Quick Wear: Cousin, Come to the Bowl Quickly

"The trees over there at the drying ground haven't been pruned in a long time; they're growing all over the place and are blocking out most of the area," Ah Xiang said with a chuckle. "They're not as good as these."

As she spoke, she pointed to the flowerbed behind her, which was blooming in full glory. "The sun is so strong here, and the flowers are so beautiful. Clothes that have been dried here smell of flowers, and they are soft and fragrant, much better than any kind of incense."

Lin Xi was amused by her words and shook her head, saying, "How can it be so magical? The flowers do smell nice, but how can they be infused with fragrance in just a short time of drying? Aunt Xiang, you're just teasing me."

“Miss, I, Ah Xiang, have lived most of my life and have never uttered a single falsehood.” Seeing that she didn’t believe her, Ah Xiang wasn’t annoyed. She smiled and weighed the clothes in her hands. “Don’t believe me? Smell them?”

Upon hearing this, Lin Xi lowered her head with some skepticism, brought her arms close to the clothes in her bosom, and gently sniffed them.

First, the warm, sunny scent wafted into my nostrils, mixed with the refreshing aroma of soapberry. Then, sure enough, a faint, sweet rose fragrance lingered, trailing a hint of the bittersweet scent of chrysanthemum, creating distinct layers that enveloped my nose.

The scent was exactly the same as the fragrance wafting from the flowerbed behind me.

Lin Xi's eyes lit up, and she looked up in surprise, "There really is!"

"I didn't lie to you, did I?" Ah Xiang raised her chin smugly, seeing that she believed her.

Seeing this, Lin Xi found it somewhat amusing, but then became curious, "Aunt Xiang, how did you discover this method? It's quite ingenious."

Upon hearing this, Ah Xiang shook her head, the smile lines at the corners of her eyes deepening. "It's not a matter of etiquette. Speaking of which, we should thank our son-in-law."

"Son-in-law?" Lin Xi hadn't expected Shen Jingyuan to be involved, and raised an eyebrow, her curiosity growing. "What does this have to do with him?"

Ah Xiang kept walking, her tone tinged with emotion, "That's right, if it weren't for my son-in-law back then..."

She stopped mid-sentence as if something had choked her, her eyes darting away as she mumbled, "Hey, those were all things from a long time ago, not worth mentioning."

Lin Xi walked behind her, not noticing the expression on her face, but upon hearing these words, her curiosity not only did not diminish, but instead grew even stronger.

She quickened her pace, walked up to Ah Xiang, put on a stern face, and deliberately adopted a serious and unyielding demeanor. "Aunt Ah Xiang, what exactly happened? If you don't explain clearly, I'm going to ask Shen Jingyuan himself!"

"No, Miss, please don't ask the young master!" Ah Xiang panicked when she saw her stern face.

She waved her hand, frowned, and said somewhat awkwardly, "Actually... it's nothing serious, just some old news. I'm afraid that bringing it up will upset you and your husband."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xi felt a sudden tightness in her chest, but she maintained a calm demeanor. "How could that be? Please just say it."

Ah Xiang breathed a sigh of relief, hugged the clothes, moved to a shady spot, and gestured for Lin Xi to come over as well. Then she slowly began to speak, "Miss, do you remember? Back when the young master had just been brought back to the mansion by the commander..."

Lin Xi nodded. That memory was not pleasant. She was young then, spoiled and willful, and vented all her anger over her brother Lin Min's death on Shen Jingyuan, this "imposter," treating him coldly and making things difficult for him at every turn.

Seeing her expression, Ah Xiang knew she remembered, and continued, "Back then, you didn't like him, and the people below... well, although they didn't dare to say it, they inevitably treated people differently based on their status. The young master was new here and didn't like to talk, so those who were easily bullied thought he was easy to bully."

Her voice carried a hint of pity, "At first, they only neglected our food and clothing, but later... they even became perfunctory with the laundry. The clothes sent to be washed were often just rinsed and returned. Sometimes, clothes that were hanging properly would 'accidentally' fall on the ground and get dusty. Once, I even saw someone deliberately leave his shirt by the muddy water..."

As Lin Xi listened, her brows gradually furrowed. In those years, she had always disliked Shen Jingyuan, feeling that he had taken her brother's place. Faced with her targeting, he always pretended to be kind and tolerant to win people's hearts and make everyone in the Lin mansion like him, which made it seem like she was being unreasonable.

But who would have thought that he didn't have an easy time at the beginning?

“The son-in-law is a smart man, how could he not see it?” Ah Xiang noticed her expression, sighed, and then continued, “He didn’t say anything, nor did he complain. He silently accepted whatever clothes were sent to him.”

"But later those people went too far, the clothes they sent were often dirty, so he started washing them himself."

"They don't use the hot water from the laundry room; they fetch their own water. They don't use the soap from the mansion either; instead, they get the cheapest kind of hand soap from somewhere. After washing their clothes, they don't hang them to dry with everyone else's clothes..."

As Ah Xiang spoke, she turned around and pointed to a corner on the edge of the rose garden behind them, where the roses were in full bloom and the sun was shining brightly, but the corner was slightly shaded by the flowers.

“Look, it’s hanging there. He built a small clothes rack himself with a few bamboo poles. He said… there’s plenty of sunshine over there, and the wind keeps it clean.”

Lin Xi looked in the direction she was pointing, and there was now a profusion of flowers, with no trace of the simple drying area that once existed.

But an image uncontrollably surfaced in her mind from many years ago: a silent, thin boy quietly washing and drying his clothes in this inconspicuous corner.

He was surrounded by a garden full of fragrance, yet he felt completely out of place amidst the nearby hustle and bustle.

“I was in charge of laundry back then, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. One time when he wasn’t around, I secretly took his clothes and wanted to wash them again with good soap.” Ah Xiang recalled, her eyes somewhat distant.

"It turned out that although his clothes were not very smooth, they were washed very clean, and... strangely enough, after they were dried, they had a faint, pleasant floral scent, just like the scent of this garden."

"Later, I couldn't help but mention it to my wife in private." Ah Xiang's voice lowered. "When my wife heard it, her eyes reddened. She didn't say anything, but two days later, she found an excuse to severely scold several of the gossipy and lazy people, and also punished two of the ringleaders."

“Since then, no one has dared to openly neglect him anymore. The son-in-law… he has stopped washing and drying his own clothes. However, I have secretly learned the method of using floral fragrance to scent clothes. Occasionally when the weather is nice and the clothes are not in a hurry, I come here to air them out. They smell really good.”

After Ah Xiang finished speaking, she glanced at Lin Xi somewhat nervously, as if afraid of stirring up some unpleasant memories for her, or perhaps afraid that she would think that she was trying to sow discord between the couple.

Lin Xi just stood there blankly, not moving for a long time.

She suddenly lowered her head, buried her face in the clothes in her arms again, and took a deep breath. It was still that faint, sweet rose scent, with a hint of the bitterness of chrysanthemum.

A memory that had been separated from her for more than a decade and should have long since faded suddenly and unexpectedly entered her mind.

The muddy mountain road, the cold rain, the comforting warmth on my back, and the faint, lingering fragrance of flowers.

Lin Xi's face turned pale instantly, then quickly flushed with disbelief.

She suddenly looked up at Ah Xiang, her voice trembling with excitement, "Aunt Ah Xiang! How old was he back then?"

Ah Xiang was startled by her suddenly raised voice. She pursed her lips nervously, pretended to be trying hard to remember, and said uncertainly.

"How old was he? That was... fifteen or sixteen years ago, right? My son-in-law had just arrived at the mansion then, he was tall and thin, and looked to be... twelve or thirteen? Or thirteen or fourteen? My memory is bad, I really can't remember..."

Twelve or thirteen years old...had only been at the mansion for a short time...

Lin Xi felt a "boom" in her mind, as if something had completely connected!

That's right! She was eight years old that year, the third year after her brother Lin Min passed away. Shen Jingyuan was brought back to the Lin Mansion by his father and officially became the Lin family's adopted son for the first time.

During the Qingming Festival, the family went to sweep her brother's grave. Unable to accept that her parents had placed this "outsider" in the spot that rightfully belonged to her brother, she was filled with grief and indignation. Taking advantage of a moment when no one was looking, she ran crying into the deep mountains as dusk fell...

Then I got lost, and I was cold and scared. I fell and got covered in mud.

Then... she met Xu Yucheng, who was also visiting the graves with his family.

She repeatedly described and embellished her first meeting with Xu Yucheng: In the drizzling rain and twilight in the mountains, the outstanding young man rescued her and carried her, shivering and covered in mud, down the mountain step by step.

It was because of this "life-saving grace" that the girl's budding feelings found an object to place her affections. She began to pursue the gentle and affectionate young master of the Xu family, and she pursued him for many years, even though what she got in return was his increasingly obvious estrangement and impatience.

But... what if from the very beginning, this scene that she cherished, was grateful for, and even used to build the emotional foundation for many years was wrong?

Xu Yucheng... that young master who grew up surrounded by maids and servants, who was particular about his clothes and even afraid of getting his shoes dirty, would he really be willing to carry a strange girl who was soaking wet, covered in mud, and had been crawling in the mountains for half a day?

Could his seemingly tall and upright, but actually frail, body really carry a girl who was soaking wet and not much younger than him across such a long stretch of slippery and muddy mountain road?

Besides, he was surrounded by so many people at the time... Would he really condescend to do such a thing?

All the irrationalities that she had constantly beautified and deliberately ignored became particularly sharp at this moment.

------------

Happy New Year to all the babies! Happy New Year's Day! May you become incredibly beautiful and wealthy in the new year!