"Fourth Miss." Lu Shuo called softly. "Madam summoned me earlier, so I'm a bit late."
Helan Pei nodded in understanding.
He stood by her desk, his fingertips unconsciously tightening. "Madam told me that in a few days, I'll be going to the Imperial Academy."
Helan Pei already knew about this.
After three years of studying together, she knew that although Lu Shuo wasn't exceptionally gifted, he wasn't dull either. Moreover, he was quiet and diligent, always completing Sir Jiang's assignments earnestly, never slacking off like the Second and Third Young Masters. Even Sir Jiang had praised him many times for his hard work.
Though he started his education late, hard work could make up for lack of talent. He might not be able to catch up with peers his age in the capital, but Helan Zong had reviewed his assignments several times and said he was already much better than others his age in ordinary county schools.
Sir Jiang, after all, wasn't a teacher specialized in scripture and governance. If Lu Shuo stayed in the mansion, he would make little progress. The Imperial Academy was where he should go—to see a wider world, read more books, and walk a brighter path.
["This is a good thing. Once you go to the Imperial Academy, you will surely achieve success in your studies."]
The sound of wind rustling leaves came from outside the window. Lu Shuo looked at the words Helan Pei had written for him and blinked slowly.
Every morning after breakfast, they would meet here, bathed in the morning light, quietly reading their own books. He had often secretly watched her back through the bookshelf, loving the faint sheen of her hair in the sunlight.
During breaks, they would sit around the tea stove with Sir Jiang, eating snacks and chatting. If she was in a good mood that day, she would join their conversation with paper and brush; if she wasn't feeling up to it, she would lazily rest her head on the table, her eyes darting between the two of them.
When she wanted to ask something, she would keep signaling them with her eyes, making them guess her thoughts. If they guessed correctly, she would smile with satisfaction; if not, she would pout, sigh, and write it out.
Every few days, she would invite him to play together—sometimes Chupu, sometimes feeding the fish, sometimes planting flowers. And whenever Helan Chang and Helan Rong brought back something new from outside, she would study and appraise it with Lu Shuo.
He seemed to have gotten used to spending every day with her.
She was completely different from the friends he had in the countryside—she didn't bring him exciting thrills or rowdy fun. Most of the time, she was quiet, except for those eyes that seemed to hold a thousand words, waiting for him to decipher.
Suddenly, a familiar fear crept over him again. The last time he felt this way was when he had left his hometown to come to the capital with the Duke of Xuan.
Now, he was about to set off for another new place.
Although over the years, through his exposure to the sons of the Duke Mansion, he wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the Imperial Academy, he had never experienced it firsthand. He didn't know what he would encounter there, and his heart was inevitably uneasy.
"Once I enter the Imperial Academy, I'll only be able to come back once every ten days," Lu Shuo said, biting his lip, his voice low.
—And then I won't be able to come and study and play with you every day.
Helan Pei looked at him quietly.
Lu Shuo didn't know what expression he wore. He tried to appear indifferent, but the tips of his ears burned uncontrollably.
He wondered if she had been looking at him for so long because she had noticed his melancholy and reluctance.
Helan Pei's fingers moved slightly. She lowered her head, dipped her brush in ink, and wrote again: ["It's fine. I'll wait for you and Second and Third Brothers to come back. If anything interesting happens outside, remember to tell me when you return."]
Lu Shuo pressed his lips together.
Wait for him and the Second and Third Young Masters... that was right—of course she would wait for them too.
"Okay." Lu Shuo took a deep breath and forced a smile. "If anything interesting really happens, I'll definitely tell you, Miss, as long as you don't find me annoying."
Helan Pei smiled.
"Madam said you have some of the Eldest Young Master's old class notes. Do you still need them? If not, could you pass them on to me?" Lu Shuo finally got to the point.
Helan Pei blinked, opened her mouth silently as if hesitating, then got up and walked toward the bookshelf.
The Eldest Young Master had long since graduated from the Imperial Academy, so his notes were just lying around. Since the Second and Third Young Masters weren't interested, Helan Pei had taken them for herself.
She had flipped through those notes, imagining what classes were like at the Imperial Academy, and sometimes even asked Sir Jiang and the Eldest Young Master about confusing parts.
That was all in the past. She had already finished reading them and no longer needed them much. She pulled them out from the bottom of the bookshelf and handed them to Lu Shuo.
Lu Shuo took them and thanked her.
The notes were a bit old, with yellowed and curled corners. Lu Shuo smoothed them out and casually opened a page to see what the Eldest Young Master had written.
Then he saw two completely different handwriting styles.
One was in black ink, with bold and vigorous strokes, covering most of the page. The other was in red ink, with occasional circles, underlines, and notes, small and delicate, appearing only in the margins and blank spaces.
Lu Shuo was stunned. He looked at Helan Pei beside him.
Was this... her handwriting?
Helan Pei smiled sheepishly, went back to her desk, and wrote: ["I didn't think I'd be giving this to someone else before, so I made a lot of annotations. They might look a bit messy. Please bear with it."]
Lu Shuo quickly said, "No, no, it's fine. Reading one set of notes and gaining two sets of knowledge—I'm the one who benefits."
He tightly gripped the pages, glancing quickly at the small red annotations, and tried hard to suppress the smile that tugged at his lips.
"Then... I'll go read now," Lu Shuo said.
Helan Pei nodded.
The two didn't say anything more and began studying at their own desks.
When Sir Jiang wasn't around, this was how they usually spent their time.
They didn't deliberately chat, nor did they isolate themselves. If one's inkstone ran dry and needed water, they would fill the other's as well. If one got tired studying and accidentally yawned, turning to look at the other, the other wouldn't look up to tease but would continue reading—though the corners of their mouth would be curved.
That was the tacit understanding they had developed over three years of studying together.
Lu Shuo looked at the notes bearing Helan Pei's handwriting and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
His fingers slowly traced over the small characters. The red color made his chest feel warm.