"A'hao, listen." A'ru suddenly whispered.

A'hao hummed in response, her ears pricked.

The faint sound of strings and wind instruments drifted in the night air.

"Oh, the banquet has started up ahead..." A'hao murmured, her eyes sparkling with a hint of yearning. "It must be lively tonight. Sister, I wonder what the Heir Apparent is like now? He's been gone three years; I’ve almost forgotten..."

A'ru smiled looking past the courtyard gate.

"The Heir Apparent, I'm sure, has only grown finer," she said, nudging the still-tilting A'hao. "Let's go quickly. Finish up, heat some water, and let the Young Mistress wash up."

A'hao nodded, and the two went into the kitchen laughing. Inside the room, Qi Yue lowered her perked-up ears and rubbed her temples with a slight headache.

Good heavens, it’s been so long, why won't they let me go back? I never even got to date, and now I'm instantly someone's wife—this is playing a cruel joke on me.

That entire night, accompanied by the intermittent sounds of revelry from the silk and string music carried on the night breeze, Qi Yue suffered through a torrent of nightmares. In her dreams, a man built like a terracotta soldier clung to her relentlessly, either beating her, cursing her, or attempting indecent acts.

The next day, seeing how clearly unrested Qi Yue looked, A'ru sighed, her expression slightly downcast. How could she not care? Her long-absent husband had returned, yet the wife was forbidden to see him.

The revelry continued into the evening. A'ru surmised that friends and relatives had come to pay their respects. No one visited their quarters that day; it seemed the three occupants of Qiutong Courtyard had been utterly forgotten.

Qi Yue had a habit of napping in the afternoon. During this time, A'ru and A'hao would sit in their own room doing needlework. Although the manor employed official seamstresses, anything belonging to Qiutong Courtyard was always delayed, and any work they submitted was placed at the very end of the queue. Sometimes, the materials wouldn't even be returned, let alone finished. So, A'ru and A'hao simply did the work themselves; embroidery and mending were skills they had both mastered, making the tasks relatively effortless.

"The Young Mistress’s shoes seem to have frayed at the edges," A'hao remarked to A'ru while stitching a handkerchief, suddenly remembering something. "I put them in the shoe cabinet in the side room."

"I'll go fetch them to repair," A'ru replied, setting down her work and standing up.

The midday sun in the seventh month was quite hot, and the sound of cicadas chirping echoed from inside and outside the courtyard. The common maids usually spent their days catching cicadas or chasing birds, but in their Qiutong Courtyard, no one paid them any mind. A'ru was simply worried about disturbing Qi Yue’s sleep.

"The Young Mistress slept poorly last night. You go outside and catch cicadas; don't disturb the Young Mistress’s nap..." A'ru instructed.

A'hao agreed, stepped out, grabbed a bamboo pole in the courtyard, and opened the gate to leave.

A'ru quietly approached the entrance to Qi Yue’s room. Before lifting the curtain, she saw Qi Yue standing precariously on a stool in the main hall, clutching a bedsheet, which made her let out a startled shriek.

"Young Mistress, you... you..." A'ru rushed in, threw herself down, and clung to Qi Yue’s leg, sobbing uncontrollably.

Qi Yue, holding the makeshift rope made from a sheet, felt utterly awkward. Because the legal husband of this body had returned, she was terribly uneasy, wishing she could wake up back in the modern era. But that was impossible. After much thought, she reasoned that the original occupant of this body must have been possessed by her right as she was hanging herself. Therefore, trying to hang herself again might send her back. The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Since she had no other options, she acted on a strange impulse and tried it, only to be interrupted by A'ru the moment she stepped up.

"No, no, it’s not what you think," she could only explain, caught between laughter and tears, reaching out to soothe A'ru.

The emotions A'ru had suppressed for days erupted with that cry, and she couldn't stop herself. After a long while of crying, only after Qi Yue coaxed and reasoned with her did A'ru’s emotions begin to settle.

"This is no game..." A'ru managed, tears streaming as she listened to Qi Yue’s stuttered explanation, then knelt, embracing Qi Yue’s leg and crying upward. "This is not something to play with..."

"Yes, it was my fault. I won't do it again," Qi Yue said with a strained laugh, repeatedly reaching out to help her up and wiping her tears with a handkerchief.

"Young Mistress, if you are sad, just cry and tell me. It’s been so long; don't treat your maid as an outsider..." A'ru choked out.

"I really am not sad..." Qi Yue replied lightly.

"The Heir Apparent will certainly come to see you. Otherwise, shall I go see the Heir Apparent..." A'ru offered.

"Don't you dare." Qi Yue quickly grabbed her hand, alarmed. "No one notified us, which clearly means they don't want us present. If you go now, you might provoke them, and it won't end well. Let's just wait. He’s back; he can’t stay hidden forever."

A'ru nodded, wiping her tears and looking at Qi Yue.

"Then the Young Mistress must promise not to do anything foolish again," she cautioned.

Qi Yue hastily nodded and assured her repeatedly.

"Where is A'hao?" she asked, changing the subject.

"I was afraid she’d disturb you while you were sleeping, so I sent her out to catch cicadas," A'ru explained.

Catching cicadas—that was something Qi Yue had never done.

"Is it fun?" she asked with a smile.

A'hao didn't really care if catching cicadas was fun. More than anything, she wanted to finish embroidering the handkerchief for the Young Mistress quickly. It was so hot that they hardly had enough handkerchiefs to change, so this chore felt like a waste of time, frustrating her immensely.

"Call them, call them! Hmph, lazy wretches, wretches who judge people by their status! The dogs with low eyes, leave our courtyard’s cicadas alone..." She circled the tree, moving from one to the next, muttering under her breath. "Go, go! Get away from here, go buzz where there are lots of people..."

"A'hao."

A voice suddenly called her name.

A'hao held up her pole and looked. Not far down the path, a maid wearing purple was waving at her. The noon sun was bright, forcing her eyes to squint slightly.

"Who is it?" she asked. "Calling me?"

"A'hao, hurry over here." The maid beckoned.

"What is it?" A'hao walked over, still holding the bamboo pole. As she got closer, she saw it was an unfamiliar maid and took a moment to study her before recognizing her. "It's Yin Huan from the Madam’s courtyard. You're looking for me?"

"I’m heading to the Heir Apparent’s courtyard now," she said with a smile. "The Heir Apparent is distributing things to all the courtyards, and we are extremely busy; we really can't manage to deliver them to every room personally. If you’re free, why don’t you go pick them up?"

When members of the household returned from traveling, they would indeed bring back gifts for the various residences—nothing overly valuable, usually stationery for the men and small trinkets like fans for the women. However, this was the first time the Heir Apparent had done so.

A'hao looked surprised.

"Really?" she asked, skeptical. The Heir Apparent sending them gifts? He hadn't sent a single word in three years...

"Don't believe me?" Yin Huan smiled and waved her hand. "Then never mind. Though, truthfully, the Heir Apparent didn't specifically say they were for you. I was just passing along the message for the courtyards, and since I happened to pass by here and saw you, I mentioned it. Sister, just pretend I said nothing..."

Saying this, she turned to leave.

Hearing this, A'hao believed her more than halfway. The Heir Apparent certainly hadn't named them specifically, but he hadn't excluded them either. Since every courtyard was getting something, it wouldn't be wrong for Qiutong Courtyard to go. Furthermore, if she went herself, perhaps she could see the Heir Apparent, and if luck was on her side, maybe she could even manage to say a word...

"Sister, wait for me!" A'hao dropped the bamboo pole and hurried after her. "The Madam assigned you to the Heir Apparent’s courtyard? How many new maids did the Madam assign to his courtyard this time?"

Talking as they went, the two gradually moved farther away.

} div> BAIDU_CLB_LT_ID = "519311";