Just as these words were spoken, Li Yu’s voice suddenly came from outside the door.
“Deng Ying, are you still inside?”
Deng Ying looked up. “I am.”
Li Yu made a sound of acknowledgment and stood on tiptoes, leaning against the door as he urged, “Classes ended quite a while ago, and you’re still keeping watch here. Zheng Bi is looking for you at the Office of Ceremonies. I came to let you know – change your clothes and hurry over. I’m going to take my post at the gate.”
Yang Wan watched the retreating shadow on the window, crossed her arms, and stood straight, raising an eyebrow as she said softly, “Those nearest the water catch the moon first.”
She looked down at Deng Ying and said, “They’ve come looking for you.”
Deng Ying nodded but didn’t immediately rise.
He sat silently behind his desk for a while. The sun was setting in the west, and the warmth that had built up over the entire day retreated instantly into the dusk wind. Deng Ying waited until the sun had half-set before standing. The old wound in his ankle suddenly sent a bone-piercing chill through him, forcing him to close his eyes and endure it.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?” Yang Wan said from beside him.
“It doesn’t hurt…”
“Never mind, stand still for a moment.”
Ignoring his excuses entirely, she knelt down and directly rolled up Deng Ying’s trouser leg, taking out a silk handkerchief embroidered with lotus flowers from her bosom.
“Let me tell you first – I won’t mess around, and don’t you move either.”
After speaking, she freed one hand to gather her floor-length sleeves at her knee, then carefully folded the silk and gently wrapped it around Deng Ying’s injured ankle.
“You see? At the lake, you wouldn’t listen to me, and now look what’s happened.”
As soon as she finished saying this, she immediately changed her tone to comfort him, “But don’t worry too much, this injury isn’t really serious. It’s just that when the weather turns cold and damp, you need to keep it warm properly. Just protect it with something thick like this, and it’ll feel better after a while.”
Deng Ying remained silent throughout.
Yang Wan tucked in the corners of the silk, and seeing him neither move nor make a sound, she couldn’t help but hug her knees and look up at him.
A large patch of leaf shadows fell across Deng Ying’s face, making it difficult for her to see his expression.
Although he was now willing to speak with Yang Wan, he remained essentially a silent person, like faintly written text, carrying an inherent quietness of character from the moment the brush touched paper.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want to spoil your things.”
“Not using it would be the real waste.”
As she spoke, she pushed against her knee to stand up, patting the dust off her legs. “Hurry and go now, I need to return to the Southern Bureau too.”
Then she smiled and pointed at the nuts on the table, “Finish those, don’t waste them.”
Deng Ying looked at the nuts on the desk – there were still a few left.
He gripped his sleeve and picked them all up.
When Yang Wan wrote, she would constantly snack on them. At first, he hadn’t found them particularly tasty, but after eating them for so long, it seemed to have become almost a habit.
Thinking this, he couldn’t help but mock himself.
Just as he was about to put them in his mouth, she unexpectedly returned from outside the door, hanging onto the doorframe and leaning half her body in to call to him.
“Deng Ying.”
Deng Ying hurriedly clutched his hand awkwardly, trying to hide it in his sleeve.
For a moment, he was caught between eating them and putting them back.
Yang Wan saw his awkward state and laughed, “I forgot to tell you earlier – don’t overthink things. Someone like you won’t go far wrong in making choices.”
With that, she swayed away into the thick dusk shadows, the pair of lotus jade pendants at her waist swinging as she went.
Deng Ying watched her retreating figure, then looked at the nuts hidden in his hand, inexplicably wanting to believe her final words.
The nuts were finished, and the tea had gone completely cold.
Deng Ying washed his hands and walked out of the Inner School.
The smell of blood had been completely blown away by the evening wind, which even carried a trace of some unnamed flower’s fragrance.
His leg injury was acting up today, making him walk somewhat slowly.
The Office of Ceremonies was behind the Longevity Emperor Hall, requiring one to go around Wansui Mountain, exit north through the Central North Gate, and then pass by the Imperial Wardrobe Office and the Second Needlework Bureau – quite a distant journey.
When Deng Ying arrived at the conference room of the Office of Ceremonies, the sky had completely darkened. Zheng Yuejia was personally waiting at the bottom of the stone steps with a lantern.
Deng Ying looked up at the entrance to the conference room. The door was closed, and the light filtering through the window lattice was very dim. The voices inside also seemed deliberately hushed.
Zheng Yuejia approached him with the lantern, its light suddenly illuminating both their faces.
“The Office of Ceremonies has its own rules. You’re late today.”
Deng Ying turned his face away from the firelight.
“Yes, I will request forgiveness from the Seal-Bearer.”
Zheng Yuejia patted his shoulder and glanced behind him, “In the half-hour you were late, enough happened to change the Old Ancestor’s opinion of you. I don’t know if you did this deliberately, but I still must advise you – your life was given to you by the Office of Ceremonies. Since we gave you this life, you are the same as us. In the inner court, no servant can survive alone. His Majesty is our master, and the Old Ancestor is the heaven that protects us. If you misjudge either one, you die.”
Deng Ying nodded, “I understand.”
People speak of bone structure.