Late spring sunlight filtered through the intertwined bamboo branches, casting coin-like specks of light across the bluestone slabs of the Yanglao Mountain Villa's martial arts arena. Su Jinli sat on a Xiangfei bamboo chair beneath a wisteria trellis, watching her granddaughter, Jiang Pan'er, in her brand new apricot-yellow outfit, leap and dart among the plum blossoms. The red silk tied to her soaring pigtails brushed against the rose branches, startling a few butterflies. The phosphorus on their wings shimmered like diamonds in the beam of light, dazzling the eyes along with the gold-threaded tiger embroidered on her apron.
"Grandma! Look at me!"
Pan'er's crisp, childish voice pierced the quiet of the courtyard. Like a nimble monkey, she leaped onto the highest, plum blossom-shaped pole, as thick as a bowl. Her skirt rose, revealing the multicolored auspicious cloud pattern embroidered on the lining. Su Jinli had the embroiderer add it specifically, hoping her granddaughter would be as happy as a phoenix among the clouds. Su Jinli jolted the white porcelain teacup in her hand, splattering the scalding Biluochun tea onto the crabapple-shaped saucer. The burn made her fingertips flinch, leaving a deep mark on the lotus pattern on the edge of the saucer.
"Slow down!" she urged loudly, the pearls on her red-gold and kingfisher-emerald hairpin clattering. "Don't be like your mother, who broke her arm climbing a tree as a child and whose knees are still afraid of rainy days!"
Jiang Yan sat across from her, slowly skimming off the tea foam with a silver spoon. The tea from the silver spout drew an amber arc in the white porcelain cup. "Follow Nianli," he said, gazing at his granddaughter's lithe figure. He recalled the sight of her hanging from the old locust tree at the prime minister's residence twenty years ago. Nianli had been just as unyielding then. "She fell from a bird's nest back then, and it was you who rubbed her with osmanthus ointment that injured her."
Before she could finish her words, a startled "Ouch!" pierced the air. The plum blossom pile beneath Pan'er's feet was lightly coated with dew. She stumbled and fell, the sleeve of her apricot-yellow dress brushing against the top. A gray sparrow perched on the rockery fluttered into flight, its tail feathers sweeping off a few newly sprouted bamboo leaves. Chen Yue lunged forward, the hem of his grass-green dress sweeping across the ground, leaving a trail of dust on the bluestone. He caught his daughter in his arms just before she hit the ground.
"Dad! Why did you pick me up just now?" Pan'er pouted, her face speckled with mud, and a strand of red silk in her hair had fallen loose, leaving her like a butterfly with a broken wing. She reached out to pluck the straw from Chen Yue's bun, which she had picked up when she was hiding from Nian Li.
Chen Yue made a bitter face and let his daughter fiddle with her hair. The copper hairpin on his bun swayed as he shook his head: "Dad was just watching your mother practicing sword and got distracted..."
"Distracted?" Nian Li's voice echoed from the moonlit doorway, the wooden sword in her hand still dripping with morning dew. She wore a half-worn dark green outfit. The tassel of the dagger at her waist swept across the creeper climbing the doorframe, startling a few drops of water, which left tiny wet marks on the blue bricks. "Chen Yue! How dare you be distracted while teaching your daughter? Look at the sword!"
The wooden sword slashed with a piercing sound. Chen Yue, holding Pan'er, dodged left and right, father and daughter weaving among the Taihu rocks. Pan'er giggled and patted her father's shoulder. The hem of her apricot-yellow dress brushed the moss in the cracks between the rocks, startling a series of silvery laughter that startled the parrot hanging in the porch and fluttered its wings, mimicking, "Look at the sword! Look at the sword!"
Su Jinli looked at the lively couple and shook her head helplessly, but a smile flickered in the corners of her eyes. Jiang Yan held her hand, his fingertips caressing the mutton-fat jade bracelet on her wrist. It was a relic left by her biological mother, worn by time and as smooth as spring water. "Don't worry about them. I'll show you something."
The two of them walked around a rockery piled with snow-capped rocks and stepped into a secluded bamboo forest. Dewdrops from last night still clung to the bamboo poles, refracting in the sunlight like a rainbow. They fell on Su Jinli's moon-white skirt like a handful of diamonds. Deep within the bamboo forest lay a thatched-roofed wooden house. A nanmu plaque hung above the door. The three bold, bold characters "Yi Xi Ju" were in Jiang Yan's own handwriting. The brushstrokes still carried the sharpness of those imperial examinations, though the edges had been smoothed by time.
"This is..." Su Jinli stroked the patina on the edge of the plaque, and her fingertips touched the old dust in the carvings. She suddenly remembered the thank-you letter that Jiang Yan had written after wearing out three wolf-hair brushes when he became the top scholar.
Jiang Yan pushed open the door, and the delicate aroma of sawdust, mixed with the scent of pine soot and ink, filled the room. The furnishings were simple: a rosewood desk and two Zen chairs. On the table, a Duan inkstone still held traces of wet ink. Next to it sat a paperweight inscribed with the characters "Jin Yan Tong Hui." The most striking feature was a meticulous painting on the wall. It depicted a sugar-painting stall at the western wall of the prime minister's residence. Su Jinli, a young woman in a blue dress, was tiptoeing to grab the sugar painting from the hands of Jiang Yan, dressed as a scholar. The sugar threads drew shimmering arcs in the twilight, and the boy's eyebrows and eyes gradually overlapped with Jiang Yan's, though his temples were now frosted.
"Do you remember?" Jiang Yan walked over to the painting, his fingertips hovering over the hem of the girl's skirt, where traces of sugar splashed there were still. "That year, when you came of age, you sneaked out of the house and insisted on stealing the phoenix I had just painted."
Su Jinli looked at her own angry expression in the painting and couldn't help laughing. The ruby pendant on her hairpin shone with a drop of blood. "It was you who stole my dragon! I saw the sugar-painting master scooping sugar first, and you still said my dragon looked like an earthworm..."
"Yes, yes, yes," Jiang Yan smiled and nodded. The silver hairpin in her hair gleamed in the dim light. It was the one she had made for him last year. "Later, seeing that you were so angry that your face turned red, I gave the Phoenix to you."
"Bah!" Su Jinli blushed, remembering the sugar painting master's hearty laughter. "It's obviously you who can't draw the phoenix well. The sugar thread broke three times!"
The two smiled at each other, as if transported back to that late spring evening. The scholar's features in the painting gradually overlapped with Jiang Yan's, though there was more frost at his temples and smile lines at the corners of his eyes. From outside, Nianli's voice called out, "Siyan! Don't give up! Mother's calling for dinner!" The chicks in the swallow's nest on the beam chirped and fluttered their featherless wings.
Jiang Yan walked to the desk and picked up a wolf-hair brush. The penholder was engraved with the words "Jin Yan" (Jin Yan), which Su Jinli had carved on the penholder when they got married. The penholder still bore the marks she had accidentally made while carving. "Jin Li, write a few words with me."
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