When she arrived at the princess’s manor gate, it was Uncle Liu who came out to open the door. Seeing her, Uncle Liu was quite enthusiastic: “It’s been a long while since Qiu Sichen last visited!”
Qiu Xinran handed him the gifts she’d brought for the sick visit, feeling somewhat ashamed: “Things have been busy at the palace at year’s end, so I’ve only just found time to come visit.” She asked a few questions about Xia Xiuyan’s injuries. Hearing they were no longer serious, she breathed a sigh of relief: “Was the assassin from the autumn hunt captured?”
Uncle Liu shook his head and sighed: “I haven’t heard the young master mention it. I’m afraid it will be difficult to investigate.”
Hearing this, Qiu Xinran didn’t know what to say in consolation for a moment. Fortunately, Uncle Liu quickly regained his spirits and talked to her about other matters, cheerfully leading her toward the study in the back courtyard. The two chatted casually about other things along the way. When they reached outside the study, Uncle Liu was still saying: “Qiu Sichen, stay for dinner this evening before leaving. The kitchen has been simmering fish soup today—it’s been cooking all day.”
As he said this, Qiu Xinran seemed to truly smell the aroma drifting from behind, and couldn’t help but miss those times when she freeloaded meals at the princess’s manor.
“That would be too much trouble,” she said tactfully.
“No trouble at all, just one more pair of chopsticks. What’s troublesome about that?” Uncle Liu smiled. “You must stay for dinner. I’ll go tell Auntie Zhang right away.”
As he spoke, he called through the door to report inside: “Young master, Qiu Sichen has arrived.”
There was no movement inside for quite a while. After a moment, a male voice lazily said: “Let her in.”
Qiu Xinran pushed open the door and entered. As soon as she stepped inside, she felt the room was warm and cozy, forming a stark contrast with the freezing cold weather outside. Several braziers were lit in the small study. Behind the study desk was a daybed, and a carpet was spread near it—in this weather, even walking barefoot on it wouldn’t feel cold. The window on the west side was open a small crack for ventilation, and a green plant was placed beside it. The entire room looked quite comfortable.
The owner of this study was currently half-reclining on the daybed, covered with a thin fur blanket, holding a book opened halfway through. Hearing her enter, he lightly lifted his eyelids: “Close the door.”
Qiu Xinran turned to close the door, then walked to the desk and handed over the books she’d brought: “Young master, these are the astronomy class notes from the past two months. The teacher specifically asked me to deliver them to your manor.”
“Put them on the desk,” said the person on the daybed without even lifting his eyelids this time, his tone indifferent.
Qiu Xinran placed the notebook on the desk and began to regret her earlier agreement to Uncle Liu’s suggestion to stay for dinner. Otherwise, wouldn’t she be able to leave after delivering the notebook and sitting briefly?
Previously when she came to the princess’s manor, she had the pretext of practicing archery, so she didn’t feel uncomfortable staying in the same place with him. Now with the two of them sitting idly in the room like this, the atmosphere was truly somewhat awkward.
Xia Xiuyan continued flipping through the book in his hands. After a while, as if just remembering her presence, he looked up and asked: “Did Uncle Liu ask you to stay for dinner at the manor?”
Qiu Xinran felt as if granted amnesty and quickly nodded to explain: “That’s right. I really couldn’t refuse his kind offer just now, but…” Before she could finish, Xia Xiuyan had already nodded to himself. Only then did Qiu Xinran notice he was only wearing a thin inner robe—compared to his appearance at the palace, he had a rare casualness about him.
“Bring me my outer robe,” the person sitting cross-legged on the daybed naturally ordered her.
Qiu Xinran followed his gaze to the clothes rack behind the bookshelf. Sure enough, his outer robe was hanging there. It seemed this study was a place he frequented even more than his bedroom in the manor.
She got up, walked around the bookshelf, and brought the outer robe to him. After Xia Xiuyan took it, he draped it over himself and lowered his head to fasten the buttons, saying as he did: “If you’re bored, you can find a book from the shelf to read.” Qiu Xinran figured this meant he was acquiescing to her staying for dinner.
The time of day was neither early nor late, and Auntie Zhang’s fish soup was indeed quite attractive. After brief contemplation, Qiu Xinran didn’t refuse further and returned to the bookshelf to browse.
The study wasn’t large. The room’s layout seemed to have been modified later, with many things added—like a half-finished chess game in the corner and a small box beside the daybed filled with dried fruits and candied preserves. By the footstool under the desk was a tea stove, with several tea canisters placed beside it, looking like some scholar’s study.
But if you looked carefully at the bookshelf standing in the room, it was an entirely different story. The bookshelf was chaotic—it held a few copies of the Four Books and Five Classics, but most were military texts from various dynasties. They were clearly quite old, with yellowed and curled pages that had been thoroughly thumbed through. Behind the bookshelf was a row of weapon racks, and there was even a sand table for military formations, making the room look quite strange.
“This study wasn’t originally mine,” the other person in the room said, as if seeing through her thoughts, explaining without lifting his head.
Qiu Xinran pointed at the dusty boxes behind the bookshelf and asked curiously: “Can I look through those boxes too?”
Xia Xiuyan looked over, furrowing his brow as if he couldn’t remember what was inside. Presumably they contained things that couldn’t fit on the shelves and were difficult to dispose of for the moment, so he nodded: “Put them back after looking.”
Qiu Xinran then squatted down to rummage through them earnestly. Inside were indeed old items—story books, antique picture books, children’s primers like the Thousand Character Classic and Three Character Classic, and a pile of calligraphy practice sheets with childish, clumsy characters that must have been written by a child.
She couldn’t help but giggle quietly, drawing the attention of the person on the daybed.
“Are you done yet?” Xia Xiuyan alertly threw off the thin blanket and made as if to come over. Qiu Xinran quickly stood up, holding an iron box as she emerged from behind the bookshelf and showed it to him: “Did this belong to General Xia too?”
Xia Xiuyan had no recollection of this iron box. When Qiu Xinran opened it, she discovered it contained a stack of leaf cards.
“So you play this too?” She smiled, her tone somewhat warm. But Xia Xiuyan frowned at the stack of things in the iron box: “What is this?”
“You don’t know?”
Xia Xiuyan remained silent. Qiu Xinran poured out the cards from the box to show him: “This is called the leaf game. I used to play it often with people when I was in the mountains.”
Xia Xiuyan silently took them and looked left and right. After a while, he asked: “How do you play?”
Before long, a small square table was set up on the daybed. Qiu Xinran sat cross-legged across from the young man and explained the rules once. After finishing, she looked up at him. Xia Xiuyan didn’t say whether he understood or not, just nodded perfunctorily with a disinterested look: “Let’s play one round first.”
“Wait!” The girl suddenly remembered something and energetically jumped down from the daybed. She took a small ceramic dish used for writing from the desk, filled it with some clean water, and placed a sheet of white paper on the small table: “Usually when playing this, people like to wager something. But since you and I are just playing to pass time, we won’t discuss that. However, losing should still have some punishment. Usually when I play with my junior martial brother, the loser gets strips of paper stuck to their face. What does the young master think?”
Xia Xiuyan paused and looked at the excited little Daoist across from him whose face was slightly flushed—she was completely different from the obedient quail-like appearance she’d had when first entering the room.
“As you wish,” he said casually.
“Good!” Qiu Xinran smiled with eyes narrowed, skillfully tearing the white paper into strips. She said politely: “Since this is your first time playing, we won’t count the first round. Once you’re familiar with the rules, we’ll begin.” She untied the crane cloak from her body and casually placed it on the chair behind her, already looking eager and ready with gleaming eyes.
Xia Xiuyan, watching her silently from the side: “…”
After three rounds, Xia Xiuyan looked at the full hand of cards he held, threw them on the small table, and said through gritted teeth: “Again!”
Qiu Xinran chuckled twice. Meeting the murderous gaze of the person opposite her, she sobered up slightly for an instant, but the white strips pasted on both sides of the young man’s face obviously greatly diminished his威势, so much so that in the next second she brazenly pasted a new white strip on his forehead.
Qiu Xinran dealt the cards again, saying with a smile: “The young master may not know, but legend has it that the person who invented this leaf game was actually a monk.” There was quite a bit of pride in her words, subtly carrying a low-key boastfulness.
Xia Xiuyan gave a cold laugh: “So what? You’re not a monk.”
Qiu Xinran choked, then said: “The young master doesn’t know the whole story—rumor has it this monk was also quite accomplished in astronomy and divination.”
Xia Xiuyan then gave another cold snort: “It seems you swindlers indeed have some expertise in this field.”
“…”
Qiu Xinran decided not to engage in these useless verbal disputes with him. She would use her strength to prove to him that only losers habitually speak such sour words!
But as time went on and Xia Xiuyan gradually became familiar with the rules, it became very difficult to beat him. Near dusk, white strips finally appeared on Qiu Xinran’s face as well, though in terms of quantity, the person opposite her had lost more miserably…
At the end of one round, Xia Xiuyan rather proudly threw the last card from his hand onto the table and gave a light snort that made the white paper on his face flutter slightly.
Qiu Xinran bit her lip and reluctantly threw down the cards in her hand, looking as if she’d suffered great humiliation. Before she could move, Xia Xiuyan took the white paper from the table and methodically tore it. He dipped his finger in some water and was leaning in close to paste it on her face when suddenly there was a knock at the door.
Both of them froze. They heard Uncle Liu outside the door say: “Young master, dinner is ready to be brought in. Shall we serve it now?”
Qiu Xinran was overjoyed and called out loudly: “Serve it now, serve it now!” She leaped up from the daybed. Seeing her cheat, Xia Xiuyan leaned forward without hesitation to grab her hand, shouting angrily: “Stop!”
Who knew the person opposite was as slippery as a mudfish? Xia Xiuyan had just grasped her wrist and hadn’t tightened his grip when she lightly struggled free. Her five fingers slipped through his palm like a small fish in an instant, leaving only a warm sensation as proof that he’d almost caught her.
Qiu Xinran’s mind wasn’t on this at all. As soon as she got off the daybed, she casually pulled off the white strips on her face and ran to the door in a few steps. Before opening it, she at least had some rationality remaining and turned back to point at his face. Xia Xiuyan gritted his teeth and wiped off the white strips stuck to his face, his gaze still staring at her as if he wanted to kill someone.
Enduring the furious glare from the person behind her, Qiu Xinran pulled open the door, only to discover that without realizing it, the sky outside had already darkened. Uncle Liu directed the servants to bring the dishes to the desk in the study. Seeing Xia Xiuyan’s angry expression, he noted that the young master looked more spirited than when alone on ordinary days, and felt quite gratified: “Qiu Sichen, try this fish soup—it’s been simmering for several hours.”
The milky white fish soup on the table was still steaming. Without needing an invitation, Qiu Xinran couldn’t help but sit down and pick up her chopsticks. If Uncle Liu weren’t still standing nearby, she would have long since abandoned propriety and started eating before the host even sat down.
Xia Xiuyan shuffled over in his shoes and sat down across from her, his face still showing lingering anger.
Before Uncle Liu could move, Qiu Xinran first ladled a bowl of fish soup and presented it to him ingratiatingly with both hands: “Young master, please try it quickly. This fish soup will become fishy when it gets cold.” Her peach blossom eyes narrowed into two crescents—she truly had a face well-suited to acting coquettish! Xia Xiuyan silently grumbled to himself, but still reached out to take it.
Qiu Xinran waited for him to methodically pick up the spoon, blow on it, and take a sip before hurriedly ladling a bowl for herself. Not expecting to drink too hastily, she was instantly scalded to tears, sticking out her tongue and gasping continuously.
Xia Xiuyan glanced at her with disdain. Seeing her pitiful state seemed to somewhat appease his anger, finally making him feel more pleasant. Only then did he pick up the chopsticks from the table, mentally drawing a line under the afternoon’s events with her.