Lady Lu, Zhang Wenwan, ordered the other attendants to wait where they were. She and Lu Weiwei took four personal maids, along with six or seven serving women and household servants she had brought from her natal family as part of her dowry, and walked north along the lakeshore, as though on a spring outing, admiring the shimmering lake and mountain scenery.
At first, Lu Weiwei walked slowly beside her stepmother, Zhang Wenwan, but gradually she went faster and faster, until her feet practically flew. Unable to keep pace, Lady Lu shook her head with a smile and simply let Lu Weiwei go ahead, only ordering Duan Chu and Zanhua to stay close behind her and telling Banli to follow as well, ready to attend her.
Holding her skirt up lightly with one hand, Lu Weiwei walked very quickly. She had often roamed the mountains and waterways in the past and had developed strong legs, but she had seldom gone out these past two years. Walking all the way to the foot of Guo Pu Pavilion without stopping actually left her a little breathless. Still she did not pause, climbing the thirty steps to the raised terrace. Guo Pu Pavilion spread its eaves like wings, but there was not a soul inside.
Lu Weiwei froze. She stood in the pavilion with her hands on her hips, panting. Before her, blue-green waves stretched across the vast lake. A cool breeze blew over, carrying damp moisture and the fragrance of flowers and trees. Just then, she heard that voice, at once familiar and unfamiliar, calling, "Wei Rui, I'm here-"
Lu Weiwei turned to look and saw a handsome, upright young man standing with a smile on the other side of the terrace below the pavilion. His brows were jet-black, his eyes like