Snow Courtyard is currently the busiest place in the manor– with doctors constantly coming and going, the discarded herbs from medicinal brews could almost pave a road. Because Prince An comes often and will sometimes end up resting here, this place also has the highest security. 

Early one morning she woke up to a room filled with medicinal scent. Opening her eyes tiredly, she hears the maids call out happily with surprise “Miss is awake!”  

She twitched the corner of her mouth, in an attempt at a smile. 

These days she has been sleeping more and more, her waking hour has been less and less so that every time she wakes up it has become a big deal to inform Jin Siyu. 

Seeing that she has awakened, the maid hurried off to report to Jin Siyu. 

Squinting her eyes, she suddenly tells the maid “Help me up and put some makeup on me.”

The maid was taken aback, thinking when have you ever cared about your appearance? In the past, you were as dirty as a monkey but you still had no qualms and leaned on His Highness but now that you are near death you are starting to care about your appearance? 

She pursed her lips without saying another word but the maid doesn’t dare to go against her wishes– she kept feeling like this woman has some sort of power in her silence, something that can’t be ignored…moreover, this person is quite fierce– she flips tables. 

Helping her limp body up, the maid hurriedly added four more big soft pillows to support her. Bringing over the makeup trousseau, the maid asked “What kind of makeup would miss like?”

Pulling out the brightly colored lipsticks and blush, the maid assumed she wanted to seduce His Highness before she died. However, she pointed at a few pale colors instead “These.” 

The blush and lipsticks were both pinkish in color. After the makeup was done, her pale skin finally had some color. Reddish cheeks, pink lips, she no longer had that death bed look but actually had a youthful charm. 

 The maid finally understood why she didn’t choose the bright colors. Her sickness had made her too thin and pale. Once she used the bright colors, it would’ve just looked fake. The soft colors on the other hand, looked more real. Praising sincerely, the maid said, “Miss is really beautiful.” 

She stared at her own image in the bronze mirror. The woman in the mirror was beautiful and exquisite with a red mark between her eyebrows that looked like a birthmark or a bruise. The mark looked a bit strange but in its strangeness, it also gave her a siren-like seductiveness. 

She slowly stroked the mark, staring at the image in the mirror with an unfamiliar expression, and muttered dreamily “Yes? No?” 

The maid couldn’t hear clearly what she is saying but saw her faint smile that had a bit of confusion, loneliness, and determination, all those complicated emotions mixed together. Under the swaying daylight, the smile reminds one of a flower in the fog, seemingly close but far in reality, beautiful yet out of reach. 

The maid held her breath but she had already tossed aside the bronze mirror. Looking down at herself, she said “Change my outfit, long-sleeved.” 

The maid looked at her in astonishment– wasn’t her clothes already long-sleeved? Her sleeves right now are already to the back of her hands. 

Looking down at her hands that are still bandaged up, she explained “The bandages are uncomfortable. Take it off and put me in something with extra long sleeves so His Highness won’t see them.” 

She was panting by the time she finished saying so many words. The maid doesn’t dare to cause her any mental strain or else once His Highness finds out it would just be punishment for her so she could only go along with her wishes and unwrapped the bandages first. 

A slightly deformed hand was revealed. Holding her hand up to her eyes, she looked at it carefully without any self pity that most women would’ve felt and said in self-derision “Face disfigured, hand ruined. I am afraid when I die, no one would recognize me.” 

“Why would that be.” The maid pulled down the sleeves to hide her hands and smiled, “Everything will be fine once your memories come back.” 

The corner of her lips tilted upward, leaning against the soft pillows she tried to get herself to sit more upright. 

There came sounds of footsteps rushing towards them, the footsteps belonged to more than one person. 

“Shaoyao.” Jin Siyu’s voice came– she insisted that her name is Shaoyao so even Jin Siyu has to refer to her by that name, “I found a physician for you.” 

(By the way, I looked up Shaoyao again and it actually is a flower belonging to the family of peonies. Peonies are fairly large round flowers while Shaoyao are much smaller in size.)

The curtain lifted, Jin Siyu entered in, behind him, two people followed behind. 

Physician Ruan and his apprentice. 

The two entered the door and saw her smiling face right away. The apprentice swayed immediately but Physician Ruan silently put a hand to hold him back. 

Walking ahead, Jin Siyu did not see what was going on behind him. Pleasantly surprised by her makeover, he said: “You are looking much better today!” before adding “Why are you sitting up?” 

She simply smiled at Jin Siyu, not sparing a glance at the two people standing behind him. 

Physician Yuan stood silently with his eyes lowered, carefully smelling the makeup power in the air. The apprentice stood stiffly upright, took in the sight of her deeply then immediately forced himself to move his gaze away. He stood by the door, reaching out a hand seemingly wanting to scratch the door frame but immediately pulled his hand back into his sleeve when Physician Yuan gave him a side glance. 

Gu Nan Yi’s fingers dug deeply into the palm of his hands…

At that moment, his mind is completely muddled with only two words screaming inside over and over— it’s her, it’s her, it’s her, it’s her…..

The person in the bed with scattered long hair, is pitifully thin, lying among what seemed like a cloud of blankets, making one fear that she will float away at any moment. Because she is so thin, her eyes seemed especially large and misty that threatens to drown him in them. 

He has never seen the real her– she has always worn two masks. Once one layer is off, then there is another layer. She protected her real face like she protected her own life. He has long been used to the face of Wei Zhi or the yellow-faced Feng Zhi Wei but right now, he knew with one glance the small person in that bed is her. 

So this is her. But it doesn’t seem to matter which face it is. Sometimes there is a meeting between people that is so strange and unique, a thousand masks could be worn but only the soul was seen. 

He doesn’t dare to look at her, he is afraid that he really won’t be able to control it. That he would like many times in the past, simply pick her up, pull her into his arms, let her hide in his eternal protection…then like what Helian had warned, cause harm to come to her. 

So he can only dig his nails deep into his palms and looked down at the ground. The white stony ground is very clean, reflecting her blurry shadow, so thin so fragile. More fragile than he has ever seen her, making one worry that a single beam of light would shatter her. 

In a trance, something seemed to come crashing down, shattering a fortress somewhere inside, blasting apart heart and flesh, then remaking them again. He almost trembled against the burning pain but he doesn’t dare to tremble. He thought over and over again how she used to call him jade carving. At this moment, he really wish he was a jade carving. 

To understand the suffering of this world in an instant. The fear of losing, the anxiety, worry, panic, the shock of finally finding her, the pain, the heartache, and the misery of being unable to reach out when she is right in front. 

It is as she had said, pain is everything. 

He gritted his teeth in silence, the palm of his hand turning bloody. 

Her gaze finally made its way past Jin Siyu, lazily looked over the two people, pursed her lips with a bored expression, and said: “Which doctor is it this time?”

The gaze paused for a moment when it rested on the apprentice who was in a rather sorry state after being beaten up then immediately moved on as she lowered her eyes.

“Don’t look down on people, he might the one to save your life.” Jin Siyu’s own mood lightened up considering after seeing that she is in a good spirit today. Personally tucking in the blankets around her, his movements were gentle and intimate. 

The apprentice raised his head to look over at her, she suddenly began to cough and moved her body backward, the apprentice immediately lowered his head. 

“This is my beloved concubine.” Jin Siyu turned and said to Physician Ruan, “Please take care of her well.”

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

Related Posts