All her Mother did when they first arrived at Xuan Ling Nunnery was cry and weep endlessly, thinking about how unfortunate her life was, as she wallowed in self-pity. Every day, she would hope for her husband to have a change of heart and come to take her home. She didn’t care about her young daughter at all.
Every day, Mother would simply shut herself in the house and cry. She was totally ignorant of whether her young daughter ate or not, or whether she had clothes to keep her warm or not.
One day, the cold and hungry young daughter was crying, hiding in a corner, and it was there where she met someone.
Someone she’d since kept close to her heart and would never forget her entire life…
Suddenly, a somewhat hesitant voice interrupted Ji Liruo’s thoughts. “Miss… Ji?”
Ji Liruo had been in the middle of taking a trip down memory lane, so the untimely interruption made her eyes flash with hostility. She paused for a moment before turning around to look at the person who’d called out to her. It was the Young Marquis, Xiao Anning.
This blind man!
Before turning around to face him, Ji Liruo forced a peaceful expression on her face and gently asked, “Young Marquis, why are you here?”
“Your mother sent me here to look for you. Your maids told me you were here,” Xiao Anning replied. He felt a complicated mix of emotions inside as he said, “This place…”
Ji Liruo didn’t wait for Xiao Anning to finish what he wanted to say and coldly cut him off. “All right. Let’s go back first. It’s too windy here. It won’t be good if Young Marquis catches a cold.” You, blind man, really shouldn’t taint this place by being here.
Xiao Anning fell silent as he swallowed the words at the top of his tongue.
“Right, Young Marquis. I took it upon myself to get my maid to go and report to you the Princess’s injury. I hope you, Young Marquis, won’t blame me for doing so.” Ji Liruo’s voice was gentle and carried a hint of self-reproach.
“Ah, no, I won’t.” Xiao Anning was obviously a little distracted, as he’d given her a tardy reply.
Seeing how Xiao Anning’s reply was somewhat perfunctory, Ji Liruo’s sounded a little aggrieved as she asked, “Is Young Marquis still very bothered about my overstepping my place and meddling with things beyond me?”
“Ah? No, I’m not.” Xiao Anning denied it, but the emotions he was feeling were becoming more and more complicated.
“Then we should head back, Young Marquis.” Hearing what Xiao Anning said, her mind was finally put at ease. Feeling somewhat happy, she suggested, “At this time of day, the abbess should be serving Mother and the princess with plum blossom tea about now. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the tea ceremony hosted by the abbess once. Today, Young Marquis can try it too.”
“All right,” Xiao Anning briefly responded.
On the way there, the two were silent. Both seemed to be preoccupied with their own thoughts.
Just as expected, when they arrived at the hall where the abbess received guests, they saw that she was in the middle of brewing tea for the two noble ladies.
Princess Yong An saw Xiao Anning and Ji Liruo walk in together, and a smile appeared on her face. It seemed that the two children got along quite well, right?
Princess Yong An beckoned the two of them over. “Come, taste this plum blossom tea. It has such a nice fragrance. The abbess is really good at what she does.”
The abbess looked at the two of them and smiled but didn’t really say anything.
Ji Liruo went to sit next to Mrs. Ji while Xiao Anning took his seat next to Princess Yong An.
Then a young nun served tea to the two.
Ji Liruo took the cup of tea that the young nun handed to her and thanked her in a soft voice.
But an accident occurred when the young nun served Xiao Anning his tea.
It must be because Xiao Anning was blind and couldn’t see the tea that the young nun handed him that he didn’t manage to catch hold of the cup when he reached out his hand to receive it, causing the tea to spill all over him. Fortunately, the tea wasn’t scalding hot, so there weren’t any serious injuries.
The young nun was mortified and apologized incessantly.
Xiao Anning waved his hand to indicate that there was no need to worry about it.
Princess Yong An frowned and suddenly got a strange feeling. Although Ning’er was blind, his sense of hearing and sense of touch had long surpassed that of an ordinary person. It had been many years since a situation like this had happened, so why had it happened today? However, this was really just a small matter.
Xiao Anning maintained a calm expression, but he wasn’t as calm and peaceful on the inside as he looked on the outside. Instead, he let out a soft sigh.