"Me? Love him?" Chow Yi Nuo inquired as she turned around and looked at Zhi Meng Yao in a confused manner.
"Yes, you love him. You have begged your father since childhood to allow you two to be together." Zhi Meng Yao stated.
'How silly is Zhong Kexin? For a man?' Chow Yi Nuo asked herself.
"Let's go home my lady, it's getting late." The sun was setting through a tear in the trees giving them an orange tinge. It was orange and sliced in half by the horizon. Chow Yi Nuo shivered because of the evening wind.
There, beyond the river, at the very edge of the steppe, the languid harvest sun blazed like the mouth of a burning fireplace. It was slowly sinking beyond the horizon, touching the loose clouds with crimson and casting it's last rays on the purple steppe, already shaded in the dells with the blue of early twilight.
Chow Yi Nuo looked at the sunset, enraptured, as if she was witnessing a miracle. Her face was aglow with the tenderness, her parted lips smiled gently, like a child's. And then, she turned around and faces Zhi Meng Yao and asked."How?" Chow Yi Nuo.
Chow Yi Nuo's legs were completely numb from the running and she felt that she could no longer ran.
"By our carriage of course." Zhi Meng Yao replied. She immediately called out in a loud voice, "Horseman Shu!" and the sound of clattering of horse's hooves was heard as it neared them. After sometime, a wooden carriage decorated with pink and white silk ribbon came. Zhi Meng Yao took out the footplate and Chow Yi Nuo used it to climb into the carriage. The sweet fragrance of roses could be smelt in the carriage. The interior had been decorated using a pink colour. The cushions were pink and the carpet on the floor white. Chow Yi Nuo settled down and waited for Zhi Meng Yao who soon climbed in.
"Giddy up!" The horseman cried, whipping the horses using the reins. The horses immediately took off at a terrific speed.
"Miss Zhong Kexin, is there an old lady in the Zhong Mansion called Madam Liu?" The horseman inquired as he controlled the horses.
"Yes, why?" asked Zhi Meng Yao.
"I have heard that she has a house that she built for her family under Madam Lan Chunhua's name. Don't tell anyone about it." The horseman concluded.
"Okay, just continue to collect such good information for me and I will pay you properly."Chow Yi Nuo replied.
"That greedy old lady! How dare she! I'm gonna pull out all of her hair when I see her!" Zhi Meng Yao stated as she balled her fingers into a fist. Chow Yi Nuo looked at her then smiled amiably exposing her eggshell white, she had finally found a weakness of that old lady. She then reached for ten taels of silver and handed it to Zhi Meng Yao to give it to horseman Shu.
The age old forests flashed past. There were clearings dotted with the black roofs of cottages, thin white smoke trailing from the chimneys. The first snow was settling on the cold, desolate fields. Tousled crows were circling over them. The sky was overcast most of the time.