Chapter 115: Extra- Childhood Sweethearts (2) 

After returning from the Duan Mansion to the Lin Mansion, Lin Ting immediately went to find Li Jingqiu, eager to ask about her upcoming assignment to study at the Duan Mansion.  

The weather was hot, and Li Jingqiu was sitting under a large tree with her eyes closed, cooling herself.

Hearing Lin Ting’s question, she opened her eyes and looked at her: “So what if you are?”  

Third Master Lin refused to use his connections to find a prestigious scholar in Jingcheng to be Lin Ting’s tutor.

Li Jingqiu usually stayed in the back quarters and didn’t know many people; the only tutor she could find was an ordinary one.  

But she wanted the best for Lin Ting.  

Li Jingqiu brushed back the damp wisps of hair on Lin Ting’s cheek and said, “The tutor you had before won’t come back. You can rest for a day. The day after tomorrow, you’ll start studying under Great Scholar Gu at the Duan Mansion.”  

Lin Ting immediately flopped onto her lap, pouting: “Mother, I think the old tutor was pretty good. Great Scholar Gu is learned and talented, but he might not suit me. Could you reconsider?”  

Li Jingqiu had already made her decision and wouldn’t reconsider.

“The old tutor was pretty good? What was good about him? He never assigned you homework, didn’t scold you whether you studied or not, and you think he was pretty good, right?”  

That was true, and Lin Ting was momentarily speechless.  

Still, she wanted to argue: “Mother, I promise I’ll study hard and do my homework properly from now on. I won’t be lazy anymore. Please trust me one more time, just give me one chance?”  

Li Jingqiu raised an eyebrow and smiled coldly, spitting out two words: “Dream on.”  

Lin Ting was disappointed: “Mother………….”  

“You usually like spending time with Third Miss Duan, don’t you? Why don’t you want to go to the Duan Mansion to study with her?” Li Jingqiu was puzzled.  

Lin Ting wanted to say that playing and studying were two completely different things: “They’re not the same.”  

Li Jingqiu closed her eyes and said, “To me, there’s no difference. If you don’t go to the Duan Mansion to study under Great Scholar Gu the day after tomorrow, don’t expect to leave the mansion anymore. You’ll stay here and learn embroidery.”  

Upon hearing embroidery, Lin Ting immediately changed her tune: “Actually, I think trying to study with Great Scholar Gu wouldn’t be so bad.”  

Embroidery was even more painful for her than studying.  

Li Jingqiu opened her eyes again and sized Lin Ting up and down.

“Is that true?”  

Lin Ting sincerely said, “Yes, it is.”  

On the day she was supposed to start studying, Lin Ting was forced to get up early and take a horse-drawn carriage to the Duan Mansion.  

Their study place was the pavilion in the back garden of the Duan Mansion.

After getting off the carriage, she yawned while carrying her little “schoolbag” and followed the attendants inside, so sleepy she wished she could sleep right there.  

Duan Xinning, sitting inside the pavilion, quickly stood up to greet her and had her maid take Lin Ting’s little “schoolbag” to the long table beside them.

“Leyun, you’re here.”  

Lin Ting yawned again.  

Great Scholar Gu hadn’t arrived yet, so Duan Xinning had time to chat a bit: “Didn’t sleep well last night?”  

“No, I slept very well. Maybe because I got up early at Mao hour today, that’s why I’m so sleepy. When did you get up?”

Lin Ting couldn’t handle waking at five o’clock; she was dead tired.  

“I also got up at Mao hour.”  

Her father required her and her second brother to get up at Mao hour every day to study; Duan Xinning had gotten used to it.  

Lin Ting didn’t say anything more.  

Suddenly, she caught a faint scent of fragrant agarwood.

She turned to the side.

It turned out Duan Ling had also arrived early, but she had been too tired and too busy talking to Duan Xinning to notice him.  

Lin Ting glanced at Duan Ling, then looked at the seat assigned to her.

She was sitting in the middle, with Duan Xinning on her left and Duan Ling on her right.  

Who arranged the seats?  

Why put her in the middle instead of on either side?  

Lin Ting considered asking to switch seats, but before she could figure out how to say it, Great Scholar Gu arrived.  

Duan Xinning hurried back to her seat and whispered to Lin Ting that Great Scholar Gu was strict and to be careful not to get punished.  

Lin Ting reluctantly didn’t bring up the seat change and sat down, propping her eyelids open with her fingers.

On the first day of “extra lessons,” she couldn’t afford to doze off, or she’d get punished.  

Great Scholar Gu looked at her as he entered.

“What’s wrong with your eyes? Why are you pressing on them?”  

“My eyes are uncomfortable.”  

Lin Ting lied while keeping her eyes open.  

Great Scholar Gu flipped open a book and said somewhat approvingly, somewhat teasingly, “Even with uncomfortable eyes, Miss Lin Qi still comes to class. She’s a diligent child.”  

Madam Feng had told him a few days ago that Lin Ting would be coming.

He knew she was the Lin Family’s seventh daughter.  

Lin Ting smiled sheepishly.  

Great Scholar Gu checked Duan Ling’s homework and then explained the knowledge from the book.

After finishing, he assigned them homework: “You all do your homework first. I have some errands to run and will return in an hour to check your work.”  

With that, he left the pavilion.  

Lin Ting boredly worked on her homework, her peripheral vision casually scanning Duan Ling.

Her gaze stopped at the essay on his desk.

Regardless of the content, his handwriting was powerful and striking, even better than her old tutor’s.  

She looked down at her own handwriting.

No comparison meant no hurt.

But there was no need to feel inferior; everyone had their strengths.  

Duan Ling seemed to feel her gaze and stopped writing, looking up.  

Lin Ting hadn’t looked away yet, and their eyes met.

Her pen scratched an ink line across the paper.

“Second Brother Duan.”  

He glanced at the ink streak and ran his hand over the book on the desk.

“Seventh Sister Lin, is something wrong?”  

She removed the paper stained by ink and shook her head.

“Nothing. You continue. I was just bored and looking around. Don’t mind me.”  

Duan Ling looked away.  

Lin Ting continued with her homework.

Halfway through, a Duan Family servant came to the pavilion and said Great Scholar Gu had some urgent business and already left the Duan Mansion, but they were to continue working until noon before leaving.  

Hearing Great Scholar Gu wouldn’t be back today, Lin Ting tidied up her pens, ink, paper, and inkstone, and lay down to catch up on sleep.

Meanwhile, Duan Xinning was obediently sitting upright, diligently doing her homework.  

Outside the pavilion, the sound of flowing water was like a lullaby, making Lin Ting’s sleep even deeper.  

When she woke, Lin Ting realized Duan Xinning was gone, leaving only her and Duan Ling in the pavilion.

Seeing this, her drowsiness vanished instantly. “Second Brother Duan, where’s Linguan?”  

“A quarter hour ago, Mother called Linguan to her courtyard. Seems like she had something to ask her. She should be back soon.”  

Duan Ling set down his pen and pressed a sheet of paper with a paperweight.

The ink on it wasn’t dry yet, so it couldn’t be rolled up.  

Lin Ting felt a bit hungry and pulled out a bag of candied fruits from her bag.

“Do you want some?”  

Duan Ling stood and went to the pavilion railing to look at the fish in the water, politely declining, “No need. You eat it yourself, Seventh Sister Lin.”  

She didn’t want the quiet around them to settle, so she made small talk: “I heard Linguan say you’re entering Imperial College next year. Congratulations, Second Brother Duan.”  

Everyone knew that entering Imperial College was like half a foot already stepping into the officialdom—a bit like a modern university graduate guaranteed a good job placement.  

It was worth congratulating him.  

Duan Ling’s reaction was indifferent: “Actually, it’s not finalized yet. It’s too early to say congratulations, Seventh Sister Lin.”  

“I believe you can definitely make it.”  

Lin Ting’s eyes scanned Duan Ling’s desk again and noticed he hadn’t been doing homework earlier but drawing—a single eye.  

Looking at that eye, she felt it was somewhat familiar but couldn’t recall where she’d seen it before.

It’s easy to recognize a pair of eyes, but a single eye is harder.

“Second Brother Duan, do you like drawing?”  

Duan Ling slowly turned around and smiled.

“I don’t really like drawing.”  

Lin Ting swallowed some candied fruit pieces.

“Oh. But your drawing of the eye is beautiful.”  

She wasn’t flattering him; she genuinely thought his drawing was good.

The eye on the paper was lifelike.  

Duan Ling returned to his desk and looked at the drawing, lightly tapping it as if the eye was looking back at him.

“The eye is beautiful, not my drawing. Don’t you think her gaze unintentionally reveals that she sees through everything but pretends not to know?”  

She wasn’t used to observing people’s eyes and couldn’t tell.

“Really?”  

The curtains hanging around the pavilion swayed in the breeze.

Duan Ling caught them and slowly tied them up, hanging them on the pillar.

“Yes. I’ve seen it several times. Her eyes are always like that.”  

The ink on the paper had dried.

He rolled up the drawing, tied it with a red cord, and put it into the nearby painting tube.

“Because of her, I’ve recently started trying to guess what people are thinking just by looking into their eyes, and I’ve even thought about collecting people’s eyes.”  

The latter half sounded like a joke.  

Lin Ting looked at him and asked, “Who is she?”  

The boy was dressed in scarlet robes, jade-like in complexion, and at just thirteen years old, he was already quite tall, so she had to tilt her head back to see his expression.  

Duan Ling avoided answering.

“Have you finished the homework the teacher assigned, Seventh Sister Lin?”  

Lin Ting could tell he didn’t want to answer.

“Almost done. Just a little left.”

It was Great Scholar Gu’s homework; even if she didn’t want to do it, she had to, or Li Jingqiu wouldn’t let her live in peace once she found out.  

Duan Ling sat down and said, “Then I won’t disturb you.”  

“Okay.”  

Lin Ting ate the last piece of candied fruit and picked up her brush to finish her homework.

It was good to get it done before going home, so she wouldn’t have to touch her brush again.  

He glanced at her.  

***

As long as it didn’t rain or blow wind, Lin Ting went to the Duan Mansion to study as usual.

Over time, she gradually got used to being around Duan Ling and no longer felt uncomfortable as she did at first.

After all, Great Scholar Gu always said, if you don’t understand something, ask Duan Ling.  

She had to talk to him frequently.  

A year later, Duan Ling entered Imperial College, but he had a ten-day leave every ten days to return to the Duan Mansion.

Madam Feng asked him to tutor Lin Ting and Duan Xinning when he had time, and he complied.  

Lin Ting still saw him every month.

This continued until she was thirteen.  

That year, Duan Ling was seventeen.

A few months later, he would finish his studies at Imperial College and “graduate.”  

Before “graduation,” there was an important exam.

His ten-day leave was temporarily canceled, and all students were forbidden to leave the college.  

Lin Ting wouldn’t see him then.  

Just as Lin Ting planned to stay home and rest for a couple of days, Li Jingqiu told her to go to Imperial College to deliver some food to Duan Ling.

Adults considered them childhood companions with a good relationship.  

“I’m not going.” Lin Ting crossed her legs and cracked sunflower seeds.

“Madam Feng and Linguan will deliver the food. We don’t need to bother.”  

Li Jingqiu poked her forehead.  

“They deliver for them; we deliver for us. It’s a matter of goodwill. Ziyu taught you a lot; you can’t be ungrateful.”  

During the years Lin Ting studied at the Duan Mansion with Duan Xinning, Li Jingqiu and Madam Feng often came and went, becoming close.

She no longer called Madam Feng’s son “Second Master Duan” but called him by his courtesy name, Ziyu.  

Li Jingqiu pretended to hit Lin Ting: “I’ll ask you one more time—are you going or not?”  

Lin Ting knew Li Jingqiu’s nature.

If she refused again, Li Jingqiu would nag until she agreed.

So why put herself through that?  

“Mother, you’re right. I’ll go. I’ll go now, okay?” Lin Ting jumped down from the windowsill, grabbed the pastries Li Jingqiu had prepared for Duan Ling, and muttered, “Smells pretty good.”  

Li Jingqiu watched her walk out.

“Don’t sneak any on the way. They’re for Ziyu.”  

Lin Ting snorted.  

Imperial College was far from the Lin Mansion.

Even by carriage, it took about an hour.

The attendants forgot to bring her a soft cushion, so her butt hurt.

To distract herself, she opened the pastry box and wanted to sneak a piece.  

But Lin Ting held back.  

When the carriage stopped, she took the pastries and got off.

Sitting for another quarter hour was torturous for her sore bottom.  

There were guards at the gate of Imperial College; only official teachers and students could enter.

She had to ask the guard to pass a message to Duan Ling, telling him someone was there with gifts and to come out quickly.  

Her bottom hurt too much to stand or sit still, so she squatted in a corner, finally feeling more comfortable.  

When Duan Ling came out of the gate, he saw her squatting there.  

His steps faltered.  

At first, he thought it might be his mother or Duan Xinning, but he hadn’t expected it to be Lin Ting.