Birthday wontons
Wu Qi's floral emblem is the peach blossom.
When Peach Blossom was chosen, Wen Ru said it was suitable, but Yi Shen couldn't see any similarity between Wu Qi and Peach Blossom, nor did he know what Wen Ru meant by "suitable".
Then Wu Qi, dressed in pink, skipped and hopped up to him, waving a warm bag of rice cakes in front of him, and said with a smile, "They're hot! Do you want some, Brother Weichong? I bought them especially for you!"
At that time, he felt that Wu Qi was the most suitable person for pink in the world.
Yi Shen often gave Wu Qi pink gifts, firstly because of what Wen Ru had said, that he wanted Wu Qi to live a carefree life, and secondly because he could never forget the image of Wu Qi in a pink dress entering his field of vision.
Whether she was a naive young girl or a young woman just coming of age, he remembered her clearly and could not forget her. On the contrary, the more he tried to forget her, the more deeply she took root in his heart.
It's as if, in the midst of ice and snow, a peach blossom is nestled against a plum blossom.
But Wuqi should be colorful.
If she wished, she should be any color in the world, not just the pink of a peach blossom.
It is sad if a person can only be described by one color.
However, this is how the etiquette and laws of aristocratic families were stipulated.
Looking at the rules of etiquette, Yi Shen thought to himself, "They are utterly devoid of interest."
Therefore, he sometimes obeyed and sometimes violated those rules of etiquette. At least in front of outsiders, he was still the pure and virtuous model of the aristocratic family, the Third Young Master Yi.
The older he got, the more he felt that Wu Qi's floral emblem, peach blossom, was indeed appropriate, just as his mother had said.
She is the most beautiful peach blossom in the world.
These words are by no means sweet talk. If one were to categorize them as such, the genuine feelings they contain would be as boundless and ceaseless as a rushing river.
Wu Qi naturally understood that Yi Shen's words were no joke.
She said, "Doesn't our Third Young Master Yi know? There are many, many beautiful peach blossoms in the world, but none of them are the most beautiful."
“Yes, you,” Yi Shen replied.
"I have indeed been beautiful since I was a child, but does Young Master Yi think I am beautiful, special, or unforgettable? Is it because we have been together since childhood, and you have never had the opportunity to appreciate other flowers on your own?"
“It’s not that there’s no opportunity,” Yi Shen retorted, “it’s that I don’t want to, I’m unwilling to, and I certainly won’t go.”
In this lifetime, there will only be one peach blossom by his side.
He was very certain about this.
At this moment, it is clear that some people are backing down.
Yi Shen grabbed Wu Qi's waist and pinched her chin, forcing her to look up at him.
He rarely does such overstepping and coercive behavior, yet his actions are swift and decisive.
He wrapped his arms tightly around Wu Qi's waist, and gently pinched her chin with one hand, not too hard, so as not to hurt her or make her see anyone else.
"Wu Qi, you don't believe me?" he asked.
"Faith, that's just me..."
Dissatisfied with the etiquette and customs of aristocratic families, and unhappy with the injustice of the world, he wanted to burn away the fraudulent practices, study the halberd, and like his predecessors from various aristocratic families, develop halberd armor on the ground and halberd wings in the sky.
These are all behaviors that violate etiquette and law.
How could she drag Yi Shen into this mess?
“Wu Qi, you know what you’re doing, and I know it too. You can bear the consequences, and so can I. Do whatever you want, and don’t feel guilty towards me.”
"You just need to trust me, and then allow me to stay with you."
Yi Shen gently rubbed her flushed chin. Even though he didn't use much force, a small patch of her chin still turned red.
As he patiently massaged her, he said, "Don't imagine an ending where the two of us are separated by life and death or never see each other again."
"It's very dangerous, Yi Shen. Are you sure?" Wu Qi asked.
“I’ve always been certain,” Yi Shen replied.
He was always very clear about what he was doing and could roughly imagine what the consequences would be, but he only lived this one life. Those few decades, without her by his side, felt incredibly long and unbearable.
Why not join her and turn this world upside down?
"Alright then." Wu Qi hugged Yi Shen's waist, his smile as bright as the first peach blossom to bloom in spring. "Young Master Yi, once you've made a promise, you can't go back on it!"
Yi Shen said softly, "Unchanged."
The two lived in the same courtyard. Wu Qi lay back on the rattan chair under the tree, smelling the fragrance of the flowers in the courtyard.
Occasionally a breeze would blow, and a few strands of hair would flutter in the wind. Wu Qi had wanted to bask in the sun and not turn herself into a moldy mushroom, but unexpectedly, she fell asleep without realizing it.
She was too tired these past few days, so she relaxed and slept soundly beside Yi Shen.
Wu Qi didn't know how long she had slept. When she woke up again, what greeted her eyes was a sky full of large, fiery clouds. Layer upon layer of clouds piled up in the sky, as if a fire had been set in the heavens, with embers scattered all over the earth.
The brilliant and beautiful colors shone through the gaps in the trees and fell on the ground and on her body, but they couldn't reach her face.
Wu Qi turned around and saw Yi Shen sitting beside her. He found a fan from somewhere, opened it, and there was nothing painted or written on the fan.
He used this blank fan, devoid of words or paintings, to shield her from the fiery clouds that disturbed her sleep.
"Thank you, Young Master Yi! Yi Shen is so considerate and understanding!" Wu Qi sat up, the flower in her hair had fallen to the ground, and two strands of her hair were sticking up from being pressed down while she slept. Oblivious to her surroundings, she sat back down in the wicker chair and continued to ask Yi Shen, "Yi Shen, what shall we eat tonight?"
She was a little hungry after taking a nap.
Yi Shen said, "Zhao Lang sent someone to invite us to dinner, but you were sleeping at the time, so I declined."
"Aren't you going to eat with Zhao Lang?" Wu Qi asked.
"Do you want to eat with him?" Yi Shen asked in return.
Seeing Yi Shen's expression, Wu Qi belatedly realized that he might have said something wrong.
"No, I don't want to! Who wants to eat with him? It's because I sat at the same table with him that I didn't eat my fill!" Wu Qi hurriedly explained. "I didn't want to eat with him; I just wanted to get information out of him, like what the contents of the letter he forced Sister Shuying to write were, and how Chief Zhou Lang died!"
Yi Shen suddenly asked, "Who's prettier, me or Zhao Lang?"
Wu Qi reacted quickly, saying, "Of course it's you!"
"Hmm." Yi Shen smiled, closed his fan, touched the two strands of her hair that were sticking up, and said gently, "Dinner is ready, it's your favorite wontons."
Wu Qi loves wontons. While others eat longevity noodles on their birthdays, she insists on eating wontons, and they must be freshly made and cooked.
She once said that these were the best-tasting wontons.
Even if it wasn't her birthday, Wu Qi would usually drag Yi Shen out for wontons once or twice a month, sometimes at home, sometimes at a wonton shop. This month, from the capital to Qingcui, and then to Pingwu, she encountered too many troubles and disputes, and she didn't even get to eat a single wonton, nor did she even think about going out for wontons.
She seems to have almost forgotten that she loves wontons the most.
Upon hearing Yi Shen mention wontons, Wu Qi was puzzled as to why the Zhao family would have wontons out of the blue. But when she saw the flour on Yi Shen's sleeves, she asked incredulously, "Yi Shen, did you make these wontons?"
"Yes, while you were sleeping, I had the servant prepare some ingredients."
Wu Qi exclaimed in surprise, "You mean you were making wontons next to me while I was sleeping?"
Yi Shen didn't say anything else, only saying, "Very interesting."
Watching her sleep while making wontons wasn't boring at all.
"When did you learn to make wontons?" Wu Qi asked.
"At the beginning of this year."
At the beginning of the year?
Wu Qi remembered something else: the bowl of wontons that didn't look very appetizing on the table on her birthday—could it have been made by Yi Shen?
Wu Qi was born on the Spring Equinox, so her parents designated the Spring Equinox as her birthday every year. Also, because she loved to eat wontons, her family would eat wontons every year on the Spring Equinox.
On her birthday this year, her parents were not home, and something had happened to the old lady who used to make wontons for her family. Wu Qi didn't want to make any more trouble, so she told the kitchen not to prepare wontons. Anyway, no matter what she ate on her birthday, she would inevitably grow a year older after that day.
On the Spring Equinox, Wu Qi awoke.
There was a bowl of steaming wontons on the table, but unlike the usual round wontons, they were flat and round.
At that time, she didn't know that Yi Shen could make wontons, so she naturally couldn't imagine that the bowl of wontons was made by Yi Shen. Now that she thinks about it, the bowl of wontons must have been made by Yi Shen.
Wu Qi asked for confirmation: "Yi Shen, did you make that bowl of wontons for my birthday this year?"
Yi Shen admitted, "Yes, I learned for a few days, but I didn't wrap it very well."
At that time, he made three bowls of wontons, selected the better-looking ones, arranged them into one bowl, and delivered it to Wu Qi's house.
Wu Qi was still asleep at the time, with no sense of caution and the door unlocked. He stood by her bedside for a long time, holding the bowl of wontons.
"The ones you wrapped back then weren't very good, but the ones you wrapped today are about the same," Yi Shen said. "Would you like to try some?"
"OK!"
There was a kitchen in the courtyard. Yi Shen put the wrapped wontons into boiling water and boiled them. When they floated, he added some cold water.
This time, the wontons were perfectly round and looked fantastic, clearly demonstrating Yi Shen's rapid progress.
Wu Qi praised, "Yi Shen, you really wrapped them very well! You could open a wonton shop!"
Yi Shen scooped the cooked wontons into a bowl and said, "I don't want to make wontons for a wonton shop. I'll just make enough for you."
The two finished eating the wontons in the courtyard, and as they were full, it grew dark.
Tonight, the two of them are alone in a room.
Although the two claimed to be childhood sweethearts in front of Zhao Lang, it was indeed a very, very long time that they hadn't slept in the same room.
Those were all children who slept in the same room because they were young and didn't know any better.
Yi Shen never slept in her room, but she slept in Yi Shen's room quite a few times. After sleeping there countless times, Yi Shen added an extra bed to the room, which was prepared for her.
After that, although the two slept in the same room, they slept on separate beds.
Tonight is different; there is only one bed in the room.
Wu Qi looked at the bed, nudged Yi Shen's arm, and asked with a smile, "How are we going to sleep tonight?"
Before Yi Shen could answer, there was a knock on the door.
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