The cold wind swept through, brushing against the small courtyard. The delicate snowflakes vanished in an instant. In her hand, there was only a smooth shard of pottery, reflecting the slightly heartbroken face of the young girl.
Chen Yi didn’t know what to say for a mont. He slowly approached her side, crouched halfway down, and wrapped her, along with the pottery shard, in his arms.
For a while, there was silence, with no words exchanged.
A trace of nostalgia flickered in Zhou Yitang’s eyes.
Not long after, Chen Yi let go of Yin Tingxue. She wiped away her tears, carefully wrapped the pottery shard in a piece of cloth, and tied it securely.
"Let’s keep going," Yin Tingxue said.
Chen Yi suddenly noticed her face was slightly red and asked,
"Are you feeling feverish?"
As he spoke, he placed his hand on her forehead and found it indeed sowhat hot.
"A little... but only a little. It’s not a problem."
She said this, closed her eyes for a mont, then reopened them, perking herself up.
Chen Yi glanced at her, gently wiped the sweat from her forehead, brushed away the residual tears at the corners of her eyes, and smoothed out the strands of hair by her cheek, as if he were tucking her in bed the way he did every day.
Yin Tingxue touched the trace where he had wiped away her sweat.
For the first ti, she felt his tenderness so vividly.
Stepping out of the courtyard, Yin Tingxue turned back to look once more. The intertwined green bamboo seed to conceal the faint echoes of a guzheng lody from the past. A group of children of similar age huddled together, seizing the chance when the nanny wasn’t around to secretly flip through the *Peony Pavilion*. They reenacted the play’s script, and at that ti, Yin Tingxue always played Du Liniang, while Hong Ling acted as the close maidservant. The other girls took turns playing the scholar, mimicking adult tones to recite, "For you, my lovely beauty, as ti flows like water."
On wintry nights, the coldest of the season, a group of seven- or eight-year-old children snuggled together under the covers, talking softly about their past, babbling, "When I was little, I did this and that..." When the nanny arrived, the maidservants bolted out of bed, jumping and dodging, standing in fear and trembling. After the nanny left, it was nothing but a shared glance before bursting into laughter.
Step by step, the girlish courtyard gradually faded from view.
Chen Yi had taken the effort to bring her back once more, so Yin Tingxue didn’t want to dwell too much on lancholy. She tilted her head upward. The sky seed lower under the snow, and even the blue-tiled roofs of distant buildings turned white. The Prince Mansion, at this mont, was serene and ethereal. Fine snow fell gently. Observing such a scene, the daughter of Xiang Wang who used to find it dull now felt differently than she did back then.
The long, red-painted corridor had intricate cloud-shaped carvings scattered everywhere. Midway through the walk, the railings on either side opened up, revealing stone bricks extending outward, forming a sightseeing platform. Below was a tranquil lotus pond, once vibrant in purples and reds, now left with half-wilted drooping lotus leaves. The water was calm and mirror-like.
"My mother said this is called the Blessing Pool. That’s why there are no fish in the lake, only lotuses."
"The word ’fish’ is phonetically linked with ’excess,’ so no fish ans no excess?" Chen Yi asked.
"Mm-hmm, and the word ’lotus’ is linked with ’rembrance.’ Because of rembering blessings, we cherish blessings."
Yin Tingxue softly explained the origin of the lotus pond’s na. Then, as if recalling sothing, she grinned and said,
"When I was little, I pestered my mother to pick a lotus for . She personally went to pluck the closest flower but accidentally fell into the water. She crawled out eventually, only managing to grab a lotus leaf."
As she spoke, her cheeks turned red and her voice grew sticky, as if her head was growing increasingly dizzy.
Standing at the edge of the sightseeing platform, Chen Yi smiled faintly as he listened to her. Then, leaning forward, he stretched out a hand and gently plucked off a lotus leaf.
He was just about to turn around and hand her the lotus leaf.
Suddenly, a leg struck out, sending Chen Yi tumbling into the water. The splash burst forth, the pool’s water icy to the bone.
On the shore, there was only the cold, expressionless face of the one-ard woman.
Yin Tingxue was montarily stunned upon seeing this, then couldn’t help but cover her mouth and laugh. When the drenched Chen Yi climbed back up, she hurriedly suppressed her amusent.
Zhou Yitang rely uttered two words:
"Retribution."
She was, of course, referring to the deserved payback for his presumptuousness.
Chen Yi wiped the water off his face and snarled,
"I won’t cook for you tonight!"
The one-ard woman didn’t even respond.
Yin Tingxue was clearly full of schadenfreude, but as soon as Chen Yi glanced in her direction, she stopped at once and tried hard to put on a concerned look.
Suddenly, she grew flustered, wondering if she might have upset him. Would he seize the opportunity to pick a quarrel?
But Chen Yi rely chuckled and handed her the lotus leaf.
Yin Tingxue froze montarily before taking the lotus leaf, just as she had once accepted one from her mother’s hands during childhood.
She suddenly felt even dizzier.
"Do you have any familiar maidservants here in the Prince Mansion? I can redeem one for you from the music bureau."
Chen Yi, still dripping wet, wrung out so of the water and undid his headpiece, letting his hair drape down.
"No. When my mother was still here, yes. After she was gone..."
As they continued walking, Yin Tingxue paused and said somberly,
"When Mother left and Father began interacting with people from the Divine Sect, to avoid exposure, there were no handmaidens left for . They were all sent away."
For a long, long ti, she had been living alone.
Chen Yi, out of nowhere, asked, "Was it very lonely?"
"What?"
"Not lonely?"
Only then did Yin Tingxue realize that he was asking about her. After thinking for a while, she replied, "? Actually, not really."
The three fell silent for a mont. The corridor was long, and the stone bricks cold. Water kept dripping from Chen Yi’s hair, yet the instigator Zhou Yitang showed no concern or guilt. This made Yin Tingxue worry incessantly. She feared that the terrifying man might take revenge on the one-ard woman. His thods were endless; even with two hands, she couldn’t fend off his cunning.
A sharp chill brushed past as they walked down the corridor. In the distance, layers of mountains lood, their snow-covered peaks pressed in like slow, hushed waves.
Faraway peaks lay buried under snow.
"How many steps is it from here to Yintai Temple?" Chen Yi suddenly asked.
"Three hundred seventy-six steps, sotis three hundred seventy-nine steps."
Yin Tingxue fingered the lotus leaf, unsure of his intention but answered honestly.
Chen Yi chuckled helplessly.
Ah, this lonely girl who isn’t even aware of her loneliness...
Chen Yi gently grasped her hand and spoke softly,
"We’re almost at Yintai Temple. Don’t forget to wish for blessings for our family."
Yin Tingxue nodded, feeling dizzy but managing to muster so spirit.
"I will, I’ll rember."
Watching this, Zhou Yitang’s gaze lowered slightly.
For so reason, despite being soone who usually cared about Chen Yi, Zhou Yitang did not react much to the closeness between Chen Yi and Yin Tingxue.
Perhaps her anger had always been directed at Chen Yi, not at Yin Tingxue.
Yintai Temple grew closer and closer.
"You said you’d willingly climb into my bed two years from now. Was that true? Two years later, would you really?"
"...No, I thought if I obediently served you for two years, you’d let go..."
"Ha! You lied to ."
"I don’t lie to you anymore. I stopped lying a long ti ago."
Yin Tingxue explained hurriedly, fingering the lotus leaf, chuckling, as if lost in mories.
Her face burned fiercely, and her steps had beco unsteady.
Chen Yi rely held her hand and continued walking forward.
"Three hundred seventy-one, three hundred seventy-two..."
Chen Yi glanced sideways at her. It seed like she was muttering sothing.
Before he could speak, they reached Yintai Temple, and she suddenly turned her head and smiled, saying:
"See, three hundred seventy-six steps—I was right, wasn’t I?"
Chen Yi stared for a mont, then shook his head with a laugh.
Fine snow brushed against their faces. Yin Tingxue distractedly reached out to catch it, only to grasp nothing. Looking at the snowy Yintai Temple, she recalled her mother explaining the origin of its na.
"Snow is like fleeting flowers."
She murmured absentmindedly, understanding that fleeting flowers couldn’t be preserved.
She had once burned three thousand taels of silver here, scattering silver notes like leaves. Now, the drifting snow seed like the remnants of an unfinished past.
Yin Tingxue pushed open the door and walked inside slowly.
She passed the front hall and reached the central courtyard, where she abruptly froze, staring blankly at the sight before her.
There was only a tree stump left, its rings perfectly round. Fallen maple leaves were scattered all across the ground, as if everything had been confiscated and cut down.
The dim temple was eerily quiet. In a sudden rush, she ran to the shrine, struggling to push the doors open, only to find the lotus pedestal completely empty.
Even the treasure basin that had consud three thousand silver notes was nowhere to be found.
Shattered clay pots, felled maple trees, the vacant lotus pedestal...
"It’s all gone, everything’s gone!"
The fine snow swirled as tears stread down the girl’s face.
The Bodhisattva sister who used to speak with her, the strict Maple Aunt who used to scold her... all had disappeared.
She realized that she had long been left with nothing.
"Like fleeting flowers!"
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