An early summer breeze, wrapped in the fragrance of locust blossoms, swept through the corridors of the General's Mansion. Cicadas in the old locust tree shrieked at the top of their lungs, intensifying the afternoon heat. Chen Weiwan crouched in the shade of a rockery, a bamboo dragonfly in her fingertips, intently watching a group of ants carry half a grain of rice bran. The dragonfly's bamboo handle, polished to a shine by her servant, had been carved by her the other day. Now, it sat slanted beside the anthill, like a crooked landmark for these tiny creatures.
"Miss," Chuntao tiptoed over, holding a gilded food box in her arms. The sweet aroma of preserved fruit emanated from the cracks in the lid, mingling with the cool aroma of iced sour plum soup. "Mrs. Liu brought the second young lady to the garden. Her face—tsk tsk, as if she had just been fished out of a jar of coptis root."
Without raising her eyelids, Shen Weiwan spun a bamboo dragonfly around her fingertips, precisely intercepting a worker ant attempting a detour. "Oh? Are you here to 'explain' to me about your cousin?" Before she finished speaking, two figures appeared from the moonlit doorway. Liu was wearing a half-worn turquoise jacket, and the silver hairpin in her hair was half-asked, clearly having hurried out. Behind her, Shen Ruorou clutched a handkerchief, the muscles at the corners of her eyes twitching uncontrollably. A fresh piece of grass clung to the waist of her lilac-colored gauze skirt, clearly from her fall this morning. Now, distorted by her panic, it resembled a crumpled rag.
"Wanwan!" Liu stretched out her hand from a distance, the gold ring on her fingertips swayed in the sunlight, but stopped half an inch before touching Shen Weiwan's wrist - the latter dodged nimbly like a frightened rabbit, and the bamboo dragonfly fell "click" on the bluestone slab, startling away several small insects gathered in the cracks.
"Aunt, be careful when you walk," Shen Weiwan squatted down to pick up a bamboo dragonfly. Her fingertips deliberately rubbed the moss in the cracks of the stone, and she didn't care if she got wet in the mud. "Yesterday, my cousin and 'cousin' were wrestling in the garden. Don't try to imitate them today. If word gets out that the wives of the general's family don't even touch the ground when they walk, it will be a disgrace to our family."
Liu's hands froze in mid-air, the powder on her face cracking with anger, revealing a sallow undertone. "What nonsense are you talking about, child! Ruorou...she just ran into her distant cousin, and they were just catching up. It's just children playing around, why take it seriously?"
"Reminiscing about the past?" Shen Weiwan finally stood up, the bamboo dragonfly spinning in her palm. The sunlight through the gaps in the bamboo leaves cast tiny shadows on her face. "When did my cousin have a lame cousin? Why don't I remember such a person among the relatives of the general's mansion? Oh, right—" She suddenly clapped her hands, and the bamboo dragonfly almost hit Liu's temples. "Last time at the stables in the west of the city, I saw a lame groom feeding hay to a bay horse. At that time, he was still lively and talking to the horse. How come he is leaning on a pear wood crutch today and becoming your 'cousin'?"
"You're talking nonsense!" Shen Ruoruo screamed, the twitching at the corner of her eyes suddenly intensified, almost moving half of her cheek, "He's my mother's distant cousin! He broke his leg climbing a tree when he was a child. You wouldn't understand even if I told you, a fool!"
"Distant cousin?" Chen Weiwan pretended to understand something and walked half a circle around Shen Ruoruo, the shadow of the bamboo dragonfly swaying on her skirt. "That's really a coincidence - I just saw that 'cousin' had a square handkerchief hanging from his sleeve, and it was exactly the same as the one my cousin left in my room yesterday. They are exactly like the ones cast in the same mold." She suddenly leaned closer and touched Shen Ruoruo's sleeve pocket with her fingertips. "I remember there was a word 'Rou' embroidered on the corner of that handkerchief - could it be that my cousin's maiden name is also 'Rou'?"
"Puff!" The servant sweeping fallen leaves nearby couldn't help but lower his head to shield his face with the broom, his shoulders shaking like sieves. Liu's face flushed the color of liver, and she glared at the servant fiercely. Turning back to Chen Weiwan, she forced a smile and said, "It's just a child's handkerchief, the pattern is similar, how could it be so strange..."
"Similar?" Shen Weiwan raised an eyebrow and pulled out a moon-white soft satin handkerchief from her sleeve pocket. On the corner was embroidered a graceful word "soft" in silver thread. The stitching was fine, exactly the style Shen Ruorou often used. "Look, Auntie, this was left in my room by my cousin yesterday. She said she had been looking for it for a long time and thought it was stolen by someone without any eyes. How did it end up on my 'cousin's' cuff today? Could it be that my cousin also has a habit of collecting girls' handkerchiefs?"
Shen Ruorou stared at the handkerchief, her lips trembling like leaves in the autumn wind, unable to utter a single word. Seeing this, Liu stamped her feet anxiously, snatched the handkerchief and stuffed it into her sleeve pocket. The satin brushed against her rough knuckles, making a slight sound. "Don't let a child throw things around! Ruorou, why don't you explain it to your sister?"
Forced into a corner, Shen Ruorou could only force out a smile that was uglier than crying. The handkerchief was twisted out of shape by her: "Sister, that handkerchief... I accidentally dropped it, and my cousin picked it up and wanted to return it to me, so I temporarily put it in my sleeve..."
"Oh? Picked it up?" Shen Weiwan dragged out her tone and walked around Shen Ruorou, deliberately casting the shadow of the bamboo dragonfly on the grass scraps at her waist. "But I also heard that a little maidservant with a bad mouth said she was sending candied fruit to my cousin on behalf of her 'cousin', but she mistakenly sent it to my room." She suddenly leaned close to Shen Ruorou's ear, and her voice was not loud but clearly spread around: "Cousin, is the candied fruit my cousin sent sweet? It's far inferior to the South China Sea pearls he gave me - Oh, right, could that pearl also be 'picked up' on the road?"
"You..." Shen Ruorou was so angry that she was shaking all over. The gazes of the servants around her were like countless fine needles, piercing her body. Whispers came like a tide:
"Tsk tsk, the relationship between the Second Miss and cousin is quite extraordinary."
"Distant cousin? I think it means 'distant lover'?"
"That word 'rou' on the handkerchief can't be fake, right? Could it be that my cousin is a woman disguised as a man?"
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