“Yin’er, you truly have changed.” How many among her peers could think of such things? Even those ministers in court might not necessarily be able to make such long-term plans.
“Grandfather, after taking a trip through the gates of hell, one can understand anything.”
She would no longer become everyone’s laughingstock. She would no longer be infatuated with a man who did not love her at all and even loathed her. She would make every person who had ever mocked her slap their own faces!
“Consider these gifts the ceremony for taking me as your master. Your grandfather has a villa in the suburbs. To avoid drawing attention, why don’t you go there? I can teach you swordsmanship.”
“Many thanks, Master!” Lin Yan was seized with excitement. How could he forget the scene that day in the teahouse, when the young girl had shattered a wooden table with a single palm strike? It was still vivid in his mind. He could be certain that Xiao Qianyin was an expert who kept her true abilities deeply hidden!
After Lin Yan left, Beigong Du was somewhat exasperated, even carrying a note of reproach as he blamed her for acting willfully. “Yin’er, you’re going to teach him swordsmanship? What kind of joke is this? Your level of swordsmanship is nowhere near the standard needed to teach others!”
His granddaughter’s swordsmanship had always been a heavy stone weighing on his heart. Among those her age, regardless of gender, most were at least at the advanced swordsman level, while she, limited by her aptitude, had remained stuck at the beginner swordsman stage all this time.
At Lushan Academy, she had suffered endless ridicule. In every other subject assessment, she ranked at the bottom each time; as for the swordsmanship assessment, there was even less need to mention it—she was still at the bottom. He had truly felt the impulse to bring her back, but for the sake of the Crown Prince of Southern Tang, this child had stubbornly endured others’ mockery and insisted on staying there.
“Grandfather, what are you worried about? I never do anything I’m not confident in. Since I dared say those words to him today, I naturally have my own considerations. I’m no longer that little girl who needs your protection at every turn!”
“Ah, you…” Looking at that face almost identical to his daughter’s, and hearing that coquettish tone, the remaining words of reproach in his mouth could not come out no matter what. In the end, they could only turn into sigh after sigh.
The next day—
“Yin’er, today you’re going to Lushan Academy. Have you truly decided?”
Beigong Du confirmed it again and again. He was afraid that once this girl went to Lushan Academy, she would suddenly regret it, and by then, it would be too late to change anything.
“Of course, Grandfather. Once I make a decision, I never change it.”
Her ink-black eyes sparkled brightly, just like stars in the night sky, so beautiful they were almost dazzling. As her clear gaze shifted, there was a cold, resolute firmness in it, like a vast snow-capped mountain.
“Let’s go!” The sound of horse hooves slowly rang out, galloping step by step in the direction of Lushan Academy.