Chapter 8 – The Kite Rises

“Young Master? Young Master!”

The pageboy hurriedly chased after her.

Once out of the Fengming Pavilion, Pei Xuan walked a long way with determination. The mocking laughter of Zhou Ye and his ilk echoed in her ears, while the image of Sun Ze enduring in silence replayed in her mind.

She punched an elm tree by the roadside, ignoring the blood on her knuckles. Her long lashes drooped, and her once bright and charming face now appeared stern and gloomy.

The pageboy was startled: “Young Master! Why are you hurting yourself?”

He quickly tore a clean handkerchief to bandage Pei Xuan’s hand.

Pei Xuan remained indifferent, her dark eyes brewing a storm no one could see.

The Countess of Xining actually chose the Sun family for her eldest daughter?

Young Master Sun the Elder already had wives and concubines, and Young Master Sun the Younger was engaged to the Yang family’s second daughter. The only eligible one left was the lecherous Young Master Sun the Third.

Who was this Sun the Third? How dare he sully the moon in her heart?

She gritted her teeth, pushed the pageboy away, and started walking home with a portrait in her arms.

“Hey? Young Master!”

He hurried to catch up with her, seeing her expression and deciding to keep his mouth shut to avoid annoying his master.

Even a clay figurine has its temper. The legitimate son of the chancellor was no clay figurine to be easily manipulated. Whoever thought they could bully her would first have to taste what it’s like to be trampled in the mud.

Pei Xuan returned home and locked herself in her room to sulk. When Madam Pei inquired, the pageboy reported truthfully, leaving both the master and servant puzzled.

“What on earth is she mad about?”

The pageboy scratched his head: “Madam, the Young Master’s hand is injured. You should go in and check on her.”

Madam Pei took a couple of steps forward, raising her arm to knock on the door but then lowered it: “Never mind, she’s dealing with something. Let her figure it out herself.”

She asked the pageboy, “Did you say the Young Master had a public falling out over a painting?”

“Yes, it was over a painting!”

Every word from outside reached Pei Xuan’s ears, but she was too preoccupied to care.

The portrait lay spread open. She sat with her back to the light, silent and brooding.

Madam Pei moved away before asking in detail, “Is it a young miss?”

“The person in the painting is indeed a young miss.”

“Did you see her face clearly?”

The pageboy shook his head. “No, I was too focused on the Young Master. All I know is that when she saw the person in the painting, she got angry. Gentleman Sun wanted to buy the painting from Young Master Sun, but the Young Master rushed over. This… this could be called flying into a rage for a beauty…”

His words were casual, but they struck a chord with Madam Pei.

“For a beauty?” she murmured softly.

She turned to look at the tightly closed door, as if she could see Pei Xuan’s frustrated silhouette through the wooden barrier.

Xuan’er lived as a man, so most of her acquaintances were male. But speaking of women… Madam Pei thought of the Xining Count’s eldest daughter, who wasn’t well-regarded.

Living in a dilapidated house, blind, with only a loyal maid by her side.

She began to recall how often Pei Xuan had mentioned that blind girl in recent times.

Pei Xuan wasn’t one to talk much. Even as a child, she wasn’t as lively as other boys and girls, naturally steady but not a dull, uninteresting person.

She enjoyed playing and would fly kites when she got a rare break after the Metropolitan Examination.

A kite fell into a small courtyard, and Pei Xuan fell in after it.

Whenever she spoke of the girl living in that courtyard, her words were full of tenderness and praise, as if she were talking about a bright moon hanging in the sky rather than a blind girl with a disability.

That girl illuminated her heart, enriched her vision, and became her lifelong dream to capture.

A gust of wind brushed her ear, and Madam Pei suddenly shivered.

The door creaked open.

Madam Pei steadied herself before walking in, clutching her chest. Her peony-embroidered hem swept across the reflective floor tiles, and she lifted the bamboo curtain to see her solitary daughter in the dusk.

“Still angry?”

She walked over, casually glancing at the portrait on the table as she brewed tea.

Sure enough, it was the girl she had seen before.

“I’m not angry anymore.” Calmer now, Pei Xuan raised her eyes to the elegant woman. “Mother, what should I do?”

She was at her wit’s end.

It turned out that liking meant liking, and affection meant affection. A single moment of heart-stirring could last a long, long time. She couldn’t stand Zhou Ye and the others’ disrespect towards Miss Cui. She couldn’t bear to see Miss Cui marry someone unworthy.

She was anxious.

She was furious.

She even wanted to kill the Count of Xining and his wife!

Pei Xuan leaned over the table, her fingers gently brushing the elegant, straight nose of the person in the painting. She poked at her cheek and then admired her flawless shoulders and neck.

Madam Pei, having experienced much in life, was initially shocked but soon composed herself, unwilling to scold her daughter: “How did you come to like her? You never showed interest in other girls before.”

“That’s because I hadn’t met her.” The Zhuangyuan’s demeanor was as gentle as a spring breeze, perhaps even softer.

“Your father has already prepared a ‘bride’ to divert attention. He planned to arrange the marriage after you received your official position.”

“I don’t want that.”

Resting her chin on her folded arms, Pei Xuan said, “Mother, I have found someone I want to marry.”

Zheng Wuji was right. If you like someone, marry them, and deal with the rest later.

If she missed A Cui, she would regret it for the rest of her life.

“Xuan’er, you’re putting your mother in a difficult position.”

Pei Xuan stood up and bowed deeply to her mother: “I ask for nothing else but to spend my life with her.”

On a sunny day, Bai Ge sneezed and her eyelids kept twitching—first the left, then the right—so much that she had to prop them open with two thin, blunt toothpicks.

“Keep twitching, huh? Can’t stop, can you?”

The little maid grumbled under her breath, clearly annoyed.

Cui Ti couldn’t see her, but she could imagine it and found her Baibai adorably cute: “Be careful, don’t hurt your eyes.”

“Don’t worry, Miss. I’m used to it; it’s harmless.”

Though she said it was harmless, Bai Ge knew that Cui Ti cared more about her eyes than she did herself. She reluctantly put down the toothpicks and noticed the kite on the table. Excited, she said, “Miss, when shall we fly the kite?”

Earlier that morning, she had secretly asked a relatively agreeable little maid and exchanged a piece of osmanthus cake for a truthful answer: the Madam was already arranging a marriage for the Miss.

With the legitimate son of the chancellor and the current Zhuangyuan as support, not only the Madam but even the Count had to curry favor with Gentleman Pei.

Bai Ge increasingly recognized Pei Xuan’s virtues—her excellent family background, appearance, talent, and temperament, especially her exceptional treatment of her Miss.

In her heart, she had already considered Pei Xuan the future son-in-law. Remembering Bai Ge’s reminder, Cui Ti suddenly recalled a saying: “Better sooner than later.”

Delay breeds trouble.

“Baibai, help me. I want to fly this kite myself.”

Bai Ge jumped up, hands on her hips: “Alright!”

Pei Xuan knelt on the ground, calmly enduring the fury her father harbored.

Madam Pei, unable to deal with her daughter, had called Chancellor Pei to persuade their “son.”

To the outside world, the Pei family was known to have a legitimate son, unaware that Madam Pei had given birth to a daughter.

Pei Xuan had been masquerading as a son for nearly eighteen years since her birth.

Chancellor Pei had gone to great lengths, even resorting to abuse of power to ensure she could participate in the Imperial Examination. But now, what was his proud “son” asking of him?

His anger surged, but he suppressed it, unwilling to harm the father-daughter relationship: “You are blinded by desire. How can I, as your father, let you be so foolish?”

“I am ashamed to have failed my parents’ teachings.”

She bowed her head heavily, intending to do so a second time.

Madam Pei, soft-hearted despite her stern words, threw a soft cushion onto the ground.

With her forehead pressed against the cushion, Pei Xuan softly confessed, “She is blind and won’t discover my true identity. The Count Xining and his wife are ruthless; they won’t find a good match for her. I can’t stand by and watch her leap into the fire.”

“If you don’t want her to leap into the fire, must you drag hundreds of people into the pit with you? Revealing your identity is a crime that would bring ruin to our entire family!

“Back then, I was proud and ambitious, vowing that if I became Chancellor, my child would also become a high-ranking official. You, being a girl, couldn’t enter officialdom, so I insisted on you stepping into the political arena to compete with others.

“For this, I owe you.

“Fortunately, you have been talented, ambitious, and determined since childhood.”

His expression softened as he spoke: “Xuan’er, I have paved a broad path for you. Why won’t you walk it? Why choose the difficult path, gambling on the most unpredictable thing—people’s hearts?

“You say she is good, but what if she turns out to be bad?”

Chancellor Pei adjusted his sleeves as he looked down: “Kneel if you must. I will not agree to this marriage, even if you kneel until your knees are shattered. I—”

“Fujun!”

Madam Pei stopped him from saying harsh words.

Pei Xuan knelt upright, her lips pressed together.

Chancellor Pei grew angrier seeing her stubborn look and waved his sleeve dismissively: “I’ll stay here and see how long you can kneel!”

“Young Master! The kite, the kite is flying! The kite is flying!”

The person assigned to guard the small courtyard day and night rushed back, not daring to enter and disturb the master, yet also afraid to delay the message. Taking the risk of being punished, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

Just as he was about to shout again, one of the Chancellor’s personal attendants clamped a hand over his mouth and dragged him away.

“Are you out of your mind? The master is inside, disciplining the young master, and you’re shouting like this?”

“Disciplining the young master?” The man’s eyes widened in shock as he hastily mimed sealing his own lips.

“What are you doing? Come back!”

Chancellor Pei’s furious shout halted Pei Xuan in her tracks.

The beautiful kite had been flying alone in the sky for half an hour.

Bai Ge was growing anxious: “Miss, why hasn’t anyone come yet?”

Didn’t they say they would rush here on horseback? Could it have been a lie?

“He will come.”

Cui Ti had no appetite for dinner and sat on the stone steps by the door, waiting. She waited until the stars scattered across the sky,

and until the moon was forced to hide behind the clouds.

The wind picked up, clouds gathered, and a bolt of lightning split the sky. Spring rain began to fall, drizzling steadily.

“The weather changes so quickly.” Bai Ge held an umbrella over Cui Ti’s head, waiting with her.

They waited and waited, through the first half of the night, the second half, until the night rain ceased and the first light of dawn appeared.

Bai Ge was on the verge of tears, almost blurting out, “Men are all lying pigs,” but instead she comforted her Miss: “He will come, maybe he got caught up in something else?”

Cui Ti’s lower lip bore clear teeth marks: “The kite got ruined by the rain. We’ll make a new one.”

“Alright!”

The miss and maid set to work enthusiastically on a new kite. Meanwhile, at the Sun family residence…

Young Master Sun the Third, upon learning that Pei Xuan had taken the portrait, and hearing from his second brother that his future bride was a stunning beauty, had a restless night. He woke up and pestered Madam Sun to go to the Xining Count’s residence to propose.

Being the youngest and most doted upon in the family, his relentless pestering convinced Madam Sun that it was best to settle the marriage sooner.

Sun Ze had no chance to intervene.

By the time he realized the imprudence of the matter, his mother had already prepared the gifts and was leading the matchmaker out the door.

In the small courtyard, the sun hung high in the sky.

The newly made kite soared into the sky, unfurling gracefully in the wind.

“Baibai, the string hasn’t broken, has it?”

“No!” Bai Ge glanced up briefly, “It’s still floating up there.”

Cui Ti relaxed a little.

She didn’t believe Pei Xuan wouldn’t come.

She was just afraid-afraid that this lifetime might differ from the previous one, afraid that Pei Xuan might arrive a moment too late.

“Young Master! Your boots!”

The pageboy shouted from behind, holding a pair of tall boots.

Pei Xuan mounted her horse and galloped away in a cloud of dust.