The kitchen maids had started setting the table for the meal. Lin-shi waited for a long time but her daughter still did not come in. Curious, she walked to the door of the main hall and saw her daughter standing under the peach tree in the courtyard with her little head tilted up. She was wearing a peach-pink jacket, with two small buns on top of her head, staring unblinkingly at the peach blossoms covering the branches. She looked like a little girl statue, adorable and charming.
“An’an, it’s time to eat. You can look at the flowers after the meal,” Lin-shi called out with a smile.
Song Jianing’s neck was almost sore. She finally managed to hook her mother. Satisfied, she rubbed her neck and happily ran toward her mother. “Mother, my cousin said the peach blossoms on Peach Blossom Island have all bloomed. They look especially beautiful in clusters. Will you take me there too?”
Since ancient times, there had been many troubles in front of a widow’s door. After her husband passed away, Lin-shi had no mood for outings. She was also worried about inviting gossip, so she had stayed secluded in the inner courtyard and rarely left the house all year round. When her daughter acted spoiled now, her first reaction was helplessness. She patted the top of her daughter’s head and said, “The day before yesterday, your second uncle’s family invited you to admire the flowers, but you refused to go. Are you regretting it now?”
Song Jianing pouted and hugged her mother, mumbling, “I want to be with Mother. Will you take me, please? I haven’t been out for so long.”
Lin-shi was stunned for a moment. Her daughter had always been lively and active. During the three years of mourning for her husband, the little girl had been cooped up and felt miserable. As soon as the mourning period ended, she would follow her cousin around every day — going out to play with nearby friends in the morning and only coming back when it was almost time for lunch, then running out again after eating. But ever since her daughter had several nightmares in the first month, the little girl had stopped wanting to go out and stayed by her side every day.
“An’an, tell Mother the truth. Did you quarrel with your cousin?” Lin-shi asked, holding her daughter’s hand as they walked into the room. She sat down and held her daughter’s shoulders.
Song Jianing shook her head in confusion. “No. Why does Mother ask that?”
Her daughter’s expression did not look fake. Lin-shi became even more puzzled and asked suspiciously, “Then why don’t you go play with her anymore?”
Song Jianing had already decided to distance herself from her second uncle’s family. She had also been waiting for a chance to remind her mother about how terrible they were. She lowered her head, clenched her small fists, and said sullenly, “My cousin doesn’t like me. That day when I went to find her, I heard Second Aunt telling her not to bully me. My cousin was unhappy, so Second Aunt said that our family is rich. If my cousin is nice to me, then Mother will be willing to give Second Aunt money. She also said that once our family’s money is used up, my cousin can bully me as she likes.”
Lin-shi’s expression changed drastically. Her daughter was only ten years old and only knew about eating, drinking, playing, and sleeping. She definitely would not lie. So her sister-in-law…
“Mother, Second Aunt told my cousin to bully me. Does that mean she doesn’t like me either?” Song Jianing looked up with red-rimmed eyes and asked. She really felt wronged — wronged for the harsh treatment her uncle and aunt had given her in her previous life.
Seeing her daughter looking so confused and pitiful, Lin-shi’s eyes also turned red. She suddenly felt extremely guilty. She had always thought she was the one with a bitter fate — her parents who had treasured her had passed away when they were old, her once close brother had soft ears and gradually distanced himself from her because of his wife. After marrying far away to Jiangnan, she had only enjoyed a few years of happy married life before her husband unfortunately fell ill and died. In the past three years, she had been immersed in sorrow every day, but she had forgotten that her daughter was even more unfortunate. At such a young age, she had lost her father, and the aunt and cousin she sincerely liked only appeared kind on the surface while hiding dark intentions.
“How could that be? Our An’an is the most obedient and sensible child. Everyone likes An’an,” Lin-shi held back her tears, kissed her daughter’s forehead, and said gently.
Big teardrops fell from Song Jianing’s eyes. Having a mother was really wonderful. Being comforted by her mother felt so good.
Her daughter could cry at any moment. Lin-shi panicked. Knowing that her daughter wanted to see the peach blossoms in full bloom, she quickly coaxed her, “An’an, don’t cry. Mother promises to take you out to play. If your eyes get swollen from crying, we won’t be able to go out.”
Song Jianing immediately broke into a smile through her tears.
Lin-shi also smiled. She personally wiped her daughter’s face, applied another layer of face cream, and then took her daughter’s hand to go eat.
Breakfast was very simple. Mother and daughter each had a bowl of three-shrimp noodles, with a small plate of four meat-filled soup dumplings placed in the middle. These were the childhood flavors Song Jianing deeply missed. Just smelling the aroma made her drool. She immediately sat down properly on the redwood round stool, picked up a soup dumpling first, dipped it in vinegar, and ate it happily.
After finishing one soup dumpling, Song Jianing started eating the noodles. She would take two bites of noodles and then eat a shrimp, balancing meat and vegetables, eating with great enjoyment.
Lin-shi had had poor appetite for the past three years, but today, perhaps influenced by her daughter’s hearty eating or because she had just figured things out and decided to take good care of her health so she could properly look after her daughter for the rest of her life, her appetite actually returned when she saw her daughter eating so deliciously. She finished the entire bowl of noodles that she usually only ate a few bites of, and even took one soup dumpling.
Song Jianing was overjoyed when she saw this. She picked up the last soup dumpling and offered it to her mother, “Mother, eat one more.”
Lin-shi shook her head with a smile. “An’an, you eat it. Mother is full.”
Song Jianing glanced at her mother’s slender willow-like waist and mistakenly thought her mother was afraid of gaining weight if she ate too much. Only then did she eat it herself.
After the meal, Lin-shi asked a maid to inform the coachman to prepare the mule cart. She went back to the inner room to change clothes. She changed out of her spring blouse embroidered with orchids into a simple bean-green jacket paired with a white skirt — plain and elegant, the kind of outfit that would not stand out on the street. After changing, Lin-shi replaced the jade hairpin on her head with a wooden one. The only thing she could not change was her fair, delicate, and exceptionally beautiful face.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Lin-shi suddenly felt a trace of sadness. The peach blossoms had bloomed and people were admiring them, yet although she possessed such beauty, the husband who loved to admire her was no longer in this world.
“Madam,” the maid Qiu Yue walked over holding a white veiled hat and called softly.
Lin-shi came back to her senses and gave a faint smile.
After getting dressed, Lin-shi held her daughter’s chubby little hand and walked out with Qiu Yue. As soon as they stepped out of the main courtyard gate, they ran into Hu-shi, who was walking in a hurry. Because of what her daughter had told her, Lin-shi already disliked this sister-in-law in her heart, but she still had to maintain basic courtesy on the surface. She temporarily removed her veiled hat and politely asked, “Sister-in-law, you seem to be in a rush. Has something happened?”
Hu-shi discreetly looked over the mother and daughter, then said with a dry smile, “Nothing, nothing. I heard you were going out, so I came to check.”
Lin-shi lowered her head to look at her daughter and said with a gentle smile, “An’an wants to see the peach blossoms. The weather is nice today, so I’m taking her to Peach Blossom Island for a stroll.”
Hu-shi was secretly delighted, but she said, “Yes, you should go. Sister-in-law stays shut in the house every day. Going out to get some fresh air will be good for your health too. You should hurry then. There aren’t many people boarding at the dock right now. If you wait any longer, it will get crowded.” As she spoke, she politely made way for them.
Lin-shi nodded and led her daughter away.
Hu-shi smiled as she saw the mother and daughter off at the gate. The moment she watched their mule cart turn the corner, she immediately called for her daughter and went back to her own family home under the excuse of visiting relatives. The two county towns were next to each other, but Lin-shi’s mule cart moved slowly. If her brother rode a donkey to chase after them, he might be able to reach the shore of Taihu Lake before Lin-shi.
The mule cart moved steadily and slowly, but since Lin-shi was taking her daughter on a spring outing purely to relax, she was not in a hurry at all.
The spring scenery in Jiangnan was beautiful. Even the ordinary official road had scenery worth admiring on both sides — sparkling water-filled rice paddies, green willows swaying in the wind, and occasionally three or four peach or plum trees coming into view. Accompanied by the clear and pleasant chirping of birds, the scene was peaceful and serene, like a timeless Jiangnan painting.
“Mother, look at the sky!” Song Jianing leaned against the window watching the scenery and suddenly called out to her mother excitedly.
Lin-shi leaned over and looked up. She saw a flock of wild geese flying in formation, heading north.
The sight stirred her emotions. Lin-shi suddenly felt a little homesick for her family in the capital. When her husband passed away, her elder brother had come to offer condolences and had quietly asked her if she wanted to remarry. Lin-shi did not want to, and she also did not want to affect the relationship between her brother and sister-in-law. If she really wanted to remarry, she would have to return to her maiden home first, but her sister-in-law did not like her and would definitely speak coldly and mock her when they met.
She gently stroked her daughter’s head and sat up straight again.
After traveling for half an hour, the mule cart finally reached the shore of Taihu Lake. The sky was clear and vast, with misty waves stretching into the distance. The small island closest to the shore was Peach Blossom Island. Every spring, the island was covered in peach blossoms like rosy clouds, making it quite famous locally. During the blooming season, common people, rich merchants, and officials’ families from near and far would choose a fine, sunny day to board boats and visit the island to enjoy the flowers and lift their spirits.
The mother and daughter had arrived early, so there was no one else at the shore. There were three small boats on the lake in total. One black-awning boat had already set off, one was docked at the side, and there was also a simple, plain boat that ordinary people with tight budgets preferred to take. Lin-shi had a rich dowry and plenty of money, so after getting off the cart, her maid Qiu Yue went straight to the black-awning boat to ask the price.
“Chartering the whole boat costs five qian of silver. If we wait until there are ten passengers, it’s fifty wen per person,” the boatman said in the local dialect.
Qiu Yue directly took out a five-qian silver piece and handed it to the boatman. “My madam is chartering the boat.”
The boatman smiled and agreed, put away the silver, and politely laid down the boarding plank.
Lin-shi held her daughter’s little hand tightly, and the mother and daughter boarded the boat together.
The three mistresses and servant sat down properly. The boatman was just about to set off when two urgent hoofbeats suddenly came from the shore, and someone shouted loudly, “Wait!”
The voice was full of energy. The boatman looked up and saw two big black horses already close by. The man in front wore a gray robe, had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and looked quite proper, with the bearing of someone who practiced martial arts. Seeing that he did not have a boat pole, the thick-browed man slowed down and let the person behind him board first.
The boatman looked over and was instantly stunned. The new arrival was a man in his early thirties, wearing a black round-collared robe with a white jade pendant hanging at his waist that gleamed alluringly in the sunlight. His attire clearly showed he came from a wealthy family. As for his appearance — his eyebrows were like sharp green peaks, his eyes like cold stars, and his face was stern and cold, even more imposing than a general on the opera stage.
The boatman was so lost in thought that he did not notice when the man got off his horse. By the time he reacted, the cold-faced man had already strode onto the boat with big steps.
The boatman was in a difficult position. He was about to explain that the boat had already been chartered when the man who arrived later suddenly threw something over. The boatman instinctively caught it and looked down. Good heavens — it was a small silver ingot. The boatman grinned, tucked the ingot into his chest, and stayed still while listening carefully for any noise inside the boat. If the three women did not make a fuss, he would quietly pole the boat away and earn two payments.
Qiu Yue looked angry. She glanced at her mistress with questioning eyes, ready to argue with the boatman the moment her madam gave the order.
Lin-shi wore her veiled hat. She quickly swept her eyes over the two men through the gauze and gave a tiny, almost unnoticeable shake of her head to Qiu Yue.
Qiu Yue also realized that the two newly arrived men were not to be trifled with. She sensibly lowered her head and stopped looking where she should not, so as not to cause trouble.
On the other side of Lin-shi, Song Jianing had intended to take one glance and then look away. But for some reason, the more she looked at the man in black sitting diagonally opposite her, the more familiar he seemed. The more familiar he looked, the more she could not help staring, trying to recall where she had seen this person before. She stared so intently that the man in black suddenly turned his gaze toward her. His eyes were as sharp as a blade.
Song Jianing panicked and quickly shrank back. Then, in that brief moment when their eyes met, she suddenly remembered. She had never seen this man in black before, but she had spent a full seven years with a noble son who looked extremely similar to him. That person was none other than the famous heir of the Duke of Weiguo’s Mansion in the capital…
Guo Xiao.