Chapter 168: One hundred seventy-five, The Return!

One hundred seventy-five, The Return!

Rain turns to clear skies.

Inside the courtyard, small puddles of rainwater have gathered on the ground, reflecting the orange-red sunset clouds in the sky. Looking down from a height,

the open space formed by these scattered puddles looks like a sky, fragmented like a mirror. There is a sense of silent beauty.

This scene is quickly broken.

A puddle reflecting the sunset clouds splashes as water sprays everywhere; another does the same. The puddles in the courtyard are shattered and splashed one after another.

The rhythm is extremely fast.

Looking closely, they are actually being trampled by a pair of slender, fair, bare feet.

Muddy water mixed with sand and stone inevitably splashes onto the hem of the skirt, which is being lifted by two fair hands above these bare feet.

A peach-colored silhouette sprints through the puddle-filled courtyard. The tranquility is broken.

"Miss, what are you... doing? Why have you come down barefoot? Be careful not to catch a cold..." Sister Caishou, who was gossiping with other maids in the courtyard, turns her head in a daze.

Her small face is full of surprise as she looks at the pretty young lady in a peach-colored ru skirt, who is panting and bending over to catch her breath. However, the answer to Sister Caishou is a palm thrust out urgently, the small arm trembling as it reaches out before her.

"Bring it here quickly!" The tone carries a hint of trembling, its meaning indescribable.

It is unclear if it is because she just sprinted all the way down from upstairs, or because she ran into the courtyard barefoot while holding her skirt, making it somewhat intense and strenuous.

Sister Caishou and the maids of Meiying Studio behind her look on in surprise as their usually cold and elegant Miss's fair, pretty face flushes with a blood-red hue, a color similar to the wet fabric of her peach-colored skirt. This, combined with a few strands of black hair scattered beside her upturned nose, adds a touch of touching, beautiful charm.

It has been a long time since they saw their Miss this anxious.

Speaking of which, is this really the Miss who was elegantly and indifferently reading under the eaves just a moment ago? Could she have been swapped?

Sister Caishou and the maids behind her look at each other; some maids cannot help but rub their eyes with their fingers, mistakenly thinking they saw wrong.

"Wha... what should I bring?" Sister Caishou's small face is puzzled.

Su Su Guoer ignores the frequent side-glances of the surrounding maids; her bright, starry eyes beneath beautiful, slender brows stare unblinkingly at the bun-faced little maid.

"The gift, his gift. Was it picked out by you? I searched for a long time and couldn't find it. Where on earth did you put it? It was clearly written on the gift list!"

She speaks in a rapid-fire burst of words, questioning quickly, leaving Sister Caishou and the maids behind her stunned. Sister Caishou suddenly shrinks her head, as if realizing something.

She quietly looks at her companions left and right, hesitating to speak, "Miss, there are many people..." "Bring it here!" The palm extended before Sister Caishou does not retract in the slightest, as if she heard nothing.

Sister Caishou glances at her Miss's serious expression, and her small hand behind her back fidgets as she takes out a round silk fan, guiltily and timidly stuffing it into Su Su Guoer's hand.

It can be seen that this silk fan is painted with a cool, refreshing picture of court ladies in spring.

The confused little eyes of the maids of Meiying Studio instantly turn into strange gazes.

"Returning it to you, Miss. This servant will know next time; I won't take yours anymore..." Sister Caishou whispers. "..." Su Su Guoer.

She takes a deep breath, stuffs the silk fan—which looks like an erotic painting—back into Sister Caishou's palm, bypasses the little maid who is standing there as if being punished, reaches out, and snatches a long, narrow wooden box from the small hand behind her back.

Su Su Guoer opens the wooden box in public, lowers her eyes to take a look, and her palm pauses for a moment. Hua Xuanji, she pulls out a scroll of mulberry paper, returns it to the wooden box, and without looking back, Su Su Guoer hurriedly returns to her room barefoot.

Her fair ankles are stained with some muddy water, but she doesn't care in the slightest. The peach-colored silhouette comes in a hurry and goes in a hurry.

Sister Caishou's small face is dazed; she stands in place for a while, turns her face to dismiss the maids, and then, with a somewhat dazed look, she pinches the silk fan and the empty wooden box and chases after her.

"Miss, be careful not to catch a cold..."

Sister Caishou follows her Miss's silhouette all the way back to the study on the third floor of Meiying Studio.

Her eyes are puzzled along the way; having been with her Miss the longest, she has never seen her Miss lose her composure like this. By all rights, this situation should only appear in dreams.

As soon as Sister Caishou enters the study, she sees that many rare books have fallen to the feet of the bookshelves, and many precious ink treasures and gold and jade bookmarks that her Miss previously quite liked are lying quietly on the soft carpet...

The bookshelves and the room that she had neatly organized not long ago have all been rummaged through and left in a mess, as if a thief had been there.

However, in the messy room at this moment, there is only one peach-colored silhouette standing quietly. Regarding the chaotic and messy scene on the ground around her, the silhouette seems indifferent, turning a blind eye.

"Miss, this is..."

Sister Caishou opens her mouth and calls out softly to her Miss. Su Su Guoer stands in the center of the study, ignoring her.

The entire study is filled with dazzling, priceless gold and stone rare books and elegant ink treasures, but her gaze at this moment is fixed firmly on only one thing.

A plain, unremarkable piece of mulberry paper.

On the unfolded paper is the clear, unrestrained handwriting of a certain young magistrate.

"Return! Why not return, when the fields and gardens are about to be overgrown?

"Since I have made my heart a servant to my body, why should I be melancholy and alone in my sorrow?

"I realize that the past cannot be corrected, but I know that the future can be pursued... Truly, the lost path is not yet far, and I realize that today is right and yesterday was wrong..."

In the open space in the center of the room, Su Su Guoer is alone. The sunset glow from outside the window shines obliquely into the room, stretching the shadow of her head, as she spreads the paper with both hands, very, very long.

As if there is wind, the shadow sways slightly, and a faint murmuring sound drifts:

"This is the Return... It is Tao Yuanming's Return... Hasn't it been lost for a hundred years? How could he have it... And he even gave it to me... as a birthday gift... Wait, that prophecy!"

Su Su Guoer lowers her head and mutters to herself, her body suddenly stiffening.

"The hidden dragon is in the abyss... holding the bright moon as it emerges... serving as an official in this county and then resigning... writing a rhapsody on resigning and retiring... the rhapsody and the bright moon will both be given to me..."

"Writing a rhapsody on resigning and retiring? Writing a rhapsody on resigning and retiring! That's right, it's writing! It doesn't necessarily have to be his own original work; it could also be writing out Tao Yuanming's rhapsody on resigning and then passing it on as a gift!"

Su Su Guoer's originally stiff body suddenly spins lightly and fiercely for a circle and a half in place. This sudden stop and turn makes others worry about whether she might twist her waist.

However, this young lady with plum blossom makeup clearly has studied dance, and is even very proficient in it; the flexibility of her slender waist is excellent.

Inside the room, Su Su Guoer's peach-colored skirt hem flies wantonly. Her position after the spin is exactly facing Sister Caishou at the door. "It matches, it all matches."

Su Su Guoer's apricot eyes are wide open, as if staring at Sister Caishou, and as if suddenly enlightened, her pink lips murmur:

"Now only... only the bright moon hasn't been given to me, and also, he will resign in the future, but why resign?

"Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan, you, you are the noble person I was destined to meet in my life, the person with whom I will share both adversity and... wealth." Su Su Guoer bites her lip, staring at the rhapsody on the paper, and raises her hand to rub her somewhat hot and flushed right cheek.

Thinking of it day and night, searching for a long time.

This sudden realization, like searching for him a thousand times in the crowd, and suddenly looking back, only to find him in the dim light, makes the usually calm Su Su Guoer feel a bit dizzy even now.

This cannot blame her for not being composed and calm; when such an experience, like fate descending and being destined, is upon one, it is extremely difficult for anyone to restrain their impulsive emotions.

Not to mention, intelligent as she is, Su Su Guoer is ultimately just a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl who has just reached womanhood... "Share adversity and wealth, huh? What does it mean to share adversity and wealth..."

"Wait, there is still the bright moon... The bright moon... How should this be explained? Magistrate Ouyang Magistrate Ouyang Lianghan, you can't possibly pick a bright moon from the sky with your bare hands and give it to me..."

Su Su Guoer begins to pace in place. The mulberry paper with Magistrate Ouyang Rong's handwriting is subconsciously pressed against her chest by the pretty young lady. On her egg-shaped pink face, which has not faded much from its flush, her dark brows are slightly furrowed, as if she is both happy and worried.

"Miss, what matches? What noble person?"

Sister Caishou enters the room, picking up the rare books on the ground while curiously asking. Her Miss had been pacing and muttering neurotically for quite a while just now.

Except for the first few sentences, which she heard clearly after pricking up her ears, Sister Caishou only heard some intermittent fragments of the subsequent murmurs.

It increasingly aroused the cat-like curiosity of the young girl. Su Su Guoer glares at the bun-faced little maid.

"Nothing... You girl almost ruined my big event just now, what are you grabbing things for?" Sister Caishou shrinks her shoulders, but still pouts her small mouth and argues:

"Wasn't it Miss who told me to take two pieces... Uh, Miss, do you mean that this birthday gift Young Master Magistrate Ouyang gave you is very important to you?"

Su Su Guoer has no time to deal with her, pursing her lips and remaining silent. "The bright moon..."

She stops pacing and muttering, walks forward, lowers her head to carefully read the gift list again twice, and then turns around to search through the pile of birthday gifts again.

Before long, Su Su Guoer finds several large pearls and gemstones among several exquisite and luxurious gift boxes, and also finds a painting of the bright moon over the sea by a famous master with many seals.

However, immediately, it is casually thrown onto the carpet by her. It wasn't given by him.

Su Su Guoer only feels bored.

"He only gave me a 'Return', did he not give me anything else? Could it be that he wants to give it to me separately?" In the messy study, the young lady is still unwilling to give up, burying her head and searching.

"Uh, Miss, don't throw things around, what are you looking for?"

Cai Shou followed behind Su Su Guoer, and whenever the latter dropped something, she would pick it up, wipe it clean, and put it away—a truly long-suffering maid.

Su Su Guoer did not answer; her bare feet stepped on the soft carpet, and her slightly damp, bedraggled skirt trailed along the floor.

Seemingly lost in a daze, she muttered to herself in her heart: "A person who shares both adversity and prosperity... what exactly counts as sharing both adversity and prosperity? Treating a scholar with courtesy, promising him high office and a generous salary, and bestowing upon him glory and wealth?"

Just then, Su Su Guoer passed an inconspicuous wastebasket by the bookshelf. With a "clatter," her trailing skirt knocked the basket over.

Su Su Guoer turned her head casually, and her peripheral vision suddenly caught a flash of eye-catching red in the overturned basket. It was a bamboo slip wrapped in red paper.

It was a marriage fortune slip.

Su Su Guoer slowly paused her steps and stood still; the rosy flush that had just faded from her fair, tender cheeks instantly returned in a wave of crimson.

This time... it seemed the red was a little different.