One day playing music in the gardens with Yao Meifeng turned quickly into two, and then into three as both musicians felt like they were reconnecting to something precious.
For Yao Meifeng, who had spent much of the past year living in hiding, the time she spent playing music in the gardens with Wu Ling reminded her of their days as students, before her life had become so precarious. Playing with her Junior Brother couldn't be more different than playing in any of the alehouses or tea houses she'd played at for the past year.
When she was working, she put all of her focus on the hearts and feelings of the crowd. Were they enthusiastic? Bored? Sometimes, if they grew too rowdy, she'd play something to soothe or distract the patrons, but with her shallow cultivation, it was difficult to influence too many people at once. In the end, she did her best and collected enough money to live without needing to return home to her family and the arranged marriage they wanted to trap her in.
Playing with Wu Ling, however, removed the audience entirely. She was able to put herself back into her music, to let her own feelings flow as she played. It didn't matter if it was Su Xiang's favorite 'Blossoms in Snow' or her own favorite 'Rose at Midnight.' Each time she sat with Wu Ling to play the zither, he made space for her to let her feelings flow through the music.
Even more important, Meifeng had begun to realize, was that when she played with Wu Ling, he entangled his own feelings with the music. When they played 'Seeking Reflections' together, she felt the same feelings of being lost and searching for something from him as she felt herself when playing. They didn't need words to express their yearning for a time earlier in their lives when things were easier or at least made more sense. The long, mournful slides that followed bright inquisitive plucking at the strings said everything for them.
"Senior Sister," Wu Ling said on the third afternoon they'd met in the park. "Do you remember, at the banquet shortly before you awakened, you mentioned a restaurant you wanted to celebrate at if you managed to awaken."
"The Crystal Pool," Yao Meifeng said, smiling wistfully. "But my parents wouldn't let me. They wanted to host the Xiao family to make my betrothal formal since I'd awakened. We went somewhere else instead," she said with a sad shake of her head.
"It was the usual banquet, a bunch of Xiao Ju Bo's cousins from across the clan came, they fought in the center of the hall and made all of us watch while they puffed themselves up and showed off how hard they could hit each other," she complained. "Mother kept bothering me to praise Xia Ju Bo more since we were engaged but… I just wanted to celebrate my own Awakening, and he just looked at me like he'd won a prize."
"Well," Wu Ling said, reaching out and taking her hand gently. "I haven't gone anywhere nice to celebrate my own Awakening, so, why don't we go together?"
"Just the two of us?" Yao Meifeng asked. "I noticed your sister didn't accompany us this time, does she finally believe I won't poach you from her?"
"More like, she finally understands the kind of friends we are," Wu Ling said with a smile. "Sister Xiang, in some ways, still thinks of me like I was when we were children together. We're still catching up on the past ten years, but when we were children, I still dreamed of being a swordsman like my father. That hasn't been my dream for a long time now," he said, running a hand gently along the case holding his prized zither.
"So she was worried I'd snatch you from her because you and I share things that she doesn't share with you?"
"I don't think she thinks of it that way," Wu Ling said. "Sister Xiang has a gift that has also been a curse. She can see the truth in things. She needed to see the truth in your feelings for me. I think she was afraid that you might use me to escape your family," he explained.
"But she doesn't think that now?" Yao Meifeng asked, raising an eyebrow in doubt.
"No, not after yesterday when we played 'Seeking Reflections,'" Wu Ling said with a smile. "I told Sister Xiang when we first reunited, art can express feelings that words can't. She might call herself a simple swordswoman, but she understood clearly enough. She was the sister that I could always trust when we were children, and you are the kind senior sister who took me under her wing when I was very, very alone in the Pure Virtue Musician's Hall. Aside from my mother, I can't think of anyone I trust more than the two of you."
"Well, when you put it so sweetly," the young woman said with a teasing smile. "I suppose I have to accept your invitation. But you know that the Crystal Pool is a little expensive. They only serve cultivators and even a simple meal dining on the meat of spirit beasts isn't cheap."
"It's fine," Wu Ling said, patting his purse. "I made the best of a bad situation recently and came into a bit of money. Enough to enjoy a night out somewhere nice with my best friend."
The following day, Wu Ling dressed up in one of the best outfits Su Xiang had purchased for him, an elegant set of robes in emerald green with a shimmering silver pattern of bamboo leaves. Even though he resented the Bamboo Silk House for sending him and his mother into exile, he couldn't deny that he had many precious memories in the bamboo-enclosed gardens in the back of the secretive sect. Having a little reminder of the pleasant memories put a smile on his face as he stepped out of the carriage he'd hired to fetch Yao Meifeng.
Yao Meifeng had similarly dressed for the evening. While she hadn't been able to bring away much when she ran away from home, she'd saved a few precious items and didn't hesitate to wear them for her junior brother tonight. Elegant silver hair pins fixed her dark blue hair in a complicated updo with a few strands left playfully loose to frame her doll-like features. The cool, ice-blue dress she wore hugged her figure from her full bosom to her slender legs, creating an image of a stunning and refined fairy, untouched by the mortal world.
"Senior Sister," Wu Ling said, bowing as he extended a hand to help her into the carriage. "It's good that this is a moonless night, otherwise, I'm afraid the moon would weep with jealousy."
"Junior Brother's eyes are more than radiant enough to make up for the light of the moon," she teased after sliding into the carriage. "But it seems like I'm not pretty enough to make Junior Brother weep with jealousy. Don't tell me that my dear junior brother has higher standards than the moon?"
"Okay, you win," Wu Ling laughed and took a seat across from her. "Senior Sister will always present better flowers with her words than I will, even your thorns are enticing," he teased.
"Well, I taught you, I should be better at it, shouldn't I? But it's different now," she added, taking a deep look in his silvery eyes. "Not for you, maybe, but it's harder to keep it meaningless when you're that, um, handsome," she said with a faint redness coloring the tips of her ears.
"Does it make you uncomfortable?" Wu Ling asked genuinely. "Seeing me like this?"
"Bother isn't the right word," she answered, not quite able to meet his eyes. "But it's not a bad thing," she added, flashing him a smile that lit up the carriage. She wanted to say more, but forced herself to wait. She still wasn't certain about the question she wanted to ask but she knew that now wasn't the time.
Maybe, by the time they finished dinner, she'd find the courage to ask… and to hear his answer.