A Bao had stayed with her mother for a few days, and now she missed her father again.
These past few days, Father must have been very busy—he hadn’t come to see her or Mother.
"Mother, can we go to the Duke's Manor? Father is busy during the day, but he’ll have time to spend with us in the evening."
A Bao went to the garden and found her mother swinging alone on the swing.
Hearing her daughter’s voice, Wei Rao snapped out of her thoughts. When she looked at her daughter, the usual sparkle returned to her eyes, and she smiled gently. "Does A Bao miss Father? Shall Mother take you there? The New Year is approaching, and I plan to accompany the Old Dowager. I’ll return on the tenth to make lanterns with you."
For the past two years, Wei Rao had celebrated the New Year this way—her daughter at the Duke's Manor, and she at the Secluded Manor.
A Bao thought of the Old Dowager living alone at the Secluded Manor and felt that her mother really should accompany her for the New Year.
Still, A Bao preferred celebrating at the Duke's Manor. There would be lots and lots of firecrackers, so many cousins, and even her uncles Little Sixth and Little Seventh—it was always so much fun.
A Bao agreed to her mother’s arrangement.
Wei Rao sent someone to escort her daughter, then boarded a carriage with a few guards and left the city.
A Bao arrived at the Duke's Manor first. The little lady alighted from the carriage and ran straight to the Hall of Pine and Moon.
Lu Zhuo was in his study, practicing calligraphy.
Hearing his daughter’s sweet cry of "Father!" from the courtyard, Lu Zhuo paused his brush, slowly set it down, and concealed the strange look in his eyes before stepping outside. Opening the study door, he looked down the corridor to see his daughter running toward him. Behind her was only a nanny—no one else. Or perhaps she had come but went to pay respects to his grandmother first?
"Father, are you not busy today?" A Bao rushed into his arms.
Lu Zhuo picked up his daughter and smiled. "I am busy. Father has many books to read, or else I would have come to fetch you."
A Bao pouted at this.
Lu Zhuo rubbed the top of her head affectionately by way of apology, then glanced down as if casually asking, "Did you come alone, A Bao?"
A Bao nodded. "Mm, Mother went to accompany the Old Dowager. She’ll come for me on the tenth."
Lu Zhuo smiled.
Only after A Bao ran off to find her playmates did Lu Zhuo close the study door and cough up a mouthful of blood.
Secluded Manor.
Wei Rao alighted from the carriage but did not go to see the Old Dowager, heading straight to her Swallow Garden instead.
"I’d like to be alone for a while," she murmured to Liuya before entering the inner chamber.
Liuya waited under the eaves, secretly wiping her tears with a handkerchief.
The young lady was still too young to notice, but only she knew that ever since the Young Lord returned, the princess’s spirit had seemed to leave her body.
Shou An Jun came upon hearing the news.
Now nearing seventy, Shou An Jun would celebrate her seventieth birthday the following March.
At her age, Shou An Jun had never dwelled on birthday gifts, but with Lu Zhuo’s return, she felt she had already received the best possible gift for her seventieth year.
Yet, as much as she hoped, she did not see the young couple come together to visit her. Instead, she learned that her granddaughter and Lu Zhuo had not yet met.
Shou An Jun quickly guessed what was troubling the two young ones.
She couldn’t very well go to Lu Zhuo, but she wanted to advise her granddaughter—Lu Zhuo was not the narrow-minded type to hold a grudge over her recent matchmaking attempts.
Dismissing Liuya’s formalities, Shou An Jun entered alone. Just as she reached the door to the inner chamber, she heard stifled sobs from within.
Her heart ached with pain.Since Old Mrs. Wei passed away, the Secluded Manor had become her granddaughter's true maternal home. No matter what grievances Wei Rao endured outside, she could bear them until she couldn't anymore, then she would come here and weep bitterly.
Was she crying because Lu Zhuo refused to see her?
Shou An Jun walked in, approaching the bedside.
Wei Rao knew it was her grandmother. As Shou An Jun sat down, Wei Rao buried her face in her grandmother's lap.
Gently smoothing her granddaughter's tear-tousled hair, Shou An Jun said tenderly, "What good does crying do? Go see him. Whether he resents you or forgives you, clear the air so you won't be left alone with your wild imaginings."
Wei Rao couldn't speak, only shaking her head. After a long while, she suppressed her turbulent emotions and said weakly, "His refusal to come proves he won't forgive me. I waited ten days for him, from morning till night, yet he wouldn't come."
Each day and moment was torment. Unable to bear it, Wei Rao chose to hide at the Secluded Manor, far away. At a distance, she wouldn't cling to hope day and night, constantly expecting someone to rush in and tell her the Young Lord had arrived.
Wei Rao wasn't afraid of Lu Zhuo's refusal to forgive - she had already lost him for three years. A few more years, even a lifetime, she could grow accustomed to.
She just needed time. Once she fully accepted that Lu Zhuo would never seek her out again, she could live properly again, appearing in the capital alongside him with a heart calm as still water.
"Silly child, how do you know he isn't hoping you'll go to him? That he isn't losing sleep over your refusal to visit?" Shou An Jun wiped Wei Rao's tears with her handkerchief, speaking softly.
Wei Rao closed her eyes. Precisely because she didn't know, she wouldn't go see him. And with each day of waiting in vain, she became more certain of her suspicion - Lu Zhuo simply didn't want to see her again.
"Please don't say anymore. I'm just feeling sad temporarily. I'll stay with you for a few days and soon be better." Wei Rao leaned dependently into her grandmother's embrace, against the person who loved her most in this world. For some reason, though she hadn't slept well for over ten days, she suddenly felt drowsy.
Wei Rao fell asleep.
Shou An Jun kept silent watch by the bedside, gazing at Wei Rao's pale, haggard face.
When she first arrived, she had noticed her granddaughter had grown thinner. Last time they met, she resembled a peony in full bloom, but now she looked like one battered by sudden rain.
As she watched, Shou An Jun smiled.
Still so young - the deeper the love, the greater the fear of loss. And the greater that fear, the more it proved the love was bone-deep and unforgettable.
Shou An Jun refused to believe these two could keep suppressing their feelings forever.
One side was dry tinder, the other raging flames. They could either keep avoiding each other, but once they met, wanting not to blaze into roaring fire would be impossible.
During her half-month stay at the Secluded Manor, Wei Rao went riding and hunting on Cloud Mist Mountain almost daily.
Winter prey was scarce, but there were always mountain hares and sparrows. Each time she returned from hunting, Wei Rao brought back a horse-load of game.
Perhaps having something to occupy herself improved Wei Rao's complexion gradually.
On the tenth day, Shou An Jun saw her granddaughter onto her horse, smiling as if seeing off some fearsome spirit: "You'd better leave quickly. If you stay any longer, the birds and hares of Cloud Mist Mountain will face extinction."
Dressed in red riding clothes, Wei Rao sat mounted, responding to her grandmother's teasing only by saying she would return in March before galloping away.
Standing at the Secluded Manor's gate, Shou An Jun watched her granddaughter's receding figure and suddenly shook her head.
Liu Momo laughed, "What has the Old Matriarch thought of?"Shou An Jun sighed, "Young people these days are becoming more and more patient."
Liu Momo gazed into the distance toward the princess and remarked with emotion, "If they had only been apart for a year or so, perhaps they wouldn't be able to resist. But it's been over three years now—what's another month or two? Our princess has always been more responsive to soft approaches than to hard ones. This old servant would like to see whether the Young Lord truly intends to give up on the princess or has mastered some remarkable skill in enduring hardship."
Wei Rao didn't hear the elders' conversation. Facing the cool breeze, she ran all the way back to the capital.
The winter sunlight was pale and weak, so there was no fear of getting sunburned. Wei Rao didn't wear a veil, and as soon as she entered the city, she attracted the attention of the commoners on the streets.
During this period, the commoners had plenty to talk about, all discussing Lu Zhuo's return to the capital and the princess's intention to remarry.
The people still remembered how Lu Zhuo had ardently pursued the princess back in the day. Now that Lu Zhuo had returned, everyone was waiting to see whether he would try to win the princess back or, feeling slighted, would decide to marry another virtuous wife.
"Princess, the Young Lord has been back for so long. Aren't you going to see him?" someone teased.
Wei Rao glanced toward the source of the voice and saw a middle-aged woman selling cosmetics at a stall. Wei Rao merely smiled and did not respond.
As soon as Wei Rao returned to the princess's residence, she immediately sent someone to the Duke's Manor to fetch her daughter.
A Bao had nearly gone wild with fun during the New Year, but fortunately, she hadn't reached the point of forgetting her mother.
As soon as the princess's people arrived, A Bao went to find her father.
"Father, Mother is back. I have to go back now. Do you want to come with me to see Mother?" A Bao asked expectantly.
Lu Zhuo waved the book in his hand at his daughter. "I haven't finished reading this book yet."
A Bao looked at the book, then at her handsome, smiling father, and suddenly asked, "Father, don't you miss Mother?"
Lu Zhuo was taken aback.
A Bao had already gotten her answer: Father simply didn't miss Mother. Reading was more important to him than seeing her.
"Father, don't you like Mother anymore?" A Bao pressed.
Lu Zhuo's throat tightened, and he couldn't speak.
A Bao looked at her father and thought of the smiles he had shown to guests these past few days. He could chat and laugh with the elders, and he could sit alone in his study reading for a very long time, but he had never once mentioned Mother. Little A Bao suddenly understood something.
"If Father doesn't like Mother, then I don't like Father either. You keep reading. I'm going to be with Mother."
After saying this through her tears, A Bao ran off.
Lu Zhuo sat at his desk, motionless for a long while.
A Bao returned to the princess's residence, threw herself into her mother's arms, and cried bitterly, accusing her father of caring only about reading and refusing to come keep Mother company.
Wei Rao had an idea of what was going on. Smiling, she comforted her daughter, "Don't cry, A Bao. Mother doesn't need Father to keep her company. These past few days, Mother caught lots of rabbits and even brought back a nest of baby rabbits. Would you like to see them?"
A Bao immediately forgot about her bad father and obediently followed her mother to see the rabbits.
A Bao was a little girl who could easily become happy again. Wei Rao took her daughter to the palace to pay New Year's respects to the Imperial Consort and the Fourth Prince. After spending a day playing in the palace, they returned home, and Wei Rao began teaching her daughter how to make lanterns.
A Bao had learned a bit of painting skill and diligently drew on the lantern paper.
Wei Rao stood beside her and saw that her daughter had drawn a family of three—a couple holding hands with a little girl.
"Mother, will Father still come to see us?"
After finishing her drawing, A Bao looked up and asked plaintively.Wei Rao picked up her daughter and kissed her, saying, "A Bao, don't be afraid. Father will definitely come looking for A Bao. Father loves A Bao the most."
A Bao knew her father loved her, but she felt sad for her mother: "Why doesn't Father like Mother?"
Wei Rao thought for a moment, pressed her forehead against her daughter's, and smiled, "The reason is complicated. When A Bao grows up, you'll understand."
A Bao pouted, then wrapped her arms around her mother's neck and mumbled, "I don't care. Mother is the best. If Father doesn't like Mother, then I don't like Father either."
Wei Rao chuckled, "That won't do. Father is a great hero. A Bao should be nicer to Father."
A Bao tilted her head, blinked, and thought of something else: "Does Mother still like Father?"
Wei Rao didn't answer and continued making the lantern with her daughter.
The lantern was finished just in time for the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
A Bao loved going to the street the most. In the evening, the mother and daughter had an early dinner, put on matching red cloaks with white fox fur collars, and set off in a carriage.
When they reached East Street, the carriage could hardly move, so the mother and daughter got out.
Wei Rao held A Bao's hand, and A Bao carried a lantern they had made together. Since Father hadn't come, A Bao didn't use the lantern paper with the three of them but instead drew a new one with just her and her mother. If Father didn't like Mother, A Bao didn't want to make her mother sad.
The lantern festival was lively, with people walking in small groups along the street.
Wei Rao was mainly out to accompany her daughter. Wherever her daughter led her, she followed, her attention entirely on protecting her.
"Mother, Uncle Li San!" A Bao suddenly pointed in a direction.
Wei Rao looked up and indeed saw Li Wei in brocade robes. Their eyes met, and Wei Rao smiled slightly in greeting.
The beauty under the lanterns became even more captivating.
Li Wei seemed encouraged by this smile and stepped toward Wei Rao. But when he was about ten steps away from the mother and daughter, a tall, straight figure emerged from the crowd. His form and face were like a male immortal conjured from the bright moonlight. With his appearance, everyone else seemed to vanish, and even the lanterns paled in comparison.
Li Wei smiled wryly and turned to leave.
Just like in the past, he stood no chance against that person.
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