Sitting side by side rarely, Qu Xiaojue turned her eyes to look at him. Receiving no response, she repeated, “I am your wife. You can’t just walk away and leave me.”
“…I did call out to you before leaving. I walked away by myself,” Xu Wanzhi replied awkwardly, his mouth twitching.
“Alright, I won’t dwell on today’s matter,” Qu Xiaojue huffed proudly, her eyes scanning his room. “Why is the room so empty? Even your usually used cloud-line incense seems sparse. Why haven’t you lit any?”
He shrugged indifferently. “I don’t like it anymore. Isn’t it good that the room is more spacious?”
“It’s just different from your usual habits,” she sighed, immediately changing the subject: “A’yun will visit with her husband this afternoon. Come and meet them.”
“Have they met me before?”
Xu Wanzhi was about to refuse but anticipated she would start another lengthy discussion. After thinking, he decided to be evasive.
“No,” Qu Xiaojue shook her head. “Don’t you have nothing to do? A’yun’s husband is quite worldly. Why not chat with him instead of moping around?”
“We’ll talk this afternoon.”
As they continued their conversation, Qu Xiaojue showed no signs of leaving, and Xu Wanzhi couldn’t rudely leave or ask her to go, so he continued to respond passively.
“Family master, young master,” the door was carefully knocked.
Qu Xiaojue responded first: “What is it?”
Qi’er bowed her head at the doorway, softly answering: “A Qu bodyguard seeks an audience.”
“Have her wait in the reception courtyard. I’ll be there shortly,” Qu Xiaojue instructed.
“Yes,” Qi’er acknowledged and turned to relay the message.
Qu Xiaojue turned to Xu Wanzhi, who was tilting his head, seemingly watching a dragonfly that had landed on the windowsill. She cleared her throat to bring him back to his senses and said, “Come after lunch. If I don’t send for you, come to the study.”
“Understood,” Xu Wanzhi nodded.
Qu Xiaojue stepped out.
“Qi’er, go find me a dry tree branch about the thickness of a little finger, and bring me a small knife,” Xu Wanzhi instructed.
“Are you going to write something?” Qi’er asked curiously.
“How do you know?” he furrowed his brow, wondering if it was true that there were one or more silent time-travelers around.
