As the young Daoist Mei carried the little girl out of the room, he suddenly had the illusion of having gained a daughter. He had dressed the miniaturized Madam in one of her dresses—with the sleeves rolled up and the skirt significantly shortened. At least now she looked presentable and didn’t need to be wrapped in a small blanket trailing on the ground.
The moonlight was bright tonight. As soon as they stepped out, they could see the moonlight spilled across the corridor, turning the floor silver-white. The summer night air was fresh. At this hour, people had fallen into deep sleep, and no human sounds could be heard anywhere. Only the endless chorus of frogs and insects filled the air. A faint grassy fragrance wafted into their noses, invigorating their spirits.
Little Wu Zhen, held in Mei Zhuyu’s arms, looked around the courtyard and suddenly pouted, “It’s not pretty without flowers!”
Her tone was full of disdain. Mei Zhuyu had always been worried that Wu Zhen would find his house lacking in beautiful flowers, unable to compare with the Duke of Yu’s residence where flowers bloomed in all four seasons. But when it came up in conversation before, Wu Zhen had been very gracious, waving her hand dismissively and saying that she liked the elegant and unique green landscape of this courtyard, and there was no need to plant more flowers.
Since she had said so, Mei Zhuyu believed her and gave up the idea of planting flowers in the courtyard.
Now, seeing the little girl’s undisguised disdain, he wondered if Wu Zhen’s previous words had been a lie. Did she dislike the lack of beautiful flowers here?
Little Wu Zhen, completely unaware that she had just exposed herself, continued to wave her small hand, pointing here and there: “Plant some peonies, hibiscus, and peonies over there. We need fragrant flowers too, like gardenias and jasmines. And over there where there’s space, plant a couple of crabapple trees…”
Mei Zhuyu listened to her knowledgeable instructions and made mental notes.
After touring the small courtyard, the little girl’s eyes suddenly darted to the surrounding wall. She pointed and said, “This wall doesn’t look much taller than you. Go over and compare!”
Mei Zhuyu walked to the base of the wall. The little girl said, “See, it’s not much taller than you. You’re so tall, even taller than my father! My father can jump onto our family’s wall in one leap. Can you do that?”
The little girl’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. So Mei Zhuyu, holding her, leaped onto the wall. The little girl covered her mouth and giggled, purposely lowering her voice to exclaim softly, “You’re amazing! You jumped up so high in one go! It’s so high, so high. Can you jump down on the other side? Are you scared?”
Under the little girl’s constant praise, Mei Zhuyu jumped down from the wall, landing on the street outside the house. The little girl continued to enthusiastically compliment him, “Let’s go that way next!” Her chubby little hand pointed towards the corner of the street.
At this moment, Mei Zhuyu suddenly came to his senses. He realized that he had been unknowingly tricked out of the courtyard by the little girl. He had only agreed to take her out to look around the courtyard, not to leave it.
So Mei Zhuyu stood silently for a moment at the base of the wall outside the house, reflecting on his momentary lapse of judgment. Then, resolutely, he leaped back into the courtyard with the little girl in his arms.
“Tch.” As they returned to the courtyard, Mei Zhuyu faintly heard a sound from the little girl in his arms, filled with the meaning of ‘what a damn shame’.
Mei Zhuyu: …
He looked down at the little girl and saw her cutely cupping her face, smiling like a little morning glory, without any trace of unhappiness. It was as if the sound he heard earlier had been his imagination.
After being put down, the little girl ran to the edge of the pond in the courtyard. She stood on a large rock and dipped her foot into the water.
Mei Zhuyu didn’t have time to stop her and hurried over to hold her steady. “There might be snakes in the grass here, and there could be insects in the water. Don’t put your foot in, come up quickly.”
Pulled away from the pond’s edge, the little girl suddenly turned her head, squatted down, and buried her face without speaking. Mei Zhuyu thought she was angry. Children are so unreasonable, and clearly, Wu Zhen was an even more unreasonable little girl when she was young. He tapped the little girl’s shoulder, “There really might be snakes in the water over there.”
“If you want to play, can we do it during the day?”
“Wu Zhen?”
The little girl finally stood up and turned to look at Mei Zhuyu. Her expression wasn’t angry or sad, but a kind of bright, feigned mystery. She clasped her hands together and said to Mei Zhuyu, “Come closer, I’ll show you something fun!”
Mei Zhuyu couldn’t fathom what was going on in the little girl’s mind and could only lean in, puzzled. As he got close, the little girl grinned and suddenly opened her palms, giggling, “Look!”
A small frog leaped out from between her delicate white hands, jumping toward Mei Zhuyu’s face. Mei Zhuyu’s hand moved like lightning, catching the frog by its leg in that instant and casually tossing it into the nearby pond. There was a splash, accompanied by a resentful “ribbit”.
The little girl put her hands behind her back, looking around nonchalantly. Mei Zhuyu looked down at her, frowning.
He had always been well-behaved and obedient since childhood, and he had raised all the younger disciples in the temple. He wasn’t unfamiliar with mischievous children, but every one of them had quickly become obedient under his strict guidance. The little girl before him was indeed too naughty.
Thinking this, Mei Zhuyu met a pair of pitiful big eyes. The owner of those eyes seemed to have keenly sensed something amiss and tugged at his robe, whimpering in a babyish voice, “I miss my parents and sister~”
She rubbed her eyes and whimpered, looking so small and pitiful. In the blink of an eye, Daoist Mei’s heart melted into a puddle, and he couldn’t harden it again. Even knowing that the little one was putting on an act, he still couldn’t help it.
Even in this form, just knowing she was Wu Zhen made Mei Zhuyu’s heart full of uncertainty about how to handle her.
“I’ll take you to see them tomorrow, don’t be sad.” He squatted in front of the little girl and patted her head.
The little girl peeked out with one eye to observe his expression, then like a small animal seeing that the danger had passed, she lowered her arms and started grinning again.
“I want that bright little flying bug!”
She quickly made another demanding request, wanting Mei Zhuyu to help her catch fireflies in the courtyard. In the end, she fell asleep lying on Mei Zhuyu’s back, each hand holding a semi-transparent small silk bag containing fireflies. She snored softly as she slept and restlessly rolled off Mei Zhuyu’s back.
Mei Zhuyu reached back with one hand, barely managing to catch her by the foot and pull her up, preventing her from rolling directly onto the ground. Even with all this commotion, she didn’t wake up.
Early the next morning, Wu Zhen was still in the form of a little girl, not having returned to normal. She rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed, crossing her legs and sitting with an expressionless, cold little face, staring at the bed and blankets in front of her, not making a sound for a long time.
Mei Zhuyu had sat by the bed all night, reading for half the night. Now, seeing her awake, he was originally going to call her to get up, wash, and have breakfast. But seeing her in this state, he somehow suddenly felt a bit nervous, not knowing what was wrong with her.
The little girl sat on the bed with a cold face for a while, then suddenly grabbed the pillow from the bed and threw it on the ground, her small face dark and unapproachable.
Mei Zhuyu finally understood—she had a bad temper when waking up. In fact, on the second day after marrying Wu Zhen, when chatting with his father-in-law, the Duke of Yu, he mentioned that his second daughter Wu Zhen had an extremely bad temper when waking up and was very difficult to coax. But Mei Zhuyu, having slept with Wu Zhen for so many days, hadn’t noticed any such temper. At most, she would be a bit groggy when waking up in the morning, furrowing her brow for a while, but often quickly relaxing and becoming alert. If he was still by the bed at that time, Wu Zhen would even lie on the bed and tease him a bit.
Now, Mei Zhuyu finally witnessed the morning temper that the Duke of Yu had spoken of.
The little girl on the bed, with her hair in a messy tangle from sleep, sat fuming for a while before finally crawling up, picking up the pillow from under the bed, and then turning to smile at Mei Zhuyu, “I’m hungry!”
Mei Zhuyu had never encountered a child who could change moods so quickly, gaining quite an eye-opening experience.
He led the little girl to wash up, then brought her food and placed it on a small table for her to eat. He sat behind the little girl to comb her hair.
The little girl’s hair was fine and soft. Mei Zhuyu, thinking he might be criticized for using too much force, lightened his touch even more, afraid of breaking the little girl’s hair. He managed to tie two small buns that looked somewhat proper, then took her out. First, he bought her clothes that fit, then took her to the Duke of Yu’s residence for a visit.
However, before entering the Duke of Yu’s residence, he took out a talisman, folded it twice, and tied it to the little girl’s wrist with a red string.
“You must not take this off,” Mei Zhuyu instructed her.
The little girl obediently agreed, looking eagerly at the main gate of the Duke of Yu’s residence. Mei Zhuyu held her hand as they walked through the main gate.
The servants in the Duke of Yu’s residence, seeing the husband of the second young lady arrive, thought he was looking for her. So they all warmly greeted him and informed him that the second young lady wasn’t home.
Everyone seemed not to see the little girl beside Mei Zhuyu. This was indeed the case, due to the talisman and because Mei Zhuyu was constantly holding her hand. If Mei Zhuyu let go of her or if the talisman fell off, the ordinary people around would be able to see the miniature Wu Zhen. This was what the Daoist sect called an “invisibility talisman”.
Being led into her own home by Mei Zhuyu, little Wu Zhen’s eyes were filled with shock and curiosity. In her memory, her home was indeed like this, but many small details had changed, and the servants she knew had all suddenly aged a lot. There were also many new servants she didn’t recognize. Moreover, both the servants she knew and didn’t know affectionately called the man beside her “young lord”.
Realizing that things were not right, even a mischievous child like her was scared now. So when they reached the inner courtyard and couldn’t see her parents and sister, she started to cry, with tears dropping steadily.
Mei Zhuyu had never seen her cry before. This was different from fake crying; these were real tears. So he suddenly panicked, squatted down to wipe the little girl’s tears with his sleeve, and told her he would take her to see her father right away. This finally managed to temporarily console the little girl.
Wu Zhen’s elder sister, Empress Wu, was now in the imperial palace and not easily accessible. Her mother had passed away, so naturally, she couldn’t be seen either. Therefore, Mei Zhuyu was going to take her next to Xuti Temple at the foot of Nanshan outside the city to see her father, Wu Chundao. Mei Zhuyu was a bit worried that the little girl might be scared to tears again upon seeing her father had become bald.
With this concern, they set off towards Xuti Temple. The temple’s location was remote, quite far from Chang’an. Even riding on horseback, it would take until evening to arrive.
Mei Zhuyu held the reins with one hand and the bouncing little girl with the other as they galloped along the official road outside the city. The little girl was initially very lively and curious, looking around and asking non-stop questions. But suddenly, she seemed to see something, her body jolted violently, and she tightly closed her mouth, shrinking into Mei Zhuyu’s arms. She turned her head and buried it in his chest, trembling with fear.