Chapter 54: Arrange a Marriage (1/2)

As their eyes met, Lin Ting did not dodge or flinch. 

She tilted her head up slightly and looked at Duan Ling intently, as if she would not give up until she got an answer. 

Unconsciously, Duan Ling traced the outline of her eyes with his gaze, over and over again. 

His hand, which was resting on the edge of the table, moved slightly, and then he said, 

“I wanted to marry you, so I agreed.”

“You what?” Lin Ting was incredulous. 

“You said you wanted to marry me?”

“Yes, I want to marry you,” he repeated.

She finally asked the question she had been holding back: “Do you like me?”

Duan Ling replied, “I want you to stay by my side. I don’t know if this counts as liking. If you need me to like you, I can learn to.”

Lin Ting was left speechless and somewhat at a loss. 

Duan Ling’s words implied that he did have some feelings for her, even if it was just a little.

He liked her a little…

Although she had speculated about this possibility before, it was still hard to believe. 

But no matter how hard it was to swallow, she had to accept it: 

“Aren’t you going to ask me why I said I wanted to marry you at your birthday banquet?”

Duan Ling lowered his eyes, hiding the unfamiliar emotions in them, and poured himself a cup of tea, smiling,

“Don’t you like me?”

Lin Ting was stunned.

“If you didn’t like me, how could you worry about my safety, risk your life to save me several times, and propose to me in front of so many people?” 

Duan Ling’s tone was soft and gentle, but it seemed to carry a hint of poison, 

“Or is there some other ulterior motive?”

Lin Ting sensed the implied meaning in his words and, against her conscience, said, “I do like you.” 

There was no other way to explain her public “proposal”; any other reason would be too far-fetched. 

Only the reason for liking him made sense.

She then changed the subject: “But.”

But what, Lin Ting couldn’t think of what to say next for a moment.

Duan Ling took a step towards Lin Ting, straightened her slightly tilted golden hairpin, and gently interrupted, 

“I want you to stay by my side, and you like me. So, as you said, let’s get married.”

“Are you sure you won’t regret it?”Lin Ting tried to change Duan Ling’s mind. 

Even if he did like her a little, it didn’t matter because she didn’t like him. 

Everything was because of the system. 

It wouldn’t be fair to Duan Ling to get married like this.

Duan Ling slowly stroked the silk ribbon in Lin Ting’s hair: 

“I never do anything I would regret. As long as you stay by my side, that’s enough. Since you want to marry me because you like me, keep liking me and don’t change, okay?”

For a moment, it felt as if something had struck her heart hard: “I, I.”

He looked at her quietly.

Lin Ting tried hard to think of something to say but couldn’t come up with anything, so she lied: 

“It’s nothing. I just thought you agreed to marry me out of consideration for your sister Lingyun’s feelings, so you wouldn’t embarrass me at the banquet and would find an opportunity to break off the engagement later.”

Duan Ling withdrew his hand and smiled, 

“You don’t understand me at all. I would never do something I don’t want to do just to save face for someone else.”

Lin Ting stood there like a statue.

So it seemed that the marriage was settled. 

She really had to marry Duan Ling?

Duan Ling didn’t miss the look on Lin Ting’s face. 

His eyes darkened for a moment, but when he looked at her again, they were back to normal: 

“Do you have anything else to do today?”

Lin Ting felt a mix of emotions, lowered her head, and answered honestly, “No.” 

She had only come to the Northern Court of Justice to find him and get clarity on this marriage.

“I’ll be off duty in an hour.”

She started to walk towards the door of the hall: “Then I won’t disturb you while you’re working.”

Duan Ling grasped her wrist and looked at the beauty couch behind the bamboo curtain in the hall and said: 

“Wait for me to finish my shift here in the hall, and I’ll escort you back to your residence.”

Lin Ting looked down at his hand holding her, hesitated to take a step back, and asked uncertainly, 

“Wait for you to finish your shift?”

“Is that a problem?”

She didn’t really want to: “It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that it might disturb your work.”

Duan Ling brought up again that she liked him: 

“Don’t you like me? If you like someone, you should want to be with them all the time. Don’t you want to be with me all the time?”

Lin Ting felt so embarrassed that her scalp tingled: 

“You’re right, but I can endure it. I’ve endured it before, and I can now and in the future.”

He said, “There’s no need to endure it anymore. We now have a marriage agreement. Why should you endure it? You can see me whenever you want, and be with me whenever you want.”

She was speechless.

Duan Ling waited until Lin Ting sat on the beauty couch before letting go of her hand. 

Her wrist was still warm from his touch and he said, 

“If you get bored, you can read a book.”

Lin Ting: “Okay.”

Duan Ling returned to his desk not far away to work. 

The hall was filled only with the slight sounds of flipping through documents. 

Lin Ting couldn’t help but breathe more quietly.

She peeked at Duan Ling through the gaps in the bamboo curtain. 

His profile was as pure as snow, almost flawless, with his eyes and eyebrows like a painting, thin lips slightly pink, and his bright red official robe looked even redder in the sunlight. 

His hands, flipping through the documents, were fair and slender, very pleasing to the eye.

This Duan Ling matched the description in the original work: a gorgeous exterior with a ruthless heart.

Yet, this Duan Ling said he wanted her to stay by his side. 

Lin Ting looked at him and was slightly dazed. 

While she was trying to change her own fate in the original story, it seemed she had also changed Duan Ling’s fate.

After reviewing several documents, Duan Ling looked at her sitting behind the bamboo curtain and asked suddenly, 

“When did you start liking me?”

Lin Ting immediately came to her senses.

She decided to be frank: 

“I can’t really pinpoint it. Maybe it was a long time ago. When I was little, I thought you were good-looking and wanted to get close to you. It was only when I grew up that I realized what it was like.”

Duan Ling put down his pen, with a smile that was not quite a smile: 

“So you’ve liked me for so long. I thought you hated me back then.”

Lin Ting denied it.

“No. I was young and naive back then. I tried to attract your attention in other ways, but you didn’t budge and even… even embarrassed me in public. I thought you hated me too.”

“I see. You misunderstood. I didn’t hate you. I just didn’t like anyone,” 

Duan Ling took another document, spread it out, and continued, 

“You’ve liked me for so long, and I never noticed.”

Lin Ting was speechless.

About half a quarter later, several imperial guards  knocked on the door and entered. 

At first, they didn’t see Lin Ting and only greeted Duan Ling with a serious expression, 

“Sir Duan, there’s been an incident with the Tiqi .”

Lin Ting, hearing someone come in, moved further into the beauty couch, letting the bamboo curtain block her view.

Duan Ling asked, “What happened?”

“Several days ago, more than a dozen Tiqi suddenly had a fever. Today, their skin began to rot. The doctors are at a loss, and one of them couldn’t make it and died.”

He remained indifferent, tapping the document on the table and said indifferently, 

“First, gather them together and place them in one location.”

The Imperial guards replied affirmatively.

Behind the bamboo curtain, Lin Ting’s face changed.

It was the plague. 

The plague from the original story was coming. 

She didn’t know the exact source of the plague and couldn’t prevent its arrival. 

She only knew that many people would die from it.

Because it broke out in the capital, the impact was greater. 

Eventually, even the concubines living in the palace were infected, causing great chaos among the people.

Lin Ting poked her head out from behind the bamboo curtain and looked at Duan Ling and the imperial guards who had come in.

Duan Ling’s peripheral vision inadvertently swept over the head that had poked out from behind the bamboo curtain. 

He saw her red long silk ribbon dangling in mid-air, swaying back and forth. 

His hand twitched involuntarily. 

He averted his eyes and asked the imperial guard, 

“Where have these dozen or so Tiqi been?”

The imperial guard replied, “Dongjie Street. This team of Tiqi had patrolled Dongjie Street a few days ago, and they started to have fevers the day after they returned.”

Duan Ling slowly closed the document and asked, 

“Are there any people with fevers and rotting bodies on Dongjie Street?”

They had already investigated before coming to him: 

“As far as we know, there are a few, and their symptoms are exactly the same as those of the Tiqi.”

“Arrest them all.”

The imperial guard hesitated slightly: 

“Isn’t it inappropriate to arrest people indiscriminately? The officials in the court will seize any opportunity to impeach us.”

Duan Ling, with an unchanging expression, seemingly nonchalantly said, 

“Then arrest them all under the pretext that they are needed for a case investigation. We will make a decision after we determine what this disease is.”

The imperial guard accepted the order and left.

As soon as they were gone, Lin Ting came out from behind the bamboo curtain and walked up to him, but kept some distance: 

“I heard everything just now.”

Duan Ling lifted his eyelids and looked at her: “I know you didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to say. What I want to say is, don’t you think this sounds like a plague? There are people with fevers and rotting bodies on Dongjie Street, and the dozen or so Tiqi who patrolled there also successively showed these symptoms after they returned.”

If the plague is detected early and dealt with promptly, many lives could be saved.

Lin Ting continued, 

“To be honest, I once saw similar symptoms in a book. It said this is a very rare plague.”

Duan Ling asked, “What book?”

She racked her brain to come up with a plausible answer: 

“I forgot. As you know, I love reading and running a bookstore. I come across many books every day. Some I just glance at and then put aside.”

He didn’t know whether to believe her or not, but he looked at her and asked, 

“Is there any way to cure it?”

Lin Ting shook her head: “The book didn’t mention a way to completely cure it, but it did suggest a temporary way to contain it, which is to boil indigo root and drink it. You can try it with the doctors’ advice.”

Duan Ling nodded, looked at the copper pot clepsydra, and took off his official hat: 

“It’s time to finish work. Wait for me outside the hall for a moment while I change my clothes, and then I’ll escort you back to your residence.”

Seeing Duan Ling about to change his clothes, she immediately went out and closed the door for him, showing no intention of peeking, even though she had seen him naked before.

Duan Ling changed clothes quickly, and Lin Ting didn’t have to wait long. 

Soon, he opened the door and came out.

He said, “Let’s go.”

Lin Ting walked beside Duan Ling, and the height difference was quite noticeable. 

A gust of wind blew through the hall, causing the silk ribbon in her hair to flutter up and brush against his shoulder before falling away. 

The deep red hem of her skirt and the sash hanging from her waist also swept across his light blue brocade robe.

In front of the Northern Court of Justice, a carriage was waiting, apparently arranged by Duan Ling.

Lin Ting stood on the steps and looked at the carriage below: 

“Actually, you really don’t have to go out of your way to take me home. I can walk back by myself.” 

The Duan and Lin residences were in opposite directions and not on the same route.

Duan Ling said, “If you like me, why wouldn’t you want me to see you home?”