Ling Jingshu entered Ling Jingyan’s chamber.

The chamber wasn’t large, but it was furnished with considerable refinement. Beside the carved, hollow-worked wooden bed stood a wardrobe for storing clothes, noticeably larger than an ordinary one. The dressing mirror was crowded with vivid silk flowers and exquisite hairpins.

Ling Jingyan sat before the dressing mirror, her lips pressed tightly together, her expression dark and unreadable.

Ling Jingshu walked over to her side and said softly, “Cousin Yan, I’m here.”

Ling Jingyan did not look at her, but instead turned her head and gave an order. “All of you, leave. No one is to come in without my permission.”

The maids assented and withdrew together.

Before withdrawing, Bai Yu shot Ling Jingshu a worried glance. Judging by this scene, the Eighth Miss was truly furious this time! Her own young lady would need to handle this carefully.

Ling Jingshu gave Bai Yu a reassuring smile. Don’t worry, I can handle this.

Once the door closed, only Ling Jingshu and Ling Jingyan remained in the room.

Ling Jingyan, as if deliberately holding her ground, neither turned around nor said a word.

Ling Jingshu wasn’t in any hurry either, simply standing behind Ling Jingyan and waiting for her to speak first.

As it turned out, Ling Jingyan clearly couldn’t match Ling Jingshu’s composure. After a while, unable to bear it any longer, she broke the silence in frustration. “Why aren’t you saying anything at all?”

Ling Jingshu gave a feigned, helpless smile. “Cousin Yan, you’re the one who specially called me here, saying you had something to tell me. If you won’t open your mouth, how am I supposed to know what you want to say?”

Once the floodgates opened, Ling Jingyan stopped sulking, turning around with some indignation to glare at her. “You’re so clever — how could you possibly not guess why I called you here?”

Of course she could guess.

It was nothing other than the special attention Prince Yan had shown.

But since Ling Jingyan hadn’t said it outright, Ling Jingshu chose not to break through the pretense either, deliberately playing dumb. “Cousin Yan, stop dancing around the topic with me. Just say whatever it is directly. There’s no one else here, just the two of us. Whatever is said will stay between only us. I promise I won’t reveal a single word to anyone else — even if A’Xiao asks, I won’t say.”

But how could she possibly bring herself to say it?

Ling Jingyan glared at Ling Jingshu’s innocent, pretty face, both angry and aggrieved. “You clearly know what I want to talk about, yet you keep playing dumb on purpose… You’re bullying me!”

The tears she’d been holding back for so long now poured out as though a floodgate had opened.

Ling Jingyan wiped her tears with her sleeve, but before she could even finish wiping, more tears welled up again. She looked both pitiful and disheveled, repeating the same few words over and over.

“You’re bullying me…”

When other girls cried, they did so delicately, like pear blossoms in rain, fragile and timid. Ling Jingyan, however, wailed and sobbed with tears streaming like a flood, with no concern for appearances at all — every bit a deluge bursting its banks.

Ling Jingshu sighed softly and coaxed her gently, “Yes, yes, it’s all my fault. I’m the one who bullied you. How about this — why don’t you hit me a few times to vent your anger?”

Ling Jingyan continued crying in hiccupping sobs. “I’ve liked Prince Yan for months now. The reason I went to the Dingxiang Restaurant today was specifically hoping to catch a glimpse of him there. I did see him, but he couldn’t even remember who I was — yet he paid special attention to you, even sending someone to deliver you his calling card…”

“What’s most infuriating is that you wouldn’t even accept it! Why doesn’t he remember me? Why won’t he look at me even once more? Why didn’t he send me a calling card…”

“It’s all your fault. If not for you, how could Prince Yan not have even glanced at me once…”

“You’re bullying me. I hate you. I don’t like you anymore…”

Ling Jingyan kept crying as she spoke in broken, halting fragments, until she accidentally choked on her own saliva. Her face flushed red instantly, and she broke into violent coughing.

With the tear-tracks on her face not even dry, and now mucus added on top, she looked utterly disheveled, beyond description.

A hand offered a silk handkerchief in front of her.

Ling Jingyan took the handkerchief and wiped her tears and mucus as though venting her frustration, then blew her nose hard. She crumpled the handkerchief angrily into a ball and shoved it back. “I don’t want your fake kindness — here, take it back!”

Ling Jingshu: …

Such a grown person, throwing a tantrum and losing her temper so carelessly, just like a child of only a few years old.

Ling Jingshu felt both irritated and amused at once. Without changing her expression, she set the handkerchief down on the dressing mirror and gently patted Ling Jingyan’s back to help her calm down. “You’ve been crying for so long now, and scolding me for so long too — surely you must feel a bit better now!”

Indeed, she had cried her fill and scolded her fill.

Despite Ling Jingyan’s unreasonable outburst, Ling Jingshu hadn’t said a single word in retaliation! If she didn’t appreciate that now, she truly wouldn’t know what was good for her.

Ling Jingyan bit her lip, and after a long pause finally spoke, though reluctantly. “A’Shu, I know today’s matter wasn’t your fault. I was just feeling upset, and that’s why I took my temper out on you so unreasonably. I’m sorry!”

Ling Jingyan truly did have an impatient temper and would occasionally throw fits, but her heart was genuinely kind. It was hard for anyone to stay angry with her at all.

Ling Jingshu smiled faintly, pulled over a stool, and sat down beside Ling Jingyan. She said gently, “We’re first cousins, with the same Ling family blood running through our veins — even broken bones stay connected by sinew! How could I possibly be angry with you?”

“Now that we’ve already opened up about this, you might as well stop hiding it from me. What exactly is going on between you and Prince Yan?”

Ling Jingyan’s nature was straightforward, and she simply couldn’t keep things bottled up. For months she had been carrying this secret in her heart, and it had truly been a hard strain to keep it hidden. Now that Ling Jingshu already knew, there was no need to conceal it any longer.

Ling Jingyan said quietly:

“Back in the twelfth month of last year, I was bored staying home, and I pestered Eldest Brother to take me out to relieve my boredom. Eldest Brother took me to the South Market and then to the Dingxiang Restaurant for lunch. On the third floor, we ran into a few young dandies who had drunk too much wine. Emboldened by their drunkenness, they began mocking and flirting with me without restraint.”

“Eldest Brother was furious, but he was alone, while there were three or four of them.”

“I suppose the commotion was loud enough to disturb the distinguished guest in Tingzhu Pavilion. Displeased, that guest had the door opened and ordered those drunken young dandies to be driven away.”

“Naturally, Eldest Brother and I had to go thank the distinguished guest…”

What happened next needed no further explanation — it was already perfectly clear.

That distinguished guest was, of course, none other than Prince Yan, who had come to dine at the Dingxiang Restaurant in disguise.

Being rescued by a hero was the very sort of thing most likely to spark a young girl’s fantasies and affection. All the more so since Prince Yan was that kind of handsome, dashing, and wickedly charming young man.

From that day on, Prince Yan’s image had been firmly branded into Ling Jingyan’s young, romantic heart.

“A’Shu,” Ling Jingyan’s eyes welled up with tears once more, and she said, choking with emotion, “In all my years, I’ve never liked anyone this much. I think of him every single day, secretly inquiring about every bit of news concerning him, racking my brains just for the chance to see him once. But I never imagined… I never imagined he wouldn’t remember me at all…”