cold clothes

Suddenly, she felt a chill that seeped into her bones, penetrating her skin and stinging her cheeks and nose. She experienced a blurring of white light, her vision gradually fading… Then she heard Yunqiu's exclamation—

"Snowing!"

Snow? Warm winter slowly came to its senses, and the white flakes in front of its eyes gradually became clear again. Those white dots were actually fine snowflakes falling.

"The first snow of the year... came a few days earlier than expected," Yunqiu remarked, reaching out to catch a snowflake. The fine, downy snow melted instantly upon contact with her hand, which she found quite amusing. She glanced at Nuandong, who was still standing there in a daze, and quickly took her hand, leading her to the pavilion. "Let's not get soaked in the snow here; your nose is all red from the cold."

Nuandong silently let her lead her. When they arrived at the pavilion, Yunqiu sat down comfortably, but Nuandong stood. Yunqiu ignored her and stared at the falling snow somewhere.

Finally, Nuandong came to her senses and sighed, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you, but I'm afraid you and Wang Yiqing's affair can't be kept secret for long."

“I never intended to keep it from her forever,” Yun Qiu said, resting her chin on her hand and still gazing into the distance. “It would be great if she started a fight with Wang Yiqing, that ‘adulterer,’ but most likely she would tear me, the ‘adulteress,’ apart.”

"It seems your plan already included Qingchun."

"Didn't I tell you, Nuandong? If Qingchun can come to her senses and give up on that scumbag Wang Yiqing, then my plan will have nothing to do with her. Hey, Nuandong, why don't you go and talk to Qingchun? She might listen to you. Just say... I ruined her face, I seduced Wang Yiqing, I'm the mastermind behind everything! I wonder how she'll react! I'm really curious!"

"...I'm afraid saying that won't make her feel better."

"Then we'll have to ask the kind and gentle Sister Nuandong for help," Yunqiu said cheerfully.

Nuandong nodded, making up her mind: "I promise you, no matter what, I can't bear to see Qingchun involved in your revenge plan, nor do I want to see her as your enemy."

Yun Qiu smiled slightly.

"I go first."

"Wait," Yunqiu called out to her as she turned around. Nuandong turned back, puzzled. Yunqiu looked on with a rather helpless expression: "It's not an exaggeration to say you're gentle and kind... After living in Fengxiang Tower for more than ten years, don't you have any sense of vigilance? While you care about others, you should also care about yourself."

"what happened?"

"You think that Wang Yiqing has been coming to my Jade Steps Pavilion for half a month? It's not just Fengxiang Pavilion that's heard the news, but probably even half of the capital has heard about it, yet not a single word has reached Qingchun's ears. Why is that?"

Nuandong pondered for a moment and exclaimed in surprise, "Aunt Hu already knew about your plan."

“I didn’t tell her, but she would have known even if I didn’t tell her. Everything at Fengxianglou is under her control. Judging from the fact that she took the initiative to help me keep Qingchun in the dark and cooperated with my plan, she must have planned to make Qingchun a sacrifice for my revenge long ago.”

The warm winter made breathing difficult.

Yun Qiu said with even greater solemnity, "Not only that, she also intends to sacrifice you."

“How come you see?”

“You can guess that I’m the one who poisoned Qingchun, so how could Aunt Hu not guess? Yet the news that you are suspected of poisoning Qingchun has spread. Why is that? It can only be that Aunt Hu deliberately spread it. This is her warning to you.” Yun Qiu raised her eyes and said.

Warm Winter asked, puzzled, "What did I do wrong?"

"You are guilty precisely because you did nothing."