A night of sweet dew and fragrant grass, gentle and harmonious.

The night lanterns swayed with the clanging sounds of iron horses, a thin mist rising again. Outside the window, the world blurred like windshield wipers against rain, and the fragrant steps at the entrance were covered with another layer of silvery frost. A graceful young woman in an elegant dress that swept the ground, rippling like layered flowers, stood before her dressing table arranging flower branches, watering and pruning them. Under the lamplight, her complexion held a slight blush, and in her skillful care, the flowers bloomed brilliantly, appearing ready to drip with beauty. This flower was the “Noisy Lady” that Lu Yun had tossed into her arms when he left with his umbrella at dawn that day. Rather than discarding it, Luo Lingyu had placed it in a vase and tended to it with care.

Dense flowers veiled her face, a beauty behind blossoms. Luo Lingyu instructed her maid Lingyu, thinking aloud as she spoke: “Bring out the wine that Lady Jiang gave me before she left. Add some rose dew to the wine, and pour in some ice water, using the recipe I gave you earlier. The weather is getting hotter, drinking rose-infused wine on a summer night would be quite an elegant affair.”

“Pick the plantain leaves from the courtyard, cut them properly, and sew them into mats. It will be cooler when lounging about.”

“Yilan, are you ready? Bring a brush and paper, I’ll make a monthly calendar. Following it will help maintain good order.”

Such ordinary, refined activities were the elegant pursuits of noble ladies. Only daughters of scholarly families had such leisure to tend flowers, collect dew, pick leaves, and warm wine.

As she tended to the flowers, there came a gentle knock at the wooden door. The maid opened it to find Lu Xian, the second young master Lu, weather-worn and carrying a box. Standing beneath the lantern outside the door, the young lord appeared refined and alert, though his expression was mild, seeming somewhat distracted.

Yesterday at Kaishan Temple, Luo Lingyu had encountered Second Young Master Lu mumbling mysteriously. At that time, Lu Xian had been moved by Luo Lingyu to reveal the dream he had, but Princess Liu Tang had arrived with Luo Lingyu’s younger sister, anxiously speaking with Lu Xian, and Luo Lingyu had tactfully left with her sister. The matter had been left unresolved. But Lu Xian had taken it to heart, and after thinking for a day, he decided to come see Luo Lingyu.

The flower-tending lady raised her bright eyes, clear as water, quietly watching as Lu Xian handed the box he was carrying to the maid. Lu Xian spoke casually: “Cousin has just recovered from illness and has grown much thinner. I’ve brought some lingzhi mushrooms and ginseng, please take them. When you run out, don’t bother asking the steward, just ask me directly.”

Luo Lingyu put down the water-droplet-covered scissors in her hand and bowed slightly from afar, her tone light and teasing: “Then many thanks to Second Cousin.”

As she raised her eyes, they flickered slightly, having already guessed why the second young master had come to see her. Lu Xian’s dreams and what he had mentioned about Lu Yun’s life and death had caught her attention.

After the maid left, Lu Xian finally pondered how to speak of his dream. In his view, his dreams always concerned Lu Yun and Cousin Luo, always witnessing the tragedy of their love. But the timeline of his dreams was chaotic—when small matters couldn’t affect major events, nothing would change in his dreams; but once they had an impact and the major event concluded, the dream’s hidden dangers would disappear, and he would no longer continue having that dream.

However, Lu Xian himself didn’t know what kind of matters could affect major events. The first time he changed Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu’s ending, he had been in a daze, but there had been clear instructions then—he could see at a glance that as long as Luo Lingyu didn’t marry the Prince of Hengyang, the tragedy could be averted. He had worked towards that goal in his confusion, and he had indeed succeeded.

But in the current dreams, Lu Xian hadn’t yet seen any opportunity to change the dream’s outcome. He only knew that the war was lost and Lu Yun died. He couldn’t avoid the war; he didn’t have such great power to influence the warfare between the two countries. He had previously thought that if Lu Yun didn’t go to the frontier, the dream told him it was useless. By now, Lu Xian didn’t know what to do. While he was muttering about this, he had been discovered by Luo Lingyu…

Lu Xian hesitated: “Cousin, do you want to know what dream I had? Even if, as you say, there is no past life, and I can only foresee the future. But such ability easily invites heaven’s jealousy. If I tell you about it, what if it leads to worse results?”

Luo Lingyu pondered: “That depends on what worse results might be.”

Thinking of his third brother’s death, Lu Xian’s heart constricted slightly: “…It probably won’t get worse.”

Luo Lingyu smiled: “If Second Cousin can truly dream of the future, then when the future outcome is not good, Second Cousin will surely try to change it after waking up. I believe that no matter what kind of signs Heaven gives Second Cousin, all developments have their logic. It’s impossible that just because Second Cousin tells me about the dream, that logic would disappear. If nothing changes, events will proceed according to their natural course, which is reasonable. If the logic changes, there must be other factors involved… and these other factors could be that small thing Second Cousin changed, or it could be fate’s remaining stubborn will.”

“So, what difference could adding me make?”

Lu Xian urgently said: “There is a difference! For example, you are this year’s Flower Goddess, but in my dream, you didn’t become the Flower Goddess this year, it was next year instead. And do you remember the day you opened the cosmetics shop? In my dream, it should have been the Prince of Hengyang who saved you, with Third Brother’s arm getting injured without you knowing; but in reality, Third Brother’s eyes were scalded. The same bad things, I avoided one, but there was another…”

Luo Lingyu looked at Lu Xian, lost in thought for a moment, then shook her head: “That difference doesn’t seem very significant. Moreover, Second Cousin, actually you didn’t change anything at the cosmetics shop.”

Lu Xian: “…?”

Luo Lingyu said softly: “Third Cousin’s arm was still injured.”

Lu Xian: “…What?! How did I not know?”

Luo Lingyu then told him that Lu Yun’s arm was still injured, just not on that day at the cosmetics shop. Instead, it happened later when Luo Lingyu and Lu Yun were cooling off under the grape trellis, which collapsed, and Lu Yun used his arm to block it, injuring his arm at that time.

Speaking of this, Luo Lingyu’s cheeks flushed pink, her heart pounding. She naturally thought of how that day the grape trellis collapsed because she and Third Young Master Lu had been too unrestrained.

Luo Lingyu smiled: “So that day, Second Cousin didn’t change anything.”

Hearing this, Lu Xian first froze, then became dejected. He had naturally thought he had changed a lot that day, preventing Luo Lingyu and the Prince of Hengyang from becoming close. But as Luo Lingyu said, he also remembered that in the dream, Luo Lingyu wanted to visit the Prince of Hengyang because he was injured, and in reality, Luo Lingyu also wanted to visit but was stopped by him… What he changed was just whether he stopped Luo Lingyu or not, but if it wasn’t a startled horse it would have been spilled water—he hadn’t changed anything at all.

Luo Lingyu pondered: “So, this means that while small events can affect major events, too small a change is meaningless. The occurrence of events won’t change, the logic exists independently and will keep moving forward. In other words, Second Cousin can only change some minor details, but cannot prevent the inherent logic of events under heaven.”

Lu Xian was already confused, half-understanding. But the part he did understand made him exclaim “Ah!” as if suddenly enlightened.

Didn’t Luo Lingyu’s meaning correspond with his dreams—

The coming-of-age ceremony on June 19th, he couldn’t force it not to exist;

Lu Yun’s death tribulation, he similarly couldn’t make it not exist beforehand.

He could only try to guide things in another direction when they happened. It’s just that now, affecting the events of Cousin Luo’s coming-of-age ceremony was relatively easy; while affecting Lu Yun’s death at the frontier was not easy.

The logic of major events paid no attention to his will and just continued forward.

Putting it this way, Lu Xian felt relieved: if so, telling the dream to Cousin Luo should indeed not harm. As long as major events could be anticipated, small changes were natural opportunities.

Luo Lingyu turned to look at him, speaking softly: “…Then, can Second Cousin tell me, in your dream, what exactly happened to Brother Xuchen?”

“Only after you tell me can I judge whether it’s worth believing.”

Luo Lingyu wasn’t particularly clever. She had many small cleverness. Small cleverness let her live well; but when it came to grand schemes, due to limited perspective, she didn’t have that.

Lu Xian thought his dreams only focused on Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu’s love story; hearing this, Luo Lingyu didn’t know Lu Xian had omitted other things, she also thought Second Cousin just kept dreaming of a tragic love story. Though questions flashed through her mind, they passed quickly—she was so distressed by Lu Xian’s dream that she had no mind to think of other things.

Lu Xian didn’t tell the part about Luo Lingyu possibly marrying the Prince of Hengyang; to this day he remained wary of the Prince of Hengyang and didn’t want Luo Lingyu’s impression of that young prince to deepen. Lu Xian only vaguely spoke of Lu Yun’s end of being pierced by countless arrows, and Luo Lingyu marrying another; then spoke of Lu Yun dying in the snowy mountain fog, and Luo Lingyu traveling far away.

The death tribulation was hard to change.

To this day, unchanged.

In Lu Xian’s dreams, Luo Lingyu and Lu Yun’s fate was always slightly off. Always arguing, always missing each other through misunderstandings. Because of arguments missing the chance to marry him, and driving him to the frontier; because of misunderstandings, she witnessed the moment of his death and similarly had no fate to stay with him long.

He always died at the frontier.

Luo Lingyu had been listening quietly at first, but as Lu Xian continued speaking, her face grew increasingly pale, a sense of fear rising in her heart.

Initially, she was just comforting Second Young Master Lu, thinking it would do no harm to listen, there would be no loss in listening. She hadn’t taken it very seriously then, but as Lu Xian continued, she began to feel afraid. Because Lu Xian’s dreams… truly had logic to them. The events in the dreams matched her and Lu Yun’s personalities, she might do such things, and he might as well.

Compared to the dream of Third Young Master Lu dying in the snowy mountains, the first dream of Lu Yun dying pierced by countless arrows at the slope of Jianye City resonated more with Luo Lingyu. She hadn’t reached the depth of feeling where she wanted to live and die with Lu Yun, but she had already passed through that first stage of being angry at him, loving him, and wanting to maintain her pride before him.

She might feel resentful and wronged, hating and annoying him while not wanting to hurt him, and thus marry another; he might also be overcome with anger and rage, go far to the frontier, and die there.

Lu Xian’s voice was faint: “…Then, you married another noble family’s son, living, quite well. But later when the southern country’s city fell, no one could escape the fate of being captured or killed, you included…”

“…He died at the frontier, I searched for you in the dream, but never found you again…”

“Cousin… do you believe my dream is real?”

Lu Xian looked at Luo Lingyu, finding this lady’s face snow-white, with a hint of rigidity. This rigidity was quite stubborn, leaving her without any expression. She stood by the window under the moon, tall as jade, her black hair hanging down, her bright hairpin-like a water ring, rippling on her cheeks, rising in wave after wave of radiance. Such brilliance and charm could make one bow in admiration.

But the lady’s expression was rigid, almost cold.

Lu Xian called again: “…Cousin Luo, did you hear what I said?”

Luo Lingyu’s eyelashes trembled as she suddenly came back to herself.

The way she looked at Lu Xian made the Second Young Master instinctively feel something was strange.

Lu Xian heard his cousin say softly: “I don’t know… Second Cousin, let me think about it.”

After Lu Xian left, Luo Lingyu sat by the window. Only when no outsiders were watching did she show her distraught side. She sat there in a daze, looking at the newly pruned flower branches by the window, at the scissors thrown on the table. Suddenly she burst into tears, grabbed the scissors, and began frantically cutting the flowers—

Lu Yun would die.

Lu Xian, the Second Young Master, had deliberately spoken so casually, deliberately revealing an expression that he could change fate. But Luo Lingyu heard it—no matter what, Third Young Master Lu would die. Such a difficult death tribulation to overcome… Lu Xian had inadvertently revealed that he had already changed many things the first time, but why hadn’t he changed Lu Yun’s death?

Why did Lu Yun die whether or not she was with him?

He would die!

What should she do?

Flower petals fell to the scissors, branches, and leaves scattered messily across the windowsill and desk. The lady bent over the table weeping, feeling utterly wronged:

“I just wanted to marry someone, to marry someone with power and influence. Better if that person was good, best if we loved each other. It wouldn’t matter if he didn’t love me. As long as I lived well, I wouldn’t care.”

“If he’s going to die… if it really can’t be changed… why should I marry him, wuwuwu.”

Besides changing fate, Luo Lingyu had another path she could take.

That was to forget Third Young Master Lu from now on.

Continue looking for a suitable young lord willing to marry her.

Lu Xian was deeply mired in the quagmire, caring for his brother, determined to change his brother’s ending.

But Luo Lingyu could withdraw halfway and choose another path.

She was afraid.

She feared giving her true heart in vain.

She was so selfish and self-interested; she rarely gave her true heart, and she didn’t want to end up with anything good in the end.

No one could stop her eager pursuit of a privileged life.

She was just a fifteen-year-old girl experiencing first love, with the idea of cutting losses deeply ingrained in her bones.

After cutting the flower branches, Luo Lingyu continued crying while gathering all the things Lu Yun had given her and putting them in a box. The letter Lu Yun had written to her just two days ago was also thrown inside. She was so scared she wanted to burn it all, but when the flames had barely started, Luo Lingyu stared at the snow-white letter paper on top of the box, then rushed over to stamp out the fire and rescue those things back.

The arm bracelet, jade pendant, hairpins, letters… she couldn’t bear to part with any of them.

“My lady, are you crying?” the maid outside asked hesitantly and worriedly.

Luo Lingyu wiped her tears and said hoarsely: “…No, you all go to sleep, don’t mind me.”

She wept and sobbed, deeply distressed.

Selfishness made her afraid, love made her unable to bear it… The lady covering her mouth with a handkerchief to sob, through tear-blurred eyes, couldn’t help wishing Lu Yun were here.

Perhaps because Lu Xian’s dream felt too real, the fear pressed on her heart, and crying herself to sleep that night, in her dreams, Luo Lingyu also dreamed of something.

She didn’t have Lu Xian’s constitution; she couldn’t dream of the future like him. Luo Lingyu’s dream was simply of a world without Lu Yun’s existence.

Perhaps it was as Lu Xian said, that she had married someone else, or perhaps it was later when Lu Yun had died, and she had returned to Jianye alone.

In any case, in the dream, it was still the familiar Jianye, the familiar Lu family mansion, but there was no more Lu Yun.

In the dream, the lady walked past the “Clear Courtyard,” where the flowers and plants had withered, the servants and maids had all been dismissed, even Jinyue had married and left Jianye; and that grape trellis, there were no more grapes, no young man lounging and sleeping on the couch beneath the trellis to escape the heat. The Qinhuai River was cold, and Mochou shed tears. Luo Lingyu stood on the high tower, stood on the city wall.

Sometimes she saw brilliant lanterns burning till dawn, bright every night;

Sometimes she saw endless white snow, heaven, and earth in silent clarity.

This was a world without Lu Yun. Either he had gone to the frontier, or he was already dead. She didn’t know.

Luo Lingyu just… just… she lived in a bustling place, but not a day passed when she didn’t think of him.

Sometimes living in grand mansions, walking in small alleys. Her face was calm, but in her heart weeds grew wild, frantically missing someone. Someone who no longer existed in memory, who was already dead, should slowly be forgotten, should walk out of her life. But he hadn’t. She always remembered him; the better she lived, the more a bloody hole gaped in her heart, growing larger and larger, bleeding more and more.

The emptiness in her heart could not be filled by external things. Perhaps having no heart would have made it easier to be happy; having a heart and then sealing it again was always more bitter.

Before the hour of Yin in the early morning, when the sky was gray and hazy, Luo Lingyu fell out of her dream within the curtains. She had broken into a sweat, her eyes swollen from crying all night. Combing her long hair with her fingers, the lady sat with bent knees in the plum blossom-curtained bed sobbing; having cried too much, her eyes had long since run out of tears, uncomfortably dry. The beauty who valued appearances as much as life knew that in her current state, she certainly couldn’t go out today.

Luo Lingyu pushed open the curtains, lit the lamp, and sat cross-legged at her desk, taking out the letter from Lu Yun that she had wanted to burn last night. Her silk-like black hair scattered loosely, her summer clothes thin, vaguely revealing her good figure with slender shoulders and slim waist. The lady bent over the desk, her face reflecting a hint of pink. There were some tearstains on the letter paper; she patiently read his letter again.

It was just ordinary questions, like casual conversation.

Lu Yun asked her: “What did you eat last night, did you vomit? Did you sleep well at night, did you need to get up? Are you in a good mood, has anyone upset you?”

“The begonia flowers aren’t blooming very well, they’re not as good as when you tend them. You should move over here to care for the flowers.”

“Has anyone bullied you, made you angry? Don’t harbor harmful thoughts, but don’t wrongfully humble yourself either. If someone bullies you, just seek out Prince Chen, he will look after you.”

There was also a leaf from the north enclosed in the letter, letting her think of him when she saw it.

This person, although he mistakenly thought she was pregnant, which was why he wrote so many words to her. But when he was gentle, he was truly good. Looking at the letter, she could imagine the warmth in his eyes; it was as if he was pressing his face close to hers, their foreheads touching, intimate, and tender.

Luo Lingyu’s lips curved up slightly, reading the letter made her happy again, no longer feeling the anxiety and unease after hearing about Lu Xian’s dream.

Originally she hadn’t planned to write back to Lu Yun, focusing entirely on giving him a surprise when she went to Nanyang, asking him about the pregnancy in person. Now Luo Lingyu thought, Lu Xian had probably already explained clearly, and regarding her doubts about Lu Yun, since he didn’t blame her, they were just doubts. When she told Lu Xian that day that she wanted to go to Nanyang, the main reason was still that she missed Lu Yun.

She thought she truly liked this person; when he wasn’t in her dreams, she couldn’t even shed tears.

She felt it was meaningless to cry for other young lords, other people.

The lady lay down, ground the ink stick, and picked up her brush, pondering for a long time before the ink fell onto the paper like spotted bamboo’s clear tears. Tears welled up in her eyes again, but Luo Lingyu held them back, and after much thought, she wrote just a few words:

“Your humble wife thinks of you, day and night.

Winter is long and summer short, paper cannot express all.”

The moment she picked up her brush, she had already made her decision. She didn’t want to leave him, didn’t want to give up on him because she thought he would die. She had considered many men who wanted to be her husband, but in her heart, she only truly liked one Lu Yun. She was still in the most beautiful ambiguous period of love, still guessing each other’s hearts, still afraid he wouldn’t marry her… how could she give up?

After writing these few words, the lady suddenly felt relieved. Having not slept well all night, she now finally felt somewhat sleepy.

In early September, the Prince of Hengyang was appointed general by the court and sent to Yingchuan Commandery.

Rather regrettably, Liu Mu had not succeeded in arranging for Lu Xian to join the army.

Firstly, the Lu family consistently refused to send both legitimate young masters to the battlefield. The bloodlines of legitimate and collateral branches were different, and the Lu family’s fourth young master was only born of a concubine and not yet grown up. Left Minister Lu Mao, who had always let his sons do whatever they liked, this time didn’t help his son. If Liu Mu tried to arrange it but the Lu family disagreed, there was nothing Liu Mu could do.

Secondly, Luo Lingyu had told Lu Xian that Third Young Master Lu was so intelligent, that ordinary reasons wouldn’t be enough to send him to his death. If Lu Xian had dreamed of his death twice, and the first time was because the court wanted him dead since things wouldn’t change, who knew if the second time, there was also a problem with the court? If there was an issue with the court, then Lu Xian staying in Jianye would be better than going to Nanyang to protect his brother.

Lu Xian… was successfully convinced by Luo Lingyu.

Now that his cousin was helping him strategize, he felt his dreams weren’t so directionless anymore.

At Luo Lingyu’s earnest request, Lu Xian reluctantly sought help from Liu Mu, asking Liu Mu to take his cousin along when he left. He hoped that after Liu Mu reached Yingchuan, he would have someone escort his cousin to Nanyang. After all, Yingchuan wasn’t far from Nanyang. When Lu Xian made this request, his heart was quite uncomfortable, because he originally didn’t want the Prince of Hengyang to have any connection with his cousin.

Liu Mu casually agreed.

Liu Mu’s quick agreement made Lu Xian suspect whether the other still harbored unspeakable feelings for his cousin. Lu Xian had to force himself to remind Liu Mu both directly and indirectly not to have designs on his cousin, but Liu Mu snorted dismissively, paying no attention.

Due to various reasons, Luo Yunhua tearfully saw her sister off into the carriage, waving goodbye to her sister.

Luo Lingyu got into the carriage, following Liu Mu, heading for Nanyang. She would soon see Lu Yun.

All of this was already changing.

Sitting in the carriage, the lady softly encouraged herself: “It’s not necessarily that nothing has changed, just that the changes aren’t big enough yet. There’s still a way like this. And Brother Xuchen will probably have better ideas than mine?”

“Brother Xuchen… I can finally see you.”