Ye Ling tucked her in as she slept, so that she wouldn't catch a cold, and then he closed his eyes to allow sleep to take over.

By dawn, barely six o'clock, Ye Ling awoke right on time, as though he had set an alarm. He opened his eyes and came face to face with a sleeping Liu Duo.

She was still holding on to him with no sign of waking up, so Ye Ling stayed in bed too, just gazing at her.

Sleeping Liu Duo was very docile, unlike some people who were quite rude. This was his first time seeing her up close without her knowing.

In his mind, he thought, She's so beautiful.

A few minutes later, whether it was because Ye Liu was concentrating on her too much, or whether the sleeping girl remembered that she had to sell bamboo shoots in town, Liu Duo's eyelids twitched, and her fan-like lashes flapped open as she roused awake.

The first sight she saw was Ye Ling's refined features, "Ling, good morning."

Caught peeking, Ye Ling immediately staggered the line of sight, cheeks flushing, "Morning to you too."

She loosened her arms that were wrapped around him, shifted about, and sat up on the bed to stretch. "Right, time to get up. I have bamboo shoots to be cooked for sale."

Receiving no reaction from him, she looked back, only to find him staring at her waist. She followed his gaze and checked her body. Nothing out of the ordinary other than creased clothes.

"Ling, what are you looking at?"

"Ah, nothing! I have to get up too!" Ye Ling recovered from his embarrassing incident.

When she was stretching just then, the corners of her undergarment had ridden up, revealing to him a great view of the fair skin and flat stomach underneath. He hadn't been able to move his eyes away.

Liu Duo did not think much of what had happened. She put on her clothes and got down to comb her hair. Ye Ling followed suit when she did not question him.

After she had set her hair, she walked out of the room, only to find Ye Yang doing the same thing next door.

Not certain whether he had been looking before, or whether it was a coincidence, their eyes somehow met.

At the sight of Ye Yang and his body overrun by male hormones, Liu Duo called out to him in between giggles, "Yang, a very good morning to you!"

What a mature, steady, cool and collected man of the household? So attractive! Such a shame he was born in the wrong era. Otherwise, a whole bunch of women would be chasing after him, fighting to be his girlfriend and have his babies!

Ye Yang, with his stoic face, gave a weak response to Liu Duo's cheerful greeting, "Morning."

Ye Ling came out of the room and greeted him as well, "Yang, morning."

He merely nodded, and went to wash up by the well.

Liu Duo felt that, for someone as cool and aloof as Ye Yang, he seemed to treat Liu Duo with the minimum amount of passion. At the very least, he responded.

Liu Duo tailed him, "Yang, I'm going to sell bamboo shoots later. Why not come with me?"

"No." He wasn't good with sales, so why bother?

"Why not? Let's go together. It'll be great!"

"..." He passed the willow branches to Liu Duo and Ye Ling for them to brush their teeth, and then he started brushing his.

She looked at Ye Yang brushing in silence and twitched her lips. Even squeezing toothpaste was easier than squeezing a few more words out of him!

"Yo, Little Duo, you're early today - even earlier than me!" Ye Liu walked out of the room after he woke up and found Liu Duo by the well, brushing her teeth, along with the two brothers.

Ye Mo trailed behind him and looked her in the eye.