Page 9

"Do all you spirits have the ability to bewitch people's hearts?"

Mushroom did not understand why Shi Changyuan had brought this up. Seeing Shi Changyuan's gesture, he tilted his head as well. "Not necessarily. Besides, I haven't met any other spirits."

"Why did you suddenly ask that?"

Seeing Lin Ling's bewildered expression, the corners of Shi Changyuan's lips lifted slightly. He picked up his brush and wrote the three characters "Shi Changyuan" beside the two characters "Lin Ling."

Mushroom stretched his neck to look at the black ink on white paper. His first thought was: So complicated.

He watched Shi Changyuan put down the brush and lift the sheet of paper, looking it over from left to right. First, he proudly stated a fact. "It isn't as simple as my name."

A few seconds later, Lin Ling tried to identify the characters, but he only recognized the simple character for "long."

He looked at the paper, then at Shi Changyuan, and pointed at the final character as he guessed, "Does this mean water too?"

The youth before him possessed a purity untouched by knowledge. His round, dull eyes blinked and blinked. Even dressed in imperial palace robes, his inhuman air as a spirit was exposed in an instant.

Shi Changyuan gave a slight nod. "Deep water is called a yuan."

"Yuan..." Lin Ling deliberately ignored the first character, which he did not recognize at all, and tried reading it aloud. "Changyuan?"

The youth's voice was distinctive, like jade falling into a clear spring. Yet he deliberately lowered it, and its ending carried a soft, syrupy sweetness. It truly suited a soft Little Mushroom.

Seeing that Shi Changyuan did not correct him, Lin Ling's eyes lit up. Just as he opened his mouth to say it again, his forehead was flicked.

It did not hurt, but the spot had turned red.

"Taboo."

Shi Changyuan swept his gaze over the palace attendants, who had closed their ears and eyes, then said slowly, "This time, your ignorance will be forgiven."

Lin Ling froze for a moment, covering his forehead, but his eyes curved into crescents. "Okay."

There had always been many rules in the human world, especially within the Imperial City and before the Son of Heaven. Lin Ling knew this. Before he had become a spirit, he had already witnessed it from atop the roof beams.

The human ruler before him had already shown him great leniency, but he still did not like this feeling very much.

So that very night, Mushroom began preparing to plant his spores.

His human identity was quite useful. He only needed to tell the human beside Shi Changyuan, named Shunde, that he needed another flowerpot. In less than the time it took to burn an incense stick, Shunde delivered one to him—and asked for no payment at all. He was a very good human.

As long as the spores in this flowerpot grew, and he fulfilled what he had promised, he could bid his friend farewell and return to the deep mountains and ancient forests he yearned for.

Under suitable conditions, Mushroom's growth cycle was very short. He only needed a few days.

In the middle of the night, Shi Changyuan sensed someone approaching in his sleep. He gripped the dagger hidden in the secret compartment and opened his eyes at once, his expression clear as the skies of the Qingming Festival.

When he met those harmless eyes, his tense nerves relaxed. Somewhat irritated, he rubbed his brow, though his tone remained unchanged. "What are you...?"

Lin Ling crouched beside Shi Changyuan's bed, holding an empty flowerpot. When he saw Shi Changyuan awake, his eyes brightened, and he solemnly offered the empty pot to him.

"I came to secretly deliver the Good-Dream Mushroom to you." Lin Ling lowered his voice. "I can't expose my identity, but there's no way to send physical objects through the dream mirror, so I picked a time when no one was around."

A time when no one was around...

When Shi Changyuan heard those words, one brow rose slightly, but he did not correct him.

The imperial palace was heavily guarded. There was never a time when no one was around, especially when Shi Changyuan was resting.

The night-duty attendants outside the study remained soundless; perhaps they truly had not heard the movement within. As for the hidden guards, any who knew Lin Ling could not muster much vigilance toward this harmless, foolish youth.

Surely he could not do anything earth-shattering.

Lin Ling carefully placed the flowerpot by Shi Changyuan's bedside and instructed him, "These are spores I planted. As long as you take good care of them, Little Mushroom will sprout soon."

"Then you'll be able to sleep well every single day."

Shi Changyuan looked at the flowerpot Lin Ling was offering him, and his voice suddenly carried a trace of hesitation. "...Your child?"

"It's not my child. It's a part of me," Lin Ling explained seriously.

"Although Mushroom has no male or female sex, after becoming a spirit, I gained a gender."

"You male humans can't have children." After saying that, Lin Ling looked at Shi Changyuan with a strange expression that seemed to say, You didn't even know that?

Shi Changyuan, who had somehow been blamed instead, fell silent. He looked again at the flowerpot in Lin Ling's hands, seeming to want to speak but holding back, then wanting to speak again but holding back once more. In the end, he said nothing and accepted the flowerpot.

Seeing Shi Changyuan take the flowerpot, Lin Ling's exposed eyes immediately curved.

"Don't worry. Before Little Mushroom can work, I won't abandon my post without permission!"

Holding the flowerpot, Shi Changyuan looked at the youth sneakily peeking over the bedside. As though he had thought of something, he chuckled. "You even know the phrase 'abandon one's post without permission' now?"

Mushroom had been caught off guard by the bad human's teasing and puffed up in annoyance.

Why did those hidden guards tell him everything? It was only because he had heard the phrase for the first time and mistaken the words for "mountain pear," that was all!!

What was wrong with mountain pears? Mocking mountain pears—humans truly were bad.

Humans might be bad-hearted, but when it came to growing Mushroom, they were unexpectedly skilled. Less than three days after Lin Ling's little potted plant had been placed there, a tiny tip emerged.

By the fourth day, all the Mushroom tips in the flowerpot had grown out.

The newborn Little Mushroom was only the size of a peanut, short and plump. Although its cap had not fully opened yet, it was already clear that this Mushroom was unusual.

If other Mushroom all looked more or less the same, then this Mushroom's cap was especially small. Once fully opened, it seemed as though the cap would turn upward, growing in the complete opposite direction.