Chapter 686: Chapter 233: Inner Thoughts
The north wind howled outside the house.
Yet the light inside the house seemed to freeze.
He sat beside the stove, his dark eyes deep and unfathomable, reflecting the leaping flames, casting colorful streams in the dark night.
Lu Tong was momentarily stunned.
Longing...
Suddenly, a scene from long ago flashed before her eyes.
In the old house of the Lu Family of Changwu County, she was sprawled at the desk, watching Lu Qian write. The young man’s strokes were forceful and vigorous, an improvement over her own scrawling characters.
"The moon sends a cool breeze over the lake, the paths to meet are impassable... The songs of the water chestnut are sung incompletely, knowing it is within this pond..."
"What’s impassable, what’s incomplete, what are you writing? It makes no sense!" A young her snatched away the inked paper Lu Qian had just finished, "How can I not understand a single word?"
Lu Qian snatched the paper back from her hands, annoyed, "Read more books, Lu San. If you continue like this, when you grow up, you won’t even be able to understand love poems written to you."
"Love poems?" She was skeptical, "This is a love poem?"
"What else?"
"I don’t understand," Lu Tong rolled her eyes, "There’s not even a ’love’ character, how can it be called a love poem?"
"Vulgar!"
Lu Qian lectured her with exasperation, "It’s about subtlety! What poetry is there in feelings spoken out loud? It should be gracefully indirect."
She glanced at her brother sideways, stuffing a piece of malt candy into her mouth, "Since you understand it so well, then tell me, what is love?"
Lu Qian attended the academy and rarely saw girls. He babbled nonsense to appease her dissatisfaction with her studies.
Lu Qian coughed twice, having never been in love, he racked his brain and managed to blurt out, "Love is when you keep thinking of someone, missing someone, when you have free time you think of them often, being the happiest when you are with them..."
"Oh," said Lu Tong, "Listening to you, it doesn’t sound all that subtle! Are you making it up?"
Lu Qian: "...It’s like playing the lute to a cow. I won’t talk to you about this anymore. You will understand when you grow up and have a lover."
When you grow up, you’ll understand when you have a lover.
In the past, she thought they were words he casually used to scare her, but now she was beginning to understand.
When you have feelings for someone, you really start to miss them inexplicably.
A voice came to her ears, "Is this question so difficult to answer?"
She came back to her senses to find Pei Yunmeng sitting in front of the stove, his handsome features even more dazzling under the lamp light, his gaze upon her inscrutable.
"Not at all." Her heart missed a beat, and Lu Tong quickly replied, "I’ve never thought about it."
"Really?"
He nodded, "That’s quite a pity."
Although he said it like that, his tone did not show disappointment; instead, he was smiling.
The kettle of Wax Snow was now warm, and he poured water into the red clay teacup, bringing the cup to Lu Tong.
Lu Tong sat at the edge of the bed watching as Pei Yunmeng leaned in to hand her the tea.
"Drink, ’Wax Snow’."
Lu Tong: "..."
Just as she was about to argue that this didn’t count as Wax Snow, she looked up to see the light laughter in his eyes, as if he saw through everything, knew her insecurities and secrets, glimpsed her evasion and melancholy.
Lu Tong gripped the cup tightly.
For some reason, she felt Pei Yunmeng had changed.
It was as if, having set aside some concerns, he had become openly more provocative. No, it wasn’t provocation—it was like a fisherman on the River Bank, calmly setting bait, staying within reach but out of grasp, patiently and confidently waiting for someone to bite.
Overtaken by guilt, she found it hard to defend herself, retreating step by step, disrupting her own footing.
Seeing her like this, Pei Yunmeng’s lips curved slightly, and he retreated to the table, walked to the center of the room, and picked up the bedding at the foot of the bed.
The bedding was thick and heavy, the stitches rough. With his upbringing and particular habits, it was an uncomfortable demand.
As expected, when he reached the bed, he looked critically at the floor, "Here?"
Lu Tong nodded.
Without a word, he adjusted the mats and laid out the bedding on the floor by the bed.
Lu Tong watched his actions while drinking, thinking how, though he was a scion of a noble family, often seeming haughty and fastidious, sometimes he was astonishingly adaptable.
"Aren’t you going to rest?" He sat on the bedding, looking up at Lu Tong.
Lu Tong put the empty cup on the table, paused to think, then looked at the small oil lamp on the table and instructed, "Don’t put out the light if you fall asleep in the night."
Pei Yunmeng looked at her, his eyebrows and eyes shifting slightly, "Lu Tong, you’re not worried I will do something to you at night, are you?"
Lu Tong remained silent for a moment before retorting sarcastically, "The Marshal should know, I’m quite skilled with a needle. If you’re not afraid of becoming another Jin Xianrong, feel free to try."
Pei Yunmeng: "..."
Seeing him at a loss, her mood inexplicably improved a bit. She lay down on the bed, still clothed, and settled in for the night.