Chapter 289 (2/2)
Lee Huiyuan replied, ”I could stay longer. Father never opposes me staying with you.”
Lee Yu frowned. ”You really should avoid meeting her. You are ill-tempered and although Sangsang seems to be fine with it, she has a clear mind. She knows everything you are thinking.”
Li Huiyuan laughed out of anger. ”But she is just a handmaiden. You want me to leave just because of her?”
Lee Yu didn't bother to explain. She grabbed him, lifted him out of the chair, and then called some eunuchs to escort him to the Palace.
She watched the yellow figure disappear at the stone gate of the yard and shook her head. She knew that although her brother had improved considerably in the past year, he was still too young to understand matters thoroughly.
Sangsang was indeed a normal humble handmaiden; her status was much lower than a Prince of Tang. But Lee Yu was clear that Sangsang was the key to getting Ning Que and keeping a good relations.h.i.+p with the Academy.
Lee Yu placed her brush on the inkstone. She looked at her calligraphy, a whole page of regular script in small characters. She turned around and asked, ”What do you think of my writing? Do you like it?”
Sangsang shook her head. ”I am not good at appreciating calligraphy. I think as long as it is clean and tidy, it is good.”
Lee Yu didn't buy it. With a laugh, she said, ”But your young master is one of the most famous calligraphers. After being with him for such a long time how come you don't know how to appreciate calligraphy? How do you appreciate his calligraphy when you accompany him as he writes?”
Sangsang looked at Lee Yu seriously. Her eyes were round and s.h.i.+ny. She said, ”My young master's writing is definitely good. I don't need to think of fancy words to flatter him.”
Lee Yu thought about her words carefully and found this handmaiden and her master very interesting. To make fun of her, she asked, ”I don't know how you get along so well with each other, but I know, in your eyes, Ning Que is the best in everything. Tell me, he has been out of Chang'an for a long time, have you missed him at night?”
Sangsang and Lee Yu had been visiting each other quite regularly ever since they came to Chang'an from the City of Wei. They had gradually become friends, ignoring the differences between their statuses. But when Shangshang heard this, she felt ashamed and angry. She turned around and didn't answer Lee Yu's question, which was very uncommon.
Lee Yu smiled, she knew very well that only by making fun of each other, could they become closer. She also knew very well that under the angry, shamed face, Sangsang liked what she was implying.
But Sangsang was too young to understand her own feelings. She didn't really know why she felt so ashamed. Ning Que was the same. He was not clear of his feelings either.
Sangsang was standing next to the lake and looking at the snow. Her slim figure and the backdrop of the flying snow made up a really beautiful picture, from which you could sense a lonely but expectant feeling.
Lee Yu looked at this picture and envisioned Ning Que standing next to the handmaiden. She found this picture complete and harmonious, so much that not a single part was in conflict.
She sighed silently, trying to rid herself of the envy and regret arising in her heart. She remembered the piece of recent news and asked softly, ”I heard that you harbored an old man recently in the Old Brush Pen Shop.”
Surprised, Sangsang turned and nodded.
Looking at her thin dark face, Lee Yu felt her heart swelling with pity. She reminded Sangsang carefully, ”Chang'an is a safe place and there are people guarding the shop. But still, please be careful about this type of thing.”
Sangsang sensed her concern and love. She comforted Lee Yu, ”It is fine. He is an honest man.”
He was a man of trouble. A decade ago, it was he who had led two b.l.o.o.d.y cases and killed countless innocent people, yet he was also t.i.tled Great Divine Priest of Light and symbolized purity. Whether the word honest really suited him was an uncertainty.
But it was true that nothing had gone wrong in the Old Brush Pen Shop. Ning Que had asked for help several times from many different parties before he left, so Lin 47th Street was under heavy guard. It had thus become quite noisy; bodyguards from the imperial palace often came and watched the shop, and local government runners checked on the shop at least five times a day. Never mind the people from the Fish-dragon Gang, who almost never left the shop, and protected it from morning till night. All this made this humble street the safest place aside from the Palace.
It was ironic though. The bodyguards from the imperial palace, the Chang'an local government, and the Fish-dragon Gang were all executing another command: find an old man. But it had never occurred to anyone that the man they were searching for was in the very shop they were guarding.
When evening fell, Sangsang remembered that it was time to prepare dinner for the old man. She left the Princess Mansion and went home.
She opened the gate of the shop and walked into the yard. Her eyebrows frowned when she discovered the old man was planning to heat up leftovers as dinner, just like she had thought he would. She opened the boxed meal from the Princess Mansion and said, ”Come and eat this.”
She had tried to teach the old man to cook a couple of days ago. But after witnessing the fruit of his cooking, she decided to save some rice and wood by giving up on her plan. The rice had been so overcooked that it was as black as coal and half of the wood pile had disappeared.
Just as they were about to eat, someone knocked on the gate.
Sangsang stood up. She was about to answer the door when she suddenly remembered something. She sat back down to eat.
The old man understood. He picked a tiny bit of rice from his clothes and went to answer the door.
The gate of the Old Brush Pen Shop opened. A monk was standing on the stairs.
It was a handsome young monk, dressed in a very old robe, with a feeling of out of the mortal world.
The monk was shocked to see the old man. He said, ”I am not looking for you.”
The old man was also shocked, he turned around and said, ”It is for you.”
Holding her bowl, Sangsang walked toward the gate. She tried very hard to remember who this young monk was and finally remembered that she had met this man once outside the gate of the Academy when Ning Que had gone to the Second floor of the Academy.
The monk's eyes lightened when he saw Sangsang's dark face. He exclaimed in an excited shaking voice, ”Oh dear girl, I, the Love Monk Wudao, have finally found you. I have made you some new poems.”
”You are a beautiful flower on the cliff, waiting for me to pick you up. You are a slim fish in the lake, swimming through a net of seaweed. You are the biggest obstacle in my road, and I choose to stay with you, never to start the journey again...”
Sangsang glanced at the Yellow Flower Fish in her bowl when she heard the words flower and fish.
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