To Live Up to This Spring - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

After returning home, I fell ill.

Rumors outside said I was short-lived and ill-fated-that after one trip to the imperial palace, I couldn’t withstand all that noble grandeur, and so sickness had come crashing down on me like a mountain.

As Mother helped me sit up, she cursed, “Pah!”

“My daughter was born under an excellent fortune. You’re destined for boundless wealth and honor, a lifetime of blessings. What do those people know?”

I swallowed a mouthful of the medicine she fed me, and my eyes lit up. “Why isn’t it bitter this time?”

“This medicine was sent by a noble person. He even sent honey.”

“The medicinal ingredients are all very precious, and the honey is top-quality too. Mixing them together won’t weaken the medicine’s effect.”

I asked, “Who was the noble person?”

“He didn’t say.”

“I was thinking it must be the Young Marquis.”

“He has such a proud nature. He heard you were ill but was too embarrassed to come see you, so he had someone deliver medicine instead.”

I curled my lip.

Him?

Wei Jin detested me so much. How could he possibly send me medicine?

Mother fed me the medicine spoonful by spoonful. “Take your medicine properly, rest properly, and get better soon. That way, you won’t miss next month’s flower-viewing banquet.”

The flower-viewing banquet hosted by the Marchioness of Jing’an…

I hated occasions like that the most.

Those officials’ wives and noble ladies only knew how to laugh at me.

And I wasn’t allowed to get angry.

If I got angry, that meant I lacked magnanimity and had the petty manners of a small household.

But if I laughed along with them, they would say I was slow-witted.

And yet these noble families just loved throwing banquets.

A flower-viewing banquet today, a polo match tomorrow, a refined literary gathering the day after.

They truly had so much money they didn’t know where to spend it.

And so much time they had nothing better to do.

The thought of having to deal with this endlessly in the future filled my heart with gloom.

So I simply let my eyes roll back and collapsed onto the couch.

I sighed. How troublesome…

Truly troublesome!

To attend the flower-viewing banquet, Mother specially made me a pale yellow ruqun that made me look both charming and bright.

She instructed me, “Get along well with the Young Marquis.”

“Feelings are built by spending time together. Do you understand?”

I said nothing.

I only grumbled inwardly, Haven’t Wei Jin and I spent enough time together already?

Doesn’t he still dislike me and like Miss Zou instead?

Why press your warm face to someone else’s cold backside, only for them to complain you didn’t wash your face? What’s the point?

Mother pinched my cheek. “Did you hear me?”

I smiled sweetly. “I know.”

At the banquet, the noble young ladies gathered in twos and threes, one name constantly appearing on their lips.

General Weibei-Pei Lian.

“General Pei only returned to the capital last month. I saw him from afar at the palace banquet, and he isn’t the least bit ferocious like the rumors say. He’s quite good-looking!”

“Better-looking than the Young Marquis?”

The girl thought it over carefully. “A different kind of good-looking.”

“The Young Marquis has more of a young man’s spirited brilliance, while General Pei is a little older and has a steadier air.”

“Oh, I heard he’ll be coming today too. You can see for yourselves, can’t you?”

As they were speaking, they suddenly stared in one direction, utterly infatuated.

They said excitedly, “He’s here, he’s here!”

I followed their gazes and looked over.

I was completely dumbfounded.

It was actually the man I had met in the side hall!

So he was General Weibei, Pei Lian…

Just as I was thinking that, the man glanced over lightly.

I hurriedly looked away.

The steamy scene from that night kept surfacing in my mind.

I swallowed, and my face gradually began to heat.

I patted my own cheeks and thought, Damn brain, stop thinking about it!

But I couldn’t control myself!