Jiang Songyi's ears felt slightly hot. Last month, Yu Huanshen had queued up to buy a storybook for her, and the censor had caught him and reported the story as "wandering on pleasure and losing ambition." Now that Xia Miao was accompanying the emperor in the Eastern Palace, she'd been spared this embarrassment.
The morning bell rang, and the carriages set off. Jiang Qingmo chased the carriage for half the street, the tinkling of the silver bells on his wrists lost in the autumn breeze. Jiang Songyi lifted the curtain and looked back to see Xu still standing on the stone steps, the golden hairpins in her hair shimmering like tiny dots in the morning sun.
…
Outside the corridor, bamboo shadows danced. Bai Linxi rested her chin on her hand, gazing at her playful sisters, her fingertips unconsciously caressing the celadon teacup. Suddenly, a ginkgo leaf floated in through the window and landed on her cuff, which was embroidered with a golden finch.
"If I had a sister..." Before she could finish her words, Jiang Qingmo came bounding over, her pomegranate skirt lifted. Her round cheeks flushed from running, and the silver butterflies in her hair trembled with her movements. "Sister Xi, are you confused? Aren't the three of us your real sisters?" As she spoke, she stood on tiptoe, and her arms, like lotus root nodes, just reached the top of Bai Linxi's head.
Bai Linxi laughed as she watched the little girl's heels lift off the ground. She gently pressed down on Jiang Qingmo's head and, with a little force, pushed her back to the ground. "I'm afraid our Sister Mo wouldn't even be able to reach the peddler's basket of candied haws."
"Sister Xi is so mean!" Jiang Qingmo stamped her brocade embroidered shoes, the silver bells on her wrists jingling. Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of Jiang Jinzhao passing by in the corridor. Her eyes rolled, "Second brother, come and judge!"
Jiang Jinzhao's fingers gripping the jade flute suddenly tightened. Through the carved window lattice, he saw Jiang Songyi playing with a gilded horsewhip, the red coral hairpin in her hair gleaming in the sunlight—it was a birthday gift he had brought from the Western Regions.
A loud neigh echoed from the stable. Bai Linxi's beloved horse, Zhao Yebai, was trotting at the trough, its jet-black mane billowing like a dark cloud in the wind. Jiang Songyi reached out to stroke the horse's neck when she suddenly heard the rustling of hay behind her.
"This one's more docile." The mare Jiang Jinzhao brought over lowered her head to nibble on alfalfa, the white spots on her forehead looking like falling snow. His fingertips were still stained with the ink from the academy, and as he handed the reins, his sleeve brushed against the red rope around Jiang Songyi's wrist—the peace knot he had tied himself during the Lantern Festival the previous year.
Jiang Songyi took a half step back, and the hem of her skirt embroidered with gold honeysuckle swept across the haystack: "Second Young Master has a bad memory? The word 'Yao' is still engraved on this saddle." She turned and walked towards the innermost stable, and her red cloak startled a few pecking sparrows.
Jiang Jinzhao stared at his empty palm, suddenly remembering that rainy night three years ago. Ten-year-old Jiang Songyi had come to him, clutching a soaked rabbit-hair brush, saying she wanted to copy his "The Goddess of the Luo River." Now, the black horse she had chosen was neighing with its head held high, its iron hooves kicking up dust.
"Be careful!" He instinctively reached out to help, but was startled to death by Jiang Songyi's swift leap onto the horse. As the girl whipped her horse, her hair brushed his nose, carrying the faint scent of agarwood—the very spices he'd sent from Lingnan the previous year.
Zhao Yebai suddenly stood up. Bai Linxi smiled and tightened the reins, "Good girl, I know you're anxious to get to the pasture." She turned to look at Jiang Songyi, the sunlight reflecting off the silver harness, casting tiny golden rays. "Would you like to compete? Which is faster, your Wuyun Treading Snow, or my Zhao Yebai?"
Suddenly, the sound of hurried horse hooves echoed outside the stables. Jiang Jinzhao watched the two riders gallop away, and his grandmother's words from the previous day suddenly rang in his ears: "Why do you think Yuyao always wears Songyi's old clothes? That girl has already cut up all the new Shu brocade..."
The autumn wind rustled across the pasture, and Jiang Songyi leaned against the horse's back. As the horse's mane brushed against the back of her hand, she suddenly remembered the rouge Jiang Jinzhao had given her on her coming-of-age day—hidden at the bottom of the box was a piece of gold-sprinkled paper with the inscription "Yao Tiao Shu Nu." Thinking about it now, the handwriting was strikingly similar to the "Instructions for Women" hanging in Jiang Yuyao's room.
"Watch out for the branches!" Bai Linxi's exclamation jolted her out of her thoughts. Jiang Songyi yanked on the reins, and as the black horse's hooves rose, she heard the crisp sound of coral beads falling from her hair. Seventeen red beads tumbled into the grass, resembling the agate forbidden step that Jiang Yuyao had shattered that year.
By the time they returned home, dusk had fallen. Jiang Jinzhao waited by the flower-draped gate, holding a brocade box. Inside, the brand-new Dongzhu earrings glowed softly. Jiang Songyi walked past without glancing, the only remaining coral hairpin in her hair drawing a crimson arc under the lantern.
From deep within the stable came the sound of a mare's sniff. Jiang Jinzhao gazed at the scattered alfalfa on the ground and suddenly noticed tears in the corners of the docile pony's eyes—just like the tears Jiang Songyi had quickly wiped away before turning around during last year's winter hunt when she discovered the fox fur he had given Jiang Yuyao.
The scent of hay wafted from the stables beside the training grounds. The chestnut horse Jiang Jinzhao had brought was nibbling from its feed trough. Jiang Dinglian stood in the shade, his hands behind his back. Seeing his eldest son's frustrated expression, the corners of his mouth curled up unconsciously.
"If you ask me, any horse in this stable is better than the one Brother Jiang brings." Bai Linxi swung the tasseled bridle on her corset, her fingers tracing the wooden fence. "Look at that black cloud horse, its hooves treading the snow, and that blue horse is also very energetic." She suddenly turned and winked at Jiang Songyi. "But the most important thing is whether we like each other."
Jiang Songyi's eyes swept across the herd of horses and suddenly stopped at one spot: "That pure white one."
When the horse slave untied the reins, Jiang Jinzhao's brows were twisted into knots: "Yanzhi has a very fierce temper, except for father and third brother." The words were stuck in his throat before they were finished - he watched his sister climb onto the horse nimbly, and the usually irritable white horse actually shook its mane meekly.
Bai Linxi pulled the reins and turned back: "Brother Jiang just said he was trying to control the horse, what's wrong?"
Jiang Jinzhao's ears burned. The memory of him being thrown to the ground by that beast a few days ago, leaving his arm swollen for half a month, felt like a branding iron stuck in his throat. His father's hoarse laughter echoed from behind him: "He almost broke his arm last time."
"It's a pity it wasn't broken." Jiang Songyi's thoughts drifted past, and Jiang Jinzhao felt as if he had been hit in the chest by a club again.
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