A Quiet Homecoming

It was just past noon.

She was cradling the hand warmer she had scarcely put down these past days, dipping her head to spoon up the steaming dried scallop and silver-thread soup in front of her, when Xia He suddenly came running in from outside.

"Miss, it's snowing outside! This is the first snow of the year." Her voice was brimming with excitement.

Chuntao stepped up to brush a few snowflakes off her shoulders. "Miss is having her midday meal. Don't always be so loud and excitable."

Xia He lowered her head obediently. "Forgive me, Miss."

Chen Yao chewed and swallowed in small, careful bites, letting the soup trickle down her throat, feeling the warm, cozy heat rise steadily from her belly, making her feel altogether languid.

"Then go back to the small kitchen and bring another bowl of soup."

She set down the empty bowl in her hands, thought for a moment, then added, "Make sure to spoon in extra minced meat."

Xia He answered happily, "Yes, Miss."

Chuntao shook her head inwardly, then stepped forward to add a few more pieces of silver-thread charcoal to the brazier, making the room even warmer.

"It seems Miss really likes this dish. From now on, we can have the cook prepare it in this flavor," she said with a smile.

Chen Yao nodded slightly. "The taste is passable, but it's too light and plain. Next time, have the cook put in more meat and rich ingredients."

"I'll remember that," Chuntao said, then glanced outside. "Would Miss like to go into the courtyard this afternoon to watch the snow?"

Chen Yao shook her head firmly.

She thought: What's so interesting about snow? It was freezing out—why would she be so desperate as to go outside and freeze?

*

And yet, when the afternoon actually arrived, Chen Yao was still curled up on the daybed, which had been laid with a thick brocade cushion underneath.

A hot water bottle had been tucked into her blankets, warming her through. She was just drifting off to sleep when she was abruptly jolted awake by Xia He, who came rushing in.

"Miss, the master is summoning you to the front hall right away." She seemed to have run all the way here, speaking a little breathlessly.

Chen Yao rubbed her eyes. Anyone who is jolted awake just as they are about to drift off would be a little annoyed.

But looking at the young maid before her, who was only fifteen or sixteen years old, she couldn't bring herself to vent her frustration at her. Instead, she wriggled her body and turned her face toward the inner side of the bed.

"Just tell Father I don't want to go," Chen Yao said, burying her head in the brocade quilt, her voice thick with sulkiness.

Xia He hesitated. "But Miss, it's Young Master Xie who has come."

Even if it were the Jade Emperor himself, she still wouldn't go, Chen Yao thought indignantly.

But in the end, she could only climb out of the warm, cozy quilt with a huff, letting her maids help her dress and do her hair simply.

Then, wearing a pair of light-colored deerskin boots and draped in a heavy white fox-fur cloak on top, she had Xia He hold an oil-paper umbrella to shield her from the snow, and made her way to the front hall with visible reluctance.

*

In the front hall.

Xie Qingyan was seated properly in the lower seat, speaking warmly to the Marquis and Lady Pingyuan about his recent trip to Yunzhang City.

Naturally, he mainly mentioned the local customs and a few interesting anecdotes he had heard.

"Many of the streets and alleys there are built along the river. During the day, black-awning boats travel back and forth on the water without end—the whole scene is one of small bridges, flowing water, and households."

Lady Hou listened with great interest, and Pingyuan Hou also listened seriously while stroking his beard, though he occasionally interjected to ask a few more questions about local governance and the people's livelihood.

Xie Qingyan answered all of these appropriately as well.

Just as they were speaking, they suddenly heard the servant stationed at the door announce, "Master, Madam, the eldest miss has arrived."

Xie Qingyan instinctively turned his body, and his gaze unconsciously drifted through the half-open window not far beside him toward the courtyard outside.

The light snow was falling softly in the courtyard, and a slender figure draped in a snow-white fox-fur cloak was slowly making her way through the snow, holding an umbrella.

Chen Yao's hair today was not adorned with elaborate ornaments of pearls and jade; she had simply pinned two pale pink lotus-shaped velvet flowers at her temples, with a small plum blossom huadian on her forehead.

As she walked, the fox-fur cloak around her was lifted at a corner by the wind, revealing the lotus-rose colored skirt underneath. Her sleeves fluttered as she moved, and set against the snow, she looked like an immortal consort.

Xie Qingyan lowered his eyelids, the composed expression on his face briefly tinged with a subtle ripple of emotion.

The curtain at the door was lifted, and Chen Yao walked in.

"Yaoyao is here." A smile immediately spread across Lady Hou's face.

Xia He helped her young miss take off the fox-fur cloak, revealing the pale apricot-colored padded jacket beneath, paired with the lotus-rose skirt.

The young lady's collar and cuffs were finely trimmed with a roll of white fur, and at first glance, she looked like a fluffy little kitten.

Chen Yao glanced at Xie Qingyan, who was seated in the guest's seat, and, mindful of propriety in front of her parents, still performed a proper bow. "Greetings, Young Master Xie."

He was dressed today in an indigo-blue cloud-pattern brocade robe, his ink-black hair hanging down his back, simply tied up with a single exquisite jade hairpin—the very picture of a refined and scholarly gentleman.

Then Chen Yao turned and took her seat gracefully in the seat below Lady Pingyuan.

"It has been three months since we last met." Xie Qingyan's gentle gaze settled on her, and he spoke slowly, "Has Miss Jiang been well lately?"

His memory was still of the time when the young lady had accidentally fallen into the water while taking a sightseeing boat on the lake, and he had rescued her.

However, he had been pressed for time on his journey back then, and he had only been able to hastily watch as the Pingyuan Marquis's household took her away, without a chance to send a proper greeting afterward.

Xie Qingyan was certainly no stranger to being sent to other regions on official business, but this was the first time in his life he had tasted the bitter longing of "a day apart feels like three autumns."

While in Yunzhang City, he had been busy presiding over the autumn imperial examinations during the day, but at night, standing by the window and looking up at the bright moon in the sky, he couldn't help but think: Is Jiang Chenyao, at this very moment, also looking up at this full moon, sharing the same view as he?

Even when he encountered a vendor selling candied hawthorn sticks on the road, the image of the young lady would unintentionally surface in his mind: her slender, fair fingers holding a skewer of candied hawthorns, her pretty eyes slightly narrowed, like a cat who had stolen a treat, opening her lips to take small, delicate bites...

Xie Qingyan felt himself utterly bewitched.

In truth, he hadn't spent much time with Jiang Chenyao at all, and every time they met, she mostly treated him with an air of arrogance and disregard.

Yet he found her utterly adorable. She was like the little gold-speckled kitten his mother kept at her side—always liking to arch its head, flick its tail, and stand proudly up high, yet making people willingly dote on it.

With this thought, his gaze toward the young lady grew even gentler.

Chen Yao, "..." What is that look in his eyes?

She only felt extremely uncomfortable under Xie Qingyan's gaze, so much so that goosebumps were about to break out all over her.

Though she had half a mind to ignore him, feeling Lady Hou's death glare from beside her, she could only give a little pout.

Then she answered perfunctorily, "Pretty well."