He was wearing a python robe.
Only a prince could freely enter the palace wearing a python robe.
No matter which prince he was, he certainly held a noble status. I should not have kept standing there idly, so I hurried to bow and said,
"This servant girl is rude. May I ask which prince you are?"
"The Third Prince, Xiao Jingheng."
Xiao Jingheng...
His name rolled off his tongue and into my ears with the swirling flower petals in the wind, stirring the softest place in my heart with pain.
At the same time, unrealistic scenes flashed through my mind.
I seemed to have been once held in his embrace, treasured like the moon in the sky,
Yet shattered like the mirror moon, then cruelly cast down into the abyss by him...
The immense contrast was enough to suffocate me.
But I... was clearly seeing him for the first time.
The wind grew stronger, unknowingly carrying him in front of me. I heard him say:
"The lady dances beautifully, more graceful than the flowers. May I ask for the lady's name?"
He was too close to me, his presence completely blocking the light that should have shone on me.
I rarely had the opportunity to interact with men outside my family, let alone be alone in such privacy.
A faint scent of musk wafted from him, silently invading me.
Growing increasingly flustered, I lowered my head to avoid his gaze and shyly kicked at the stones on the ground, weakly replying:
"This servant girl is from the Ning family, with the courtesy name Wanshuang."
"You like forsythia too?" he smiled and asked me.
I looked at the swirling purple haze of petals and silently nodded,
Yet I saw his smile fade into a hollow, forlorn expression. After a while, he murmured:
"My mother and I also loved them dearly."
I was stunned for a moment, unsure how to respond.
Although I had never crossed paths with him before, I had heard about his background to some extent.
His birth mother had previously violated the palace taboos and was shunned by the Emperor, banished to the Cold Palace, and died not long after without illness.
At that time, he was still young and was soon adopted by the current Empress.
Among the many princes, perhaps due to his birth mother being shunned by the Emperor, he was the one the Emperor least favored.
A prince disliked by the Emperor might have lived a life worse than an ordinary wealthy family's son.
I had occasionally heard my father and brother mention that the tasks the Emperor assigned him received little cooperation from the courtiers below. On the surface, he maintained appearances, but in reality, he was merely paid lip service.
Although he was the first prince to establish a separate residence, outsiders might see it as the Emperor and Empress doting on him, but in truth, it was merely their attempt to send him away early.
In the imperial court, seniority and hierarchy were paramount. If the Emperor truly favored him, how could the Fifth Prince's marriage have preceded his?
With the elder brother yet unmarried, the younger was already surrounded by wives and concubines.
Just this one incident alone was enough to make him the laughingstock of the capital.
"These days, as my mother's anniversary approaches, the forsythia in the palace is what she missed the most. So I picked them to commemorate her."
He said this out of the blue, then slowly crouched down, carefully selecting the unpolluted petals to gather.
Seeing his tall figure curl into a small shadow against the swirling flowers, he appeared infinitely desolate.
Having grown up surrounded by my family's love, I found it difficult to imagine the harsh and aggrieved life he must have endured in his early years.
After much contemplation, I couldn't help but feel some sympathy for him.
As a petal fell on my shoulder, I brushed it off and respectfully handed it to him.
"Your Highness the Third Prince's filial piety will surely be known to your late mother."
He looked up at me, his gaze clear and lucid.
As he took the petal from my hand, our fingertips accidentally touched.
"Thank you," he said.
I quickly withdrew my hand and smiled, saying it was nothing.
Suddenly, I heard Ying Xiang whisper to me, "Miss, we should hurry and help the Empress find her hairpin. Otherwise, once the sun sets, it will be even harder to find."
I nodded in agreement and gave him a polite smile before hurrying off with Ying Xiang.
There were so many forsythia planted at the Guangyang Gate.
The fallen petals covered the ground layer upon layer, almost obscuring the bluestone path.
Finding a small hairpin in this place would not be an easy task.
However, having accepted the Empress's request, failure would bring shame to the Ning family.
So despite my inconvenient attire, I rolled up my sleeves and crouched down, painstakingly searching through the sea of petals.
This floral scene should have been a beautiful sight, but it was ruined by Ying Xiang and I, a pair of 'fallen' mistress and servant.
We crouched on the ground, our bodies bent lower and lower, looking utterly disheveled.
After an unknown period, as I grew weary and sore, I suddenly heard someone calling me from behind.
Turning around, I saw none other than Xiao Jingheng standing there, though I couldn't recall when he had arrived.
Unlike our initial meeting, this time I couldn't help but laugh when I saw him.
He was even more disheveled than I was, with the hem and sleeves of his python robe stained with mud, and even his face was smudged with grime, which he haphazardly wiped, making him look like a flower cat.
Seeing me laugh at him, he chuckled sheepishly in response.
Then, he reached out his hand towards me, revealing a bright green hairpin resting in his palm.
"This is..."
"My mother's hairpin."
I took the hairpin and rubbed it between my fingertips, still warm from his body heat, which unexpectedly warmed my heart.
[A jade hairpin, if picked up, would be cool, not warm. The warmth suggests Xiao Jingheng had kept it close to his body, meaning he did not just coincidentally find it.]
I sincerely thanked him, but he merely smiled, scratching the back of his head in a somewhat awkward manner, and waved his hand dismissively.
"There's no need to thank me. I just happened to find it while collecting petals."
However, his cat-like appearance clearly told me this 'coincidence' was the result of his thoughtfulness.
As the sky gradually darkened, knowing my father would soon finish meeting with the Emperor, I hurried to return the hairpin to the Empress. After bidding him a hasty farewell, I left with Ying Xiang.
Before we had taken two steps, I noticed Ying Xiang patting herself, so I asked:
"What are you looking for?"
"Miss, your face and clothes are covered in dust and grime. How could you see the Empress in such a disheveled state?"
Ying Xiang said as she helped pat the dust off my robes. "Strange, where has your handkerchief gone?"
I've never been one to fuss over trifles, so I was about to simply wipe my face with my hands.
But as I raised my hand, someone pressed a bright yellow handkerchief into my palm.
I froze for a moment, hearing Xiao Jingheng say with a hint of playfulness:
"If you wipe your face with your hands, you'll just end up looking like a bedraggled cat."
I knew what it meant for a woman to gift a man her handkerchief, and though men may not put much stock in such gestures, it still felt awkward. I hurried to return it to him.
But in that fleeting moment of distraction, he had already turned and walked away.
I called out to his retreating form:
"I'll borrow this handkerchief, and have someone return it to your residence once it's been washed clean."
He didn't turn back, simply raising his right arm in a carefree wave.
Then, in the next instant, he had vanished into the flurry of falling blossoms.
