Chapter 55: Chapter 55: "Why Would the Emperor Need My Concern?

Hearing what Li Yun had just said, Ming Lingyi let out a soft laugh. She dropped the pretense and took a step back, as if to avoid the man before her.

Ming Lingyi wasn’t looking at Li Yun, so she missed the flash of disappointment in his eyes.

"I am Ming Yao now, not Ming Lingyi."

Ming Lingyi had no intention of continuing this dance of roundabout probing, proving, and pretending with Li Yun. She knew very well that with his resources, it wouldn’t be hard for him to discover her true identity. Before such immense power, any disguise was as flimsy as paper, seen through in a single glance.

But there were still many things she could do.

For instance, drawing a clear line between herself and the man before her.

"Everything that happened before... to me, that was a past life. It all ended five years ago," Ming Lingyi said.

Li Yun asked, "Is that so? Then why were you looking for Our Crown Prince?"

"...Even if it was a past life, one still has regrets, and people one wishes to see," Ming Lingyi said. She didn’t seem to care that every word she uttered was like a dagger to Li Yun’s heart. Meeting his eyes, she spoke without hesitation, "Huazhao, my parents and my brother, and Yu Yiyanxia—they were the ones I couldn’t bear to leave as I lay dying in my last life. So, even though I’ve been given a new life, I want to find them all."

Li Yun felt his throat go dry. She had named so many people, including her maids, yet she never mentioned him.

A violent surge of emotion roiled in his chest, and Li Yun could even taste the metallic tang of blood. "What about me?"

He forgot to use the royal "We."

Ming Lingyi looked as if she had just heard the funniest joke. "Emperor, I was talking about the people I couldn’t let go of on my deathbed. My mother grew gravely ill over my death, Huazhao lost his mother the moment he was born, and Yu Yi and Yanxia nearly died because of me. Those are the ones I couldn’t let go. You, Your Majesty, rule over a vast domain with countless beauties in your harem. You are obviously doing just fine. Why would I need to worry about you?"

Li Yun left.

Ming Lingyi was surprised. After five years, he seemed much easier to send away.

She had only said a few words, and he had taken his large contingent of sword-wielding guards and left. With a RUSH, like a gust of wind, they vanished in the blink of an eye.

Li Yun, whom Ming Lingyi thought so easy to get rid of, was now sitting in his carriage. He suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face turning deathly pale.

On the large hands resting on the carriage windowsill, veins bulged on the back, yet they remained entirely bloodless.

Outside, Liu Ye, who was following closely behind, grew worried and called out in a low voice, "Master?"

Liu Ye smelled blood.

"Return to the palace."

The man’s cold voice drifted from the carriage. His other hand was fiercely clutched to his chest, his palm slick with warm, thick liquid.

For five years, he had performed the Summoning Soul ritual. Every ten days, he would start the array with his own Heart Blood. If one could pull open Li Yun’s robes, they would see a network of crisscrossing scars—some healed, some still fresh, all of them hideous.

Once Li Yun left, the sword-wielding guards outside Ming’s Restaurant naturally departed as well.

Xiao Chun, Shi Mingyue, and Granny Wang from the tailor’s shop next door all rushed into the restaurant at once.

"Miss, are you alright?" Xiao Chun finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Ming Lingyi in the kitchen, completely unharmed.

"What could have happened to me?"

"You scared me to death just now!" Xiao Chun said, her heart still racing at the memory. "All those guards in black looked so imposing and unapproachable, like a bunch of grim reapers. Why did they suddenly show up at our little shop?" At this, Xiao Chun looked even more perplexed. "Miss, what exactly happened? Who were those men? Why did they come to our restaurant? And it was so strange, why did they stop me and Ming Yue from coming in? They didn’t do anything to you, did they?"

Xiao Chun’s questions came out in a rapid-fire burst, leaving Ming Lingyi not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Looking at Shi Mingyue and Granny Wang at her side, she saw the same worry on their faces.

Shi Mingyue said with a straight face, "Miss, since you bought this servant to be your muscle, you should have left a situation like that to me..."

Ming Lingyi raised a hand to cut her off. "It was nothing, nobody gave me any trouble. He was probably just some young master from a wealthy family in Shangjing City who doesn’t like crowds or being stared at. That’s why they only let me in to cook and kept you all outside. Now that he’s bought what he wanted, of course he left. Was he supposed to stay the night at our restaurant?"

Xiao Chun asked, "Ah, that’s it?"

"Yes."

Shi Mingyue remarked, "People from Shangjing are certainly arrogant!" Her tone dripped with disdain for the pompous young masters of the Capital City.

Seeing this, Granny Wang understood that Ming Lingyi’s little shop hadn’t attracted any real trouble, so she turned to leave.

However, Ming Lingyi noticed and called out to her.

"Granny Wang, please stay and have dinner with us tonight."

So far, not a single other customer had come to Ming’s Restaurant. Ming Lingyi guessed that Li Yun’s men must have been posted at the market entrances, stopping anyone who had planned to visit her shop today.

She figured there wouldn’t be many people coming later, either.

Xiao Chun first took Shi Mingyue to the back courtyard to get settled, while Ming Lingyi poured a cup of warm water for Granny Wang.

"Granny Wang, thank you for what you did today," Ming Lingyi said.

Granny Wang replied, "What are you thanking an old woman like me for? I didn’t do a thing."

A small smile touched Ming Lingyi’s lips. ’In a situation like today’s, with all of Li Yun’s guards standing outside holding broadswords, they looked more intimidating than the Prefect of Jingzhao Mansion. Most commoners would have been desperate to get away, so who would voluntarily come forward and risk trouble?’

’Yet Granny Wang hadn’t simply closed her door and looked the other way. Instead, she had opened it, intending to welcome me and my two servants into her own shop.’

Ming Lingyi could already see that her next-door neighbor had a sharp tongue but a soft heart. She just smiled and said nothing.

After a moment, Granny Wang spoke up. "I’ve said it before, what’s a young woman like you doing trying to run a business on your own? Look at what happened today. If that personage of high status had really wanted to do something, having two maids with you would have been useless. Aren’t you just asking for trouble?"

"What could someone possibly do in a small eatery like mine?" Ming Lingyi chuckled.

Granny Wang stared at her face for a long time. After a good while, she finally looked away and muttered, "Well, I suppose that face isn’t entirely unremarkable."

Ming Lingyi laughed out loud.

Granny Wang shot her an annoyed look, as if her kind warning had been completely dismissed, and as if Ming Lingyi were simply a hopeless case.

That evening, after the four of them had a simple dinner, Granny Wang looked at Ming Lingyi before leaving, seeming a bit awkward.

"Even if you’re closing up for the day, don’t you close a bit too early? If you’re going to run a restaurant to make money, how can you be so half-hearted about it? You close up earlier than this old woman goes to bed! Never mind, never mind. It’s your money to make, not mine."

With that, Granny Wang shook her head and left, apparently not waiting for Ming Lingyi’s reply.

Xiao Chun asked, "What did she mean by that? What’s it to her when we close up shop?"

But Ming Lingyi understood.

She smiled. "Tomorrow morning, bring a portion of our breakfast over to Granny Wang."

In front of Xiao Chun and Shi Mingyue, Ming Lingyi showed no sign that anything was amiss, acting as if she had merely encountered an overbearing nobleman from the Capital City who demanded the restaurant be cleared for his meal. But later, when the night was deep and still, as Ming Lingyi lay in bed listening to the varied chirping of crickets from some nearby patch of grass, her thoughts were a tangled mess. She tossed and turned, unable to sleep for a long, long time.