Chapter 2

Chapter 2

And yet I waited anyway.

I waited until the sun sank low in the west.

The apes and birds cried out in disarray as the evening sun began to fall. Gradually, the calls of birds and beasts faded into silence. Slender shadows stretched from the green bamboo. Behind me, Xiao Mei clutched at my shoulder, looking aggrieved.

“My lady, I’m hungry.”

I comforted her. “Bear with it a little longer. Perhaps he’ll come soon.”

Before I had even finished speaking, unhurried footsteps sounded in the distance. They drew closer and closer, carrying on the wind faint wafts of distant, lingering agarwood incense…

I turned to look, and my entire body went rigid.

The bright moon in the heavens had suddenly appeared before my eyes.

Then I saw that this bright moon was holding a silver-gray squirrel-fur handkerchief. All four corners had faded pale. It looked extremely familiar.

“Is this what my lady was waiting for?”

The Big Dipper hung low. Bamboo shadows slanted across the ground.

Beneath the moon, a jade-like young man slowly approached. He wore a long robe the color of frost, and a few strands of hair fell against his cold, pale skin, making the black look blacker and the white whiter, like an exquisite jade sculpture carved from ice.

If only his gaze had not been so contemptuous, so mocking, he would have been even more beautiful.

My heart gave a jolt, but on the surface, I still forced a smile. “Yes. Many thanks, young master.” As I spoke, I reached out to take it.

In the blink of an eye, he lifted his hand, making me grasp at empty air.

“Two months ago, you spilled wine all over Huan Jiu.”

“Last month, you tripped and fell straight into Xie Erlang’s arms.”

“This month, you’ve come to ruin the Cui Family’s innocent young master?”

Everyone said Wang Yu was as clear as a fresh breeze and a bright moon, with the beauty of a jade mountain. The people who said such things must never have seen him like this, his tone so cruel, so cold it was like frost and snow.

“Cui Zhan may be a concubine-born son, but he was raised with care by his legitimate mother. Do you think he would ever take a fancy to you?”

“Hmph. What a waste of scheming!”

The space before me darkened. Wang Yu had tossed something at me from a distance, his eyes full of disgust, as though he had stripped every stitch of clothing from my body. It was unbearably humiliating.

The handkerchief he threw struck me squarely in the face. For a long while, I said nothing.

Since Wang Yu could list my deeds one by one, in his eyes, I was probably already a thoroughly frivolous, wanton woman.

I calmed myself, then lowered my head and let out a soft, delicate sob. “Young Master Wang understands me so well. Even my own parents would be ashamed of how little they know in comparison…”

At my words, Wang Yu’s lazy eyes instantly sharpened, pointing at me like an unsheathed blade. But I only twisted the handkerchief in my hands and, with a face full of bashful tenderness, met his icy gaze.

“I understand now. Young master, you are in love with me!”

“In that case, I won’t marry Young Master Cui. I may as well marry you instead!”