Chapter One Hundred and Five: Yao Yao's Troubles

After returning to River-Square Prefecture, Lianyue looked out through the carriage window at the bustling streets beyond and felt as though she had drifted back from another lifetime.

Soon the carriage stopped before the Qin residence. The moment Lianyue stepped down, Yue Shiru, who had been waiting at the gate, seized her hands and studied her carefully. Tears shone in the eyes of Zizhu beside her as well.

“Aunt, I’m home,” Lianyue said happily, seeing how moved her aunt was.

At the sound of her calling her aunt, Yue Shiru’s tears fell at once. She gathered Lianyue into her arms and said with relief, “It is enough that you’re back, enough that you’re back. My good child, you have suffered.”

Lianyue’s eyes grew wet too, but someone simply could not bear to let the moment last.

“Mother, I told you Cousin would be fine, and you insisted on waiting outside.”

Lianyue’s good mood soured the instant she heard that voice. There truly were people who could be detested with such consistency.

Before Lianyue could even react, Yue Shiru shot Li Jingru a sharp glare and snapped, “If you cannot speak, no one will mistake you for mute.”

“It was my fault,” Li Jingru said in the same frail, delicate manner as before, even her voice thick with grievance. Anyone hearing her might easily be moved to pity.

Indeed, even Qin Shilei could not quite stand it. “Madam, let us go inside.”

Yue Shiru cast him an irritated look, then called Yue Lingjun, Meng Chuchen, and the others to come with her as she took Lianyue by the hand and led her into the manor.

After they entered, and under Yue Shiru’s questioning, Lianyue recounted what had happened over the past several days. With Tiaotiao and Qiaochi adding their embellishments from the side, they left Yue Shiru startled and tenderly solicitous all over again.

This time Li Jingru was much wiser. She merely stood beside Yue Shiru and listened quietly, not daring to interrupt. Still, Lianyue had warned her with her eyes several times, for no other reason than that Li Jingru kept fixing her gaze on Lanshui.

Perhaps it was only Lianyue’s imagination, but there seemed to be a trace of provocation and mockery hidden at the bottom of that look.

After several warnings, Li Jingru still refused to restrain herself. Fortunately, Lanshui did not mind at all, not even wrinkling his brow once; otherwise, Lianyue would have shown her a thing or two.

In the end, Yue Shiru insisted they stay for supper. By the time they returned to the Yue residence, the sky was already full of stars and very late indeed.

At last Tiaotiao found a chance to ask Lianyue and Lanshui the questions that had been troubling her.

But as soon as they returned to Lianyue’s room, Lanshui left first. Tiaotiao, unable to wait any longer, hurriedly stopped Lianyue just as she was about to lie down and rest. “Sister Yue, I have something I want to ask you.”

Lianyue was not especially tired, and she had long since noticed that something was off with Tiaotiao. She was quite curious what could have been pent up in her heart for so long.

“What is it? Go on.”

“Um...” Tiaotiao glanced awkwardly around. Zizhu, ever considerate, had the maids in the room withdraw, which only made Lianyue even more curious. She pulled Tiaotiao down to sit beside the bed and leaned in inquisitively. “What on earth is it?”

Tiaotiao’s gaze darted away. Her hands and feet seemed not to know where to go, and after struggling for a long while, she still could not utter a single word.

Lianyue’s curiosity had already been thoroughly piqued. Tiaotiao’s hesitation felt like a feather constantly tickling the sole of her foot. “Hurry up and say it. What is it? Is it about my second brother?”

“How did you know, if I hadn’t even said it!” Tiaotiao exploded like a cat with its tail stepped on. “Senior Brother Chuchen already told you!”

Lianyue inwardly cried out that she had known it. Deliberately putting on a stern face, she said in mock anger, “Then why aren’t you confessing at once?”

“I just couldn’t find the chance! It’s not like you and Senior Brother Chuchen, who can whisper to each other anytime and anywhere,” Tiaotiao muttered under her breath.

Lianyue coughed angrily twice, then deliberately yawned as if impatient. “If you won’t say it, I’m going to sleep.”

Tiaotiao panicked at once and quickly grabbed Lianyue as she moved to lie down. “I’ll say it! I’ll say it!”

Lianyue half-lidded her eyes and said lazily, “Really?”

“Really!”

All traces of sleep vanished from Lianyue. She sprang upright like a compressed spring, her eyes bright as she urged, “Then hurry up and say it!”

“It’s just... that...”

“That what?”

“Mm... that...”

With her head lowered, Tiaotiao simply would not get to the point, and Lianyue finally burst out, “If you keep hemming and hawing like this, I not only won’t listen, I won’t tell you anything either!”

Tiaotiao decided to throw caution to the wind and blurted everything out at once. “It was in the woods, when Senior Brother Chuchen suddenly kissed me. I just wanted to ask you what he meant by that.”

Lianyue was so stunned she could have fit an egg in her mouth. “You said Senior Brother kissed you?”

Tiaotiao avoided her eyes and nodded shyly.

The next instant Lianyue burst into laughter, clutching her stomach. “Hahaha... ha... he’s awakened! He’s finally awakened!”

“Sister Yue!” Tiaotiao was even more mortified by the laughter. Embarrassed into anger, she sprang off the bed, planted her hands on her hips, and shouted in displeasure.

“You... let me... laugh a little... longer...” Lianyue tried to steady herself, laughing in fits and starts. It took a long while before she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. Under Tiaotiao’s resentful stare, she finally composed herself and said seriously, “Tell me exactly what happened from the beginning.”

Tiaotiao, troubled and awkward, described everything in full detail. When she came to the part about the kiss, she fidgeted for a long time, stumbling over her words before finally managing to give a vague account.

Lianyue bit back her laughter and, after hearing it all, silently praised the heavens several times over. The more she thought about it, the more worthwhile these days of being missing seemed. First there had been a turn for the better between her elder brother and Blue Sister, and now Tiaotiao had given her such a huge surprise.

“Sister Yue, I’m done. At least analyze it for me...” Tiaotiao wrinkled her nose adorably.

Lianyue sighed at her sluggishness and asked in return, “What do you think he meant?”

“I don’t know. Do you think Senior Brother Chuchen’s head has rusted?”

Good grief. Lianyue pressed a hand to her forehead, speechless as she looked at Tiaotiao, who seemed to find this perfectly reasonable. “So that’s what you think? Then let me ask you this: do you like him?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Tiaotiao’s innocent, wide eyes somehow looked a little foolish just then.

Lianyue was nearly driven mad by her. “Of course it has something to do with it. If you like my second brother, then shouldn’t you be happy that he kissed you? And if you don’t like him, then you ought to have slapped him smartly across the face!” How could such a simple question be made so complicated?

Tiaotiao thought seriously for a moment, then murmured, “It seems like I was happy.”

Lianyue shrugged and lay back on the bed. “Then isn’t that settled? You like him, he likes you. What a perfect ending. What are you still agonizing over?” Ah, the bed really was comfortable.

This time it was Tiaotiao’s turn to freeze. She hurriedly half-knelt on the bed and said bashfully, “How do you know Senior Brother Chuchen likes me? Doesn’t he hate me?”

“Hate you? That was jealousy!” Lianyue turned onto her side, propped her head with her right hand, and lifted Tiaotiao’s chin with her left. “He was jealous that you were close to other men, and regretted that he himself hadn’t realized his own feelings sooner.”

Tiaotiao’s eyes brightened, then dimmed, then brightened again, over and over. Suddenly she slipped off the bed and hurried toward the door.

Startled, Lianyue sat up. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to find Senior Brother Chuchen and ask him clearly whether what you said is true!” Tiaotiao called back without turning around, and then she was gone.

Lianyue sighed at her decisive nature and flopped back down on the bed once more. People only learn to cherish after they have lost something. Right now, she felt the bed beneath her was the most, most, most comfortable place in the world. If she had to die, she wanted to die in bed.

A smile curved her lips unconsciously. Tomorrow, when she woke from this sleep, could she perhaps call Tiaotiao her second sister-in-law?

Layer upon layer of smoke-blue bed curtains hung above her, eerily resembling the dense canopy of leaves in the woods. In Lianyue’s mind, a black figure surfaced without warning, still wearing that familiar bronze mask, the pair of eyes beneath it smiling at her.

The smile at the corner of Lianyue’s lips slowly fell. Her heart had long since flown somewhere far away, and a trace of remembrance climbed into her bright eyes. Dark Shadow, are you well? When will we see each other again?

Beyond the drifting clouds, Yu Wen Lingxi skillfully evaded Qin Che’s men, who had not yet received word, and cast one lingering glance at the woods behind him before melting into the night. A voice sounded in his heart as well: Lianyue, wait for me.

Before they could meet again, he had to settle the matters that needed settling.