Through the gauze window, banana leaves and bamboo cast shadows on the screens. Lu Xiaosi walked slowly along the corridor and stood under the window, dejected. His grades weren’t good, so he didn’t dare face Madam Lu. Lu Xiaosi, whose given name was Chang, stood on tiptoes by the window. Through the silver-trimmed curtains, he saw Madam Lu sitting and sighing heavily.
The maid sighed: “Ah…”
Madam Lu: “Such worry…”
A cousin was causing the Lu family matriarch much distress. Madam Lu didn’t want her son to be too close to this Miss Luo, but she also didn’t want him to suffer heartbreak.
She couldn’t ask the cousin to leave the Lu household either. On one hand, it would damage the Lu family’s reputation. On the other hand, she couldn’t explain it to her sister-in-law Lu Ying.
Caught in this difficult situation, Madam Lu could only ask her maid Lvyao: “Has the person we sent to Nanyang to investigate Miss Luo’s character returned yet?”
Lvyao said she didn’t know: “Perhaps they fell ill on the road or got delayed.”
Furrowing her brows, Madam Lu nodded slowly: “Then… keep an eye on Third Young Master and Miss Luo daily. Miss Luo likes to wander, and she’s a guest from afar. Let Third Young Master accompany her more.”
As Madam Lu’s personal maid, Lvyao looked up in surprise at her mistress’s solemn expression. Understanding the hidden meaning, she instantly realized that Madam Lu wanted to match Third Young Master with the cousin, keeping Second Young Master away.
The maid obediently withdrew. Outside, Fourth Young Master Lu Chang thought for a moment, worried that Madam Lu would trouble Sister Luo again.
His eyes darted as he snuck away to find Luo Yunhuan at Snow Trace Courtyard, warning the Luo sisters to be careful. However, the younger Luo sister just snorted, rolled her eyes, and closed the curtain, ignoring the pitiful young master Lu Chang outside. Having been shut out, little Lu Chang was at a loss: Wasn’t it just about fighting with little cousin last time? Didn’t they already apologize to each other? Why was little cousin still holding a grudge?
Meanwhile, Madam Lu remained gloomy, turning to look at the garden’s green shade outside the window. As bamboo leaves rustled, she paced behind the pearl curtains, murmuring sadly: “Third Young Master is even younger than my son, yet his marriage prospects have arrived. I wonder where my son’s good marriage match is…”
Madam Lu was truly overthinking things.
In Second Young Master Lu Xian’s dreams, many events happened in the South involving Third Young Master, Luo Lingyu, and the Prince of Hengyang, but none involved Second Young Master’s own marriage. Madam Lu worried needlessly — her son wouldn’t be able to marry until at least next year.
Lu Xian’s dreams always centered around Third Young Master and Luo Lingyu. Though he cared deeply for his brother, Lu Xian sometimes wondered — why did his dreams have so little about himself and mostly about others?
Could it be that in this short year, his life was so boring that nothing happened to him?
Unable to understand, Lu Xian could only first seek out the famous doctor he had previously invited to treat Old Madam Lu’s headache. He took a carriage to Taichu Palace to help stabilize the old emperor’s health. In reality, Second Young Master hoped the old emperor would live a bit longer and not die from consuming poisonous elixirs.
Third Young Master Lu Yun and cousin Miss Luo Lingyu, who were on both Madam Lu and her son’s minds, were sitting together in a carriage heading to Little Mei Mountain outside the city. The ox cart swayed gently, and the spacious interior allowed Lu Yu and Luo Lingyu to kneel on opposite sides. A quarter hour passed with neither speaking.
As the cart swayed, Lu Yun lowered his gaze, staring at the white jade earrings by Luo Lingyu’s ears. Her earrings swayed against her cheeks, casting watery light upon her translucent, jade-like skin. Lu Yun stared at her earrings for a long while, his gaze slowly moving to other parts of her.
She kept her head down, her eyes unclear. Seeing her lowered gaze and seemingly docile appearance, Lu Yun thought of her dance that day. Though her dance skills were as stiff as wood and normally wouldn’t catch his eye at all, her vivacious spirit and alluring form had sparked his imagination…
Lu Yun cut off his uncontrollable vulgar thoughts and suddenly spoke: “Is cousin thinking about how to please Master Wang later?”
Master Wang was the scholar they were going to visit.
Luo Lingyu startled and looked up in surprise: “…No.”
Lu Yun’s eyes watched her.
Cold and proper, like ice and jade. In public, he always maintained this unapproachable demeanor. But though his expression remained cold now, he lowered his eyelashes to glance at her. Their eyes met, and his peach blossom eyes held a teasing light that melted the frost in his gaze. Lu Yun said meaningfully: “Oh, so cousin is shy being alone with me.”
Luo Lingyu: “…”
She took a breath and smiled up at him: “Xuechen brother must be joking. We’re just negotiating terms, how could I be shy? I’ve already agreed to your second condition, what’s the third?”
Lu Yun was truly strange.
As soon as she finished speaking, his face turned cold again. Lu Yun said lazily: “I haven’t thought of the third condition yet. What you have now is enough to deal with the ‘Flower God.’ I’ll take my time thinking about the third condition.”
Luo Lingyu’s heart skipped, her brows furrowing with some worry. She blamed Lu Yun for giving her too little time to consider that day. She really disliked having the third condition be so far removed from the present. She desperately wished to complete Lu Yun’s three conditions quickly.
But then Luo Lingyu had another thought: Besides him currently having no desires, could keeping the third condition also mean he didn’t want to settle accounts with her completely?
In Third Young Master’s heart, she must have some standing, right?
Thinking this, Luo Lingyu’s tender gaze floated lightly toward Lu Yun.
Third Young Master Lu: “…”
Her gaze made his heart burn faintly, and he unconsciously thought of her lips again. Lu Yun turned his face away and pulled open the curtain to look outside. But as soon as he opened the window, his handsome face met the street market outside. A lady happened to look up, gasped when she saw the handsome young master passing by in the carriage.
The lady blurted out: “What a handsome young master!”
As soon as the words left her mouth, more women looked over. Seeing the young master’s profile in the carriage, the ladies’ eyes all lit up.
Lu Yun slammed the window shut with a “bang.”
Lu Yun: “…”
“Pfft,” he heard a woman laugh. He looked over with hidden anger to see Luo Lingyu covering her mouth. The lady covered her smile, the mischievous teasing in her eyes twinkling like starlight: “The world’s women are quite bold. I see now, Xuechen brother is afraid of women.”
Luo Lingyu was very interested: “Xuechen brother must have been frightened by women chasing him, right? You must have suffered quite a bit at women’s hands? Xuechen brother… which lady were you closest with?”
She tried to inquire about Third Young Master’s romantic history. If she were to marry Lu Yun, she needed to know if he had previously been with any ladies…
Lu Yun smiled at her: “Has little sister Yu never been pursued and cornered by young masters? Never suffered at young masters’ hands? Little sister Yu… which young master were you closest with?”
He mimicked her way of speaking, making Luo Lingyu both guilty and breathless as she could only stare at him. Lu Yun was too perceptive – he pressed his brows together and understood in an instant: “Luo Lingyu, you really do have a romantic history?”
Luo Lingyu quickly said: “No!”
Lu Yun looked at her: “Such a quick reaction clearly shows you’re hiding something.”
Luo Lingyu: “…”
Her lips moved twice, her gaze flickering as she seemed about to speak but held back. Seeing this, Lu Yun’s expression grew even more distant.
…
And so, both lost in their own thoughts, they stopped the carriage and stepped down together. Standing with Lu Yun at the foot of the mountain, they looked up at peaks shrouded in clouds and steep cliffs hidden in thick greenery.
Luo Lingyu turned to look behind her and saw Lu Yun take a water pouch and instruct the carriage driver and servants to leave first, arranging a time for them to return.
Luo Lingyu stared wide-eyed as Lu Yun walked to her side and said lazily: “What are you stunned about? Hurry up and follow me up the mountain.”
Luo Lingyu sized him up. The young master’s figure was like an orchid or jade tree, drawing attention wherever he went. He walked past her, tied the water pouch to his waist, then proceeded unburdened toward the mountain path. Luo Lingyu: “Ah… our servants…”
She looked back to see that after Third Young Master’s instructions, the driver and others had mounted the carriage, preparing to return. The maid Lingyu and other maids sitting in the carriage looked sympathetically at their young miss and waved goodbye. Luo Lingyu was dumbfounded, never imagining that when Lu Yun said “climb the mountain to visit a scholar,” he really meant “climbing” – on foot, without luggage, without servants, without carriage and horses.
Even though she came from a declining noble family, Luo Lingyu was still a lady used to being served. For the first time without even a maid by her side, Luo Lingyu looked at the young man entering the forest on the left, then at the departing carriage and horses on the right. She bit her lip, struggled for a long while, then ran to catch up with Lu Yun: “Xuechen brother, Xuechen brother wait for me…”
Lu Yun wasn’t walking very fast.
This mountain path was steeper than ordinary mountains, with eighteen switchbacks. Many places had no path and required holding onto rocks to climb. Even Lu Yu, trained in martial arts, found it somewhat difficult, let alone Luo Lingyu. Luo Lingyu caught up to Lu Yun panting heavily and saw him walking with hands behind his back, face pale. She was quite unhappy. Lifting her skirts and following behind the young master, Luo Lingyu suspected: “Lu Xuechen, are you tricking me?”
Lu Yun: “When asking favors it’s ‘Xuechen brother,’ when blaming me it’s ‘Lu Xuechen.’ Sister’s two-faced nature truly leaves me in awe.”
Luo Lingyu’s heart twinged with annoyance, but she stubbornly pretended not to hear. She continued suspiciously staring at his back: “You said you’d take me to visit a scholar, but this mountain path is so difficult to walk, I’ve never walked such a difficult path before. All the way here, we haven’t seen even half a person. How could there be a scholar living here? I don’t believe it. Is it because I offended you before, so you’re deliberately teasing me?”
Lu Yun said flatly: “No.”
Luo Lingyu grabbed his sleeve from behind: “Then tell me.”
She spoke coquettishly, and as she grabbed his arm, her chest pressed faintly against his elbow. When Lu Yun’s elbow touched the lady’s full certain area, his whole back tingled and his entire arm went numb. Mountain stream water gurgled below their feet. Lu Yun, distracted, missed his footing and nearly fell in. Luo Lingyu quickly grabbed his arm tighter, crying out: “Lu Yun!”
This made her chest press even more firmly against his arm.
Lu Yun awkwardly stepped through the water onto the bank, still having the presence of mind to think: Oh, so when neither cold nor warm, she calls him “Lu Yun.”
He smiled: Luo Lingyu’s faces, tsk tsk.
The lady didn’t know what his complex expression meant, only seeing him look down and sweep a glance at where his arm pressed against her. Just as Luo Lingyu was about to look down to see what he was looking at, his other hand came around to rest on her shoulder, lifting and turning her.
Half embracing and half carrying, Lu Yun lifted Luo Lingyu from the slippery stones in the stream onto flat ground.
Lu Yun smiled: “I give up with you. Fine, I’ll tell you now.”
“For your ‘Flower Goddess,’ all the ladies of Jianye are visiting several scholars. The scholars have all gone into hiding, but for the other scholars, the ladies all have their own connections to find them. But our Master Wang is different. Master Wang comes from a humble background and has no connections in Jianye. Once he goes into hiding, he’s not easy to find. Moreover, this Master Wang is quite extreme – he hid himself on a mountain where the path is so difficult that no one has ever lived here. Many ladies take one look at this mountain path and don’t want to climb anymore. Thus, very few people come to visit Master Wang, giving you an opportunity to slip in.”
Luo Lingyu looked up at him from his embrace, deeply troubled: “They all think the mountain path is too difficult to walk?”
Lu Yun paused, curved his lips, and said slowly: “Yes. Many walked halfway up the mountain path, then turned back.”
Luo Lingyu: This mountain path is that difficult to walk…
She felt timid, remembering the trip to Mount Zhong. The ladies of Jianye who regularly went sightseeing were already extremely good at walking. Even with their skill, she had lagged behind them, panting heavily. If not for saving face, she would have fled halfway. Now Lu Yun said this mountain path was much more difficult than before…
Luo Lingyu lowered her head, pushed away Lu Yun’s embracing arm, and pondered with furrowed brows.
Lu Yun waited for her, hiding laughter in his eyes.
He knew Luo Lingyu couldn’t walk it – before on Mount Zhong with just that little bit of path, she had already been limping.
Now this mountain path was much more difficult than Mount Zhong. Luo Lingyu definitely couldn’t overcome it. Someone like her who would sit rather than stand, stand rather than walk – making her climb a mountain was worse than killing her… Third Young Master waited elegantly, waiting for her to beg him, then he would carry her and so on…
But just as he was thinking this, he saw Luo Lingyu roll up her sleeves, squat down, and tear off a large piece of her skirt hem, using cloth strips to tie her skirt and legs together. She quickly arranged her clothes, folding her complex, beautiful garments in front of Lu Yun. The beautiful lady became a lady dressed for practicality.
Luo Lingyu looked up at the high mountain full of energy: “So Master Wang lives in the mountain? Cousin, let’s hurry! No matter how difficult the mountain path is, we must walk it. Master Wang is waiting for us! Master Wang is a scholar, we absolutely cannot keep him waiting long and let him form a bad impression of me.”
“What does it matter if he’s from a humble background? I don’t mind, and cousin shouldn’t mind either. The master has talent, that alone commands respect.”
Luo Lingyu took the initiative to walk in front, even turning back to wave at Lu Yun: “Cousin, hurry and catch up!”
Lu Yun was stunned, then smiled gently: “…”
He had overthought it, wrongly assuming Luo Lingyu was delicate and wouldn’t walk difficult mountain paths. His cousin, at the mere mention of reputation and power, became full of energy, needing no encouragement from him. Such strong pursuit of profit, devoted wholeheartedly to seeking advantage… Luo Lingyu was quite the dedicated beauty indeed.
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