Scent Of Time

Chapter 14

I mechanically turned my head and saw Zhong Yelan standing in the shadows outside the pavilion with a stack of papers in his hand.

The blood in my body rushed to the top of my head with a bang, and I wanted to vomit. In my twenty-three years of life, I have never confessed my love, and for the first time in my life, I encountered such an embarrassing situation.

Turning back to Zhong Xiwu’s smirking eyes, I felt it would be better to crash my head on the pillar of this pavilion.

Zhong Yelan stepped in. His eyes were as turbulent as if he had experienced an earthquake, but Mu Yao, who was following behind him, was full of mockery. With her understanding of Hua Qian, she would have thought I had deliberately said this because I knew they were coming.

I don’t mean it. If I knew Zhong Yelan was listening, I wouldn’t have said those words. When you love someone, you will become clumsy. But when you don’t love someone, you can only talk eloquently. I don’t have that heart for Zhong Yelan. That’s why I can speak like that, but the ancients don’t seem to know this.

Zhong Yelan’s eyes filled with guilt, presumably feeling that he had neglected me since his marriage. He opened his mouth, “You ……”

I stood up on the spot, covered my face with a handkerchief, and dropped a sentence, “I am ashamed of my humble words.”

Then, I pulled my legs and ran. I’m afraid my face covered by the handkerchief has twisted so much that I can’t see anyone. It’s too humiliating!!!! That is not what I want.

Zhong Xiwu, as a second male lead, why do you have to keep making things difficult for me, this pitiful second female lead?

A few days in a row, I kept the door closed and instructed the maids to reject anyone. Although Qian Zhi disapproved, she could only obey and keep Zhong Yelan outside the door after seeing my seriousness.

Running away, I returned to the Hua House, startling Mrs. Hua. Hua Shen was quite happy and said it was a rare opportunity to see me every day.

I assumed that I could put up with Mrs. Hua’s daily talk about her son, Hua Xiang’s probing from time to time, and Hua Shen’s self-inflicted death, but after two days, I gave up.

This family is too terrible, simply comparable to a pyramid scheme.

I have no choice but to go back to the King Jin Mansion. Zhong Yelan seems to know that I’m avoiding him and only thinks that I’m shy, so he no longer comes to look for me, which allows me to get a few days to catch my breath.

At night, after taking a bath and then sitting at the desk, I started to sketch. Because I had poor memory, I always wrote down my plans. Make a step-by-step timetable so that there is no mistake.

After writing down ‘ancestral ceremony’ these words, I heard a clamor outside and stopped the pen to let the usually more talkative Cuizhu go out to investigate.

However, when she returned, she brought someone with her, Zhong Yelan.

After these few days, I was not embarrassed anymore, so I just saluted as usual.

Zhong Yelan came in with strides, and when he saw me, he asked, “How is Ah Qian’s courtyard?”

I was confused, “What’s wrong?”

I only saw Zhong Yelan’s face full of hostility, “There’s a person who doesn’t know the heights of heaven and dares to break into the King Jin Mansion at night.”

I immediately remember this plot in the novel, and the person who broke into the King Jin Mansion at night should be our third male lead, Wu Shuomo.

He heard that the female lead was ‘trapped’ in the King Jin Mansion, so he came to try to save her, but when the female lead hesitated, she alerted Zhong Yelan, and Wu Shuomo had to leave first. The ancestor ceremony half a month later was the battlefield for him to make his real moves.

Good, I’m relieved that the novel is still on track.

Because the novel’s timeline is passing very quickly, I am living a life that is not in the novel day by day, as if I am filling in the gaps in the timeline. So, I didn’t know what would change due to my transformation, but for now, it seemed it didn’t affect the direction.

Seeing that I was silent, Zhong Yelan eased his face and said, “I saw that your courtyard seems short of people. Tomorrow, I will ask Ji Dong to add more soldiers to your house.”

I wanted to open my mouth and say no. How could this night visitor reach me? However, I saw the group of maids behind Zhong Yelan looking at me with anticipation. I couldn’t help but laugh in my heart. It’s difficult for a woman to stay in the house.

“Alright, I’ll send someone to find Steward Ji tomorrow,” I responded.

After Zhong Yelan finished speaking, he did not leave immediately, as if he still had something he wanted to say to me, and I said carelessly, “Then I respectfully send you off.”

Zhong Yelan frowned, but he finally nodded and left.

Just as he left, the group of maids looked at me blearily. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, which dispelled some of the uncertainty in my heart.

“Tomorrow, you can go to Butler Ji and ask for the person you want.” I helplessly shook my head and said to them.

At that moment, I saw they were all so happy that they were about to jump up. It’s so good to be young. When I was fifteen or sixteen years old, I also had a crush, and I couldn’t wait to see him every day.

At that time, the likes were so simple. That every unintentional encounter seemed to be the greatest happiness. Unfortunately, I am now twenty-three years old, and although I’m sporting the skin of a seventeen-year-old girl, my heart is already old.

Now, the most important thing for me is to do a great job in the ancestral ceremony. I continue to take the pen and start scribbling memories. In the novel, during the ceremony, the male third Wu Shuomo brought masked people and made a big fuss, wanting to take away the heroine.

Zhong Yelan is ignorant of the situation and protects her. Mu Yao sees his heart and is unwilling to leave. She even blocked the arrow shot by Wu Shuomo for Zhong Yelan, thus completely pulling apart the veil between them.

Who can resist the favor of saving a life? So this has made me, the one in the know, pick up the slack. No matter what Hua Qian has done, I can use this to offset it.

But I’m not that stupid to go and block arrows for Zhong Yelan. What I’m thinking is that when the time is coming, I’ll hold him and roll on the ground to avoid the third male lead’s arrows.

This way, I don’t have to suffer. I also get the title of a savior. Hua Qian’s previous lies were nasty, but in front of this favor, Zhong Yelan won’t be able to take a shot at me even if he’s angry.

Having already grasped the time and place of the plot, this is simply a favor delivered to my door. Why wouldn’t I accept it?

What I need to do now is to rehearse over and over again and work on my body’s agility. This body is too soft and weak, and I still need to work harder on it.

Thus, every morning and evening, I started to run in the courtyard, making the maids jaw-dropped, but they didn’t say much under my warning.

But Mama Li, because of her old age, would reprimand me while looking at me as if I had gone astray. After all, in the eyes of these family mamas, women should be careful with their words and behavior, respectful and virtuous. Yet I rolled up my sleeves every day to run, making her angry from angina.

Fortunately, my yard had only some maids and a mama. The servant boys and soldiers are guarding outside the yard. No one would trespass, so over time, Mama Li tolerated my actions and let me fool around.

In the blink of an eye, it was time for the Ancestral Ceremony, and before dawn, the maid pulled me again to freshen up. That made the sleepy me feel very miserable, but when I thought that after today, Zhong Yelan and I would be completely clear of each other, my spirits rose.

I need to wear the royal consort’s dress for the ceremony. It’s a thick and heavy robe with a bunch of jewelry and hairpin ornaments that make my neck hurt just by looking at them. I thought in my heart: bear with it. It’s the last time.

I followed Zhong Yelan to the altar. Many officials had arrived, and seeing Hua Xiang from afar, I nodded slightly.

After waiting about a quarter of an hour, the emperor and the empress dowager came together. Because there was no empress, the empress dowager stood beside the emperor.

Next, all the official’s relatives are to stand in their positions. This scene makes me not help but think of the university flag-raising scene, where everyone is in their respective positions playing the national anthem salute.

Coincidentally, the master of ceremonies began to head a series of unintelligible language-like singing, overlapping with the flag-raising scene in my mind.

I couldn’t help but laugh and immediately received different gazes from the people around me. Even Zhong Yelan frowned at me.

I hurriedly maintained my face and stood honestly.