“Sudden as Hou Yi shooting down the nine suns, lithe as emperors riding dragons in flight. It comes like thunder gathering up its wrath; it ends like rivers and seas congealing clear light.” Xiao Qianyin recited slowly, then lifted her eyes to meet the man’s gaze and raised her brows. “How was that?”
The man chuckled softly, cool and clear, like the first ray of morning sunlight falling into a bamboo grove in summer, tinged with a trace of elegance—low and pleasing to the ear. For a moment, she could not help feeling dazed, as if she were about to lose herself in it.
“Very good. I like it very much.” He crouched down, facing her directly. Their faces were no more than a finger’s breadth apart. Qing’er had already gone completely still, her mind crashing in an instant, unable to react.
His breath brushed over her face, carrying the coolness of mint, seemingly mixed with another faint fragrance she could not identify. All she felt was that the man’s lashes were long and curled, like little brushes. They were actually… longer than a woman’s?
People had always said that beauties were calamities, yet they did not know that handsome men could be calamities too. The one before her was exactly at that level.
She wanted to lean back slightly, but unexpectedly, a trace of warmth and softness brushed across her lips. Her eyes flew wide open, and she immediately covered her mouth. She… she… had just been taken liberties with?
Damn it! Two hundred and fifty grass-mud horses instantly thundered through her heart! In all her life, no one had ever dared to tease her like this!
“Well, well, look who it is. So it’s Miss Good-for-Nothing. What? The crown prince of Southern Tang doesn’t like you, so you’ve come to seduce the heir of Northern Qin? You move pretty fast, don’t you!”
A shrill, mocking voice drifted over from the other side, carrying resentment that could not be ignored.
Xiao Qianyin looked toward the voice. The young girl wore a pale pink dress and was indeed fresh and lovely, but the arrogance and contempt in her eyes ruined that delicate beauty.
Enemies truly were bound to meet on a narrow road! She immediately realized that this girl was the daughter of the original owner’s father’s concubine. Pampered and favored, with exceptional talent in swordsmanship, she had always relied on that favor in the Xiao family to make trouble for the original owner. Naturally, the original owner had often clashed with her, but the one punished was always Xiao Qianyin, while she and her mother looked smug and triumphant. That expression of theirs was truly disgusting.
“Are you jealous of me?” Xiao Qianyin asked back with a smiling expression, though a faint cold light flickered in her eyes, clear and calm. “Second Miss Xiao, I suddenly thought of something. Only after seeing you did I understand what it means to have a face that makes fish sink and geese fall.”
“Oh? So you know I’m beautiful too?” The young girl looked pleased with herself, very satisfied by what she took as Xiao Qianyin yielding.
As soon as Xiao Qianqian opened her mouth, Qing’er had instinctively stepped in front of Xiao Qianyin, afraid she would harm her young miss.
Qin Xiaoran watched the scene with great interest, with no intention of interfering. After meeting this Miss Good-for-Nothing today, he felt that she seemed vastly different from the one he had seen at the academy in the past.
“That’s right. The fish are swimming on the water, but the moment they see you, they’re so frightened they sink to the bottom. The swallows take one look at you and are so scared they crash headfirst to the ground. It truly is ‘fish sink and geese fall’!” She deliberately emphasized the four words. The young girl’s face changed at once, her eyebrows shooting upright with rage.
“Let me give you a word of advice: go out less in the future. Because the moment you step outside, birds vanish from a thousand hills, and human traces disappear from ten thousand paths!”
Xiao Qianyin added another sentence. When Xiao Qianqian heard it, she was furious to the extreme. She roared, “I’m going to kill you!”
The group of noble young ladies following behind her immediately began to stir things up. They, too, loathed Xiao Qianyin to the bone. That man was the world-renowned heir of Northern Qin, brilliant and peerlessly elegant, yet he was standing so close to Miss Good-for-Nothing? She deserved to be taught a lesson!