Chapter Eighty-Nine: A Frightened Heart Reveals Its True Form

The Purple Lotus and the ancient Sky Lord called Black Ink had been drinking tea for quite some time. When the young woman in blue brought in the meal, the Sky Lord sprang to his feet at once. The movement was so abrupt that I could not help but startle, thinking for a moment that he had noticed something. A white blur flashed before my eyes, and when I looked again, the Sky Lord was already standing before the woman in blue. He reached out, snatched the tray of food from her hands, and said in a low, displeased voice, “Qing’er, you are already with child. How can you still be so careless with your health? Leave such things to the servants. Why must you do them yourself?”

The woman in blue smiled gently. “It is only carrying a tray. Nothing will happen.”

His expression darkened further at that, his brow furrowing more and more. “The child in your womb has only just been conceived a few days ago. As a mother, how can you not be more obedient and stay properly at home? You are always wandering about everywhere, making your husband worry, making me worry for the child in your belly.”

With that, the Sky Lord looked at her with tender concern and drew her closer to sit down. Then, turning to set the tray on the table, he cast a resentful glance at me and the Purple Lotus. His look was cold and carried an unmistakable order to leave, as though it were we and Purple Lotus who had made his pregnant little wife carry that tray of impossibly heavy dishes.

I felt a little guilty and glanced furtively at Purple Lotus. At the moment, he looked perfectly at ease and untroubled, as if he had neither heard nor seen a thing the Sky Lord had said or done. Leaning slightly forward, he lifted a dish from the tray brought by the woman in blue. Curious, I looked over and saw that it was a fragrant carp. Just as the plate was about to be set before him, his body suddenly went rigid, his movement pausing for a moment. Then he set the carp back onto the tray and picked up a plate of chicken with lotus blossoms instead, placing it before himself. After that, he began to eat and drink alone, entirely as though no one else were there.

I had never imagined that my own master could be so shameless. It left me, who had always prided myself on being bold and thick-skinned, with nothing to do but wipe my forehead and sigh in bitter admiration of my own inferiority.

The Sky Lord and his wife seemed not at all surprised by Purple Lotus’s behavior. They must have long been used to his habit of arriving uninvited and acting as though he belonged there.

After eating and drinking to his fill, night had gradually fallen.

Purple Lotus and the Sky Lord began drinking tea again as if no one else were present. I sat off to the side, yawning for a while, and found it all unbearably dull. So I rose and stepped outside, intending to stroll around the courtyard.

At first I meant to go to the front courtyard and look for some fruit in the pear grove, where the trees had already borne fruit, hoping to satisfy my craving a little. But after running through the entire orchard, I still could not find a single one fit to eat. The little green fruits were far from ripe; they were no bigger than my thumb, hanging from the branches and swaying gently in the wind, quite lovely.

“I remember you now.”

Just as I was drooling at the sight of the green fruit, the voice of the woman in blue suddenly sounded behind me. My heart lurched, and in an instant killing intent surged within me. I lowered my head and secretly gathered power in my sleeves, ready to strike with my palm the moment she threatened me.

But no threat came. Instead, a burst of laughter rang out behind me. It was a pleasant laugh, like the call of a warbler, soft and tender. The wind rustled through the leaves, scattering the sound into broken fragments as it drifted toward me, and then footsteps sounded, slowly approaching.

The smile left my face. I turned and glared at her, my voice low. “Are you trying to threaten me?”

Though it was a question, I was certain in my heart that her appearing here only now, to say such things to me, had some hidden purpose.

For so long inside the house, she had merely stared at me and said that I looked familiar, yet she had never truly exposed my identity. She had not said it in front of Purple Lotus, nor in front of her husband. Only now, when I had come alone into the garden to wander, had she appeared and declared that she had recognized who I was.

“Threaten you?”

Her lovely eyes widened, as if she were truly taken aback.

“Why would I threaten you?”

When she finished speaking, the corners of her eyes curved like a crescent moon, and the amusement in her gaze grew as she looked at me.