One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.71 Summer Blossoms (1)

Needless to say, of course HeShan felt sad to have broken his guqin. But now that he could think about the matter clearly, it was actually fortunate that Qian FanSheng's head was as hard as a rock. Otherwise, HeShan would probably already be a murderer.

On the other hand, his companions were non-plussed about it. JingMo's first reaction was to shrug and wrinkled his nose. It was clear he was not too impressed with Qian FanSheng as well,

"If he turned out to be dead, we could just dump him at the back of the mountain. Nature and wild beasts would take care of the rest."

HeShan and SunChen took mental note to never piss any Northern Plains' tribal warrior.

Xiao Hui - of course - only nodded like a woodpecker, agreeing with her betrothed's point of view.

But HeShan would not say anything when YuLan took his broken guqin off his hands, and continued to sigh heavily when she looked at the instrument.

HeShan did not say anything when YuLan laid his broken guqin and her whiteguqin side by side, darting her gaze from one to another, sometimes caressing the body of the white guqin. The way her fingers lightly grazed the curve of the guqin, HeShan wondered if YuLan was really mourning his guqin, or if she was thinking of something else.

"...Or someone?". HeShan shook his head at that trail of thought. Perhaps he was overthinking things.

Xiao Hui also told the two scholars that sometimes YuLan would be absentmindedly staring outside their room's window in early mornings, the guqin cradled in her arms.  She would continue to stare at the falling snow, while still thinly robed. Although the brazier was lit inside their room, YuLan still opened the window during light snowfall and sat next to the windowsill. Xiao Hui had to reprimand her a few times, concerned about YuLan's well-being. 

One cold morning, HeShan and SunChen woke up and headed to the common room. To their surprise, everyone's breakfasts were already lined up on top of the dining table, a sumptuous feast that must have taken a fair time to prepare. Xiao Hui walked in from the kitchen bringing a tray of hot tea. She nodded at them in greeting and smiled. Then she gestured with her chin towards a certain direction, miming with her lips for the scholars to be silent.

They saw that the main chef - YuLan - had fallen asleep on the low platform inside the room. The platform was usually used by the three of them if they ever had to do indoor musical performances for their guests.

On the platform, a  white guqin laid, and YuLan's head was on top of it, having fallen asleep, her fingers seemingly softly caressing of the body of the instrument.