Ten days felt like a fleeting moment to most people. To the Hua Family, it felt like an eternity.
As the Imperial Tutor, Hua Zhi could no longer hide away in the old residence and resumed her daily lessons. After several consecutive days of acupuncture treatment, the injury on her hand began to show gradual improvement. Everything was moving in a better direction.
But as the days drew closer, not just the other members of the Hua Family — even Hua Zhi herself had lost her usual composure. The Emperor noticed and simply gave her a few days off, telling her to wait at home in peace.
And as a fitting fiancé, Gu Yanxi had already sent people out to keep watch well in advance. The news arrived that afternoon.
“They’ve arrived?”
“Yes. They are still forty li from the capital. At this point, they should be about halfway.”
Forty li. Hua Zhi bit the tip of her tongue to steady herself. “Are they all on horseback?”
“Yes.”
Twenty li, on horseback — that was very soon!
“A reward — Nanny Su, give him a reward.”
Nanny Su answered loudly with excitement and quickly fetched a red envelope to hand over. The man accepted it with a grin and, wisely taking the hint, made a hasty departure.
Hua Zhi called out her instructions. “Tell everyone — assemble in the front courtyard in a quarter of an hour.”
“Yes.”
Watching everyone move with swift, eager steps, Hua Zhi herself walked with an airy lightness back to her room and sat down at the dressing table. Looking at herself in the mirror, she reached up and touched her own face. “Help me change my clothes. And do my makeup.”
“Yes.”
Ying Chun glanced uncertainly at the official robes hanging in the wardrobe and turned back. “Do you want to wear your official robes?”
“No, give me a formal outer robe.”
“Yes.”
Hua Zhi had not taken care with her appearance in a very long time. As the Imperial Tutor, her hair was always styled for practicality, and after donning official robes most of the time she simply pinned her hair up to wear the official headpiece. Everyone had grown accustomed to seeing her that way.
So when she stepped out from her room, everyone was struck speechless — including Gu Yanxi, who had been waiting outside.
Her brows were lightly traced, her eyeliner delicately drawn, making her eyes appear all the brighter. A touch of rouge on her cheeks gave her a healthy, vibrant glow. Her lips were softened in color so that even with her commanding presence still not entirely dissipated, the soft pink of her lips would not give the impression of overbearing severity.
As for her attire — she wore a pink sheer gauze jacket embroidered with three shades of green and three shades of blue bamboo motifs on wide borders trimmed with jade-colored gauze, layered with three sets of golden and silver thread fragrant-grass cloud patterns. Her skirt was a plain Xihu-water silk garment with a hundred-pomegranate pleated design, the folds concealing a subtle scattering of flowers in soft five-color intervals and three shades of blue, with a band of sky-blue brocade gold-thread floral trim at the hem. Standing still, it appeared to be a plain skirt; only in motion did the hidden flowers within the pleats reveal themselves. Already this would have been more than sufficient on another woman. But she was susceptible to the cold, so over everything she had also added a sky-blue sleeveless overcoat.
This was a softer Hua Zhi — though that softness was only relative to the version of herself from before. After two years of the experiences she had lived through, even if she wholeheartedly wished to return to simply being the First Young Miss of the Hua Family, she could not pull back that bearing in so short a time. Her softness was inevitably laced with a cool restraint, and the decisiveness and sharpness still visible between her brows lent her an air that was at once enchanting and spirited — a contradiction, and yet utterly, breathtakingly beautiful.
Hua Zhi herself noticed none of this. She walked toward Yanxi with undisguised joy on her face. “Why have you come?”
“To keep you company.” Gu Yanxi gave a light cough to mask his momentary lapse of composure. “By my reckoning they should be entering the city soon.”
Hua Zhi hesitated slightly. It was not that she feared being seen with Yanxi in front of family — everyone who needed to know already did. But the occasion that was coming was, after all, a family reunion, and Yanxi being there might put him in an awkward position…
“I won’t go over. I’ll just stay to one side and keep you company.” He had seen through what she was thinking. Gu Yanxi smiled warmly and gently. He had spent nearly two years gradually finding his way into Ah Zhi’s heart. Now he had succeeded. She thought of his wellbeing, she kept him in her thoughts, she considered his feelings…
All of this was proof that he was in her heart.
“But I might not be able to pay you any attention for a while…”
“You don’t need to. I only want to be by your side.”
Hua Zhi understood his meaning at once, and her eyes curved with a smile as she agreed.
Gu Yanxi smiled too. “Go on.”
Hua Zhi nodded, drew a deep breath, and walked toward the family members who had been waiting for some time.
The great gates of the Hua Family home were thrown wide open. The Hua Family members streamed out one after another.
Hua Zhi stood at the very front, leading them. The Hua Family sons, together with Yang Sui’an and Zeng Han, stood in the middle. Behind them came the Hua daughters, then the wives of the various branches, and Hua Xian. Behind them stood the concubines of the household. At the very rear came the servants and staff — a vast crowd, not a single person absent.
Though every heart was bursting with excitement, every face was solemn and grave. No one spoke. Everyone pricked their ears and fixed their eyes on the mouth of the alley, blinking only in the briefest of flashes when they truly could bear it no longer.
Two years apart, and the reunion was now at hand. How could it not set every heart ablaze?
How much time passed, no one could say — perhaps a long while, perhaps only an instant. The rhythmic clatter of hoofbeats rang out, but the sound drew near only to fade away again, and these were not the ones they were waiting for.
Before their hearts could re-brace themselves, the sound of hoofbeats rose again — and this time it was different. It was heavy and resonant, as though many horses were converging at once. And their Hua Family did indeed have many, many people coming home…
Hua Zhi could not stop herself from stepping forward, the hands folded at her lower abdomen clutching each other tightly, and her head felt faintly dizzy.
Closer. Closer still. When familiar silhouettes appeared within her line of sight, Hua Zhi’s mind went blank. On instinct, she led everyone to their knees, and her clear voice — unable to entirely conceal its sob — rang out across Hualin Alley.
“Welcome home.”
Immediately after, voices young and old, soft and cracking with tears, rose together in unison.
“Welcome home!”
Hua Yizheng gripped the reins so tightly his knuckles whitened. He wanted to dismount but could not feel his legs. He knew he was weathered and worn by the road, knew his appearance was disheveled, that every inch of his body ached — but he wanted to go and help that child up.
Hua Pingyang, not quite gracefully, tumbled off his horse and in a flurry of movement helped his father down, moving to support him — his father’s body was trembling faintly — and guide him forward.
But Hua Yizheng pushed him aside and walked on his own to stand before his eldest granddaughter. He bent down and helped her to her feet. Looking at her — cheeks hollow and sunken, her clothes hanging loose off her frame — he opened his mouth to speak, but in the end not a single word came out. He only gently, softly patted her arm. Everything that could not be said was said in that silence.
“Everyone rise.”
On this side, the people stood. On the other side, people hurried forward with quick steps. Gazes met gazes, each finding the one they had missed most. It was only when they saw tears streaming down the other’s face that they realized, belatedly, that their own cheeks were already soaked.
No one felt any shame. This moment — they had waited two years for it. There had been times when they thought they would never see one another again. But the ancestors had watched over them, and heaven had not treated the Hua Family harshly!
The crowd parted. Hua Yizheng lifted his gaze to the gate — familiar to him down to his very bones and blood — and looked at it for a long moment. Then, hands clasped behind his back, he was the first to walk through. After two steps, he turned and beckoned to Hua Zhi. She murmured an apology to her father beside her and moved forward to take her grandfather’s arm. It was perhaps a touch beyond her place, but within this Hua Family, the person she had always been closest to had never been her parents — it had always been her grandfather.
She thought of something and glanced toward the spot where Yanxi had been standing. She found him there, watching this side. As their eyes met, he smiled at her. Hua Zhi immediately broke into a smile of such warmth that it reached her eyes.
Hua Yizheng saw the exchange between the two and felt a quiet peace settle in his heart. All other matters aside — at least on this one, there had been no unexpected changes.