Ah, the Fourth Miss is Truly Thankful

When Yujia arrived at Lingxin and went in the direction of where her master could be, in one of the residences of Lingxin, she was pleasantly surprised to find up, considering that it was still somewhat early in the morning. The moment her master saw him, he gave her not the warm welcome she expected, but rather quite a large scowl. 

"So, you ungrateful brat— finally decide to visit me now?" He lounged against his chair, cracking a sunflower seed between his teeth. 

Yujia smiled awkwardly and replied, "Master, it's not that disciple is unwilling to visit you. It's just that life has really been busy."

"Peh, excuses." He spat the shell of a seed out, then grabbed another from his hand. "What are you here for today?"

Yujia paused. "Well, it seems to be that I can't return to my home anymore… so I was wondering if I could—"

Halfway through her speech, he cut in, "You what?" He leaned forward, focusing his attention on her. "Say that again?"

"Well, it seems that I can't return home since I'm… running away… and if I don't, then I'm going to get married to an old man who's almost your age…" 

Yuija then went on to tell him her entire story under his command to do so. At the end, her master was sitting completely straight. He smacked his hand loudly against the table a moment later. 

"Nonsense!" he declared, "Utter nonsense! How dare that pathetic family bully my precious disciple? You should've left earlier! Or fought back!" 

"Well, I'm here now, so—"

"Want me to go back to destroy those trash families? I have connections that could flatten both the Yangs and Yus in one swipe! Then, they'll get to see what the consequences are for trying to play games with my disciple!"

"Ah, Master, that's really not necessary."

"Who do they think you are? Who do they think I am? Am I someone who others can threaten the direct disciple of? No!"

"Ah, Master, they don't really know about my connection to you."

"What? Why? I can bet if you told them about me, then all of them would be trembling at your feet instead of having you here, kneeling in front of me right now! Why haven't you told them earlier? You could've canceled that useless marriage earlier too without even wasting a single tael. Besides, you could've asked me for the taels earlier too! Five hundred is nothing to me! Why work so hard to get them?"

"Ah Master, this disciple is truly grateful for your offers, but really, it's unnecessary to cause so much conflict. All that really matters is that the past is the past, and there's nothing that can be done about it…"

Her master wrinkled his nose. "Why, you sound even older than me. When did you become so philosophical? Don't be sprouting that rubbish in front of me right now; I'm not in the mood to hear it. My day has been bad enough as is before, with that other little brat acting up too— why is it that both of you are acting up on the same day?"

"Oh, Senior Brother?" Yuija thought about Yunhe. It had been a while since she talked to him too. What could possibly be wrong with him? From what she knew, he seemed like a fairly unproblematic person. The most issues he ever had was minor animosity towards a few individuals, but nothing too serious. 

"Kid, I'm really not in the mood to talk about him. It's so early in the morning and I already have two headaches. This reminds me why I don't like to wake up early," her master lamented.

It seemed like her master really was in a moody temperament today. He seemed more easily irritated than usual, his responses as a result becoming more vehement as well. Now really didn't seem like the time to have deep conversations with him, since he was resting in such a shallow manner in his anger. 

"Do you know where I can find Senior Brother?" Yujia asked. Second best option if she wanted to talk things out with someone, she supposed, especially since she did want to know what had been up with him lately, and what exactly it was that he said to their master to make him into such a bad mood. 

"Probably sulking around somewhere near here."

"Alright." Yujia stood up, dusted off her knees, and bowed to her master. "Thank you to Master for talking with me this morning."

Seeing her respectful attitude, her master cracked a smile. "Sure, sure. Now go chase after him, tell me what he's been up to and if he's come to his senses yet."

Yujia was about turn around to leave, but then she remembered what she came here for. "So, Master, is it alright if I stay—"

"Of course!" He nodded and waved his hand. "What sort of Master would I be if I didn't even let my disciple stay at my school at times of need? I'll have a residence prepared for you."

Yujia smiled again, this time with a warmer one. It was a comforting feeling to see that despite the fact that she temporarily lost her old home, at least she still had Lingxin to go to.

She bowed to her master again, and with a few extra words of gratitude, she spun around and went to look for Ye Yunhe. 

At first, Yujia headed to the Lingxin Pavilion just to see if he was there. To her surprise, he wasn't. She checked in the Lingxin library as well, but found that there was no sign of Yunhe's presence either. Following those two locations, Yujia truly had no idea where Yunhe could be. If she really wanted to find him, she would have to look through the rest of the academy, which was surely an arduous task. Plus, if he happened to return to his own private residence, Yujia couldn't barge into his courtyard either. 

This left Yujia to simply wander through some of the gardens in Lingxin, both as a way to find Yunhe if he happened to be walking on the same path as her, and as to collect her thoughts. 

It truly was a little bit surreal to think that her marriage could've been very well progressing at this moment. They could've been dressing her up in those red robes right now, but here she was, walking in Lingxin without too many worries. 

She wondered if people noticed her disappearance yet. She wondered if the household had begun to panic, and if they sent people to look for her. She wondered what Hui'er might think once she heard the news that Yujia had ran away. 

Oh well. 

These things were nothing more than pure speculations in her head. A pity that she missed the party and wouldn't be able to see all the drama unfold in person. But at the same time, it really wasn't something to be missed either. 

The moment Yujia set these thoughts aside in her head, she saw Yunhe sitting on a boulder by the side of the path she walked on. It was framed by the shadow of a tree looming over it. He sat with his face buried in his hands silently, almost as if he was a statue sculpted with the rock. 

Yujia paused in her steps, calling out tentatively, "Senior Brother?"

Abruptly, Yunhe flinched as he looked up, as if he didn't even hear her footsteps approaching him. His eyes widened when he saw her. "Junior— Junior Sister. It's been a while. I didn't expect you today."

Yujia noticed that his eyes were tinted with red at the edges. 

"I didn't expect to see you here either, Senior Brother." Yujia sat down at another boulder, which was opposite of him and across the path. She hesitated again before asking with careful words, "Is… something wrong? I talked to Master and heard from him that there seemed to be a disagreement between you two? Or something else?"

Yunhe froze. He glanced away before glancing back up at her, completely wordless. His lips parted as if he was trying to think of what exactly he was going to say, but no words came out either. Finally, after a long moment of inner debate, he began. 

"Junior Sister, do you know the feeling of loving someone and knowing that you can never be with them?"