This year's Flower Appreciation Banquet was hosted by the Prime Minister's Mansion. Though called a flower appreciation banquet, its true purpose was to give unmarried young gentlemen and ladies a chance to look at one another. Although Mo Wushuang was still young, she had already reached the age of fifteen. In the Dayu Dynasty, girls reached womanhood at sixteen, so it was time to start looking for a match in advance. Meanwhile, the Heir Apparent Mo Liufang, along with the two concubine-born twin brothers Mo Liuyuan and Mo Liujin, were all the same age—right at eighteen, and the time for them to find wives as well. Consequently, Princess Consort Chen Siyu was exceptionally busy during this period. As soon as she entered the banquet, she busied herself exchanging pleasantries and information with the noble ladies from various households, leaving her with no attention to spare for Mo Wushuang and Chu Qingmeng.
The banqueting seating was separated by gender. After Mo Wushuang pulled Chu Qingmeng down to sit with her, she looked up and saw all three of her brothers seated across the way. Her eldest and third brothers' gazes, however, were fixed squarely on Sister Qingmeng beside her. Unable to help herself, she covered her mouth with a hand and giggled, fully understanding her brothers' thoughts in her heart. When she looked at Chu Qingmeng instead, the latter was simply busy stealthily tasting the dishes on the table, completely oblivious to them! Mo Wushuang sighed inwardly; she truly hoped Sister Qingmeng would become her sister-in-law, but for now, it seemed Sister Qingmeng had no such intentions yet.
About an hour into the banquet, guests began leaving their seats one after another to stroll around. Once again, the men and women were separated. The men gathered in a pavilion within the peach grove at the front, discussing this year's imperial examination questions, poetry, and prose. The women, meanwhile, were in the peach grove at the back. This area was much more spacious; besides a pavilion, there were winding streams crossed by small bridges, and a pond where a dozen or so red koi carp swam. A quiet path along the bank led back to the front peach grove. The breathtaking sight of full-bloom peach blossoms left Chu Qingmeng somewhat lost in thought. Just as she paused in her steps, she heard the shouts of the crowd.
Chu Qingmeng snapped back to reality with a start, only to discover that Mo Wushuang was nowhere to be seen beside her. When Chunhe let out a cry of alarm, Chu Qingmeng realized that Mo Wushuang had actually fallen into the pond! Another young woman beside her was also crying out for help. Chu Qingmeng leaped straight off the stone bridge and swam toward them. Yet the moment she jumped into the pond, an inadvertent glance caught sight of a man diving in from the front, causing alarm bells to ring loudly in her heart! She shouted in stern anger, "Young master! Halt! This is no place for you!"
Yet the man acted as though he hadn't heard a thing and kept swimming toward them. By this time, Chu Qingmeng had already grabbed Mo Wushuang. Reaching out to pull the other girl behind her as well, she issued another sharp reprimand, "That young lord there! I ask you to halt! If you take another step forward, you will ruin the reputations of two young ladies! Which official's household does your esteemed family belong to? Why do you refuse to stop despite my repeated warnings?!"
With that, Chu Qingmeng had already hauled the two of them to the bank. The maidservants from both households hurried forward to drape cloaks over their respective mistresses to shield them from view, while Chunhe squeezed through the crowd to get a cloak for Chu Qingmeng. But Chu Qingmeng had no mind for such things right now; keeping Mo Wushuang safely behind her, she watched the man in the water with high vigilance. Following her second warning, the man's face flushed bright red, and he halted in the water, offering a weak and unconvincing excuse, "I was merely anxious to save someone, and gave no thought to anything else."
Chu Qingmeng narrowed her eyes, scoffed inwardly, but kept her expression neutral. "Then I must ask the young master to return. Both have already been rescued by yours truly, and there is no need to trouble the young master here!" With those words, she grabbed Mo Wushuang and hurried away. The man swam back with a red face. Meanwhile, amidst the crowd, a young woman in pinkish-blue attire stamped her feet in bitter resentment, glaring hatefully at Chu Qingmeng's retreating back. She cursed inwardly, Where did this little bitch come from, ruining her entire plan?! If not for her, by now it should have been her own elder brother holding the eldest young lady of the Prime Minister's Mansion ashore! By then, whether she wanted to marry him or not, she would have had no choice! Blame that idiot Lin Wei for messing it up—she was supposed to push her elder sister Lin Yue into the lake, so how on earth did she end up pushing Mo Wushuang in as well? Truly an utter fool!
As for Lin Yue, once she was pulled ashore and saw the man who had been halted by Chu Qingmeng, she understood exactly what was going on. As the legitimate eldest daughter of the Prime Minister's Mansion, if she couldn't even see through such dirty inner-courtyard schemes, she would have lived these past dozen years in vain. Having figured it out, she hurried back to her courtyard, changed into a clean set of clothes, and sent a servant to report the matter to her mother.
By this time, Mo Wushuang, having been rescued by Chu Qingmeng, had also changed into dry clothes. The two of them climbed straight into a carriage and left the Prime Minister's Mansion, leaving Chunhe behind to inform the Princess Consort of what had just transpired.
Upon returning to the Prince's Mansion, Chu Qingmeng suddenly felt all her strength drain away. The moment she stepped into Mo Wushuang's Qingmei Garden, her legs turned to jelly and she sank straight to her knees. The attendants cried out in panic and hurried to lift Chu Qingmeng up, carrying her back to Cuizhu Courtyard to rest. Before long, Chu Qingmeng developed a high fever, and Mo Wushuang hastily fetched the Mansion Physician to check her pulse.
Through the hazy fog of her high fever, Chu Qingmeng saw a figure burst through the doorway. Bathed in the rays of the setting sun, the person's features were indistinct, yet she could make out a smudge of dirt staining his light cyan robe. He looked like an immortal from the heavens who had fallen into the mortal realm—a sight deeply unsettling to Chu Qingmeng, who suffered from a mild case of perfectionism. She wanted to reach out and flick the stain off his clothes, but her whole body lacked any strength. Just as her eyelids grew heavy and closed, a single thought remained in her heart: she still needed to flick away that smudge of dirt...