Chapter 64 Using the Fragrance of Osmanthus to Describe Our Relationship

The withered wild grass was still green in patches, with flowers blooming merrily at their tips, winding gracefully along the roadside and street stones. The scent of earth mingled with the fragrance of grass, as low-lying leaves opened their stamens and specks of dust caught the shimmering light.

To avoid the wild grass and flowers on this muddy path, Luo Yunyao skipped along, appearing unexpectedly in high spirits. Although she was suffering in silence and bearing the burden of a framed charge, she felt a quiet joy in strolling through the streets with Qin Jinghao, her beloved, in a moment that belonged just to the two of them.

Today, they had walked together through the bustling, noisy market, laughing before all sorts of varied goods. Today, they listened to traditional storytelling in a tavern, and even managed to make a new acquaintance—though they did not even know the name of that cold and stern young gentleman, encounters were always guided by fate. Today, they wandered leisurely through the countryside, listening to an old woman chatter about daily household matters inside a dilapidated, quaint tiled house. Now, she and Qin Jinghao, the person she had chosen for her lifetime, were walking together, crossing mountains and rivers, one following the other.

They were so close. The moment Luo Yunyao turned her head, Qin Jinghao was right behind her, his clear and beautiful eyes filled entirely with her reflection. They were so quiet that amidst the occasional chirping of insects, their heartbeats communicated, peacefully and beautifully experiencing the breathing of their souls.

Eat, drink, and be merry for today, caring not for the right and wrong outside the door. Even if she had to return to the Ministry of Justice and the aging emperor ordered her execution, Luo Yunyao would accept her fate without offering a single word in reply.

Luo Yunyao skipped forward and turned back abruptly. Her hair, which had been casually tied up in a simple vertical style when she left the house, had loosened from all her jumping. As she turned with such reckless disregard for her poise, her three thousand strands of dark hair swept an arc through the wind, enchanting and graceful, dappling the sunlight into fine threads. Faint rays flowed with temptation, as pure and clean as the sunlight itself.

Luo Yunyao's smile sparkled beneath the sun. With cherry lips and white teeth, she parted them lightly and asked, "So, shall we go find the family of that maid who was whipped to death?" Her voice was ethereal, carrying an unexpected, lighthearted smile.

Qin Jinghao stopped in his tracks, his jade-like face wearing its customary expression, save for a slight lifting of his eyelashes that seemed to hint at a different color. There was a strange, ascetic aesthetic to it, matching his usual icy, cool-as-jade demeanor. "Why look for her?"

True to form, it was a remark that poured cold water on her mood.

Yet Luo Yunyao was entirely undeterred, even rising on tiptoe to leap over a stray, crawling crab.

She paused for a moment to carefully ponder the meaning behind Qin Jinghao's words.

Indeed, looking for the family of the whipped maid was useless. Even the whipped maid herself was useless.

Since the maid had been whipped to death and then planted in the estate of Luo Yunyao, the Minister of War, she had already lost all utility in and of herself—if she had any use at all, it was merely to burden Luo Yunyao with yet another inescapable crime.

How truly pitiable were all the people trapped in this scheme. Clearly, Luo Yunyao was at the center of it all, the primary target intended for destruction. Yet this person, more wronged than Dou E, was actually wasting her heart in pity for the sufferings of others. "Are we truly certain that was a maid from my estate?"

Qin Jinghao looked at her with an unreadable, indifferent gaze.

Luo Yunyao choked, realizing she had once again asked a remarkably idiotic question.

If it were not a maid from Luo Yunyao's estate, would there even be any need to investigate this matter? While there was a fifty-percent chance that Luo Yunyao herself might have whipped her to death, that possibility was far smaller than someone intentionally framing her. After all, very few people possessed such terrible luck that their house leaked precisely when it poured all night.

Judging by Ouyang Jingxu's usual methods—or rather, the way Ouyang Jingxu had already been bought off by Luo Yunyao—he would surely begin by investigating the origins of the whipped maid in order to trace the root of how Luo Yunyao came to be framed.

Luo Yunyao's expression tightened. She paused, and when she lowered her voice, it carried a somewhat heavy undertone. "Since she was a maid from my estate, do you know her name?"

Qin Jinghao gave Luo Yunyao a faint glance. That look clearly carried a trace of disdain and disbelief, roughly conveying: "Even if I knew the name of the maid beaten to death, would you even remember it? I wouldn't dare flatter the memory of Lord Luo, the Minister of War." However, that expression was merely faint and imperceptible, all the more so because Luo Yunyao was deeply immersed in a lingering sorrow and thus entirely unlikely to notice. Or perhaps the grand general simply realized that Her Royal Highness the Eldest Princess of Biluo was feeling somewhat low, which was why his usual teasing edge was so subdued.

Like jade, the cold and detached Grand General replied to Lord Luo, the Minister of War: "Jintai."

Those two light and soft words felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

Luo Yunyao had been moving with a light step, but now it felt as though her legs had suddenly grown as heavy as lead weights, making it nearly impossible for her to stand steadily. Her eyes widened. Clearly, those pretty almond eyes were filled entirely with bewilderment, yet one could scarcely find the spirited vitality they held just moments before.

It was as though someone had suddenly sucked away her soul, leaving behind a shell that could no longer stand.

Staring with wide eyes, Luo Yunyao slowly forced out three words, one by one: "How... very... strange."

She seemed utterly oblivious to the meaning of those words, her mind and soul suddenly hollowed out.

As she tilted her head once more, an uninvited gentle breeze ruffled her three thousand strands of dark hair, and every tangled thread seemed to beckon with questions.

How very strange, Luo Yunyao thought, and so she spoke. She hadn't used all that much physical effort while walking just now, so why had she suddenly grown so tired? Was it truly because she hadn't exercised in too long?

After speaking, Qin Jinghao merely stood there, watching her fixedly. He neither spoke nor made a move.

With an icy gaze, this cold and jade-like young noble from another world looked upon her as though she were a stranger making futile, solitary struggles against the world.

Only the flickering dark light deep within his eyes, the suppressed sparks of fire, revealed how hard he was exercising unnoticeable restraint. Even the cuffs of his robes, undisturbed by the breeze, seemed to sense this crushing internal pressure.

Outwardly, the Grand General remained utterly calm, yet inwardly he seemed in excruciating pain, aching for someone.

Jintai.

"Grand General Qin, I've fallen out of favor."

"That dead girl Qingzhu has a new love. Now that I am in a man's body, I cannot compete for favor, and besides, even if I wanted to, Qingzhu wouldn't allow it."

"If I had known better, I shouldn't have been kind enough to buy that maid back to the estate."

——"What is that maid's name?"

"Jintai."

Luo Yunyao seemed to remember that day once more.

The sunlight was just right, and osmanthus blossoms clustered on the branches like little sprites who had just descended to the human realm, scrambling to poke their heads out and catch a glimpse of this world. Yet within their hearts, they were timid, afraid to face it alone, so they gathered in groups of three or five, huddling together in clusters of five or six as they hid shyly beneath the dark green osmanthus leaves, peeking out at the human world with quiet merriment.

A breeze from nowhere carried waves of osmanthus fragrance, gently lifting the curtain of Luo Yunyao's sedan chair.

Luo Yunyao had been resting her chin in her hand, gazing past the curtain to think about the imperial court, her estate, and the matters between herself and Qin Jinghao. At that moment, she was completely at ease and light of heart.

Looking through the parted curtain, she saw tiny osmanthus blossoms swirling in the air like stamens of gold, resembling little sprites arriving to keep a rendezvous.

As Luo Yunyao fluttered her eyelashes, she locked gazes with a pair of eyes.

She could not say what was so remarkable about those eyes, nor could she explain what made them so moving.

Perhaps, just as the poetry said, meeting the right person at the right time made the moment unbearably touching.

Of course, if one were speaking of seeing Grand General Qin, that poem could not apply. Lord Luo, the Minister of War, thought this without the slightest regard for her image or moral integrity.

——When I meet my beloved, then no matter the time, it is always the best of times. No matter the circumstance, you are always the one who moves me most.

She hadn't realized she could be so sentimental. Luo Yunyao rubbed her nose.

That was the day Luo Yunyao encountered Jintai.

In those tear-filled eyes, Luo Yunyao saw only the shattered sunlight reflected within Jintai's gaze.

And so, she felt an overwhelming urge to piece that sunlight back together.

Thus, Luo Yunyao stopped the sedan chair, reached out her hand toward the young woman who was selling herself to bury her mother, and bent her body. Upon her fair, pretty face—as lovely as a peony—rested the gentlest of smiles as she softly asked Jintai: "Are you willing to come with me to the Ministry of War?"

That momentary impulse. That reasonless sentimentality. It caused Luo Yunyao, who had repeatedly cheated death in the political arena, to forget all calculation, all deliberation, and all caution.

Luo Yunyao knew not whence Jintai came, nor whither she was going, what she had experienced, or what skills she possessed... She knew nothing at all, yet she brought such a person of unknown origin back to her own estate.

Luo Yunyao had previously constantly blamed the Grand General, worrying that he would let people enter his estate without knowing anything about them, allowing wave after wave of undercover spies to nest there without his knowledge.

Clearly, that was a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

In fact, Luo Yunyao was even more egregiously mistaken. Qin Jinghao did not concern himself with the employment of servants partly because he trusted his steward, and partly because the Grand General was at all times certain that, without his permission, no one could come within an inch of him. But Luo Yunyao was different. She had always been cautious; after all, she was the target of public criticism, and she harbored far too many secrets. If a spy were to infiltrate her home and win her trust, Luo Yunyao would be reduced to a fish on the chopping block, at the mercy of others.

If Luo Yunyao ever had to find a reason or excuse for that impulsive act long afterward, she imagined it would be this:

At that moment, she had likely thought of the Grand General. She thought of how he had first entered officialdom, brimming with ambition and already having achieved results. He was already the most renowned young general in the entire continent. Yet the emperor refused to employ him or trust him, and instead regarded him with suspicion and fear.

At that time, within those tranquil, soul-stirring eyes of Grand General Qin, was there also sunlight shattering into pieces? Was that when those clear, beautiful eyes began to freeze, finally hardening into that cold and detached facade where no more waves could ever rise?