The rain was relentless.
After a long silence, Lu Tong looked at him and spoke abruptly, "Why didn’t you leave?"
She had made it very clear to Yin Zheng, through Qingfeng, that she wouldn’t be coming today.
Qingfeng’s carriage had already left and had not returned; presumably, he had passed on the ssage.
He had already left, she thought, she knew this fact, and that’s why she ca here so at ease.
But why was he still here?
Still here, waiting alone?
"You didn’t want to see , and I didn’t want to upset you by showing up uninvited," he said.
"But I thought, just in case you changed your mind and suddenly wanted to see , I would wait here a little longer"
He smiled slightly, "Fortunately, I had the foresight."
Lu Tong said nothing.
This was far more than "waiting a little longer"; enough ti had passed that, in just a mont more, his birthday would be over.
Pei Yunng stepped out, pulled Lu Tong, who was outside the window, into the room, and said, "Why are you standing there looking lost?"
The Tea Pavilion was devoid of other custors; every private seat had its lights extinguished, except this one, where the lamps were still bright, and a table full of dishes was laid out.
Lu Tong looked down with drooping eyes.
The dishes had gotten cold.
"This place is not a restaurant or tavern, but my mother’s favorite tea house when she was alive," he said.
He took the paper umbrella from Lu Tong’s hand at the doorway and walked to the table: "The owner of the tea house is peculiar and only does business until You Hour. After that hour, she closes up and goes ho. It took considerable effort to convince her to stay open a little longer tonight for ."
"But the rain is too heavy, and since everyone has left, the food has gotten cold and isn’t fit to eat," he said as his fingertips brushed over a tiny wine pot on the table, "but the wine is still warm, drinkable."
The wine pot was lifted by Pei Yunng, poured into a white porcelain cup, clear as a mirror.
"Wine is the brother of joy, dispelling worries and bringing happiness," he offered a cup to Lu Tong: "Let the wine of joy dispel your worries."
Lu Tong accepted the wine cup.
Pei Yunng looked at her, a faint smile on his lips: "My mother liked this place, said the maple leaves here are very beautiful, but I’ve never been before."
He looked outside the window, where a light rain fell over distant mountains.
It wasn’t yet the season when maple leaves turned red.
After a while, he returned to the present and asked her, "Why don’t you sit down?"
Lu Tong stood still, her grip tightening on the wine cup, and then she said, "Today is your birthday."
"Yes, it is," Pei Yunng responded with a smile, opening one hand toward her, "Where is my colorful ribbon?""
Lu Tong remained silent.
Last year on his birthday, Pei Yunng had been in labor, she was detoxifying Pei Yunshu, and Pei Yunng had no mood for celebration. Even though they hadn’t celebrated, through so twist of fate, they had spent it together.
And here they were together again this year.
Unknowingly, a year had passed.
She extended her hand and set the wine cup on the table.
"I was very busy today," Lu Tong said slowly: "And I’ll continue to be busy. For the Marshal to invite here in the middle of the night just for these trivialities is frankly quite boring."
Pei Yunng paused.
Looking at him, Lu Tong said, "Such trivial matters, the Marshal can find soone else for them in the future. Please don’t include anymore."
With her head down, she moved to leave, but suddenly Pei Yunng’s voice ca from behind her.
"Lu Tong."
She halted her steps.
"You once asked , at the doorstep of the Palace Marshal’s Mansion, when you borrowed my refusal to Dong Lin and pretended to embrace , why I didn’t push you away."
With her back to him, Lu Tong heard her own raspy voice: "Why?"
"No reason," he said lightly: "I just didn’t want to push away."
The sound of the rain was a gentle murmur; the light inside the room flickered.
Lu Tong felt a tremor in her heart.
"Why don’t you ask what my birthday wish is?" he continued.
Lu Tong didn’t speak.
Pei Yunng walked up to her.
Mist and rain threaded through the beaded curtains, stirring the dim candlelight on the table, bathing his handso features in a warm glow as he stared at her—steadily, calmly.
"My birthday wish is..."
"...that the person I am smitten with, is also smitten with ."
It was as if soone had cast a huge stone onto a placid lake, causing tumultuous ripples, but then in a mont, the ripples turned into a bitter taste, heavy sorrow enveloping her heart.
She looked up, firmly sealing away the ripples in her heart into a corner, her expression cold and indifferent.
"The Marshal wouldn’t tell that the one he is smitten with is , would he?" she asked.
His brow furrowed slightly: "Why not?" he said, pausing before adding, "At the Qiqiao Tower during Qixi, I thought I made myself quite clear."
Lu Tong began to laugh lightly.
Her laughter was filled with irony: "A man, helping soone a few tis is considered smitten? Marshal, I’m not so vain. I won’t take this seriously, and you should not either. Let’s pretend today’s events never happened."
With those words, she stood up to leave.
Pei Yunng pressed against the door, barring her way. His tall figure overshadowed hers, for the first ti assertively holding her back, his eyes sharply challenging, his smirking gaze relentless as he stared at her.
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