She looked up at him, only to see the candlelight reflected in his eyes, filled with undisguised admiration. Those eyes, always smiling, were now filled with seriousness. "Of course," Shen Weiwan raised an eyebrow, the jade hairpin trembling against her temples, the pearls twitching. "Don't you even look at who taught you that?" Her cheeks grew slightly hot as she spoke, but thankfully the candlelight was dim, so no one noticed.
Three days later, the imperial edict was read. Liu was stripped of all her status and escorted to Lingnan, never to return to the capital. Shen Ruorou was sent to the family temple outside the capital, where she would spend the rest of her life under the guidance of a cloistered Buddhist monk. The old housekeeper held the lost and recovered treasury key, which still bore the warmth of the general's finger. He knelt before Shen Weiwan, tears streaming from his cloudy eyes, dripping onto the key like two pearls. "Miss, you have finally saved the general's family business..."
Chen Weiwan helped the old man to his feet. Sunlight filtered through the carved window lattices of the main hall, illuminating the jade bracelet on her wrist, reflecting a warm glow. She recalled the sticks she had fought in the snow in her previous life; the biting cold seemed to linger in her bones. She glanced at Xiao Yu, who smiled beside her. He tapped his palm with his folding fan, his eyes gentle, his smile genuine. A relieved smile lifted her lips, a smile that held the lightness of a bittersweet aftermath. "This is just the beginning."
Chuntao walked in with a stack of account books, which still smelled of the musty warehouse. She muttered, "Miss, the jewelry we found in the warehouse is enough to fill ten boxes. What should we do next?"
Chen Weiwan accepted a red-gold hairpin, the very one her aunt had tried to swindle away. The ruby on it shone warmly in the sunlight, like a drop of solidified blood. "Of course... preparing a dowry." Her fingertips traced the patterns on the hairpin; it was her mother's favorite style back then.
"Dowry?" Xiao Yu raised his eyebrows and tapped the folding fan in his hand on his palm, making a "pa" sound. "My imperial decree has not yet been announced, and Miss Shen is in a hurry to prepare the dowry?" As he spoke, he deliberately took a step closer, and the fragrance of cold plums on his body lingered on Shen Weiwan's nose.
Chen Weiwan's cheeks flushed slightly, but she straightened her neck and inserted the hairpin into her bun, with the tassels on the hairpin swaying gently: "Who said I prepared it for you? It's my own dowry, so of course I have to wear all the treasures from the general's mansion, so that no one will say that I am an orphan without a mother!" As she spoke, she secretly raised her eyes and saw that the smile in Xiao Yu's eyes deepened.
The old butler looked at the pair, each with a sly look in their eyes, and couldn't help but stroke his beard and laugh, his laughter filled with relief and joy. The wisteria in the courtyard was in full bloom, the breeze bringing bursts of fragrance, and the petals fell on the bluestone slabs like a silent blessing. Chen Weiwan gazed at the general's mansion in the sunlight, the glazed tiles outlining a golden outline against the sky. She knew that the dark past had finally been swept away, and her good days had just begun. The days ahead would surely be as warm and dazzling as the sunlight at this moment.
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