Yi Ning was baffled. What was so funny about this? She could only turn around and glare at the even more bewildered Luo Yixiu, telling her to stop talking nonsense.

Cheng Lang saw that this was the little girl he had given the Buddhist beads to last time. He pursed his lips and smiled, "This girl is quite interesting. The Luo family has a long tradition of scholarship, but how could they have produced a girl like you?"

He didn't linger after he finished speaking, but walked into the main hall. Several people were probably there to pay their respects to Old Madam Luo. Luo Huaiyuan and Luo Shanyuan followed suit. Luo Shenyuan walked over to Yining, who acted quite sincere. "Third brother, I really like those calligraphy pieces. They were all written by you. I will definitely finish them."

"Do you know that I wrote it myself?" Luo Shenyuan asked her.

Yining nodded and said, "I recognize your handwriting."

When Yi Ning said this, she felt that Luo Shenyuan seemed to smile faintly. He said softly, "No one has ever been able to recognize my handwriting." He patted Yi Ning's head and said, "I'm going to pay my respects to my grandmother. Come to my place tomorrow and I'll give you a few books."

He walked into the main hall and disappeared. Luo Yixiu poked her elbow and said, "Didn't you tell me that your third brother was born out of wedlock, lowly and lowly, and that you disdained to play with him... Why do I feel like you're..." Luo Yixiu thought for a long time before finding a word. She looked at Yi Ning strangely, hesitant to say, "Why... why do I feel like you're a little afraid of him now?"

Yi Ning sighed inwardly. Could Luo Yixiu even see that? It shouldn't be that obvious. She truly respected and feared Luo Shenyuan. It was just that she didn't usually show it. After all, he was only a fifteen-year-old boy, not the cold-blooded Prime Minister.

Yining kept thinking about the stories he'd heard in his past life: how Luo Shenyuan's mentor, Xu Ge Lao, had been beaten to death for offending then-Prime Minister Wang You, his bloody body laid out at the Meridian Gate; Luo Shenyuan's sedan chair passed by without even stopping to glance. Or how, when he was Prime Minister, he had ruthlessly initiated political reforms, forcing the emperor to arrest and execute over a thousand people, their families either enslaved or exiled to Hainan.

She really wanted to please him, who knows what Luo Shenyuan will be like in the future. And Luo Shenyuan was also very good to her, but he was taciturn and didn't like to express his emotions.

"Third brother treats me well, so I should treat him well too." Yi Ning said to her, "You should respect him more in the future, he is still your third brother."

Luo Yixiu shrugged, yawned, and returned to her embroidery frame, working on her flower pattern. After a long while, she'd only managed half a butterfly's wing. She was slacking off, and when she looked up at the other two students, they were also distracted.

Luo Yilian had just made a mistake, so she became more cautious and reserved, speaking less. But her sister, Luo Yiyu, seemed listless in her studies.

Yining also looked up at Luo Yiyu. Luo Yiyu stared at the direction where Cheng Lang left, without even looking at the needle in her hand, which was almost poking her fingertips.

Yining said nothing.

Luo Yiyu cried out, came to her senses, and quickly threw away the embroidery frame.

The nanny saw a tiny drop of blood on her delicate fingertip and quickly asked the maid to bring gauze and other supplies. "Fourth Miss, how could you hurt your hand so suddenly? If you are tired, please rest for a while, but don't force yourself."