TCN: Mei Gongqing

Chapter 76: Chen Rong's Good Name

Chapter 76: Chen Rong's Good Name

"Come down," Wang Hong faintly smiled, looking at Chen Rong's carriage.

She drew her curtain and revealed her beautiful face to him. She was slightly wan at the moment, apparently affrighted by the earlier events.

Wang Hong looked at her but did not ask. He then turned around, waved his sleeve and said, "Let's go in."

The servants followed him inside, and so did Chen Rong.

Sitting in a corner of the study and with her head bowed, Chen Rong was now dazedly watching a ray of sunlight that had beamed through the door and into the space in front of her. The dust floating in the light column was rather effervescent.

She sat there for some time until a figure came to stand in front of her and blocked the light.

She looked up and was met with Wang Hong's gentle eyes.

He held her gaze, then slowly leaned forward as he reached out to cup her delicate face – his fingers yet to touch her, but his warmth already palpable.

Chen Rong lowered her eyes and forced herself to remain still despite instinctively wanting to pull away. Because she had held her breath for too long, however, a faint and dull pain pricked her chest.

Like a spring breeze, his hand brushed across her face as he laughed and softly said, "You're so careless. Look, your hair is plastered all over your face." His voice flowed like the wind at night, gently sweeping by.

He pulled away.

Chen Rong quietly exhaled. She couldn't tell whether her heart had sighed in disappointment or relief.

Wang Hong sat down across from her. Without looking up, he bade, "Prepare meat and wine! I want to drink these last hours away with the young lady!"

The last hours? Chen Rong whipped her head up and quietly studied him, her lips quivering.

Wang Hong didn't look at her. He lifted the wine jug and gracefully filled their cups. At this time, a beam of sunlight was shining on his fair, handsome face, bringing to light his fine hair and gentle smile.

Chen Rong dropped her gaze.

The last hours. That would have been true. Previously, he had been killed when the city fell on the morrow! At the time, the Xianbei army had feasted in celebration of his death. And such had been her last impression of the man called Wang Qilang.

In unprecedented fashion, the Hu had given him a gold coffin and a jade burial gown, and ceremoniously escorted his corpse back to Jiankang. The whole world had been stunned. One ought to know that to the Hans, the cannibal Hu weren't human. It was unimaginable that such beasts would treat a Central Plains scholar with so much respect, that they would send his corpse home though he was only a boy yet to have his capping ceremony (1). In the ten years that had followed, the people of Jin had all been befuddled whenever they spoke of Wang Hong, and everything about him had likewise become a complete mystery.

及冠 – ancient coming-of-age ritual for a boy when he turns 20

It was now another lifetime and she was sitting across from him. Whether for herself or for him, because of the promise she had made the day he saved her from the prince's estate, she would not let him die. No, she wouldn't allow it!

While Chen Rong was preoccupied, her hand grew warm by a wine cup Wang Hong had placed into her palm.

His hand did not move away; its slender fingers wound around her middle finger and gently stroking it. He lowered his gaze, shadowing his eyes with fluttering long lashes. He continued caressing her finger as he whispered to her: "Why have you come?" His voice was very soft and airy, like a night breeze passing by.