Chapter 134 - 127: Drawn Out_2
Between December and February, one simply cannot go, as the mountains are too cold for her frail body to withstand.
So, the best time to visit Cave Sky Pool is from early March to the end of April, and from early July to the end of August, when the climate is suitable. Although the weather gets a bit cold in late October, it’s still somewhat manageable.
But at the end of this April, her own frail body wasn’t up to it, and from July to August, the house was too chaotic, without a chance to find an excuse to be away for two days. A major event had recently happened at home, leaving no room to consider such a trip.
After such delays, it had come to this, and now she could only wait until next year.
Another thing was that the round trip to Cave Sky Pool would take two days. She needed to find a reason to leave home for two days and two nights; if she disappeared, it would scare her family to death.
As she was musing over this, Qian Manxia’s voice came from behind, "Yixiu, why are you still foolishly standing there? It’s getting late, come back inside and don’t catch a chill." She had just chased the chickens back into their coop in the courtyard.
Qian Yixiu gazed at the slanting sun in the west, the red fiery ball devoid of any warmth, casting a golden sheen over the vast wasteland. She agreed and closed the courtyard gate, then turned to the eastern wing. Qian Yixiu had arranged for a table and embroidery frame to be set up in one of the rooms there some days before.
Their current residence in the left wing had small windows which let in poor light, and the particularly wide eaves of the roof further blocked the light. So she suggested that her mother should go to the eastern wing to draw and embroider.
During the refurbishment of the eastern wing, Qian Yixiu made sure to have the windows enlarged to improve lighting.
As soon as she entered the room, her mother motioned to her and said, "Yixiu, come see, Mother has drawn her favorite flower." Her mother busied herself every day with painting flowers in the room; Yixiu had given it a cursory look previously, but then stopped, as it was too agonizing to watch. Her naive mother, in pursuit of perfection, would deliberate over every stroke. It was no wonder that scientists and scholars were somewhat eccentric – their extreme dedication was hard for ordinary people like her to comprehend.
Her mother’s "favorite flower" was depicted on several large sheets of paper joined together, approximately four feet in length and two in width. There were two paintings, and she likely wished to embroider a double-sided piece.
When Qian Yixiu saw the two paintings, her first reaction was not of astonishment or admiration, but tears flowed from her eyes.