Chapter 244 - 242. I Miss Mother II

Third-person POV

Xue Lang broke down and sobbed whilst hiding his stained with tears face on the crook of Weisheng's neck. Weisheng's hands abruptly froze as he didn't know exactly how to soothe a crying child, especially when they were missing their parents. He glanced at the white paper on the small table where Xue Lang used just now.

He scrutinized the woman that was poorly drawn on the paper. From what he could perceive, the woman was facing them with a gentle smile on her face. In her hands, there was a teacup with clouds of steam discharged from the teacup.

Her long jet black hair that reached her waist was drawn with a thick black ink and the simple hairstyle complimented the woman's pure white attire. Although her eyes were poorly drawn, but the two yellow dots that were supposed to be the woman's eye color clearly show who she was.

Weisheng clenched his jaw as he also buried his face into Xue Lang's narrow shoulder. He wrapped his strong arms tightly around Xue Lang's frail body and without uttering any word, they could interpret what the other was implying with just a hug.

"You are drawing mother?" Weisheng asked with his face still buried in Xue Lang's shoulder.

"En." Xue Lang faintly nodded his head.

(A/N: Weisheng use 'mother' to refer to Hong er when he converse with Xue Lang.)

Weisheng placed his wide palm on the back of Xue Lang's head and put in a little bit of force to pull him closer to his embrace.

"En. Very good." Weisheng petted Xue Lang's head as he complimented his drawing of Hong er.

Xue Lang's cry intensified as his feelings that he had been keeping to himself poured out in that instant. Weisheng patiently waited for Xue Lang to stop crying whilst patting Xue Lang back to give him some reassurance.

"Imperial Mother…I miss you…when will you come back? Imperial Mother…" Xue Lang mumbled between sobs.

Weisheng exhaled a cloud of vapor and muttered in low voice, "Grow stronger so we can go find mother together."

Xue Lang nodded his head vigorously as his face rubbed against Weisheng's clothes. After a while, Weisheng heard a steady breathing coming out from Xue Lang. He glanced to the side and saw that Xue Lang had put all of his body weight on Weisheng.

'He fell asleep.' Weisheng's eyes softened immensely at the sight of Xue Lang's peaceful sleeping face, although Xue Lang was drooling on his clothes.

Weisheng cautiously stood up to not wake Xue Lang up. He gave Qiyi a glance and walked away with his servants following. Qiyi took Hong er's portrait that Xue Lang drew and instructed the other servants to clean up the table and painting tools that Xue Lang used.

The servants bowed to Qiyi and proceeded to do as what Qiyi ordered them to with red eyes and soaked eyelashes. Previously, they watched the whole scene from the side and emotions started to build up inside their hearts. Tears inevitably filled their eyes and caused them to swell a bit.

To see a child that was caged by his own parents for half of his life and when he finally found someone that loves him like her own son, she disappeared soon after. However, it was good to know that now his fate had changed drastically because that person. Now, he can live without worrying about starving or being locked up. And there were a lot of people who love him just the way he is.

Moreover, they also ached for Hong er's disappearance. But they couldn't just cry out in public as they fear that it would keep reminding Xue Lang of Hong er and made him sadder. Hong er treated them very nicely and even though they were only lowly servants compared to Hong er's status, she never gloated and misused her status and power against them. On contrary, she respected them and considered them as her own family.

Some of them believed that Hong er had died in Bei Zhou's hand because Weisheng concealed all information regarding Murong Qing's eye transplantation from the servants, public, and his ministers.

Talking about Murong Qing, her father and her whole family were arrested and executed right there and then by Imperial Army as soon as Murong Qing pompously came to Weisheng with Hong er's eyes in her head.

The land that was gifted by the previous emperor to Murong Qing's father currently was vacant and Weisheng was thinking about giving the land to Di Shang and Meiyun for their meritorious deeds they had done in these past few months.

Weisheng predicted that Di Shang and the Di family would harbor a grudge on him for what happened to Meiyun and he was ready to take the responsibility as he admitted that he was in the wrong.

.

.

"Xue Lang… Xue Lang…" A gentle voice that resembled the breeze in spring softly called his name.

Xue Lang rubbed his eyes to clear up his vision and a wide smile bloomed on his face, "Ngghh…Imperial mother?"

Then he realized that his head was on Hong er's lap, he snuggled closer to Hong er and purposely rubbed his cheek against Hong er's lap.

"Haha~ You are so spoiled. Do you sleep well?" Hong er chuckled at her son's spoiled behavior,

With her hand caressing Xue Lang's hair, he felt drowsy again.

"Uhm! Imperial Mother is so warm and fragrant, I love it so much!" Xue Lang's eyes were getting heavier and heavier every second.

He profusely blinked his eyes to prevent himself from going back to sleep.

"Sleepy?" Hong er asked with an amused tone.

"No, not even a little bit…" Xue Lang's voice grew weaker.

"En, you are very sleepy. Go to sleep~" Hong er placed her warm palm on top of Xue Lang's eyes.

"No…I don't…sl…" Xue Lang slowly drifted into pitch darkness.

Xue Lang's brows twitched when he heard whispers coming from the other side of the room. As soon as he opened his eyes, he could feel his cheeks were wet from his tears. He sighed in dismay to find that it was only a dream. He sat up and rubbed his eyes to disperse the sleepiness that lingered in his eyes. He looked around with his puffy eyes to find that he was not in his room.

While Xue Lang was in a midst of confusion, he detected a familiar scent that the emitted from the blanket and bed sheet. He pulled the blanket to his nose and sniffed

He glanced over the other side of the pearl curtain, there was Weisheng who sat on the throne seat with an enormous desk in front of him and there was Qiyi who was standing as still as a statue.

"Re-arrange the patrol in all areas. Discreetly," the seemingly Weisheng whispered, his voice was so low that it almost resembled a hum.

"Yes, Your Majesty Emperor. This servant and Qier will immediately inform all of our posts to increase the patrol even to the most isolated village." Qiyi took the scroll from Weisheng's hand and saluted.

"This investigation will never stop until we found the empress," Weisheng muttered with his deep voice.

The gaze in Weisheng's eyes showed that he meant what he said. Xue Lang was blankly gazing at Weisheng when Weisheng suddenly looked at him. Weisheng waved his hand to Qiyi to dismiss him. Qiyi also noticed that Xue Lang had woke up, he bowed to Weisheng and to the dazed Xue Lang before he walked out of the room.

Weisheng made his way to the bed and place his wide palm on Xue Lang's silky hair, "Sleep well?"

The memory of him crying in front of the servants and wetted Weisheng's clothes with his tears, his face flushed from embarrassment.

"E-en," Xue Lang timidly nodded and lowered his head in shame.

Weisheng glanced at the wet patch on Xue Lang's pillow, "Nightmare?"

Xue Lang looked up to Weisheng and saw Weisheng's eyes full of concern. A small smile appeared on Xue Lang's lips.

"No, it was a beautiful dream."