“Young Lady, wake up. If you want to sleep, go back to your room. This is very unhealthy.”
Xiao Hua took the nearly extinguished lamp from the desk and pushed Wang Huaiyu, who had fallen asleep on the book table, her tone revealing her concern.
Since she had parted ways with Master Lu on the street after waving goodbye during the day, she had hurried back to the Wang Family.
She performed her daily duties, standing guard outside the study while the Young Lady wrote diligently. Before she knew it, it was already evening.
The night wind blew in, and the light in the study swayed with it. Normally at this time, the Young Lady would call for a servant to handle this situation, so as not to disturb her work.
But strangely, the study was unusually quiet. So Xiao Hua had no choice but to come in and check. But when she looked, she realized that her Young Lady had already fallen asleep from exhaustion.
Wang Huaiyu lifted her head groggily, her stray hair pushed up by the pressure, and the red imprints from sleeping on her face still at the corners of her eyes.
She blinked her eyes, and it took a while to see Xiao Hua holding the lamp in front of her. In a hoarse voice, she asked, “What time is it?”
“It’s past seven in the evening, Young Lady.” Xiao Hua placed the lamp back on the table and reached out to help her. “You’ve been lying here for almost an hour. Your hands must be numb from the pressure, right?”
Wang Huaiyu looked down at her hands. The fingertips were indeed pale, stiff and difficult to bend. She didn’t speak, just gently pulled away from Xiao Hua’s support, pushed herself up using the table edge. The chair scraped back, making a dull sound.
“…” Xiao Hua hesitated, as if wanting to say something.
“Young Lady…”
“I’m fine.” Wang Huaiyu rubbed her temples, her gaze falling on the stack of open documents on the table. The ink had long dried, and the last stroke trailed off into a long tail, as if she had fallen asleep mid-writing.
She stared at the ink mark for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Today… did the things get delivered from the horse gang?”
“Delivered, delivered! Madam Ma received them and said she would hand them over when Leader Li returns.”
Hearing the Young Lady’s question, Xiao Hua was momentarily stunned, then replied.
“…Ah, forget it.” Wang Huaiyu propped her head with her hand and said with her eyes closed, her tone filled with indescribable exhaustion.
“Young Lady…”
Wang Huaiyu didn’t respond. She just walked to the window and pushed open the half-closed window. The night wind poured in, making the candle flame sway violently. The courtyard was silent, with only the occasional bark of a dog in the distance.
“Where is Liu Shan?” she suddenly asked.
“Young Master Wu… he went out in the afternoon and hasn’t returned yet.” Xiao Hua was startled, then lowered her head and answered.
Wang Huaiyu didn’t turn around. The night outside reflected in her eyes, making it impossible to read her expression.
“…You may go.” Her voice was very soft. “I want to be alone for a while.”
“But Young Lady, you haven’t rested in a long time.”
Xiao Hua recalled how Wang Huaiyu used to look, nothing like now with dark circles under her eyes and speaking weakly. So she quickly said, “Even if you don’t care about yourself, at least think of the child in your belly?”
Faced with Xiao Hua’s worried words, Wang Huaiyu was silent.
‘That’s right, lately I’ve been working myself to death, completely disregarding my health.’
‘I can’t let the fetus in my belly suffer…’
Wang Huaiyu let out a long sigh, turned around, and sat back down in the chair.
“Alright, I’ll rest for a bit.”
Hearing the Young Lady’s words, Xiao Hua, who had been tense, finally breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
Phew.
‘Great, the Young Lady finally listened to advice!’ ‘These past days, the Young Lady has been busy inside and out, without a proper rest. Ruining her health would be bad.’
‘Sometimes I really feel for the Young Lady. Besides handling household matters, she also worries about the master and the elder master. If it were me, I’d be exhausted both physically and mentally!’
Xiao Hua looked at her Young Lady with a slightly pitying gaze, making Wang Huaiyu, who was resting with her eyes closed, feel a little creeped out.
“By the way,” Wang Huaiyu lifted her head, forcing her eyes open to look in Xiao Hua’s direction, “how is Father?”
“The Elder Master… he still refuses to leave his room.”
Xiao Hua lowered her head, her voice growing softer.
Realizing that her father was still angry, Wang Huaiyu could only sigh and dismiss Xiao Hua. Xiao Hua opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but ultimately bowed slightly and quietly retreated, closing the door behind her.
Wang Huaiyu placed her hand on the desk, tapping it from time to time. The night wind passed through her fingers, a bit cold. She sat at the desk for a while, but eventually couldn’t sit still.
She stood up decisively, straightened her slightly disheveled collar, and pushed open the study door. The night wind rushed in, its chill penetrating, but she was completely oblivious.
“I might as well go check,” Wang Huaiyu muttered to herself as she walked.
She passed through several corridors, rounded corners she could navigate with her eyes closed, and stopped in front of a door. There was no light or sound inside the door. Wang Huaiyu raised her hand, hesitated, but still knocked.
Knock, knock—
No one answered from inside the room. She knocked twice more, a bit louder than before.
“Father, it’s me.”
Still silence inside. Wang Huaiyu lowered her hand and stood outside for a moment. Then, she reached out and gently pushed the door open.
There was no light in the room, only the moonlight from outside streaming through the window lattice, casting pale shadows on the floor.
Wang Chengye was lying on his side on the bed, facing away from the door, motionless, as if asleep. But Wang Huaiyu knew very well that he wasn’t.
“Father,” she walked in, her voice very soft, “I know you’re awake.”
The person on the bed didn’t respond, but his breathing seemed heavier. Wang Huaiyu wasn’t in a hurry. She sat down on the chair by the bed, folded her hands on her lap, and let her gaze fall on her father’s gray temples.
“Xiao Hua said you didn’t leave your room all day. The food Li Shen brought, you barely touched.”
Still silence in response. But Wang Huaiyu wasn’t annoyed. She just kept talking to Wang Chengye.
“Father, are you still angry at me?”
Still silence. But Wang Huaiyu noticed that her father’s fingers on the blanket curled slightly. She sighed, stopped pressing, and just sat quietly.
After a long while, she spoke again, her voice low.
“When I was little, you used to sit by my bed like this, waiting for me to fall asleep before leaving. Sometimes I wasn’t actually asleep, I just wanted you to sit a little longer… Did you know?”
Wang Chengye’s shoulders moved almost imperceptibly.
“But you always had endless things to do.” Wang Huaiyu lowered her head, looking at her fingers, her voice trembling a little. “I didn’t understand before, but later I did. But after understanding, I didn’t know how to say it.”
The voice from the bed finally responded, muffled and a bit hoarse. “What’s the point of saying all this now?”
Wang Huaiyu looked up at her father’s slightly hunched back, her eyes stinging.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head and said, “I just wanted to talk.”
Wang Chengye didn’t speak again, but he also didn’t keep his back to her. He slowly turned over and met his daughter’s eyes in the darkness.
The moonlight fell on his face—a face that had once been spirited and proud, now only showing exhaustion and stubbornness.
“…You’ve lost weight.” Wang Chengye suddenly said.
Wang Huaiyu was taken aback, then smiled, with a hint of bitterness in her smile. “You’ve also grown old.”
Wang Chengye turned his face away, as if angry or as if hiding something.
They both fell silent, neither speaking. The cicadas chirped outside the window, one after another, as if counting the years they had missed together.
“Mm.”
“Tell me about the Zhou Family. I want to hear it.”
In response to Wang Huaiyu, there was only silence. Wang Chengye slowly turned his head, his gaze falling on his daughter, who was now smiling, with a hint of doubt and complexity.
But perhaps due to the atmosphere, he only hesitated for a moment before nodding, agreeing to Wang Huaiyu’s request.