Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The lingering chill of early spring had yet to fade. My soaked clothes caught the wind, and the cold sank straight into my bones.

Stiff all over, I crawled onto the bank.

“Sister Yao’er.”

A fur cloak fell over me the instant the voice rang out.

Its broad folds wrapped me up completely.

I looked up and saw Rong Zhen crouching in front of me, his face tight with worry.

How had he gotten here so quickly?

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll take you home.”

Before I could think further, he swept me up by the waist.

Two lifetimes lived, and now we met again.

Fifty long years had passed.

Leaning against his warm, solid chest, I felt the tip of my nose sting.

In my previous life, after I married into Prince Yan’s Mansion,

Rong Zhen left the capital.

Yan Zhao and I slept in the same bed, but under separate quilts.

He never took the initiative to be intimate with me, and I was perfectly happy with the peace and quiet.

Two months later, I heard news of Rong Zhen again.

But it was the terrible news that he had died saving a child who had fallen into the water.

The current had been swift and surging. No trace of him could be found.

Only a white silk handkerchief embroidered with his name floated on the surface.

The villagers searched for days before they finally found his body downstream.

After Yan Zhao learned of it,

he was silent for a long while before saying softly, “He was truly a righteous man.”

Three days later, he invited me to Zhaoling Temple to burn incense and pray for blessings.

There, I lit an ever-burning lamp for Rong Zhen.

After that incident, Yan Zhao inexplicably became much more affectionate toward me.

Wherever he went, he would invite me along.

Thinking back on it now, could it have been thanks to Rong Zhen?

Those who keep good company become good themselves?

I did not understand.

Forget it.

It was all in my last life anyway.

The wind beside my ears grew sharper.

Feeling Rong Zhen’s footsteps quicken again and again,

I suddenly remembered the day of my first monthly bleeding.

Back then, I had just risen from a private room at Zuixiang Tower

when the blood on the chair frightened me so badly that I burst into tears.

Rong Zhen had picked me up just like this too.

After he hurriedly took me to see a female physician,

both our faces had burned bright red.

Not long before my coming-of-age ceremony,

Rong Zhen’s mother, long plagued by a cough, passed away suddenly.

After he finished handling the funeral,

he came to ask for my hand, willing to marry into the Shen Family.

He only begged me to wait for him through three years of mourning.

Now, more than two years had already passed.

I buried my face against his chest

and said in a muffled voice,

“Brother Rong Zhen, in another three months, your mourning period will be over, won’t it?”

His arm around me tightened a little more.

“Yes.”

Breathing in the faint orchid scent on him,

my heart trembled.

Rong Zhen, in this life, you will not die young and alone again.