Chapter 3, Return Home (3)

Su Qing twisted the hem of her clothes in her hands and lowered her head, saying, "So, have you scolded him first?"

As time went by, Shen Yi felt annoyed and simply decided not to take an umbrella at all. Usually, the boy's round-collared robe would be completely soaked as he swiftly navigated through the crowd of people holding umbrellas and wearing raincoats, walking home all alone.

Su Qing smiled beautifully, as if the plum blossoms on the entire surface of the umbrella had bloomed, with a faint fragrance wafting in the air

The world has changed, and the new emperor has ascended the throne

Last night, the young master finally relented and promised that when summer arrives, he would grant her a title and elevate her to the status of a concubine. After years of longing, her wish was suddenly fulfilled, and she felt as if she were transforming into a proud rooster, surveying her surroundings to avoid becoming overly elated—especially needing to inspect the territory of the main wife.

Su Qing walked ahead, and he followed her from a distance. Whenever she turned around, he would turn to the side and hide in a concealed spot, escorting her all the way to the entrance of the residence

Lock was taken aback, pushed the door open, and Snow knelt in front of the couch, covering her mouth with her hand, trembling like sifted chaff

After a while, he poked his head out from under the umbrella and said, "You go on your own."

Is he still coming? Has he forgotten?

*

His hatred is mixed with too many impurities, containing desire, disdain, doubt, and disgust. If it were not for this, perhaps she could have long since lived a mundane life as a housewife, otherwise, who would be willing to spend decades as a celestial being in the heavens

The child born of Shen Yi's concubine has an eccentric temperament, shows no respect for elders, and is difficult to manage. The entire Shen family views him as a public enemy, and the relationship between Shen Yi and his legitimate brothers has nearly reached the point of irreconcilable conflict

The flickering candlelight illuminated the crumpled piece of paper, on which were written only two characters: "Qingqing"

She slipped the bracelet onto her hand, adjusting it to the right size, and the stone-patterned beads on it could still spin like a windmill. She tightened her cloak and walked back into the room, closing the door with both hands.

Su Qing bit her lower lip, tilted the umbrella towards him, and as she opened her mouth, her pale lips quickly regained their color, unexpectedly turning crimson: "... ... I'm just passing by."

Inside the room, the charcoal fire crackled. Su Qing tilted her head back and drank the wedding wine handed to her by Shen Qi, the fiery liquid burning as it went down her throat

Shen Qi was taken aback for a moment: "What do you mean by this?"

What he desired, he obtained effortlessly. However, after acquiring it, he realized that his desires extended beyond this.

Su Qing had an umbrella. As the plum rain season approached, she opened her beloved floral paper umbrella, lightly took a few steps, and tiptoed to cover Shen Yi's head.

A thousand miles to send you off, yet we must part in the end. This parting will lead to years of delay, and life is but a fleeting dream

One lives a lifetime, so how can one always be preoccupied with the "past" and "what ifs"

Lock Er emerged from the side room, adjusting her collar, yawning, with white mist swirling around her.

Having caught her in that moment, the young lady's frame is so petite; after being drenched in this rain, her clothes are completely soaked. I wonder if she will fall ill and be unable to recover.

He seemed to be angrier, yet it also appeared that he was about to be amused by her.

The moon resembles a jade disc, its clear radiance scattering in all directions. The fragrance of the wax plum is faint, almost imperceptible. Occasionally, there is a slight sound, which is the remaining snow in the grass melting into a gentle stream, seeping into the soil

Su Qing's heart began to race violently. She removed the jewelry from her wrist and immediately slipped the bracelet onto her hand, covering it with her sleeve to hide it: "Once you go out, you must not speak carelessly."

"Come quickly, someone! The madam has swallowed gold."

Wumei, innocent and naive, stared with a pair of bright black eyes: "Eldest sister has been deceived and bought a fake bracelet!"

The sound of rain was noisy, and Shen Yi still wore a stern expression: "Come over here."

However, no one dares to take action against him; Shen Yi even fought for his right to education. Shen Qi said: "Because he is truly a mad dog; when a dog bites a person, does a person bite a dog?"

Su Qing waited patiently for half an hour, until it grew late. The noise of the women and children outside gradually faded away, and the moonlight illuminated her face, revealing the hesitation and disappointment in her eyes

I said... she paused, her thick eyelashes lifted, gathering all her courage, and made a mistake on purpose, "I said I am not foolish either"

Perhaps Shen Qi had foreseen today's events, which is why he left a way out early on. Beneath his cultured facade lies a true mastery of governance and administration.

After dinner, everyone sat at the table chatting casually. Su Qing casually picked up a pair of scissors to cut the wick, and her sleeves slipped down.

The young man leaned closer to her, but soon lost interest: "After all, he is a son of the Shen family, how could he present such粗糙 jewelry—could it be that he made it himself?"

Before her words had finished, Su Qing heard a soft "crack" sound, which startled her. She hurriedly chased outside the door, only to see Shen Yi holding her umbrella, his expression dark and silent. Upon seeing her face, he placed the umbrella on the ground and quickly turned to leave.

Su Qing finally dressed in women's attire this time, wearing a wide-sleeved shirt dress with a raccoon fur cloak over it. She adorned her head with a crystal fan-shaped hairpin, her black hair cascading down, lightly applying powder and rouge, her lips touched with vermilion, resembling a fairy from the Gui Palace descending to the mortal realm. She slipped out from the bustling lantern festival, waiting in the courtyard with a heart full of nervousness.

Once Shen Yi's injuries have completely healed, the rainy season in the south will arrive, bringing several consecutive days of continuous rain

Su Qing ignored him and chased after him for quite a distance. Shen Yi seemed to have nowhere to vent his anger. He turned to look at her, a smile laced with malice on his face: "A mad dog doesn't need an umbrella"

Days pass swiftly, like stones thrown into water sinking to the bottom, everything returns to tranquility. Apart from the common people who remain unaffected by the changes in political power, there are also the brave warriors who charge into battle.

The Shen residence was instantly thrown into chaos, as the room quickly filled with people. Footsteps came and went, and voices clamored in a cacophony of chatter.

Inside the tent, Su Qing lay with her hands crossed, her head adorned with a neatly placed paper flower, and a gold bracelet on her wrist. If it were not for her face resembling gold paper, she would appear to be quietly sleeping, like a butterfly fairy resting in a warm, fragrant greenhouse, unaware of any sorrow

This message was conveyed to her by Shen Qi. On their wedding night, he pressed a wine glass into her hand and sighed, "Qing Mei, you see, this is fate"

When she returned the bracelet during her first marriage, Shen Yi's expression, which had appeared repeatedly in her dreams since their separation, lingered in her mind

Su Qing disregarded Shen Yi's attempts to stop her, grabbed the umbrella, and rushed out, only hastily saying: "Brother Shen, please go ahead!"

Wrap it up, hide it away, keep it unknown to others, yet hope that she discovers it

The snowflakes softened his features, and he turned around to say: "I am leaving, you must believe me"

She hesitated whether to leave, when suddenly a gust of wind blew, and a figure leaped down from the sprawling branches of the towering locust tree in the backyard, landing in front of her

Come with me

Su Qingfeng unwaveringly held an umbrella for him for over ten days, until one day, Shen Qi unexpectedly caught sight of it

Although she nodded, she did not understand the meaning of these words, nor did she have time to ponder why he said "Trust me" instead of "Wait for me". The tumultuous changes in the court had already shifted power, inverted status, and left the people in a state of anxiety.

Before Shen Yi set out with the army, on a winter morning when the north wind swept across the land, she accompanied him to the city gate in silence. The sky began to lighten with the first light of dawn. After taking a few steps, Shen Yi suddenly turned back to her and said, "You must trust me"

Shen Yi looked up and saw not a gloomy sky, but a scattering of shadows across the ribs of an umbrella.

Su Qing had seen someone sweeping the yard with a large broom, and she felt as if she were a fallen leaf on the ground, being hooked by Shen Yi, bouncing and jumping her way to his side. As she thought this, she smiled.

On that occasion when she was speaking in the classroom, for some reason, she found herself unable to articulate even simple words fluently

On the day when the decorations were hung, there was naturally no need to attend school. In the backyard, only a small lantern was hung, casting faint shadows of the trees.

Upon returning home, she finally dared to open the box she had tightly clutched all the way. Inside, there was actually a golden bracelet, divided into two strands, with a gracefully poised phoenix in the center, its beak holding a dark yellow stone ornament.

"Qing Mei." Shen Qi paused, sensing her slight resistance, and his tone became even gentler, "Your mother is a lady of a prominent family, and you sisters have been raised with knowledge and propriety; how could you understand such things? The enchantresses of the Western Regions, the promiscuous courtesans, what kind of children do they raise? They are skilled in deception and harm; you simply do not comprehend."

She slowly unfolded the note in front of the candlelight, her hand trembling so much that she nearly dropped it

Whenever she wakes from a dream, Su Qing feels a slight resentment towards Shen Qi

How could one take every rumor at face value

No one noticed a deformed wax seal lying alone by the leg of the table. The remaining half of the note had long since twisted and burned to ashes in the brazier, the three characters on it also turning to dust, silently sinking into a quiet dream

However, as a wife, how can one harbor feelings for others and yet resent them

A vertical strip of the round moon appeared through the crack of the door, gradually becoming narrower until it disappeared

It is quite a coincidence that in these six years of living in the Shen residence, we have not seen each other even once. The most recent encounter was merely hearing his voice from behind a low wall.

Those who are tainted by power risk being purged by the new regime with a single misstep, as the once prosperous households are instantly reduced to dust, their glory and wealth turning to mere refuse. The daughters of noble families, once cherished, now find themselves as courtesans or prostitutes, yet she remains a fleeting moment, like a mantis attempting to stop a chariot.

On a cold winter night, small snowflakes began to drift down, appearing and disappearing intermittently, swirling and being carried by the wind

She reached out and pinched it, and the bead had already been roasted to a warm softness, flattened like dough, and surprisingly, it was not made of jade!

As she passed by the gate, she even took the initiative to greet the little maid who was sweeping the yard, and anyone could see the joy on her face

On this day, she felt as if her arms were no longer her own. Her mother noticed this several times and suspected that her arm was injured. Only when asked did she realize that the thing wrapped around her wrist felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, as if someone was gripping her wrist, binding her from that moment on

The fifth sister, still quite young, exclaimed upon seeing it: "Eldest sister's bracelet has melted!"

Shen Yi walked quickly, the rain-soaked hair sticking to his forehead, making his features appear even sharper. He glanced sideways and warned, "Keep your distance from me."

He tilted the umbrella to hook her head, deliberately misaligning the fabric crown to let her thick black hair show a bit more.

Shen Yi abruptly stopped and glared at her: "What did you say?"

The young man gazed at her, the bright moon illuminating his face, and his eyes seemed to possess a different quality than before, imbued with a startling sense of possessiveness

No one knows that she has half an hour to be exclusively admired by him

She strolled outside the main hall when suddenly she heard the piercing scream of snowflakes cutting through the sky

Was he born like this?

Oh, dear sister!

The paper umbrella turned out to be even larger than imagined, capable of sheltering both of them. He held the umbrella and spoke in a very low voice: "On the night of the Lantern Festival, come to the back courtyard of the school and wait for me."

Shen Yi fell silent, slowed his pace, turned his head to gaze at the bridge pillars, lost in thought along the way.

Shen Yi's fearsome reputation is widely known. Those who usually endure grievances without daring to voice their anger take out their frustrations on the umbrella hanging outside the classroom, tearing it apart and breaking it, then jumping on it a few times until it becomes a pile of rags, before running off to gather their friends.

The day when General Wang returned triumphantly coincided with the day of the union between the Su and Shen families. The new ruler was greatly pleased with the soldiers for their dedication to protecting the homeland and expanding the territory, and bestowed the hand of Princess Linxi in marriage to Shen Yi, inviting him to become a royal son-in-law

Su Qing simply continued walking, without responding

At the moment when the Su family was struggling in the water, it was her current husband who extended an olive branch to her

Shen Yi refused the marriage proposal on the grounds of a leg ailment, kneeling for a long time outside the Golden Luan Hall on a snowy night, with frost and snow accumulating on her eyelashes

*

Each stroke was heavy, and he did not know how many times he had repeated it. In front of her, he called out "Hey," and in countless dark nights that she was unaware of, he had affectionately and audaciously called her name like this

He stared at her intently, his face pale and ashen, his lips pressed together devoid of color, his expression particularly cold and filled with loathing. After a long pause, he finally managed to speak: "It was your own choice."

Su Qing was taken aback and hurried to take a look. It was only then that she realized the stone-patterned bead in the phoenix bird's beak was very close to the candle flame and had already deformed due to the heat, no longer retaining its perfectly round shape

After a moment of her remaining still, he snatched the umbrella and pulled her to his side

As dawn broke, the birds chirped sweetly, and a thick fog enveloped the morning, shrouding the continuous buildings in a haze, rendering them indistinct.

Shen Yi looked at her for a long while, but said nothing. He handed her a hollowed-out wooden box and urged her to leave: "This is for you, go back."

Suddenly, he transformed back into the youth he once was, clad in shimmering silver armor, walking alongside her while deliberately maintaining a distance of one fist's width, ambiguous yet distant, fervent yet filled with respect

Su Qing was kneading the dough, feeling quite confused in her mind, when suddenly she touched something hard inside. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a rolled-up piece of paper.

After school that day, Shen Qi pulled her aside and said, "Qing Mei, you have no idea how despicable this person is."

"Then it still needs to be done..." She was very stubborn, with strands of hair escaping from her cloth crown. When she looked up at him, her pair of eyes was also dark and moist

The rain outside was pouring down like a waterfall, and Su Qing only regretted wearing a long slip dress, unable to run quickly. She caught up with him, tilting the umbrella over, her left sleeve soaked through, her clothes clinging to her body, and her shoes completely wet, as if she were trudging through a swamp.