The streets were crowded with people like flowing water.

Coming down from the Qiqiao Tower, Lu Tong remained silent all along the way.

Something in her heart seemed different from usual, so that when Pei Yunying walked beside her, she couldn’t help stealing glances at him from the corner of her eye.

The long street blazed with lanterns and candles, with shoulder-to-shoulder crowds at every lane and intersection. As the two walked side by side, suddenly a five-colored silk ribbon flew from the side like a spreading magpie, landing accurately in Pei Yunying’s arms.

Both looked at the same time.

The one who threw the silk ribbon was a young maiden. Seeing Pei Yunying, not only did she not hide, but she boldly smiled charmingly, then turned and disappeared into the crowd.

Lu Tong understood.

She had heard Yin Zheng mention that during the capital’s Qixi Festival, if young maidens had someone they fancied, they would often personally weave silk ribbons to give to them. On this day, there was no need for restraint or reserve – the Weaver Girl would protect every maiden bold enough to express her love.

Du Changqing had received four or five ribbons during the day.

Pei Yunying was outstandingly handsome, popular with maidens inside the imperial city and equally so outside. Sure enough, in just the next short stretch of street, he was pelted with seven or eight more colorful silk ribbons, with signs of an increasing trend.

Lu Tong was reminded of the large bundle of colorful silk ribbons Duan Xiaoyan had been carrying.

“I’m helping him carry them – there’s still a mountain of them at the General Commander’s mansion entrance.”

A mountain…

She snorted inwardly. This person was certainly popular.

Pei Yunying had been inexplicably pelted with a handful of silk ribbons but didn’t want to keep them. Seeing a Fragrant Bridge Assembly nearby, he tied all the colorful ribbons hanging on him to the bridge railings, so that when the fragrant bridge was burned, it would serve as a kind of blessing and prayer for the ribbon owners.

Lu Tong watched his actions coldly and suddenly spoke: “Why don’t you keep them?”

Pei Yunying was puzzled: “Why should I keep them?”

Lu Tong walked straight ahead, her tone flat: “They’re all expressions of others’ feelings. Why disappoint them?”

There was some inexplicable sarcasm in her words.

His eyebrows moved slightly, but his expression became more pleased, curving his lips: “But there are too many feelings, too much kindness to refuse. I’m destined to disappoint.”

These words made Lu Tong even more displeased, and she replied stiffly: “True, after all the General Commander is the Palace Guard Commander. If you didn’t disappoint a hundred and eighty feelings, the Palace Guard’s reputation wouldn’t be preserved.”

He chuckled: “You couldn’t be jealous, could you?”

Lu Tong’s heart tightened: “Jealous of what?”

“Jealous that…” he stared at Lu Tong, speaking slowly, “I received so many colorful ribbons while you didn’t get a single one.”

Her suspended heart suddenly dropped, and Lu Tong spoke coldly: “The General Commander overthinks. I can make them myself.”

“Oh?” He caught up, nodding: “So capable, then you should give me one.”

Give him one?

In his dreams.

Lu Tong stopped: “Why should I give you one?” She glanced back at the Fragrant Bridge Assembly now behind them, her tone increasingly sarcastic: “The General Commander doesn’t think that handsome face of yours could bewitch me too, does he?”

She rarely spoke such words normally. Her sudden anger today made Pei Yunying turn his head to suppress laughter.

He coughed lightly and spoke lazily: “I didn’t say you should give it today. My birthday is in a month – asking you for a birthday gift shouldn’t be too much, should it?”

Before Lu Tong could speak, he continued: “When it was your birthday, I gave you a pair of golden butterflies.”

“The golden butterflies have been returned to Bao Zhu.”

“Then I’ll give you something else.”

Lu Tong was speechless.

This person could always find reasons.

She continued walking forward, reminding him: “Isn’t the General Commander forgetting something? My embroidery is terrible, not fit to be seen.”

“No matter,” Pei Yunying smiled carelessly, “it shouldn’t be worse than before.”

Lu Tong: “…”

“Then I’ll wait for Doctor Lu’s birthday gift.” This person made the final decision.

Lu Tong pressed her lips together, about to speak, when she saw voices coming from under the colorful tent selling Qixi Qiqiao items ahead.

“This batch of sliced mutton isn’t fresh! It doesn’t smell good.” It was a customer buying snacks.

The person being criticized bent over, nodding repeatedly: “Nonsense, it’s just too hot, can’t keep it fresh. I cut this mutton just at evening. Fine, it’s Qixi today, no arguing. I’ll give you some plum ginger for free, take it well, may you prosper!”

The voice was familiar. Lu Tong focused her gaze and couldn’t help being slightly startled.

“Master Shen?”

The busy man in the colorful tent was rearranging the mutton in the warming bucket. Hearing the sound, he looked up and was also stunned: “Master Pei, Doctor Lu?”

This person was actually Shen Fengying.

Lu Tong looked at Shen Fengying. He wasn’t wearing official robes as before, only a gray-brown cross-collared short shirt with the hem tucked into his waist, white drawstring long pants, his head wrapped in a black cloth, feet in cloth shoes – dressed like a merchant.

“Why isn’t Master Shen on patrol?” Lu Tong looked around but didn’t see any other patrol officers from the patrol station.

Shen Fengying scratched his head: “I’m not working at the patrol station anymore.”

Lu Tong was startled: “Why…”

She remembered this Master Shen, who was full of ambition for the official world and loved to curry favor everywhere, quite inconsistent with his current image of being busy at a street market stall.

Shen Fengying rubbed his hands together, walked under the colorful tent in front of his stall, invited Lu Tong and Pei Yunying to sit at the small table, poured each of them a cup of mung bean water, grabbed some braised peanuts, and sat down on a small stool himself.

“Well, you should know about the Fengle Tower incident,” Shen Fengying tossed a peanut into his mouth. “The Fengle Tower fire, the Grand Tutor’s son was in trouble – to be honest, I was the first to discover it.”

Lu Tong and Pei Yunying exchanged glances.

Shen Fengying didn’t notice, only patted his chest, his tone proud, but because he was now dusty and disheveled, even his pride seemed pitiful.

“I was the first to discover it, and also the first to be unlucky. The patrol station needed to push someone out to take responsibility. With no status or background, I naturally became the scapegoat.”

Lu Tong frowned: “You discovered Young Master Qi and saved his life – that should be meritorious.”

“Doctor Lu, at first glance you don’t understand the official world!” Shen Fengying slapped the table. “Life is a small matter, the Grand Tutor’s mansion losing face is a big matter. People have anger that needs to be vented, right?”

Then he slapped himself: “Tell me, why am I so base? If I hadn’t meddled in that business…” He choked up, then pondered: “If I hadn’t meddled in that business and Young Master Qi had met with misfortune, I probably couldn’t even sell mutton now.”

These words carried considerable sadness.

Lu Tong was silent for a moment, then said: “I’m sorry.”

Shen Fengying looked at her in confusion: “What are you apologizing to me for?”

He sighed.

“Actually, I worked at the patrol station for over ten years and only ended up with a small position. They wanted me to flatter, so I flattered; they wanted me to curry favor, so I curried favor. In the end, hahahaha, great!”

He laughed loudly several times: “All these years, I spent quite a bit of silver honoring my superiors, always being fed empty promises, ending up in such a ridiculous situation. Years ago my mother had my fortune told, saying my fate didn’t include an official seal, but I didn’t believe it. Looking at it now, people still have to believe in fate.”

“Forget it, too lazy to struggle anymore,” he waved his hand, not knowing if he was forcing nonchalance. “If I’d known early on that all the silver I spent honoring superiors would go down the drain without gaining anything, I might as well have come home to sell meat earlier. With this face of mine, who knows, maybe I could become the Pan An of mutton sellers or something.”

He joked to himself. Behind him, a customer called: “Boss, cut two liang of mutton!”

Shen Fengying responded with an “ai” and hurriedly got up to fish mutton from the warming bucket. Lu Tong sat there, watching him serve customers with a smiling face, feeling very uncomfortable.

The Fengle Tower fire had started because of her. Shen Fengying, in the end, had lost his official position because of her.

She finished the mung bean water, left tea money on the small table, and secretly left without saying goodbye to the busy Shen Fengying.

The market streets were bustling with people. Pei Yunying walked beside her and glanced at her: “You feel guilty?”

“He lost his position because of me,” Lu Tong replied. “I didn’t expect the Grand Tutor’s mansion would take their anger out on the patrol station.”

After all, it was Shen Fengying who had rescued Qi Yutai from the fire.

But for a small person to seek “fairness” in this absurd world was simply ridiculously laughable.

“The Qi family wouldn’t specifically target a patrol officer, but the patrol station would try to read their superiors’ minds. Such is the official world,” Pei Yunying said.

Lu Tong stopped walking.

“Can the General Commander get him back into the patrol station?” Lu Tong asked.

Pei Yunying was the Palace Guard Commander. Looking at the capital’s official world now, she gradually understood that buying and selling official positions was just covered with a fig leaf.

“Not difficult. But it’s better not to.”

Lu Tong looked at him: “Why?”

“Do you really think now is a good time to get him back into the patrol station?”

Pei Yunying said calmly: “He has no background or status. The connections he made through flattery aren’t solid. The capital’s official world offers no opportunities for him to display his ambitions. If he encounters other incidents next time, he’ll still be the first one pushed out.”

“Those who reach high positions in the official world are either clever or ruthless. Honest people can’t survive here. He’s not suitable, at least not now.”

Lu Tong asked: “What about you?”

He was startled, then smiled: “I’m also a ruthless person.”

Lu Tong didn’t speak.

She understood that Pei Yunying made sense, but still felt disappointed in her heart.

“Don’t worry too much,” Pei Yunying said. “After some time, I’ll find a way to arrange other work for him. The patrol station may not suit him.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

He glanced at Lu Tong, his lips curving: “However, it also depends on whether Doctor Lu’s colorful ribbon suits my taste.”

Lu Tong: “…”

…

The Qiqiao market had endless streams of people, and it was said the lights would burn all night without rest.

Lu Tong and Pei Yunying wandered for a long time until they walked the entire length of the long street below Pan Tower and finally spotted Pei Yunshu and the others at a vendor’s stall.

Fresh-picked banana leaves, oil-green broad leaves soaked in medicinal water, with craftsmen composing poetry and painting on them – very elegant. Pei Yunshu was carefully selecting, with Xiao Zhufeng standing behind her at a proper distance for protection. Seeing Lu Tong and the other, Duan Xiaoyan immediately waved: “Brother, Doctor Lu—”

Pei Yunshu turned around and smiled: “A-Ying, Miss Lu.”

Duan Xiaoyan excitedly came forward, showing them the large and small packages hanging on his arms.

“We originally wanted to wait for you at the Qiqiao Tower, but Sister Pei said she wanted to see puppet shows, so we followed along for a stretch. We were worried you wouldn’t find us and would go back on your own, but fortunately we waited for you.”

Fang Zi said: “There’s only one street below the Qiqiao Tower, so it’s easy to find each other by waiting.”

Pei Yunshu looked at Lu Tong: “Miss Lu, how was your Night of Cleverness Competition? Did you win any prizes?”

Lu Tong took out the peony-patterned wooden comb: “Won a comb.”

“It’s a comb! It looks quite nice,” Pei Yunshu was surprised. She asked Lu Tong again: “We didn’t go in earlier. How does the Night of Cleverness Competition work? What did you do inside?”

Thinking of their experience in the Qiqiao Tower, Lu Tong pressed her lips and remained silent. Pei Yunying glanced at her and said to Pei Yunshu: “We’ll talk about the details when we return to the mansion. It’s getting late – I think we should first send Doctor Lu back to West Street.”

Pei Yunshu suddenly understood and smiled apologetically at Lu Tong: “I was thoughtless. I haven’t been out for so long that I forgot about time. Miss Lu still has to see patients at the clinic daily, so staying up too late wouldn’t be good.”

“It’s dangerous for a young lady to return home late. We’ll escort you to the clinic first.”

Lu Tong nodded and didn’t refuse.

Pei Yunshu’s group first escorted Lu Tong back to the clinic, then parted ways with Duan Xiaoyan and Xiao Zhufeng.

After returning to the Pei mansion, Pei Yunying saw Pei Yunshu into her room and was about to leave when Pei Yunshu called out: “A-Ying.”

“What?”

“Don’t leave yet. I have something to tell you.”

Pei Yunshu asked him to come into the room.

Bao Zhu had already been coaxed to sleep by Qiong Ying. Pei Yunshu lit a lamp and had Pei Yunying sit in the main hall while she first went into the inner room. Soon after, she came out holding a silver box.

She sat beside Pei Yunying, opened the silver box, which contained a pile of red cloth. Layer upon layer of red cloth wrapping, Pei Yunshu opened them one by one. Finally, when the last layer was revealed, there lay a carved jade bracelet inside.

Pei Yunying was startled: “This is…”

“Mother’s jade bracelet.”

The jade bracelet was warm and lustrous like a piece of emerald lake under the lamplight. Pei Yunshu gazed at it, her tone somewhat sentimental.

“Back then, Grandmother gave this carved jade bracelet to Mother as part of her dowry. When I came of age, Mother gave this jade bracelet to me.”

“Originally there was a pair. I kept one to give to Bao Zhu, and now I’m giving you this other one.”

Pei Yunying stared at the jade bracelet but didn’t reach out to take it, only saying: “Why give it to me?”

“A-Ying,” Pei Yunshu lowered her head, stroking the jade bracelet, “do you remember when Mother passed away? I cried day and night, my heart ailment couldn’t be cured, and I fell seriously ill, refusing to eat. You learned to make Mother’s little wontons to coax me to eat, cheering me up daily until I gradually recovered.”

She lowered her head, waiting a while before speaking: “Actually, thinking about it now, you were younger than me then, yet I, as the older sister, needed you to take care of me.”

Pei Yunying smiled: “Why bring up the past?”

Pei Yunshu shook her head.

“Later you left the capital, and after returning, you weren’t like before, telling me everything. A-Ying, these years, I don’t know what you’ve been doing. You’ve grown up, and sometimes I worry whether I, as your sister, have been negligent.”

“How could you think that?”

Pei Yunshu looked at him: “A-Ying, Miss Lu is a good girl.”

Pei Yunying paused.

“You’re my younger brother. Although you hide it and don’t say anything, I can see that she treats you differently from others.” Pei Yunshu said gently: “In matters of love, I’m an outsider and shouldn’t interfere, but I must tell you one thing: if you care for someone, don’t let yourself regret it.”

She took Pei Yunying’s hand and placed the jade bracelet in his palm.

Pei Yunying looked down at the jade bracelet in his hand and remained silent.

“Keep this jade bracelet. If you find someone you want to spend your life with, give this bracelet to her. This isn’t the Pei family’s bracelet – this is Mother’s bracelet.”

“Hoping you find someone you love to spend your life with is Mother’s and my wish for you.”

…

When he returned to his study, it was completely dark outside.

After Pei Yunshu gave him the bracelet, she returned to her room to sleep. Today’s Qiqiao street wandering had kept her busy for half the day, and she was tired.

Pei Yunying closed the door and walked to sit at the small table, placing the jade bracelet wrapped in red cloth on the desk.

Under the copper lamp, the small table was covered with scattered wooden blocks that Lu Tong had knocked over, jumbled together in chaos, covering the entire desktop.

He reached out and swept the scattered wooden blocks to one side, clearing a space.

Then he picked up the wooden blocks and began stacking them one by one into a tower.

For many years past, whenever he had worries or encountered troublesome problems, he would always sit at the small table, slowly building upward.

When a person focused on one thing, their heart would become extremely calm.

It was always difficult at first, but gradually as the wooden tower grew higher, he carved wood less and less frequently. Nothing in the world made him feel troubled anymore. The wooden tower stood quietly in a corner of his study, cold and hard, like an abandoned, silent shadow.

Actually, before Lu Tong knocked down the wooden tower, he hadn’t placed another wooden block on it for a very long time.

So after it was knocked down, he had never thought of rebuilding it.

Yet tonight, on this new autumn magpie bridge night, this human Qiqiao festival, on such an auspicious occasion, he sat here quietly stacking block by block.

Pei Yunying built very slowly.

Round wooden blocks were carefully placed one by one, layer upon layer, neat and orderly, meticulous, with carefully calculated angles making the wooden tower appear solid and precise.

He built for a long time, with only the last block remaining.

The wooden block was picked up and moved toward the tower’s peak.

But at the last moment, his peripheral vision caught sight of the jade bracelet on the red cloth on the table.

The jade bracelet was the color of congealed jade, like the lotus leaves made of colored paper in the Qiqiao Tower, lushly green.

Suddenly a woman’s questioning voice echoed in his ears.

“Would the General Commander also be bound by love?”

His fingertips trembled, like a butterfly gliding through flowers, and suddenly there was a crisp “crash”—

The young man came back to his senses.

The neat wooden tower had once again collapsed completely.

Utterly defeated.

…

Night was deep, and the red building’s festivities were distant.

The small courtyard on West Street was quiet. Lu Tong carried a lamp and closed her door.

Yin Zheng had waited until her return before feeling at ease. After washing, she had gone to sleep next door. Lu Tong walked to the table, removed the hairpins from her head, let her long hair fall over her shoulders, and took a comb to brush it.

After combing a few times, she remembered something else. She got up to fetch her purse and pulled out a delicate small comb from inside.

It was today’s prize from the “Night of Cleverness Competition” at the Qiqiao Tower.

The comb was made of ordinary materials, with finely carved peony patterns on top. Though not as precious as jewelry, it was quite exquisite.

Lu Tong held the wooden comb, her gaze falling on the half-finished colorful ribbon on the table.

Du Changqing studied medicine and made “mandarin duck tea.” The grass-woven bamboo basket with colorful ribbons looked much better. She wasn’t as skilled as Yin Zheng – not only was she slow at braiding the ribbon, but the result was also rough and unpresentable, so she simply kept it hidden in her room.

Lu Tong picked up the colorful ribbon.

For some reason, the cheerful words of the woman in floral dress from the Qiqiao Tower suddenly floated into her ears.

“Spinning out thousands of love threads, writing new mandarin duck songs. All you young ladies and gentlemen who were touched by love threads will become paired lovers in the future, loving for a lifetime and growing old together – it’s a good omen!”

The two people entangled and pulled by red threads, the amplified breathing in darkness, the tenderness and sharpness in his eyes, his smile always tolerant…

Autumn insects chirped low in the grass, startling roosting sparrows into flight. Lu Tong looked down and was suddenly startled.

The half-woven colorful ribbon in her hands had somehow become tangled into a ball, impossible to untangle.

Wound into an inextricable knot.