Lin Hao walked briskly to Cheng Shu’s quarters, but hesitated at the doorway.
The Heir of Prince Jing’s actions yesterday had kept her tossing and turning in thought for a long while. Now, about to face him directly, she felt inexplicably awkward.
It was Cheng Shu’s servant who noticed Lin Hao first: “Second Miss is here.”
Lin Hao nodded slightly and stepped inside.
“Big Brother, Heir, you’re drinking.”
Cheng Shu, holding a wine cup, looked somewhat surprised: “Why did A’Hao come?”
His face was slightly flushed, suggesting he had already drunk quite a bit. Looking at Qi Shuo, however, his complexion remained coldly pale, like congealed cream or jade snow.
Lin Hao couldn’t help suspecting this was one-sided drinking.
“Is Second Miss Lin feeling better?” Compared to Cheng Shu’s surprise, Qi Shuo appeared much calmer.
This was the appearance Lin Hao most commonly saw. Yesterday’s anxious young man, by contrast, seemed as if he had never appeared at all.
She steadied herself and smiled with upturned lips: “Just minor external injuries.”
“I’m not disturbing Big Brother and the Heir’s drinking, am I?”
“Not at all.” Cheng Shu blurted out, then saw Lin Hao sit down.
He froze for a moment, looking down at the wine pot, then at his younger sister’s spring-flower-like smiling face, beginning to hesitate.
Normally speaking, when someone joins while drinking, one should pour them wine. But if he let A’Hao drink strong liquor, Aunt would come with a knife to deal with him, wouldn’t she?
To spare her elder brother further struggle, Lin Hao stated her purpose: “I heard from Mother that you just returned from the Jinlin Guard. Did something happen?”
Cheng Shu’s first reaction was to conceal: “Nothing happened.”
Though A’Hao was unexpectedly formidable beyond his imagination, she was still a young lady after all. He wouldn’t let her worry about outside matters.
Lin Hao pressed her lips together.
She knew Big Brother would be like this.
She turned her gaze toward Qi Shuo.
Compared to Big Brother, the Heir of Prince Jing had witnessed her unconventional ways and didn’t treat her as an unworldly young lady.
Qi Shuo indeed didn’t disappoint Lin Hao, speaking quite directly: “Two important criminals died, death by poisoning. It’s suspected there’s a problem within the Jinlin Guard. Brother Cheng found one of the criminals familiar-looking, so he was summoned by the Jinlin Guard.”
Cheng Shu opened his mouth, looking at Qi Shuo with somewhat reproachful eyes.
Not only did he sell someone out quickly, he sold them out thoroughly. Were they still friends?
Qi Shuo’s words struck like thunder, stunning Lin Hao for quite a while before she recovered.
“Big Brother has seen the person who kidnapped Elder Sister?”
“Familiar-looking, just familiar-looking.” Having answered similar questions too many times in one day, Cheng Shu felt somewhat helpless and drained his wine cup in one gulp.
On one hand, he was depressed about being entangled with the Jinlin Guard; on the other, he was glad to have made a friend like Qi Shuo. Before Lin Hao arrived, he had already drunk quite a bit. This cup going down, his eyes soon became unfocused, his head heavy and muddled.
“Big Brother, are you all right?”
“I’m… I’m fine.” Cheng Shu waved his hand, his tongue already thick.
Lin Hao glanced at Qi Shuo.
“Brother Cheng has drunk too much. Let him rest well.”
Lin Hao nodded, called the servant to care for the drunkard, and saw Qi Shuo out.
The Golden Crow had already fallen behind the western mountains. A mass of burning-through clouds at the horizon stubbornly illuminated the road below, also draping the young man and woman walking side by side in pale rosy light.
Lin Hao originally had a bellyful of questions to ask, but with only the two of them remaining, the atmosphere suddenly grew quiet.
It was Qi Shuo who broke the silence: “Does your hand still hurt?”
Lin Hao raised her hand. The cotton handkerchief used to bandage the wound yesterday had long been replaced with soft gauze.
“I applied medicine. It stopped hurting long ago.”
“In the future, Second Miss Lin should not risk herself again.”
Lin Hao shook her head: “Some things require taking risks.”
She couldn’t very well watch Elder Sister be kidnapped. That way there would be no danger, but she would carry lifelong regret.
“The Heir should understand me. Aren’t you the same?”
Such a forbearing, low-profile person, yet merely hearing her unfounded reminders, killed Fang Chengji to eliminate possible danger to his family.
“I understand.” Qi Shuo walked forward several steps, speaking the words pressed on the tip of his tongue. “But I will worry.”
Lin Hao’s steps halted.
Though friends would care for each other, they were friends of opposite sexes after all. Saying it so directly was somewhat abnormal, wasn’t it?
She felt… the Heir of Prince Jing seemed to like her…
Once this thought arose, it was like summer wind brushing her face, making her cheeks burn hot.
Lin Hao looked away, her gaze unconsciously falling on the roadside flowers and trees.
Though spring chill remained, plants and trees were beginning to revive. A magnolia tree had already quietly bloomed.
Lin Hao’s first feeling was that it looked rather beautiful.
She looked toward Qi Shuo. The lake of her heart, suddenly stirred by wind, returned to calm. She said openly and frankly: “Thank you for the Heir’s concern.”
She mustn’t panic. Setting aside whether she was being presumptuous, even if the Heir of Prince Jing truly had feelings for her, she hadn’t yet sorted out her own thoughts. Why rush?
Lin Hao’s composure made Qi Shuo’s heart turn cold.
If A’Hao had favorable feelings toward him, she should show some shyness, shouldn’t she, rather than this composed and self-possessed appearance.
Under normal circumstances, the young man who had long ago carved patience into his very bones would naturally silently tuck away his stirring feelings. But he had been drinking, and quite a bit at that.
He opened his mouth, and those words, carrying faint wine fragrance, drifted with the wind into Lin Hao’s ears: “I don’t just worry. I also feel heartache.”
Lin Hao abruptly stopped, staring intently into his eyes.
Those eyes, bright as stars and moon, held a light she couldn’t understand.
The Heir of Prince Jing… really seemed to like her.
She had originally intended to ask detailed questions about the urgent matter at the Jinlin Guard. How had the topic veered here?
“Second Miss Lin.” Under Lin Hao’s prolonged silence, Qi Shuo spoke again.
Lin Hao looked at him with chaotic thoughts, waiting for him to continue.
“May I have the standing to feel heartache?” Qi Shuo slowly asked this question.
Just turned twenty, he possessed a young man’s sharp edges while retaining a youth’s greenness. At this moment, he was like that roadside magnolia—rather beautiful.
Lin Hao’s heart jumped violently. She cursed inwardly that beauty misleads people.
By this point, no matter how slow to realize, she understood his feelings.
She wasn’t being presumptuous. The Heir of Prince Jing liked her.
Then did she like the Heir of Prince Jing?
Under his restrained, quiet waiting, Lin Hao secretly asked herself.
It seemed… she didn’t dislike this feeling.
Realizing this, Lin Hao suddenly felt her cheeks grow hot.
Then that was liking, wasn’t it?
But the instant she had this thought, a pair of eyes abruptly surfaced in her mind.
Those eyes, as if veiled in light gauze and indistinct, had left indelible traces in her heart because of a sword that pierced through both their hearts.
Lin Hao became uncertain.
In her previous life, she died without opportunity to experience what liking was. Now she had nothing to reference.
Liking someone should be wholehearted, with heart holding no other, shouldn’t it?
She couldn’t immediately give an answer, nor did she want to deceive him: “I don’t know… I’m uncertain… I might need to think about it.”
Her answer seemed like a rejection, yet the young man awaiting an answer curved his lips slightly.
That her heart was in chaos and unable to give an answer was itself a kind of answer.
He raised his eyes, sweeping a glance at the crescent moon at the horizon, so faint it had almost no presence.
The moonlight was indeed beautiful.
