0079 079 The rain falls softly, from dusk till dawn.
The first day back in Xijin was the day the first autumn rain fell, and the weather suddenly turned cool. Qi Shuyao quickly found a light trench coat in the car and put it over her skirt.
Xiao Lan had come from Yangcheng a long time ago, but she didn't bring anything with her. Qi Yu only brought her a small bag that she always carried with her.
They always do this, moving from city to city, but always ending up empty-handed.
After getting off the plane, Zhou Cheng drove, and Xiao Lan sat in the passenger seat. He raised the rear partition, and Qi Yu held her hand the whole way, gently pinching her fingertips.
Looking out the window at the scenery that had all changed, she couldn't help but ask.
Will I ever see Mother Han again?
She spoke in a light tone, but Qi Yu didn't respond. She then added somewhat anxiously, "..."
"Actually, she didn't do anything out of line...or did she report your work-related matters to them as well?"
"No, she doesn't have access to work-related matters, but she's already left and gone back."
Qi Shuyao really wanted to laugh, and she did. For so many years, she had been accompanied by someone sent by her grandparents, who reported all their affairs back to her. How much she liked her! From the first time she met her until now, more than ten years had passed. She told her all her little thoughts and treated her like a mother. But she just left without a second thought, without any lingering affection.
The car stopped in front of a dense forest. Xiao Lan got out and went in first, carrying a small box. Qi Shuyao stood outside the forest, looking up at the sky.
This place feels both familiar and strange, so quiet it seems otherworldly.
The sound came from behind again; the car had already driven away. Qi Yu opened his umbrella and held it over their heads, then led her into the treehouse.
Walking from the outside in, you have to pass through a long forest, with waterways on both sides. A wooden path stretches as far as the eye can see, and on both sides of the wooden bridge are extremely tall trees, each one slender, dark, and upright, a scene that seems otherworldly.
The road leads straight ahead without turning, and just when you get impatient, the courtyard appears before you. But no one can see its entirety at a glance. There is a small set of steps in front of you. Standing on the bottom step, you can see the continuous steps above. The branches of tall trees bend down, blocking the top of the small building. You can only see a small front yard, where the old housekeeper and his wife are standing outside the door, smiling and waiting for them.
At that moment, her childhood memories began to resurface.
While Qi Yu was giving instructions to the old housekeeper, she sat on the small pavilion in the front yard, looking at the lake next to her. The lake water was green, with fallen leaves and small petals of various colors floating on it. Raindrops pattered on the water, creating small halos of light, making a black swan floating on the lake look golden.
As the rain subsided, her mother-in-law took her small bag from Qi Yu and led her back home.
"This courtyard is mostly shrouded in mist, looking like a fairyland, but down here, there's still the warmth of everyday life," the housekeeper said with a smile. Before she could finish, she slapped her forehead.
"I forgot, I forgot. Miss, you lived here when you were little. Do you remember your grandmother?"
She still spoke in that coaxing tone, which made Qi Shuyao unconsciously smile. She followed her mother-in-law for a few steps, but then suddenly turned around and looked at Qi Yu, who was still standing there.
Are you leaving now?
"I'll come see you this weekend."
She didn't whine or make a fuss, but quietly nodded, standing on the steps watching him turn and walk away. Before his figure disappeared into the woods, she called out to him.
"Could you help me by personally apologizing to Tu Mi and telling her that I can't visit her again recently?"
"good."
This time, Qi Yu stopped and watched as she followed the housekeeper and his wife through the door and disappeared into the courtyard.
When Qi Shuyao lived here, she witnessed the grand scene when the Tang family patriarch received guests. At that time, she was very young, and Tang Qianjie was also very young. They would always sneak away from the adults' toasting and drinking and run over here to feed the goldfish with her.
Now that the patriarch has passed away, the entire courtyard has fallen silent. This huge garden, which covers almost a quarter of Xijin City, is now only occupied by the elderly housekeeper and his wife.
Her room was on the second floor of the northwest courtyard, in the same small building she had lived in as a child, with white walls and blue tiles, and a huge cherry blossom tree in the courtyard.
Opening the window on the second floor, you can see a huge lake below the mountain, stretching far into the distance, connecting with the river and the sea.
It is said that the ancestor named this lake "Lake of Longing for My Lover," because she spent her whole life here, hoping for the return of her beloved.
There is a long, covered bridge over the lake, surrounding a small tower in the center of the lake. Under the bridge are a series of arched openings. When the sun shines, the lake surface looks as if it has been sprinkled with gold dust, making it translucent and bright.
Is this what they call "Floating Light and Leaping Gold"? She never really appreciated the beauty of this place when she was a child.
The sky cleared up, so she threw off her coat, changed into trousers and flat shoes, and went downstairs to the bridge to enjoy the breeze.
The environment here is so wonderful that it allows her to forget all the unpleasant things that happened before.
But when she looks at the swaying lake, she sometimes thinks that if she could hold her daughter here right now, her life would be complete.
But whose life can be perfect? She was thinking now, why didn't she give her daughter a name before she came back? Even a nickname would have been fine. She could have whispered it in her little ear over and over again, and maybe she would still remember it when she grew up.
So what if she remembers? Who knows if she'll end up like her mother, where everyone else shows up but she's the only one who doesn't want to see her.
There are still many things she doesn't know, such as what Qi Yu has discovered that he doesn't want her to know, what is hidden in Tu Mi's sometimes evasive gaze, and who gave her her name.
Forget it, let's just live in a daze and take it one day at a time.
She walked along the bridge outwards, through a narrow canyon, and could see fishermen fishing on the lake outside, casting their nets with great grace.
The mountains on the shore were shrouded in mist, and two small birds whose names I did not know flew low in the sky. On the green-covered mountaintops, you could see a few small trees facing the sun, proudly raising their heads.
She looked into the distance, but could only see a vast expanse of white water and sky.
The fisherman spotted her on the shore and called out a folk song to greet her, but she couldn't understand it, so she raised her hand and waved.
She wandered back and forth along the mountain path, watching the sun about to set. Several small fishing boats finally caught a few small fish. The fisherman called his little daughter, who was playing in the cabin, to come out and see the fish. The little girl didn't seem to be a stranger to her and even shared a small fish with her.
"Sister, are you one of the young ladies in that big courtyard? My mother said she saw pretty young ladies coming out to play when she was young, but I come here every day and I've never seen one."
Her little face was so lively and cute that Qi Shuyao wanted to hug her and tell her that she could come out to keep her company often in the future.
But the words stuck in her throat. She didn't know how long she could stay here or where she would go tomorrow.
In the end, she simply patted the little girl's head and thanked her for her little fish.
As the fishing boats sailed further away, the fishermen's songs could still be heard on the lake. The first cool breeze of evening made Qi Shuyao hug her shoulders tightly.
She carried the small fish back home, and her mother-in-law stood in the yard looking for her for a long time. When she saw her, she called her back to eat.
The food was already placed on a small table in the backyard by the front door. There was a cool breeze and only natural light. Next to it was a small platform overlooking the lake, where tea was being brewed on a small clay stove. The aroma of the lake water mingled with the fragrance of the tea. Sometimes the lake water could rise up to high waves. The old orange cat in the yard slowly clung to the railing. The docile cat was soaked by the water and had wisps of hair, like a little lion with its mane standing on end.
Xiao Lan walked out of the yard, put down the mop in her hand, and turned on a dim straw hat lamp. The light shone on the gray wall, casting shadows of tree branches that swayed in the wind.
The housekeeper and his wife went out, and Xiao Lan came over and sat down next to Qi Shuyao. Before Qi Shuyao could speak, she hugged her shoulders.
It was getting colder in the evening, so Xiaolan rubbed her shoulders, picked up a coat from the side and put it on her, then took a deep breath and urged her to eat quickly.
"Life is full of things we can't control. Even the most capable person like Lao He has too many things he doesn't understand. So don't get caught up in those complicated details. When the truth is revealed, you won't be able to process what you're told. So take advantage of these rare days of leisure and the beautiful scenery, just enjoy life to the fullest."
Xiaolan is right, the scenery in this courtyard is truly magnificent. Back then, she could only see the sky within the courtyard, but now, as she strolls through the entire garden, the sky seems to have expanded considerably.
When the sun shines brightly, the shadows of the large trees are always cast on the open space in the middle of the courtyard. A miniature version of the welcoming pine tree placed in the middle seems to be stretching its body and shaking its branches in the sunlight.
Sunlight streamed through the carved windows, casting beautiful patterns on the ground. The courtyards stretched out in layers, with hexagonal doors in the walls, all aligned in a straight line. Standing at the innermost part, the view narrowed as one looked outwards. Lush bamboo blocked the sunlight from entering through the doorways. Beneath the bamboo, the carved doors opened at an angle, and she loved the creaking sound they made as they turned.
There's a small garden in the courtyard, where tiny white butterflies perch on unnamed yellow flowers, and the sky above the old eaves always looks exceptionally blue.
Autumn is rainy, and on rainy days, the whole yard darkens up, as if a deep filter has been added. The rainwater flowing down the eaves makes a splashing sound at the same distance. All the green in the yard is washed from grayish-green to bright color, and after being polished by light, it can be seen clearly. The big koi in the pond in the yard splash happily.
The old butler came over and gave Qi Shuyao some emergency candles. Many of the wiring here was in disrepair, and the nights were always pitch black.
She was still lying on the table talking to herself.
"I spent the first half of my life confined in one house after another, seeing only the scenery that was supposed to be there."
The old man casually tossed out a sentence,
“Miss, the courtyard you’ve stayed in at any time has seen more scenery than an average person would see in a lifetime.”
The rain stopped in the evening, and she took a pot of the steward's homemade wine downstairs and sat by the pond to watch the fish. Today she had her hair braided to the side, and when the wind blew, the stray hairs on her forehead floated in front of her eyes.
After two cups of wine, Xiaoyu ignored her completely. The wind was strong today, blowing down the flowers from the drooping branches and scattering them all over the lake. The chaotic flowers were dazzling, so she simply picked up the wine jug again and walked out through the small round door in the wall. Before her eyes was a dense grove of low bushes, with a small house hidden behind the trees. There were hardly any people around, making it seem like the living place of a vengeful spirit in a ghost movie.
This small courtyard is built entirely on the water. A path leads out from the front hall, winding its way across the lake. In the center of the lake is a pavilion, which can only be seen when you get close. It is actually a room. My mother-in-law said that it was used by our ancestors to escape the summer heat. They would stay in it on summer nights. There was a folding bed inside.
There were no lights at night, but a candle was inserted into a paper lantern hanging from the roof beam. The flame was dim, yet it could still reflect the pictures drawn on the lantern paper, flickering like a dream.
She was a little drunk. She opened the window, leaned against the window frame, and looked down at the lake. Many branches were stuck in the wall of the pavilion, and their reflection in the lake looked like her wings spreading out, about to fly away.
Can wings carry me away from the filth of the world?
Unfortunately, there were no wings; it was just a hopeless fantasy.
We're all just frogs in a well; everyone is a frog, only the size of the well is different.
As I gazed at it, starlight suddenly appeared on the dark lake surface.
"Have the stars come over?"
She looked up at herself and saw the man she hadn't seen in a long time standing in front of his car on the shore, walking towards her.
The moment he stepped into the pavilion, raindrops began to fall again. Qi Shuyao stood up, rushed towards him, and hung steadily around his neck.
"Do you think we're enjoying the rain, or are we trapped here by the rain and can't get out?"
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