The welcoming banquet has nothing to do with Sui Sui.
The master and servant settled down in a small remote place.
Sui Sui asked the postman for hot water to take a bath and change into clean clothes.
After all the fuss, a banquet had already started in the front yard, with waves of voices and music drifting in.
Sui Sui lay on the couch, drying her hair in the moonlight.
After a whole day of bumpy ride in the carriage, I still felt dizzy when I lay down, as if I was lying on the waves.
Chun Tiao combed her hair with a small comb while indirectly persuading her to offer herself to him: "... Let me tell you something from the bottom of my heart. If my wife had no feelings for His Highness, I would have kept these words to myself and would not have said them. But I can see it all. My wife clearly has feelings for His Highness..."
Sui Sui curled the corners of his mouth silently without explaining.
She woke up in Huan Xuan's tent, and when she saw that face for the first time, she was indeed a little out of control. No wonder others misunderstood that she fell in love at first sight.
The chattering sounds of Chun Tiao gradually faded away, merging into the singing and dancing in the distance, making this small place seem desolate and lonely.
After an unknown amount of time, her eyelids gradually grew heavy, Chun Tiao's hands combing her hair moved slower and slower, and her body tilted to one side.
Just when both the master and the servant were drowsy, hurried footsteps were heard outside the yard.
Sui Sui sat up from the couch almost instantly, and reached for the edge of the couch with her left hand, but found nothing - she was startled and remembered that she was now an orphan hunter, and her knife was not by the couch.
A moment later, the visitor was at the window, knocking on it and saying, "Is Lady Lu here? His Highness has summoned you to serve."
Chun Tiao's sleepiness disappeared immediately, and he clapped his hands and smiled, "Buddha bless you, Amitabha, God will finally reward those who work hard."
As she spoke, she hurriedly got up and said, "What kind of bun should I make for you..."
The young eunuch said impatiently, "Madam, hurry up. It doesn't matter what you wear. His Highness is still waiting."
Sui Sui put on a blue cloth coat. Her hair was still a little wet, so she tied it up loosely into a bun. She pushed the door open and went out. She nodded at the young eunuch and smiled slightly, revealing a pair of dimples.
The young eunuch opened his mouth but no sound came out for a long while. The woman's complexion was too good. Even standing in the moonlight with her face bare, she looked like a fairy from heaven. There seemed to be a halo around her, and her smile was so breathtaking.
Although he is a stand-in, he is better looking than the real person.
It's a pity that she had a bad fate and was born in a poor family. She can forget about becoming a concubine, and it's still unclear whether she can enter the palace.
If I serve His Highness well tonight, maybe I can go into the palace with him, the young eunuch thought.
Sui Sui came to the place where King Qi was staying.
This is the best courtyard in the entire post station, with lush vegetation, winding corridors, and glazed lanterns lit under the corridors, illuminating the gilded carved railings.
When they arrived at the bedroom, the eunuch opened the curtains and said, "Madam Lu, please come in."
Compared to the bright courtyard, the room was very dark, with only a crane-shaped lamp lit beside the bed, illuminating a corner.
There were several couches in the middle of the room, and one could vaguely make out a man sitting on one of the couches, drinking by himself.
He drank all the famous wines in the world and had a keen nose. He could tell it was Jiannan Shaochun at the first sniff. It had a fragrant aroma but was extremely strong.
This is just drowning one's sorrows in alcohol, and Sui Sui has an idea in his mind.
She stepped forward and saluted: "I pay my respects to Your Highness."
Huan Xuan dismissed the guards and said nothing. He continued drinking and left her kneeling.
Sui Sui's legs and feet were numb from kneeling, so Huan Xuan put down his wine glass and raised his eyelids to look at her: "Have you ever served anyone?"
There was no sign of drunkenness in the man's voice, but it was a little deeper and hoarser than usual, like the oppressive night.
Sui Sui shook his head: "No."
Huan Xuan stood up and walked towards the screen: "Come here."
Sui Sui followed.
Huan Xuan raised his hand and took two pieces of clothes from the clothes hanger, turned around and threw them to her, and said coldly: "Go take a shower and change clothes."
The clothes were scented, and a fresh, slightly sweet fragrance blew towards me.
He took it in his arms. The silk was smooth and cold to the touch.
"Your Highness, I have already bathed." She said in halting official language.
Huan Xuan's voice became even colder, and he spoke word by word: "Take a bath, change clothes, don't you understand me?"
"Yes." Sui Sui lowered his head and went to the bathroom holding his clothes.
The bathroom was already stocked with scented water and toiletries. I checked inside and found the water was cold, almost freezing.
She quickly took off her clothes and stepped into the bathtub, shivering from the cold. Her body was not as strong as before after the injury. She was more afraid of cold than most people, and the cold bath made her condition worse.
She did not have the habit of torturing herself. She washed quickly for a while, then dried herself and changed her clothes.
The color of the clothes could not be distinguished in the dim light, but one could tell at the touch that it was made of top-quality Yue silk, embroidered with broken crabapple branches in silver thread. The stitches were fine and it must have come from the palace embroidery workshop.
After leaving Beijing for many years, the fashionable clothing styles in Yong'an were somewhat different from what she remembered. The skirts were longer, the necklines were lower, and the wide sleeves almost hung to the ground.
She had been accustomed to wearing Hu clothing since she was in her teens, and had not worn such light and complicated clothes for many years. It took her some time to get ready.
When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw Huan Xuan had fallen asleep leaning against the head of the bed.
The flickering candlelight behind the screen illuminated the man's face.
He was born with an elegant appearance, with thin eyebrows, handsome eyes, a straight nose and thin lips. He looked majestic in armor. But now without the armor and with his long hair loose, he looked elegant and noble like a young master from a noble family.
Sui Sui walked forward gently, knelt beside the bed, and carefully outlined the familiar eyebrows and eyes with his eyes, over and over again.
Wind leaked in through the window lattice, lifting the curtains, and the golden bells at the corners of the tent made a tiny sound.
The man frowned and opened his eyes.
When he saw the face of the person in front of him clearly, his eyes seemed to melt away, overflowing with tenderness, and he called out vaguely, "Atang".
Sui Sui heard it, but acted as if she didn't hear it and just looked at his face.
Huan Xuan sat up from the bed, took Sui Sui into his arms, rested his chin on her shoulder, and held her tightly with his arms, as if he wanted to rub her into his body.
Even through their clothes, I could feel his hot body.
The smell on him was very special, a mixture of alcohol, ambergris and sandalwood, deep and sweet, and heavy, as if pulling people down.
Sui Sui held his breath sadly.
The person in her memory always had a faint scent of medicine and the fragrance of ink lingering around him, even though they had never been so close.
"I missed you so much." The man whispered.
Sui Sui's heart trembled slightly, and then sank, and kept sinking, as if there was no end.
Even their voices were similar when they whispered softly.
I miss you too, she said in her heart.
After a long time, Huan Xuan released the arms that were restraining her, moved a short distance away from her, lowered his head, lifted her chin, and slowly moved closer.
The two people's breathing intertwined.
Sui Sui stared into the pair of eyes that haunted her dreams.
At the end of time, there was a pair of eyes that belonged to her, quiet and gentle, like the tranquil lake in a deep forest, under the stars and the moon.
She hadn't drunk any alcohol, but she was already drunk.
Everyone knows that drinking poison to quench thirst is futile, but what if only this cup of poison can bring people back to their old dreams
Her lips moved silently as she moved closer to him, her left hand gently caressing the side of his face.
The moment their lips touched, the hand that was gently supporting her chin suddenly tightened.
Then, he squeezed her wrist tightly, almost crushing her bones. The tenderness in his eyes disappeared, and his voice was cold and piercing: "What are you doing?"
Sui Sui felt a little dazed, as if he had just woken up from a dream.
She immediately came to her senses and looked at her palms.
Because of years of martial arts training, there are thin calluses on her hands, which are naturally not as delicate and smooth as those of girls in the boudoir.
It was this hand that broke his dream.
"Your Highness, please forgive me." She knelt down and pleaded guilty.
Her humble attitude not only failed to calm Huan Xuan, but instead angered him.
The man looked at her with disgust and said coldly, "Get out."
…
Sui Sui bowed quietly and walked out the door.
Gao Mai, the eunuch guarding the corridor, was secretly surprised when he saw her come out. He calculated that the young lady had been in there for only fifteen minutes, not including the time for bathing and changing clothes. His Highness... was really too fast.
But the servant didn't dare to ask more questions, he just asked in a low voice: "Madam Lu, do you want to go back to your own courtyard? I will ask someone to light the lamp for you."
Sui Sui smiled gratefully at him and shook his head: "No need, thank you, Eunuch Gao, the moonlight is bright and I can see the road."
There was nothing pitiful about her smile, it was still as bright as usual, but in Gao Mai's eyes, it seemed like she was pretending to be strong - His Highness summoned her to sleep with him but did not keep her overnight, and then kicked her out in the middle of the night, which was a bit too pitiful.
Besides, those of them who served him closely knew best why His Highness summoned him to sleep with him.
Poor girl, she is kept in the dark and doesn't know that she is just a substitute for someone else.
Beautiful women always attract people's pity, especially since she became a little weak after being injured. She stood alone in the night wind, her clothes fluttering, as if she was about to fly away at any time.
This dress also looked familiar. Gao Mai recalled it as soon as he recalled it. Three years ago, when His Highness left Beijing, the last time he saw Miss Ruan Yuewei from Ningyuan Marquis's residence, she was wearing this dress, with a veil on her head, standing under the spring willows by the Ba Bridge. However, it was March at that time, and it was so cold that it was unbearable to wear this kind of clothes even if there was charcoal burning indoors. And they even drove her out...
Gao Mai was moved with sympathy: "My lady, your clothes are thin. I will find you something to wear."
Sui Sui also remembered that she had left her clothes in the house after she left the house. She was not afraid of Huan Xuan, but she did not like to make herself look bad, nor did she want to trouble others.
So she just waved her hand: "Walk a little and you'll be warm."
"How can that be possible? If my lady catches a cold, Your Highness will blame me."
This is nonsense. If the King of Qi cared at all, he would not have driven him out.
Sui Sui smiled brightly and did not refute. He just said, "People like me don't have so many requirements."
After saying this, she waved to the eunuch, went down the stairs, and walked calmly across the courtyard.
She grew up in a bitterly cold borderland. Her mother was held hostage in the capital, and her father, a military commander, did not know how to pamper his daughter, so he let her run around in the snow and ice with the other boys in the barracks, breaking the ice to catch fish.
That's when it's really cold. The tears turn into ice particles before they reach the cheeks.
Compared with this, late autumn in Chang'an is nothing.
However, at this moment, as she walked under the pale moonlight and heard the sounds of flutes and pipes that came and went, a different kind of chill seeped out from the depths of her heart.
This is the loneliness and desolation unique to this bustling and noisy place.
The distance between the two courtyards was only about a hundred steps. Sui Sui walked back slowly and arrived there in a short while.
Chun Tiao was lying on the couch taking a nap with her clothes on. She vaguely heard some noise outside the door. She quickly put on her clothes and went outside with a lantern. She was startled to see Sui Sui dressed up. She ran down the stairs in two or three steps: "Why are you wearing so little, madam?"
He touched her hand again: "It's almost frozen!"
She couldn't blame the King of Qi for not being gentle with women, so she could only blame her: "Girls can't catch cold. My lady, why don't you know how to be careful? If you get sick, you will suffer!"
At first, she just regarded Lu Suisui as someone she could easily climb up to, but as they spent more time together, she inevitably developed some true feelings for her and regarded this confused but good-natured girl as a half-sister. Her heartache at this moment was genuine.
While nagging, Chun Tiao pulled her into the house, pressed her down on the couch, picked up the quilt, wrapped her tightly, and then added two pieces of charcoal into the brazier.
They used ordinary black charcoal, which was different from the silver charcoal in the Prince of Qi's courtyard. The smoke went straight up and hurt people's eyes.
Sui Sui didn't care. He took off his shoes and put his feet on the brazier to warm them. The warmth penetrated into the soles of his feet and dispelled the coldness.
"It's late at night and there's nowhere to go to get ginger. I'll make some hot tea to help you get rid of the cold."
"Sister Chunjo, stop working so hard," Sui Sui said heartlessly, "Just give me a sip of wine to help me sweat."
"I told you there's no more wine." Chun Tiao didn't take the bait.
"You are lying to me. You must have hidden it." In the weak and swaying candlelight, Sui Sui's eyes flashed cunningly, like a cat, "Good sister, please give me a bite."
Chun Tiao was defeated, and dug out a small leather wine bag from under his chest, and handed it over reluctantly: "Here, just drink one sip."
He took it and took a big sip.
It was not a good wine. It was the common Shaodaozi wine in the military camp. It was spicy and bitter, burning from the throat all the way to the internal organs like fire, and had an immediate effect in dispelling the cold.
They always have this to do with their troops' marches in winter.
Sui Sui wanted to take another sip, but Chun Tiao quickly snatched it away: "This wine is strong, a girl can't drink too much."
How disgraceful it is for a girl to reek of alcohol all day long!
I heard from the guards that the King of Qi was very particular about everything and had a mysophobia, so he probably wouldn't like a woman smelling of alcohol.
He was still not satisfied, so he raised the back of his hand to wipe the corners of his mouth.
Chun Tiao frowned: "Madam, remember to use a handkerchief to wipe your mouth..."
How could such a beautiful girl be like a rough guy in the barracks
"I forgot again." Sui Sui smiled apologetically. It was not that she did not know the etiquette of a lady from a noble family. She was taught by a nanny when she was young. It was just that she had been in the military camp for many years, marching and fighting, so she had no time to pay attention to the etiquette. Over time, she had forgotten all those things.
Chun Tiao sighed: "It was fine to be more casual in the past, but now is different. My wife has won the favor of His Highness. In the future, I will serve you and cannot make any mistakes..."
"You are worrying too much," Sui Sui said with a smile, "I'm afraid His Highness won't ask me to go."
Chun Tiao was shocked: "What is your Highness dissatisfied with?"
Sui Sui came back so early, and she had been feeling a little suspicious before, but she just couldn't bring herself to ask. Now that the topic had come up, it was a good opportunity to ask clearly.
Sui Sui thought about it and said truthfully: "I'm probably not satisfied with anything."
Although she and Ruan Yuewei are cousins, their personalities are completely opposite. It can be said that they are not alike in any way except for their faces.
Chun Tiao was anxious: "How could it be, how did my wife serve you?"
Sui Sui didn't want to discuss sex matters with a half-grown woman in the middle of the night, and nothing worth discussing happened.
"It didn't work," Sui Sui said simply, "He despises me."
She said this straightforwardly and frankly, without a trace of shame on her face, as if she was saying that she had choked on her food.
Chun Tiao refused to believe it: "Madam, please tell me in detail."
Sui Sui knew that if she didn't confess, the girl would never let her go to sleep, so she could only tell her how the King of Qi asked her to take a bath and change clothes, and how he suddenly turned against her and kicked her out.
Chun Tiao was still skeptical: "Is it because my wife doesn't know how to serve people and has annoyed the noble man?" Or maybe her behavior is rude and annoys the noble man.
Sui Sui rubbed his eyelids and said, "Sister Chun Tiao, I'm sleepy. Let's talk about it tomorrow morning." After that, he yawned and fell on the couch wrapped in the quilt.
Chun Tiao couldn't stop her from sleeping, so he could only turn off the lights and lie down on the couch beside her bed.
She was preoccupied with thoughts and slept uneasily. Half asleep and half awake, she heard a rustling sound, followed by a slight creaking of a door.
Chun Tiao wanted to see what was going on, but he was too sleepy to open his eyes. He struggled to pry open his eyelids and vaguely saw a figure pushing the door and walking out.
What was she doing in the middle of the night? She wondered in a daze, turned over, and fell asleep again.
The moonlight in the courtyard is as bright as day.
Sui Sui sat on the railing of the corridor, with his back against the pillar, one leg bent, pulled out the stopper of the wineskin, and occasionally raised his head to take a sip.
The night was too long, the wine bag was empty, and she was not drunk at all.
The music in the front yard had not yet stopped, and the faint sound of stringed instruments drifted over. By her ears, she could no longer make out the lyrics and the tune was vague.
She hummed along out of boredom and before she knew it she had created a tune of her own, which turned out to be the zither song "Ge Sheng".
"Summer days, winter nights. After a hundred years, I will return to my home," she sang softly, tapping the rhythm with her fingers on her knees, "Winter nights, summer days. After a hundred years, I will return to my home..."
The soft and hoarse singing voice spread in the night wind, one after another, like a piece of gauze carried by the wind, as if it could reach the horizon.
The singing stopped abruptly because she suddenly remembered who taught her this song.
The moon in my eyes gradually became blurred, as if there was a layer of water between them.
She raised her hand and rubbed it, only to realize that it was tears.