Lin Ning took a stroll around the garden, feeling the calm wind that pushed against her face. It had been at most two weeks since the whole incident of the bandits, and she soon found out that the fifth princess lost her child. She knew that the fifth princess would not try to plot anything since she would get caught in contact with the bandits, but she was still in a mental breakdown. ‘Hearing the news of the fifth princess losing her child, I did not think that anyone would want the fifth princess to have an illegitimate child to begin with.’ Lin Ning figured that most would see the fifth princess’s child as some sort of shame in the royal family, mostly in the Zhao State. Knowing fairly well who was the one who had poisoned the fifth princess, but she was not going to be a snitch about it since the fifth princess had also chosen to mess with her people and her family. Hearing the same footsteps, she smiled to turn and came face to face with Cao Peizhi who appeared as Wei. “Brother Wei, it has been awhile.” She smiled, opening her eyes to see a pink color glow around as it held a caring feeling.

“En, how have you been for the past couple of days.” Cao Peizhi knew that it was bad to keep hiding his identity, but he wanted to be able to be just himself when it was just the two of them alone.

“I’ve been good. My injuries are healed. All of my friends are well and some may even be more than you would expect. My parents are still lovely together with my growing sibling. Then, there is you here with me.” Lin Ning chuckled a little, seeing the pink glow brighter on Cao Peizhi. ‘Oh, my. He is shy right now.’ Lin Ning did not think that he could get shy, but it made her want to just tease him more.

“You do not need to include me.” Cao Peizhi (Wei) turned his red face away, feeling as though she could still see him somehow.

“Why not? You are one of my people.” Lin Ning said truthfully, she was not going to hide the fact since he was important to her as well. Cao Peizhi on the other hand grew more and more unsteady being close to Lin Ning this way. Once he heard about being one of ‘her people’ it made his heart unsteady to see how she included him without a care for rumors that would spread about them if people knew that they knew one another better than they would have expected.

“Ahem, I came here to give you this to try.” Lin Ning held out her hands to feel something small fall into her hands. Cai Peizhi had gone into the market to get some freshly grown apples of the season. Taking a bite, Lin Ning felt her face instantly freeze up to the taste.

“Brother Wei?! Where did you get this apple???” Lin Ning wanted to be able to get more as she loved the sweetness that it immediately gave on the first bite.

“You like it?” Cao Peizhi smiled, looking down to see how Lin Ning loved the fruit that he had bought for her. Seeing that she acted a bit like a child that had gotten their first candy.

“En!” Lin Ning continued to eat the apple, then she stopped and turned to Cao Peizhi. “Here.” Lin Ning brought the apple forth for Cao Peizhi to take a bite out of.

“I do-”

“Come on. It's not fair if I am the only one eating this apple.” Lin Ning did not want to look like she was hogging the apple all to herself. Cao Peizhi gladly took the offer, taking a bite out from the apple. Lin Ning could feel his lips lightly touch her palm that held the apple, making her blush hard to see that he would actually not take the apple out from her hand, but took a bite while she held it.

“It’s sweet.” He said, taking a look at Lin Ning who was still frozen to process what had just happened right in front of her.

‘What just happened???’ Lin Ning thought.

***

Meanwhile…

“Master actually took a bite from the apple in her hand!” Duan Fa did not think that their master would be so confident now. “Why does he not pop the question!?!?”

“Master is claiming his woman right now!” Qin Yun said soon after, seeing how they were able to witness it out of everyone else then they felt very special.

“This is why we are still single.” Xia Ling said on the side, leaning against the pillar that they were hiding behind. ‘These two really do not care if they are single or not.’ Huffing a breath, she was just about to leave when she had bumped into something hard that made her hit her nose.

“Sorry.” Someone had taken a hold of her hand before she could fall to the ground.

“Shi Men???” Duan Fa looked at Shi Men holding Xia Ling’s hand, but he also had his other hand holding her waist. “Oh, looks like we got another show for ourselves.” Duan Fa whispered to Qin Yun who turned to see such a scene in front of him. Both giving off a smile and high fiving each other.

(〃￣︶￣)人(￣︶￣〃)

Xia Ling had realized what had happened and pushed herself away from Shi Men while rubbing her nose. “None of you say anything!” She did not even think about the reason Shi Men was there as she went to do whatever chores she could find in the Lin Manor.

“Did I do something wrong?” Shi Men was only helping Xia Ling to make sure that she did not fall.

“Oh~ you did something alright.” Duan Fa held a smirk, seeing how this guy did not even know what he had done.

“What did I do???” Shi Men kept his serious face on, not knowing if it was really that serious.

“Ahem, sometimes a woman who has been touched by a man in front of others may lose their image.” Qin Yun and Duan Fa looked to one another, thinking that Shi Men was not going to understand what they had just meant.

‘Did I really make her lose her image?’ Shi Men felt a bit concerned since there were two people who had witnessed him taking Xia Ling into his arms. “Nevertheless, I came to tell my master that there is some bad news regarding the emperor.” Shi Men looked over to see that their master was enjoying his time with Lin Ning who kept getting teased by him.

“What is the emperor thinking?” Duan Fa and Qin Yun did not know what the emperor was thinking, but they knew for sure that it was going to be something serious.