In the seventh month of the fourteenth year of Yuanshuo, war broke out on the border between the Southern and Northern States.

Nanyang was caught in the conflict.

Lu Erlang (Lu Xian) used his ability to foresee through dreams to strengthen border defenses and reinforce troops at the boundary, making the military situation much lighter than what he had foreseen in his dreams. However, some things remained inevitable – just as in his dream, despite numerous court mediations, Nanyang was still engulfed in the flames of war. Because of this, Fan Qingchen, the fourth young master of the Fan family from Nanyang who had originally stayed in Jianye to compete with Lu Sanlang for Lady Luo’s hand, chose to leave Jianye and return to Nanyang after receiving news from home.

Fan Silang had never affected Lady Luo Lingyu’s marriage prospects, and Lu Erlang had never worried about this matter. In his dream, Nanyang’s situation had been the same.

Currently, Lu Erlang’s busiest task was staying at the government office with other scholar-officials, spending entire days in court discussing how to stop the war, working until utterly exhausted, barely returning home. Due to the northern war’s outbreak, many refugees had flooded into Jianye, the Southern State’s capital, over the past fortnight. Although the noble families controlled state affairs and were wealthy, the court itself lacked funds. After several days of arguments, the court still hadn’t decided how to settle these refugees. Some noble ladies in the city had already begun distributing rice and grain, offering porridge and medicine, easing the pressure on the court, becoming the talk of the town.

Most notable among them was the beauty who had become famous in Jianye over the past half year – the Danyang Lu family’s cousin, the talented scholar Xunmei Jushi’s cousin sister, Lady Luo Lingyu.

Initially, when too many refugees flooded into Jianye, the noble lady Chen Xiu happened to witness it and was moved to compassion. Since the Chen family’s masters had all left, leaving only her behind, and the Chen family estate had many empty courtyards and rooms, Chen Xiu simply borrowed these resources to help settle the refugees. Unexpectedly, her actions were praised by the scholars, and Chen Xiu accidentally gained a good reputation. Surprised by this outcome, Chen Xiu became even more invested in disaster relief work.

Meanwhile, Zhou Yangling’s poor district also received many people, and she too was researching ways to aid the poor.

Luo Lingyu, while trying to avoid Fan Qingchen who daily besieged her at the Lu residence, envied Chen Xiu’s good reputation. After discussing with Zhou Lang, who admired her capabilities, Luo Lingyu simply led her younger sister and began competing with Chen Xiu. She collaborated with Zhou Yangling and several large temples in the outskirts to assist these refugees. Seeing their actions, other ladies of Jianye followed suit, each showing great generosity, bringing unexpected joy to the court facing refugee pressures.

As a result, Luo Lingyu’s reputation spread not only among the upper-class nobles but also began gaining prestige among common people and lower-ranked families.

By early July, Luo Lingyu had been staying with Zhou Yangling at the mountain temples for about ten days, until the Lu family sent her a message. Lady Lu had brought the cousin sisters back to stay at home, and due to the summer heat, the Lu family had moved everyone to Danyang Prefecture city for relief from the heat. They planned to spend this year’s Qixi Festival together with the cousin sisters in Danyang Prefecture city. They sent the message to Luo Lingyu fearing she might not know the situation and returned to Wuyi Lane in Jianye after coming down from the mountain, only to find an empty Lu residence.

The Qixi Festival… thinking of this, Luo Lingyu mentioned it to Zhou Yangling, planning to go down the mountain to spend the festival in Danyang. She wasn’t a saint like Zhou Yangling, unable to stay alone in the mountains maintaining her reputation during festivals, and missing all the festive atmosphere. Zhou Yangling, strict with herself but lenient with others, naturally agreed without comment.

Several maids followed the young lady into the carriage down the mountain, all rubbing their waists and sighing deeply once seated. After all, such labor and constant movement was much more exhausting than caring for a delicate young lady. As the carriage moved along the bumpy road, swaying back and forth, the maids either lay prone or sat, their eyelids drooping, gradually becoming drowsy.

Suddenly, the ox cart came to an abrupt stop. From the front carriage, Luo Lingyu lifted the curtain to look outside. Her beautiful autumn-water eyes turned slightly, and under the bright sun, she saw two men crawling up on the road in front of the carriage. One was a middle-aged man with a sallow face and cracked lips; he led a youth who was starved and thin, looking as weak as a scrawny chicken. The two men sat on the road in front of the carriage, pleading pitifully for help. With the road blocked, the driver had no choice but to come ask the young lady what to do.

The young man’s hair was as messy as dried grass, and he kept his head lowered without speaking. The middle-aged man repeatedly tried to crawl toward Luo Lingyu’s carriage but was blocked by the guards and driver. The middle-aged man persisted: “Please save our lives, my lady. We fled from the north and haven’t had a proper meal in many days.”

The driver glanced back at the two men, his tone full of disgust as he tried to please the beautiful and elegant young lady who had lifted the curtain: “…Zhou Lang has offerings at several large temples up the mountain, but they won’t walk those few extra steps and instead come to block the lady’s carriage. They’re not good people! We shouldn’t help such people, my lady. Just let someone drive them away.”

The guards, wearing precious swords at their waists, glared vigilantly at the middle-aged man blocking the carriage and the silent young man.

However, Luo Lingyu looked over and sighed, speaking softly and weakly, her tone compassionate: “They are all pitiful people. Meeting on the road is fate, why be so harsh? Uncle Wang, give them some steamed buns and water, then move them aside so they don’t block our carriage.”

The driver immediately sighed: “My lady, you are truly too kind!”

Luo Lingyu smiled slightly.

In the carriage, her younger sister lay covered with a blanket in the corner, sleeping without awareness of the time of day. Amidst the continuous chirping of cicadas, Luo Lingyu held the curtain open, watching her people attend to the two refugees they had met on the road. The young man was manageable, eating the steamed bun once given; the dirty-faced middle-aged man knelt on the road, looking up to see the lady sitting quietly behind the carriage curtain, and trembled slightly.

Like the rising sun and moon, like falling clouds and rosy sunset.

Behind the brocade carriage curtain, that lady wore a crimson gauze dress that draped to the ground, her face classical and extraordinarily beautiful.

The middle-aged man’s eyes flashed with greed as he knelt forward another step, shouting: “Thank you for saving our lives, my lady! We two are willing to serve as oxen or horses to repay your kindness. Please take us in…”

All the guards and the driver looked worriedly at Luo Lingyu, fearing this kind young lady might agree to let these two refugees follow them. However, Luo Lingyu remained unimpressed internally. She glanced at the two people kneeling on the road, observing. The young man kept his head down, his face unseen, but the middle-aged man’s upturned face looked utterly ordinary from every angle, clearly not someone of distinguished birth fallen on hard times.

Luo Lingyu would help people, firstly for reputation, and secondly because she had learned from the trouble she once incurred by not helping Lu Sanlang – when faced with people begging for her help, even if she didn’t want to help, she had to make a show of it, putting on the face of a compassionate Bodhisattva, leaving no handle for others to grasp.

What if she encountered a second Lu Sanlang?

The people on the road kept begging incessantly, becoming annoying. After careful observation, these two people clearly couldn’t possibly be a second Lu Sanlang. Luo Lingyu lowered the curtain and said softly: “I cannot make such a decision. You two are young and strong, you can find other paths. Remember my kindness and come to repay it another day. Don’t turn a grain of rice’s kindness into a bucket of resentment by threatening and forcing me to save you two here.”

The middle-aged man who had been shouting vigorously froze, his face reddening: …he had never expected such a delicate and seemingly kind young lady would consider this aspect and speak such words.

He lowered his head, his eyes growing fierce. As he raised his head again, about to beg more earnestly, he suddenly heard hoofbeats. Everyone looked over to see a fine horse galloping forward, its rider a gentleman with a jade crown and beautiful features, his approaching figure like a cloud-borne crane. The middle-aged man kneeling on the ground closed his mouth, lowering his head anxiously, pretending to be absorbed in eating the steamed bun in his hands. He felt the hoofbeats pass his ears, a slight breeze, and the young gentleman on horseback glanced his way. He tried his best to suppress his aura, feeling the gentleman’s gaze linger on him for a moment before moving away.

The guards protecting the carriage convoy called out: “Third Young Master!”

Lu Sanlang’s horse stopped beside the carriage. He looked down toward the lady in the depths of the carriage curtains, asking with interest yet an odd tone: “…Sister Lingyu is being kind again, giving food and drink to random people met on the road?”

Inside the carriage, Luo Lingyu’s face reddened: Lu Yun’s tone mocked her “false kindness.”

Yet the people outside thought Lu Yun was praising her.

Luo Lingyu coughed once, embarrassedly playing her role completely before everyone: “…Yes. Seeing them pitiful on the road, I really couldn’t bear it, so I had to offer help. Cousin doesn’t blame me, does he?”

The gentleman outside gave a light laugh.

It seemed to brush against her ear as if teasing her. Through the curtain, she could imagine his smirking expression, making her face instantly burn hot. At the same time, she felt somewhat uneasy: since she had gone up the mountain, she hadn’t seen Lu Yun for many days. In her heart… she quite missed him.

With Lu Sanlang’s arrival, the two refugees blocking the road seemed to lose their courage, no longer daring to shout about becoming oxen or horses to repay the lady. When the guards drove the two people away again, the middle-aged man pulled the young man, quickly running away. The two ran far away, hiding in the bushes and carefully watching the distant carriage convoy. The middle-aged man and young man saw the carriage door by the roadside open, and the lady who had amazed them poked her head out to speak with the gentleman who bent down. After the two spoke for a few sentences, the extraordinarily handsome gentleman dismounted, handed the reins to a servant, and then got into the carriage to sit with the lady.

The middle-aged man immediately spat in disappointment: “…Pah. These nobles are just this loose, men and women sharing carriages, who knows what they’re playing at inside.”

The bold audacity of the upper-class nobles had always been an alien world to the common people.

The young man kept his eyes lowered without speaking. He quietly wiped the dirt from his face, revealing a somewhat handsome countenance. He remained quiet and still, never raising his head to look, yet heard the middle-aged man beside him say regretfully: “Such a beautiful lady… Ah, aren’t all noble ladies supposed to be extremely kind? How is it that when we block their carriage asking for help, that lady only gives us food, without inviting us to sit in the carriage for a while?”

He spat: “I heard that Lady Chen from the great scholar Chen’s family even gives refugees houses to live in!”

“Damn it… no, this lady must be kind-hearted, she was just held back by that man. Next time we meet her, we’ll just ask for help again.”

“Nobles… heh, if we can get close to her, we might enjoy some good fortune… When Jianye City falls, considering how this beauty cared for us, we’ll take her along, heh!”

The young man remained silent throughout.