Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace - Chapter 200: Memories

“Get a grip!”

Ming carried Dong to Yui Mei.

They couldn’t make a fuss and stop Xu’s performance, so they moved towards a place far from the area of the performance.

“What happened?”

Du curtly asked, and Ming straightened up as if he’s facing his boss.

“Yes, Dong wanted to watch the lute musician perform, so we moved to a place where he could see her better, then this happened.”

Yui Mei listened to the report while checking Dong’s condition.

“Haah, haah!”

Dong crouched while painfully gasping for breath.

“He’s hyperventilating. We have to calm Dong and make him breathe easier.”

Yui Mei tried her best to speak calmly while slowly rubbing Dong’s back.

“Exhale, exhale~ Inhale, inhale~ Yes, you’re doing great. Exhale~ “

“Cough, cough!”

Yui Mei instructed him to take a deep breath, but Dong soon coughed, unable to do so.

“No need to hurry, exhale, exhale~ inhale~ inhale.”

Even so, Yui Mei patiently talked to Dong and cautioned him not to hurry, and finally, the man’s breathing gradually eased up.

Once Dong could breathe on his own even without Yui Mei’s guidance, she spoke to him.

“Did you calm down? Why did you suddenly feel sick, Mr. Dong?”

Dong seemed to have regained his senses, aside from properly breathing.

“Ah, this is… why am I…”

Dong was still confused. The words tumbled out of his mouth with difficulty, his face ashen as he looked around him.

It seemed as if he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t put his thoughts into words.

‘Looks like we won’t be able to talk unless he completely calms down.’

It was obvious that something changed within Dong, but he must be disoriented because of information overload.

“Mr. Dong, it’s alright, don’t worry, just listen to the sound of the lute.”

Yui Mei said while covering Dong’s eyes with the head scarf that she always bring with her.

She wanted to calm him down by reducing the information he got from the things he saw around him.

“Ahh, this is it… This is the lute’s sound…”

Dong’s body flopped down, as if all energy just drained out of him.

Du and Ming were listening to their exchange, and they also quietly listened to the lute.

After a while, Du broke his silence.

“Doesn’t it seem like the lute’s music is beckoning? Sounds like that lute musician wants to summon the most important person to her, even if he is already a ghost.”

Du sounded like he was mumbling to himself, but Dong’s shoulders flinched when he heard those words.

Yui Mei fell into thought.

If Dong, the guy who had amnesia, turned out to be the Xu’s lover, then there’s no way the sound of lute wouldn’t resonate within him, triggering the memories sleeping deep within him.

With such wishful thinking mixed with conviction, Yui Mei tried to ask Dong.

“Isn’t the lute’s music beckoning to you?”

“Beckoning to me…”

Dong muttered in response to Yui Mei, and as he spoke, the cloth fell off from his eyes.

Yui Mei pulled it gently, only to see that Dong was crying underneath.

“You can probably answer this now. Who are you?”

Du asked, and in response, Dong, with tears still streaming down his face, answered.

“I am Zhu Ren, the man who was supposed to marry into the merchant’s family.”

Yui Mei and Du exchanged glances and nodded when they heard Dong — no, Zhu’s answer.

‘Right, we’re right all along!’

Zhu Ren was the name of the man who was supposed to become the son-in-law of the Xu family.

Yui Mei was inwardly hyped up with the revelation to one of the mysteries that puzzled her. Meanwhile, Du interrogated the man.

“You who are called Zhu, what have you been doing until now?”

Perhaps he sensed something from the powerful way that Du addressed him, Zhu’s tears and confusion were wiped away from his face as he straightened his back.