“The two servants said yesterday that the bedding has been changed,” Luo Cuiwei said with a slight smile, pushing open the door of one of the empty bedrooms. “Just lie down for a bit, I’ll come and call you when it’s about time.”
Yun Lie was clearly quite satisfied with this arrangement, his eyes softening considerably: "Then what are you going to do?"
Luo Cuiwei pointed to the room next door, "I'll just read some leisurely books in this room for a while."
"Don't you dare sneak out while I'm asleep," Yun Lie's eyes flickered, "If you get carried away and forget to wake me up, hmph."
"I'm not Luo Cuizhen, I don't have such a playful heart," Luo Cuiwei gently pushed him, blushing and glaring at him fiercely, "Stop talking nonsense and go to sleep!"
Yun Lie suppressed his overwhelming joy, gave a blank "Oh," and went into the room.
After closing the door, he did not go to bed.
The tall figure leaned against the closed door, looking up at the roof to take stock. His dark, jade-like eyes seemed to have been filled with two stars.
See? I told you she likes him, hmph.
****
That night, after having dinner in the main hall of the palace, Luo Cuiwei and Luo Cuizhen returned to the small courtyard together.
After washing up, Luo Cuizhen did not return to the bedroom where she had slept the night before. Instead, she went to her elder sister's bed and stayed there, refusing to leave.
Luo Cuiwei didn't chase her away. The two sisters lay down side by side and began to talk in the gentle night light of the room.
"Sister, I've noticed that His Highness Prince Zhao treats you differently than he treats others."
Luo Cuiwei paused, looked up at the ceiling, and mumbled, "Perhaps."
"Just now at the banquet, I noticed he kept glancing at you secretly."
"Hmm." Luo Cuiwei's mind was a mess, and she responded to her sister's ramblings in a half-hearted manner.
Born into a merchant family and having managed the family business for three or four years, Luo Cuiwei was certainly not dull-witted when it came to reading people's expressions and demeanor.
Although Yun Lie didn't say anything today, and neither did she, there seemed to be a lot of unspoken understanding between them. It was truly a case of silence speaking louder than words.
She could no longer pretend to be naive and tell herself that it was just casual intimacy between friends.
However, she still hasn't figured out what she should do.
"What...what are you thinking?" Luo Cuizhen changed the subject, her childish voice filled with an inexplicable sense of premature anxiety.
Upon hearing this, Luo Cuiwei raised her hands, both troubled and sweet, and brushed her long hair, which was scattered on the pillow, onto her face. "I'm still thinking about it."
"Sister," Luo Cuizhen rolled over and lay on her side in the darkness, facing her elder sister, "you also like Prince Zhao, don't you?"
The little girl's voice trembled slightly, filled with mixed emotions.
Luo Cuiwei stretched out her arms and pressed them against the brocade quilt, loosely embracing her younger sister's small body, and teased with a smile, "Afraid that if I get married, you'll go out begging for food with a broken bowl?"
"You know perfectly well that's not what I'm after!" Luo Cuizhen simply snuggled into her arms, hugged her waist tightly, and pressed her face against her shoulder.
A moment later, Luo Cuiwei felt a dampness on her shoulder.
She didn't speak, but just stared fixedly at the ceiling.
"Why did you have to fall for a prince?" Luo Cuizhen sobbed softly. "If this happens... your family... will definitely make you..."
"What's there to cry about?" Luo Cui smiled and ruffled her hair. "When have you ever seen me afraid of anything?"
Luo Cuiwei is not afraid of anything.
****
Springtime was in full bloom, and everyone at the Quanshan Palace seemed to have temporarily cast aside worldly affairs, spending their days leisurely enjoying themselves with the emperor.
Such days naturally fly by.
Five days later, Yun Lie finally reached his breaking point.
"Why do I feel like your sister has been secretly glaring at me lately?"
Luo Cuiwei walked ahead with a smile, stepping onto the pebbled path in the shade of the trees. "She doesn't like you."
These past few days, she and Yun Lie seem to have been at odds, neither of them daring to break the ice.
Yet they often linger together, avoiding the eyes of others, wandering aimlessly around the mountains.
There were no overly intimate gestures, and they only chatted idly about trivial matters, but there was an invisible entanglement between them that grew stronger and stronger.
In the soft light of dawn, the tall figure quickly caught up from behind again.
Two shadows overlapped on the gravel path, looking as intimate as if they were something else.
Yun Lie frowned and turned to look at the person beside him. "What did I do to offend her?"
With her hands behind her back, Luo Cuiwei strolled leisurely into the depths of the grove with a smile: "I'm the one who offended her."
Because her sister likes you, and because she knows that her sister's liking you will bring her great trouble, she dislikes you even more.
"What kind of riddle are you playing?" Yun Lie muttered, trying his best to control his pace and keep walking side by side with her.
After walking for a while, Luo Cuiwei stopped. "Yun Lie."
She turned to face him, her smiling eyes crinkling, yet they seemed to hold a kind of do-or-die determination.
She had been thinking about it seriously for days and finally managed to sort out the mess in her mind.