Starting (partially) this week, DKGWF's update schedule will be changing to twice a week on Wed-Fri.

Rong Jiahui put her brush on the paper, and the inside of her skull went blank. What should she write? The other had only given a pa.s.sing phrase about her at the end. If she says too much concerned rubbish, her ego really wouldn't be able to take it. If she was distant, she would also find it weirdly embarra.s.sing.

After thinking about it up and down, she still didn't dare write much, only putting down a simple few polite sentences. In her past life, she hadn't written characters well for very many years. Now she's been practicing for a year or two and it's actually a lot prettier to look at, but… this pretty Zanhua script, resting upon a sheaf of paper stamped with a delicate, light green decorative floral design, for what's clearly just some extremely common words inevitably gives off the feeling of deep sentiment and inseparable love.

She really does miss Zhongli Luo. She remembers that when he left, it was early in the fifth month, and now it's already the start of winter.

If he doesn't return, she will likely not recognize him when he's grown. She knows from her past life that apart from returning to the capital to make an in-person report of his accomplishments, he had basically made the Northwest his home, and she doesn't know if that'll be the same in this life. Ah, thinking about it is very upsetting.

Her eyeb.a.l.l.s s.h.i.+fted back and forth until an idea somehow came to her. She's actually being a bit too pa.s.sive! If other's don't write her letters, can she not just write to them first? Won't it be well-hidden from her family members? And really, she can't allow the other to forget about her! Anyways, she's already died once, so what's she still afraid of? In any case, her paternal great-grandmother was once a bandit queen of the mountains that dared to rob and suppress her husband's village; where's the brigand look the later generations have had if she's so constrained?!

She clenches the brush in her hand tightly, coming to a decision.

Going across tall mountains and remote waters, the convoy conveying the letter is slow. When it gets to Zhongli Luo, it's already been another month.

Becoming aware that the Marquis's residence had sent her many things along with the letter, she's not surprised at all, as Marquis Zhenguo and Madam Marquis are very good to her. For them to write letters and send stuff isn't strange.

However, what she hadn't expected was that there was an additional letter from Rong Jiahui. Seeing a delicate ‘Brother Zhongli' upon the envelope, she can't help but gently smile; only Jiahui would adress her like this. She carefully opened the envelope, and within it was a paper stamped with the delicate decorative designs of Huan flowers. [1] One look, and it's obviously the style women in the lady's chambers are fond of; the light green paper is very beautiful, seeming as if it could wash some life into this desolate Northwest.

There are only a few sentences on it, plain and dull, but apparently filling Zhongli Luo with warmth at this time.

Right then, the originally-dozing Tan Jun suddenly came up close behind her, and gave an exaggerated cry of surprise. “Woah, Officer Zhong, a little lady wrote to you? Ooh, look at those tiny characters, that's real charming, eh? Oi, there's flowers on that green paper… I thought it was painted, didn't think it'd be printed. This is a treasured young miss's plaything, very fine.”

Zhongli Luo had been too lazy to explain to him that her surname was Zhongli for a long time now, merely putting the letter away in silence and saying mildly, “Mn. My little sister wrote to me and asked how things were over here.”

Though Tan Jun is a rough, illiterate man, there's a softness within the rough. He points at her letter and says, “Then explain this; I saw the name at the bottom of that letter just now, and the first character had the roof part (宀). I've seen your name, and there's no roof symbol in it.”

[Quick note: The surname Rong looks like 容]

Zhongli Luo therefore had no choice but to explain. “She's my adopted little sister. Are adopted sisters not sisters?”

The crowd headed by Tan Jun had a face of understanding; the unsaid meaning of those words is that a love-sister [2] is also a sister.

The lads can't help but set their envious gazes on her one after the other. How nice it is to be having a hard life here and then have a young lady send a love letter from very far away! Zhongli Luo's looks aren't bad at all and the little miss who's good to her's young appearance is certainly not likely to be worse. Maybe she's even a scarily enormous beauty, truly a person above people. How death-inducingly maddening.

A young little soldier can't resist getting closer and asking her curiously, “Officer Zhong, how- I mean, Officer Zhongli, how old is this little sister? Is she pretty?”

Zhongli Luo gave him a glare. “Why are you asking that?”

Rong Jiahui has the standing of a Marquis's precious daughter, after all. How could her appearance be nitpicked?

Watching her suddenly get fierce, the minor soldier was suddenly terrified and didn't dare ask further.

Ever since then, Zhongli Luo would receive a letter from Rong Jiahui every month, and they aren't always the same color and pattern as that Huan flower paper; occasionally, when she opened them, there would be a few dried flowers sent along with the letter. Jiahui didn't write much, being nothing more than talk about whoever's family's young ladies, what's been happening in the capital, what c.r.a.p her little brother's stirred up, and her noisy disagreements with her female cousin.

They're just trivial things, but she's happy to look through them. People here have a great many worries: some often talk about their wives and kids, some keep thinking about that girl in the neighboring family, some are concerned about their parents, and as for her, she has those few people in that small s.p.a.ce under the capital's sky of Marquis Zhenguo's residence, doesn't she?

She looks off into the capital's direction, thus thinking of them.

Right this moment, in the capital, huge snowflakes were swirling about in the air. Rong Jiahui's cousin Yu Yixiang had given her an invitation request to go with her to marvel at the snow in the outskirts of the city. Jiahui thinks herself as being idle upon idle, and that she should listen to Zhongli Luo by keeping more in touch with her female cousins, so she agreed. Consequently, she had a cloak trimmed with fox fur and embroidered with clouds draped over her, and with the help of her maid, climbed aboard the carriage.

The invitees are naturally not limited to just her, as Yu Yixiang had pa.s.sed out several invitations. It's troublesome for n.o.blegirls to leave the house, as the servants and maids are having to carry a great heap of stuff, and they took several carriages. Before they set off on the road, the lavish spectacle of them being majestically escorted by bodyguards out of the city wasn't low-key at all.

After their carriage entered a small farmstead under the Yu family's name, several n.o.blegirls were helped off the carriage by their maids.

The eight-year-old Yu Yilian is observing the white and silver-wrapped world with big eyes, saying with gasping surprise to Yu Yixiang, “Big sister, it's really pretty here.”

Yu Yixiang merely turned her lips up into a smile; as the host, she had arranged it like this long ago. The maid carried over hot tea at this moment, and she took a cup and handed it to her third little sister. “Come, it'll look even better when you've got tea to warm your stomach.”

Yu Yilian nods, giddily grasping the tea and blowing on it before taking a good-tasting sip.

Apart from her cousins are seated a few that Rong Jiahui would come to be familiar with in the future. After all, she's currently a n.o.blegirl, and would be a n.o.blelady later.

But as of now, she's still the big lazy lump that doesn't leave her house, so she's supposed to currently not be familiar with these three. She had no choice but to put on a show of not recognizing anyone aside from her cousins, waiting for Yu Yixiang to come introduce them.

Yu Yixiang had sent an invitation to Rong Jiahui expecting it to be the same as it had been in the past. In other words, who would have thought that she'd actually come this time? At this time, she saw Rong Jiahui sitting by Yu Yimei's side and not saying a peep, and suddenly felt that now was the time to act the part of a big sister. Thinking that, Yu Yixiang thereupon went and pulled Jiahui up to stand.

She smiled while speaking to the three n.o.ble daughters who were still engrossed without pause in their private whisperings, “Big sister Yang, little sister Song, little sister Wen, I think you all still haven't met my cousin.”

Looking at the most senior of them, she's a woman of properly beautiful looks and a gentle bearing. She stares, looking at them doubtfully, “Eldest little sister Yu, is this sister Rong from Marquis Zhenguo's family?”

Rong Jiahui bowed lightly. “It is.”

The woman smiled softly. “Sister Yu is always speaking of you to me, but it's a shame I've never had the opportunity to see you. My surname is Yang and first Qianyu. If sister Rong doesn't find it detestable, she may call me big sister as sister Yu does.”

Jiahui quickly smiles and calls out, “Big sister Yang.”

How could she dare find the Empress Dowager's niece detestable?

There's 10 billion people surnamed Yang, but to be able to befriend the eldest first-daughter of a Duke's household of a similar age, apart from the eldest granddaughter of the Empress Dowager's father, the former Prime Minister Yang, who else could it be?

At this time, a lovely young girl beamed from beside Yang Qianyu. “I am Wen Anying.”

The eldest daughter the Ministry of Appointment's Left Vice Minister and his first wife.

Jiahui smiled and nodded. “Big sister Wen.”

Afterwards, the youngest of them shyly said, “I am Song Heng.”

The daughter of the Governor of the Guangs, Wen Anying's maternal cousin from her paternal aunt's side, and temporarily staying with the Wen family.

“Little sister Song.”

After this scene of getting to know each other, it didn't take long for these few young ladies to get to talking. Yan Qianyu is gentle and kind, Wen Anying talks really fast, and Song Heng is introverted and shy. Their personalities aren't horrid, and Rong Jiahui actually isn't uneasy being with them.

As they spoke and spoke, Yang Qianyu then seemed to recall something, and said towards Rong Jiahui, “That's right, I forgot. I shouldn't be calling you little sister Rong.”

Jiahui stared. She can't be called little sister, but still has to call her big sister?

Yang Qianyu smiled as she said word by word, “I should be calling you my cousin's sister.”

Jiahui was still somewhat unresponsive for a time. After her brains wound about in a few loops, she suddenly had an epiphany; the ‘cousin' that came from Yang Qianyu's mouth is none other than Liu Qianchen. Yang Qianyu's mother is the Liu family Madam's older paternal cousin, so they really do have that blood relation.

And then she recalled the marriage she was that she was unwilling and unresigned to, and she no longer wanted to continue talking about it. She awkwardly smiled and laughed, and the subject pa.s.sed.

However, she snuck a peek at Yu Yixiang's expression, only to see that she was still hanging up that biggest-sister-looking-after-her-little-sisters-ish smile with no other coloration to be seen. Yu Yixiang's always been one to be fond of displaying herself with the demeanor of a state Duke's home's granddaughter, so Heaven knows what's actually going on in her mind.

With great difficulty, she takes advantage of when they're watching Yang Qianyu perform an ode-to-snow poem that isn't good to fret about how she should change it. Jiahui pulled the deep in thought Yu Yixiang to the side, and looking at Yu Yixiang's dumbfounded face that didn't know what was happening, she said earnestly, “Yu Yixiang, I'm telling you that I want to call off the marriage with him! Really! I'm not lying to you! If I've lied to you then may I choke to death on watermelon!”

Yu Yixiang was struck stupid by her, and only reacted after half a day to who that ‘him was. “Why?” she asked dumbly.

Rong Jiahui said, “I said a long time ago that I can't look at him! He's simply nothing good at all!”

Yu Yixiang had a rare lack of retort for her, merely hanging her head and speaking with disappointment. “Calling it off… he also told me that he wanted to call it off, but his parents didn't want the same and refused. He's been kicking up a fuss at home, but domestic discipline's being used now.”

What? It's Rong Jiahui's turn to be dumbfounded. What had happened in the interim? How come there's a bunch of things she didn't know about all of a sudden? How many times did that Liu guy meet with her cousin?

Rong Jiahui said, “Then he can tell Aunt and Uncle of the Liu family that his heart belongs to you…”

Yu Yixiang shakes her head. “He doesn't dare to. He doesn't dare tell his parents about me, because he's afraid my reputation would be ruined for no reason. He is a man and a prodigal son that wouldn't be traded for gold; if he has a more romantic past, who cares? It's different for me. If this gets out, my life is over. I don't dare to tell anyone else, either, and now only you and Rui Zhu know.”

Only she and Rui Zhu know? Rui Zhu… isn't that one of her cousin's personal maids? Is she playing matchmaker? Is her cousin now like that Cui Yingying? She's stealthily read that Biography; the girl next to her might look enchanted, but if she sweeps her eyes over that matchmaker student Zhang a few times she'll sense that he's bad news.

Rong Jiahui patted her on the shoulder. “He's trying to scare you, of course, and only you'd be dumb enough to believe him. Who knows how many girls he's said all that to!”

Yu Yixiang has obviously been poisoned too deeply, as tears fell from her face. “I trust him,” she says resolutely. “You've never met him. The final time I saw him in the temple, his face was white and drained of color. He never showed up again after that, and I wouldn't dare to ask about him. I know that we're impossible.”

It's starting to feel like this sacred Buddhist temple is becoming a site for lovers' trysts.

Jiahui nodded. “Of course you two aren't possible. I fully understand that he's tired of you and was looking for an excuse to get rid of you.”

Yu Yixiang's lips pursed. “But, Rong Jiahui… he's very courteous. We've met several times and he's never even touched my hand for fear of being rude to me.”

Saying that, Yu Yixiang started feeling her face in a complicated pattern. After a moment of hesitation, she then asked Jiahui, “What you said – if he really was thinking like that, what can I do? Rong Jiahui, reach into your conscience and pull out the truth; am I pretty? Would other's hearts beat looking at it? Be serious, you can't deliberately say that I'm ugly!”

Jiahui had no choice but to nod. “Yes, very pretty! You're the prettiest, the number one pretty girl in the land, the number one beauty in the capital!”

The only serious thing this d.a.m.ned girl can do is flap her trap. Yu Yixiang can't help but ruthlessly pinch her face. “Rascal, if you blabber off ever again I'm ignoring you!”

Jiahui put her hands over her face burning with pain and can't keep from sucking in a cold breath. It was just a joke. This person can be really fierce, hah…

Just as she was about to pinch back, she heard Yang Qianyu's voice. “Little sisters, what are you both whispering about over here?”

Jiahui hurriedly covered up her bright red face, smiling. “Sister Yang, I was talking with my cousin over whether our eldest or second-eldest male cousins were more handsome. I think the second is, but she's biased towards her own big brother, so as soon as I said that she pinched me. Look at my face, big sis, it's all red!”

Yu Yixiang wasn't sure she was really following Rong Jiahui's opportunistic words and felt her stock of looking dumb coming up again, so she hurriedly said, “That's my brother! Real handsome!”

Yang Qianyu covered her mouth and giggled, using one hand to drag them while she said, “Well, well. Sister Wen is boiling snow to make tea with, so let's go give it a try together.”

Jiahui smiles, mumbling, “That Wen Anying still really loves to mess around.”

[1] I don't know what these are supposed to be. Both Chinese and English articles are woefully inconsistent, so I'm guessing.

[2] It's A Thing in China to call your ladylove a ‘little sister'.