On the next day.
No one would have idea that it had snowed so heavily yesterday. There were no signs of the usual characteristic of a wintry morning. The sun was shining brightly and giving warmth within the winter air. Pure reflected rays dappled and swirled in the sky. No grey clouds decorated above. Birds were chirping as if they were delightful. What became the markers that it had snowed yesterday was only the piled thick snow, as well as the surface of the lake which had been frozen. Snow fell from the dead branches, drop by drop. Everything was covered in white. The beauty of nature was wrapped in solitude and purity.
Living in Tapist Temple made Zhu Su, Zhu Youdun, and Hu Nayin automatically become the dwellers of the temple, and as the matter of course, they had to do the activities undertaken by the priesthood such as cooking, tidying up, cleaning, and even some intense physical works such as drawing water from wells and taking plants from the forest for cooking. The priesthood were vegetarians, so they joined in the habit. They no longer wanted to stay overnight in the forest, it seemed that the government forces knew nothing about the existence of this Taoist Temple, moreover could guess that Zhu Su and his cronies would use it as their hideout. Feeling safe to stay in this Taoist Temple, they continued to stay there.
As for Zhu Youdun, this was a whole new situation for him, and at the same time, brought him great uncomfortable. Zhu Su had ever experienced living without servants, even though the duration was short, but it had already been a meaningful experience for him to deal with hardship in life. But it was not the same with Zhu Youdun. Even though he was also exiled, yet previously there were still the Team of Wellbeing's members who helped him voluntarily, but this time, nobody offered him help. His movements were very slow when sweeping, he was unable to draw water, and even on one day, the bucket he was lifting fell down, as the result of he had no energy to carry the heavy bucket which was full of water. The water soon spilled everywhere.
Some priesthood frowned as they looked at Zhu Youdun, who now groaned in pain while holding his wrist. On the other hand, Zhu Su glared at Zhu Youdun, saying coldly, "Don't be mushy like a little girl. Stand up, and take the bucket again."
"I can't, Fu Wang. It's so painful..."
"You! How can you survive if you are so mushy?! Stand up!"
"But, it really hurts..."
"Who are you, Zhu Youdun? Are you a prince? Are you royalty? No. You have a right to be served? No one is willing to serve you. You are nobody, you are even lower than a commoner, don't you know?! So you must be strong and tough, you must protect yourself. Because you are nobody, remember that!"
Zhu Su's scolding was so harsh as if it was just slapping Zhu Youdun's cheek. But not only Zhu Youdun got surprised by his scolding. The priestesses who once frowned with dissatisfied looks now stared at Zhu Su with strange expressions, as if they did not believe that Zhu Su could say so, and somehow they got amazed at him.
Zhu Su himself, did not give a crap to his surroundings, even though more and more priestesses came and watched at them. He kept staring coldly at Zhu Youdun, who had no choice but stood up in silence, thus tried to draw water again.
"Aauucchh!" But it appeared that Zhu Youdun's left wrist was indeed severely injured. His face showed that he was in great pain, and it made a priestess named Chun feel that she should offer help.
"Oh my, you are severely injured." Chun approached Zhu Youdun, looked at his injured wrist. "Wow, it must be really painful. But don't worry. Let me heal you."
"And let me draw the water," Hu Nayin hurriedly offered help, since she was sure Zhu Su must be worried about his son, and would definitely want to see his son being treated.
To her surprise, Zhu Su only saw Chun and the other priestesses helping Zhu Youdun to move forwards until they disappeared from view. But his feet did not move at all. And his face was as rigid as before.
Hu Nayin was about to speak up, yet this awkward situation forced her to keep silent. Zhu Su's face emitted a strange expression. As if it made others pity him, but at the same time it drove others away from him. It was a mournful expression, full of longings to leave everything behind, not to be involved again with anything else in this world.
What Hu Nayin finally did was then carrying the water bucket and moving away in silence.
"Let me carry it, Nayin." Unexpectedly Zhu Su had been at her side, his hand outstretched, being ready to help.
Hu Nayin quickly moved away. "You can't, Your Highness! This is menial work. Let me do it!"
"Now there's no difference between you and me, Nayin. Carrying heavy things is a man's work, woman can't do it." After that, Zhu Su immediately snatched the bucket from Hu Nayin's hands.
"Oh..." Hu Nayin could not stop Zhu Su, and now he was holding the bucket. It was quite difficult for Zhu Su to do so, since he was just slightly more resilient than Zhu Youdun, but in the case of menial works, he was a real dummy.
"Your Highness, why are you treating your own son so harshly? Isn't he really in pain, but why do you scold him?"
Zhu Su still looked straight ahead while answering Hu Nayin's question. "Because I want him to be a strong boy, like all of you."
Hu Nayin blinked. "But, the young lord is a tough person?..."
"No. He is a fragile boy. You see it by yourself, he is getting injured just because of not used to do menial works. Nobles are actually a group of fragile people. Take all servants away from them, then they will become a bunch of useless people who can't do anything. Well... it's good if we can live happily like that for life, but now our wheels of life have rotated to the lowest point. We have no choice but being the commoners and automatically we must live and work hard like ordinary people. Having status as a commoner, but still maintaining a noble lifestyle, then how can we survive?"
The cold wind blew and for a moment, the warmth of the sun was defeated by the piercing cold wind. Zhu Su looked at the high sky, stared into the infinity.
To be honest, he did not want to scold Zhu Youdun. To be honest, he wanted Zhu Youdun to live happily, comfortably, and luxuriously just like the time when his son was still the Zhou Shi Zi. His wish was merely to have a happy family, like the portrait of a big family gathering together, doing a dinner party and laughing happily during the Chinese New Year Celebration. However, reality twisted to the contrary side. His wife was forcibly dragged from his side to go to afterlife, his second son slandered him, pushed him into the deepest part of the abyss. And about his other family members, he did not know anything even the slightest about them right now. And do not ask about his far kinship such as his nephew who now became the emperor and did cruelty to him.
Only Zhu Youdun he owned right now. Of course, he must take good care of his most valuable property, he must prevent his son to be taken from his side.
Therefore, he must train him hard? Even though it would make him look cruel?