Chapter 22 Farewell to the Years (Part 10) Surprise, confusion...
"Wei Yuanzhan, Wei Yuanzhan!"
The sudden sound pulled him back to reality. He turned his head to look and saw Song Zhirou leaning halfway over the desk, tossing a cloth bag into his palm.
"I forgot to give it to you last time." Zhi Rou remembered the distant atmosphere between him and her third sister last night, and lowered her voice slightly, "It's made of yellow earth, it won't hurt anyone."
Wei Yuanzhan took it in his palm and squeezed it. He opened it and saw that it really was a pile of round mud balls. A helpless smile appeared on his lips. Didn't he say he didn't play with these things?
Instead of throwing it back to her, he searched his clothes and tossed the crabapple that Wei Mingying had given him that morning onto Song Zhirou's desk: "A return gift."
"What is it?" Zhi Rou imitated him and weighed it in her hand. It was round, and when she opened it, she found several bright red crabapples.
Just as she was about to take one out to try, Song Qizhang suddenly turned his back, glanced at her hand, and said in a low voice, "The slingshot you asked me to buy last time wasn't for Cousin Wei, was it?"
As she spoke, she glanced at Wei Yuanzhan twice, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.
Since his falling out with his elder brother, this cousin, the heir apparent, has rarely visited the Song residence. They hadn't believed him when he said he was coming to study at the family school. Now, seeing his cousin Wei and fourth sister so close, something felt off.
“Yes,” Zhi Rou said. “Does Second Brother want some?” She handed over the fruit.
Song Qizhang paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "No need, you eat."
In the following days, Song Hanjin's attitude towards Zhirou seemed to improve. Although she was still cold and indifferent, they would nod to each other and greet each other, unlike before when she treated Zhirou as if she didn't exist.
Soon, the date for the Spring Festival banquet was set for the fourth day of the second lunar month, giving Zhi Rou another opportunity to go out of the mansion to play.
"Mother, don't you really want to go out for a walk?" She nestled next to Lin He and complained softly, "You stay in your room reading all day and never leave this courtyard. What's the point..."
Lin He's eyebrows curved slightly: "Do you think your mother is like you, a mischievous monkey?"
Zhi Rou pouted, jumped off the long couch, and walked to the window to look at the moon. After a moment, she turned around, carefully examined Lin He's face, and abruptly asked, "Mother, will Father come to see you?"
As if sensing something, Lin He was slightly taken aback, then gently furrowed her brow: "Why are you asking this?"
Zhi Rou interlaced her fingers and tapped them together, but did not answer.
When she first arrived at the Song family mansion and learned that she actually had a father, she was very sad.
Her mother had lied to her so many times that she had long since stopped asking about "father." Anyway, she knew that her mother was the most important person to her in this world, and as for the others, well, they didn't matter.
Until her mother said that Master Song was her father.
She was furious. Perhaps out of spite, she arrogantly thought that those who left them so easily weren't worth her grief. She would listen to her mother; her mother wanted her to settle down here, and she would do so so as not to worry her mother.
Looking back, she hadn't done too badly, and even had a lot of fun, but thinking about her mother... her mother wasn't quite the same as before.
Back in Luoyang, although Mother didn't like going out much, she was mostly happy. Now that she's at the Song residence, Mother is confined to the Osmanthus Garden and speaks less. Is Mother still happy?
Zhi Rou's voice lowered: "My father rarely comes to see me. I feel... he doesn't like me, so he doesn't want to..."
"Don't talk nonsense again." Lin He interrupted her somewhat displeasedly, but her tone was gentle and without any sense of blame.
“A couple of days ago, your father came to tell me that Mr. Zhou praised your calligraphy. He was very pleased and even specially sent someone to find several calligraphy works by Zhao Mengfu, which he plans to give to you in the next few days. How could he not like you?”
"Really? Father came?" Zhi Rou raised her eyebrows.
"real."
Zhi Rou looked at her for a moment, then smiled again: "That's great!"
She turned her attention to something else, her eyes sparkling: "Then I'll give one to my second brother, so he won't keep asking me to go fishing! The weather's so bad, I don't want to get wet."
Sparks crackled and popped in the charcoal brazier. This spring was unusually cold. The Song family withstood the biting wind, but someone in the Yining Marquis's residence fell ill.
Before dawn, Madam Xu, the second wife, had already gotten up and stared at the name card in her hand for a long time.
Yesterday, Madam Jiang visited our residence and mentioned Xu Yueqing. It seems that she attended a banquet in the palace a few days ago, and because she wore too thin clothing, she collapsed as soon as she returned home and has been bedridden for days.
She and Xu Yueqing were sisters after all; if one of them fell ill, the other would always go to visit her.
So she made up her mind to tell her about it when her children came to pay their respects. It just so happened that the family school was on holiday, so she thought she would bring her two children along, so that the children could complete the proper etiquette.
The only annoying thing is Fourth Sister.
When Fourth Sister arrived, Song Congzhao was also there. Fearing that he might think she was being unfair as a mother, he had no choice but to endure it and bring her along as well.
The golden light outside was dazzling. Wei Yuanzhan walked quickly along the winding covered walkway. Before his legs could even reach the bottom of the steps, he heard a voice behind him: "You just got back. Where are you going again?"
He stopped in his tracks, half-turned around, and looked at Wei Mingying, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, like a slippery fish: "Last time I asked you to come with me to find Banban, but you left me behind. Now that my aunt and cousins are visiting my mother, aren't you going to sit with me?"
"I have something to do," he said succinctly.
"What could you possibly be up to?" Wei Mingying glanced at him. "Besides practicing martial arts, you're always fighting cocks and dogs with that Sheng family brat. Let me remind you, Mother hates seeing you act like a spoiled brat."
The last sentence, when it reached Wei Yuanzhan's ears, was not a reminder, but a threat.
He lowered his gaze, his tone and demeanor softening as well: "It's just a formality, why does my sister have to drag me along? I'm outspoken, and I'll end up offending my cousins... Why bother?"
The contempt in his words was undiminished.
Wei Mingying had no intention of continuing to bicker with him. She stepped forward, frowning, and said, "Tan Huaiqing is here today too. You have to keep me company."
At this point, Wei Yuanzhan finally became serious.
The Tan family's daughters were their aunt's daughters, a few years older than them, and they didn't usually live in the capital. Although they didn't visit each other often, their ability to annoy people whenever they came was quite remarkable.
This Tan Huaiqing was the cousin of several of Tan's older sisters. To put it bluntly, he had no connection with the Wei family whatsoever, but his aunt couldn't refuse out of courtesy and, at the request of the eldest branch of the Tan family's wife, intended to set him up with Wei Mingying.
Everyone knows the Tan family's social standing and character, but it was only the aunt who acted impulsively and insisted on marrying into their family. And now she's still thinking about her sister's marriage, indulging in unrealistic fantasies.
Wei Yuanzhan said nothing more, his face cold.
Seeing this, Wei Mingying felt reassured and slowly strolled back to the garden with him.
The aunt was taking care of things in her mother's room, while the younger members of the Tan family were all arranged to stay at Chunshan Garden. Upon seeing the Wei siblings, they quickly rose to their feet and came over to greet them. Wei Mingying smiled, brushed her skirt, and sat down.
"Cousin, did you sleep well last night? It's still chilly in early spring, so please make sure you wear more clothes."
The speaker was Tan Huaiqing, who wore a silk-colored round-necked robe with a gray-brown cloak over it. He had a gentle face and slightly upturned lips with a smile on them.
Wei Mingying felt particularly disgusted by his address of "cousin," and only glanced at it briefly: "Very well, thank you."
Tan Huaiqing then asked, "We won't be in the capital for the New Year, so I wonder if my cousin received the invitation I sent?"
When he suddenly brought it up, Wei Mingying thought for a moment and realized that she had indeed received his invitation. She glanced at it and then casually handed it to her maid to handle, without paying any more attention to it.
A strand of hair drifted down onto the girl's face, and she smiled faintly, "No. Perhaps they lost it."
Wei Mingying is a girl, and her reputation is important. She never showed any disrespect to these distant relatives. If Lan Ye and Chang Huai saw this, they would surely admire the young lady's good manners.
Tan Huaiqing was momentarily disappointed, but he didn't realize that the other person didn't want to talk to him, so he continued, "Oh, it's alright. I came to visit your mother today and also brought the festival gifts that my father bought in Shu. Among them are a few bolts of Shu brocade that I picked out for my cousin. Cousin, when you go back, take a look and see if they suit your taste."
Thank you.
There was no further conversation, so Miss Tan seized an opportunity to casually ask, "I heard that the Song family had a fourth daughter last year. What is she like? Is she pretty?"
Another girl named Tan chimed in: "There are many beauties in Jiangnan, but they are all delicate and weak. If you ask me, they are not as dashing as our northern girls."
Wei Yuanzhan, who had been sitting still, raised his eyelids slightly to look at them upon hearing this, and let out a barely perceptible chuckle.
Wei Mingying also laughed: "Cousin, you're being biased. I've seen Fourth Sister many times, and she doesn't seem like a weak person."
The two young ladies seemed oblivious to the disdain in her words, and continued, "I heard she was raised in Jiangnan, and now she's a nine-year-old girl. The Song family is truly generous. But... since she's from the second branch of the Song family, isn't she also your cousin?"
Wei Mingying's expression was indifferent, as if she had exhausted all her energy and was about to give up. She chuckled lightly and said, "If you count it this way, we have way too many cousins. Don't you think so, Yuanzhan?"
He turned his head to look at Wei Yuanzhan.
“My cousin likes to casually claim relatives, but our Wei family doesn’t have that habit. Anyone can be called ‘cousin’ or ‘sister’.”
Every word he uttered was like the sound of war drums striking the silent night; it was impossible not to hear them.
The words stopped abruptly. Tan Huaiqing's face turned pale, and the two Tan girls also felt ashamed and indignant, clenching their hands and falling silent.
Wei Yuanzhan was already extremely impatient. Seeing that the place had been ruined, he decided there was no need to stay any longer, so he got up, bowed, and headed outside.
Unexpectedly, he stopped abruptly as soon as he turned around.
The sun was still high in the sky, its golden light shining down on the covered walkway and onto the two people standing on the stone steps.
I don’t know when Song Zhirou and Song Hanjin arrived. Suddenly their eyes met, and their eyes were filled with surprise and confusion.
Song Hanjin reacted slightly faster than Zhi Rou. She turned back onto the veranda, her sleeve brushing against the back of Zhi Rou's hand: "Let's go."
A note from the author:
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Here's a list of ancient romance novels I'll be starting soon:
Your Highness: The Princess and the Vicious Dog - Two Cunning Individuals, One Man's Unrequited Love
"Wearing Military Uniforms": The Grassland Wolf King vs. the Central Plains Female General - A Love-Hate Relationship
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