Mixed Robes [FengQing]

To Gift You

A month later, everyone was notified that Lian was awake. It took Lian a few days to recover from her muscle atrophy even though she was a heavenly official, and she was as healthy as ever once she recovered. She was showered with gifts of her belated ascension, and she sat in her room with Yulan while looking through them all.

"Hmm..." Lian muttered while studying a gift wrapped with light blue silk. Yulan sat nearby with a gentle smile, and she guided Lian through each gift.

"That one's from Ling Wen. She thought you might need it," Yulan gently explained. Lian cautiously unwrapped the gift and found a calligraphy set. 

"Ling Wen knew that you liked to create and compose poems and she had a few calligraphy sets lying around, so she decided to give you one. It's pretty high quality," Yulan said while leaning over to Lian who was sitting on her bed. 

Not even two days after Lian woke up, Yulan and Lian officially became lovers. Their parents liked the match, as one best friends' daughter was with the other two best friends' daughter. Depending on who one asked, they could have even said that the match was auspicious in a way. 

"Oh... I like these. Tell Ling Wen I said thanks," Lian said, her eyebrows lifting a fraction. Yulan passed another gift wrapped in white silk to Lian.

"This is from my Diedie and A-Die. They wanted to express their congratulations on your waking up and your ascension. I said it looked pretty expensive, but A-Die and Diedie insisted on giving it to you," Yulan said sheepishly. Lian smiled and looked down at the gift that Hua Cheng and Xie Lian gave her. She gently unwrapped it, careful not to break whatever was on the inside.

It was a very beautiful painting of Lian ascending, drawn, and painted on the highest quality silk paper. The painting was lined with a silver frame, and the brushstrokes were practiced and very beautiful. It depicted Lian in her grey combat robes, fluttering around her as golden light streamed down from above. Even her facial features were very precise, and one could see the detail of her lips and eyelashes. It was clear that Hua Cheng had painted it, and if anybody asked him, he would have said that he didn't put much effort into it. That didn't erase the fact that it was still strikingly beautiful, and it struck Lian dumb at first glance. In neat calligraphy in the bottom right corner, there lie the characters of, "Happy Ascension, Xiao-Lian! May you live for centuries to come". It was also obvious that Xie Lian had written those words, as Hua Cheng's handwriting was nothing to speak of.

Lian's eyes widened as she stared at the detailed painting. After a moment, she snapped out of her daze and looked up at Yulan. 

"...T-tell your Diedie and A-Die that I said 'Thank you very much'. This is so..." Lian mumbled in awe.

"Beautiful, right? It's not as beautiful as you, though." Yulan said with a smile. Lian's face flushed and she stammered.

"I... Uh..." Lian didn't know how to receive such compliments. She would immediately feel awkward when someone called her beautiful, and especially when it was coming from Yulan, she felt fuzzy and awkward on the inside. 

"Next gift! Oh, It's from your Baba and A-Die," Yulan said cheerily without further ado. Lian shook out of her thoughts and received the gift that Yulan was passing her. It was intricately wrapped in purple and blue silk, tied with a golden ribbon. It looked like it was one of Feng Xin's hair ribbons that he had lying around. Lian slowly took out to ribbon and unwrapped the gift.

Inside was a hairpin. Even if one was standing twenty meters away, one would be struck with awe at how well-crafted and beautiful this hairpin was. 

The hairpin was made with red jade, with strings of blue jade running through the hairpin. It was carved with cloud patterns, and at the end, it was shaped into a lotus. Attached to it was a small chain of gold, and a detailed red lotus shaped from clay hung down. Beneath the lotus hung rare pearls, and a blue glass bead shaped into a teardrop. It looked like this hairpin symbolized the entire life story of Lian, from what she was named after to the pain of her two-year-long unconsciousness.