“I see. Seventh Young Lady is planning to meet Director Duan privately. In the words of a romance novel, it’s called a ‘secret rendezvous’!” Tao Zhu suddenly realized.
Hearing the word “secret rendezvous,” Lin Ting’s hand holding the brush trembled, and she wrote the character for “Duan” crookedly.
She took another piece of paper and rewrote it.
She also said, “Tao Zhu, if you keep quiet, no one will think you’re mute.”
Tao Zhu shut her mouth.
Lin Ting quickly finished the letter and had Tao Zhu send it to Duan Ling.
The letter was sent in the morning, and the reply arrived in the afternoon.
Lin Ting immediately opened it upon receiving it, and there was only one word on it: “Okay.”
The saying “a person’s character is reflected in their handwriting” does hold some truth.
Duan Ling’s handwriting, like him, was aesthetically pleasing yet subtly strong and hard to ignore.
Lin Ting put away the letter and lay on the couch to play cards with Tao Zhu.
When the sun set, she felt like lying down to rest but heard a maid in the courtyard say that a Kongming lantern had risen from the east side.
Jin Anazi must have something to tell her.
Lin Ting immediately left the mansion and went to the study to meet Jin Anazi.
It was getting late, and the study was darker than the street outside since no candles had been lit.
She had to spend some time adjusting her eyes to see anything:
“Jin Anazi, even if you want to save money, you don’t have to be this frugal.”
Not even a single candle.
Jin Anazi was sitting on the stairs, polishing his sword.
The cold gleam reflected off the blade shone in his eyes and he said,
“Tomorrow, I’m sending Xie Qinghe out of town. I thought I should let you know, so I lit the Kongming lantern.”
Lin Ting walked up to Jin Anazi and asked,
“Tomorrow? But it’s impossible to leave town in disguise now. What method are you planning to use to get Xie Qinghe out of town?”
Jin Anazi: “You don’t need to worry about this. I won’t involve you in it anymore.”
“How confident are you?”
She didn’t intend to get mixed up in Xie Qinghe’s affairs again, but she was worried that sending him out of town this time might be dangerous.
Jin Anazi put down his sword and finally lit a candle:
“At first, I only had a fifty percent chance of success, but now it’s increased to seventy percent.”
Lin Ting asked in confusion,
“Why did your confidence go up from fifty to seventy percent?”
“Tomorrow was originally Duan Ling’s turn to patrol the city, but I just received news that someone else has taken over. It seems he has some business to attend to and won’t be patrolling the city tomorrow. With him out of the picture, my chances have improved.”
Lin Ting fell into deep thought: “Tomorrow was originally Duan Ling’s turn to patrol the city?”
Jin Anazi sensed something was off and stopped polishing his iron sword and said,
“Do you know something? Could this be a trap set by Duan Ling?”
She was dazed for a moment: “I wrote a letter inviting Duan Ling to go on a spring outing out of town tomorrow.”
Jin Anazi pondered for a while, then sat down on the floor:
“Since it was you who invited Duan Ling out of town for a spring outing, it’s not a trap set by him.”
“However, if he later confirms that you know Xie Qinghe, he might suspect that you deliberately lured him out of town.”
“Although you didn’t know I was planning to send Xie Qinghe away tomorrow when you invited him out. Should you reschedule the outing?”
Lin Ting hesitated for a few seconds:
“Changing the time at the last minute would look more suspicious, and it wouldn’t be conducive to your plan to get Xie Qinghe out of town. If you get caught, I’ll have to bury you. Let’s just keep it as it is.”
Jin Anazi was silent.
After a while, he asked, “Your wedding is set for two months from now?”
Mentioning the wedding made Lin Ting’s head ache:
“Can we not talk about this? You should be more concerned about your own safety tomorrow.”
Jin Anazi dismissed her concern: “I’m just preparing a wedding gift for you.”
“No need, thank you.”
The next morning, as the sun was just rising, Lin Ting and Duan Ling rode together in a carriage to the city gate.
The city guards, who had been previously briefed by him, now looked carefully at every carriage.
The carriage to the Duan residence would also be stopped for inspection.
Duan Ling lifted the curtain to let them see, and Lin Ting, sitting beside him, remained calm and composed.
The city guards first saluted him, then carefully inspected the carriage, not even sparing the underside.
Tao Zhu and the young servant, who were sitting outside the carriage, got off and stood aside while the inspection was carried out.
According to the rules, the city guards were also required to touch Duan Ling’s face to see if he was disguised by someone else.
But they didn’t have the courage to do so, fearing to offend him.
They hesitated and said, “Sir.”
Duan Ling had Lin Ting touch his face in front of them, focusing on areas like the jawline.
Lin Ting was surprised: “Me?”
“Yes.”
People who had changed their appearance couldn’t bear to have their faces touched with any force, as the fake skin would separate from the real skin, making it easy to tell the difference.
However, the city guards generally wouldn’t agree to let someone prove they weren’t disguised by touching their own face, because they might control the force, seemingly touching hard but actually very lightly, thus having a chance to deceive.
So only the city guards were allowed to touch.
But Duan Ling’s status was special.
It was barely acceptable to let someone close to him touch him — after all, as long as it wasn’t him doing it, it was hard for others to control their strength.
Under the gaze of the city guards outside the carriage, Lin Ting leaned forward, her hands slowly touching Duan Ling’s smooth jawline.
She touched his skin for a moment, and her fingertips gently pressed, easily leaving a red mark.
She quickly apologized: “Sorry.”
Duan Ling looked down at Lin Ting, who was so close, and glanced at the golden hairpin in her hair, recognizing it as the same one from before.
He blinked his long eyelashes.
He said: “It’s okay.”
The red mark was particularly noticeable on his fair skin, and there was a hint of sensuality to it.
Lin Ting quickly withdrew her hand: “Is that enough?”
The city guards had also checked the faces of the young servant and the coachman and let them pass:
“You may go.”
Lin Ting and Tao Zhu were both women whose heights were completely different from that of Xie Wugongzi Xie Qinghe.
They couldn’t possibly be men in disguise, so they didn’t need to be inspected.
The carriage rolled out of the city gate, its wheels crushing the dust on the ground, leaving two tracks.
Lin Ting couldn’t help but worry about Jin Anazi.
With the city guards’ strict search, how could he successfully send Xie Qinghe away today?
Did he really have a seventy percent chance?
Duan Ling sat on the seat opposite her, his crimson robe falling inside the carriage like petals.
He suddenly asked, “What are you thinking?”
“Nothing,” Lin Ting replied.
How could she tell him what she was really thinking?
She hadn’t helped Xie Qinghe, but she wouldn’t betray him either.
There was a tea set and hot water inside the carriage.
Duan Ling leisurely brewed tea, his every move like a pleasing painting:
“Why did you suddenly want to invite me out of town for a spring outing yesterday?”
“I just… wanted to see you,” Lin Ting said.
Duan Ling’s hand paused in mid-air while brewing tea, and he smiled thoughtfully:
“Is that so?”
Lin Ting nodded: “I just wanted to see you.”
She did want to see Duan Ling, and then try to dissuade him from the idea of marrying her.
That was her recent goal.
Duan Ling finished brewing the tea, picked up the purple clay pot, and poured two cups.
The steam rose, passing before his eyes and blurring his expression.
When the steam cleared, Duan Ling’s lips curved into a smile, but he didn’t speak.
Lin Ting was momentarily dazzled by his smile, but quickly remembered her purpose and probed subtly:
“With the wedding approaching, do you have any thoughts?”
He took a sip of the clear tea and countered with a question:
“What should I think?”
“I didn’t mean that. I just heard that everyone has many thoughts before getting married. Some people even suddenly break off their engagement a few days before the wedding. I just wanted to ask you.”
Duan Ling shook his tea cup, gazing at a floating tea leaf inside, and smiled benignly:
“I don’t have any. Do you?”
She awkwardly replied: “I don’t either.”
He put down the tea cup and said in a gentle tone:
“You don’t have to worry. Once the wedding is set, it won’t change. We will get married as scheduled.”
She worried that even if the wedding went ahead as planned, Lin Ting, in order to conceal her emotions, picked up her teacup and took a sip: “I hope so.”
Duan Ling glanced at her again.
When they left the city, the sky was clear, but by the time they reached the place for the spring outing, the weather had changed.
Dark clouds gathered, the light dimmed, and after a few peals of thunder, a heavy rain poured down, making the carriage rattle loudly.
The rain was so heavy that the carriage had difficulty moving.
The coachman asked Duan Ling what to do.
They were quite far from the capital city, and going back in the rain would be dangerous.
He suggested finding a place to take shelter from the rain.
Duan Ling glanced outside and asked Lin Ting inside the carriage:
“The Duan family has a residence outside the city. It’s about half an hour to the west from here. How about we go there to take shelter from the rain?”
It was not unusual for wealthy families in the capital to have houses outside the city.
They would occasionally stay there for a few days to relax and change the environment.
It was no surprise that the Duan family had a residence here.
Lin Ting agreed: “Sure.”
The coachman immediately headed in the direction Duan Ling had mentioned.
After about half an hour, they indeed saw a residence and stopped the carriage to let them out.
Tao Zhu held an umbrella for Lin Ting with one hand and helped her with the other:
“Seventh Young Lady, be careful of the slippery road.”
The residence, with its blue bricks and gray tiles, was surrounded by towering ancient trees.
It looked ordinary from the outside, but inside it was a different world.
Behind the gate was a stone bridge over flowing water.
Looking around, there were lush flowers and plants, a winding corridor, and carved windows on both sides.
Following the corridor, they passed through two stone gates covered with climbing vines and arrived at a backyard with more than ten rooms.
Lin Ting and Duan Ling each entered a room to rest and wait for the rain to ease.
Although the Duan family didn’t often stay here, they kept a few servants to guard the residence.
Seeing them arrive, the servants, fearing they might have been caught in the rain, immediately prepared fresh clothes and sent them into the rooms.
After entering the room, Lin Ting sat by the window to watch the rain, which showed no signs of letting up but instead grew heavier.
Tao Zhu, who hadn’t slept well the night before, was still able to keep her spirits up when she first sat down.
But soon she became drowsy and dozed off, leaning against the chair.
Lin Ting covered Tao Zhu with an outer garment.
To Lin Ting’s surprise, the rain continued until evening, and they would have to spend the night in the residence.
Fortunately, there was plenty of food in the house, and the servants prepared dinner for them.
After finishing dinner, Lin Ting remembered that Duan Ling hadn’t come out to eat.
She stopped one of the servants and asked,
“Where is your second young master?”
The servant replied,
“The second young master said he wasn’t hungry and told us not to prepare dinner for him.”
“Alright, you may go,” Lin Ting said.
She thought for a moment, then had Tao Zhu go back to the room to make the bed, while she went to Duan Ling’s room to find him.
However, Duan Ling was suffering from a craving.
At that moment, he was lying on the bed, his jade-like face covered with a handkerchief.
He held another handkerchief in his hand, trying to use Lin Ting’s scent on it to ease his overwhelming desire.
But even with her scent in his nostrils that night, he couldn’t find relief.
After a long while, Duan Ling raised the hand holding the handkerchief, moved it over several layers of clothing, and used it to wrap himself, spending about three quarters of an hour in the process.
Just then, Lin Ting’s voice sounded outside the door: “Director Duan?”
The handkerchief covering Duan Ling’s face slipped off.
In the sound of Lin Ting’s voice, he suddenly released himself, soiling her handkerchief.
The pink handkerchief caught quite a bit of white.