Power Up Artist Yang - Chapter 347

When Zixu pulled away, he kept his eyes on her face. His lips parted softly, as if he wanted to speak, but it seemed like words were caught in his throat. Zixu, the Yu Zixu that was usually unparalleled in eloquence, was at a loss for words.

The corner of Yujia’s lips turned upwards. She took both of his hands, looking down and murmuring, “I didn’t expect what to happen to happen. I tried to send you more letters, but the soldiers didn’t let me. I apologize for worrying you.”

“There’s no reason for why you should be sorry.” His hands gave hers a squeeze. “That was out of your control. You did nothing wrong.”

“But still,” she replied, looking up, “you must’ve been so worried.”

“Of course. When I heard the news, and when I stopped receiving letters…” Zixu’s voice trailed off with a slight tremble. Then, he shook his head, putting a smile on. “All of that was the past. It doesn’t matter now. As long as you’re safe and back.”

“I’m more than glad to be back too. All that carriage riding—”

He laughed at this. Yujia blinked, then grinned. She missed hearing his laugh.

Then, her eyes lit up. “So much has happened on the trip that I wanted to tell you about! Do you want to take a walk and maybe have some tea?”

He was about to agree for a second, but then he seemed to change his mind. Zixu glanced up at the sky, going, “It’s late and you just came back from such a long trip. You should rest, above all. How about tomorrow?”

“Ah,” Yujia’s expression fell for a second, but at the sound of tomorrow, she nodded. “Tomorrow sounds good.”

She was so excited to see Zixu again that she completely forgot about how exhausted she was. Right now, with his reminder, a hot bath and a comfy bed sounded heavenly.

“Then,” he smiled with a tilt of his head, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Withdrawing her hand, Yujia waved and replied, “Alright, tomorrow.”

Zixu was about to leave, already turning to walk the opposite direction, yet that was when Yujia recalled something important. She reached into her pockets, pulling out a small stack of tied papers. Running after him, she caught up to him with a tug on his sleeve. Zixu turned, eyebrows raised.

“I—” Yujia gave him the stack, “I wrote these on my way back for all the letters I could not write you. Read it when you get home. And don’t judge my handwriting; I had to write them on a bumpy carriage.”

“I said to read it when you get home,” she sputtered.

“Ah, but I can’t wait to see what they say,” he responded with a slight smile.

Yujia crossed her arms. “I just know that if you were going to read it right now, you would read it out loud, and that’s embarrassing to hear my chaotic thoughts coming from your mouth, alright?”

“Fine, fine.” He laughed and slipped the folded letter back into the stack. “I’ll have fun reading later.” He paused for a moment. “And this is for you.”

Out of his sleeve, he pulled out a hairpin, carved from wood and with pink gemstones arranged into delicate flowers hanging from it. It took Yujia a second to recognize it: the hairpin was from way back, during her time shopping with Zixu in the marketplace. She saw it back then, thought it was pretty, but didn’t want to buy it to inconvenience Zixu from buying her yet another item for her.

“You ended up buying it?” a soft laugh slipped past her.

“Of course. Back then, I was shopping for you, after all.” A little bit sheepish, he nudged it in her direction. “I wanted to give it to you earlier, but I never found the right chance. When I heard the news, I was worried I would never see you again. Except I’m glad that I have the opportunity to give it to you now.”

She took it, her fingers running against its edge and marveling at the craftsmanship. It was this delicate work that caught her attention in the marketplace in the first place. Reaching up in her hair, she pulled out the ordinary hairpin she already wore in an attempt to replace it with this one, but with two hairpins in her hand and no mirror, she ended up fumbling with her hand and messing up.

“Ah.” Yujia let her hand drop, giving Zixu a hesitant grin. “I don’t think it’ll match my look today either— all these robes are so worn out from traveling— but I’ll put it on when I get back. I love it.”

“Here, let me.” Zixu reached forward, his fingers brushing faintly against hers as he reached for the hairpin.

Yujia relented, giving it to him. She spun around, nervously glancing up before realizing, obviously, she could not look at Zixu while he threaded the pin through her hair.

He didn’t say anything, only brushing two strands of her hair back, braiding them one by one, lastly securing them with a pin. Making sure that he wouldn’t pull harshly on any strands, his movements were so gentle that she could hardly feel a thing, only the light sensation of his touch going through her hair. When he was finished, he stepped back.

Yujia spun back around. Her hands raised to her head, she felt the simple hairstyle and beamed. “How does it look?”

“A bit lopsided. I have too little experience with this,” Zixu sighed.

“Really?”

“But you,” he paused, looking down, then continued, “you look pretty.” He then muttered something else that Yujia couldn’t quite hear.

“Sorry, what was that?” Eyebrows raised, Yujia stepped forward, tilting her head and leaning to the side to look at his face, shifted away. Was that a slightly flushed complexion she caught on his expression?

Zixu covered part of his face. “It was nothing.”

“No, what was it?” she urged him to continue.

“I said nothing,” he insisted.

“Is that so? Really?”

“Ah, fine.” Putting down his hand, Zixu looked her in the eye. As serious as if he was delivering grave news, he informed, “I said you always do. You always look pretty.”

His expression was so somber when he spoke those words that Yujia could not help laughing. Yet it was her turn to be flushed.

“When did you become this smooth?” she covered her mouth to cover her laugh. “I was only gone for two months, and you—”

“I haven’t changed.” Zixu straightened himself again. “I’m the same as I was two months ago. I’ve done nothing but wait for you since then.”

“And I the same.” A sigh came along with Yujia’s smile. “Nothing’s better than being home.”

“So our tour-the-world trip is canceled?” Zixu raised a brow.

Yujia paused for a second. That wasn’t what she intended. She remembered Zixu’s promise with her to go exploring all the sights the world had to offer. Despite what happened on this trip, she still wanted to do that in the future.

That was when she thought of her response.

“The trip is still on. Home is where the people I love are, no?”