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墨書 Inktalez
“Master, your understanding is a blessing for me. Also, I originally wanted to use some fine materials, but the people from the Embroidered Workshop said this fabric is the best. Although it looks a bit plain and ordinary, it's excellent for making medicinal pillows. Please don't dislike it, Master!”
“Madam, you flatter me!” Wang Yanxing replied as he took the pillow. However, a strange image suddenly floated into his mind. It was from the first year he married Hui Niang; he had been studying all day and had a bit of a headache. Hui Niang had heard somewhere that chrysanthemums not only help with eyesight but can also be made into pillows, so she would go out to gather them. By the end of spring, she had nearly collected them all.
At that time, Hui Niang picked white chrysanthemums and carefully sorted and dried each flower by candlelight at night. In the end, she chose the best fabric from her dowry to make him a pillow. That fabric looked exactly like the one in front of him now. No wonder he felt a sense of familiarity when he first saw this pillow.
Thinking of this made his heart ache a little, but in front of Madam, he couldn't show these difficult emotions and could only lower his head to hide them.
In the evening, Wang Yanxing looked at the Ginkgo Leaves pillow and inexplicably recalled his wedding night with Hui Niang. The candlelight that night was just as bright as it was tonight; Hui Niang sat quietly on the wedding bed in her red dress. As he approached her, he could hear her nervous and rapid breathing. He smiled mischievously and gently touched her foot with his toe. Sure enough, his new wife immediately tensed up and softly called out to him, “Husband.”
“Master!”
Madam Wang returned to their room after bathing and found Wang Yanxing staring blankly at the pillow. She called out to him softly but noticed he didn’t respond. As she got closer, she saw that he was smiling at the pillow. Madam Wang's face instantly turned red as she suddenly remembered how he looked when they first met in the back garden that year—respectful and polite, with a similar smile on his face. That smile was like sunlight in winter, warming her heart.
That year, Madam Wang was eighteen and considered an old maid; her father was busy finding a suitor for her while she secretly admired Wang Yanxing. She discreetly sent a maid to inquire about him but learned that he had already married back home. Indeed, such a good man couldn't possibly be without a wife or concubines. But as her father's most cherished only daughter, becoming someone else's concubine was out of the question. After being sad for several months, she decided to find someone to marry casually.
It was a drizzly afternoon when she was stitching a pouch in the embroidery room when her maid rushed in to announce that Wang Yanxing had come to ask for her hand from her father. She was both surprised and delighted; forgetting all decorum expected of a young lady, she hurriedly ran to the front hall with her skirt lifted. At that moment, he looked even thinner than when she last saw him; his face appeared slightly darkened, and his gaze seemed distant. But when their eyes met, his suddenly sparkled with light as he said to her, “I divorced my wife!”
She should have asked him why but out of selfishness said instead, “Then I will marry you!”
After a brief moment of awkwardness, he walked toward her and gently took her hand in front of her father. She looked up at him and saw his lips moving as he said, “Hold my hand and grow old together!”
Her once fluttering heart sank completely!
Life after marriage was somewhat different from what she had imagined but still filled with happiness. He treated her very well and spoiled her like her father did. Occasionally she would throw tantrums; he would get angry too but only slightly change his expression without saying harsh words. She felt that she had met the best husband in this lifetime—the best master. Yet she could also see that Wang Yanxing had something on his mind; she vaguely guessed it was related to his divorced wife but chose not to ask about it.
Now seeing Wang Yanxing lost in thought over the pillow she gave him brought a hint of joy to her heart. She walked behind him and gently tugged at his sleeve, asking softly, “What is Master smiling about?”
Wang Yanxing suddenly snapped back to reality, and his smile vanished instantly. He turned to look at Madam Wang and said, “It's nothing; I was just thinking about how much trouble I've caused you!”
“Master, no! I understand!” Madam Wang shyly lowered her head and pulled Wang Yanxing toward the bed.
Wang Yanxing sighed inwardly and bent down to lift Madam Wang into his arms. She shyly covered her face while he looked at her but then thought of Hui Niang.
Because of his deliberate teasing, Hui Niang had called him “Husband” in a soft voice. That voice felt like an incantation that tightly gripped his heart and made him feel hot all over; there was an unbearable pressure building within him that drove him nearly mad. Yet at that moment, he somehow managed to hold it back.
He squatted down like a child, tilting his head as he gently lifted her veil with a smile. At that moment, she was shyly lowering her face, and their eyes unexpectedly met. Hui Niang's eyes were beautiful, like the stars in the sky, and her slightly parted lips, due to her astonishment, resembled enticing petals waiting to be picked.
He sat there foolishly for a long time, until she looked at him with concern and softly asked, "Husband, are you hungry?" Only then did he realize that he had been licking his lips without knowing it, like someone who had been starving for days and suddenly found something to drool over.
"Yes, I'm hungry!" he replied with a smile, leaning in boldly to kiss her lips. His wife turned out to be even sweeter than he had imagined. Unfortunately, on this romantic wedding night, unexpected events often occurred. He needed to assert his rights as a husband openly when someone knocked loudly on the old door.
He was called outside to toast and returned half-drunk to find that besides his new Wife, there were several warm dishes prepared: a soup to sober up, noodles to warm the stomach, and two plates of fresh vegetables. She stood there awkwardly, still in her Wedding Garment, but with her sleeves rolled up high, revealing two freshly washed hands that still glistened with moisture.
In that moment, he suddenly felt a warm sensation that made him want to cry. He even silently vowed that for the rest of his life, regardless of wealth or poverty, he would never let down his delicate and kind-hearted wife before him.
While the vow lingered in his heart, his wife had changed into someone else. Wang Yanxing never expected that just a few years later, he would become a heartless man! After ten years of hard study and finally achieving success in the imperial examination, it wasn't that he didn't want to provide a good life for Hui Niang or be a good official; rather, many things were beyond his control.
With a long sigh, he turned over and lay down on the side, resting his head on a pillow made of ginkgo leaves. A pleasant fragrance filled his nose as he closed his eyes. Madam Wang had originally been shyly closing her eyes but suddenly felt something light on her body. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Wang Yanxing closing his eyes. She softly comforted him: "It's nothing; my lord has been busy lately and may be exhausted. Tomorrow I will have Winter Spring prepare some nourishing food for you to replenish your strength."
"Thank you, my lady!" Wang Yanxing replied as he turned over and faced away from Madam Wang and fell asleep.
Perhaps it was the effect of the ginkgo leaf pillow; Wang Yanxing managed to sleep until dawn. However, his dreams were filled with memories of him and Hui Niang. So much so that when he woke up, he still felt somewhat dazed.
On the second day, third day, and seventh day, the once beautiful dream gradually changed. Finally, the Hui Niang he saw was no longer the one from their wedding day but rather tattered and covered in soot, holding a pillow while repeatedly asking him: "Husband, why don't you want Hui Niang? Why won't you acknowledge our child?"
In the dream, he stepped back step by step but found himself speechless and unable to offer any defense. Hui Niang seemed angry; she threw the pillow in her hand at him fiercely: "Since Husband doesn't want our child, then Hui Niang won't want it either!"
He instinctively caught it but discovered that inside the pillow was a child—a white skull with long legs—like a skeleton.
Wang Yanxing screamed and woke up from the nightmare.
A fox sat on the roof under the moonlight and gently shook its head: "This Wang Yanxing is truly useless; he woke up even earlier than I expected. What a pity for the dream I carefully crafted!" With that, it transformed into a White Shadow and headed toward Ruyi Rouge.
Madam Wang was also startled awake; rubbing her eyes with one hand, she asked Wang Yanxing: "My lord, what happened? Why did you make such a frightening noise?"
"It's nothing; I just had a nightmare!" Wang Yanxing said as he lay back down. However, when his peripheral vision caught sight of that pillow again, he instantly jumped up and hurriedly threw it out of the window.
Madam Wang watched in confusion!
“Master, what is this? Why would you throw away a perfectly good pillow?”
Wang Yanxing murmured, “That pillow belongs to Hui Niang!”
“Hui Niang? Master, are you feeling nostalgic and thinking of your ex-wife who was divorced from you?” Madam Wang's words carried a hint of anger. “Just please clarify before you lose your mind. That pillow was painstakingly sought after by your wife for you, not by that ex-wife of yours. If you do not want it, then just leave it be. What is the meaning of throwing it out the window, Winter Spring?”
“Madam, Winter Spring is here!”
“Go pick up that Ginkgo Leaves pillow for me. If Master is worried about his ex-wife and does not want it, I will use it myself!”
As she spoke, the tightly shut door was pushed open. The maid Winter Spring entered, holding the Ginkgo Leaves pillow.
Upon seeing the pillow, Wang Yanxing recalled the scene from his dream. A wave of fear washed over him, but he could not ignore Madam Wang's anger. He quickly turned around and said, “Madam, you misunderstand! The reason I wanted to throw that pillow away is because there is something strange about it!”
“Strange about a pillow? It’s just an ordinary pillow; how can it be strange?”
“Do you know how Hui Niang died?”
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