Fuzhu's Ballad

57

Chapter 57 Reed pipe and yellow blossoms

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When she returned to the General’s mansion, Shentu Rui was already gone. Looking at the open door and empty room, she felt a sudden weakness and her shoulders slumped. She fell to the ground, and the herbs spilled out of her backpack.

Su Yi Ming also became anxious and said with a pale face, “It’s impossible, isn’t he supposed to meet with the county magistrate this afternoon? Don’t worry.” He patted Lan Dan on the shoulder. “Let me go and check. If he really left, I’ll send you to catch up!” After speaking, he hurriedly ran out of the yard.

Lan Dan stood still, feeling powerless in many moments of her life. However, at times like this, it was the first time that she felt like she had no more strength left and wanted to leave everything to the heavens. She didn’t want to give up, even though she didn’t see a way forward. As Su Yi Ming said, she should try, but even she herself knew that the result might not be good. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to give up.

She took out the reed flute from her waist and touched it. It had been her old friend during this time, sometimes silently accompanying her, sometimes passionately expressing her thoughts. Today, it was going to help her make a final attempt. She closed her eyes and blew softly, and the melody started to rise and fall. The tune was the one Shentu Rui played on the snowy wasteland, and she had practiced it countless times. Only this time did she suddenly understand his words: “Anyone who has gone through a cold heart will like the reed flute.”

She seemed to have returned to that place again, where dark clouds were like castles, pressing on the vast wilderness. Snowflakes were carried by the wind, wandering and drifting. The old shepherd played a mournful tune while accompanied by his sheep, but he was not sad because he had a wife waiting for him at home with food and drink. As long as he had that person, no matter where he went, his heart was warm, and he felt grounded.

She also played the reed flute on that wilderness. The snow was heavier, and the wind was colder. The old man smiled as he passed by with his sheep, and there was no one else in the desolate and vast land. She stood alone, and the person who made her feel warm and grounded rode a spirited horse with his attendants, racing towards the horizon, gradually disappearing from her sight. She tried hard to play the reed flute, the music crying out and pleading, piercing through the dark sky. Could that person who had gone far away still hear it?

After the song ended, Lan Dan lifted her chin, took a deep breath, and slowly opened her eyes. Instead of the snowy and cold wilderness, she was in front of the door of the general’s mansion, in her own room.

She lowered her eyes for a while, then slowly turned around——

No one was at the gate.

Lan Dan smiled through her tears. It seemed that he had really gone far away and could not hear her flute.

She squatted down, picking up the scattered herbs and putting them back into her basket, knowing that she might not need them anymore. However, she could not bear to throw them away because she had picked each one with the intention of being good to him, better than before.

After learning about her lost past, she believed in fate for a time. She thought it was fate that an ordinary girl like her could win the heart of Shentu Rui because the year he was waiting for the Emperor’s mercy to allow him to visit his mother, she gave him two lotus seeds. At that time, his heart must have been even more bitter than the lotus seeds themselves, but the innocent smile of the girl who gave them to him made him feel grateful and see beauty in the world. Fate was when the person who appeared with a smile in the most vulnerable and coldest moment. Because of fate, she took advantage and obtained something that Lan Huang had pursued all her life with just two lotus seeds. She had always thought that fate had not been kind to her, but looking back on her journey, fate had not been unkind to her at all. Was fate about to take back her luck? Was their fate with him going to end in that moment when she galloped away? He always appeared at her most vulnerable and coldest moment, but this time… why wasn’t he coming?