Thus Xue Tuan’er settled down in Woyu Courtyard.
Shuipei and the others were all very attentive to it, especially Zijun, who loved the cat dearly. She even prepared a comfortable little nest for it and fed it a small fish daily, quickly raising it to become even more white and plump.
Shen Xiling actually liked cats too—girls naturally love these fluffy, soft little creatures that meow. But because she was determined not to keep it after a few days, she forced herself from the beginning to resist getting close to it, lest she develop feelings for it.
But this little Xue Tuan’er seemed peculiar—though Zijun cared for it most, it preferred Shen Xiling. Every time she returned, it would run to rub against her feet, staring at her unblinkingly with its sapphire-blue gem-like cat eyes. Once it caught Shen Xiling’s attention, it would lie down and expose its little belly, looking as if it was begging Shen Xiling to pet it.
Shen Xiling endured for several days but finally couldn’t resist. One day she couldn’t help but start picking up Xue Tuan’er. This became easier with practice—once leads to twice, twice to thrice, thrice to endless times. After this first time, Xue Tuan’er became aware of its own charm and grew even more clingy with Shen Xiling, while Shen Xiling’s defenses were increasingly broken down, holding Xue Tuan’er more and more often.
But she still intended not to keep it in the future. Seeing herself increasingly unable to resist, she became anxious and began urgently inquiring about Second Young Master Qi’s return date.
This was the first time since the flower gathering that she had actively asked about anything related to Qi Ying.
Shuipei secretly observed her miss’s changes, inwardly chuckling, but maintained a very serious expression, saying: “That’s hard to know. The young master is so busy—who knows if he’s been held up by some matter? Perhaps he won’t return for quite some time.”
Shen Xiling pouted and stopped talking, pinching Xue Tuan’er’s pink little paws.
The days continued like this.
Shen Xiling recently went through the cloth shop’s accounts again, roughly calculating the silver Manager Lu had privately embezzled over the years. In twelve years, it was about five hundred taels, averaging roughly forty taels per year. This sum was neither large nor small—somewhat awkward—making it even harder for Shen Xiling to decide how to handle it.
She also asked Song Haotang to help her count the accumulated fabric inventory in the shop. The quantity was beyond her imagination—an even more serious problem than Manager Lu’s embezzlement. So this day she went out again to several cloth shops, having Liuzi pretend to negotiate with the shopkeepers, saying he wanted to buy a large batch of fabric in bulk. The quality needn’t be too good, and older styles would be fine—asking how much stock they could provide. This way she could probe the inventory situation at other cloth shops.
After making the rounds, she found that while other cloth shops also had inventory accumulation problems, none were as severe as their own. Shen Xiling became even more convinced that clearing inventory was the top priority, and began truly intervening in the cloth shop’s operations for the first time.
Shunnan Street wasn’t a residential area for the prominent and noble—the neighborhood was mostly common people. Having lived in straitened circumstances since childhood, Shen Xiling naturally understood what ordinary people wanted: nothing more than low prices. She first carefully compared prices with old goods from various cloth shops, then had Manager Lu direct the workers to bring out all the fabric that had been gathering dust in storage for processing. She then established a rule in the shop: sell new and old fabric together. If buying new fabric alone, prices remained the same; if buying new and old together, prices would be reduced according to quantity purchased.
Manager Lu didn’t shirk this responsibility. The day after Shen Xiling’s arrangement, he posted this discount rule. This being Shen Xiling’s first time conducting such business, she was very nervous, constantly having Liuzi monitor the business situation and collecting accounts daily. Though some inventory was sold, the situation didn’t improve much—the old fabric still lacked buyers.
Though Shen Xiling had expected this first step wouldn’t go particularly smoothly, when the situation actually presented itself, she still felt somewhat dispirited.
Having accompanied Shen Xiling in running around everywhere, Shuipei naturally noticed her low spirits. She knew Shen Xiling had invested much effort in this cloth shop, staying up late recently until she had grown thinner. Now facing both Manager Lu’s troubles and the inability to resolve the inventory accumulation, she was naturally more anxious.
Feeling sorry for her but unable to help much, when the day grew late, Shuipei could only comfort her: “Miss, don’t think about it so much. Let’s go back first.”
Returning to Woyu Courtyard, Shen Xiling went to bathe first.
It was now proper May, and the weather was getting hot. Having been busy outside all day, she was covered in sweat, with clothes sticking uncomfortably to her body.
Xue Tuan’er clung to her playfully. After spending some time with it, she went into the bathroom to bathe.
After bathing and changing into fresh clothes, she came out to look for Xue Tuan’er, only to find the little fellow stretching its paws to scratch at the door.
Zijun covered her mouth and laughed: “Look at it—it must be feeling cooped up and wants to go out for a stroll. I only thought puppies would get restless, but cats also want to go for walks?”
Having been in low spirits, seeing this little fellow’s adorable behavior cheered Shen Xiling up somewhat. She walked to the door and picked up the cat, smiling: “Alright, I’ll take you out to play for a while.”
But Fengshang stopped her, saying: “Miss, go out later—your hair is still wet. What if you catch cold?”
Shen Xiling turned to smile at the maids: “It’s fine. The weather is hot now; I won’t catch cold.”
Fengshang wanted to persuade her further but was pulled back by Shuipei.
Shuipei knew their miss felt stifled inside and wanted to go out for a walk. Stopping her now would be improper, so she only smiled considerately and asked: “Would Miss like us to accompany you?”
“No need,” Shen Xiling answered gently while softly stroking the small tuft of soft fur on Xue Tuan’er’s head. “You sisters have worked hard caring for me today. Rest—I’ll just stroll around the garden myself and return shortly.”
The maids agreed, and Shen Xiling left Woyu Courtyard holding Xue Tuan’er.
Fenghe Garden was extremely beautiful in summer.
The garden had different flowers and trees for each season. Summer featured June snow and pansies, while lotus was naturally planted by the pond’s edge. When the season arrived, the pond bloomed with lotus flowers. The broad, glossy green lotus leaves made the lotus flowers appear especially pure white and elegant, swaying in the summer night’s breeze—truly presenting the scene of “clear and round on the water’s surface, each lotus lifted by the wind,” extremely captivating.
Qi Ying… should like lotus flowers, shouldn’t he? After all, he had named his private residence Fenghe Garden and planted so many lotus in the garden.
Lotus was a flower with Buddhist meaning, signifying purity. For instance, when she was young, she had heard her father recite a Buddhist poem about lotus: “Observe the lotus’s purity, know the unstained heart”—speaking of purity. Now looking at these wind-blown lotus flowers, her heart suddenly recalled the collection of Baopugong’s writings she had seen in Wangshi that day, and the line Qi Ying had written in the margins.
“Though unable to reach it, the heart yearns for it.”
Suddenly she felt a wonderful sense of connection.
Thinking of that person, Shen Xiling’s heart suddenly became disordered, like a gentle breeze brushing lotus leaves, causing subtle tremors and ripples across the clear, round water surface.
She became somewhat lost in thought, her hold on Xue Tuan’er loosening slightly. The little ball suddenly jumped from her arms to the ground, startling Shen Xiling. Coming to her senses, she bent to pick it up again, but Xue Tuan’er twisted away and ran off.
No matter how much Shen Xiling called behind it, it wouldn’t listen, darting through flower bushes and then emerging to run back and forth on garden paths. Shen Xiling kept chasing it, afraid it would get lost, but after chasing around and around, they ended up near Woyu Courtyard again.
Thinking Xue Tuan’er wanted to go back, she was mentally praising its cleverness for remembering the way home when she saw it twist and run in another direction. She hurriedly chased after it and saw…
…it had run into Wangyuan.
This small garden was built between Huaijin Courtyard and Woyu Courtyard. Behind a stone archway, one could vaguely see pavilions and waterside structures in the garden, but couldn’t glimpse their true appearance. Shen Xiling remembered when she first came to Fenghe Garden, Sister Yixiang, who had cared for her then, had told her this place was Fenghe Garden’s number one forbidden area. Second Young Master Qi never allowed anyone to enter—not even Qing Zhu could go in.
And now, Xue Tuan’er had run inside.
Shen Xiling was in a difficult position.
Though she didn’t know why Second Young Master Qi forbade entry to this small garden, rules were rules. She didn’t want to overstep, and even though Qi Ying wasn’t currently at Fenghe Garden and no one was watching, she still wouldn’t break this rule.
But with Xue Tuan’er having run inside, she couldn’t just abandon it. After waiting outside Wangyuan for quite a while without seeing Xue Tuan’er come out, Shen Xiling became anxious and called the cat’s name through the stone gate: “Xue Tuan’er? Xue Tuan’er?”
As soon as her voice fell, instead of hearing Xue Tuan’er’s meowing, she heard another familiar voice from within Wangyuan reach her ears.
“Wenwen?”
Deep and clear… that was Qi Ying’s voice.
This truly gave Shen Xiling a real shock. First, she hadn’t expected anyone to be in Wangyuan at this time; second, she hadn’t expected Qi Ying, whom she thought wasn’t at Fenghe Garden at all, to have already returned. She felt panicked, surprised, and at a loss.
Just as she didn’t know what to do, she heard his voice come through the stone gate again, clear and light: “Since you’re here, come in.”
Naturally, this startled her again. She thought, isn’t Wangyuan a forbidden area of Fenghe Garden? Why was Qi Ying telling her to enter? When Yixiang had spoken so definitively, it hadn’t seemed like a lie, and when the two young masters from the Qi family and Miss Zhao came on Lantern Festival, they had all avoided entering Wangyuan. The rule seemed real, not false—so why was he now telling her to enter…?
Shen Xiling hesitated.
She didn’t want to enter—after all, recently… she had been somewhat avoiding him. Now that they were distant, she was actually somewhat afraid to see him. But she was curious about what lay within this garden, and Xue Tuan’er was still inside. Regardless of whether she would keep it in the future, she should at least account for it to Second Young Master Qi. After thinking it over, she responded and stepped into Wangyuan.
Wangyuan was extremely quiet inside.
Entering through the stone gate, stone paths led underfoot. Not far ahead was a small pond with a pavilion beside it, lotus planted in the water, surrounded by green bamboo—very serene and elegant. This night the moonlight was like silk, with only the sounds of gentle wind and cicadas, creating an even stronger sense of being beyond worldly clamor, calming Shen Xiling’s heart completely.
Much like the scenes Baopugong had described in his collection of writings.
Following the stone path deeper into Wangyuan, she saw Qi Ying sitting alone in the waterside pavilion. The renowned Second Young Master Qi of Jiangzuo was elegant and noble, more captivating than this night’s transparent white moonlight. The pond full of pure lotus bloomed behind him and was reflected in his beautiful phoenix eyes. Xue Tuan’er lay curled up on his knee while he stroked its back with his long, beautiful fingers. The little fellow seemed extremely comfortable, constantly purring with eyes half-closed.
That scene gave Shen Xiling an indescribable feeling—complex and shifting, even beyond distinguishing joy from sorrow, only making her realize one thing: she hadn’t seen him for a long time.
Actually, calculating truly, it hadn’t been that long—after all, only a bit over two months had passed since the flower gathering ended, and they had encountered each other several times during this period. But Shen Xiling inexplicably felt the days had indeed passed for a very long time—so long that this man had suddenly become cool and distant in her eyes again. Looking at him now, she even felt somewhat afraid to approach.
Qi Ying looked up at her, that glance both gentle and noble, asking: “Why don’t you come over?”
Author’s Note: I’ve always felt that the love between these two cannot be traced to its source—hazy and beautiful is most lovely. But if I had to mark a starting point, I would mark it on this night.