When The War Is Over, Will You Plant A Blossom Tree For Me?Ch44 - A Shred of Light in Dark Days

Zhao Mei and Yang Xun were given their own rooms in Fei Li’s estate, but they spent a majority of their time in Lu Qinyi’s room. Zhao Mei would sternly ‘insist’ on Lu Qinyi’s mealtimes, and Yang Xun would gently coax him from his room on better days to sit in the sunshine. Yang Xun would convince him to bathe, and Zhao Mei would sit afterwards and comb out the tangles in his hair as Lu Qinyi wasn’t in the state to care for such things and had neglected them. On the many days where Lu Qinyi couldn’t face the world, they simply sat in the room with him in silence. There would be days where he would grumble at them to leave him alone, and they would ignore him and stay during those. There would be days he would want to sit closer to them. He would sit quietly with them, and they would stay during those days too. And during the bad nights where he couldn’t or didn’t want to sleep, they would place a light orb in its holder and stay the night with him. Lu Qinyi was gradually improving under these conditions and the companionship brought just as much comfort to Yang Xun and Zhao Mei, who had each experienced their own struggles following the war.

Fei Li would walk by sometimes on his way back from a late night of work and see the light cast through the cracks in the doorway. He would instruct the servants to bring them tea or snacks before retiring to his own side of the estate. He would converse with the two once-second commands as they required something, but he otherwise knew the best thing he could do was keep out of it and out of Lu Qinyi’s line of sight. 1wpYXQ

It still came as a surprise when Lu Qinyi had appeared in the open doorway to Fei Li’s study and glanced around the room silently.

“Yang Ye and Mei Mei.” He asked in a low tone without even looking in Fei Li’s direction. It didn’t seem at all like Lu Qinyi had wanted to talk to him, but there wasn’t anyone else to ask.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Out searching.”

This wasn’t unusual, the two had started going out occasionally as Lu Qinyi was slowly improving, so Lu Qinyi simply turned to leave. i4qVRt

“You don’t wish to know what happened to their families?” Fei Li found himself asking before he could think better of it.

“If they’re out searching, then their families are missing. What more is there to know?” Lu Qinyi replied dully but he didn’t keep walking out, leaning back against the frame of the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest.

Seeing as Lu Qinyi had paused, Fei Li began to explain. What was he trying to do? Offer Lu Qinyi some peace of mind by being up to date on the situation? Perhaps he couldn’t help it since it was too rare for Lu Qinyi to tolerate his existence. “Zhao Mei’s family went into hiding to escape being implicated. Yang Xun’s lover-”

“Xu Jialee.” Lu Qinyi cut in to correct.

“…Miss Xu, and her family left the capital to avoid the chaos following the war. Neither has been heard from so far.”

“Mm.” Lu Qinyi frowned slightly. “I suppose we’re all missing loved ones then. Except you of course,” Lu Qinyi stated coldly before he continued from the room.

Fei Li watched him leave silently. His fist slowly clenched and he heaved a heavy sigh, staring at nothing in particular as he sat alone.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Yang Xun shot him a look of displeasure. “It wasn’t enough to cheat us and take our people’s independence, now you ask for advice from us about it?”

“Yang Xun makes a good point. Asking those you defeated for advice, isn’t that just adding frost to the snow? You’re rather arrogant, General Fei.” Zhao Mei drawled, her gaze icy. ghMrdf

Fei Li had already been expecting such responses, “I understand that it is disrespectful to be asking such a question of you both, however, it’s for the benefit of your people as much as it is for mine. The South is now under the North’s reign, we live beneath the same Emperor now. To peacefully exist as one would be best for all. I have already been pressed to use more forceful methods to settle the unrest but I am resistant to using them. I’ve already tried many things but the results have been negligible.”

Yang Xun frowned.

Zhao Mei seemed to think over his words before she sat back a little. “You could always compensate them financially.”

Yang Xun looked at her in disbelief. “Zhao Mei… how would money help? Are you saying you would embrace the North’s rule.. For money?” vIuZes

“No, but I’d like the money anyway. How should I know what would help? I’ve never liked people and I certainly don’t like appeasing them,” Zhao Mei replied uncaringly.

Yang Xun pinched his brows before sitting back, thinking about it long and hard. With Yang Xun’s immensely loyal and patriotic nature, such a situation had to be challenging for him. On one hand, he would be helping the very man responsible for his country’s downfall and the suffering he and those he cared for had experienced. The one responsible for the loss of the lives of his fellow soldiers, ones he had lived and laughed beside, spending his days understanding each and every one of them. On the other hand, nothing could be done now that would change the defeat and he would be helping his people to live better in this new reality.

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Zhao Mei observed silently, largely apathetic to it all, but admittedly mildly curious to see what Yang Xun would say, if anything.

Finally, Yang Xun spoke again. “Don’t get rid of the holidays and traditions.” TBGDYt

Fei Li raised an eyebrow so Yang Xun continued. “Change the name, the meaning, whatever. Just keep them. It’s something without consequence that is familiar, they bring comfort and happiness. We’re very attached to them, so it will ease the displeasure.”

Fei Li nodded and took notes.

Yang Xun thought again. “Let it still be called the South, and let them still be called Southerners.”

Fei Li opened his mouth to object but Yang Xun raised a hand and gave him a flat look. “Listen first General Fei, you asked for my advice.” 4IsGke

Audacious words but he has a point. Fei Li gestured with his hand for Yang Xun to continue.

“I’m aware that the names have already technically been changed in accordance with the new state. And I know it will make it harder to form a unified identity, but the first priority is to have them accept being under a new rule. The less that changes for the common people, the more they can continue their lives as they were living them and the less they will care about who is ruling. The less losing their independence will irritate them, the less they’ll be dissatisfied and the faster they’ll adjust. They won’t change mentality overnight and the faster you try to force it, the more resistance you’ll breed. You can work on having the North and South view themselves as a collective in time. Even if it’s just unofficially, just let the names stick. It’s not like the North isn’t still in the North and the South isn’t still in the South anyway.”

Fei Li tapped at his brush, gazing at the paper beneath his hand before he eventually nodded and made another note. “I will see what I can do.”

They were interrupted before the conversation could go any further. bwB1LN

“Mei Mei…”

It had been spoken softly. They hadn’t even heard him approach. Yet at the sound of his voice, they all instantly quietened and looked over.

“General Lu?” Zhao Mei responded, rising from where she had been sitting to walk over to the door where Lu Qinyi stood waiting. He seemed resistant to entering the study.

“Not a general.” He corrected her flatly. CJWerV

“Right…” She cleared her throat to get over how weird and unfamiliar her next words felt. “Lu Qinyi.”

Lu Qinyi didn’t look pleased, shaking his head. “Too formal.”

She frowned faintly. “…Qinyi.”

He nodded in satisfaction before he reached into his sleeve. He held out his hand to Zhao Mei, Lu Yanlin’s two hairpins resting on his open palm. “Lately I’ve been thinking that you should keep one. Some days I think she might have loved you more than me. I think it’s only right for you to have one of them.” K4AdUn

Zhao Mei seemed stunned. It took a long time for her to slowly reach out, very carefully picking up the jade hairpin. Zhao Mei also wore similar hairpins. In fact, one of her hairpins was already a gift from her dear friend Lu Yanlin. Zhao Mei stared down at the cold white jade, its gentle swirlings of gold laid along its edge in a beautiful, soft pattern. Zhao Mei’s head lowered and she cradled the pin to her chest like something far more precious than a simple hairpin. “…Thank you.” She said softly.

Lu Qinyi tucked the remaining golden hairpin away before he asked quietly “Do you want to wear it?”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Zhao Mei looked at the pin held close to her before she nodded just slightly, handing it back to him. Lu Qinyi took it before removing the wooden one already holding her hair up. Zhao Mei kept her head lowered as he gently drew her hair up again, neatly gathering it before sliding in Yanlin’s hairpin to fix it in place. When he stepped back again, Zhao Mei slowly lifted her hand to touch the cold jade one more time. She closed her eyes as fresh pain swelled in her chest and her hand dropped again. Lu Qinyi’s eyes echoed the same pain and he took her hand in his to squeeze briefly. He then left just as quietly as he had come while Yang Xun walked over to gently murmur to Zhao Mei.

Author’s Notes: 8ZIgc9

I’m going on a big trip overseas for a few weeks, so I’m actually uploading this from the airport. Enjoy!

It was also my birthday recently so between getting ready for the trip and birthday things, its been very busy. But, as a celebration, I’m planning on uploading two chapters in one go next. It will also help balance out next chapter as it has some angst heavy content, but the chapter after that is a lot softer. Lu Qinyi is now improving but it won’t be smooth so be prepared!

Also, I didn’t want to change the names of the South and North, so yes, I did literally write a reason to not change it into the story. Lazy author is lazy and likes consistency~

Many thanks as always to the very sweet readers who leave me lovely comments, and to our beloved Rae who has been working very hard to get these proof read as quickly as she can. We appreciate you Rae! GMdUVc