After finally attending the boring and lengthy palace banquet, Jiang Ling almost fell asleep in the carriage.
The moment her head hit the car wall, she suddenly heard a sound of knocking on a wooden board, which hit her ear right next to it, making her sit up instantly.
"Who is it?" How dare you disturb her sleep!
The carriage did not stop and no one answered her.
A weak voice came from outside the car: "Ling'er, it's me."
Perhaps because he could hear the irritation in Jiang Ling's voice, Zhou Jing'an spoke carefully.
Jiang Ling rubbed his eyes and said, "Oh, it's you."
The curtain was right next to her, and she could lift it up to see him, but she didn't even raise her hand.
Sorry, she is in a bad mood and doesn’t want to see you!
Zhou Jingan sat on the horse, turned his head to stare at the closed curtain, and pursed his lips.
"Ling'er..." Zhou Jing'an said softly, "I haven't spoken to you for three days."
During the New Year holidays, things are very busy, and Zhou Jing'an has to be on guard against those who take advantage of the chaos to attack. Now he has to run to the palace every day.
In addition, the two of them are about to get engaged, and according to the rules, they should not see each other often.
However, the identities of the two were no longer something that others could easily comment on, and Zhou Jing'an simply couldn't bear to see her, so he asked her out every few days or accompanied her shopping and sightseeing.
He had been very busy with the palace banquet these days, so he hadn't spoken to Jiang Ling for three days.
Jiang Ling turned his head and thought, it seemed like he hadn't spoken for three days.
When talking about this, Jiang Ling thought of the task bar.
In the past half month, Zhou Jing'an's loyalty has increased by 2% and is now 49%.
But! His favorability value didn't increase at all!
Still stuck at 99!
Jiang Ling couldn't help but wonder, the loyalty level is almost halfway, why is the favorability value still not moving at all?
Is this so difficult?
The irritability of being woken up suddenly turned into a wonderful motivation.
Jiang Ling lifted the car curtain and said, no, she must make him have the maximum favorability today!
Zhou Jing'an was still whispering about the interesting things that happened in the past few days, but his words were implicitly saying - I haven't seen you for three days, I miss you so much, and nothing I do is interesting.
"......Ling'er, can you please take a look at me?" Zhou Jing'an held the reins tightly. He didn't know why he said so much but Jiang Ling didn't say a word.
As he was thinking, he suddenly heard the rustling sound of cloth beside him. He turned around and saw the person he had been looking at from afar all night.
There was still a hint of sleepiness on Jiang Ling's face, her brows were slightly furrowed, and her cheeks were pink.
"Zhou Jing'an, you disturbed my sleep!"
The girl had a pretty face and her voice sounded like a coquettish complaint, but it made Zhou Jingan's ears blush.
He quickly admitted his mistake: "I didn't know Ling'er was asleep. It's my fault."
Jiang Ling looked up at him. It was a sunny day today. Although the moon at night was not very round, it was very bright. The white light shone down in a large area, all of which fell on Zhou Jing'an's shoulders.
He frowned, his face full of annoyance and caution, and looked at her face carefully, fearing that she would be angry.
With a "puff", Jiang Ling suddenly laughed.
After laughing, she got angry with herself again. It was so annoying. Why did she feel soft-hearted after just one look at him?
"snort."
Zhou Jing'an had felt relieved when he saw her smile, but when he heard her hum, he was no longer sure what she was thinking.
Zhou Jing'an couldn't help but feel troubled.
Why is Ling'er's mind so hard to guess?
Even harder than the enemy's.
"Ling'er, don't be angry."
Zhou Jing'an drove his horse closer to her side and said, "Today is New Year's Eve, you can't be angry."
Jiang Ling glanced at him, then suddenly leaned on the window frame, raised her head to look at him, and spoke in a soft voice, as if blaming and complaining about him.
"Zhou Jing'an, today is New Year's Eve, and you haven't said a word of blessing to me yet."
Her eyebrows were slightly curved, reflecting the stars in the sky, shining brightly.
Zhou Jing'an's heart was pounding and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
“May Ling’er and I, like flowers and leaves, share the spring breeze year after year.”
His voice was clear and pleasant, as if mixed with the bright moonlight.
Jiang Ling's eyelashes trembled slightly, and she lowered her eyes and snorted softly: "You only know how to say these nice words to coax me."
I wanted to tease him, but ended up getting teased instead.
Jiang Ling was secretly feeling annoyed when suddenly a wooden box appeared in front of her.
"Hmm?" She reached out and took it. "Is it for me?"
Zhou Jingan replied softly, "Yes, a New Year's gift."
She opened it and saw that it was a golden hairpin, carved with crabapple flowers and inlaid with rubies.
It was heavy enough that her hand sank down.
Jiang Ling's eyes sparkled, and her smile widened. She said sweetly, "Thank you, Mr. Zhou."
"He recited poems about crabapple blossoms and gave me a crabapple hairpin." She glanced at him and jokingly said, "Master Zhou is very good at coaxing people."
Zhou Jing'an blushed slightly, pursed his lips and smiled, "As long as Ling'er likes it."
Jiang Ling put it away carefully, took out the bundle from the low cabinet and handed it to him: "Fortunately, I prepared it. This is a New Year's gift for you."
Zhou Jingan was slightly startled, with stars in his eyes. He took it with both hands, tightly grasping the bundle. His smile widened, and the corners of his mouth turned up. "Thank you, Ling'er. I like it very much."
"You haven't seen it yet."
"No matter what it is, as long as it's given by Ling'er, I like it." Zhou Jing'an lowered his eyes to look at her, his voice low and tender, the affection in it was thicker than the night.
Jiang Ling bit her lip, pulled down the car curtain, and touched her hot cheek with her cold fingertips.
Oh no, I got teased.
————
① From Yan Shu's "Su Zhongqing: Begonia Pearls Studded Layer by Layer":
Begonia pearls adorn the face layer upon layer. At dawn, near the curtains. Whose rouge is evenly distributed, thicker on the sides of the face?
See the tender leaves, cherish the red flowers. The meaning is endless. Like flowers and leaves, year after year, they share the spring breeze.
This sentence means: I only hope that our friendship will be like the flowers and leaves of the crabapple tree, sharing the spring breeze year after year.
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