TGP Chapter 27.2: Peony

“Only the peony is the true beauty of the nation, and Li Rong is the only peony in his heart.”

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The two of them leaned on the same wall and stood on each side. Li Rong was silent. Pei Wenxuan looked up at the evening sky. After a long time, Li Rong slowly spoke up: “This time, you shouldn’t let her enter the Palace.”

Pei Wenxuan was silent. Li Rong was a little puzzled: “Why aren’t you responding?”

“Will have to see about you first.”

Pei Wenxuan spoke plainly. Li Rong was slightly astonished: “Why would you have to see about me?”

“If you allow it, then I will talk to Qin Lin. As for what I say, if they still want her to enter the Palace, then that is her business. As for whether or not to directly intervene and prevent her from entering the Palace, that is your business.”

These words left Li Rong dumbfounded. She heard them but couldn’t understand them.

She paused for a moment and thought about it, then cautiously said: “Sorry, can you…speak more clearly? I can’t seem to make sense of what I’ve heard.”

Pei Wenxuan heard this and lowered his gaze: “I shouldn’t have intervened back then.”

Li Rong found it even more difficult to understand. She vaguely seemed to understand the literal meaning of these words. Pei Wenxuan seemed to be saying that he did not intend to be involved with Qin Zhenzhen anymore—

But how is this possible?

Li Rong was at a loss.

There is no need to mention Qin Zhenzhen’s importance in Pei Wenxuan’s heart because even if Qin Zhenzhen meant nothing to him other than just a friend, with Pei Wenxuan’s personality, there was no way he could just sit back and watch when he knows that Qin Zhenzhen will die in the Palace.

And what did he mean by if she allowed it?

What does she need to allow?

When did Pei Wenxuan need her to allow him to manage his own affairs? Could she even manage them at all?

Li Rong was completely baffled. She didn’t even know how many questions this question should be separated into and where to start asking.

Pei Wenxuan leaned against the wall with his head bowed, silent. He knew what Li Rong was going to ask him. His heart was slightly racing, and he was nerve-racked. He was slightly waiting in anticipation for Li Rong to speak up and ask. After all, he had not found the right opportunity to talk about this for many years.

But he didn’t know if he should answer or not. In it all, saying this after so many years would only seem to deepen the sorrow and regret. Aside from that, there was no use in saying it.

The two were silent for a moment. At last, Li Rong said, “Well, do you mean that if I allow you to do something about it, then you will do something about it, but you won’t if I don’t allow you to do so?”

Pei Wenxuan lowered his head. After a few moments, he softly replied, “Yes.”

“W-why?”

Li Rong slightly stammered. Pei Wenxuan lowered his eyes and slowly said, “There are boundaries between people. Everyone is part of a spider web, a web that connects them to other people. Each person should stay within these limits. If you go beyond that, even just a little, it may cause the other person pain.”

Pei Wenxuan spoke in a subtle manner, but Li Rong understood. She gently leaned against the wall and listened to Pei Wenxuan’s words that were rarely so solemn and serene.

“She has her brother, her husband and herself. She should be responsible for her own life. Every choice she makes will be accompanied by its results. It’s not a good thing for anyone to intervene.”

“I have my responsibilities no matter how they came to be. Now that I have promised to marry you, I will stay within the limits of a husband.”

“Until the end of our agreement?” Li Rong softly chuckled.

Pei Wenxuan was silent. After a few moments, he quietly said: “Perhaps.”

Li Rong listened to Pei Wenxuan as she pulled a circular cushion to the corner where the walls met and sat down with her legs crossed. She fixed up her clothes and emotionally exclaimed: “Pei Wenxuan, you really didn’t live these past fifty years in vain. If you had realized this early on, we might have been able to grow old together in our last life.”

Pei Wenxuan’s eyelashes slightly trembled when he heard this.

He also didn’t know why he felt that Li Rong’s words were like a sharp blade, piercing him in an instant. For a while, he couldn’t tell where this feeling came from. Perhaps it was out of regret, his dissatisfaction with the previous life, or even the unspoken feelings when he was young that lay dormant for many years until a certain moment when the tide turned in the blink of an eye, and it ruthlessly took a bite out of him, tearing him apart and leaving him dripping with blood.

The pain helped calm Pei Wenxuan’s mind. He was used to falling into an extreme state of calm under extreme emotional pressure.

Li Rong fixed the corners of her clothes, unaware of Pei Wenxuan’s feelings. She continued to laugh and say: “Back then, I knew you were someone with a lot of potential and would have had things figured out sooner or later. It is indeed as expected. Now that you have said this, with your current appearance and way of thinking, who knows how many young ladies out there will be attracted to you when you make an appearance.”

“You knew that I would eventually come around?” Pei Wenxuan said coldly. Li Rong waved her fan and replied, “I can tell by looking at people.”

“Then what do you think of me?”

“Now or before?”

“Back then.”

Li Rong seriously thought about it, trying hard to recall the image of Pei Wenxuan from thirty years ago. She slowly said: “You were a very good person back then, but you were stubborn at heart and didn’t think things through.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Back when you promised to take care of Qin Zhenzhen, you believed that a gentleman can never take back his word and must come to others’ aid regardless of his own circumstances.” Li Rong went through her analysis with him as she spoke. “Moreover, you have always believed that the one you like is Qin Zhenzhen. When you met me and suddenly fell under my pomegranate skirt, your heart was torn by this contradiction.^[1] You couldn’t accept it and thought to yourself, how could you be such a man with three hearts and two minds? So I have to say that as a person, there is nothing with your original intentions, but you just didn’t think this matter through.”

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[1] Under the pomegranate skirt — from the idiom: “to grovel at the feet of a pomegranate-colored skirt”, which means to be smitten by a beautiful woman or fallen head over heels for her. This pomegranate-colored skirt was very popular among women in the Tang dynasty.

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Pei Wenxuan listened as Li Rong nonchalantly described everything in the past. He lowered his eyes. Everything in the way Li Rong was evaluating him stung when it reached his ears. However, he understood where this harshness was coming from. It was because what Li Rong said was true.

“At that time,” His voice was steady and devoid of emotion, “You knew I liked you.”

“I’m not stupid.”

Li Rong blew on the green tea leaves of her tea: “How could you be so good to me if you didn’t like me? It was just that you were overly self-conscious back then. You felt that you liked me, but there was a part of you that didn’t dare to say so.”

Pei Wenxuan was silent. Li Rong took a sip of tea: “Why aren’t you saying anything? Am I wrong?”

“What you said isn’t wrong.” Pei Wenxuan laughed. Actually, if these words were spoken back when they had just met, he would find this difficult to even talk about. However, at this moment, as Li Rong was sitting and calmly discussing it with him, he suddenly felt that it didn’t seem to matter much anymore, so he immediately spoke his mind: “Apart from the difficulty of accepting that I might be someone who quickly falls in and out of love, there is actually another reason.”

“Oh?” Li Rong raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t expecting that. Let’s hear it.”

“It was just that if I actually liked you, then I would be bowing my head to the Emperor’s will.”

Li Rong was stunned by these words. Pei Wenxuan let out a low laugh and seemed a bit helpless as he said: “You were used to it as a princess and were probably used to your fate being arranged and decided, but I wasn’t. Back then, I had many plans in life, but suddenly I had Your Highness as a wife. My heart felt very stifled and aggrieved, but I thought you were innocent, so I wanted to treat you well. The imperial edict can control people, but it should not control my heart, so if I acknowledged that I liked you, it would be a form of submission.”

“You were really that rebellious?” Li Rong felt that it was somewhat laughable. When Pei Wenxuan thought about it, he also recalled that he was stubborn in his youth in some ways that he himself couldn’t explain either.

The two were silent for a while. Pei Wenxuan thought for a while and finally couldn’t help but say: “But at that time, I couldn’t see myself clearly. Since you could see it clearly, why didn’t you wait for me?”

If she was willing to wait a little longer, he might have been able to clear everything up in his heart and learn to grow as a person, and they would not have had such an ending in their previous lives.

Li Rong couldn’t help but laugh when she heard this: “What you’re saying sounds ridiculous. I don’t collect broken things, so why should I wait for you?”

“Pei Wenxuan,” Li Rong looked at the reflection of herself in the cup of tea, her voice calm, “Actually, this is something you would not have come around to from beginning to end.”

“In the previous life, it wasn’t that I left in sorrow after you disappointed me and then spent the rest of my life with an eunuch without moving on. Actually, I could have had you, but I chose not to. I chose to seek happiness elsewhere and accompany the person in my heart until the hair on our heads turns white.”

“A woman only hates her rival when she feels that she has no chance of winning when competing for feelings against a good woman with her current self.”

“So she always hopes that the other party is awful and disgusting. It’s her lover who is blind, and one day, her lover will suddenly wake up and find that she is much better and more beautiful, but I don’t need this kind of consolation.”

Li Rong softly smiled.

“I know it’s quite easy for me to beat Qin Zhenzhen. If I wanted you, I wouldn’t even have to do anything, but I didn’t want to.”

Li Rong looked up and saw clouds tinged with the glow of the sunset as far as the eye could see. The evening calls of swallow birds sounded as they took flight. Her heart suddenly felt a bit stifled with words unsaid: “I, Li Rong, am a noble descendant and the Emperor’s kin. My appearance cannot be considered the most beautiful under the skies, but I am also considered to be famous in Huajing. My wealth and influence are not just for show. I am well-versed in literature, etiquette and exceptionally brilliant. I am this kind of woman. You asked me why I didn’t wait for you, but what you should ask is—”

Li Rong finished the tea in her cup in a single gulp: “Why should I wait for you? Granted Pei daren is born handsome,” Li Rong drawled out with a bit of playfulness in her tone, “It’s not as if I’m that enamored with beauty.”

Pei Wenxuan listened to Li Rong’s words, which were calm and open-minded. Even if she was making fun of him and talking about unpleasant things in the past, it was also a rare opportunity for him to open up in such a carefree and relaxed manner.

Pei Wenxuan folded his arms over his chest and listened to what Li Rong said. He looked down at his feet and thought about it for a long time. He couldn’t help but chuckle.

He suddenly felt that he was getting to know Li Rong for the first time.

The Li Rong of today is different from when she was young. She had the tenacity and principles of 20 year old Li Rong, but she has the open-mindness and calmness that 20 year old Li Rong hardly possessed.

In the past, they disagreed with one another and quarreled. He couldn’t hold himself back the moment he saw Su Rongqing by her side.

Now that he put his prejudice aside and looked at it, he had a sense of appreciation and admiration that could not be put to words.

This kind of admiration had nothing to do with love, but it was hard to look away from women like Li Rong in this world.

Seeing that Pei Wenxuan hadn’t responded in a while, Li Rong couldn’t help but think that she might have stabbed Pei Wenxuan’s heart. He has always been petty, and now that he has been stabbed in the heart, he probably will not say anything for a while.

She felt a little helpless and secretly scolded this petty and uptight person to extremes, then she stood up and said, “Do you still want to talk today? I’ll be leaving if you have nothing else to say.”

While Pei Wenxuan was silent, Li Rong went to flip through a book on her own. She sat at the table in the cell and cracked melon seeds as she read the novel.

After some time, she lifted her head and noticed that a roll of paper suddenly appeared in the gap at the corner of the walls of the cell.

The paper was rolled up and tied with a red ribbon. It seemed very polished and beautiful as if it were a gift for someone.

Li Rong was slightly confused. She walked over, then bent over and picked up the roll of paper and saw Pei Wenxuan’s handwriting on it, which read:

To Her Highness the Princess.

Pei Wenxuan’s calligraphy could turn things that have become rotten into magic. With his calligraphy, even ordinary things can possess a bit of elegance.

Li Rong pursed her lip and felt a little amused. She pulled the silk ribbon apart and opened the scroll.

The scroll slowly unfolded, and she saw an 18 year old Li Rong in palace robes with a peony hairpin with her head turned and face tilted with a smile.

This was what her 18 year old self looked like, but that smile did not belong to the 18 year old Li Rong.

Expressively radiant and beautiful in such an open fashion and ever so charming that Li Rong couldn’t tell if she looked like that back then either.

Pei Wenxuan’s words were placed below the painting.

Only the peony is the true beauty of the nation,

Amidst the blooming flowers in the Capital.

Li Rong couldn’t help but laugh when she saw these words.

Pei Wenxuan was standing in front of his desk. He carefully drew out the fine lines of Li Rong’s figure.

In fact, the one thing he had never dared to face in his previous life was that throughout his entire life, he never felt that there was any woman more beautiful than Li Rong.

Only the peony is the true beauty of the nation, and the young woman who possessed the beauty of the peony in his heart was none other than Li Rong.

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The author has something to say:

【Mini Theater】

Asker: “What’s the meaning behind Pei Wenxuan giving Li Rong a painting?”

Li Rong: “It’s a good gift. I want to use this kind of good grace to keep me from quarreling with him and for us to stand on a united front and of course, to not let his head hurt from overthinking things.”

Pei Wenxuan: “…”

Asker: “Pei Wenxuan, don’t be silent. Stand up and speak.”

Pei Wenxuan: “It was a love letter…”

Everyone: “…”

Pei Wenxuan: “Of course, you will have to wait and look back to find my real intentions behind the timing and placement of this love letter.”

Everyone: “Intentions?”

Pei Wenxuan: “It’s not that I don’t want to quarrel with her. I want to get married to her, then quarrel for a lifetime.”

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Personally…

This is going to be my new ramblings section. Welcome, welcome. I will generally talk about characterization, word choice, dialogue and foreshadowing. You may find spoilers tucked away here too. As a disclaimer, these are just my thoughts and opinions.

The revised version of this chapter added a couple points to Pei Wenxuan’s characterization…

Pei Wenxuan does seem more realistic for a young man in feudal society with this added conversation after hearing Li Rong’s analysis. He seems to be a well-learned aristocratic son who lived and breathed by his ideals and honor. Worthy of the idiom: “a scholar can be killed but not be humiliated”, he refused to open his heart and essentially surrender to the Emperor’s will. He felt like he had no choice in the process, and the only thing he could do was to not like the person the Emperor had chosen for him as an act of defiance. It seems consistent with his character: righteous, reserved and perhaps too rigid in the way he abides by a set of principles he laid out for himself. Think chivalrous.

Though, it’s hinted that he’s slowly changing his outlook though, based on how he is in awe of Li Rong’s open-mindedness and self-confidence. (Starting from when Pei Wenxuan turned back and told Li Rong she looked good in that dancer’s outfit…) Ah, character growth. Very exciting.

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