cold clothes

Yin Jiu didn't know how many times Leng Yi had suddenly gotten close to him, but he was certain this was the closest they had ever been. Perhaps because he couldn't see or perceive the distance, their noses were almost touching without him noticing. Yin Jiu quickly pulled away, his face showing unease, and retorted, "Do you even know what it means to be this close to me?"

“Answer my question. Every time I ask you a question, you change the subject. I won’t fall for it this time.”

Yin Jiu looked at Leng Yi's serious lips after she finished speaking, and felt a little helpless. She looked away and said, "It means you can call me now."

"What's the use of calling you? Can you save me?" Leng Yi seemed to have been waiting to say this, a contemptuous smirk playing on her lips.

“You can come find me. You should come to the herbal medicine shop often, and I’ll be here often too. It would be a bit impolite if a regular customer didn’t know my name,” Yin Jiu replied with ease.

"I came to the herbal medicine shop to see Aunt Fang, not you..." Leng Yi turned her head away to retort, hoping that Yin Jiu wouldn't see the blush on her face. Even she herself felt this was a bit arrogant, and to avoid embarrassment, she asked again, "But aren't you called Xie Yin?"

Yin Jiu chuckled and said slowly, "I don't want to be Xie Yin here, but Yin Jiu. Besides," Yin Jiu smiled, but her dark eyes were as unfathomable as an empty hole, "if I were Xie Yin, I wouldn't comfort you. He's a jerk who makes girls cry."

"Ah...it sounds like you have quite a story to tell," Leng Yi remarked. "But we're all in the same boat; everyone has a story to tell."

Yin Jiu looked at her, smiled, and nodded.

“Then…” Leng Yi suddenly felt a pang of tenderness, like someone who had been running in the wilderness for a long time and wanted to find a tree to lean against and rest. She asked in a secretive, pleading tone, “Yin Jiu, can I trust you?”

Perhaps she has found a tree to lean on for the time being.

"Yin Jiu had no intention of harming you."

“In that case!” Leng Yi suddenly smiled brightly, “Tell me your special name, and I’ll tell you my real name too! My name is Leng Yi, Leng as in cold and aloof, Yi as in lapel.”

"Cold clothes, huh..."

"Yes!" Leng Yi nodded solemnly, then asked seriously, "You only told me about the name Yin Jiu, right?"

"Uh, yes."

"Then you mustn't tell anyone else! Only you know my real name, that's a promise!"

“Okay,” Yin Jiu agreed.

Leng Yi laughed heartily. Yin Jiu felt that her smile was even brighter than the fine snow under the moonlight outside the window. After seeing such a smile, he didn't think about anything else and instinctively responded, casting aside all distractions.

Leng Yi… This was a girl he couldn't describe; he could only vaguely sense her fearlessness and vibrancy. He'd only said a few sweet words and she was already so happy—didn't her eyes hurt?

Some words slipped out without my noticing: "I hope your eyes get better soon..."

"Well."

"I want to see you open your eyes so you know how close my eyelashes are to your cheek. It's not fair if only I know that."

"Eh?"

-

"Here comes the warming soup~" Doctor Xie came in carrying a bowl, breaking the ambiguous atmosphere between the boy and girl. Leng Yi subconsciously called out to Aunt Xie Fang and stretched out her hands to wait for the bowl to be placed in her hands. Unexpectedly, Doctor Xie asked Xie Yin to feed her.

Leng Yi: "Huh?"

Yin Jiu said with dissatisfaction, "I am not this young lady's personal servant."

Leng Yi: "Didn't you tell me I could order you around as I pleased?!"

Yin Jiu said in a smug tone, "That's what Xie Yin said, not me. Xie Yin is a bastard, you can't believe what he says."

Good lad! He can already use sophistry at the age of ten! Leng Yi was just about to use her more than twenty years of knowledge to defeat his sophistry when her personal servant Qing Tan arrived, causing Yin Jiu to chuckle and leave lightly.

"Miss Ningbi!" Qingtan asked seriously as soon as she arrived, "Are you alright?"

"Does a relapse of an old injury count?" Leng Yi casually asked, taking a sip of the cold-dispelling soup, her face immediately scrunching up.

—This tastes awful! It has ginger in it! It's both spicy and bitter!

"I've already punished Granny Liu, and I'll never arrange for a guest like Master Xu to be Miss Ningbi again," Qingtan said.

Leng Yi laughed, "I thought this arrangement was orchestrated by you. Wouldn't it be more to your liking if I suffered more?"

“Miss Yunqiu said that Miss Ningbi is not one to accept things passively, and Miss Ningbi’s only goal in becoming a third-class maid is Liang Shuyun. It is not advisable to cause trouble before the goal is achieved.”

"Isn't this just saying I'm a troublemaker?" Leng Yi downed the medicine in one gulp, her thoughts suddenly sinking. Liang Shuyun… she willingly went blind because of him, and she was determined to—kill him with her own hands!

Lengyi didn't have to go to her maid duties tonight, which allowed her to get through the night at a very high cost. But she didn't have time to slack off. She stayed in her room alone to catch up on her studies. With Qingtan tutoring and supervising her, even though she was blind, she didn't find studying too difficult.

"If you govern the people with laws and regulate them with punishments, they will evade justice but have no sense of shame; if you govern them with virtue and regulate them with propriety, they will have a sense of shame and moreover become good." Leng Yi finished reciting the last passage and couldn't help but laugh heartily. Qing Tan, seeing this, solemnly advised him, saying that his learning was only a tiny fraction of what he had acquired. Leng Yi said:

"Learning is boundless! Besides, I don't think those questions set by those old women are that profound. They learn the words of the sages without understanding their principles, and they read the books of the sages without imitating their actions. The sages are just tools for you to flaunt your talent!"

"How could Miss Ningbi say such blasphemous things!" Qingtan was shocked.

Leng Yi asked her, "Since you can read and have memorized the Confucian classics, what do you think means by 'having a sense of shame and being upright'?"

"Having a sense of shame and having high moral character means..." Qing Tan was suddenly stumped by the question, paused for a moment, and then said firmly, "It means having a sense of shame and being noble and classy."

"Hahaha..." Leng Yi laughed. Qing Tan's face flushed at Leng Yi's laughter, and she asked her angrily what she was laughing at. Leng Yi stopped laughing when her eyes hurt.

"You're half right. Having a sense of shame and integrity means having a feeling of decency and being able to reflect on and correct shameful behavior. Many people can feel shame; they'll feel it as soon as someone makes fun of them. But correcting shameful behavior is much harder." Leng Yi's words were barbed. "But that's normal. Only when the government is governed by virtue and disciplined by propriety can people have a sense of shame and integrity. Can a country where prostitution is rampant be called a virtuous government? Can it be called a rule of propriety?"