"Do you like it?" Jiang Yan tilted his head slightly, pointing to the stone table beneath the tree. It was covered in a variety of sugar paintings. The most eye-catching was the Chinese character "锦" (brocade) meticulously crafted from sugar threads. Next to it sat a crooked sugar dragon, the very one I'd ruined at Zhang's last time. Though its shape wasn't particularly neat, it exuded a unique warmth and intimacy.
"A distinguished scholar, setting up a stall like a quack." My lips curled up slightly, and I gently kicked away the willow catkins at my feet. But I couldn't help but slowly approach the stone table. The two intertwined earthworm tails were skillfully coiled into loops, clearly imitating the double-loop silver hairpin I often wear in my hair. This meticulous attention to detail made my heart tremble slightly.
"Don't move." Jiang Yan suddenly leaned in gently, his warm breath brushing my earlobe like a spring breeze, carrying a faint scent of ink. That fragrance lingered at the tip of my nose, making my heart tremble. He pulled a hairpin from his sleeve. The tip of the hairpin was a budding sugar flower, and tiny sugar crystals were condensed on the petals. The crystal light shimmered in the moonlight, like dewdrops on lotus leaves in the morning, pure and beautiful. "I just made it under the tree, want to try it?"
The moment the sugar-flower hairpin gently slipped into my hair, a sweet fragrance instantly lingered in my nose, as if the entire world were immersed in this sweetness. I quietly gazed at the moonlight reflected in his eyes. That moonlight was like a clear spring, clear and bright. Suddenly, I remembered my lonely and helpless past life, and a mixture of emotions welled up in my heart. "Aren't you afraid of being caught and ruining your reputation?" I asked softly, a hint of worry in my voice.
"My reputation is not as important as you." Jiang Yan gently took my hand, his fingertips lightly tracing the calluses on my palm—marks left by years of wielding a pen, testament to my perseverance and hard work. He suddenly pulled a folded memorial from his sleeve and handed it to me. "Tomorrow morning, I will petition His Majesty to grant me a marriage." His eyes were firm and fiery, as if promising me a bright future.
The edges of the memorial still carried the fresh scent of ink. I slowly unfolded it and saw the words "Your Majesty, I beg Your Majesty to grant me a marriage with Su Jinli, the daughter of the Prime Minister." My heart skipped a beat, as if time had stopped at that moment. In the distance, the night watchman walked by with steady steps, beating a clapper. The "dong-dong-dong" sound echoed in the silent night, like the drumbeat of happiness. Jiang Yan suddenly and gently pulled me into his arms, his chin gently resting on the top of my head, his voice low and gentle: "Jinli, don't carry this alone anymore."
I lay quietly in his arms, listening to the steady, strong beat of his heart. It was like the most beautiful melody, soothing. Suddenly, I remembered the scene in the storybook where the heroine finally finds her true love, and my heart was filled with emotion and sweetness. My fingertips gently caressed the jade belt buckle beneath his blue shirt. It was the symbol of the newly crowned top scholar, but now it was imbued with the sweet fragrance of sugar painting, as if our love was as sweet and beautiful as this sugar painting.
"Let me make it clear first," I raised my head slightly, my eyes meeting his, the moonlight gently falling on the corners of his smiling eyes, "the sugar painting for the proposal has to be ten times more beautiful than these earthworms." I said playfully, with a happy light in my eyes.
Jiang Yan couldn't help but laugh. He picked up his bamboo flute and gently tapped the back of my hand, producing a clear and melodious sound, like the sound of nature. "As you wish, future Mrs. Jiang." His voice was filled with doting and tenderness, as if expressing endless love.
The candlelight from the sugar painting stall suddenly burst into a brilliant burst of light, casting our intertwined shadows clearly on the gnarled trunk of the old locust tree. I quietly gazed at myself as he saw me. The sugar flower hairpin at my temple trembled gently in the night breeze, its sweet fragrance mingling with the fragrance of lotus leaves drifting away, as if to transmit this sweetness to every corner of the world. Suddenly, I felt that the moonlight in this world was gentler than any storybook could describe. The grievances we had once experienced, transformed into gentle touches within the sweetness of the sugar paintings, became the most beautiful embellishment in our love story. On this dreamlike night, our love, like the brightest star in the night sky, shone brightly, illuminating each other's hearts.
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