Marrying Gold and Jade

Her arms were slender, making the lunch box look large and heavy.

Mingyuan was afraid that she would get tired, so he took the food box first.

"Um...Yuquanlan, have you raised it?"

Looking closely, his hair was a little messy, tied up with a hairband, with a tuft of hair stuck to his temples.

The handsome face nodded, Lin Yu's eyes had nowhere to go, sliding from his straight nose all the way to his arm.

The water stains have not yet dried, and the not-so-fine fabric outlines the muscle lines.

"Then I'll leave first!"

Lin Yu almost fled.

Thinking of how he looked just now, I felt inexplicably dry in the mouth.

It must be because it was not appropriate. She told herself that she should not go to see him so late next time. It was not appropriate.

After the banquet, Shen Lian was also in a dilemma.

His mother's face was filled with joy, but Shen Lian kept thinking about the second half of the dinner, when Lin Ji didn't say much, didn't eat much, and just drank one glass of wine after another.

He was bound to have a hangover that night, so when Shen Lian found him the next day, he inevitably looked a little haggard.

"Mrs. Lin has taken a fancy to me, do you know that?"

He seemed indifferent, but could hardly hide his concern. He lowered his eyes and said "hmm".

Having known him for nearly ten years, this was the first time that Shen Lian felt angry at him for not fighting back.

Lin Ji seems to be aloof and aloof, but he is like a wolf at heart and will never let go of anything he wants.

For example, if he wanted fame and fortune, he could win the top three places in a row and become the number one scholar chosen by the emperor.

Therefore, Shen Lian didn't understand why he would hold back if he liked Lin Yu and Lin Yu was not married yet.

"If there's nothing else, I'll leave first."

"Something's going on," Shen Lian called him, and her tone of voice changed. "You and I have been friends for many years, and Miss Yu is your sister. Do you think I should propose marriage?"

Shen Lian's words echoed in Lin Ji's ears for several days.

Staying in the government office on the pretext of official business, he recalled the past one after another.

When he was eight years old, Lin Yu was suddenly born.

The originally somewhat empty mansion was filled with joy. He knew very well that his adoptive parents had always wanted a child of their own.

The couple even had an argument over the baby girl's maiden name.

My adoptive father’s family had been in business for generations, and he insisted on giving his only daughter a name with the word “gold” in its name.

But the adoptive mother was well-read and did not want her daughter to be associated with such a vulgar word, so she advised her husband that "gold is more precious than jade", so it would be better to use jade instead of gold.

The two were arguing, and the adoptive mother was still in confinement and shouldn't get angry, so the young Lin Ji stood up.

"It's better to have both, gold on the left and jade on the right, to make the word 'Yu'."

The adoptive parents finally took a step back and happily named their daughter Lin Yu.

The baby girl learned to smile at him when she was still in her cradle.

Lin Ji couldn't tell whether he liked or disliked this "sister", he was just vaguely worried.

Sure enough, one day when he came back from the academy, two servants were lazing around in the corridor, chatting about him and Lin Yu, who had just turned one year old.

"I heard that the eldest lady likes Master Ji very much."

"Why does Mr. Ji have to study so hard? He will marry the young lady when she is thirteen or fourteen years old. All the wealth will go into his pocket!"

"What kind of adopted son is this? It should be called marrying into the wife's family."

"A husband raised by a child is more appropriate..."

The two men laughed openly and Lin Ji took a detour.

He no longer went to his mother's plum garden to visit his "sister", and spent all day traveling back and forth between the academy and Qihe Hall.

Even when Lin Yu was just learning to speak, he always loved to chase after him and call him brother, and always stretched out his short arms for him to hug him, but he always put on a stern face and refused to show any joy at all.

It's not that he doesn't want to, but he feels that he shouldn't.

When Lin Yu was five years old, he had grown into a juicy little kid.

At that time, Lin Ji was thirteen years old, a teenager who had only a vague understanding of love between men and women.

The little girl who had just climbed onto his waist hugged his thighs and asked him seriously, "Will Yu'er marry me in the future?"

The reason was that she went to watch a play with her mother today, in which the lady in the play married her cousin.

Lin Ji didn't know the inside story. Listening to the laughter of the maids around her, she felt that she had never felt so embarrassed in her life.

So after the New Year, he went to Yingtian Prefecture to study.

There he met Shen Lian and began his long journey to the imperial examination.

He started to learn late, and among his classmates, he was not too early to pass the college entrance examination.

The first time he stood out was when he won the top prize in the provincial examination.

He seldom went home during the seven years. When Lin Yu passed the imperial examination, she was already twelve years old. Although she was still not fully grown, she still looked as delicate as a young girl.

On his birthday, she handed him a pen with both hands and said, "I wish you success in the imperial examination and win first place!"

She grew up so fast that Lin Ji, who had just reached adulthood, was shocked to find that she was completely different from the little girl he often thought of.

But when he actually stood in the Golden Palace, beside the emperor.

The emperor asked him in a veiled manner what he had been seeking in his life.

He lost the composure in answering questions fluently and the ambition in his articles.

He said: "Only if I pass the imperial examination can I dare to marry my sweetheart."

He is not a "child-raising husband" as others jokingly call him. Lin Ji is an upright man who does not seek wealth and is worthy of the Lin family's daughter.

Unexpectedly, the emperor was not angry, and even did not laugh at him. He asked him if he was willing to be exiled.

As long as one is a newly-appointed scholar, everyone will try their best to stay in Kyoto.

But Lin Ji, a top scholar, returned to Songjiang and became a prefect, a position that even second-class scholars despised.

Others don’t understand, but Lin Ji himself understands.

He just couldn't understand why the little girl suddenly changed.

The look in her eyes when she looked at herself was no longer clear and bright. She preferred a house slave to herself.

As an older brother, he could naturally stop his sister from hanging out with the servants.

But what about Shen Lian?

What excuse would he use to stop her from choosing Shen Lian?

"Son."

Even when there was no one around, Cao Shun would still call him Young Master in the government office.

Lin Ji sat up straighter behind the desk and asked him, "What's the matter?"

"Tomorrow is a day off, and everyone in the yamen has gone home. What do you want to say today?"

After the birthday banquet, he had stayed in the government office for three days.

Lin Ji didn't want to think too much about it. He had already figured out his thoughts about people. From childhood to adulthood, he had never had a pure brother-sister relationship.

But he didn't know Lin Yu, especially today, he always couldn't guess what Lin Yu was thinking.

If she only considers herself as her brother, then...

Pushing aside the documents that had been processed long ago, Lin Ji stood up and said, "Let's go back."

At least let him ask her in person what she thinks of Shen Lian.

The Lin Mansion is quite lively today.

The maids and servants all peeked into the hall, trying to take a look at the treasures that had just been delivered.

I heard that thing is called coral, it is bright red and looks very festive.

Lin Ji also heard a maid say that this was a gift from Grand Tutor Shen to Lin Yu, which meant that he had accepted this daughter-in-law.

The people around him were whispering in suppressed excitement, but the man could no longer hear a word.