"You came here just for this?" Wei Qinglou waited for a while, then finally couldn't hold back and asked.
Zhu Jiayu had composed herself and looked at him calmly: "Yes."
After speaking, she turned her horse around and galloped away.
Wei Qinglou was stunned until her figure finally disappeared from sight, then he sadly let go and lowered the carriage curtain.
"Let's go," he instructed Shujian.
Song Baopu clicked his tongue: "Didn't you say we'd wait until after Chenshi (7-9 AM) to set off?"
Wei Qinglou's lips were straight: "Now that I think about it, I probably remembered the time wrong. It's still possible to set off now."
Seeing his dejected appearance, Song Baopu shook his head and laughed, "I'm afraid there wasn't an auspicious time at all from beginning to end, was there? Lord Wei, tell me, have you been waiting here for so long just to see that young lady from earlier?"
"No," Wei Qinglou replied, though his words didn't reflect his true feelings.
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Lord Wei," Song Baopu shook his head and smiled helplessly. "In my youth, I was quite the dashing and romantic young scholar; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that fruit filled my carriage wherever I went..."
It was rare for Wei Qinglou to hear him speak, so when he heard him talk about the past, he naturally asked, "And then?"
"Later, I also met a woman who was both beautiful and talented and treated me with gentleness and care. Unfortunately, at that time I did not realize my own feelings and always thought that we were just close friends. When we met again, my old friend had already married and had children. I could only sigh and regret that I had come too late to find her. The green leaves had grown into shade and the branches were full of fruit."
"Lord Wei is a man of great talent and handsome appearance. He must not follow in my footsteps..." Song Baopu sighed as he finished speaking, then, too lazy to deal with Wei Qinglou's next words, he closed his eyes and pretended to doze off.
As he expected, Wei Qinglou was somewhat confused and did not understand why he said that. But when he turned to ask him why, he found that Wei Qinglou had already closed his eyes, so he stopped trying to speak.
But I couldn't help but recall Zhu Jiayu's expression.
After he explained why he gave her the jade, she didn't seem very happy.
Although she always appears indifferent, there is still a difference between being happy and unhappy.
But why is she unhappy? Could it be because she doesn't like jade?
Ordinary women also wear sachets or tassels at their waists, but from the first moment he saw Zhu Jiayu, he felt that only white jade could complement her appearance and demeanor. As for the others, they were too vulgar and would seem like a desecration on her.
Fine, since she doesn't like it, he'll ask her what she likes next time they meet.
While he was pondering, the carriage had already left Heling City and headed towards Yujing.
Meanwhile, in Heling City, Zhu Jiayu, riding on horseback, still felt somewhat lost.
Looking back now, she was really too impulsive.
Originally, she thought that she should not have any more entanglements with Wei Qinglou. After all, she was not famous at the moment, while Wei Qinglou was clearly favored by the emperor. If they had more contact and entanglement, it would bring her trouble.
So when Wei Qinglou came to see her that day, in her heart, that conversation was already a parting gift.
The unexpected happened this morning when she woke up on her bed and saw the jade pendant on the windowsill.
She thought and thought, but she couldn't understand why Wei Qinglou would give her another jade pendant.
Even with her clear and open mind, she couldn't help but overthink things...
That's why she rode her horse to the city gate, wanting to find Wei Qinglou and get some answers.
Unexpectedly, Wei Qinglou only gave that one answer.
While she felt relieved, she also felt a strange sense of loss.
But she didn't quite understand why she felt so lost.
...
The weather was fine today, so Madam Qiu asked her nanny to push her to sit in the courtyard and bask in the sun for a while.
She closed her eyes slightly, feeling the warmth of the sunlight on her face. There was still a cool breeze at this time of year, and the nanny, fearing she would catch a cold, draped a thin gray-blue jacquard velvet blanket over her.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves, making her full head of white hair shimmer with a subtle silver light.
"How's the matter I gave you going?" she asked lazily, her voice so weak it sounded like she had no energy.
The old woman stood respectfully to the side, bowing her head, and said, "As you instructed, we have found shrewd merchants to open embroidery workshops in Heling and Suiping. In time, the Zhu family's embroidery workshops will surely suffer a great blow."
The merchants she recruited were all truly capable. They had an exceptional business acumen and had managed to revive businesses on the verge of collapse several times. With them around, Miss Biao would likely be overwhelmed with problems for a long time, and in the end, she would have no choice but to obey the old lady's orders and obediently marry into the capital.
"Alright." Old Madam Qiu slowly opened her eyes. The sunlight was blinding, so she quickly closed them again and sighed silently. "Do you think I'm heartless?"
The old woman smiled and said, "When you were still in your maiden's quarters, I was by your side. Others may not understand you, but I do. There is no one in the world more kind-hearted than you."
She spoke sincerely, without a hint of flattery, and in fact, that was what she truly thought.
She was born into poverty and was sold by her mother to the Lin family to work as a maid. At that time, she was thin and weak, but as servants, no one would pity or be kind to her just because she was thin and weak.
She was only seven or eight years old at the time, but she had to do laundry and sweeping all day long, just like her older sisters who were in their teens and twenties. While her sisters could fetch two buckets of water, she could only fetch half a bucket. Looking back now, she realizes that life was indeed very hard back then.
But she was forever grateful for that experience. If it weren't for that experience, the young lady who had mistakenly wandered into the backyard would not have seen her washing clothes, felt pity for her, taken her in, and saved her from her misery.
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