Chapter 443: Chapter 162 Embrace
The sunlight pierced the clouds, casting oblique rays and illuminating the room with a red glow.
Lu Tong slowed her pace, lifting her eyes to the person beside her.
The setting sun gradually sank behind him, elongating his shadow into a softer silhouette. His dark, gold-embroidered clothes shimmered with a pale golden hue under the slanting sun, exceptionally moving.
Lu Tong was slightly dazed.
She hadn’t expected Pei Yunmeng to remember her casual, dismissive response.
It was the same in Mangming Township, where upon seeing a yellow dog, he had shielded her to his side. She had previously seen the black dog from the Palace Front Office too, a beautiful, nimble hunting dog.
Did he really think she was afraid of dogs?
As if noticing her gaze, Pei Yunmeng looked down and asked, "What’s wrong?"
Lu Tong shook off the odd sensation in her heart, "Nothing."
Walking side by side, their long shadows stretched out on the path bathed in the slanting sunlight, as if about to merge with the golden red sunset.
Pei Yunmeng’s voice, tinted with laughter, came from beside her, "Doctor Lu helped me find the prescription, what kind of thank-you gift should I give you?"
Lu Tong replied, "I’ve already said it’s a trade, Lord Pei need not take it to heart."
"Is that so?" he casually inquired, "What about the Golden Swallowtail Butterflies?"
Lu Tong was taken aback.
On New Year’s Eve, Pei Yunmeng had given her a pair of Golden Swallowtail Butterflies. The jewelry was expensive, and it wasn’t appropriate to accept such gifts here, so Lu Tong had tactfully returned them to Treasure Bead during her days off.
"What’s given should not be taken back," Pei Yunmeng said leisurely, "Doctor Lu is being quite rude."
Returning someone else’s gift was indeed not the act of a polite household, even her own Lu Family would have reprimanded her for such behavior in the past.
However, what could she do when he made such an over-generous gesture that was equivalent to several years’ profits of Renxin Medical Hall?
Lu Tong pursed her lips, "I don’t like butterflies."
He asked, "Then what do you like?"
Lu Tong was suddenly somewhat impatient.
She didn’t like owing favors to someone, nor did she enjoy being owed, particularly with someone like Pei Yunmeng in such complex circumstances; the future was yet unknown. She wished for their every interaction to be a clear and straightforward transaction, expressing her intentions openly, yet he always acted this way.
A distance that was difficult to gauge, a vagueness of boundaries.
Calculating back and forth, clarity was never reached.
She straightforwardly looked at him and unreservedly spoke, "I like Lord Pei’s sachet recipe, could you give it to me?"
Pei Yunmeng was startled.
He lowered his head, his gaze resting on Lu Tong’s face, his expression somewhat peculiar.
Lu Tong faced him squarely.
The sachet recipe seemed very precious, so much so that he had refused to give it up even during their last carriage ride. But Lu Tong didn’t understand, she only wanted the sachet recipe, not for him to make an identical sachet. Even if the aromatic materials were expensive, he wouldn’t need to provide them, so why the reluctant act?
"Lord Pei knows that I am now at the Medical Officer Institute; I have no use for silver or jewelry," Lu Tong said, "If you insist on thanking me, why not gift me the sachet recipe? That’s what I want."
The more he was unwilling, the more Lu Tong wondered, the more she wondered, the more she wanted it.
Desire for the unattainable is indeed a common human sentiment.
He watched Lu Tong for a while, then after a long moment he looked away and said indifferently, "That’s not possible."
And he moved on ahead.
As expected.
Watching his retreating figure, Lu Tong suddenly formed a guess. Perhaps she had been mistaken. Pei Yunmeng didn’t seem stingy, usually being quite generous. Yet he was so protective over this sachet, could it be that the medicine formula was from someone very important to him?
Emotional bonds are often more precious than silver.
With that thought in mind, Pei Yunmeng had already reached the entrance to the Palace Marshal’s Mansion. Beyond that, the carriage bound for the Medical Officer Institute waited at the street corner.
Pei Yunmeng handed her the medical kit, saying, "Take care on the way."
Lu Tong took the medical kit, replied with a nod, and walked toward the carriage across the street. Just as she crossed, she saw at the entrance of an alley not far ahead, beneath the vermilion eaves of a dyer’s shop, a familiar figure stood.
The young man was dressed in a fragrant-colored round-collar robe, holding something in his arms, perhaps a food container. He had a slightly robust figure and was looking around in front of the dye shop.
Lu Tong’s steps abruptly halted.
It was the young master from the Imperial Treasury Chancellor’s Residence, Dong Lin.
At the front of the dye shop, Dong Lin also caught sight of Lu Tong, his face immediately brightening with joy.
He had come specifically to find Lu Tong.
Since the incident where Lady Dong had sent Missus Wang to cause a scene at the Benevolent Heart Medical Hall and they had publicly fallen out, the Minister of Imperial Treasury had ceased dealings with the Benevolent Heart Medical Hall.
Dong Lin was both angry and anxious; angry that his mother had ignored his objections by insisting on ruining his relationship with Lu Tong, anxious because if Lu Tong had been humiliated and impulsively left Benevolent Heart to marry in a hasty decision — life for a woman shamed in reputation would always be arduous.