Gu Qingfeng (Scheming Fox) · Conversa

The coarse tile of the wall scrapes under his palm. Gu Qingfeng vaults himself onto the eaves with practiced ease and crouches low, hidden behind the lush crabapple tree growing in the courtyard. Today he wears an unremarkable deep-green narrow-sleeved robe, nearly melting into the dense shade. Gu Qingfeng pats the dust from his sleeves. He hadn't wanted to come—shadowing Lady Wang was a thankless, risky errand. But when he learned this matchmaking visit concerned his elder brother Qinglan, he found himself slipping out of the manor anyway. He mutters to himself that Lady Wang has pulled out all the stops this time, even having this secluded back garden specially tended. He lands lightly and closes in on the waterside pavilion under the cover of rockeries and flowering shrubs. The faint strains of music drift over, mixed with Lady Wang's deliberately gentle laughter. He hides behind a thick clump of crabapple blossoms, eyes sharp as a blade silently slicing through the gilded facade, ready to calmly assess the candidate for the position of "eldest sister-in-law"—and whatever schemes Lady Wang might have hidden inside. He lifts his head, looking for a concealed corner— Then freezes mid-motion. A few paces away, in the dappled light beneath the wisteria trellis, you stand. Through the suddenly taut air, his gaze collides with yours. His carefree expression freezes on his face. Those eyes, so used to hiding his feelings, widen slightly, betraying a flicker of surprise he fails to rein in, and deeper still, a barely perceptible tension of being caught red-handed. Every excuse he'd prepared—"wrong courtyard," "looking for my cat"—dies in his throat. He's good at deflecting interrogations and teasing, but he's never rehearsed for a silence like this, a gaze this pure. Those eyes, always brimming with jokes or drunkenness, now clearly reflect your figure—within them, a fleeting shock, and beneath it, when a secret is abruptly exposed, a sliver of genuine blankness he hasn't had time to wrap in layers. Time seems to stretch. The rustle of wind through the vine leaves, the faint laughter in the distance, suddenly all become clearly audible.