Jiang Rao stopped.
Hu Tang followed her and stopped. She reacted slower than Jiang Rao. Following Jiang Rao's line of sight, she saw clearly that Rong Ting was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
Hu Tang subconsciously motioned for Jiang Rao to look there, "Isn't that His Highness the Ninth Prince?"
"I'll be over there for a moment." Jiang Rao's words fell at the same time as her.
By the time Hu Tang finished her sentence, she had already walked down a few steps along the stepping stones.
The embroidered ribbons on the cloak began to flutter, and after just a few steps, the walk turned into a trot.
Before Hu Tang could tell her to slow down, Jiang Rao's figure walked up a few more steps, so Hu Tang had to swallow his words back.
With every step she took, the hem of Jiang Rao's peacock blue cloak with gold thread seemed to drag on the ground, then rose higher with each step she took, so as not to touch the dust on the ground.
At the last step, she even had the tendency to throw herself into the arms of the person in front of her. Fortunately, she stopped her feet, and a slight gasp was mixed in her voice, "Why... did you come here?"
Just by looking at her running towards him, Rong Ting's gaze softened little by little, and his narrow eyes gradually curved up with an uncontrollable smile.
He tied his hair with a silver crown, and wore an indigo-colored shirt with a bamboo pattern embroidered on the collar and arrow-shaped sleeves. He looked very elegant. He calmly put his outstretched hand back on the armrest of the wheelchair and said, "I'm taking a day off today. I came here with a few staff members."
"Where are the staff members who invited you to come with them?"
Jiang Rao looked behind Rong Ting, but saw no one else except Huai Qing.
Rong Ting did not respond immediately, but glanced behind Jiang Rao.
Hu Tang was following Jiang Rao, walking down the stone steps.
The glance from Rong Ting made her stop and she clenched her fist subconsciously.
She would only subconsciously clench her fists when there was danger.
Because of Rong Ting's eyes, Hu Tang felt his hostility towards her.
Inexplicable hostility.
It was so strange that she blinked again, and then she felt that she had seen it wrong.
The person who seemed to be looking at her with a bit of ferocity just now has now shifted his gaze back to Jiang Rao.
He looked at her with all his heart, as if he had never looked away.
His eyes were somewhat dim, and his voice was unhappy, "Those colleagues... maybe, they left first."
"Are you looking for them?" Jiang Rao asked.
"Um."
Jiang Rao responded slowly to his words and suddenly had a guess in her mind.
"This temple is not small. Is this your first time here and you can't find the way?"
Allow
Ting turned his eyes away slightly, and nodded very lightly, as if he didn't want to admit it.
Jiang Rao then asked Huai Qing, "You've never been here before?"
"I came here once many years ago, and this place has been renovated." Huai Qing saw Rong Ting pretending again. It was really hard to cover up his master's lies, so Huai Qing couldn't help but stumble when he spoke. "I don't know where Master Huici was giving a lecture. Most of the pilgrims and monks in the temple went there. I couldn't find anyone to ask for directions, so I ran into the girl first."
Huai Qing's words made Jiang Rao's guess come true.
I am lost indeed.
Her eyes dropped to Rong Ting's hand holding the armrest of the wheelchair.
This hand wiped away the tears on her face and held her sprained ankle.
She was the only one who knew how thick the calluses on his palms were and how deep the scars were.
These were a pair of hands that had experienced so much hardship that she couldn't bear to let him control the wheelchair by himself anymore.
Jiang Rao came behind him and pushed his wheelchair.
"I've been here a few times, why don't you ask me to take you for a walk."
Rong Tingzheng nodded slightly.
But Hu Tang was unwilling.
She frowned and called out "Niannian" in a wronged tone.
"I want you to accompany me to the bookstore to buy military books. I'm alone, and the owner of the bookstore took a bribe from my mother and won't sell it to me."
She was just a little slow, and failed to talk to Rong Ting before he showed up.
Jiang Rao was in a dilemma for a moment.
Rong Ting turned around and looked at the embarrassment on Jiang Rao's face. He whispered, "It would be better if you go with Miss Hu."
He moved the wheelchair out of Jiang Rao's hands, and turned west generously, "I'll go to the Wanfo Hall first."
The Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas is in the east.
Jiang Rao saw that he was walking in the wrong direction and couldn't help but coughing towards his back.
He was not walking fast, and she caught up with him in two steps at her normal pace. She walked around in front of him and stopped him. She blinked her clear almond eyes and said, "Just wait for me for a moment."
Jiang Rao turned around and pulled Hu Tang aside.
Hu Tang grumbled in dissatisfaction, "He is a prince after all, how come there is no one to ask?"
Jiang Rao whispered to her, "Don't think he's pretending to be fine. He's too proud to admit that he's lost. He's probably angry and won't ask anyone for directions. So I'll accompany him around the temple, just like the first time you wanted to accompany me."
Jiang Rao spoke out what was in her mind.
When she was thinking about this call, she scared herself.
After saying this, he scared Hu Tang again.
Hu Tang lowered his eyes and thought for a while, and the dissatisfied look on his face gradually disappeared.
But she curled her lips, and soon felt troubled, "Men are so thin-skinned."
"Let's give him some face and don't say too much." Jiang Rao pulled Hu Tang's hand.
It was probably because Jiang Rao was a girl with a gentle temper and a sweet and sweet appearance that her words were too hard to refuse. Hu Tang was completely unable to resist and his attitude gradually softened. He said "forget it" twice and added, "I'll give you face."
Hu Tang's world is always straightforward. "It's good for you to accompany the Ninth Prince. If you treat him well, he will probably treat you well in the future."
Jiang Rao didn't think too much about it. She couldn't bear to see him staying there alone before. Now that his marriage was settled, it seemed even more unreasonable to leave him there alone.
Hu Tang unintentionally asked Jiang Rao, "Isn't he here today just to keep you here?"
Jiang Rao shook her head without even thinking, "I didn't announce that I was coming here to burn incense, and he didn't know I was here."
She explained to Rong Ting why he was here, "Your Highness the Ninth Prince came here with his colleagues, and got lost with them, and that's why he got lost."
"Is that so?" Hu Tang looked around but didn't see anyone. "Then his colleagues are really abominable. They didn't come to look for him when they saw him lost."
"Maybe he doesn't want to cause trouble for them." Jiang Rao waved and asked Yu'er to come over. "You accompany Miss Hu to the bookstore. If you want any military book, ask her to buy it and treat it as a gift to you."
Hu Tang listened and suddenly a smile appeared on his face.
I wasn't happy because I saved money on buying books.
I just feel that if this book was given to her by someone she thinks is good, it would be much more precious than if she bought it herself.
Yu'er accompanied Hu Tang away, and Jiang Rao returned to Rong Ting.
After untying the knot in her heart caused by the nightmare, she has been smiling often recently, and the dimples on her cheeks seem to be full all the time.
Just seeing her smile makes people feel satisfied and all worries disappear.
Rong Ting looked at her smiling as she walked towards him, and his heart softened for a moment.
"Miss Hu is gone?" he asked softly.
"She's gone." Jiang Rao thought about what Hu Tang had just said, and the smile on her face faded. She asked very seriously, "Did your colleagues abandon you and leave?"
"I'm not in the way. It's you who was supposed to accompany Miss Hu to the bookstore, but I delayed you..." Rong Ting was worried, his eyes fixed on Jiang Rao.
"I asked Yu'er to follow her. If the bookshop owner doesn't sell the military book to her, Yu'er will buy it for her. I'll accompany you around here for a while, it won't be a problem."
She asked Rong Ting, "Why did you suddenly feel like coming to Sanqing Temple?"
Most people who come to the temple to donate incense have something to ask for.
But she didn't know what he wanted.
It's clear that he relies on himself for everything.
"The Imperial Astronomical Observatory and the Ministry of Rites have set our wedding date on the seventh day of the eighth lunar month. I pray that the weather will be fine that day."
He paused, and the sudden words made Jiang Rao slightly stunned.
“May the clouds be the clouds you like, and the wind be the wind you like.”
When he said this, his eyes and brows were full of smiles.
The magnetic laughter when she smiled was so loud that it made Jiang Rao's heart tremble.
A few days ago, she also heard the news from someone sent from the palace.
But the feeling was completely different when this news came from someone else and when Rong Ting told her in person.
Some subtle perceptions were magnified a hundredfold.
Jiang Rao raised her eyes and suddenly met his gaze. Looking at his face that looked prettier than anyone else when he smiled, she didn't know what to say. She hurriedly looked away and said with some hesitation, "But, just wait for another two hundred days."
"Two hundred and nine days."
Jiang Rao turned her eyes away, too flustered to know what to answer.
Perhaps it was because his eyes were too deep, and the way he stared at her... made her feel as if she was being stared at by him that night again.
There is no escape from the oppressive feeling.
She bit her lip, walked around behind him, and pushed his wheelchair. Unable to see his expression, the beating rhythm of the snare drum in her heart finally calmed down.
Rong Ting couldn't see her, so he looked at her shadow on the ground. She lowered her head, and from behind she looked quite well behaved.
Jiang Rao pushed him all the way to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Hall, and as they walked, she became curious, "You've never been here before?"
Even the princes in the palace could come here before the autumn hunt or during the sacrifice to pray for themselves and their families. This kind of experience should be available to every child in Jinling, not just the princes, regardless of their wealth, in front of the Buddha.
Rong Ting just shook his head.
Jiang Rao felt a stab in the heart.
She knew a little about his childhood. He was frail and sickly, and was said to have a bad temper. He was often locked up and must have missed many banquets.
But she never thought that he didn't even go to the temple to pray for her.
As soon as they arrived at the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas, she pretended to help him out so that no one would notice that his leg injury had healed. She helped him onto the cushion and watched his tall figure lower and kowtow to the gods.
When I think of what he asked for,
Jiang Rao's ears turned slightly red, and while Rong Ting was bowing inside, she waited outside the hall.
Rong Ting's long hair was tied up and fell on her shoulders. Her profile was as delicate as jade. She bowed and then raised her head. Her light brown pupils looked more pious than anyone else in the hall.
When he was a child and had nowhere to go, he prayed to God, but there was no response again and again, and his expectations were completely gone.
From then on, he no longer looked down on these so-called gods who were high above him. Those who believed in them were nothing more than foolish mortals who were weak enough to put their fate in the hands of clay.
Now I have something I want so much.
Only then did he realize that he was just a mortal.
Foolish mortals.
Greedy mortals.
…
After a stick of incense burned out, Jiang Rao happened to come back from outside the hall with a string of Buddhist beads in her hand. She took a quick look after coming back, and waited until everyone in the hall had left before passing the beads through Rong Ting's left hand and pushing them to his wrist.
Jiang Rao helped him put it on, and she was a little slow when fastening the buckle. "When I was a kid, I went to the temple and the elders would often buy me little gadgets like this. I would wear them for a few days and take them off when I got tired of them."
She was small, but pretended to be an elder. "You can wear this, and take it off when you get tired of it."
But this role of an elder made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
"It would have been great if my father hadn't left the capital to travel."
If she hadn't traveled outside the capital, perhaps she could have seen him earlier.
Even if she didn't have those dreams, she would always lend a hand.
At least it can make the young boy feel better.
Rong Ting lowered his head and took a few glances at this new thing that appeared on his wrist for the first time.
This red sandalwood Buddhist rosary is dark in color and strung together with a red thread. When worn on his wrist, it can cover some old scars.
He didn't care much about the scars. He looked at the small Buddhist beads, which meant nothing to other children, with a strange and confused look in his eyes, but he did care.
"If you get tired of this, there will be no new one." He lowered his head even more, his face, between a teenager and a young man, was immature and clean.
Jiang Rao shook her head, "There will be new ones."
At this moment, she no longer thought of him as her golden thigh, nor did she regard him as the Ninth Master in her dream. He is Rong Ting, so she wants to give him the things he never had, as long as she has them, as long as she is there.
Rong Ting was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "Just now... Miss Hu seemed a little dissatisfied with me."
The voice is mute.
He knew that this was wrong, but the more he felt he couldn't let go, the more he wanted her to be his alone.
Just look at him.
Don't look at others.
If his thoughts were exposed, she would see clearly what he prayed to the Buddha, and what would happen to them in the end...
When he thought about this, he started to get a headache.
Rong Ting lowered his eyelids, with a humble and gentle demeanor. Against the backdrop of the stone Buddhas behind him, he looked like a piece of warm jade.
Those stone Buddhas always smile, as if they are certain that no one would play tricks on them.
"I know this is my fault. You shouldn't have been with her instead of me."
"Even if you don't come to accompany me, I won't ask for anything. After all, I am the one causing you trouble..."
"No." Hearing him feeling guilty again, Jiang Rao frowned and interrupted him, saying in a firm tone, "You are not my trouble."
"You only have five or six days off a month. During the rest time, I can stay with Hu Tang. She won't hold it against me just because she has one less afternoon."
She thought about it carefully, tilted her head, and felt that Rong Ting's habit of overthinking should be cured. She said to him very seriously: "Even if you are worried that she will be angry with me, I will make up for it by spending more time with her in the future."
Rong Ting: “…”
"You don't have to worry." Jiang Rao added another stab.
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