Yi Shuyuan said nothing more to Hui Mian. He needed no rest, so he walked to one side of the room and opened the window.
The girls' bedchambers in Cloud Fragrance Pavilion all faced the front. Opening the window revealed a vivid red peach grove, with an endless stream of flower-viewers coming and going both within and outside it.
Hui Mian climbed down from Yi Shuyuan and stood at the windowsill, looking outside before glancing upstream. When it and its master had left last time, Miss Zhuo Qing must have leaned here to watch them go.
Many of the flower-viewers were scholars and poets, and naturally there was no shortage of young men and women strolling in pairs.
With the transformation he now wore, Yi Shuyuan could appreciate something of how the women here felt. When they looked toward that peach grove, perhaps they often felt quite envious.
"The beauty of peach blossoms lasts but one fleeting spring."
Yi Shuyuan's eyes grew slightly dreamy. A breeze rose from the peach grove, seemingly drawn by his thoughts toward Cloud Fragrance Pavilion, and scattered petals flew all the way to the window.
Yi Shuyuan reached out to catch a few petals, then smiled.
"When next year's snow melts, the peach blossoms will bloom again!"
Just then, quick little footsteps sounded outside, followed by a woman's voice as the door opened.
"Sister Zhuo, finished so soon today?"
Hui Mian immediately hid.
Yi Shuyuan turned toward the door and saw a pretty woman dressed in yellow. She, too, seemed momentarily stunned, gazing at the woman standing calmly by the window, her graceful figure facing the breeze, hair and robes fluttering amid a shower of peach petals.
"Wow..."
The woman at the door exclaimed and hurried inside excitedly.
"You didn't lock your door today, Sister