“A’Shu…” Her cousin Ling Ji, his feelings complicated, started to speak but held back.
“A’Shu…” Her cousin’s wife Jiang Shi, conflicted, started to speak but held back.
“A’Shu…” Her cousin Ling Jingyan, still shaken from the lingering fright, started to speak but held back.
The three of them stood neatly in a row before Ling Jingshu, all looking at her at once, opening their mouths in unison, and then letting out a long sigh together.
Ling Jingshu was amused by their expressions. “Just look at the three of you, all staring at me like that. You’re putting a lot of pressure on me!”
“At a time like this, you still have the mood to joke around!”
Ling Jingyan didn’t know whether to laugh or scold her, and meant to glare at her, but recalling how Ling Jingshu had stood her ground with such a sharp tongue against the Crown Grandson earlier, her tone softened again. “A’Shu, where did you find the nerve to speak to His Highness the Crown Grandson like that just now? Weren’t you afraid he’d turn furious on the spot?”
Ling Ji and Jiang Shi said nothing, but the meaning in their eyes was clearly the same as Ling Jingyan’s.
Ling Jingshu asked back with a smile, “Did His Highness lose his temper at you after A’Xiao and I left?”
“No, he didn’t,” Ling Jingyan shook her head. “But His Highness took it out on Commander Wang instead, punishing him to scrub the deck for an entire afternoon! The reason given was that he’d made faces and signals, losing the dignity befitting an Eastern Palace guard!”
Such a ridiculous excuse — it was obviously just misplaced anger!
Ling Jingshu smiled leisurely. “Well, it’s His Highness’s own man taking the punishment, not us — so what is there for you to worry about?”
What a reasonable point!
Ling Jingyan found herself, to her own surprise, with nothing to say in response!
Ling Jingyan’s lips moved, but in the end, she said nothing at all.
Having settled Ling Jingyan, Ling Jingshu turned to Ling Ji and his wife with a serious expression. “Cousin, cousin’s wife, you both saw how things stood at the time. If I had said nothing and simply swallowed my frustration, that would have been nothing in itself — but it would also have let the Crown Grandson look down on me, and by extension, on our entire Ling family.”
“No matter how exalted His Highness’s status, we don’t have to live at someone else’s mercy or let ourselves be toyed with. That’s why I answered him lightly. Truthfully, every word I said stayed within bounds, and showed not the slightest disrespect. Even if His Highness feels displeased in his heart, he can’t find any real fault with it. Nor will he take it out on either of you because of it…”
“A’Shu, you’ve misunderstood what we meant,” Ling Ji said quickly. “I’m not afraid of the Crown Grandson taking it out on the Ling family. I’m worried that you’ve angered His Highness, and that he’ll hold a grudge against you.”
“Honestly, today’s whole mess was my fault,” Jiang Shi sighed softly in self-reproach. “If I hadn’t spoken out of turn, none of this would have happened.”
Ling Jingshu smiled, unconcerned. “When it comes down to it, it’s simply because our standing differs, and our status is lower than his. When we need something from someone, putting up with a bit of petty grief is unavoidable. And since I’m not one to swallow frustration quietly, I answered him the way I did. The one truly stewing in anger right now is the Crown Grandson — not me.”
Ling Ji: “…”
Jiang Shi: “…”
Having failed to “comfort” her, and instead finding themselves the ones being talked through it by Ling Jingshu, Ling Ji and his wife returned to their cabin with thoroughly complicated feelings.
The two of them sat facing each other for a moment, then spoke up at exactly the same time.
“Let’s not tell Father and Mother about this!”
“We have to keep this from Father-in-law and Mother-in-law.”
Truly minds in perfect sync! They had thought of exactly the same thing. The couple exchanged a smile and began murmuring to each other in low voices.
“This cousin of yours — she’s stunningly beautiful, and clever and quick-tongued besides. She’s certainly no ordinary fish meant to stay in a small pond,” Jiang Shi sighed sincerely.
There was one more thing Jiang Shi left unsaid.
Ling Jingyan, on her own, had seemed quite a beauty as well. But set beside Ling Jingshu, she instantly dimmed into nothing — like an ordinary pearl placed next to a rare, precious luminous pearl…
Ling Ji naturally caught the implication behind Jiang Shi’s words.
No matter how much he favored his own sister, he had to admit that Ling Jingshu far surpassed Ling Jingyan.
“Actually, I think that A’Shu being so beautiful and clever, with a will far tougher than an ordinary woman’s, might not be entirely a good thing for her,” Ling Ji said, the memory of that blood-soaked dagger from that night still sending a chill through him.
“It’s better for a girl to be gentle and obedient. Being this stubborn and opinionated, she might suffer for it when it comes to marriage someday.”
Ling Jingshu, this dazzling, peerless peony of a girl, would be impossible to hide once they reached the capital. He feared she would soon draw everyone’s attention, or attract covetous eyes with ulterior motives.
The Ling family was a prominent clan in Dingzhou, but in the capital, it amounted to nothing much at all.
Ling Daye was merely a fourth-rank official — could he really protect Ling Jingshu?
To put it bluntly, however unfilial it sounded — Ling Daye was a deeply opportunistic man. If they really encountered some powerful figure coveting Ling Jingshu’s beauty, forget about protecting her — it would already count as good if he didn’t actively try to curry favor by offering her up…
Ling Ji began to grow anxious about what the future might hold.
Seeing Ling Ji’s heavy expression, Jiang Shi asked with a smile, “Look at you, so weighed down with worry — what are you thinking about?”
Ling Ji and Jiang Shi were a loving, harmonious couple who held nothing back from each other. Apart from concealing the matter of Ling Jingshu killing the bandits that night, he had never kept anything else from Jiang Shi, and so he immediately voiced the worry weighing on his mind.
“…Yuniang, to be honest with you, I’ve felt a vague unease in my heart these past few days. I keep feeling like something major is going to happen down the road.” Ling Ji let out a long sigh. “You’ve been married to me four years now, and you know Father’s nature well enough. If something like that really were to happen one day, I’m afraid Father might…”
A son does not speak ill of his father.
Even in private words shared between husband and wife, as a son, he shouldn’t speak against his own father’s faults.
Ling Ji sighed once more and said no more.
Jiang Shi was, of course, well aware of her father-in-law’s calculating, opportunistic nature, and Ling Ji’s worries were not unreasonable. She comforted him with a smile. “Don’t borrow trouble that hasn’t come yet. Nothing’s happened so far — what good does it do worrying yourself sick over it here? In my view, A’Shu has plenty of her own mind, and is certainly not the type to be pushed and shaped by others. If that day ever truly comes, it’s Father you should be worried about, not her.”
Ling Ji couldn’t help a wry laugh at that, and all his hidden worry melted away as he pulled Jiang Shi into his arms. “You’re right. I should stop letting my thoughts wander everywhere. If I’ve got the time for that, I’d rather spend it figuring out how to get you with child instead…”
Jiang Shi’s pretty face flushed red, and she gave Ling Ji a light scolding spit. “Talking about such things in broad daylight, have you no shame.”
Stirred with affection, Ling Ji smiled and tightened his arms around Jiang Shi’s slender waist, just about to turn what was on his mind into action, when there came a sudden knock at the door.
“Young Master, the Master requests your presence.”
Jiang Shi started in alarm and quickly pushed Ling Ji away, hastily fumbling to straighten her clothes.
With a helpless look on his face, Ling Ji opened the door and went to Ling Daye’s cabin. “Father called for me specially — is there something you wished to ask?”
Ling Daye gestured for Ling Ji to look out the window together with him.
There, on the neighboring boat, was a sturdily built, tall young man kneeling on the deck, scrubbing it vigorously.
Ling Ji: “…”