After each dream, his body would be unwell the following day. The severity of his discomfort corresponded to the length of the dream’s content. The good thing was that when Lu Erlang first started having dreams, he would either have a fever or fall seriously ill, but now perhaps because his body had adapted, after dreaming he only suffered from splitting headaches and fatigue, with no major ailments.

This time, after having a dream the previous night that Lu Erlang couldn’t quite understand but instinctively felt uneasy about, the next day he took sick leave and rested at home.

Lu Xian pondered over his dream all morning, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was amiss as if he had made some mistake. Before noon, Lu Sanlang returned to the manor unusually early. Upon hearing that his third brother had returned, although he had not yet figured out his dream, Lu Xian still went to find Lu Yun—perhaps Lu Yun’s reaction could tell him something.

Arriving at Lu Yun’s courtyard without announcing himself, Lu Xian first saw a man and woman talking in front of the veranda. Standing at the moon gate of the courtyard, tree shadows cast on the ground, the light bright white and flickering like raindrops, the clear-minded Lu family’s second young master Lu Xian stood behind the trees, experiencing a momentary sense of déjà vu—

Under the cool shade of the veranda, the young lady sat leaning against the railing, her lips slightly pursed, face resting between her arms. In the ordinary mortal realm, she was an extraordinary beauty. Even with furrowed brows and a displeased expression as she sat there, with her trailing dress and cloud-like hair adorned with flowers, she was still as beautiful as one who could make the fish sink and wild geese fall from the sky.

The handsome and elegant young lord placed his hand on her shoulder, lowering his head to speak with her, gently coaxing her to talk. But the young lady was being temperamental, twisting her shoulders away, not letting the young lord touch her. No matter what he said, she turned her face to the other side, ignoring him.

After talking for a while, the young lady still wouldn’t respond. Lu Yun then dropped his hand, standing behind her for a moment with an indifferent expression: “Luo Lingyu, when given a chance to step down, take it proactively, alright?”

Luo Lingyu immediately jumped up as if her tail had been stepped on, her anger difficult to conceal, her eyes red with rage and voice raised: “How dare you say that to me?! After all, who…

Lu Xian’s hand holding the letter trembled slightly: Listen to Prince Chen’s casual tone! This practice of Liu Shu and Lu Yun casually making excuses to fool them had become very well-practiced!

Along with the falling letter were two official appointment documents issued by the court. One appointed Lu Yun as the new Governor of Nanyang, to proceed to Nanyang immediately to handle affairs there. The other was a military advisor position. In this era, the military advisor role was comparable to a strategist, with great power and status. Not directly appointing Lu Yun as a general for battle was likely due to consideration of his lack of experience. The military advisor position was already the highest position Prince Chen could obtain for Third Young Master Lu without attracting too much attention on the surface.

Lu Xian silently looked at the letter: Going to the frontier… so this was what Lu Yun had been thinking all along.

Lu Yun stood beside him, trying to judge Second Brother’s thoughts, tentatively asking: “About going to the frontier, I deceived everyone. I just had an argument with Sister Lingyu about this matter. Now, have I hurt Second Brother’s feelings as well?”

Lu Erlang: …He didn’t know whether he should feel hurt or not.

The dreams were too chaotic, he hadn’t sorted them out yet.

For a moment he had the impulse to tell everything, but recently he had been studying with a master and reciting Buddhist scriptures together and had come to understand the principle that heavenly secrets cannot be revealed. His dreams revolved around the Third Brother, and he worried that if he spoke of them, the heavenly secrets would bring new crises. Better to let an insignificant person like himself fumble along blindly—Lu Erlang was gradually understanding by now that Lu Sanlang seemed able to influence the future political situation of the Southern Kingdom. He was merely a passerby.

Lu Erlang remained silent.

Lu Yun asked again: “Won’t Second Brother scold me?”

Lu Erlang slowly looked at him once, was dull for a moment, then said: “The frontier is poor and full of disasters, and weapons show no mercy. I truly don’t want you to go, but my will cannot influence you. Whether I should support you… I need to think about it some more.”

Lu Erlang’s expression was dazed as he carelessly tossed the opened letter into Lu Yun’s hands, then turned and swayed out of the courtyard.

Lu Yun ordered servants to follow him—his second brother was so abnormal, what if something unfortunate happened?

Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu silently watched Second Brother’s retreating figure.

After a long while, Luo Lingyu said softly: “Second Cousin really should have a physician come examine him.”

Lu Yun glanced at her: “…Aunt has already been secretly searching everywhere for skilled doctors.”

Luo Lingyu sighed: “Good people are blessed by heaven. I hope Second Cousin recovers soon.”

Lu Yun responded absent-mindedly: “…Mm.”

He had always been sensitive, and by now had become aware of the strange aspects of Lu Erlang’s behavior. But his earlier probing had yielded nothing.

He could only set this matter aside for now.

First, he had to worry about how to explain to the Lu family elders about his going to the frontier.

Setting out in three days… Lu Yun looked back at Luo Lingyu, who snorted and turned her face away.

…

Due to his concerns about his dreams, Lu Erlang felt apprehensive about the Southern Kingdom’s outcome. Better to believe it exists than not, and after much hesitation in reality, Lu Erlang still didn’t reprimand Lu Yun about going to the frontier. He watched for a day as the family elders each had heart-to-heart talks with Lu Yun, while Lu Erlang himself neither supported nor opposed it.

Old Madam Lu wasn’t even in the mood to ask about Lu Yun’s marriage anymore.

Lu Xian neither reminded him again nor had people watch Third Brother, forbidding him from going out until he was married.

Aristocratic marriages were always complicated affairs; even if Lu Yun went now to handle the cancellation of engagement with the Fan family of Nanyang while the Lu family began preparing for the wedding, it would still take at least half a year until Lu Yun could marry Luo Lingyu. This meant that if the northern war didn’t slow down, the Southern Kingdom would inevitably fall in half a year.

After spending a day thinking, he had only figured out this dream’s timeline. Lu Erlang felt it all meaningless.

And as he had expected, when he didn’t try to change the dream in reality, when he didn’t have people guard Lu Yun, when Lu Yun had the possibility of going to the frontier, that night, Lu Erlang’s dream changed again.

…

He dreamed of another one of those two hazy dreams.

The one where Cousin Luo trudged through the snow, searching for Third Brother.

This dream became clearer, and Lu Erlang saw more details in it.

Dense fog shrouded the mountains, deep snow everywhere, with no visible boundaries, no visible future. The people searching in the snowy fog were sparse, and here, Luo Lingyu walked on alone with difficulty. The fog at her feet dispersed; looking down, she saw corpses by her feet, blood everywhere, and men in ordinary clothes continuously appearing, dying at Luo Lingyu’s feet with their last breaths.

She had to turn over every corpse to look at the face.

The moisture on her eyelashes had frozen into fine frost, her cheeks pale and cold. In a red cloak and white garments, originally an extremely beautiful woman, but now pale and haggard. She called out loudly, her voice echoing in the vast heavens and earth: “Lu Yun, Lu Yun—”

At one moment, her voice suddenly caught in her throat.

Lu Erlang, like a wandering soul in the dream, followed her gaze and suddenly felt his chest tighten, speechless with suffocation, his eyes instantly becoming moist.

As the fog slowly dispersed, leaning against a mountain rock, that incomparably handsome young lord sat with his head lowered, his waist and abdomen covered in blood. Three or four arrows had pierced through his clothes and into his body. His breath had already ceased, maintaining only that sitting posture against the rock, with snow covering his shoulders and robes. His features were still characteristically handsome, like snow and jade, like the purest ink painting in heaven and earth.

Even in death, he was so beautiful.

Mountains and rivers stretched far, heaven and earth desolate, only the howling of wind and snow could be heard. With difficult steps, legs weak, Luo Lingyu walked over one step at a time, kneeling before him. She looked up at him, reaching out to brush away the ice and snow from his brows and eyes. Lu Yun’s elegant, beautiful ink-black eyes and brows were revealed.

Though the young lord had died, his face after death was the same as when he was alive, with that spirit, that charm, unique in all the world. Luo Lingyu stared in a daze, quiet and silent. She pursed her lips, the flesh of her cheeks trembling slightly. When searching everywhere she had cried uncontrollably, but upon seeing him, she didn’t cry.

Then she lowered her head, gripping his frozen hand that rested on his knee. Seeming to feel something amiss, she opened his curved fingers, seeing something lying quietly in his palm.

It was a well-embroidered sachet.

To Lu Erlang, it looked similar to the sachets embroidered by maids that he usually wore.

But Luo Lingyu’s expression changed instantly. The sachet was already open, with a corner of the yellow talisman paper inside showing. When Luo Lingyu opened his hand, she looked down to see the crumpled talisman paper. This talisman had been through much, both losing water and accompanying its master to the battlefield. Finally, as heaven and earth were filled with wind and snow, when Luo Lingyu spread open Lu Yun’s hand, the talisman paper from the sachet was blown away by the wind.

But Luo Lingyu didn’t raise her head to chase after that talisman. In her eyes, that talisman didn’t have much use. Her proof of Lu Yun’s heart was actually on the sachet. As the young lady lowered her eyes to stare at the sachet, it was when her gaze went further down that she saw faint bloodstains in the snow.

Gently brushing away the traces in the snow, the deft-fingered Luo Lingyu never faltered at such times, never destroying the secret buried under the snow. After brushing away the thin layer of covering snow, those characters written in blood from fingertips, soaring like dragons and phoenixes in the sky, graceful writing was revealed.

Lu Erlang recognized it; his third brother was a scholar, a calligraphy master, and this was his most commonly used style, exactly what he was seeing now. These two lines written in blood read—

“A word to you through the ages.”

“Love unmoved as mountains.”

…

Love unmoved as mountains.

…

He was dead, and his love had indeed become eternally unchanged.

…

It was only then that Luo Lingyu in the dream suddenly broke down. She began to cry loudly, embracing the young lord who had already died. She held his cold, stiff hand, pressing her face against his. She cried out loudly: “You saw it, didn’t you? You saw it, didn’t you?”

“I wish you hadn’t seen it—”

“Brother Xuezhen, you must have been so sad then. I didn’t want you to be sad…”

What she had wanted was his love, for him to love her, for him to not change his heart, for him to marry her.

She hadn’t wanted to discover this secret after his death.

The young lady held the dead young lord and cried, crying until her voice was hoarse, crying until her whole body shook. Wailing loudly, completely different from her usual performative sobbing and whimpering. In the end, she only loved him, and shed sincere tears before him.

But originally, this wasn’t something worth being happy about.

…

In the dream, after Third Young Master Lu’s death, the northern war also ended. Lu Yun had achieved a bitter victory at the cost of his life, ultimately winning an opportunity for the Southern Kingdom. The one who came to the frontier to receive them was Prince Chen, who had personally requested the mission. His Highness Prince Chen seemed to have aged ten years, his face weathered, expression greatly grieved, appearing not much better than the dazed Luo Lingyu.

Afterward, Luo Lingyu returned to Jianye with Prince Chen.

The war between South and North stopped, and the Southern Kingdom began negotiations with the Northern Kingdom.

Everything developed in a flourishing direction.

Third Young Master Lu died for a worthy cause, becoming a hero of the Southern Kingdom. But for those who cared about him, this meant nothing.

Living in the Lu family manor, the young lady Cousin Luo who had already begun discussing marriage with Third Young Master Lu had long since withdrawn from that unwanted engagement. She had withdrawn from the engagement to marry another, but after that other person’s death, the withdrawal became like a joke. Young Master Fan Qingchen of the Fan family in Nanyang personally came to Jianye to find her, wanting to reconcile with her, begging her to marry him.

Cousin Luo’s reputation in Jianye was very great; the reputation she had cultivated for a year made many young lords of Jianye want to propose marriage to her at this time.

Lu Erlang didn’t know how much Luo Lingyu despised poverty and loved wealth, and didn’t know this cousin would only marry into wealthy families.

In the dream, what Lu Erlang saw was Luo Lingyu gracefully declining all marriage proposals. She left Jianye with her younger sister; the Lu family wanted to send her back to Nanyang, but she refused that too.

…

She had no fixed abode, and finally, the Lu family lost contact with her.

The dream no longer knew where she had gone.”

As she rose and twisted her waist, the third young master Lu, whose expression had been quite bland, reached out and caught her by the waist. The young lord who had just been full of impatience now smiled as he pulled her into his embrace, lowering his head to joke with her: “Alright, don’t be angry anymore. I was wrong, forgive me, little sister, hmm?”

Captivated by the young lord’s deep, drawn-out final tone, Luo Lingyu’s eyes reddened: “You scoundrel…”

Lu Yun held her close, constantly comforting her, kissing her face, and joking with her. His face was buried in her neck, his nose touching her skin. Third Young Master Lu’s voice grew increasingly soft until what he was saying could no longer be heard, but one could see that the prickly young lady had been soothed into docility in his embrace. The young lady, held in his arms unable to break free, grabbed his sleeve with trembling fingers, lowering her head and sobbing continuously, whimpering.

Lu Yun laughed again: “Yingying, you’re using this trick again…”

Luo Lingyu: “Who are you calling ‘Yingying’?! You’re not my parents, don’t give me random nicknames!”

Lu Erlang’s thoughts were hazy, because although he knew from his dreams that his third brother and Cousin Luo had been continuously flirting, their feelings growing deeper; in reality, he rarely saw Third Young Master Lu and Miss Luo getting along so well. Their eyes conveyed their feelings, their emotions subtle and indefinable, but aside from that day when they had quarreled severely and caused a scene about a “marriage proposal” at Old Madam Lu’s place, at other times, the two of them rarely showed their feelings so openly.

Both Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu seemed to have reservations, unwilling to display their feelings openly, and unwilling to let people think they were a couple. Until the dust settled, neither Lu Yun nor Luo Lingyu would fully acknowledge their hearts.

This reserved manner was unlike the openness of the entire Southern Kingdom’s upper-class gentry.

Lu Erlang sighed: No wonder these two younger siblings could take to each other. Their temperaments were both somewhat peculiar.

Having always been pampered and privileged, receiving all the family’s resources and having his parents pave every road for him, Lu Erlang couldn’t understand that it wasn’t a peculiar temperament. Rather, it was a sense of insecurity, of uncertainty. Fear of the vague future, fear of being unworthy. Even though they were already outstanding men (women) in others’ eyes, they could never be confident in matters of the heart. The sense of security that early parental loss had failed to provide wasn’t apparent elsewhere, but when it came to touching on emotions, Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu were essentially the same.

Perhaps it was because they were currently in Lu Yun’s courtyard that Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu were more at ease, and they would end up embracing while talking… Lu Erlang stood dazedly at the courtyard entrance watching for a while, and those two remained oblivious. It wasn’t until a maidservant coming out from behind the curtain saw Lu Erlang at the courtyard entrance and coughed heavily that Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu looked over.

Lu Yun and Luo Lingyu calmly separated and each greeted Lu Erlang. Lu Yun was thicker-skinned, his expression unchanged; Luo Lingyu tried to maintain composure, but her beautiful eyes looking toward Lu Erlang still carried some shyness.

Lu Erlang sighed.

Luo Lingyu tilted her head in confusion: Why was Second Cousin sighing? Could it be that he didn’t like her being with Lu Sanlang? But she had heard Lu Yun say…

Upon seeing Lu Erlang, Lu Yun’s mood became slightly complex, because when he had paid his respects to Old Madam Lu this morning, he had learned that he had been misunderstanding his second brother all along. Second Brother had never liked Luo Lingyu, his care for Luo Lingyu had mostly been for his sake. Lu Yun bowed, his long robe touching the ground, and he respectfully made a deep bow: “Grandmother told me that regarding my matter with Lingyu, Second Brother spoke up for us. I will now follow Second Brother’s words and make a trip to Nanyang, to help Lingyu dissolve her engagement with the Fan family. Thank you, Second Brother, for helping me.”

Lu Yun glanced at Luo Lingyu, indicating that she should also come over to thank Lu Xian. Luo Lingyu smiled, pursing her lips, and moved forward.

Lu Erlang: “…”

Lu Erlang said quietly: “If… I say I regret, that I shouldn’t have helped you two with the marriage proposal. Third Brother, can you pretend not to know about this matter?”

Luo Lingyu, who had just come over preparing to make a deep bow, froze: “…”

Lu Yun raised his eyebrows in surprise: What did Second Brother mean?

Lu Erlang nodded slowly, his tone even more melancholic: “You can’t, can you? I knew it, I did a bad thing with good intentions. I’ve never been good at chess, my grasp of the big picture and overall situation is far inferior to yours. For once I made a move, with grand ambitions, yet I find I can’t quite understand the whole board, black and white pieces battling across it, with constant gaps I cannot fill. Why didn’t heaven simply let you make the move? After all, it’s your matter. Could it be because you have a deadly predicament to overcome, while I don’t?”

“I was meant to be a man of mountains and waters in this mortal realm, why does heaven toy with me so?”

Lu Xian felt grief in his heart, thinking that if Third Brother Lu Yun could dream himself, could foresee the future, it would be much better than him. Lu Xian was truly at his wit’s end, he loved mountains and waters, clear discussions, writing poetry and prose, his life’s wish was nothing more than to travel mountains and waters, find one or two kindred spirits, and have red sleeves add fragrance to his ink. With a brother like Lu Yun in the family, who had been a prodigy since childhood, Lu Erlang had long since come to terms with the fact that his appearance and talents were both inferior to Lu Yun’s, and his sensitivity to political affairs and world situations was even far below Lu Yun’s… perhaps he was only luckier than Lu Yun. Were lucky people supposed to bear such responsibilities? Regardless of whether they had the ability?

Lu Yun lowered his eyebrows, looking at his second brother thoughtfully.

Luo Lingyu felt slightly uneasy, this Lu Erlang was already completely different from the quiet, reserved Lu Erlang she had first met, who always maintained a stern face when lecturing his younger brother.

Lu Erlang spoke as if in a trance: “Since I cannot fill in the gaps in the game, why does heaven let me make moves? Moreover, whether others want to marry or be married, why should it be so closely connected to me? I haven’t even seen my fate, yet in my rare glimpses of heaven’s mysteries, why do I always see others’ destinies…”

Why did he always dream of his third brother and Cousin Luo?

And they never met a good end?

Marrying the Prince of Hengyang didn’t end well, marrying Lu Yun didn’t end well either… Did this mean Cousin Luo had to marry him instead? Or should he dig up some stranger from somewhere?

Lu Erlang was nearly driven mad by his dreams.

In reality, this time, even Luo Lingyu, who was usually skilled at reading people’s moods and pleasing them, hesitated for a moment before tentatively suggesting: “Second Cousin, perhaps you’re too tired, shall we call for the imperial physician to prescribe some calming medicine?”

Lu Yun: “…Sister Lingyu makes a good point.”

Lu Xian looked at them: …Always being treated as a madman, how difficult life was!

As Lu Xian’s spirit sank, unsure of what to do, from the corner of his eye he suddenly caught a shadow flitting past. He turned his head to look and saw it was a servant boy peeking in at the courtyard entrance, who, upon seeing him there, hesitated and was about to retreat. This servant boy was Xiulin, the one Third Young Master Lu often used.

Although Lu Erlang was mentally exhausted, he still maintained some of his elder brother’s authority. He frowned and rebuked: “What are you sneaking around for, what are you trying to hide from me? Come in quickly!”

Xiulin looked toward his own master—Lu Sanlang’s eyes flickered slightly, giving an almost imperceptible nod, and only then did Xiulin run into the courtyard with a grinning face to pay his respects to the Second Young Master.

Xiulin cleverly claimed that he hadn’t seen Lu Erlang earlier, thinking the Third Young Master had guests, which was why he had said he would withdraw. Lu Erlang naturally knew the servant was trying to fool him, but he had always been lenient, casually waving his hand before asking Xiulin what the matter was. Xiulin nervously glanced at Lu Yun again, and Third Young Master Lu stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at his second brother, showing no sign of stopping him. Only then did Xiulin take out a letter, mumbling: “…Just brought from Prince Chen’s manor.”

Lu Xian tore open the envelope, and after reading two lines, the veins on his forehead began to throb.

The letter was written by Prince Chen, saying that he had taken care of the matter Lu Sanlang had asked him to handle. Liu Shu’s tone in the letter was very casual as if chatting face-to-face with Lu Sanlang about personnel changes in the court. And the letter to Lu Sanlang naturally spoke of Lu Sanlang’s official position transfer. Liu Shu said to let Lu Yun rest assured, he had arranged everything, and Third Young Master only needed to appease the Lu family, and could set out in three days. If the Third Young Master didn’t wish to inform the Lu family, Prince Chen would cooperate when needed. Prince Chen would arrange an excuse on the surface for Lu Sanlang to leave the capital, after all, Lu Sanlang had often left Jianye before, and Prince Chen had always explained it to the Lu family this way…