Chapter 684: Chapter 232: Old House_3
Therefore, she locked all the used items in the cabinet and, together with Yin Zheng, left the place. Perhaps years later, someone would come to this spot, or perhaps the wildly grown weeds would completely engulf this house, and everything from the past seven years would vanish atop Luomei Peak.
She hadn’t expected that many years later, when she revisited the old place, she would be with a person she hadn’t imagined.
"Creak——"
The door was pushed open, and Pei Yunmeng walked in from outside.
In his hands, he was holding a bunch of dried plum branches, evidently specially picked to have not been soaked by the wind and snow. Lu Tong bent down to drag out the stove from under the table that hadn’t been used for a long time, but Pei Yunmeng took her hand: "Let me do it."
He stuffed the neatly chopped plum branches into the stove and lit them with a fire starter.
Lu Tong had been somewhat worried that the fire wouldn’t start, but Pei Yunmeng’s actions were deft, as if he was used to working outdoors. In no time, the ’crackle and pop’ of the fire could be heard.
The window was half-open, and occasionally snowflakes drifted into the room from outside. The dim yellow light added a warm tint to the small house amidst the blizzard.
Lu Tong watched him.
He sat in front of the stove, attentively whittling the remainder of the plum branches so that they’d fit neatly into the stove.
The dim light cast a layer upon the young man’s exquisite and beautiful face, as if sheathing a Silver Knife, with no sharpness visible, only magnificence and gentleness.
Without raising his head and focusing on the task in his hands, as if he knew she was watching, he said: "What are you staring at me for?"
Lu Tong was startled and looked away.
He chuckled without stopping his movements: "Is there something you want to ask?"
Lu Tong was silent for a moment before finally speaking: "After I left, how were Yin Zheng and the others?"
It had been some time since she left Shengjing.
The exchange of letters on her journey was unpredictable, and now that all the postal services in Su Nan were suspended, how was Renxin Medical Hall faring?
"They’re fine," Pei Yunmeng replied.
Lu Tong lowered her gaze, receiving the answer she most wanted to hear.
The room was quiet. Pei Yunmeng’s whittling paused briefly before he suddenly spoke: "Lu Tong."
He said, "Even though you sent me a memorial entrusting your affairs, weren’t you worried that I’d refuse your request?"
Lu Tong’s decision to go to Su Nan had been very abrupt.
Yet the letter she wrote entrusting him with the care of the Benevolent Heart Medical Hall was unusually detailed.
So detailed that every aspect was accounted for, making one feel irritation even now reflecting on it.
"I am not worried," Lu Tong said. "I believe that even if I hadn’t asked you, if Benevolent Heart Medical Hall was in trouble, you would have taken care of them."
Pei Yunmeng was momentarily stunned.
Lu Tong’s voice continued: "After all, you were a honored guest at the medical hall’s anniversary celebration. That makes you one of their dear friends."
Inside the stove, the ’crackle and snap’ of the fire grew louder in the silent snowy night, and a wisp of smoke rose from the stove, quickly whisked away by the north wind blowing through the window.
The young man chuckled softly upon hearing her words and looked at her: "Lu Tong, you’re very sure of me, aren’t you?"
Lu Tong’s fingers curled slightly, and she remained silent.
She really was sure of him.
It was strange. When she first arrived in Shengjing, she was wary of the person before her, guarded, and even occasionally wished to eliminate him as she saw him as an adversary, standing on the opposite shore, never to come together.
But somehow, now it seemed she understood him very well. She could confidently leave everything behind to him, convinced that he would keep his promise.
From her descent from Luomei Peak to her arrival in Shengjing, and then her return to the Peak, along the way, favors had been repaid, and enmity had been incurred, everything dealt with cleanly and neatly. Yet with the person before her, just like the debt note on the wall of that broken temple from years ago, back and forth, murky and confusing, leaving an indescribable sense of unresolved resentment.
Unsettled.
The fire inside the stove blazed fiercely, warming the room. Pei Yunmeng stood up, took the red clay kettle that Lu Tong had just retrieved from the cabinet, cleaned it outside, and fetched snow to boil.
In the cold night, tea was served as if it were wine, the bamboo stove’s soup boiled as the fire began to redden. Lu Tong suddenly felt somewhat grateful that she had preserved the items in this house rather than burning them all clean.
He sat in front of the stove to boil water, and on the table were two red clay tea cups. Influenced by his calmness, Lu Tong asked: "What happened inside the Palace afterward?"
The messenger from Mengtai Station had only a few brief sentences, but Imperial City had already been turned upside down. The things were lightly described, but Lu Tong knew the events of that day must have been perilous.
"Didn’t you know all about it?" Pei Yunmeng lifted the lid of the kettle as the snow piled inside rapidly melted away when the flame licked it.
The first time he saw Lu Tong, she too was boiling a pot of snow water, which she then called "Wax Snow."
Six years had already passed in a flash.
Lu Tong looked at him: "Are your people all right?"
Pei Yunmeng didn’t speak, and when he lowered his head, his eyelashes drooped.