Volume 1: Hanyang Chapter 34: Dark and Clear

  Lu Xuan flipped through the book for a while and soon forgot about the young man.

  Reading and writing, busy until the sun is low in the sky. Thinking that her brother will be out of school soon, Lu Xuan hurriedly picks up a basket to buy some vegetables at the market.

  She walked down the alley with her head lowered, and as she walked, she felt a gaze fixed on her.

  Lu Xuan stopped in her tracks and slowly turned around.

  This time, she saw the young man next door again. A fifteen or sixteen year old boy in his growth period, wearing a blue shirt. The blue shirt was just the most ordinary Confucian robe at that time, but when worn on him, it had an inexplicable rigor and elegance.

  The young man had a straight waist, but his figure was slender and long. His fair skin was not yet radiant, and there was even a fairly large pimple on his Adam's apple.

  These are not the key points, Lu Xuan still discovered for the first time that this young man simply standing there has a kind of distant and clear beauty.

  Especially those eyes, as if painted with ink, layered and shaded, as if there was always a layer of mist in between, as if among the millions of people in this world, only one could enter his eyes.

  It's really hard to imagine that such a young man had climbed over the wall of her house not long ago, and even fell down from the wall so miserably!

  Just thinking of this, Lu Xuan couldn't help but laugh secretly: What am I thinking? He looks cold and proud, but he's still just a fifteen or sixteen year old young man.

  At this moment, the handsome young man was staring at Lu Xue with his beautiful eyes under his long eyelashes. When Lu Xue looked over, he pursed his lips as if wanting to turn his head, but instead stared even more firmly at Lu Xue. Only the tip of his ear gradually flushed a shade of red.

  This young man was surprisingly refined and coldly arrogant, with an aura that repelled people from a thousand miles away yet made them irresistibly want to get closer. Lu Xuan had never seen anything like it before. As she gazed at him, she suddenly understood the words she had overheard when passing by the Ping family's fifth house last year: "I know he hates me! But somehow, seeing him standing there with his clothes in order and an expressionless face staring at me, I just wanted to tear his clothes apart and make him kneel before me, begging for mercy!"

  The four of them locked eyes for a moment, and the young man spoke in a low voice: "My name is Yin Chen." Yin Chen? This name seemed familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before. Lu Xuan thought for a moment but couldn't quite place it, so he just nodded his head.

  The boy's ears turned even redder, but his eyes were more focused than before.

  He focused on waiting for Lu Xuan, as if waiting for her response.

  What can she answer? Lu Xuan lowered her head and softly said "en", then turned around and left.

  "Wait, Ah Yu..."

  He took a few steps forward, walked to the back of Lu Xuan's body, and said in a slightly hoarse voice: "I'm 16 years old this year, and I haven't been engaged yet. My family just moved to Hanyang City four months ago."

  ……

  What is he doing? Introducing himself?

  For some reason, Lu Ying's face also turned a little red, her lips moved slightly, and she softly said "en" again, quickening her pace.

  As Lu Xuan was about to leave, the young man hastily caught up with her. He grasped one of the handles of her basket and said stiffly, "I'll help you carry it."

  "It doesn't matter."

  "...I heard you broke off your engagement, I haven't got engaged either, doesn't matter."

  When she heard the young man speaking in a clear and crisp voice, Lu Yue couldn't help but want to laugh. Did they not have an engagement, yet still be able to walk together so openly?

  "That's not good." Lu Xuan turned her head to look at the young man, and as expected, when her gaze fell on him, he immediately turned his head away, but the redness on the tip of his ear had already spread to his cheek.

  The young man didn't look at her, but still held the basket tightly in his hand. Lu Xuan also felt a bit at a loss for what to do. She pursed her lips and said softly, "This isn't good."

  She said, and with her left hand she gently brushed his hand away. When their fingers touched, the young man's hand suddenly trembled and let go. Until Lu Xue walked a long way off, he still lowered his head to look at the hand that had been brushed by Lu Xue.

  At this moment, a woman's voice came from not far away, "Zhen Er, Zhen Er?"

  The woman called out a few times, creaked open the side door, and saw the silent young man. She glanced at the Lu family's house on the other end of the alley, looking very displeased, and shouted: "Cheng'er, didn't you hear what your aunt said yesterday? That family is just a declining household, and that little girl is just an ordinary village girl. To be honest, she's even a village girl who was jilted and slandered. You'll eventually have to return to Luoyang anyway. A small-town girl like this isn't worthy of standing by your side."

  Seeing the young man's expressionless face, the woman sighed: "Zhen'er, these days are different from the past. When we left Luoyang, didn't your grandmother say that for the next few years, you can't discuss marriage? Child, now it's still important to prioritize your future prospects."

  The young man heard, the young man raised his head, he took a look at the 25 or 26-year-old woman who was dressed elegantly and had an air of nobility, and said in a low voice: "She's not young either..." His voice was too soft, the woman didn't hear clearly, and the young man didn't want her to hear clearly either. He turned his head and walked towards home with no expression on his face.

  It's the time when all things are lush, and wild vegetables can be seen everywhere in the market. Lu Xuan bought two catties of pork and five big pieces of pork bones, and carried a basket of wild vegetables before heading home.

  When she returned to the alley, the place where the young man had stood was empty. Looking in that direction, Lu Xuan smiled slightly and stepped back into her own home.

  She had just broken off her engagement with Zeng Lang, and her heart was still in a state of indescribable exhaustion. It seemed that all men in the world were untrustworthy, and it also seemed that being alone was quite good. When she had nothing to do, she even thought about using the money she got from Ping Yin to buy a small house in Chengdu. After her brother got married and she was forced by gossip to have nowhere to hide, she would live in Chengdu under the name of a widow.

  It's better to spend a lifetime unmarried, although it may be quiet and peaceful, but also free and easy.

  In a daze, Lu Xuan started the stove fire, piled up a few pieces of hard firewood in the stove, and then added a full pot of water. She put down two pieces of bones. After doing all this, Lu Xuan dried the basket, picked up the bamboo slips she had written on, and walked towards her brother's school.

  Today Lu Xuan arrived a bit late. As soon as she reached the school gate, a burst of laughter from young boys came over, and it turned out that the students had finished class.

  Like many young people who come here to gaze, Lu Xuan saw the crowd of students and looked up with her head held high. Before long, she saw Lu Yun's face red with excitement as he ran towards her, his handsome eyes full of smiles and joy.

  "Sister!"

  "Why are you running so fast?" Lu Yue rebuked, taking out a handkerchief to help him wipe away the sweat on his forehead.

  "Sister, the teacher praised me today." Lu Yun's eyes sparkled with excitement as he said in a low voice: "Today, the teacher explained the Doctrine of the Mean, and when it came to 'Heavenly mandate is called nature, following nature is called Way, cultivating the Way is called teaching', he asked me to interpret. After hearing my interpretation, the teacher said I'm quite good at reading books and might become a xiucai in the future."

  At that time, Zhongxiu was a scholar who relied on his own outstanding literary talent to be promoted by the elders. It is a different way of selecting talents for the imperial court, which is distinct from the promotion of filial piety and integrity.

  Upon hearing this, Lu Xuan also became genuinely excited and joyfully exclaimed: "Really? That's great!" She thought to herself that she had been diligently studying the classics recently, occasionally discussing them with her brother. It was precisely because of this that her brother had developed a habit of repeatedly contemplating the classics as soon as he came into contact with them. Lu Xuan thought to herself with relish: From now on, I can discuss the classics with my brother even more!

  I still think the surname Yin suits me better, so I changed it back. I'm really sorry about that, originally I thought my name was quite classic, but who knew it would have such a terrible pun.