Chapter 23 Going to See My Mother

"Eat well first. I have something to do in the evening. When I come back, I will bring you some rock sugar and snow pear paste. It is sweet, cool and delicious." Xie Jingyu described the taste of the food as best as he could.

Wei Qingcheng was happy after hearing his words. She blinked her eyes again and motioned Xie Jingyu to pick up the dish she wanted to eat: "Okay, I want to eat this too."

…

The lotus flowers in the pond have withered, and the yellow lotus leaves are curled up and drooping, which has a unique charm.

Sun Yanhong begged her father for a long time before he let her out. She was thinking whether she could meet her lover at the Canhe Poetry Festival. Wang Yu liked to appear in these elegant places the most.

Her previous affair with Wang Yu had caused a lot of controversy. Her father thought she didn't care about her reputation and that of the Sun family, so he confined her to her room.

"It's all my father's fault, otherwise Yu would have come to propose marriage a long time ago."

She walked towards the poetry reading wearing the purple gauze dress that Wang Yu had praised her for when they first met.

The men competed in reciting poems, and occasionally one or two women would speak out.

Several young ladies from official families who were familiar with her recognized her and kept their distance from her. Only the two sisters Ruan Qingqing and Ruan Qingyun did not avoid her.

She walked over, bowed, and sat beside them with her maid.

"Miss Sun is here to look for someone, right?"

Although the Ruan family had a queen, the two sisters were both illegitimate, so Sun Yanhong naturally didn't take them seriously. In addition, her secrets were touched upon, so her tone became a little harsh.

"What's it to you?"

Ruan Qingqing smiled, as if she didn't take her words to heart.

"Miss Sun is truly a heroine. She dares to pursue what she wants. She is truly a role model for us!"

Sun Yanhong unconsciously straightened her chest, her eyes wide open with a smile, and she grabbed Ruan Qingqing and said, "Oh, no, no, I just..."

She thought she had found a confidant, and whispered to the two sisters for a long time.

The poetry meeting was at its most exciting.

"Hey! I come, I come, the withered lotus and bamboos urge us to write poetry, the withered lotus leaves that remain listen to the sound of rain."

"good!"

"It's my turn! Half of the autumn lotus leaves outside the city are yellow, and there are still some sparse willows shining back into the pond."

"Good! It has to be a prince!"

"Yes! Yes! You are really talented."

Wang Jize put the brush in his hand on the table and enjoyed the admiration of the crowd. At this time, he was still young and had the capital to be frivolous.

But before he could enjoy it enough, a few officials' sons whispered behind him.

"Have you seen that Sun Yanhong?"

"What's wrong with seeing her? Are you attracted to her?"

"What? I remembered something someone told me."

"What's the matter?"

"I'm telling you, don't tell anyone else"

"I swear I won't tell you, just tell me now!"

"The man Sun Yanhong had been harassing before, his name was Wang Yu, do you remember him? I heard that he was the son of Master Wang who was living away from home!"

"ah!"

"It is said that when Wang Taifu was young, he was a playboy. On his way to Beijing to take the imperial examination, he met a woman and had a fleeting love affair with her. Unexpectedly, Wang Yu's mother got pregnant right away, and that's how the story that followed happened..."

Wang Jize picked up the brush on the table, dipped it in ink and threw it down.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

The two officials' sons' white clothes were splattered with ink, and they retreated in embarrassment.

Wang Jize curled his lips as if it was not intentional: "I'm so sorry, my hand slipped!"

Although my old man is not a good person, I don't want others to talk about him.

He lowered his head and went back to writing.

"Wang Yu...Sun Yanhong..."

———————————————

"Will you accompany me to see my mother?" Xie Jingyu's eyes were filled with sadness, something Wei Qingcheng had never seen before.

He asked his servants to prepare white clothes, and got on the carriage with Xie Jingyu.

The carriage slowly drove away from the palace and drove for a long time until the noise of the market could no longer be heard and only the creaking of the wheels could be heard.

Wei Qingcheng pulled up the curtain of the carriage. The wild chrysanthemums all over the mountains were in full bloom.

The carriage stopped, Xie Jingyu got off and held his hand to help him get off.

"Mother, mother, she likes free things. She used to say that the flowers in the palace live without control..."

Wei Qingcheng looked at the wild chrysanthemums and said, "Let's pick some and give them to our mother. She will be very happy to see these flowers growing wildly."

As he said this, he picked a piece of soft soil and dug it with his hands.

"Your Majesty should have told me earlier so I could prepare some shovels. This is the only way to harvest today."

Xie Jingyu grabbed his muddy hand and wiped his fingers with a towel: "Don't do that, just pull it out."

"Yes, the roots that are dug out slowly will survive better and have a longer life!"

He lowered his eyebrows and looked at the wild chrysanthemums. His long eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings and flew all the way into Xie Jingyu's broken heart.

The white and round fingertips were stained with dirt, but Wei Qingcheng didn't care at all. Xie Jingyu wiped his fingers for him repeatedly, as if to ease the beating of his heart.

He thought that Wei Qingcheng's soul and his sincere heart made him feel fascinated...

"Let me do it, don't get your hands dirty," he asked Wei Qingcheng to sit next to him and rest.

I squatted beside a bunch of wild chrysanthemums, digging them while covering my lower body.

You are so good, I still lied to you...

I am the worst person in the world...

"Have you dug it? Use this to wrap the soil around the roots of the wild chrysanthemum. With some soil it is familiar with, it will be able to adapt faster."

Wei Qingcheng took out her own silk and asked Xie Jingyu to put some dirt on it.

The tender yellow and white flowers were rocking with the carriage.

Travel with them to visit the dead.

"Well, they will also reproduce here and accompany mother in the future!"

Wei Qingcheng patted the small mound of earth that Xie Jingyu had buried.

Xie Jingyu knelt in front of the nameless tombstone.

"Mother, I brought him to see you,"

Wei Qingcheng also knelt beside him, and Xie Jingyu took off his coat and laid it under his knees.

"My wounds haven't healed yet, so my mother doesn't have so many rules."

“It’s okay, it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

He also spoke to the nameless tombstone: "Mother, we brought you wild chrysanthemums, which are as free as you are.

You have raised Jingyu very well. He is a man of integrity. He has supported the huge Hexuan Palace by himself. He is very resolute and kind. He is one of the few pure and kind children from aristocratic families that I have ever met.

Recently, we rescued a mother and her child. The child was very cute. I think Jingyu must have been more lovable when he was a child..."

Xie Jingyu looked at the man chatting with his mother tenderly. The white clothes on him made him look like Chang'e descending to earth.

No, Chang'e is not as beautiful as my beauty.

I am like this in your eyes,

Those words blew into every pore of Xie Jingyu's body through the breeze from the mountain stream, healing his broken soul...