#i just felt that the Lotus Tower would be like a rare new invention in their time

[rose-tinted-vision]

Tales from Tianji Manor

Relationship: implied Di Feisheng/Fang Duobing/Li Lianhua

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Magical healing flower aside, a few weeks into living in her Manor has Li Lianhua looking healthier, He Xiaohui thinks.

Of course, he was nowhere near being well enough to engage in a full-blown spar with Di Feisheng again, but he seemed mostly content to instruct Xiaobao from the sidelines as he sparred.

(Though He Xiaohui knows better than to expect full jianghu-blooded people to be satisfied with teaching from the sidelines for long. She knows from experience, and is bracing herself for the inevitable clash when the slow rehabilitation process gets too much for Li Lianhua.

Bracing herself for what, exactly, she is not sure, but she knows better than to ignore her gut instincts).

She does not want to presume that Li Lianhua would come to her for a talk, much less a talk about feelings- that was something best left to his zhijis to deal with, if they ever did- knowing Li Lianhua, Xiaobao would have to force the conversation out of him.

Instead she contents herself with distracting him, deciding to prod him for details of his moving house.

Surely they did not think that they could get away with parking something so ingenious right in her courtyard and expect her not to poke at it!

It was a simple yet interesting contraption, a stroke of brilliance to attach wheels to a building, and something that interested her very much. She had once made a moving chair, and then a carriage, but never had she thought of making a moving house.

The way Li Lianhua thought was interesting.

She invited him to her sitting room for afternoon tea, determined to dig into the man's brain and whatever ideas he had. With his innovative ideas and her resources, she could start a whole new business avenue, she was sure.

Li Lianhua seemed surprised by the invitation but took it in stride, arriving exactly at the appointed time and happily explained the process of building his Lotus Tower to her.

It had been a long process, he said, earning money to buy the tool to cut down his own wood, materials such as rope, and figuring out how best to put them all together- pieces of loose wood and rope to form four walls, a roof and a floor.

The Lotus Tower only really took form two years later, and that was only the bare bones of it all, before Li Lianhua started to furnish the interior, slowly but surely building his herb garden and working out how to fit a kitchen in it.

He Xiaohui had listened, oddly enraptured by the way Li Lianhua wove his story, barely noticing as the afternoon went by. It took A-Li coming to announce that it was dinner time for her to come back to her senses, slightly abashed that she had let Li Lianhua talk for the entire afternoon without rest.

The teapot sits between them, untouched.

“If you don't mind, I'll send some blueprints for you to look over and see which areas could be improved on?” He Xiaohui suggests as they make their way to the dining hall, “I know Xiaobao has been dying to get his hands on some of those, he could look over it with you.”

“If Master He wishes,” Li Lianhua nods, easily agreeing to her idea.

“Only if you really do not mind,” He Xiaohui slows her pace, forcing the other to slow down too, “I don't want you to agree just because I suggested it. If machinery and such are of no interest to you, you don't have to force yourself.”

“It's no trouble, really.” Li Lianhua replies with a polite smile, gesturing for her to enter the dining hall first.

He Xiaohui sighs in resignation, before offering a smile of her own in reply.

Personal connections take time, she reminds herself. Not everyone was as inclined to open up right from the start, and as much as she would like to speed up the process, she was a busy person too.

Really, it has nearly been a month since their arrival at her manor, and she could count on one hand the number of real conversations- barring dinner time- that she has had with Li Lianhua and Di Feisheng. Most of her time was consumed by sect affairs, and it was near impossible to get Li Lianhua alone without her Xiaobao soaking up all of his attention.

So He Xiaohui could hardly fault him for being so formal with her when there had hardly been any time for her to properly get to know him, apart from whatever tidbits of information Xiaobao has fed her.

(She had made her own observations, too, of course. Like how Li Lianhua would still flinch whenever a sword edge got too close to either of Xiaobao's vital points despite himself, how he has to squint sometimes while reading, and how the smell of peanuts made him cringe, though he would force himself to finish the dish).

“What were the two of you discussing?” She hears Xiaobao whisper to Li Lianhua, eyeing him curiously, “My mum didn't bully you, did she?”

He Xiaohui scoffs, “Xiaobao, talking about me behind my back again, are you?”

“No,” he denies, placing on an expression of faux-innocence, “I’m just curious about what could've taken the entire afternoon to discuss.”

She feels Di Feisheng’s eyes on her as well, pausing in his action of deboning the fish, cautious yet curious.

“Madam He was just asking about the construction of the Lotus Tower,” Li Lianhua interjects, “it was a pleasant discussion.”

“Right!” Xiaobao lights up, “so how did you construct a whole second level on such a small area without extra support from the exterior?”

He Xiaohui spots an amused smile playing at Di Feisheng's lips as he turns his focus back to deboning the fish, resigning himself to a dinner full of engineering jargon as Li Lianhua patiently answers all of Xiaobao’s rapid fire questions, rehashing the story of how the Lotus Tower came to be.

Slowly but surely, she promises herself. The first steps were to ensure that they felt safe and comfortable in her Manor. Safe enough to speak their own mind, voice out against any discomforts, eventually drop the formalities with her.

Everything else could come after.

#no beta we die like shan gudao #currently overseas so i haven't had as much time to check through #i just felt that the Lotus Tower would be like a rare new invention in their time #and He Xiaohui being an inventor and engineer would be interested in it and how it came to be #cue mother and son in law bonding time #mysterious lotus casebook #he xiaohui #mysterious lotus casebook fic #rose writes #good night #difanghua #fanghua #difang