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A few transparent golden fuzzes covered it, plainly declaring that it was poisonous.

Shi Changyuan reached out and gave it a pinch. Just as he had imagined, it was soft. His brows lifted slightly, and he smiled. "Sure enough, all white and plump."

Caught off guard by the pinch, Lin Ling's stalk trembled, and his cap curled inward a little, as though he were doing his utmost to avoid those mischievous fingers. He looked utterly pitiful.

"Don't pinch me! You'll break me."

Shi Changyuan gave an oh and continued fishing for information openly. "A mushroom spirit can be broken by pinching?"

"Mushrooms are naturally a very fragile species." Lin Ling had no idea that he had just exposed his weakness. After returning to human form, the tips of his ears were still red with faint embarrassment.

"All right, you've looked, and you've pinched me. When are you going to compensate me..."

Before he could finish, Lin Ling saw the ruler across from him smile, his tone entirely matter-of-fact. "You did make a request, but I never agreed to it."

Lin Ling froze. Thinking back on their earlier conversation, it seemed that perhaps, maybe, Shi Changyuan really had not agreed—

"Ah..."

The boy's round, dull eyes were full of disbelief. He hesitated, wanting to say something, but...

He really had not agreed.

Not agreeing meant it did not count.

Shi Changyuan looked at the mushroom before him, who practically had Was it my fault? written plainly across his face. He sighed soundlessly. He was simply too innocent, too easy to fool.

"So easy to bully."

"You were bullying me?" Lin Ling was still half a beat slow to react. He looked at Shi Changyuan, trying to confirm it. "You did it on purpose?"

The spirit before him was weak, innocent, kind-hearted, inexperienced in worldly affairs, and entirely incapable of protecting himself. He posed no threat to Shi Changyuan or Great Li. Shi Changyuan could obtain whatever he wanted from him without the slightest effort.

"Not quite." Shi Changyuan gathered the chess pieces one by one, and his smile faded with them. The bearing of an emperor was laid bare between his brows and eyes. "If I truly wished to bully someone, I'm afraid not even their bones would remain."

Though Lin Ling did not understand, he trembled unconsciously. As though driven by an instinct to seek benefit and avoid harm, he sensed that the person before him was dangerous.

But instincts were one thing. Lin Ling understood the literal meaning, so he hooked one finger around the emperor's sleeve, beaming happily. "Then that means you weren't planning to bully me."

Shi Changyuan: ...

"What I mean is that all beneath heaven belongs to the sovereign; thunder and rain alike are the sovereign's grace."

Do not push your luck.

After Shi Changyuan spoke, he saw Lin Ling staring blankly, his head seemingly utterly empty. He paused, then understood. "You're an illiterate mushroom too?"

Since ancient times, spirits born in a particular place would inevitably possess similar dispositions. The officials entering and leaving the Imperial Study were all learned scholars and top scorers in the imperial examinations. Influenced by them day in and day out, Lin Ling truly should not have been unable to recognize a single character.

The mushroom stammered, trying to explain. "I-I'm just a mushroom."

He had been born in the study, not out in the wilderness.

Mushroom often worried anxiously that if he returned to the mountains, everyone else would be illiterate while only he could read, and he would be ostracized for it.

Shi Changyuan, upon learning Mushroom's thoughts, did not know how to respond.

Innocent, gullible, unable to recognize a single character, and like a child—Shi Changyuan felt that if he seriously argued with such a spirit, then he would be the one at fault.

"Forget it. Tomorrow, I will give you a flowerpot."

"Really? Yay!" Lin Ling jumped up and hugged Shi Changyuan. His baby-fat cheeks rubbed against the emperor's jaw, soft and warm to the touch.

Shi Changyuan's temple throbbed sharply. Before he could rebuke him for his "impudence," the boy left with smiling eyes, waving as he went.

The dream changed with the boy's departure. Shi Changyuan rose from beside the bed and instinctively reached out to touch where the boy had pressed against him, but the soft warmth was already completely gone.

Forget it. The emperor lowered his hand.

He was merely a mushroom who understood nothing.

The emperor's word was law. Since he had promised to compensate him with a flowerpot, he would certainly keep his promise. Though he could not remember what Mushroom's flowerpot looked like, casually returning an ordinary one would be beneath imperial dignity.

Just then, Southern Huai presented tribute. The emperor's gaze swept carelessly over the priceless offerings before lingering on several sky-blue glazed flower-rimmed pots. A moment later, he waved his wide sleeve. "Put these in the Imperial Study."

Following Shi Changyuan's gaze, the chief eunuch looked at the flowerpots and asked hesitantly, "Your Majesty, shall something be planted in them..."

"No."

The sky-blue glazed flower-rimmed pots were lined up in the most conspicuous spot in the Imperial Study. After nightfall, a lamp was even lit nearby, lest the mushroom fail to notice them.

But that ungrateful mushroom broke their appointment.

Shi Changyuan's dream was desolate. Until it was nearly time for morning court, nothing changed.

When the chief eunuch entered to attend him, he was startled by Shi Changyuan's grim expression and immediately fell to his knees. Only after receiving permission did he dare rise trembling.

"Your Majesty... did you not rest well?" the chief eunuch ventured boldly.

Shi Changyuan tilted his head slightly and looked at him. After only a few breaths of silence, every eunuch in the room dropped to their knees with a clatter.

"Rise." Shi Changyuan straightened his cuff, his tone icy. "It is no different from usual."

Everyone keenly sensed the emperor's foul mood. Not knowing the reason, they could only think that the sovereign's heart was unfathomable. They dared not say anything more, silently finished their duties, and quickly withdrew.

News that the Son of Heaven was in a bad mood spread at once. Even during morning court, the ministers who argued all day lowered their voices, chose elegant words, and maintained an atmosphere of harmony.

Yet even after court, that gloomy mood did not ease.

Shi Changyuan sat in the Imperial Study reviewing memorials. Their contents gave him a headache, and when he looked up and saw the flowerpots in the very center of the study, he felt even more stifled. "Shunde."