The Three Green Bird from the inner room flew out as usual at eight o’clock in the morning, landing on its purple sandalwood perch, drinking a few sips of dew the boss had specially collected for it at dawn, and eating fresh bamboo shoots.

The doctor felt somewhat guilty watching this. Initially, he was the one who said he’d care for Three Green, but after the first few months when he could still remember to prepare food and water for it, once the hospital got busy after New Year, he couldn’t spare the time. Fortunately the boss looked after it. The doctor stared intently at the Three Green Bird, watching it cheerfully eat bamboo shoots, its crisp calls echoing through the shop. For some reason, he felt a bit hungry.

He had already gone several days without sleep, food, or drink. Though he felt no hunger or thirst, having been human for twenty-five years, he was accustomed to eating and drinking regularly. Not moving from one spot for four days was becoming unbearable.

“Three Green… Three Green?” The doctor couldn’t help calling the bird’s name. Whether it was his imagination or he truly witnessed a miracle, the Three Green Bird actually stopped eating when his voice fell, tilting its head to look around.

The doctor immediately felt as excited as seeing light in darkness, calling the bird’s name repeatedly. Three Green also seemed to hear something, abandoning the half-eaten bamboo shoot in its beak, spreading its wings and beginning to fly around the shop.

Of course, along with the dust stirred up by its wings came a series of cries from the antiques.

“Ah! What’s wrong with this crazy bird! The boss just finished wiping me clean!” The young-voiced blue-white glazed plate was furious. “Be careful! Don’t touch me! I’m very fragile!”

“Three Green, be careful! Didn’t the boss strictly forbid you from flying around? Watch out or you’ll be thrown out!” This slightly concerned voice belonged to the hundred birds facing phoenix gilt lacquer box on the nearby treasure cabinet.

“That Three Green can’t hear our voices—new Nine Dragons Cup, stop your shouting!” The Huzhou wolf-hair brush on the brush rack mercilessly shattered the doctor’s remaining hope.

The Mute House’s storefront was small. Though the Three Green Bird wasn’t large, with its wingspan plus long tail feathers, it couldn’t maneuver properly inside. The boss was quickly alerted and came out from the inner room, calling the bird back and taking it inside.

The doctor was disappointed—he’d hoped Three Green would rescue him! If it accidentally knocked him to the ground and broke him, he’d be free. But he hadn’t expected the bird to cause such commotion, nearly involving the shop’s antiques. He apologized repeatedly.

The antiques were just being dramatic—their lives were simply too dull. Besides, which of them hadn’t weathered thousands of years and seen great storms? This small incident was nothing! So no one took it seriously, quickly returning to their own affairs.

The doctor had long grown tired of listening to the sighing Yue King golden seal rambling about his past, weary of the Huzhou wolf-hair brush’s scholarly pretensions, and sick of the hundred birds facing phoenix gilt lacquer box’s various maiden-heart gossip. Spare him… he couldn’t adapt to this life!

And after giving him hope only to crush it mercilessly, the doctor felt his heart couldn’t handle such torment, though strictly speaking, he currently lacked that organ.

“Ah! The Emperor! The Emperor has come!” Just as he was feeling bored, the blue-white glazed plate suddenly became excited as if injected with adrenaline. The doctor knew at this regular time, the arrogant painter came to the Mute House to copy scrolls, arriving daily almost without fail.

The doctor also knew this painter’s past life was Song Emperor Huizong Zhao Ji, and this blue-white glazed plate showed such inexplicable excitement every day upon seeing the painter arrive. Today he finally couldn’t help asking: “Yingqing, how do you recognize him as your emperor?” Yingqing was this young plate’s name—blue-white glaze was also called yingqing glaze, so everyone called him Yingqing.

Yingqing kept watching the painter enter the inner room until he disappeared, then reluctantly withdrew his gaze. “Naturally I recognize him. His appearance is the same as back then, though I was just an ordinary plate who only saw him once from afar. It was a court ceremony! His Majesty was truly invincibly powerful and mighty!”

Mighty? The doctor’s face darkened slightly. He felt the painter’s slight build couldn’t connect with the word “mighty”—had he mistaken someone? But Yingqing was also from the Song Dynasty, truly from the same era as Emperor Huizong. However, the doctor suddenly thought of a problem and asked in surprise: “You’re saying Emperor Huizong’s reincarnation looks exactly like he did before?”

“What’s strange about that? Actually, not everyone can reincarnate. Only souls with deep obsessions before death can carry some previous life’s obsessions into reincarnation, and their appearance after rebirth is generally the same as before.” Yingqing knew the doctor wasn’t a true antique spirit and was completely ignorant of such common knowledge.

Hearing this, the doctor had a sudden realization—so those stories about feeling like you’d seen someone before had basis. But thinking about it, he still felt something was wrong. “Then why isn’t Fu Su’s reincarnation like this? I remember the boss saying Fu Su had even reincarnated as a woman!” The doctor could never forget the mental stampede when he heard this news. But later he separated Fu Su and himself as two people, which wasn’t so awkward. After all, reincarnating as male or female had fifty percent probability each—for someone in medicine, this was normal. But in stories heard at the Mute House, he’d never heard of Xiang Yu, that Western Chu Overlord, reincarnating as a delicate girl!

“That’s because Fu Su’s… your soul had part imprisoned in the longevity lock, always incomplete.” Yingqing patiently explained. Being relatively young in the Mute House, he was rarely consulted, so in his excitement he said more, regardless of whether the doctor wanted to listen, beginning to share gossip.

The doctor was also bored, treating it like listening to stand-up comedy. Besides, Yingqing’s young voice was soft and pleasant. While listening, he watched the boss emerge from the inner room, wipe the shop’s antiques again, then open the counter door and select a purple clay tea set to brew tea.

The doctor knew the boss drank different teas daily with corresponding different tea sets, but… he still couldn’t adapt to those precious porcelain and pottery pieces competing like concubines, fighting while begging for the boss’s favor…

Though knowing the boss couldn’t hear, the doctor still despaired at this chaotic world…

What Mute House! Every antique here could talk!

Time had reached the sixth night. The doctor had accepted his fate.

The Three Green Bird had probably been confined to the inner room due to its previous disturbance, with the boss daily delivering water and bamboo shoots. It never came out again.

The antiques, accustomed to life’s passing over millennia, except for Yingqing who’d developed feelings for the doctor and seemed somewhat melancholy, all continued their own affairs. Though the doctor hadn’t lived enough, having witnessed life and death in the hospital, his current situation was like being told he had a serious illness and was sentenced to death.

Initially there was resentment, but now numbness. Who told him to be so unlucky!

But in his heart’s depths, there was also a trace of expectation. The boss would definitely save him—he inexplicably trusted this.

“Huh? The boss actually brought out wine? How rare! Not drinking tea but wine today?” The Mute House erupted in commotion. The doctor looked over and indeed saw the boss holding a small jar, walking in his direction.

“Oh! Drinking wine requires the Nine Dragons Cup—boss, are you sure this isn’t intentional?” Surrounding antiques stirred up trouble, and the doctor swore he saw a fleeting smile at the boss’s lips.

Didn’t they say he couldn’t hear them!

Before the doctor could react, he found himself lifted by a cold hand. The surrounding laughter grew louder. The doctor was extremely uncomfortable—though knowing these antiques were lonely to the point of madness, he had no desire to be their entertainment!

Well, in this situation, not wanting their attention was impossible…

The doctor felt himself held in the boss’s hands, carefully wiped with soft cloth. The pressure was neither light nor heavy, perfectly removing the dust from his body. Only then did he realize that during these six days, the boss wiped the shop’s antiques daily but had specifically skipped him!

This meant the boss truly knew something!

The doctor felt hope for survival again, staring intently at the boss’s nearby face, hoping to see some clue. But the boss maintained his usual faint smile, no different from normal.

Transparent amber-like wine poured into the Nine Dragons Cup, immediately filling the Mute House with mellow wine fragrance.

“Ah! This is Hangzhou Autumn White Dew preserved for over a thousand years! I want to drink so badly!” Linglong’s candlelight jumped.

The doctor internally complained—how could she drink wine? Pouring such high-proof alcohol on her would make her self-combust!

Listening to the surrounding antiques’ chatter, the doctor felt his entire body soaking in high-proof wine, like being drunk, his consciousness gradually floating away.

Watching the boss lift the Nine Dragons Cup, his handsome face drawing closer… Hey! Was it really okay to use him as a cup like this?

The doctor didn’t last until the end, falling into darkness.

The hospital ward at night was as quiet as usual.

The boss carried the Nine Dragons Cup, avoiding the duty nurse, walking straight toward a ward as if he knew the way well.

The ward door opened with a push, revealing the sleeping doctor on the bed. Only a small bedside lamp lit the room, casting eerie shadows on the unconscious doctor.

The boss only glanced at him before looking toward the ward’s corner, saying coolly: “I’ve given you seven days. You should give up now.”

From the dark corner’s shadows emerged a man in a hooded sweatshirt, his face hidden under the hood, only silver-white hair flowing with his movements. “He’s my imperial brother. Where did you hide my imperial brother?” Hu Hai’s voice carried indissoluble fatigue. His plan had been perfect—once he sealed this modern man’s soul and memories, his imperial brother’s soul should have occupied this body. But after waiting seven days, nothing came.

The only explanation was this person wasn’t his imperial brother. But if not, how could the boss be so close to him?

No, he couldn’t believe it.

The boss smiled, this time with indissoluble tenderness. “He’s not your imperial brother. He’s not Fu Su.”

Hu Hai was stunned by the certainty in the boss’s voice. Had he really mistaken someone? But the boss couldn’t help approaching his imperial brother’s reincarnations! Could the boss have been using deception all along? But the person who frequently visited the Mute House… who received special care from the boss… could it be that person who brought the wordless stele?

Thinking this, Hu Hai felt staying here was meaningless. He stepped toward the ward door, pausing as he passed the boss, wanting to say something but remaining silent, instead quickening his departure.

The boss listened to footsteps gradually fading in the corridor before approaching the bed. The doctor had slept seven days, his complexion extremely pale. The boss helped him sit up, bringing the Nine Dragons Cup to his lips.

The Autumn White Dew from the Nine Dragons Cup slowly entered the doctor’s mouth. The boss watched the bloodstain on the cup disappear, smiling with satisfaction. But the smile quickly faded as he turned to look coldly at the dark corner where Hu Hai had stood.

A red bird wobbled out from the shadows, nervously meeting the boss’s gaze for a moment before flying out the window in fright.

Wah! Master is so mean! He left without waking it! Why was this person so fierce? It hadn’t seen anything! Wah!

When the doctor woke again, he found himself in the hospital.

Hospital leadership and colleagues all came, giving him comprehensive physical examinations, but ultimately couldn’t determine why he’d been unconscious for seven days. The hospital assumed it was caused by heavy medical workload and specially approved seven days paid leave.

The doctor naturally knew the reason for his coma but couldn’t say! If he told, he’d probably not only lose his job but be sent to a psychiatric hospital.

“Boss, when you say you can’t hear these antiques talking, you’re not fooling me, are you?” The doctor began enjoying his seven-day vacation but decided not to go anywhere. Staying at the Mute House was fine—why squeeze onto trains and planes to travel? He was actually quite a homebody! The boss was even more of a homebody.

The boss brewed a pot of Tieguanyin with a Ge kiln teapot, smiling at the question: “Antiques can talk? You must be dreaming.”

The doctor pursed his lips, unable to tell if the boss was being evasive or truthful. After waking, he naturally couldn’t hear those antiques’ chatter anymore, but even unable to hear, being in the Mute House still felt somehow different. “Look, let me tell you! This Boshan incense burner criticized me for using inferior incense, those two Changxin Palace lamps are sisters—the left one is lively, the right one doesn’t like talking. Look! See how vigorously the left one’s candlelight jumps!”

“That’s because that position has a door crack with wind blowing through, so the candlelight naturally jumps vigorously.” The boss smiled helplessly.

The doctor was speechless. Was all that really just a dream? But it seemed too realistic! When had his imagination become so rich?

Habitually picking up his cup to drink tea, the doctor suddenly remembered those shameless cups begging for the boss’s favor, realizing the one in his hand was probably one of them…

“What? Don’t like Tieguanyin?” Seeing the doctor holding the cup with a strange expression, the boss asked puzzledly.

The doctor set down the cup, forcing a smile: “Afraid I might slip and break this antique. I’ll go buy disposable paper cups from the supermarket.” Though unable to confirm whether he’d been dreaming, he now had reservations and couldn’t view this roomful of antiques normally…

The boss laughed: “If you’re not used to that one, you can use this Nine Dragons Cup.”

Following his gaze, the doctor saw the Nine Dragons Cup placed on the treasure cabinet, still in the same spot from those seven days.