Marrying Gold and Jade

The two men helped her get up and wash. Seeing that the bed was wet, Zhu Lian rolled up the quilt without changing his expression.

"We don't want this bed anymore, just throw it away."

Throwing out the bedding in the middle of the night is not an ordinary thing.

Zhu Lian only said: "I will take care of it for the young lady."

After finally getting into the tub, Lin Yu curled up inside and said, "I can do it myself."

When she finally came out, the bedding on the couch had been changed and even the silk pillow was new.

Lin Ji just stood outside the yard, watching Zhu Lian and Qing Dai coming in and out, and they didn't leave until the candles in the house went out.

In the greenhouse on the other side.

The young man's handsome face was swollen. He sat in the gaps between the green leaves, looking at the row of Epiphyllums in front of him, each with its own different postures, about to bloom one after another.

It was originally the last scene to send her off.

But if you wait until tomorrow, you will definitely miss it.

When Lin Ji came back, it was almost three o'clock in the morning.

Without waiting for anyone to speak, Mingyuan raised his right arm and made the motion of picking up a pen to write.

Thinking of Lin Yu's attitude towards him, Lin Ji was patient and decided to see what he had to say.

Soon Mingyuan wrote: [There is something in my room]

He had a bell of Lin Yu in his hand, and Lin Ji knew it.

Lin Yu cares about him, and Lin Ji knows it.

But since he ran into the two of them today, he would never allow this person to stay at home.

So he took his men back to the courtyard where Lin Yu was settled, and watched him find a wooden box and take out the bell first.

Then he pushed the object at the bottom of the box in front of him.

It was a jade pendant. Although it had some cracks and chipped corners, one could tell that the jade was smooth and warm, and it was not something a servant would have.

Lin Ji suspected that it was another gift from Lin Yu, so he went forward to pick it up. When he carefully distinguished the pattern, he was suddenly startled.

"Where did this thing come from?"

The Panlong jade pendant, if found out, would be a capital crime of treason, which is far more serious than the little gadget that Lin Yu gave.

Lin Ji didn't dare to relax for a moment. The person in front of him raised his hands and bent three fingers of his right hand, making a "seven".

Then he pointed at himself.

The jade pendant belongs to him; he is the seventh prince.

Lin Ji reacted almost instantly, because just a few days ago, Lin Yu had inquired about several princes in a roundabout way.

But only a moment later, he spoke calmly: "Twelve years ago, the court announced to the world that the sixth and seventh princes died at the hands of the rebels."

Ming Yuan nodded slightly.

Then he picked up his pen and rewrote: [Taishi Shen of Changzhou]

Lin Ji glanced at these five words and gradually fell into deep thought.

……

Early the next morning, Lin Ji was waiting outside the Xiangmei Garden.

After Ruan got up and finished washing, the maid led Lin Ji into the yard.

"What's got you so anxious so early in the morning?"

Ruan was slightly moved by her third brother's persuasion yesterday, but now she is in a state of panic and wonders if even her adopted son wants to ask about her divorce.

Handing the teacup to her lips, she motioned to the person opposite to speak directly.

Lin Ji stood up and took two steps towards the man.

He said in a deep voice: "I want to marry Ayu."

The woman almost spat out her tea.

She finally managed to avoid vomiting, but the air was stuck in her throat. Her aunt hurried over to help her calm down.

"What did you say?"

The woman looked up and down at the young man in front of her, and after confirming that it was Lin Ji, she began to wonder if he had been possessed by someone else.

"Who did you just say you were going to marry?"

Lin Ji had expected her surprise, so he lowered his voice and repeated, "I want to marry A-Yu, your daughter."

"You..." Ruan hadn't gotten enough rest for days and now she felt dizzy, with her voice trembling.

Lin Ji has been raised by her since she was five years old. Although she is still inferior to her biological daughter, she believes that she treats him no differently than her own nephew and they have long been a family.

Now this kid actually stood up and said that he wanted to marry his own daughter, the sister he had watched grow up!

"Do you know that both you and Yu'er have the last name Lin? In my eyes, you are both my children."

The woman rubbed her forehead, and suddenly she didn't know whether she had just woken up or was still dreaming. She was too worried about her daughter's marriage, so she dreamed of such a ridiculous thing.

"Go back and think about it carefully. I will just pretend I haven't heard of it."

The refusal was obvious enough, so she waved her hand, hoping that the child would be as sensible as before.

Lin Ji stood still and asked, "Why did mother retreat three steps?"

"Is it because I am not worthy of your daughter, or because I am not good-looking or have bad character?"

"You!" Ruan was so shocked that she slapped the armrest of the chair.

"If you are dissatisfied with me, please tell me and I will definitely change. But if it is just because my last name is Lin and A-Yu and I grew up in the same mansion..."

He paused slightly, raised his eyes and said: "In my heart, she has never been a sister."

It seemed like it was the first day that Ruan had met her son. When she heard him speak so confidently about disobeying her, something seemed to be about to burst out from under her cold appearance that she had maintained for years.

"As long as you give me the nod, I will move to the official residence granted by the court to prepare for the wedding, and then pick up A-Yu from the Lin Mansion to marry her. I will follow her wishes wherever she wants to live after the wedding."

"Mother," he said in a deep voice, without any panic from beginning to end, as if he had rehearsed these words in his mind thousands of times, "Since you are choosing a son-in-law for A-Yu, you raised me all by yourself."

"Who else can make you feel more at ease than me?"

Ruan was speechless after being asked this question.

For more than ten years, she could see that Lin Ji treated her daughter well, but she never thought about it that way.

He has been a dull person since childhood, and whenever Lin Yu gets close to him, he makes as much noise as firecrackers.

Ruan had praised this child thousands of times in her heart, saying that she was patient and indulgent towards her younger sister.

But today he said that he had never considered Lin Yu as his sister!

"You, tell me the truth," the woman was so shocked that she raised her finger at him without caring about her dignity, "When did you start thinking about this?"

Lin Yu was eight years younger than him. When he first fell in love, Lin Yu was only five or six years old.

Thinking about how her daughter had been surrounded by people like this since she was young, Ruan suddenly felt terrified of letting a wolf into the house.

This time he did not answer immediately.

After a moment's silence, he said, "I don't know."

"But in my eyes, there has never been anyone else."

This has to be Lin Yu.

In just that brief moment, Ruan was not without suspicion. After all, her daughter was so charming and affectionate, and living in the same house with her, she wondered if he had any dirty thoughts.

But when I think about it, he is already twenty-three years old, and he doesn't even have a maid to serve him in the house, let alone a concubine. He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would be in a hurry for sex.

Ruan raised her hand and rubbed her brows, and finally said, "Even if I can nod, what about Yu'er?"

"In her heart, she has respected you as her brother for more than ten years."

Speaking of Lin Yu, the man's tense brows relaxed slightly.

He said slowly: "Not now."

After last night, he could no longer be her brother.

Ruan was even more troubled.

Lin Ji knows his own temper. He seems indifferent to everything, but in fact he is very stubborn and hard-headed. He will never let go of something he has determined.

She could only wave her hand again, "I know, I'll ask Ayu later."

Seeing that her mother finally gave in, Lin Jiru let go of the worry she had been having for years and reminded her to rest well before leaving Xiangmei Garden.