Rain drummed against the eaves.
Chunhua, the maidservant, stood behind Mu Wanyao, quietly studying Young Master Yan who blocked their path.
Seeing Young Master Yan emerge, Chunhua secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After all, riding horseback with the princess in the rain was not a pleasant experience.
Behind her veiled hat, Mu Wanyao gave a cold laugh.
She sneered, “Young Master Yan, do you even know why I came out here, that you’re so quick to offer help?”
Yan Shisheng sighed.
Guard Fang had asked him to find Miss Mu. While Guard Fang was busy punishing those bold servant girls, he worried the princess might get lost wandering around here, so naturally he needed to enlist a local person’s help. Besides, in Guard Fang’s eyes, this Yan Shisheng seemed quite capable.
Yan Shisheng was indeed quite capable.
He advised the princess: “I heard from Guard Fang that what was ruined by the rain was a keepsake from your mother. The face cream and hand balm were personally ground and prepared by your mother, so they must be extremely important to you. My lady venturing out in the rain now, if I’m not mistaken, must be to recreate that face cream and balm?”
Mu Wanyao fell silent.
She hated this feeling of being so easily seen through, of having someone understand her intentions at a glance.
Yan Shisheng naturally understood this lady was not easy to get along with, and he didn’t dare show off his cleverness too much. After making his point, Yan Shisheng said somewhat bashfully, “Actually, I know how to make face cream and hand balm.”
Mu Wanyao: “…?”
Her eyes widened.
Even Chunhua let out an “Ah!” in surprise: “What, you know how?”
Chunhua grumbled in her heart, wondering if this Young Master Yan was trying to steal her job.
Seeing their reactions, Yan Shisheng couldn’t help but smile, his bashfulness receding somewhat.
Yan Shisheng cleared his throat and explained: “Although my family’s circumstances are somewhat better than our neighbors because my father is a local gentry, this region of Lingnan is remote and lacks many things. I have a younger sister still waiting to be married, and when she was even younger, I helped make her face creams and hand balms.”
Yan Shisheng continued: “My father collected some peculiar ancient books, and I learned from those.”
Mu Wanyao studied him for a long while before saying, “However, face creams made by different people are not the same.”
Yan Shisheng bowed deeply to her, sighing: “This humble one only wishes to try his best, hoping my lady will grant this opportunity. My lady has been in the rain so long, it truly makes one worry.”
The words “make one worry” fell into Mu Wanyao’s ears like stones striking a deep, ancient pool, causing her to waver for a moment. Her ice-cold heart was moved.
Mu Wanyao’s cold expression melted away, and her eyes narrowed slightly with a smile: “Could it be that you’re worried about me?”
Yan Shisheng raised his eyes.
She stood on the steps leaning forward slightly to look at him, beneath her snow-white neck, accompanied by wisps of fragrance, snow-white hills formed of ice swelled slightly, as if about to emerge. Yan Shisheng’s body stiffened, and he stepped back half a pace.
Fearing this lady might again misunderstand that he had improper intentions toward her, he said most respectfully: “When a female guest stays in my humble home, being from afar makes her a guest, so naturally this humble one worries whether the guest is comfortable, and would not wish for the guest to catch ill from going out in the rain due to the crude nature of the lodgings.”
Mu Wanyao’s face suddenly darkened again: “Hmph!”
To think he would use that host-guest relationship to brush her off.
Did that mean if she weren’t a guest, he wouldn’t care about her?
Mu Wanyao walked past Yan Shisheng, with Chunhua hurriedly following behind. Yan Shisheng stood somewhat dumbfounded, not knowing what he had said wrong – he had been so polite and respectful, yet somehow she seemed to get more irritated the more he spoke.
“My lady!” Yan Shisheng called after her, his long robe wet from the rain, his hair ribbon and sleeves tangled together.
Mu Wanyao had already reached her white horse, preparing to mount. She looked back to see Yan Shisheng standing in the distance, his blue robe floating slightly, his features as graceful as mountains and waters, quite handsome indeed.
A flash passed through Mu Wanyao’s eyes, and she smiled sweetly, her lips curling as she chided: “Weren’t you telling me to go back, to help make my face cream? Why aren’t you coming along?”
Yan Shisheng was delighted, not expecting he had persuaded her.
However, as she gripped the reins about to mount, he quickly called out: “Wait!”
Mu Wanyao, impatient with such a fussy scholar: “What now?”
Yan Shisheng walked over with his umbrella, reaching them, he had the confused Chunhua hold his umbrella first while he set down the wooden box he had been carrying on his back and began searching through it.
Mu Wanyao asked skeptically: “You’re not going to give me an umbrella, are you? No need! I’m wearing a veiled hat. Don’t be so fussy…”
Her impatient voice trailed off, and behind her veiled hat, her eyes contracted slightly. Because she could see very clearly that Yan Shisheng had taken out a Snowfox cloak from the wooden box he had been carrying on his back.
If she wasn’t mistaken, a box that large could only hold this one piece of clothing. And Yan Shisheng had carried it all this way.
Yan Shisheng moved to drape the cloak over her.
Mu Wanyao stepped back.
Yan Shisheng paused, then explained: “This is your own cloak that I borrowed from Guard Fang before setting out, not something from my household. My lady need not worry that this was worn by others and I’m trying to make do with it.”
Through her veiled hat, Mu Wanyao quietly watched him.
She said: “You even prepared this.”
Yan Shisheng explained: “I am always like this, never venturing out without thorough preparation… I feared my lady might fall ill from the rain.”
Seeing she no longer retreated but also didn’t come forward, just standing there quietly.
Through her veiled hat, he couldn’t see her expression, and after hesitating a moment, he stepped forward himself, pulled the cloak around her, and draped it over her shoulders. Seeing she didn’t move at all, Yan Shisheng had no choice but to help tie the clothing strings himself.
He supposed she must be used to others serving her, pampered and privileged, that she wouldn’t even tie her clothing strings.
Mu Wanyao just watched him stand within a step of her, lowering his eyes to help her with the cloak. With a layer of gauze between them, Mu Wanyao looked at this handsome scholar with a novel, strange, and complex gaze.
She looked at him, her thoughts drifting hazily far away, thinking of many things… until Yan Shisheng stepped back, his voice clear and pleasant: “There, my lady may mount now.”
Mu Wanyao absently responded with an “Oh.”
She mounted her horse, and Chunhua mounted hers as well. Mu Wanyao looked at Yan Shisheng standing alone on the ground, holding an umbrella as he followed behind them.
Mu Wanyao said: “Chunhua, come down and ride with me, let Young Master Yan have your horse.”
Seeming to fear they might think too much of it, she quickly added: “I’m just worried Young Master Yan will walk too slowly and get lost.” —
And so two horses carrying their riders headed back the way they came.
Chunhua sat behind the princess, turning back to secretly study Yan Shisheng. The princess had made many exceptions for this person, though none seemed obvious, but since the princess’s dramatic change in temperament, she had no patience for anyone, yet for this person… this scholar was indeed capable.
Mu Wanyao spoke up leisurely: “Yan Shisheng.”
Yan Shisheng was nervously controlling his horse, being a country bumpkin from Lingnan, unlike the princess who rode horses daily. He was so tense, afraid of falling off the horse. When Mu Wanyao suddenly spoke, he responded tensely: “Mm?”
Being focused entirely on the horse, he didn’t even respectfully reply with “my lady.”
Mu Wanyao chatted with him: “How old are you?”
Yan Shisheng: “This humble one is seventeen this year.”
He paused, thinking that her asking this meant she planned to repay his kindness.
Then his attentive service to her wouldn’t have been in vain.
Yan Shisheng thus added: “This humble one began preparing for the provincial examinations at fourteen, but perhaps due to my shallow learning, I have yet to pass.”
In this era, passing the examinations required support from above. But clearly, Yan Shisheng had none. Saying this was his way of hinting to this Miss Mu who seemed to have an unusual status.
Mu Wanyao hadn’t noticed his hint at all, she just turned back with a surprised smile: “I’m seventeen too. My birthday is in the third month, what about you?”
Yan Shisheng: “This humble one’s birthday is in the tenth month.”
Mu Wanyao: “Then you just turned seventeen, half a year younger than me… are you married?”
Yan Shisheng: “…?”
He was concerned about his career path, not marriage! What was this lady thinking? Well… if this lady wanted to act as a matchmaker for him, then of life’s two great matters, he could accomplish one of them.
Yan Shisheng could only say: “This humble one has been busy with studies and hasn’t met anyone suitable.”
Mu Wanyao: “Oh.”
There was no follow-up after that.
Yan Shisheng craned his neck waiting for a long while, but never heard Mu Wanyao’s promise to make a match for him.
He couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
Thinking she was indeed too difficult to please—
Thus Yan Shisheng persuaded Mu Wanyao to return, and back at the Yan household, Mu Wanyao was naturally surrounded and escorted away like the moon among stars, while Yan Shisheng also breathed a sigh of relief.
Yan Shisheng found his siblings and, stern-faced, reminded them again to avoid that lady if possible and not provoke her.
Moreover, Yan Shisheng now began to fantasize: “…If I can successfully please her, we might gain some benefits.”
Mu Wanyao’s questions about him indicated she wanted to arrange a marriage for him. In such a remote place as Lingnan, Yan Shisheng indeed had no good marriage prospects.
If Miss Mu was willing… that would certainly be good—
But Mu Wanyao had no thoughts of matchmaking for him.
She slept well, and the next day was awakened by voices in the courtyard.
When she irritably pushed open the window, she saw that last night’s rain had stopped, today was clear, and the sun quite strong.
But this wasn’t the main point – the main point was she saw a circle of people standing in the courtyard, many maids and guards, all watching as if enjoying a show.
Mu Wanyao leaned against the window, focusing her gaze, and was so surprised she nearly dropped her eyes out.
She saw that it was Yan Shisheng running in the courtyard, with everyone watching.
Yan Shisheng had changed into narrow-sleeved clothing, with sandbags tied to his legs, being urged on by his elder brother: “Second Brother, put in more effort, run another lap! Your daily reading is certainly important, but you can’t be completely helpless in martial matters, Big Brother is doing this for your own good… run another lap!”
While Guard Fang and others: “Don’t worry Young Master Yan! This amount of running won’t kill you, if you run a few more laps each day, you can become strong like us…”
Yan Shisheng panted, smiling wryly: “I never asked to be strong…”
The maids blushed and whispered: “Young Master Yan looks so handsome with sweat on his brow and his face flushed red. Could we ask the lady…”
Mu Wanyao snorted inwardly, sneering at their low standards, what was so good-looking about a country bumpkin.
Mu Wanyao stood proudly with folded arms when suddenly she saw that Yan Shisheng, being encouraged by everyone, glanced in this direction. Perhaps he wasn’t looking at her at all, but Mu Wanyao, feeling guilty like a thief, slammed the window shut with a bang.
After closing the window, Mu Wanyao couldn’t help but bite her lip in frustration, angry at herself for feeling guilty. She was completely justified, she could do whatever she wanted!
However, she lowered her eyes in thought, and still didn’t go to open the window—
Yan Shisheng finally finished running the number of laps his elder brother required, he was exhausted and walked slowly, finding a wall with few people around, he leaned against it and sat down.
Over there, Eldest Young Master Yan and Guard Fang were seriously discussing how to train Yan Shisheng next time.
Eldest Young Master Yan felt that even if his second brother couldn’t excel in both civil and martial arts, he shouldn’t be held back by poor physical condition, so daily exercise was necessary. Guard Fang, coming from a military background, had many methods to suggest.
Yan Shisheng watched them discussing happily, sitting against the wall, feeling melancholy.
Being cared for too much wasn’t necessarily a good thing…
As he sat there lost in thought, a window opened above his head, and a girl’s voice spoke with a smile: “Hey, Yan Shisheng, let me help you improve your constitution, shall I?”
She said with great seriousness: “Do you prefer wealth and riches, or beautiful maidens?”
Yan Shisheng paused, looking up to see Mu Wanyao’s face leaning down. Her slender waist was like a willow, her face like peach blossoms, her brows and eyes naturally flowing with charm.
Like the splendor of spring, there was nothing that wasn’t beautiful, nothing that wasn’t enchanting.
Yan Shisheng’s mind went blank for a moment, struck by this magnificent beauty, he forgot to bow in greeting.