Chapter 15
Chapter 15
A Skillful Act (2)
She lost her grip on the fruit plate, and the fruit rolled all over the ground.
Zheng Wan didn’t manage to react in time; her left foot landed squarely on a fig. As she stumbled and was about to fall, she grabbed the railing next to her, and realised instantly that the railing had been tampered with——
“Snap”, it broke.
The dark emerald cloud brocade drew a beautiful arc in the air. As Zheng Wan fell backwards, she was relieved to see that the maidservant she’d worked with earlier had already leapt up, ready to save her.
A familiar wind passed through.
The wind carried the coolness of the snow, the harshness of wind, and the faint, barely-there fragrance of pei-lan1——before Zheng Wan could react, someone had taken her by the waist and brought her to the marble boat opposite the waterside pavilion.
Amidst the chorus of approval, Zheng Wan stared blankly at the other party.
The young gentleman was clad in an indigo robe, with a chiwen2 ornament tied at his waist. His face was plain and unremarkable, but he had a pair of extremely beautiful eyes—— actually, “beautiful” was too inadequate a description.
Those eyes hid thousands of miles of stars, vast seas and deserts, the snow from the highest peaks, and the moon in the clouds; its beauty was not something that could be perceived by the mortal world.
When she looked again, there was nothing left.
Only a calm and deathly stillness.
By the time Zheng Wan came to herself, he had already set her gently on the ground.
“The lady has to be more careful.”
Cui Wang.
Zheng Wan scanned the ornament at his waist and his robes, and immediately understood.
He was curious about her because of the bloodstone; this was also why he had appeared here and managed to help her out in such a timely manner.
Curiosity is good.
All the love affairs in the world started with curiosity.
However, she still needed to be very, very careful. Immortals have innumerous ways and means, she had to be on her guard.
“This lady thanks the gentleman. How may I address you?” Zheng Wan curtsied her thanks.
Cui Wang glanced down at her reddened eye and the little teardrops that clung to her eyelashes; he nodded slightly in response, “No need to thank me.”
With that, he turned and left, heading straight to the cabin on the second floor.
“That gentleman is so rude!”
Rong Yi walked breathlessly through the water pavilion; when she reached the first floor of the marble boat opposite, she saw Zheng Wan receive the cold shoulder.
Zheng Wan shook her head, her cheeks were flushed and her expression dazed. “No, Your Highness. The gentleman is chivalrous, powerful and extraordinary, r-really…”
…amazing.
She didn’t finish her sentence, but wore the expression of an infatuated little maiden that caused all who passed by to be dumbfounded.
Rong Yi felt uneasy.
That gentleman was indeed extraordinary; he could actually thread on water and fly to the marble boat which was three feet away while carrying Wan’niang, but… but that didn’t mean that Wan’niang would fall for him!
Naturally, Zheng Wan was acting.
She remembered being obsessed with theatre when she was ten years old. Her father specially invited the capital’s most famous Peony Trope to the residence for her. They performed for an entire month until she was tired of it.
The most famous actress in the Peony Trope told her that to put on the most moving play in the world, one had to be thoroughly immersed in their role; they had to be able to deceive themselves first before they could deceive others.
Zheng Wan was standing downstairs, “awestruck”; someone was watching her from upstairs.
County Princess3 Rongqin was lying in front of the window and had witnessed the entire scene.
“Where did he come from? That…” she spat.
That impetuous youth.
For some reason, even though the young gentleman looked utterly ordinary, she couldn’t seem to get her words out.
“You can’t blame me for this, we can only blame the Zheng’s luck for being too good.”
The lady next to her said that she had arranged in advance for someone to sprinkle oily water onto the steps of the waterside pavilion. The railing had been tampered with, and as an added measure, had even sent the maidservant with fruits over.
Footnotes:
1 pei-lan: Eupatorium fortune. The white to reddish coloured flowers and herbage smell like lavender when crushed. In China, the plants are used to make fragrant oils.
2 chiwen: 鸱吻; a Chinese dragon, and in Chinese mythology is one of the 9 sons of the dragon. He is depicted in imperial roof decorations and other ornamental motifs in traditional Chinese architecture and art, and used as a symbol of protection against fires and other disasters.
3 County Princess: 县主; translated as “Princess of a County” or “Princess of the Fourth Rank”. It was usually granted to the daughter of a junwang or shizi.