A Lonesome Fragrance Waiting to be Appreciated (COMPLETE)

35

The two were secretly upset.

Moran said, "Although He Xia promised not to move until the sixth, we must not underestimate him. I'd better do a few more adjustments to the defence arrangement of this residence."

Zuiju nodded and watched Moran turn to leave. She thought of something and said a soft, "Ah," but stopped herself from calling Moran, letting him leave.

Returning to the room, she saw Hongqian was sitting on a chair taking a nap. Her thoughts were the most shallow and had been recently subjected to much shock. Seeing that Pingting and Moran had safely returned, she realised that the danger had passed and finally slept. Hearing the sound of the door curtain, she slowly opened her eyes and realized Zuiju had returned. She placed a fingertip to her mouth.

"Hush..."She pointed at the inner room, closed her eyes, placed both her hands to one side and tilted her head, imitating a sleeping pose.

Zuiju gave her a look of understanding and quietly crept into the room, quietly probing.

Pingting was lying on the bed, her long hair scattered around. One clump was softly falling from the bed. Her eyes were closed and she seemed to be sleeping.

A thick blanket covered her, but the window was still opened, allowing cold wind to flow inside.

Zuiju whispered, "Such a bad habit ought to be corrected." She quietly tiptoed towards the bedside, carefully reaching out. She had yet to touch the window when she heard a soft voice coming down from below.

"Don't close it. The blowing wind refreshes my mind."

Zuiju lowered her head to look and saw that Pingting had already opened her eyes. How could they be considered sleepy when possessing such brightness?

"It's better to close it as it won't be funny if you get a cold." Zuiju stubbornly closed the window and turned to sit down by the bed. She reached out into the blankets, rummaging for PIngting's slender wrists which she pressed two fingers against to check her pulse. She calmly listened for a while before lightly laughing, "All good."

She returned the hand to its original place before lowering her voice. "I've already heard from Moran. I don't know what to say, really."

Pingting revealed a gentle smile and asked a question in return, "Don't tell me you're worried that the Duke won't be back too?"

Zuiju looked at Pingting in the eye.

She accompanied her teacher when saving lives and was familiar with nobles and officials. She was more or less a friend of all of the ladies of the big families in Dong Lin, perhaps even the concubines of the Royal Residence, yet she had never met someone like Bai Pingting.

Intelligence, joy, and aloofness were soaked into her bones. How could the House of Jing-An produce such a casually elegant He Xia of swords and song whilw looking after a person like Bai Pingting?

Pingting saw that Zuiju was silent and gently returned her stare.

The two pairs of bright eyes looked at each other silently, as if trying to measure the other's intentions.

Hongqian happened to come in and saw two people staring stupidly at one another. In a surprised voice, she said, "So Miss Bai wasn't sleeping? I restricted my movements to very small ones so that I wouldn't wake you. What on earth could you possibly be staring at each other for? A flower can't be formed from it."

Zuiju shifted her gaze and turned to look at Hongqian. She half laughed, half scowled, "You're so noisy, interrupting people when they're thinking deeply about things."