Birthday.
Xie Miao carries a sixteen-year-old body, but her soul looked back on herself as a girl through the distant years.
When she was fifteen years old, Madam Xie held a hairpin ceremony for her and personally inserted the hairpin and picked out the words for her. There were not many people watching the ceremony, and even fewer who sincerely congratulated her. But she was still so satisfied. She collected every gift and hid it at the bottom of the chest as if it were a treasure.
She remembered that Cui Muli had given her an emerald jade hairpin inlaid with jewellery, which was exquisite, precious and brilliant. She liked it so much that she wiped it with a silk handkerchief every day, and was reluctant to wear it. She only took it out and looked at it over and over again.
After marrying Cui Muli, she owned more and more things and it became more and more valuable, but she could never regain her original joy.
After reviving her life, she finally understood that glory, wealth, and honour were all external things, and it was important to live in peace.
Fu Lu chose a water-red skirt for her today, and Xie Miao did not refused. She dressed up prettily and went to greet Madam Xie and Madam Cui.
Madam Cui and the Madams all bestowed gifts, and the ladies in each room also expressed likewise, even Cui Xijun was no exception.
Xie Miao accepted politely and returned to Haihua Yuan. Just as she was instructing Lan Xia to pack her things, she heard from her maids that Cui Xining was visiting.
"A-Miao." Cui Xining came in holding a long brocade box and said with a smile: "I still have gifts to give you."
Xie Miao stood up and faced her, "Didn't you already give it?"
Cui Xining put the brocade box on the table and said with a smile: "Oh, how can anyone think that there are too many gifts?"
She opened the lid and revealed the foggy blue cracked Ru kiln vase inside, "I saw it in Baochang Pavilion a few days ago. I can tell at a glance that you would like it. It's perfect for arranging flowers on weekdays."
Xie Miao said distressedly: "The things in Baochang Pavilion are so expensive, why waste money?"
Cui Xining gave her a scolding look and whispered in her ear: "You are a great benefactor to me and Shen Lang, so what if I spend a little money?"
Xie Miao dismissed the maids and sat with her at the table to drink tea, "What's your situation now?"
Cui Xining said: "It's not what you think...my grandfather admires Shen Lang and intends to marry me to him, but my mother and father went to check Shen Lang's family background and refused to let go."
Xie Miao pondered for a moment and said: "Sun Shenyuan still has two years to take the imperial examination. You will be nineteen by then..."
Cui Xining said stubbornly: "So what if I'm nineteen? If I don't get to marry Shen Lang, I would rather give up secular life and become a nun."
Xie Miao: No, you can't steal my goal.
She held Cui Xining's hand and said sincerely: "Don't worry, you will definitely be able to make your dream come true and marry Sun Shenyuan smoothly."
"Then I'll take your word for it." Cui Xining lowered her eyes shyly, "When I get married, as a sister, you have to help me with my makeup."
Xie Miao was thinking about the possibility of a nun coming to add makeup to the Cui family's young lady.
Cui Xining said: "By the way, have you heard that something went wrong with Miss Su's marriage?"
"..."
Xie Miao pretended not to know, expressed her surprise and curiosity very cooperatively, and quickly dismissed the topic.
Cui Xining took a sip of tea and asked, "What are your plans for this afternoon?"
Xie Miao said: "Recite sutras, copy sutras, dry sutras..."
Cui Xining pushed her forehead with her finger and joked: "Look at you, you are really a layman with a mind full of scriptures."
Xie Miao blinked and thought, soon she will no longer be a layman, but an official nun.
"I know you are too lazy to go out, so I have already thought of it for you." Cui Xining said: "Let's go to Pingyao Fang to visit the rouge gouache shop first, then go to Babaozhai to buy cold cakes, and then go to Zhiwei Tower for lunch at noon, and then go to the Sun Moon Pond in the eastern suburbs to collect lotus seeds..."
She clasped her fingers, earnestly and happily, as if it was not Xie Miao who was celebrating the birthday, but herself.
Xie Miao curled her lips and nodded gently, "It's all up to you."
"It's getting late, let's go." Cui Xining took her arm and walked out, and asked as if unintentionally: "A-Miao, what gift did second brother give you this year?"
Xie Miao reminded her, "Cousin Cui is on a business trip to Hangzhou."
The implication is that no birthday gifts have been prepared.
"How is that possible?" Cui Xining said in surprise, "Didn't he say - " he wants to marry you? !
Things are indeed different from the previous life. In the past, out of etiquette, Cui Muli would also prepare birthday gifts.
However, Xie Miao didn't care.
She said calmly: "My cousin is busy with official duties, so how can he have time to care about these little things?"
Cui Xining wanted to put in a good word for Cui Muli, but thinking of the lesson learned last time, she shut her mouth tightly.
Forget it, second brother, you'd better ask for your own blessings.
*
After playing with Cui Xining for a day, Xie Miao felt more tired than copying scriptures for ten days.
She cheered up and had dinner with Madam Xie, and hugged Cui Musheng for a while. Then she pressed her lower back and returned to the house exhausted. She threw herself on the couch in a careless manner and said in an old-fashioned way, "Sure enough, I am getting older. Time makes people grow old, and your body knows it best!"
...
Lan Xia and Fu Lu twitched their lips, and for a split second they became suspicious - could it be that the person in front of them was not a sixteen-year-old teenage girl, but a seventy-year-old woman with dusk hair?
Fu Lu said, dumbfounded, "I'm going to get you hot water to take a bath now, and I'll massage your body before going to bed later."
Xie Miao rubbed her cheek against the quilt and waved her hand feebly, "Go ahead, I'll lie down for a while."
Lan Xia and Fu Lu retreated, and as soon as they closed the door, Lan Xia pulled Fu Lu aside and asked quietly: "Did the Second Young Master give a gift?"
Fu Lu shook her head.
"What about Third Young Master Zhou?"
Fu Lu shook her head again.
Lan Xia puffed up her cheeks like an angry frog, "What are the Second Young Master and Third Young Master Zhou doing? They say they like the Young Lady, but they can't even remember the birthday of the Young Lady?"
Fu Lu was also a little surprised. She patted her shoulder and sighed: "Forget it."
Lan Xia was still muttering: "The young masters of noble families are really unreliable. It's better for the Young Lady to leave the secular world and become a nun. Then they will regret it!"
She spoke freely again.
Fu Lu pushed her and said, "Okay, be careful of being overheard. Go and boil water."
After Xie Miao finished washing, and wrung dry her hair for bed, Fu Lu massaged her to relieve her pain, and she soon fell into a daze and fell asleep.
Fu Lu lowered the curtain, and lit the incense. She left a light in the outside room and quietly left.
...
The wind is gentle and the sun is beautiful, and the grass is green.
Fifteen-year-old Xie Miao sat on the big rock by the lake, facing the sun. She was holding up the emerald jade inlaid with jewellery flower hairpin in her hand, looking at it carefully over and over again.
It's beautiful.
Her eyes were bright and she was overjoyed. She placed the flower hairpin on her heart, then raised it again the next moment, tracing every line on it with her fingertips.
This is a hairpin gift from cousin Cui to her.
She was so immersed in her joy that she didn't notice anyone approaching playfully. Then she was suddenly hit hard on the back, and the emerald jade-embedded jewels in her hand flew out and smashed into the lake with a splash.
"Ah!" Xie Miao exclaimed, subconsciously wanting to jump in, but luckily she was pulled back in time.
When she stood firm, the man quickly retracted his hand and took two steps back to stand.
Xie Miao turned around with lingering fear and saw Cui Muli and Cui Mucheng standing together.
Cui Mucheng held Cui Muli's sleeves, half-hiding behind him, and timidly apologized: "Sister Miao, I'm sorry, I, I was careless and didn't notice you sitting here."
Of course Xie Miao would not argue with a child, so she reassured him, "It doesn't matter." After saying that, she couldn't help but wring her fingers. She looked at Cui Muli, and then at the calm water surface, her anxiety was palpable.
Cui Muli saw it clearly and asked, "What did cousin Xie want to do just now?"
Xie Miao whispered: "Cousin, my things fell in..."
Cui Muli's voice was calm but scolding, "So you want to jump in? Cousin Xie, do you know how deep this lake is?"
Xie Miao hurriedly said: "It's okay Cousin, I know how to swim."
"So what if you know how to swim in water? Most of the drowning cases every year are masters of swimming." Cui Muli's tone unconsciously worsened, "There are countless servants in the house, you might as well ask them to come and fish it out."
Xie Miao was quiet and said coyly: "I'm afraid that if I can't remember the location, it will sink into the mud later and I won't be able to find it again."
Cui Muli said calmly: "It's just a flower hairpin, just buy it again."
Xie Miao's eyes widened, "It can't be bought, that's——"
Cui Muli didn't mean to say more, "Nothing is worth jumping into the lake to find." After saying that, he stopped looking at her and said to Cui Mucheng, "You acted recklessly. I'll punish you to go back and copy books for an hour. Tomorrow, compensate Cousin Xie with another flower hairpin."
Cui Mucheng responded and followed Cui Muli away, looking back at her three times with regret in his eyes.
Xie Miao froze in place, and waited until there was no more sound around her before she finished the second half of the sentence in frustration.
That's... the hairpin gift you gave me.
*
Xie Miao suddenly woke up.
It's not known what time it is, but Fu Lu has not yet gone outside to keep watch.
She looked at the tent ceiling for a long time, then stepped down to the ground with her sleep clothes. She walked to the carved wardrobe with a candle, and opened the bottom drawer. She dug out the brocade box that was buried under the sundries.
The brocade box is exquisite and delicate, containing the emerald jade inlaid with jewellery flower hairpin that Cui Muli gave her.
She eventually found the flower hairpin. She had put it away in a drawer, only looking at it every year on her birthday.
Look, why not? Only after looking at it, can you reflect on how wishful thinking Xie Miao was back then.
She laughed self-deprecatingly and threw the brocade box into the corner of the dressing table. She lay back on the bed and tossed for a long time. She had just felt a little sleepy when her ears caught a subtle sound.
Rat-tat-tat.
Xie Miao didn't pay attention at first, but the noise showed no signs of stopping. Instead, it became more and more obvious.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat...
It was a rhythmic sound, as if someone was knocking on the window outside? !
She suddenly sat up and stared at the window frame intently, only to see a figure moving outside the thin window paper, making noise non-stop.
"Xie Miao, Xie Miao." The man lowered his voice but one could still hear the familiar tone, "It's me, Zhou Niannan."
"..."
Xie Miao's worries flew away without a trace, and all she wanted to do was find a stick to knock out the frivolous prodigal outside!
She quickly put on her coat and looked around. She picked up a dusting stick from the foot of the bed, and tiptoed to hide by the window frame.
There was a pause outside, and his voice was smiling, "Are you up? Open the window for me quickly, so that I don't have to find tools to pry it open. If it breaks, I have to repair it. How troublesome is that."
Xie Miao closed her eyes and told herself to calm down, calm down, then she removed the window bolt.
Almost at the same time, someone opened the carved angular window from the outside. Xie Miao's eyes were like a torch. The moment the man put his head in, she devoted all her strength to swinging her stick at him——
"Huh?" The visitor easily held the clothes-dusting stick between his two fingers and said with a half-smile, "Xie Miao, hitting is kissing, scolding is loving. You hit me and scolded me, isn't it..."
There was almost smoke on the top of Xie Miao's head, and she cursed: "Zhou Niannan, I think you are really sick, a big shortcoming!" You actually did something like sneaking into Cui Mansion in the middle of the night!
Zhou Niannan held the window edge with one hand and took some time to relax, "I'm sick, so you must have medicine. Otherwise, how could I not sleep and just want to come to see you?"
You are glib-tongued and shameless!
Xie Miao's head was buzzing. She withdrew her clothes-dusting stick and threw it towards his arm without thinking. With Zhou Niannan's skill, he should have been able to dodge it easily, but he didn't move and took a hard hit.
Snapped--
The summer clothes were thin, so Xie Miao used all of her strength, causing Zhou Niannan to grimace in pain.
Xie Miao was stunned. Before she could speak, she saw him approaching with a smile, "Have you calmed down yet? If not, just hit a few more times until you calm down."
This move again.
Xie Miao had a cold face, and swung her stick high, but when it fell, she deflected it to the side and said bitterly: "I can't be bothered to argue with you. Leave quickly, or I will call someone."
Zhou Niannan said hurriedly: "It's just what I want. You scream faster and louder, so that I can come with a proposal to Madam Cui tomorrow."
Xie Miao choked, "You!"
Zhou Niannan put his hands to his lips and pretended to shout, "How about I shout for you -"
Xie Miao was afraid that he would do something ridiculous, so she immediately stretched out her hand to cover his mouth. However, she realized something was wrong when she reached halfway, and when she pulled back, he held her tightly.
He looked at her with a smile, his starry eyes were bright, like the light of thousands of lights, "Xie Miao, I wish you a happy birthday and eternal health."