Chapter 94 Ascension: I won't bring you food, I'll kneel with you as punishment...
Guoniang helped Changsun Qingjing up and prepared to accompany her back to the inner room.
Changsun Qingjing waved his hand and said, "I'm going to take a walk in the back garden by myself. Guoniang, tell the gardener to slow down the waterwheel. The Three-Tiered Waterfall is too noisy! The fish and shrimp in the rapids must be deafened by it. The glazed tile roof of the Jumping Wave Pavilion was almost shaken down. It's even noisier than Lady Chen!"
Guoniang smiled knowingly and draped a cloak over Changsun Qingjing. She then jumped up, saluted the gardeners pruning the flowers and trees in the distance, pointed to the waterwheel, and slowly drew a circle in the air to indicate that Lady Chen had left and the prank could stop.
The roar of the waterfall gradually subsided into a gentle murmur, and Changsun Qingjing's resentment gradually subsided. She began to stroll along the Flowing Wine Stream...
When Li Shimin returned to his villa, it was past dawn. He was eager to share the interesting stories from his day at the Zhang and Li families with his eldest grandson, Qingjing. However, his wife neither read, spun, nor played chess, nor did she eagerly await his arrival.
He was worried that Changsun Qingjing would feel depressed and anxious alone at home, and feeling guilty, he quickly went to the garden to find her.
As A-Cai hurriedly followed Li Shimin, she slipped and fell on the Shazhou Bridge. She clearly remembered that the wooden bridge had dried up and cracked after a whole winter, and she had no idea where the harmful moss under her feet came from.
The lanterns on both sides of the Stream were all lit, and the flames flickered in the wind, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, like dancing and shy figures.
Changsun Qingjing knelt on the blue stone by the water, holding a gauze lantern, gazing at the leaping gold and jade fragments before him.
"Guanyinbi, I'm back!" Li Shimin ran to a gilded, multi-branched lantern and asked in surprise, "Other ladies carry lanterns to illuminate flowers and trees at night, what are you illuminating?"
Changsun Qingjing seemed afraid of missing some strange illusion in the stream, so he did not turn around. Instead, he held the plain gauze lantern in one hand, turned his right arm behind his back, and gently pressed down with his palm.
Li Shimin understood Changsun Qingjing's gesture, said no more, tiptoed to the water's edge, squatted down, and the two looked at the creature gently wriggling on the driftwood.
He took the lantern, stretched out his arm, and projected the light further so that Changsun Qingjing could see it more clearly.
The grasshopper secretly ran towards the travel-worn Ah Cai.
"How is it?" She was very interested in the country wedding that she couldn't attend.
“Perfect. We’ve met the bride and groom, the village elders, and everything is ready. Everyone truly believes that the groom is Li Fanniang’s cousin.” A-Cai boasted, “When I apply rouge and powder to Li Fanniang tomorrow, she will be radiant, as if reborn! What about you? You don’t look too well.”
"It's a long story, I'll tell you tonight."
After saying that, the two girls pursed their lips and suppressed a laugh.
"It came too early!" Changsun Qingjing frowned as he watched a black, ugly insect that had just struggled to escape from the stream wriggle and split open its back, revealing a faint blue light through the cracks, like a piece of raw jade being cut open, containing a brilliant inner light.
"It came too early, unaware that its fate was uncertain," Changsun Qingjing said sadly, her long, flowing hair brushing against Li Shimin's cheek.
He had always considered himself broad-minded and unattached to worldly things. Why then did his heart ache so much at this moment?
Changsun Qingjing's sorrow was quickly replaced by worry as he stared at the shimmering blue light shining through the crevice.
“That’s a dragonfly in the process of emerging from its shell.” She pointed to the struggling head. “Look, doesn’t it look like a dragon?”
Li Shimin chuckled to himself. A young dragonfly with a broad forehead and bulging eyes was clumsily and awkwardly struggling to break free from its old shell, gripping a piece of driftwood. How could it resemble one?
"It looks very similar." He said this insincerely, just to make her happy.
"Alas, it's still too cold. It misjudged the timing of its metamorphosis," Changsun Qingjing said regretfully, pointing to the shivering dragonfly.
The little insect had broken free from its murky old coat and now lay quietly on the dead wood. Its wings were too delicate to support it even a single step across.
"All things are created by nature, and life and death are uncertain," Li Shimin comforted. He moved the gauze lantern closer to the newly emerged dragonfly, as if the firelight and warmth could help this little insect, which glowed with a jade-like light and praised the heavens and earth, live a little longer in its untimely metamorphosis.
The tiny ripples in the Flowing Wine Stream began to increase, spreading out in one circle, two circles... overlapping, intersecting, and spreading outwards...
At first, Changsun Qingjing mistook it for a school of fish rushing to the surface, until the raindrops hit the silent, jade-like dragonfly.
The dragonfly trembled, yet stubbornly clung to its first resting place after coming ashore. Its tightly closed wings visibly unfurled and enlarged, reflecting the light and shadow of the entire pond.
"Erlang, my wife, it's raining," Guoniang called softly, not daring to disturb the two who were engrossed in their thoughts. So, faced with her unmoving lovers, Guoniang couldn't tell whether they were truly pretending to be deaf and dumb.
Li Shimin put down the gauze lantern and took off his cloak to make a rain canopy over Changsun Qingjing's head.
"What are they looking at?" A-Cai asked.
"Good heavens!" Guoniang stared blankly as Changsun Qingjing cupped his hands in the water and reached into the pond. "My lady, you don't mean to try and catch that hideous bug, do you?"
"She really went too far today! If this were at home, she would have been dragged back to her room to rest by her mother, who was yelling at her." Ah Cai was dumbfounded, completely unaware that her fluffy hair had become heavy and collapsed after being soaked by the rain.
Guoniang held the shawl above her head and then tossed the half of the brocade onto Acai's hair. It was the first time she had seen Changsun Qingjing watching the scorpion transform into a dragonfly like a country bumpkin, completely absorbed in his game. She couldn't quite get used to it and could only try to justify herself: "He was probably upset by someone during the day, so he's watching insects to pass the time."
Ah Cai nodded, pulled up her own shawl, and while waiting for the umbrella, she carefully observed the harmonious couple in the distance.
Changsun Qingjing placed the plain gauze lantern on a slightly uneven rock in the pond, bent down and approached the withered branch where the young dragonfly had perched, attempting to gather both of them, along with their old black shells, into her palm. Her skirt below the knees was already wet, but she was completely unaware.
Li Shimin held his breath and dared not act rashly, merely shielding Changsun Qingjing from his momentary obsession.
In an instant, the dragonfly's tightly folded wings spread out to its sides, the hard wing membranes shimmering like dragon scales, and its honeycomb-like eyes seemed to contain countless gauze lamps, shining like dragon eyes.
"Yes, you're right, dragonflies do resemble dragons," he thought to himself.
"Oh dear!" Changsun Qingjing exclaimed. As water splashed and the gauze lantern overturned, the startled dragonfly fluttered away, betraying Changsun Qingjing's good intention to take it in and keep it alive.
It brushed past the golden lotus base atop the twin lantern and soared straight into the sky. On this misty, rainy spring night, the newly emerged dragonfly possessed a mystical quality, like a dragon soaring through the clouds, its scales gleaming.
Looking at the empty shell in his hand, Changsun Qingjing sighed with regret, "I wonder how this dragonfly survived the spring chill? It's worrying."
“The earth sustains all things, and all living beings find their place. Since it has politely declined your kind offer, it must have found its own way.” Li Shimin smiled and said, “While you are sighing, it may have already found a suitable place to settle down.”
He draped his cloak over Changsun Qingjing's head, took her wet hand, and said, "Let's go, it's not good to attend the wedding if you're sick."
The two smiled at each other, then ran hand in hand across the bluestone bank, the sandbar bridge, the stone path, and the covered corridor, leaving behind a group of maids chasing after them with umbrellas.
"I have something to tell you."
"What's up?"
"I ran into my aunt on my way back to the villa today. She's definitely coming to cause you trouble."
"..."
"She recounted the past and the present to me. Such as being disobedient, acting on her own initiative, being swayed by personal feelings... In short, neither of us could convince the other."
"You all have conflicting accounts?"
"It's always been like this. If her parents didn't stop her, she would never win an argument with me! Are you alright?"
"I see." Changsun Qingjing understood everything. All her grievances vanished. She simply smiled and said, "The more prominent a family's social standing, the more eccentric their behavior and the more unsettling their kinship. I'll just treat today's unpleasantness as ginger and cinnamon in a delicious dish, or a thread in a fine garment. I'll pick it out, cut it off, and laugh it off."
The two stopped in front of Cuiwei Pavilion, where Changsun Qingjing lived, and simply listened to the rain, no longer mentioning Lady Chen's nitpicking.
"I have something funny to ask you." Li Shimin's eyes were bright, and his expression was unusually radiant.
How funny is it?
"If my aunt spreads rumors and ruins my reputation, and my father, out of consideration for his reputation, has to pretend to be angry and order me to go to the ancestral temple to apologize, will you bring me food from the ancestral temple?"
"Nonsense, where is there a Li family ancestral temple in Luoyang?"
"Thanks to my aunt, Father always locks me up alone to reflect on my mistakes in order to save face. I can't go anywhere then. Will you secretly come and bring me some fruit and drinks and keep me company?"
"I'm not coming," Changsun Qingjing playfully refused. "Why are you always thinking about food and drink?"
"You're so mean! I stood up for you, and you don't even care about me!"
Facing the astonished Li Shimin, Changsun Qingjing laughed and said, "I remember I spoke rudely and caused trouble. I'll definitely kneel down with you then, how can I possibly deliver food?"
A surge of immense joy filled Li Shimin. He couldn't help but lower his head, his lips brushing against Changsun Qingjing's forehead like a dragonfly skimming the water.
Of course, he would never forget the excruciating pain he felt from stepping on and twisting his foot in the mulberry grove the day before, so he couldn't help but move his foot a few inches away.
Changsun Qingjing stared at him in astonishment, as if he were in a dream woven from mist and rain.
"Please stay overnight, we'll talk again tomorrow morning." With that, the dazzled young man took advantage of the girl's momentary lapse in attention and decisively turned and ran outside.
The wet boots on the back of his feet caused a painful yet itchy sensation, like a dragonfly's wing brushing against his heart, making him tremble at the slightest touch.
Author's Note: A little sweetness here. In terms of providing emotional value, the inspiration for "I'll kneel with you as punishment" comes from the concept of "a righteous ruler and an upright minister," and the story of a love suicide with poison. Tell me, wouldn't Erfeng be moved? [Winking face]
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