Luo Yuan hid in the shadows of the corridor, his eyes fixed on the woman sitting by the stone table in the courtyard.
She had truly returned.
Fifteen years had passed, and he was no longer the snot-nosed, scruffy brat he once was. But she, she was just as he remembered, as if time had stopped for her. She seemed as though she had only left yesterday.
Every night, deep into the dark, she would sit here, writing and drawing. When tired, she would rest her head on the table and sleep. The steward had told him that she arrived here a month ago, agreeing to pay for her lodging with her wages. The steward said she was not very sociable, always keeping to herself and speaking little, but she was diligent in her work.
He had seen her room. It was a storeroom converted from a woodshed, so small it barely allowed one person to turn around, and so hot at night it was almost unbearable. No wonder she stayed here every night. He wanted to ask the steward to move her to a superior guest room but couldn't find a suitable excuse.
And now, she was already asleep, her head resting on the stone table.
He walked over gently and sat down beside her. He turned the bright camp light, as brilliant as daylight, to its lowest setting—he still remembered how to adjust it. Then, he too bent down, just like her, resting his head on his arm, his body propped on the stone table.
He turned his face to gaze at her as she slept soundly.
She looked very tired, with dark circles under her eyes. She always frowned when she slept. Now, perhaps dreaming of some sorrowful event, a single crystalline tear welled up at the corner of her eye. The tear trickled down her cheek, moistening the Xuan paper on the table.
Luo Yuan reached out and carefully wiped away the tear from the corner of her eye. He wanted to smooth her furrowed brow, but he was afraid of waking her.
Why did she look so sad?
He sighed, withdrew his hand, and straightened up. He moved the cup that was weighing down the paper, wanting to see what she had drawn. He picked up the cup, and a strong smell of wine wafted towards him. It turned out this cup did not contain water, but wine. She always used this cup to drink water during the day, did she drink only wine? He glanced at her sleeping form and frowned. Setting the cup down, he picked up the Xuan papers again. He recognized what was drawn on the paper; she had told him, it was called a camera. But he thought he had already found that camera for her, so why was she still looking for it? Was there another one?
As he was thinking, she, who had been sleeping soundly, suddenly stirred. He was startled, thinking she was waking up, but fortunately, she only changed her position. That posture revealed her slender neck, and the necklace she wore around her neck immediately slipped out.
It was the little wooden horse he had given her.
She still kept that little wooden horse, but what she had given him, he had lost. Although he had been searching for that necklace for so many years, he had never been able to find it. This was perhaps one of the reasons why he couldn't face her even now.
But how could he bear not to approach her?
That night, when he could no longer resist and finally walked up to her, she smiled and said her name was Yang Ruoning. Yang Ruoning, so your Chinese name was Yang Ruoning.
He carefully, little by little, approached her.
The first step, of course, was to win over the young courtesan named Susu, who was always by her side.
That night, when Susu went to deliver paper and ink to Yang Ruoning as usual, he intercepted her halfway.
The little girl's eyes darted back and forth, staring at the entire ingot of silver in his palm. Yes, she must have never seen such a large piece of silver before.
"General Luo, what is the meaning of this?" After a long pause, Susu asked with confusion.
"Miss Susu, take this silver and buy some delicious food and fun things. From tonight onwards, the task of delivering paper and ink to her will be mine."
Susu looked at him with mistrust. "General Luo, do you know Older Sister?"
"No, I do not."
"Then..." she suddenly seemed to realize something and quickly pushed the silver ingot back into his hand. "Older Sister is just a dishwasher in the establishment; she doesn't entertain guests."
He smiled, not expecting this little girl to be so loyal.
He explained, "You misunderstood my meaning. I am merely interested in the paintings of that Older Sister and want to know what those things are, but I don't dare to ask presumptuously. So, I wanted to find an excuse to strike up a conversation with her."
"Oh," Susu said after hearing his explanation, finding it reasonable. The things that Older Sister painted were indeed very special.
She pushed the paper and ink into his hand. "It's just to strike up a conversation, you can go ahead."
Thus, for the first time that night, he had the chance to be alone with her. He was extremely cautious, afraid that his gaze lingering on her would be too overt and displease her, scaring her away. But when he looked up at her after helping her write down the address of Fan Lou, he met her flustered, darting eyes.
He smiled, and he hadn't had a smile that could fill his entire heart like this for a long, long time.
From that day on, he found every excuse he could, just to get a little closer to her.
**********
After more than a month of interaction, he discovered that she truly loved wine.
Most of the time, she would simply sleep quietly, but this day, she was truly drunk.
Every time he thought of her drunk that day, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
On that day, Fan Lou had just received a new batch of Tibetan grape wine. The grape wine was a rich, vibrant color, and its aroma was intoxicating. He specifically instructed that it be placed in a conspicuous spot in the wine cellar, so that when she sneaked in at night to "steal" wine, she would see it at a glance.
As expected, she discovered the grape wine and drank too much. When he went to the central courtyard that night, she was already drunk, her cheeks flushed and her eyes hazy. From afar, he saw her tightly hugging Susu, muttering incoherently about something.
The petite Susu, held tightly in her embrace, was almost suffocating. Upon seeing him, Susu frantically sought his help, "Lord Luo, could you possibly help this little one... This Older Sister is suffocating me... cough cough cough..."
After rescuing the unfortunate Susu from her embrace, he found an excuse to send Susu away. Susu was initially suspicious and hesitated to leave.
He said to Susu, "You don't need to worry, I won't do anything to your Older Sister. I'll just stand here and support her. Quickly go and get some tea." Reassured by his promise, Susu finally turned and walked away.
He held her, who could no longer stand steadily, wanting to take her back to her room to rest. Unexpectedly, she glanced at him with half-opened, drunken eyes and actually giggled, "Wow, what a handsome man. The most handsome man in the capital, General Luo Yuan!"
He smiled; her somewhat malicious smirk struck him as very endearing. Before he could react, she pounced and hugged him tightly.
"Ah, a handsome guy's body is also so good," her face rubbed against his chest. "And he smells so nice."
"Ruoning, you are drunk," he said, looking down at her and gently trying to make her stand straight. However, the harder he tried, the tighter she held him.
"Mmm, I feel a bit dizzy, just let me lean on you for a bit," she buried her head in his chest. "Only when I'm drunk can I be this shamelessly bold and hug you... What a wonderful young man, *kekekeke*..." She giggled, looking somewhat infatuated.
"I'll help you back to your room."
"Ah?" she suddenly looked up at him. "Are you going to my place? Hehehe... Netflix and chill?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You know what I mean, why do you need me to explain it clearly?" she pouted at him.
"Hmm," he pretended to think for a moment, then said, "I don't know."
"Ah, forget it, forget it. You don't understand English. Netflix and chill means watching movies and then sleeping together, hehehehe..."
"Oh, so that's what it means," he frowned, somewhat embarrassed by her boldness, even her shamelessness.
"Hey—what era are you from? Why are you still such an old-fashioned person?" She saw his distaste and complained.
"Because I really am an old-fashioned person. I'm hundreds of years older than you," he replied.
"Hi, old-fashioned man," she said, grabbing his collar, pulling him down, and then standing on her tiptoes, tilting her head up, and planting a light peck precisely on his lips.
He was startled by her sudden kiss. For the first time, he felt his face burning, and his heart began to pound uncontrollably.
The perpetrator, however, smiled gleefully. "Eh, why is your face red? I didn't expect you to be such a pure little boy, ahahahahaha..."
She let go of him. "Never mind, never mind," she turned around and waved at him. "This Older Sister is going back to sleep."
Once, a fortune teller had said that he would never escape the word "love" in his lifetime. He had once found it ridiculous, thinking the fortune teller was just a charlatan trying to make money. In his long years, he had believed he had seen through all the worldly affections between men and women. But at this moment, looking at her before him, he realized for the first time that he was indeed, as the fortune teller had said, trapped in a "love" from which he would never, and did not wish to, escape.
This "love" was such that even if he wanted to stop, his mind would still foolishly focus only on her—her gaze when she looked at him, the curve of her lips when she smiled, her profile as she gazed into the distance, her soft lips with the scent of wine, the words she spoke that he didn't understand, her more profound thoughts than his own.
He could no longer restrain himself. He took a step forward, grabbed the figure who was about to leave, and then embraced her tightly, kissing her passionately.
Finally, with her halo of brilliance, she cast a dazzling beam of light into his endlessly dark world. The warmth and brightness brought by the beam made him so infatuated that he refused to let go until his death.
This world, he would reclaim it. He would use this world as his betrothal gift to protect this dazzling light.