On the seventh day of the sixth month, it was a rainy day.
Shui Yue woke to the tinkling sound of rain, with Jin Ling and Jin Rui attending to her dressing and breakfast.
From Lianfu Garden, word came last night, saying today's busy, so she didn't need to go over for morning greetings.
Shui Yue simply gathered her thoughts, sat at the pear wood desk engraved with the Five Blessings holding Longevity in the West Attic, and began practicing her calligraphy.
Though she claimed to be practicing, she couldn't settle her mind, haphazardly wrote two sheets of paper, crumpled them up, and threw them into the basket, then turned and sat on the couch under the north window, neither reading nor closing the window, but quietly gazing outside.
Jin Rui followed Jin Ling inside, raised her voice to speak, then saw Jin Ling turned around and gestured for silence, pointing toward the window.
