"You really remind me to someone that I used to know." Without meaning to, the words slipped out from her mouth.
"Oh?" His movements temporarily froze, and he looked at her with curious eyes.
"What happened to him?" His voice was an octave lower than usual, and he looked down to his feet.
Kesi only shook her head slowly, her gaze empty as she looked at the barren courtyard. "He died."
After a second of thought, she added, "How did you know that it was a him?"
Mu Luming only shrugged as he kicked a rock on the ground, sending it hurling across the courtyard.
Then, suddenly as if a light flickered on above his head, his eyes widened. Hastily untying his little hair, bun he let the loose strands of black fall to his shoulders. With each hand, he grabbed a fistful of hair, pretending to have pig tails instead.
"I surely couldn't remind you of a girl now, can I?" His voice was playful, as if he had worked hard to dispel the gloomy clouds that loomed above his head mere moments ago.
The sight before her was amusing, but Kesi was not in the mood to smile.
Dropping all the hair with a small pout, Mu Luming instead posed with his arm muscles flexed. "Well, I'm a strong man! So the person I remind you of better also be one!"
The stark contrast between those words and the high-pitched voice that spoke them was all too funny, and Kesi couldn't help but let a smile slip onto her lips.
"But women could be strong too, if not stronger than men. Do you not think that I'm strong?" Although she knew that it was not what Mu Luming had meant, she couldn't resist teasing him.
"Of course I do!" Flustered, he let out a small sigh of defeat. "You're the strongest person I've ever met!"
In response, Kesi only shook her head, the hint of a grin flickering out.
"Oh! I know what I could do to cheer you up!"
Rushing back into the room, he came back as soon as his little legs could carry. Huffing, he placed Kesi's hand onto his shoulder and lifted the mirror Death had lift behind up to her face.
The reflection showed a frail figure with dark circles under her eyes, her black hair messily wrapped into a bun with loose strands of hair framing her face.
But it was undoubtedly her own face, not as the strange nanny but rather in her youthful form.
So he still had this ability to turn her back to her youthful self?
Confused, she looked to Mu Luming for any explanation.
Smirking, he tried to replay his old tricks. "You promised that you wouldn't ask me any questions, and this is already—"
She immediately cut him off. "How do you control whether I age or not?"
"I can—"
"Your Humble Servants greet the Crown Prince." Two voices in unison sound from the barren courtyard, interrupting Mu Luming's words.
Almost happy, he cast a longing look to Kesi, as if gloating that he could keep his secret for a bit longer, before prancing outside.
Reluctantly following, Kesi trailed behind him.
Outside, a pair of palace servants knelt on the floor.
The eunuch was familiar, being the same one that had tried to save Kesi during her first encounter with the Empress. Somehow, he had survived the past few days in the palace.
However, the maid was utterly alien to Kesi, and Kesi tried racking her brain to see whether she had ever encountered the maid before. Sadly, there wasn't a single piece of memory in her head that stored such information.
"Your Humble Servants greet the Crown Prince." Sensing that Mu Luming had joined them outside, the two palace servants repeated their previous chant.
Unsure what to do next, he waved his hands frantically in the air, drawing little circles around him as if dancing. "Get up! Why are you two on the ground?"
Equally confused, the two servants exchanged a glance with one another as they hastily stood up.
The maid spoke first, her voice clear, and her words logical. "Crown Prince, we were sent here by the Empress to serve as your personal servants alongside Nanny Rong. The Empress had noticed how Nanny Rong might not be well suited to take care of you by herself, so we will be here to do as you command as well."
Only one thought flew before Kesi's mind: either one or both of them were surely spies for the Empress.
Judging from the brief look of distrust that flashed in his eyes, Mu Luming obviously had the same thoughts. But quickly, he masked it with his usual smile.
"Of course! I welcome you to our humble home!" From the proud way he gestured and appeared, anyone would have surely thought that he lived in a home swimming with riches and not the gloomy and desolate palace in front of him.
"You can both go settle in the empty rooms. Pick any that you would like other than the two immediately next to each other on the right."
Until now, Kesi never even knew that Mu Luming had claimed the room directly next to hers. For some reason, she had always assumed that he would live in the central palace in the middle of the so-called Eastern Palace.
"Will the Crown Prince like to give Your Humble Servants a name?" The maid asked calmly, almost as if she couldn't care less about her own identity.
"But what are your names?"
"They can be anything Your Highness desires or thinks will be convenient."
"But what were they originally? Before you came into the palace?"
Visibly, the maid froze. A second later, a single word formed from her throat, rusty as if unused to the years of disuse.
"Your Humble Servants original name was Little Seven." She dipped her head, something unreadable in her eyes.
"And I'm A'Hong!" The little eunuch added, jubilant.
"Nanny Rong!" Seeing that the Crown Prince wasn't planning on saying anything in addition to what he had said before, he bounced to Kesi's side.
"I heard that….woahhhhhhh….."
He began a sentence, but it was immediately overtaken by a gasp of disbelief.
"Who is that in there! Why do you have someone locked inside this piece of metal?"
Considered, Kesi looked over.
A'Hong was staring straight at Death's mirror.