Chapter 86 Sandalwood She sniffed. There was sandalwood in the air. ...
Yuanfang lived in a large room, which included a bright main room, two side rooms on the left and right, as well as a small study and a tea room side by side. He was carefree and let Yue Jin stay in whichever room she wanted.
But Le Jin was somewhat troubled.
Although the Meng family had allocated this land to Yuanfang, it was still the Meng family's property. She was terrified in the maple forest, constantly feeling that Meng Shutai might emerge from some hidden corner! She didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night to find him covered in blood, clinging to her...
So Le Jin brought over the bedding and, without a word, spread it under the window screen of the warm pavilion outside Yuan Fang's quarters. There was originally a small couch there for the night watchmen to sit on; Le Jin moved the low table aside, making it a makeshift sleeping spot. On the windowsill sat a delicate glass vase, filled with a few fragrant osmanthus blossoms. Just three or four blossoms were enough to fill the entire room with a sweet, intoxicating fragrance.
Le Jin bent over and straightened the quilt. After dusting the quilt a few times, she smelled the fragrance and felt refreshed. When she looked up, the vase of osmanthus was right in front of her, with a few broad, dark green leaves and abundant, dense osmanthus blossoms hanging from the branches.
Osmanthus fragrans……
She was stunned for a moment. When Yuanfang returned from the welcoming banquet held by the Meng family, he still saw her staring blankly at a bottle of osmanthus flowers, her back bent.
The whisk that had been flaunting all day was thrown away by him and fell to the ground. Sheng Er sighed softly behind him and picked it up again with good temper.
What are you doing?
Yuanfang then leaned over and bent down with Lejin to look at the osmanthus. He thought it was something new and interesting, but after looking at it from left to right, he couldn't see anything special about it. It was just an ordinary osmanthus, only with a better color and a sweeter fragrance.
However, the osmanthus was not strange, but Qing Si was. Her brows furrowed slightly, her expression tense, and she turned to Sheng Yi to ask, "Sheng Yi, did they mention this osmanthus to you when they decorated this room? Was it an offering from Qingzhou?"
Sheng Yi burst into laughter and started chattering away: "Miss Qing Si actually has such insight? They didn't specifically mention that these are osmanthus flowers from Qingzhou, but I heard from people in the Meng family that whenever they use osmanthus flowers, they always use those from Qingzhou. They say these osmanthus flowers brought about the marriage between their eldest son and young mistress, so..."
"Take it out and throw it away!"
Le Jin grabbed the glass bottle and stormed over to shove it into Sheng Yi's arms. Sheng Yi was completely bewildered, not knowing what Gui Zi had done to offend Qing Si, and looked at Yuan Fang Sui in confusion.
Yuanfang followed behind, looking at the osmanthus blossoms: How did this relate to the eldest young master and his wife again? Remembering how Qingsi had been mistaken for someone else earlier that day, he felt both disgusted and envious, so much so that he wanted to bite someone. He raised his hand and waved it at Sheng Yi, saying, "Throw it out, throw it out! How can I sleep with such a strong smell?"
He had grown up in a life of hardship in the mountains and disliked sweet and cloying aromas; even the most precious spices would make his nose feel stuffy.
Seeing that Qing Si was still somewhat unsettled, Yuan Fang pulled her to sit under the gauze window, opened the window to let the fragrance out, and let her feel the night breeze to make her more comfortable.
"Huh? You moved here? How can anyone sleep in this place?"
He saw the bedding on Le Jinpu's bed, felt the thickness of the quilt, frowned, and let go. "It's autumn now. If it rains tonight, the cold air will seep in through the cracks in the window, and you'll have to endure a cold night."
Sheng San was also surprised. "This is our night watch post. If Miss Qing Si sleeps here, where will we be at night? Besides," Sheng San glanced at Yuan Fang Sui, "why would Xuan Sheng Zi let the young lady keep watch?"
Everyone knows that the birth of one, two, and three is inevitable. The Green Rhinoceros Girl was an unexpected surprise for Xuan Shengzi. What was unexpected eventually became special. She was neither a maidservant who served tea and water nor a lover who desperately needed a title. The two of them had a rare sense of fulfillment and equality in their daily interactions, and neither of them wanted to break it.
Yuanfang nodded in agreement, "There are two other large rooms on the left and right. You can choose either one."
Le Jin knew he meant well, but memories of the past haunted her like ghosts, especially the image of that bottle of osmanthus that had just surfaced. A chill ran down her spine, and her face remained pale. She knew the night was long, but she just wanted to be somewhere with people. Being with them would at least prevent her from feeling alone.
She shook her head, lowered her head, and whispered, "I just want to sleep here."
As soon as she finished speaking, Le Jin thought it was a bit embarrassing that a young girl was stubbornly trying to squeeze into a young man's room, so she added, "I can take Sheng Yi and the others' place to keep watch at night, really."
Yuanfang could tell she was determined to stay here. He figured Qingsi was just a country girl, and this was her first time visiting...
It's normal to feel lost and fearful in such a magnificent mansion.
The key point is that when she's feeling uneasy, she subconsciously moves the bedding next to him. Yuanfang feels like a little sparrow lives in his heart, hopping and chirping happily.
He put his hands on his hips, as if he had no choice: "Fine, fine, I can't argue with you."
Actually, there was no twisting at all.
——
After turning off the lights at night, Yuanfang lay down on the bed. Suddenly, he remembered Qingsi's words that she wanted to leave as soon as possible. He jumped out of bed with a "whoosh" to go find her.
But after running a few steps, Yuanfang immediately stopped, turned around, lit the bedside lamp, and went to Qingsi's place with it in his hand.
The warm, bright light dispelled the darkness before Le Jin's eyes. She knew the person inside had come out, so she got up and asked him, "What's wrong?"
"Not asleep?" Yuanfang was only wearing a plain white undergarment, with strands of hair falling messily across his face. Under the light, his dark pupils shone brightly, making him look like a little dog that had been playing wildly until midnight before sneaking home.
Le Jin couldn't help but laugh, pointing to the shoes and socks he hadn't even had time to put on after getting out of bed, "And you're talking about me? I think you'll be the one catching a cold tomorrow."
He held up the lamp and chuckled, his eyes shining even brighter. "I forgot to tell you some good news! I told Meng Cizhang at the banquet that tomorrow is an auspicious day for setting up an altar and performing a ritual! Once we've dealt with this important matter, we can go to the palace to pay our respects to Father Emperor. Then we can set off whenever we want."
For some reason, Le Jin didn't feel particularly surprised when she heard this; her expression was just a faint smile.
Before immense happiness arrives, she suddenly wonders if she can grasp it. She used to naively think happiness was like winning a lottery ticket—you win and then redeem it. But now she knows that sometimes even the ticket might be fake.
Let's wait until happiness arrives before we cheer.
Although she felt much more weathered, Le Jin still felt as if her eyes were covered by a layer of glass candy wrapper, and everything she saw was colorful.
She quite liked Yuan Fangsui. It wasn't anything else, just his "reliability." He always responded to her, never making her guess or wait, like a pillar of stability in their lives.
He was still holding the lamp, seemingly with no intention of putting it down. He had come all this way just to say a word to Le Jin.
"Aren't you going back? What are you standing there for?"
Yuanfang seemed to wake up from a dream, nodding vaguely, but he didn't know what he was affirming.
He was too embarrassed to say that Qing Si looked absolutely gorgeous under the lamplight.
She wasn't particularly striking in appearance, but in the soft light, she possessed a unique elegance, like an uncarved piece of jade that didn't need anyone to sculpt it; she was simply herself, naturally and subtly beautiful.
Raindrops fell on the banana leaves outside, and the chill of autumn was as thick as ink, impossible to dispel. The temperature by the window suddenly dropped.
Le Jin wrapped the blanket tighter and shrank further into the bed, when suddenly a hand grabbed her arm. She looked at him in confusion.
"Go inside and sleep, lest you catch a cold. We disciples of the Three Pure Ones have no taboos, I won't mind."
Le Jin heard the teasing in his words and laughed as she slapped his hand away: "I'm the one who's complaining about you!"
"Ouch..." Yuanfang sat down on the brocade couch and nudged her shoulder with his arm. "Go on, do you really want to keep watch for me?"
However, before Le Jin could speak, he suddenly called out.
It turned out that the melted wax in the lamp had spilled out due to his movement and dripped onto his hand, causing a large red patch to appear.
Le Jin quickly took the lamp from his hand, got out of the quilt, and pushed him inside. Just as she was about to turn around and call for Sheng Yi and the others to come, Yuan Fang suddenly grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
"It's alright, they're all asleep, why bother waking them up and making things up again?"
He patted his soft bed and said to Le Jin as if showing off a treasure, "This bed is just right for two people, and it's more comfortable than you are outside, even with pillows between us."
"you……"
Le Jinren had already been pulled over by him, and knowing that he wouldn't do anything reckless, and also worried that she might catch a cold in the autumn and be unable to leave, she didn't linger for long, took off her shoes and socks and lay down inside.
Yuanfang was sleeping on the far side, and even through the pillow, he seemed afraid of crowding her, so he lay on his back with his arms crossed, looking rather restrained. When Le Jin looked at him, it seemed as if he was keeping watch over her.
She secretly chuckled at him, then hugged the blanket, turned her back, and went to sleep.
When she woke up, it was already bright daylight. Outside, the autumn rain seemed to be stopping but hadn't quite stopped, lingering like silk threads. Le Jin yawned and turned her head to see that Yuan Fang had already gotten up.
He was nowhere to be seen in his light blue Taoist robe; now he was wearing a sapphire blue brocade robe embroidered with pythons, a white jade belt, and his hair was gathered up with a pearl and gold crown. He sat on a chair, propping his head up with one hand and one long leg out to the side, looking very wealthy and dashing.
Le Jin looked at him and smiled, feeling dazed, thinking she was dreaming. "Are you Xuan Shengzi today? Are you the Seventh Prince?"
Upon hearing that she had woken up, Yuanfang hurriedly got up from his chair and sat anxiously by the bedside.
"Sudden news! Eunuch Zhao is taking me to the palace today. What should I do?"
Le Jin, still snuggled in the blanket, her voice slightly nasal from just waking up, said, "It's just that your father wants to see you. Just go unharmed."
"But... I promised you I'd finish the important business today. If I go to see Father Emperor now, it'll definitely be delayed, and besides..."
They hadn't seen each other for over ten years; though they were father and son, they were practically strangers.
He leaned against the headboard, feeling uneasy. Le Jin looked up at him and patted his bent knees. "It's okay. Just think of it as meeting a boss. If he laughs, you laugh; if he cries, you cry; if he speaks, you nod. There won't be any problems."
Yuanfang raised an eyebrow. "You can do that?"
"Um."
Le Jin answered easily, watching him leave the room as he pondered his words.
Compared to the reunion of father and son, her request could certainly be postponed.
Le Jin smelled the chill of autumn outside and suddenly felt a sense of satisfaction.
Let him get busy; she'll take a nap while the autumn rain falls.
Le Jin kicked the blanket to make it more comfortable, then wrapped herself in it, turned over, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
The rain outside was getting heavier, which sounded especially soothing.
Le Jin smiled and intended to sleep until noon, but suddenly felt a shiver run through her heart as the blankets were completely cold.
She sniffed.
There was a faint scent of sandalwood in the air.
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Author's Note: The next chapter will be a chaotic scene, haha!
Oh, by the way, Meng Shutai's nickname is "Bodhisattva," which is actually a historical Easter egg and foreshadows his fate and later plot developments. You guys can try to guess! [laughing emojis] I really love this setting! Hahahaha!
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