Chapter 148: Exquisite Dice Embedded with Red Beans

As soon as those words fell, Maple Bridge Night Snow wore an excited expression, taking a few rapid steps forward to firmly grasp her arm. With a joyful look, he asked, "Brother Murong, is everything you just said true?"

His eyes were filled with delight as he looked at Lu Manman with eager anticipation. Having already secretly bestowed her heart upon him, Lu Manman found herself enduring his burning gaze. Her face, which had been painted with an excess of yellow cosmetic powder, could not withstand the heat and flushed with a burning red. With a stiff posture, she slowly nodded at Maple Bridge Night Snow in the autumn breeze.

Maple Bridge Night Snow said, "Then I wonder if I might have the honor today to hear Brother Murong play a tune."

"Mm."

The pretty face covered in rouge grew even more enchanting. At this moment, in order to avoid Maple Bridge Night Snow's scorching gaze, she lowered her neck slightly, revealing a patch of skin as translucent as white jade to his view. Her slender, upturned eyelashes trembled gently in the successive autumn breezes, whether because of the nervous tension brought by the man's overly direct and burning gaze, or simply because the autumn wind was a bit too strong.

She cradled the guqin and walked over to the desk, placing the instrument upon it before seating herself with unhurried grace. Finally, she extended her slender, white fingers hidden beneath the black jade-cotton sleeves. Her fingers were delicate and pale, possessing a luster even more refined than the complexion of ordinary women. They brushed lightly across the strings. Suddenly, with a gentle pluck, a wondrous melody instantly resonated through the pavilion.

Outside the pavilion, the red bellflowers were in full bloom. Each brilliant red blossom resembled a red sixty-four-ribbed purple-bamboo oiled-paper umbrella just closed after the rain, trembling slightly in the wind as they listened to the harmonious duet of zither and lute played by the two figures within. The vibrant red petals seemed to blossom with increasing brilliance. In the gentle breeze, the floral leaves swayed softly, accompanying the music as they danced with carefree abandon through the floating dust of the mortal world.

Drinking wine and painting, playing the zither and composing poetry—these were naturally pursuits for literary scholars to showcase their talents and test their skills against one another. But between this man and woman, they had transformed into a medium for exchanging amorous glances and quietly nurturing budding affections.

By the time the sky darkened completely, the two reluctantly bade each other farewell. Just as they were parting ways, Lu Manman suddenly withdrew a die from her sleeve and pressed it into the palm of Maple Bridge Night Snow. With a smile, she said, "With our parting today, I know not when we might meet again. Take this die as a token, and remember to keep it safe and cherish it well."

"A die?" Maple Bridge Night Snow's gaze flickered with a hint of confusion. He smiled at Lu Manman, who was still dressed in men's attire, and said, "I happen to know a poem about dice. It contains these two lines: 'Exquisite dice inlaid with red beans; do you know of this bone-deep longing?'"

With that, he looked smilingly into her slightly startled, delicate face and continued, "Brother Murong presenting me with this die today surely cannot mean what those lines suggest, can it? You must remember, both you and I are men."

"This..." In an instant, her flower-like countenance flushed with several shades of crimson. The eyes that had been brimmed with eager anticipation a moment before now dimmed of all their brilliance. She remembered that, in his eyes, she was still merely a man. To have now delivered the dice to him with a heart full of love and instructed him to guard and cherish it carefully truly bordered on the shocking to conventional morals.

Seeing her expression darken, her eyes shimmering like a vast expanse of emerald water as if tears might fall at any second, the heart of Maple Bridge Night Snow—which had remained sealed and numb for years—finally trembled violently because of the tears in her eyes.

Some matters, and some people, are not things you can control simply because you wish to, nor can they be evaded simply by trying to escape. There are too many things and too many people that lie beyond our prediction. They arrive in haste and depart with equal swiftness, much like one's own heart, which can sink so deeply at a single glance that there is no pulling it back out.

Perhaps, at this very moment, she was not the only one whose heart had been moved.

Resisting his own discomfort, just as her slender fingers were about to withdraw from his palm, he closed his hand tightly, trapping both the die and her soft hand within his grasp. Meeting her gaze of utter astonishment, he smiled and said, "Very well. I shall keep this die here with me, and I will help you treasure and protect it well. When the day comes that fate brings us together again, I will surely return it to you intact."

"Mm."

Though her heart knew well that his words were spoken only to one whom he believed to be a man, carrying no other hidden romantic implications, she still could not help but smile like a blooming flower, nodding slightly and locking the sentiment embodied by the single die deep within her heart.

The next instant, a bellflower was placed in the palm of her hand.

"What is this?"

She raised her head, a trace of puzzlement flickering in her beautiful eyes.

His slender fingers gently rested the blossom in her palm. Facing her uncomprehending gaze, he smiled softly and said, "You gave me a die, so I give you a bellflower. Compared to the die you gifted me, this flower may be a fraction more fragile, but I believe Brother Murong will certainly take good care of it and preserve it for me."

"Mm." She nodded with an earnest expression.

Upon returning to the imperial palace, she felt as though her heart had been left behind—left amidst the myriad scattered yellow leaves along the path to the pavilion, left within the garden blooming with countless vibrant bellflowers, and left with that handsome man who seemed to have stepped straight out of an ink-wash painting.

Nothing could be governed by her own will. From her initial evasion to her present yearning in the heart of night.

Outside the window, the autumn wind blew in soughing gusts. Holding a fully bloomed bellflower in her hand, she sat at the edge of her bed, her gaze fixed intently upon the blossom.

Her eyes flickered with an extraordinarily captivating radiance.

What does it mean to gaze upon an object and yearn for the person associated with it? This was precisely that. Though they were apart, though thousands of words went unspoken, the single blooming bellflower was quietly soothing the bone-deep longing that threatened to consume her entire consciousness.

A flurry of hurried footsteps sounded. Before Lu Manman could snap out of her reverie, Lu Haotian, the Emperor of the Zhou State, strode briskly into the room. Seeing his precious daughter gazing at a bellflower with a lovesick smile and wearing the unmistakable expression of a maiden newly smitten, he understood most of it in an instant. A tender, paternal smile surfaced upon his weather-beaten face, weathered though it was by the passage of illustrious years. He turned, quietly gesturing for the palace attendants following behind him to withdraw, then slowed his pace as he walked leisurely to the bedside. With a playful gesture, he waved his hand a few times right before his treasured daughter's eyes.

"Manman, Manman."

His voice was very soft, as if he feared that his sudden appearance might startle her.

Hearing her father's voice chime beside her ear, Lu Manman snapped back to reality. Raising her head, she saw him smiling warmly at her, as though without her needing to utter a single word of explanation, he had already guessed what occupied her heart at this very moment.

"Imperial Father, your daughter wishes..."

Before the words could fully leave her lips, Lu Haotian had already nodded with a smile. "If you fancy him, bring him to the imperial palace tomorrow to attend the state banquet. Your father wishes to witness with his own eyes what manner of hero it is that has captured the heart of our seventh princess."

A hero? In truth, he was merely a humble merchant who grew flowers and brewed wine.

She smiled and shook her head, saying, "He is very ordinary, and very plain. But your daughter likes him dearly."

That very afternoon, Maple Bridge Night Snow received a letter at the Willow Moon Residence sent by Lu Haotian, the Sovereign of the Zhou State, inviting him to enter the palace and have an audience with the ruler. Seeing that everything was proceeding precisely within the grasp of his calculations, a smile touched Maple Bridge Night Snow's scholarly and handsome face. He walked with measured steps to the window, gazing at the bellflowers blooming vibrantly outside, though the smile at the corners of his lips stiffened slightly. Hesitating for a brief moment, he reached into his sleeve, withdrew a die, and tossed it up into the sea of myriad crimson blossoms.