Chapter 175: Chapter 157, Two Lonely People_2
Xiao Yeyang smiled and made an inviting gesture with perfect gentlemanliness.
Soon, Daohua explained the rules of Gomoku.
Xiao Yeyang laughed and said, “It’s that simple? I thought you were going to introduce some complex rules!”
Daohua: “…” She suddenly had a feeling she was going to be thoroughly defeated.
And that was indeed the case.
Yan Wenxiu, with a book in hand, sat to one side, occasionally glancing over at the two of them.
Then, he saw his sister’s face growing darker and darker, while the Little Prince’s smile became wider and wider, the smug look in his eyes somewhat irritating to him.
“I don’t want to play anymore. It’s so boring!”
After being defeated over and over again, with each game ending swiftly after it began, Daohua even began to doubt whether her intelligence was in the negatives.
Xiao Yeyang looked at Daohua’s sullen expression and awkwardly touched his nose.
It seemed like he might have played too hard.
Should he let her win?
After giving it some thought, Xiao Yeyang said, “You play the game without a set strategy, simply following your heart—no wonder you couldn’t win. Come on, let’s continue. I will teach you how to play.”
Seeing that Xiao Yeyang wasn’t as smug anymore, Daohua turned her attention back to the chessboard.
“Don’t move there, you should go like this…”
“Stop, when you play chess, you need to think three steps ahead, or even further. If you move here, and I place two more pieces, I’ll have you trapped. Do you see?”
Listening to Xiao Yeyang’s chatter, Daohua found it quite interesting. Taking turns, they almost filled the entire chessboard.
“Are you going to the provincial capital tomorrow?”
Once Daohua was able to make her own moves, Xiao Yeyang started talking about other things.
Daohua nodded her head: “Mm.”
Xiao Yeyang: “When will you return?”
Daohua placed a piece: “After the Lantern Festival.”
Seeing Xiao Yeyang suddenly become silent, and thinking he was considering the prospect of spending the Lantern Festival alone, Daohua pondered and then said, “Back in my old home, whenever I felt lonely, I would keep myself busy. Once you’re busy, you won’t have time to think about all those messy things.”
At her words, Xiao Yeyang’s eyes flickered, and he glanced at Daohua, noticing her focus was still on the chessboard, as if her previous words were spoken casually.
This guy… she had learned to speak in riddles with him.
But, had she just been trying to soothe him with her earlier words?
Xiao Yeyang placed a piece that blocked Daohua’s path, and seeing her pout, he suddenly laughed and said, “Didn’t you have your grandmother to accompany you at your old home? How could you have felt lonely?”
Without raising her head and staring intently at the chessboard, Daohua said, “Of course.”
Having traveled from the modern world to the ancient era, how could others understand the kind of spiritual loneliness she felt?
Her grandmother treated her well, as did her third uncle and aunt, but the huge generational gap that spanned across time and space still laid clearly between them.
Her thinking, her beliefs, most of them did not fit in with this era.
In order to live well and fit into this era, she could curl up and hide her true self, but the thoughts of a person could never be extinguished. In the long run, that feeling of spiritual loneliness tightly encircled her.
If repression continued for too long, resistance would arise.
Back in her hometown, because the people she interacted with were rather simple and kind, and there were not many interests involved, she lived relatively at ease.
But after coming close to her parents, as more and more people surrounded her and various interests intertwined continually, and some views and opinions contradicted her own thoughts, she was unwilling to be assimilated, so she couldn’t help but want to rebel.
Thus, she had incidents like talking back to her biological father and disrespecting elders.
Across from her, Xiao Yeyang suddenly snapped out of his trance, as he seemed to really see loneliness and desolation in Daohua’s eyes.
Daohua’s mood switched quickly: “People all have emotions and desires. Who doesn’t have moments of disappointment? At times like these, you can’t let yourself be stuck in such negative emotions. You have to learn to release them.”
“For example, whenever I’m unhappy, I like to run into the fields, look at the crops, take in the scenery of nature, and my mood instantly brightens.”
Xiao Yeyang appeared thoughtful and fell silent for a while before saying, “I have never seen any young lady who enjoys running to the fields as much as you do.”
Finally catching a chance to trap Xiao Yeyang’s path, Daohua placed a piece and said, “What’s wrong with that? People eat grains, and no matter how noble your status, you cannot escape from this land beneath your feet.”
Xiao Yeyang smiled: “Nothing’s wrong with it. It’s just a bit different from the usual ladies of noble houses.”
Daohua retorted, “I am me, unique in this world. Why should I be like anyone else?”
Xiao Yeyang was stunned, forgetting to place his next piece.
Daohua, finding her voice, continued, having bottled up these words for a long time: “I know, in this world, there are many things I can’t control, so I will only grasp what I can.”
“I enjoy managing the lands, so I bought more estates, plant grains, flowers, and medicinal herbs. Once I can provide for myself, I won’t need to worry about being different from others or face people’s unwarranted disdain.”
Listening to Daohua’s words, Xiao Yeyang was deeply moved.
He had always known that the person before him was different, with her own ideas and judgments about things, but he hadn’t expected her to express such sentiments.
When you can provide for yourself, you don’t have to look at others’ faces!
Xiao Yeyang repeated these words in his mind, his eyes glowing ever brighter.
So what if the king was indifferent, and the queen had abandoned him?
As long as he was strong enough himself, why should he care about all of that?
To the side, Yan Wenxiu was also stunned by Daohua’s words, so much so that he didn’t even realize he was holding his book upside down.
He realized he really didn’t understand this sister of his very well.