Chapter 93 — Refusal (Pink Ticket 780 Bonus Chapter)

Cai Shu said in a low voice, "Shall I have someone follow them and keep watch, madam?"

"No need," Lady Ji said without lifting her head. "That would only leave traces. Not good."

Cai Shu answered with a smile, but when she looked up she saw that the windows of the study on the south side of the eastern wing were thrown wide open—anyone in the main house, in the wing rooms, or passing through the courtyard could see Wu Shan bent over his painting and Dou Yan at his side grinding ink for him.

Their expressions were so open, their bearing so aboveboard. Cai Shu thought of what she had just said and blushed scarlet.

Lady Ji looked up, saw the two of them in the study, nodded to herself, and lowered her head again with a smile to go on with her accounts.

Ji Yong, come to pay his respects to Lady Ji, clicked his tongue twice.

Two innocents at play, childhood sweethearts.

One gentle and refined, the other bright and spirited—they looked quite the pair.

He went into the main house.

After greeting Lady Ji, he grinned and pointed at the two in the study. "Aunt, aren't you going to do anything about that?"

"The gentleman is broad and open; the petty man is ever anxious," Lady Ji scolded in mock displeasure. "They are behaving honorably. Why should I interfere?"

"Fine, fine, it's always my fault somehow." Ji Yong rubbed his nose, then stood behind Lady Ji with a smile and began kneading her shoulders. "Aunt, are you really so set on Fourth Cousin and Wu Shan? I don't see anything so remarkable about that Wu Shan."

"What does that matter, in the business of running a household?" Lady Ji said dismissively. "What counts is suitability—and I think Shouyuan and Wu Shan are very well suited."

Ji Yong nodded, but his eyes darted about, rolling this way and that.

Over there, Dou Yan was speaking to Wu Shan: "I've heard about the marriage. It's just that I don't want to be married so early..."

So she knew!

Wu Shan's face burned and his ears rang; he caught only fragments about not wanting to marry early, and stammered in a fluster, "I—I don't want to be in such a hurry either... I mean to sit the provincial examination. Once I've made the roll and my name is posted... I—I won't let you suffer... rest assured... stay at home a few more years, and when you feel ready, then..."

He hemmed and hawed, this usually so composed young man twisting about like a bashful girl, and Dou Yan's heart ached for him. The words she had prepared would not come out, and it was a long moment before she hardened herself and said in a low voice, "I'm already promised to someone."

"What?" Wu Shan's mouth fell open.

Dou Yan said, "You must have heard about my circumstances. Before my mother passed away, she betrothed me to a family; the token is still in my uncle's keeping. But my uncle and his people seem dissatisfied with the match and have never kept up with that family... yet my heart has never let go of it... I cannot marry you!"

The color drained from Wu Shan's face bit by bit until it was as pale as paper. The brush in his hand dropped with a *plop* onto the fan leaf, and the gnarled plum branch he had just finished instantly became a blot of ink.

"Fourth Brother Wu," Dou Yan said earnestly, "I've always thought of you as my own brother. Your future wife is sure to be a hundred times more virtuous than I am."

She comforted Wu Shan stiffly, for lack of anything better to say.

Wu Shan lowered his eyes and did not move, like a clay figure.

Dou Yan sighed inwardly and said, "I'll go now. Take care of yourself, Fourth Brother Wu."

"You—wait." Just as she was about to step over the threshold, Wu Shan said in a hoarse voice, "If—if that family never comes to propose, I—I'll wait for you..."

Of all the people she had met in two lifetimes, Wu Shan was the gentlest to her.

If she had not the experience of her previous life, would she have married Wu Shan without a second thought?

Alas, her heart was riddled with holes. She appreciated tenderness as soft and pink as this, but she could not act on impulse.

Dou Yan shook her head slightly and said, "Fourth Brother Wu, thank you. I've made up my mind, and I won't change it."

At these words Wu Shan swayed, and dropped with a *thud* into the armchair behind him.

Dou Yan walked straight out of the study.

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Enough guessing, everyone. Ji Yong was neither reborn nor transmigrated...

ps: Begging for pink votes here!

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