Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The helicopter landed in a manor in Nantong city. Si Yiyan brought her to a small town in the outskirts of Nantong where the traditional architecture of green bricks and tiles remained—quaint, historical, and solemn. Wen Xinya fell in love with the place at first sight.
Si Yiyan brought her to taste the famous local delicacies of Nantong—Xiting shortbread, Zhengyang sweet cake, Xingren pig’s head, sesame cake with peach, sesame balls, sesame biscuit, malt biscuit, smelly beancurd, grilled catfish, and so on.
It was also Si Yiyan’s first time knowing that a girl’s appetite could be shockingly huge!
Then, they came before an elegant house made of grey bricks, with moss growing on its grey steps.
“Be careful, it’s slippery!” Si Yiyan held her hand and helped her into the yard.
In the yard, there was a pine tree with emerald leaves, a clump of black bamboo with twirling leaves, and a cluster of red flowers in full bloom with brilliant green leaves—extremely peaceful and exquisite.
“We’re at…” Wen Xinya was about to ask, when she saw a woman, clad in a white-based peony cheongsam, walking towards them gracefully while looking around in a charming manner.
“Ninth Young Master, Miss Wen, you guys are here!” The beauty’s voice was characteristic of Jiangnan women, gentle and tender, extremely exquisite and soft.
Si Yiyan nodded and introduced her to Wen Xinya. “This is Mother Wan, you may call her Aunt Wan!”
“Aunt Wan!” Wen Xinya had noticed that when Si Yiyan introduced to her, although his tone was mild, it revealed a slight warmth, and so when she greeted her, her tone was also more intimate.
The smile on Mother Wan’s face deepened, and her softened gaze towards Wen Xinya carried a certain natural form of sizing up, but did not seem lofty, and instead, felt more like a form of respect for others. “Previously, I’ve heard Ninth Young Master mention you—beautiful, indeed, Ninth Young Master’s taste is great.”
In the face of a senior’s direct praise, Wen Xinya felt shy and blushed slightly, as if tinted with blusher, mildly enchanting, extremely beautiful and elegant. “Aunt Wan, you…”
She felt that Mother Wan had misunderstood the relationship between her and Si Yiyan, and wanted to explain.
Mother Wan gave Si Yiyan a meaningful look, shifted her gaze back onto her, and interrupted her in a non-abrupt manner. “You’re the first girl that Ninth Young Master has brought back.”
Si Yiyan saw that Wen Xinya was slightly awkward and proceeded to rescue her. “Mother Wan is an embroideress, a master hand at the four famous embroideries, as well as many lost embroideries and some tapestry. The phoenix brocade gown that I’d gifted you previously was made by Mother Wan.”
Wen Xinya was momentarily shocked—this fourty-odd years old beauty was surprisingly a highly skilled embroideress. Currently, in the world, there were less than ten people who could be addressed as an embroideress—it was said that once each piece of an embroideress’ work was shown to the public, it would shock the entire world, and they were usually collected by very rich men to supplement their private galleries; they were goods of limited edition that couldn’t be bought merely by money, but instead, by pure chance and luck.
Mother Wan smiled slightly and took Wen Xinya’s hand. “Ninth Young Master got me to prepare some clothes for you, come with me to see if they fit.”
Wen Xinya realized that Si Yiyan especially liked to give her clothes, nodded, and went with Mother Wan into the inner chamber.
The chamber was filled with precious textiles and fine pieces of embroidery which bedazzled her—she had always held Country Z’s magnificent ancient culture in high esteem, and was filled with respect towards Mother Wan right now.
Mother Wan retrieved four sets of clothes—a mini cheongsam, a short skirt, and two long dresses.
Each set was very delicate and beautiful. Amongst them, Mother Wan picked a blue floral long dress and passed it to Wen Xinya. “Go ahead and change into it!”
Wen Xinya looked down at her own casual home clothes, felt that they were indeed not too suited for being out of home, picked up the long dress and went into the inner chamber to change.
The ethereal sky-blue color carried pure refinement, making her disposition seem mysterious and elegant, the thin strap of the toga dress had a blooming silk flower, interlocking branches and white flowers scaling to the collar, decorating it with shiny white bits, snow-white pear blossom dotted the pleats of the skirt, like gathered petals, vivid, chilly, yet glowing with beauty.
Mother Wan smiled. “So beautiful! I’ve never seen a girl pull off a long dress with such a glowing, beautiful style. Come over, I’ll bun your hair.”
Wen Xinya gently lifted her dress and sat down before the dresser.
Using a rosewood comb, Mother Wan gently combed her hair. “Your hair is gorgeous, well-suited for bunning!”
Wen Xinya felt as though an electric shock went through her body—instantly, the warm voice from her memory whispered into her ear. “Your hair is great, it’ll definitely look pretty in a bun.”
He had always been extra gentle whenever he said that.
Thus, she had never bunned her hair up—just so she could hear the tinge of gentleness in his warm voice.
And then… After knowing that he had gotten together with Xia Ruya, she had bunned her hair and ran barefooted to his place, and pleaded pitifully. “Jingnan, I know it’s because I don’t listen to you, that’s why you broke up with me—see, I’ve bunned my hair up, isn’t it pretty! If you like it, I’ll bun my hair up every day from now on for you, okay?”
He had had on a cold and heartless look then. “Miss Wen, I think you misunderstood. We’ve never been together before, how then can we break up!”
The statement defeated her self-respect and self-esteem, and threw her heart filled with true feelings into the mud!
Subsequently, she had snipped her full head of long hair off and had never had long hair since then!
A drop of tear, originating from and circling in her eye, suddenly fell from her eye. When she got conscious of it, she realized a numbing pain on her scalp and couldn’t help calling out. “Ah! Painful!”
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention and hurt you.” Her crisp voice seemed to contain the slightest coldness, as though she was forbearing something.
Wen Xinya suddenly recovered from her trance, looked into the mirror and saw Si Yiyan standing behind her, his slender fingers holding the rosewood comb, gently combing her long hair, skillfully bunning her hair up, as though he had practiced the move a hundred thousand times. Her heart suddenly quivered, and, in order to conceal her trembling heart, she changed the topic in a fluster. “Si Yiyan, don’t you know you can’t just touch a girl’s hair as you wish?”
“Oh? I’m all ears!” Si Yiyan’s voice carried a mild frost, his pair of deep black eyes got increasingly deep, but vaguely seemed to be in a turmoil. His fingertip was still burning from that drop of tear, as though it burned his heart. That tear… was shed for whom—who had helped her bun her hair up like this before?
She was merely fifteen years old, was still underage—such a thought was likely to be unfounded, but the slight chance made him uneasy from guessing.
“In the ancient times, a guy bunning a girl’s hair up meant intention for courtship, implying being loving till the end of time, so…” Wen Xinya looked up and saw Si Yiyan in the mirror, his eyes suddenly seemed like a rambling rose in full bloom, brilliant and eye-catching, and instantly realized how flirtatious her own words were.
