Chapter 93
As night deepened, frost and snow covered the courtyard, and the red camellias, unable to draw light, lost their vibrant colors among the flowers.
When Meng Jing came out of the hot spring, her clothes, which she had just changed into, were covered in snow again. Her heart was still aching, and she dared not take big steps as she walked. As she passed the long corridor, she noticed a blurry figure sitting at the end of the corridor, as if being blown by the cold wind.
"It's late at night, what are you doing sitting here?" Meng Jing pulled his outer robe tighter, his pale face hidden in the dim light, looking somewhat haggard.
"Having nothing to do," Yin Qiu leaned against the railing, glancing at Meng Jing upon hearing this, "I'll admire the flowers for a while."
Meng Jing turned her head and saw that the camellias in the courtyard had all become a blurry black shadow. She immediately understood what was going on. She coughed twice, sat down next to Yin Qiu, and said, "Something on your mind?"
The evening breeze was cool, and Yin Qiu still had Man Jiangxue's brocade robe draped over her shoulders. The fragrance of the robe overpowered the scent of flowers, as if Man Jiangxue was there with her. Yin Qiu paused for a moment and shook her head: "I don't have anything on my mind. I just took a nap in the dungeon during the day, so I'm not very sleepy right now."
"How are you doing in prison?" Meng Jing asked. "Fortunately, the case has been solved. Even if the murderer is dead, the government won't have to worry about failing to deliver. Otherwise, I really wouldn't have been confident that I could get you out this time."
Yin Qiu had already heard Duan Ning tell her what she had done at the Duan family's house on the way back to the post station. Yin Qiu smiled, folded her hands and leaned on the wooden railing, saying, "I'm fine, but you are. Your health is not good to begin with, yet you still insist on running around for me. What if something happens to you?"
Meng Jing sat upright, looking refined and elegant, with a scholarly air. She looked at Yin Qiu's gentle profile and said softly, "I know my own body well, you don't need to worry."
"I heard that Senior Sister Lu fainted," Yin Qiu turned her head to look at her, "You haven't visited her since you came back. Now that you have nothing to do, why don't you go and see her?"
Meng Jing glanced at the sky, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Let's go tomorrow. He's probably still asleep, so there's no point in going. I've already asked Bai Ling to look after him for me."
Yin Qiu smiled and teased her, "If it were when you were a child, you would definitely stay by Senior Sister Lu's bedside without leaving her side, not sleeping all night, crying and waiting for her to wake up."
Upon hearing this, Meng Jing couldn't help but show a hint of embarrassment. She cleared her throat and said, "You said it yourself, that was when I was a child. Now that I'm all grown up, and no one knows I'm a girl, it's not convenient for me to cling to her like before. I still need to avoid suspicion when necessary."
“That makes sense,” Yin Qiu agreed, but then seemed to remember something and asked Meng Jing, “Hey, can I ask you something?”
"What is it?"
"If Senior Sister Lu is to get married in the future, will you go to her wedding?"
"Of course I have to go."
"What if you're too busy with official duties to go?"
“I have to go no matter how busy I am,” Meng Jing said. “It’s my wedding day. No official business is as important as my senior sister. How can I use official business as an excuse to skip it?”
After hearing her words, Yin Qiu remained silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Indeed, I would have done the same."
Meng Jing looked at her: "Why are you asking this? Is it because Senior Sister Lu... has someone she likes?"
Yin Qiu said, "No, I was just asking." After saying that, she hesitated for a while, "Then if... if you absolutely refuse to attend Senior Sister Lu's wedding, what would be the reason?"
Meng Jing thought for a moment and replied, "If it's to the point where she absolutely refuses to go... given my temperament, unless Senior Sister Lu has entrusted herself to the wrong person and she's determined to marry him, then I'm very likely to hold a grudge against her and deliberately not go."
Yin Qiu slightly raised her eyes.
Man Jiangxue once said that she and Xie Yijun and others had long seen that Yin Xuan was not a good person, so they tried to persuade Shen Mandong with kind words several times. However, Shen Mandong was stubborn and insisted on marrying Yin Xuan, and would not listen to anyone's advice.
Could it be that my uncle, like Meng Jing, refused to participate in the wedding because he was angry?
But this was just Meng Jing's personal action. Judging from her uncle's temperament, she didn't seem to be the type to act this way.
"Anything else?" Yin Qiu asked again, "Besides this."
"Others?" Seeing her serious question, Meng Jing also thought about it seriously. Finally, he chuckled and said, "Then there is only one last possibility left. It is that Senior Sister Lu's sweetheart is also my sweetheart. If the two of them get married, there is absolutely no way I can attend to congratulate them in person. Just thinking about it makes me feel bad."
Yin Qiu raised one eyebrow, a strange look on her face.
If that's the case...
That would be utterly absurd.
"No way..." Yin Qiu's eyes widened in astonishment, and she murmured unconsciously, "How could my martial uncle possibly like my father...?"
"What?" Fortunately, she spoke too softly, and Meng Jing did not hear what she said.
Yin Qiu hesitated for a moment, then quickly asked again, "Are there any other reasons?"
Meng Jing scrutinized her for a moment, wondering why Yin Qiu was so fixated on this, but she didn't ask further. She simply continued to ponder, saying, "Then... how about changing my beloved to Senior Sister Lu?" She seemed a little embarrassed at this point, quickly glancing at Yin Qiu, "If the person I love is Senior Sister Lu, and she's getting married to someone else, I might not be there either..."
This is even more absurd.
How could my martial uncle possibly like my mother?!
But once this question arose in her mind, and recalling Man Jiangxue's various reactions after mentioning Shen Mandong, Yin Qiu's expression stiffened again.
Wait a minute... What if my martial uncle really likes my mother?
Because she liked him and cared about him, she used her busy work schedule as an excuse not to attend the wedding when she learned that her mother was going to marry a man she didn't like.
It's a certainty that Man Jiangxue dislikes Yin Xuan, but whether she likes Shen Mandong is unknown.
"So... let's assume for now that you like Senior Sister Lu," Yin Qiu said, somewhat stunned, before asking, "A year after your marriage, Senior Sister Lu became pregnant. When she's about to give birth, will you go to visit her?"
Meng Jing was perceptive and noticed that Yin Qiu's expression was unusual, but she still didn't ask. Instead, she went along with Yin Qiu's words and said, "If I were still in love with Senior Sister Lu at that time, and she wanted to have a child for another man, I... probably wouldn't have gone either."
Yin Qiu's eyelashes trembled slightly, and after a long silence, she finally said, "Is that so..."
“Actually, the person you want to ask isn’t me,” Meng Jing said hesitantly. “Why don’t you ask the person you really want to ask?”
Yin Qiu paused, glanced at Meng Jing, and hesitated for a moment before saying, "But that person seems unwilling to tell me."
"You want to know who he likes?" Meng Jing asked.
“It wasn’t originally like that…” Yin Qiu frowned, “but after hearing what you said, I really do want to know.”
Meng Jing's gaze towards Yin Qiu shifted slightly in an instant. She tightened her grip on the handkerchief, and after a moment, she asked again, "Is he your senior brother from the palace?"
Yin Qiu was slightly taken aback, but quickly realized what she meant. She smiled sheepishly and said, "No, it's not what you think."
“That is…” Meng Jing didn’t want to ask any further, but for some reason he ended up asking.
“It’s nothing,” Yin Qiu sighed softly. “I was just asking casually, I didn’t mean anything by it.”
She lied, and Meng Jing could tell.
A cold snowflake landed on her fingertip, quickly melting away in the warmth, leaving only a negligible dampness. Meng Jing looked away, sitting upright facing the dim wall. She remained silent for a long time before finally speaking, "Yin Qiu, if you ever find someone you love, remember to let me know."
Yin Qiu was in a state of complicated emotions when she heard these words and was stunned for a moment.
“I’ll help you choose,” Meng Jing said, looking at the ground where two shadows were close together. “I grew up surrounded by boys, so I don’t really understand girls’ thoughts, but I do understand boys’ thoughts to some extent.”
Hearing her words, Yin Qiufu laughed again: "How righteous, Senior Brother Meng."
Meng Jing still didn't look at her, but a faint smile appeared on her face as she lowered her head.
·
Man Jiangxue changed her clothes, walked out from behind the screen, and went to the table to touch the food box on the table.
Although the warmth was still there, it was already getting a bit cold. Just as she was about to push the door open and go out, she heard a series of light footsteps coming from the corridor outside. Then she heard the door next door open and then close again.
The charcoal brazier under the window was already icy cold from the snowflakes that had seeped in, and the room was filled with chill. Man Jiangxue stood by the door for a while, and when she heard no movement from the next room, she reached out and pushed the door open, and slowly walked to the tightly closed wooden door.
She raised her hand and knocked lightly on the door three times.
Soon, the door opened, and Yin Qiu stood in the doorway, looking somewhat surprised: "Uncle-Master...you're still awake at this hour?"
“Don’t you know I’m not asleep?” Man Jiangxue said.
The candlelight in her room was still clearly on.
Yin Qiu avoided eye contact, about to make up an excuse, when Man Jiangxue suddenly grabbed her wrist and led her back to the room next door.
Upon seeing the food box on the table, with clean bowls and chopsticks, Yin Qiu's heart stirred. She then remembered that Man Jiangxue had not eaten today, so she quickly opened the food box and said while setting out the dishes, "Uncle-Master, it's so late, why don't you know to eat?"
Man Jiangxue said, "That's a question for you. I've been waiting for you in the room for half a day. Where have you been?"
I didn't even bother to greet her when I got back.
Sensing a hint of complaint in Man Jiangxue's words, Yin Qiu found it amusing, served Man Jiangxue some rice, and said, "I'm here now, aren't I?"
“I invited you here,” Man Jiangxue said. “If I hadn’t come to you just now, were you planning to take a break?”
Yin Qiu feigned innocence and said in a soft voice, "Uncle, please don't wrong me. I was planning to come see you later. Besides, you didn't invite me; you dragged me here."
Man Jiangxue said, "You're so quick-witted, it's even harder to criticize you now."
Yin Qiu laughed out loud, piled a bunch of food on Man Jiangxue's plate, and said in a serious tone, "The sect leader once told you not to scold me when you eat, but you seem to have forgotten. Every time you scold me at the table, my appetite diminishes. You're deliberately trying to prevent me from eating properly."
Man Jiangxue said coldly, "Well, I see you're enjoying your meal quite a bit."
Yin Qiu, her mouth stuffed full of rice, chuckled again upon hearing this: "I have to thank my martial uncle for this. I've gotten used to it all these years," she said, pointing to her ear with her free hand, "I've mastered the skill of letting things go in one ear and out the other."
Upon hearing this, Man Jiangxue's lips curved slightly, and she stopped arguing with Yin Qiu. Looking at Yin Qiu's smile, her chopsticks suddenly froze slightly.
Noticing that Man Jiangxue's gaze lingered on her for a long time, Yin Qiu looked up at her, her eyes filled with confusion: "What's wrong?"
Man Jiangxue glanced at her, paused, and said, "Eat first."
Upon hearing this, Yin Qiu knew that Man Jiangxue must have something to say to her, so she focused on eating. The two finished their meal in tacit silence and then turned to face each other in perfect understanding.
After a long period of staring at each other, neither of them took the initiative to speak.
A cold wind swirled in the room. Man Jiangxue sat with her back to the window, blocking most of the cold wind. When Yin Qiu saw that her long hair was slightly disheveled by the wind, she got up and closed the small window.
Before Yin Qiu could turn around, she heard Man Jiangxue's voice behind her: "There were some things we didn't finish saying outside earlier."
Yin Qiu subtly raised her eyelashes, turned around slowly, and quietly said, "Is Martial Uncle still willing to talk now?"
The window was closed, but a slight breeze still lingered in the room, causing the lamp on the table to sway gently. The dim yellow light shone on Man Jiangxue's face, making her eyes appear somewhat dim and uncertain.
Yin Qiu rarely saw a hesitant expression on Man Jiangxue's face.
That hesitant, unsure how to begin expression was something Yin Qiu had only ever seen Man Jiangxue exhibit in all the years they had known each other, when she mentioned her mother.
In the past, she wouldn't have had any other thoughts. However, after her previous conversation with Meng Jing and now seeing Man Jiangxue's hesitant expression, Yin Qiu had no choice but to keep those ideas to herself.
After another long silence, Yin Qiu sighed and said, "Although I don't know why you're having trouble bringing this up, since you're hesitant to ask, why don't I ask you and you answer truthfully? How about that?"
Man Jiangxue poured herself a cup of tea, held it in her hand, but didn't drink it.
Yin Qiu clenched her fists, organized her thoughts, and said, "If it were me, no matter which senior sister in the palace was getting married, as long as I received an invitation, I would drop everything to go and offer my congratulations. Although you always keep your distance from others, you are not a cold-hearted person. You didn't go to my mother's wedding or when she gave birth. Was it because... you were holding someone back?"
A cold, eerie light shimmered around the rim of the cup, and Man Jiangxue's gaze fell upon it. After a moment, she nodded.
Seeing her action, Yin Qiu's fingers curled slightly, and she continued, "Even if my uncle has a prejudice against my father, you have a close relationship with my mother. You shouldn't refuse to attend just because of my father. So, my uncle is actually not going because of my mother, right?"
Man Jiangxue frowned slightly, but after a moment she nodded.
"Why?" Yin Qiu stared at her, her voice unconsciously becoming lower.
This time, Man Jiangxue did not give any response.
Yin Qiu waited for a while, but still didn't receive a reply from Man Jiangxue. She finally mustered her courage and asked, "I once asked my martial uncle if he had someone he liked, and he told me then that you didn't..."
Upon understanding the meaning behind her words, Man Jiangxue's eyes immediately showed a hint of surprise.
Yin Qiu then added, "Did my martial uncle... do he...?"
She had barely begun to speak when Man Jiangxue suddenly interrupted her, saying, "You're overthinking it. My relationship with my senior sister is purely fraternal; there's nothing more."
Upon hearing what she said, Yin Qiu was first taken aback, then a hint of joy inexplicably spread across her face. She said with a mixture of surprise and doubt, "I... I've thought of many possibilities, but in the end, I just think this one is the most reasonable."
"Reasonable?" Man Jiangxue seemed speechless, and finally put down her teacup. "You think your guess is reasonable?"
Noticing the faint anger and coldness on that face, Yin Qiu's heart skipped a beat. She hurriedly grabbed Man Jiangxue's hand, half complaining and half coaxing her, "Who made you hesitate, Uncle? This question has been on my mind for so many years. I have to think about it. If you don't want to see my mother get married because you like her, it's not unreasonable."
"Who taught you to think like that?" Man Jiangxue looked helpless. "Nonsense."
"Then why is that?" Yin Qiu asked dejectedly. "I'm so worried."
"You really want to know?" Man Jiangxue said.
“Of course,” Yin Qiu held onto her hand tightly, “Nangong Min said that Martial Uncle deliberately refused to go, and she also said… she also said that the Ruyi Gate incident was inextricably linked to Martial Uncle…”
Man Jiangxue looked at her with a worried expression and sighed softly, "So, it's because you doubt me?"
Yin Qiu immediately said, "No way! How could I doubt my martial uncle?"
“In a sense, what Nangong Min said is not entirely false,” Man Jiangxue said. “If I had promised to visit my senior sister when she gave birth to you, perhaps the Ruyi Sect would not have been in trouble.”
At least the casualties wouldn't be so severe, and Shen Mandong might not have disappeared.
Yin Qiu bit her lip and fell silent.
"I can't tell you the reason right now," Man Jiangxue released Yin Qiu's hand, her snow-white dress reflecting the shadow of the oil lamp. "I can only say that I have no improper thoughts about my senior sister. As for the rest, perhaps one day you will find out, but I hope that you will find out by yourself, rather than me telling you."
Yin Qiu looked dazed and remained silent for a long time before saying, "Alright, then I'll ask my martial uncle another question."
Man Jiangxue finished the cup of tea on the table and said, "Ask away."
Yin Qiu said, "Does the fact that my martial uncle can't explain it in person mean that I might not be able to accept it if I find out?"
Man Jiangxue swirled her teacup, paused for a moment, and said, "Perhaps."
Yin Qiu then asked, "Will it affect the relationship between me and my martial uncle?"
Man Jiangxue's eyelashes fluttered slightly, but she still replied, "Perhaps," she paused, then added, "but the decision is yours."
Although she understood that Man Jiangxue must have her reasons for not revealing the truth, Yin Qiu still hadn't gained any useful information from these two conversations today, and even her own guesses had been completely overturned. It was hard for Yin Qiu not to feel frustrated. After sulking for a while, she couldn't help but say resentfully, "Uncle-Master is so annoying!"
Seeing that Yin Qiu was throwing a tantrum, Man Jiangxue breathed a sigh of relief. She put her arm around Yin Qiu's waist, pulled her onto her lap, and said softly, "Alright, don't be angry. Your aunt will take you to the market to buy candy tomorrow."
As soon as Yin Qiu sat on Man Jiangxue's lap, she froze uncontrollably, and her little temper vanished instantly.
Since she grew up a bit, Man Jiangxue has rarely hugged her like this, and Yin Qiu herself has also learned to be polite and proper over time, no longer clinging to Man Jiangxue anytime and anywhere like she did when she was a child.
The last time Yin Qiu was held like this was last year on her birthday. Xie Yijun fed her a few bites of wine, but she only tasted it a few times and didn't really understand the flavor. Not long after, she collapsed onto the table and had Man Jiangxue carry her back to her room.
Unfortunately, Yin Qiu did not remember the process of Man Jiangxue hugging her; she only learned about it later from Ye Zhilan.
The little girl who could be completely encircled in his arms back then is now too big to be held on his lap. At this moment, Yin Qiu suddenly realized more deeply that she had indeed grown up. Man Jiangxue was still patiently coaxing her. Yin Qiu carefully turned her head and looked at Man Jiangxue's face so close to hers. Her heart skipped a beat.
Feeling her cheeks flush instantly, Yin Qiu secretly blushed, lowered her eyes, and said, "I'm not angry... I wouldn't be angry with my martial uncle..."
Man Jiangxue smiled slightly and looked at her, saying, "Your ears are all red with anger, and you still say you're not angry?"
Yin Qiu blushed and hurriedly stood up, saying, "No way..."
She calmly cleared the table, then noticed that Man Jiangxue was still watching her. She picked up the food box and headed towards the door, saying, "I'm not going to chat with my uncle anymore. I'm so tired today, I'm going to sleep."
After she finished speaking, without waiting for Man Jiangxue's reaction, she pushed open the door and fled in panic.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
