"Third Cousin, please lift your noble foot…"
Lin Zeyan looked at the dark, bright eyes of the person who had suddenly drawn near, and a scene surfaced in his mind.
In the dream, she had asked the same question. How had he answered?
He had said: "I can scarcely contain my fondness—how could I have any energy left for dislike?"
…
A scene from the dream overlapped with reality. How could there be such a coincidence?
Just then, wind rose outside. The temple door was slammed shut by the wind with a bang, like an invisible hand closing a book. Then the door creaked open again, like one sigh after another.
Apricot blossoms poured in with the wind, spinning in the light. Zhao Lijia's green hair ribbon fluttered and plastered across her face. The ties of Lin Zeyan's headwrap trembled against his shoulders. The two of them faced off in the wind.
The little novice monk hurried to prop the door shut, but he was too short. His robe billowed in the wind, the door remained unclosed, and he ended up covered in apricot blossoms.
Zhao Lijia pushed the ribbon and stray hairs from her face. Her round chin tensed into a delicate yet stubborn curve as she stared straight at him, as if determined to get an answer.
Lin Zeyan said nothing. His gaze filtered out from beneath thick lashes, growing narrow and bright. That gaze slowly traced across her face, finally settling on her slightly trembling lashes.
Then he smiled—a smile that did not reach his eyes. Those eyes were heavy as he said, "Zhao Lijia, you dare to toy with me?"
Hearing this, the straight light in Zhao Lijia's eyes, her taut chin, her faintly quivering lashes—all froze in that instant. She drew a deep breath, stepped back, and gave her seriously ill Third Cousin a perfunctory bow. "Third Cousin, I'll be going now. You—you take your time looking."
Lin Zeyan paused, watching her walk past him with impatience on her face. "Zhao Lijia, you—"
Zhao Lijia turned back. Lin Zeyan stopped mid-sentence, watching her approach with a look that said he was waiting to see what she would do.
Zhao Lijia tugged a smile, her face weary. "Third Cousin, please be so kind as to lift your noble foot."
Lin Zeyan: "…"
Zhao Lijia tugged at her draped silk shawl. "Lift your foot."
Lin Zeyan looked down and realized he was standing on one end of her shawl. Zhao Lijia smiled:
"I wonder who it was that lacked manners, stepped on my shawl, left a footprint, and didn't even apologize. Oh dear."
She yanked the shawl hard, making Lin Zeyan stumble, then tossed it to Han Guang. "Throw it away. It's dirty now. I don't want it anymore."
Han Guang caught it. "Yes, Miss."
Zhao Lijia turned and left without so much as a glance at Lin Zeyan. The buyao ornament in her hair swayed, its jade beads colliding with faint clicks, as if speaking on her behalf.
In the main hall, the little novice monk took out a cloth and began wiping the offering table before the Buddha. Emei kept her head lowered. Lin Zeyan clenched his fists behind his back, staring in the direction Zhao Lijia had gone.
Once around a wall, Zhao Lijia stopped and covered her face, wailing softly, "How did I run into someone like this? A cursed fate, a cursed fate."
Han Guang and Tieyi gathered around her, at a loss. Tieyi said, "Miss, how about Han Guang and I go beat up Third Young Master tonight to vent your anger?"
Zhao Lijia lowered her hands, revealing a pitiful little face. "Tieyi, this isn't Liangzhou. This is Chang'an, under the Son of Heaven's feet. Let's rein in our chivalrous spirit."
Han Guang and Tieyi exchanged a glance. The "Twin Jades of Liangzhou" were stumped too. "Then what do we do?"
Zhao Lijia lifted her face and let out a long sigh.
"Chang'an is fine, the ducal estate is fine, but one rat dropping has ruined my good mood."
When the Second Madam came out of the Medicine King Hall, she did not see Lizhi, but instead saw her son with a sour face. Curious, she said, "Why are you here?"
Lin Zeyan took the Buddhist scriptures and protective talismans from the Second Madam's hands. "Are these all for Second Brother?"
The Second Madam nodded, lifted her skirt, and descended the steps. "I paid respects to the Medicine King Bodhisattva. Now if we bring this Sutra of the Original Vows and Merits of the Medicine Master of Lapis Lazuli Radiance Tathagata home to recite, it will bless Erlang with ever-improving health."
Lin Zeyan said, "We have recited quite a few sutras before. Why has there been no effect?"
The Second Madam shot him a glare. "Before, we never brought the Medicine King Bodhisattva's sutra home to recite. It was all Guanyin Bodhisattva. I suppose it just wasn't the right fit."
As she spoke, she shot him another glare. "Besides, I'm the only one in the whole household who recites. How could that possibly have any effect?"
Lin Zeyan neither agreed nor disagreed—after all, he had just done something foolish.
As the two walked out, the Second Madam spotted Emei and said, "Where's Lizhi? Where did she go?"
Emei glanced at Lin Zeyan, then said, "The young miss from the maternal side… she's probably somewhere admiring the apricot blossoms."
Just as she finished speaking, Zhao Lijia came over. She clung to the Second Madam's hand, not even glancing at the person beside her, and with big sparkling eyes, said sweetly, "Auntie, I'm right here."
The Second Madam, seeing her suddenly pop out, couldn't resist pinching her cheek. "Let's go home."
The two walked off, pressed close together, affectionate and inseparable, leaving Lin Zeyan standing there with an armful of things. He narrowed his eyes at the figures ahead, all the more certain that Zhao Lijia had some kind of arcane sorcery—even his mother had been bewitched.
Zhao Lijia's thinking was simple: for the sake of one rat dropping, it wasn't worth giving up the warm bowl of porridge that was the Second Madam.
Listening to the Second Madam's endless chatter, she tightened her grip on the older woman's arm, then briefly glanced back, revealing an ambiguous smile.
That smile said: Say one more disrespectful thing, and I'll steal your mother away and make you a motherless child!
On the day of the Second Cousin's wedding, Zhao Lijia was more excited than the bride herself. She was up early, bustling around the Second Madam's quarters. The bride-welcoming ceremony was at dusk, but the entire ducal estate had already been busy since morning. Some guests had even arrived early, and the cousin-in-law was receiving them in the front courtyard.
She brought Huabao and the two children from the eldest branch, Lin Zhang and Lin Yu, to play double-sixes in the garden. The front courtyard was bustling and lively, while the back courtyard was so quiet it might as well have been in another world.
As Zhao Lijia played with Huabao, Lin Zhang, and Lin Yu, maids sent by Xu Lingyuan from the front courtyard kept bringing them all kinds of pastries and snacks. Each time, the maids would present and describe them.
"Young miss from the maternal side, please try this—these are honey-preserved peach slices from Jinxiao Tower."
"Young miss, try this—this is Sanle nectar bought from the Hu people in the Western Market."
Zhao Lijia and Huabao accepted everything, eating and playing, thoroughly enjoying themselves. Only Lin Zhang and Lin Yu were listless, both children looking sullen.
Huabao had learned that her uncle and another woman now had a new child, and she felt great sympathy for her older brother and sister. She no longer minded that they always found her annoying and never included her in their games, and she shared all the good food and drink with them.
The group played in the back courtyard all morning. After lunch, Zhao Lijia held the children for an afternoon nap. When they woke, she took them to sneak a peek at the green nuptial tent set up near the Second Cousin's courtyard.
In the Great Liang, marriages were conducted by building a green hut at the corner of the back wall. After completing the wedding rites, a long red carpet was laid from the green hut to the front courtyard. When the bride descended from the carriage to the green hut, her feet were not allowed to touch the ground.
When they were peeking, they accidentally bumped into Biyun and Bizhi, the two maids attending the Second Madam. The two maids saw them, smiled, and hurried off to attend to their duties.
In any case, Zhao Lijia and the children were the most idle in the household, wandering about everywhere. A day of play quickly passed, and soon it was evening. Everyone from the first and second branches of the family had gathered at the ancestral hall to watch the Second Young Master pay respects at the ancestral shrine before going to fetch the new bride.
Zhao Lizhi saw her Second Cousin sitting in a wheelchair and wondered how he was going to ride a horse to fetch the bride later.
Everyone in the ducal household had quite a few complaints about this Second Cousin-in-law who had not yet entered the family. They had not expected that Second Cousin, despite his leg ailment, would personally go to fetch the bride—something he could easily have sent someone else to do.
As for who would go in his place—Zhao Lizhi's gaze met Lin Zeyan's across the way.
Lin Zeyan was dressed in the groomsman's uniform round-collar robe of crow-blue with subtle silver patterns, with a ring of snow-white lining showing at the collar and cuffs, which made the lines of his jaw and wrists appear all the more cold and elegant.
A diexie belt was fastened at his waist, its belt plaques of fine white jade. A small silver knife with a white jade handle was tucked at an angle into the jade belt at his waist, its scabbard inlaid with a dark red gemstone—the only splash of bright color on his entire person.
Truly a fleeting glimpse of something stunning—but unfortunately, he was Third Cousin. Zhao Lijia averted her gaze and looked ahead.
Lin Zeyan had not missed the expression on the face across from him. He gave a faint scoff inwardly and also averted his gaze to look ahead.
The auspicious hour had arrived. Lin Suiyu, along with Lin Congji, Lin Zeyan, and the other groomsmen, mounted their horses and set off for the Cheng residence to fetch the bride.
Zhao Lijia had thought this would take a long time, but unexpectedly, in less than an hour, the bridal procession returned. Second Madam was so frightened she thought the Cheng family had pulled some new trick. Only when she heard that the bride had descended from the carriage did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Whispers erupted among the wedding banquet guests. They all said the Cheng family was impatient to get things done, not daring to make things difficult for the groom, afraid that if he lingered even a moment longer, the groom might change his mind and turn back—so they hurriedly carried the bride out.
The wedding ceremony proceeded with surprising smoothness. It was not until the bride was escorted into the green hut that Second Madam let out a breath.
At the wedding ceremony, Zhao Lijia saw the Duke and the Shizi for the first time. Although the Duke held the title of General of the Left Jianmen Guard, the position was mostly honorary—the real authority fell to the General of the Household. The Duke was enjoying his retirement, paying no heed to matters beyond his window.
The Shizi had sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, tall and imposing, but at this moment his face was covered in a forced smile. The Shizi's wife wore a sour expression throughout, and there was a hint of weariness between the Duke's wife's brows—evidently because of the matter of the woman and child the Shizi had kept outside.
She also saw the An concubine of the first branch. The An concubine also rarely went out. She had two married daughters, both of whom had returned this time, and the mother and daughters were chatting and laughing intimately together.
The latter half of the wedding was an all-night banquet. Zhao Lijia knew no one there. She wanted to find her cousin-in-law, but discovered that both her cousin-in-law and Second Madam were busy entertaining guests, so she did not go to pester them.
She thought of finding Huabao, but a maid said Huabao was asleep. Bored out of her mind, she randomly found a seat and watched for a while as some court official—she did not know which one—who was drunk out of his wits performed a Sogdian whirl dance. After watching for a while, she grew dizzy and found it utterly dull.
She wanted to leave, but she accidentally met eyes with this lord, and the lord danced even more vigorously. Seeing that no one among the seated guests was watching him, she felt a little sorry for the lord, so she stayed seated until the lord collapsed.
When she saw that lord fall with a thud, Zhao Lijia also let out a breath. Feeling as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her heart, she rose, intending to say a word to Second Madam and then return to her own Chunxuan Xiaozhu to rest.
When she reached a secluded spot, her ears grew quiet. Zhao Lijia sent a maid to inform Second Madam, and prepared to return herself.
Just then, from the path tucked between the yellow-green hydrangea bushes behind her came the sound of a young woman's laughter. As the sound drew nearer, a dazzling, radiant young woman emerged, surrounded by attendants.
Zhao Lijia recognized the young woman as the person she had encountered that day at the Erjian Tea House, and the young woman seemed to recognize her as well; her eyes brightened.