Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 117167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
“I see what you mean,” Rei said, as he sat on the opposite side of the table from the vampire. “The designer was going for something aesthetically different from the other courtyard and more modern. Unfortunately, the result feels very cold and distant. It’s pleasing to the eye, but it doesn’t beckon you to step inside and meditate.”
“Precisely! You’ve put into words the feeling I’ve been experiencing.” Xiao Dan carefully poured tea into one cup and then the other. He pushed one over to Rei and smiled. “Yichen commented that you are particularly fond of this plum tea that Chen has mixed.”
“Thank you.” Rei could only grin at his cup lightly held between both hands for a moment. Such thoughtfulness. Yes, maybe Xiao Dan did want something, but the vampire was always this kind and thoughtful of others. Besides, anything he wanted, it would be for the good of his clan. Not something for himself.
“Do you have any suggestions for how we might improve this area?”
Rei chewed on his bottom lip, his eyes darting over the area that was half in shadow and half in sun. “Well…” he drawled and stopped.
“Please don’t hold back out of concern for my feelings. The space is wasted if no one comes to enjoy it.”
“My first thought is that the other courtyard used all native plants, so this one should use plants native to your home in Luoyang. Remove the stones and put in an actual stream to create a flow of energy.” Putting his cup on the table, Rei leaped to his feet and moved across the courtyard and motioned to a central spot. “Your centerpiece placed to the north here should be a stone statue. A guardian for the clan and house. All the plants should move out from here.”
Now that he was talking, he couldn’t hold it in as he gestured to one spot after another, listing possible plants and their arrangement. He looked up to find Xiao Dan furiously taking notes and sketching in his notebook.
“What you’ve described sounds very lush and rejuvenating,” Xiao Dan murmured.
“A secret oasis for meditation.”
“Mn. Definitely.”
Rei slowly walked to the table, trying not to twist his fingers together. “But you don’t think it’s too much? I might have gone overboard. We wouldn’t need to scrap everything here.”
“Oh, no! This is a much better idea. This renovation is perfect for the summer and fall season. Something to keep us busy…”
While we wait to figure out how to handle the fae problem.
Xiao Dan didn’t actually say the words, but Rei could feel them hanging heavy in the air between them.
He sipped his tea and stared out at the courtyard, the light bouncing off the white stones as a heavy silence settled between them. Xiao Dan wanted to say something. Lines of concentration cut between his brows and his lips were pressed thin. The vampire kept his eyes locked on his teacup. Rei could hear the wheels turning in his head as he searched for a good way to say what was bothering him.
“Yiyi told me that one of his first memories of your clan is of you,” Rei ventured.
Xiao Dan’s head snapped up, and the lines that had marred his handsome face disappeared in an instant. “He did?”
Rei nodded. With the tips of his fingers, he turned his empty cup while pulling up the memory of Yichen’s stories. “He said he arrived that first day in a carriage accompanied by more than two dozen soldiers. His father had told him that the people he would live with would hate him. That he was their enemy, and he’d always be alone, but he could not break because he was the prince of the Wu Kingdom.”
“I…I didn’t know his father had said that to him.”
After taking a sip of his tea, Rei continued, “But as he stepped down from the carriage, he saw you standing in the open doorway with a cat under one arm and one of the younger disciples slung over your shoulder, their feet kicking in the air while they giggled. You smiled at him like you were genuinely happy to see him. You handed Yiyi the cat and tickled the disciple before sending him off to pick plums. Yiyi said his first thought was begging his ancestors, ‘Please let this be real.’ And it was.”
Xiao Dan stared out at the rock garden and swallowed hard once. A light breeze cut through the courtyard and moved some hair across his forehead. “Shifu didn’t hide that the emperor ordered wu-di to us. However, he was adamant that Yichen be treated no differently than any other disciple. He wasn’t shown any favoritism because he was a prince, nor was he under any kind of suspicion because of questions about his father’s loyalty. It wasn’t difficult to see that he regarded himself as an outsider. I think that is why Chen took him under his wing. Chen also struggled under the weight of a distant father’s expectations.”