spores, because your Imperial Study is so warm."

Watching Lin Ling gradually begin to squint again, Shi Changyuan changed the subject and asked, "Kunlun Mountain is cold too. How will you cultivate there?"

That was a very practical question.

Lin Ling immediately opened his eyes again.

Generally speaking, mountaintops were much colder than foothills. What was more, the legendary Kunlun Mountain was a place blanketed in snow year-round, where it never melted.

If mushrooms had to hibernate whenever the weather turned cold, then once Lin Ling went to Kunlun Mountain, would he not just sleep soundly through every season, barely any different from eternal sleep?

Thinking of that scene, Shi Changyuan smiled for once. "Is Lin Ling planning to cultivate in his dreams?"

What a cruel question.

Lin Ling could not laugh at all.

"How about..." Shi Changyuan's eyes flickered as he prepared to speak again, but Lin Ling abruptly interrupted him.

"No, I need to think of a solution." Hugging the warming flask, Lin Ling took a sheet of paper and a brush, then began drawing and scribbling on the paper.

Shi Changyuan could tell at a glance that it was a map of the mountain ranges near the capital. Mushroom had probably seen it in a book, then marked it out on paper from memory and according to the directions.

Shi Changyuan actually possessed more detailed maps of this sort, but he hoped there would never come a day when Lin Ling needed to use them.

"If I can't go to Kunlun Mountain, then I may have to choose the most suitable one among these mountains..."

Before Lin Ling could finish speaking, his head began bobbing like a pecking chick as sleepiness overtook him again.

Shi Changyuan watched as the brush in Lin Ling's hand continued moving, stubbornly trying to finish the drawing. Yet the moment he put brush to paper, the spot he thought he was marking unconsciously veered impossibly far away.

Seeing Lin Ling's head nearly knock into the ink, Shi Changyuan caught him at once and said softly, "Forget it. Go to sleep."

The moment his words fell, Lin Ling completely gave up struggling.

It was only the hour of the Monkey, and even in winter, the sky outside had yet to darken. Shi Changyuan picked Lin Ling up and looked at the mountain map he had drawn, seized for a moment by the urge to burn it.

But in the end, he had Shunde put it away.

Shi Changyuan carried Lin Ling back to Li'an Hall. There was no underfloor heating in the side hall where Lin Ling lived, so Shi Changyuan carried him to his own bedchamber.

The underfloor heating was not burning fiercely, but the entire room was warmer than outside, warm enough to remove the cloak.

Just as he controlled Lin Ling's sleeping hours, Shi Changyuan also controlled the amount of warmth he gave Lin Ling. He wanted to prevent a time when he had no options left, when even lying atop the hottest underfloor heating would not be enough to keep him awake.

Shi Changyuan placed Lin Ling on his own bed and stared at him for a long while. Then he suddenly took a small porcelain bottle and a silver needle from a nearby table.

"Hiss..." Lin Ling murmured. His brows furrowed tightly in his dreams, and a pale pink bead of blood appeared at the center of his forehead.

Against his fair skin and delicate features, that bead of blood, though only light pink, appeared especially vivid and alluring, impossible to look away from.

Lowering his gaze, Shi Changyuan collected the bead of blood in the white porcelain bottle. After tucking Lin Ling's blanket in securely, he turned and left the bedchamber.

"Your Majesty, are you going to..." Shunde asked softly from the side.

Shi Changyuan looked back once, his voice exceptionally sharp in the cold wind.

"Leave the palace."