Chapter 28 even uses the interjection "Cousin, are you jealous?"...
I wasn't actually angry; I was just imitating him on purpose.
He gave a mock hum, then cheerfully went into the house.
Ying Zheng touched his nose and followed him inside.
Lady Lu was extremely nervous. She thought to herself that the Crown Prince had come here especially since he was on his day off. Would he be staying here for the entire afternoon? There were already rumors in Xianyang that His Highness the Crown Prince was very knowledgeable, and she subconsciously became more alert.
Yun washed a lot of fruit, cut them all up, and brought them up. She also made a bowl of crispy mountain pastry early on according to Banban's favorite recipe. Unfortunately, before she could eat it, her cousin took it away.
She immediately glared at him angrily: "?!"
Ying Zheng ignored it, scooped up a spoonful of food, and then asked, "What, wasn't this for me?"
"It's for my cousin..." Banban swallowed her anger, "I'm going to study."
Judging from my cousin's demeanor, he's here to keep an eye on things. If I ask him about gossip anytime soon, he won't say anything.
Ying Zheng waited for a moment, then stopped Cong Yun and personally carried the fruit platter to his study.
Although it's called a pavilion, Ta Xue Xuan is quite large. Except for the lack of a small kitchen, it has everything else you could need. However, despite being called a study, it's empty with only a few scrolls of books inside. On the antique shelf are a few interesting porcelain vases, and she has also placed the ornaments bestowed upon her by the various imperial concubines there.
On the most important shelf, apart from a few scattered books and scrolls, the remaining items were her favorite picture books and fabrics, piled high, more than twice the number of books and scrolls.
In the remaining corners, various musical instruments were displayed.
Banban was skilled in singing and had considerable talent in music, so she collected all kinds of musical instruments.
The large and small drums were placed side by side, and she used them very frequently.
She knows the Qin army's military songs by heart, and when she sings them with the beat of drums, she sounds incredibly powerful, a far cry from the weak and listless singing of yesteryear.
On the evening of Ying Zheng's eleventh birthday, Banban once played a piece for him at Taxuexuan.
Beside it was a brand new Seven-Stringed Zither.
This is a piece she's been preparing to learn recently, so it looks new and there's no sign of it having been played before.
Looking further back, there were all kinds of instruments, including the se, yu, xun, and sheng. On the last human-shaped frame, there was her dance costume, with wide sleeves that gradually turned water red and trailed on the ground. The bright color was like a flower bud about to bloom.
Ying Zheng couldn't help but laugh when he thought about how she said she didn't like learning to dance, but then her singing voice became better and better, so she wanted to dance to match her singing voice.
"What are you laughing at, cousin? Don't you think my dance costume looks good?" Banban couldn't help but steal glances at him frequently. "This is a new dress I had made this month."
She is indeed 'growing well'; she can't even fit into last year's dance costume this year.
"It's nothing." Ying Zheng lowered his fist from his lips and turned around casually. "Just focus on the lesson. Why are you paying attention to me?"
"You're walking around and bothering me a lot."
"Didn't I come in to bring you fruit? Are you going to kick me out after I've eaten it?"
What he said made perfect sense, and Banban couldn't refute it. She thanked him dryly, "Oh, thank you very much, cousin, but you should leave now."
He even ate her crispy mountain dessert.
Even the formal "you" was used.
Madam Lu wanted to laugh, but immediately held it back, maintaining a serious expression as she waited for Consort Ji and His Highness the Crown Prince to finish speaking.
Ying Zheng suppressed his smile, put his hands behind his back, and said, "Is that so? No need to be so polite." He had learned such a simple and easy-to-understand phrase from his cousin, who loved to draw out her soft, drawn-out "Oh, don't be so polite~" in a cheerful and comical way.
"Let me see how far my cousin has progressed in her studies."
Upon hearing this, both figures froze for a moment.
Lady Lu straightened her back; if she could be rewarded by the Crown Prince, it would also be beneficial to her.
Banban slumped down, muttering to herself, and gave him a disapproving look when no one could see her.
"The chronology of the Qin bamboo slips from Shuihudi, Yunmeng." Ying Zheng paced back and forth, examining them closely. He glanced at Banban and asked, "Which year have you studied up to?"
Lady Lu was very perceptive; knowing that the Crown Prince only wanted to talk to Consort Ji, she remained silent.
Banban answered truthfully, "It was the thirteenth year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, when King Zhaoxiang attacked Yique." She thought to herself, "King Zhaoxiang of Qin is such a warmonger. No wonder he's the big villain in history books. He loves to fight, fighting everywhere, fighting every year!"
They fought for fifty-six years! I can't even imagine what it would have been like if she had traveled back to the time of King Zhaoxiang of Qin...
Well, he seems to be just as miserable as his cousin. After his brother ascended the throne, he was sent away as a hostage, wandering and suffering. But fate had other plans. His brother was killed while lifting a tripod, and he returned to Qin with the Queen Dowager Xuan to become king.
Oh right! He also killed Bai Qi!
She has a vivid memory of both events.
Thinking this, Banban unconsciously glanced at the Qin King's sword that her cousin wore at his waist.
Ying Zheng knew what his cousin was thinking with just one glance. He gently pressed down on the back of her chair, leaned closer, seemingly looking over her to read the book, but actually giving a light warning: "You are not allowed to look at King Zhaoxiang with that expression."
Banban bumped his head against his neck twice.
He grabbed her chin from below to stop her from moving, his arm just over her shoulder, pulling her into his arms.
Banban was forced to raise her chin, her head resting against his shoulder. This was uncomfortable, so she glared at him and said, "Let me go... let me go."
Lady Lu had gotten up as soon as the Crown Prince approached and used the excuse of changing her clothes to leave the study.
"What...what did you write?" Ying Zheng let her hit him, and caught some words on a scroll of bamboo slips on the table that was not completely rolled up.
"!!!" Banban's head exploded, and he struggled wildly, lunging at the table.
The next second, the scroll was lifted by an even longer arm and passed over her head.
"Give me!"
Banban jumped up and down several times, but still couldn't grab the bamboo slips. Instead, she was so tired that she knocked the chair over. Her face turned red, she was panicked, and her fists were clenched tightly.
She was furious. Her hard fist pounded her little fist on her cousin's arm. Ying Zheng pretended to hiss, dodged her attack, and picked up the document to look at it.
"Don't look, don't look, cousin, I beg you!" Banban pleaded anxiously, tugging at her cousin's clothes.
"What secrets have you written that I can't see?" Ying Zheng was originally not interested in this, but the more she refused to let him see it, the more vigilant he became. He shifted his gaze from his cousin's face to the bamboo slips with suspicion, and then looked at her expression again.
"Since you already know it's a secret, I don't want to show it to you." Banban pouted, "Give it to me now."
Ying Zheng narrowed his eyes slightly, scanning his cousin's face up and down, and slowly said, "What secret do you have?" He suddenly remembered bringing her back to Qin last year, and when she learned that he was Gongsun, the fear that filled her face, and the way she looked at him as if she were looking at a huge, unfamiliar figure.
Later at the post station, he tested her, but she reacted quickly and refused to say anything.
This matter had always been a hurdle he couldn't get over, but he knew that her silence wasn't a betrayal of him, but rather due to various concerns, because he had seen the hesitation on her face at the time.
Since you're hesitant, it means you've considered telling him.
That's why he let it go at the time, not wanting to argue with her, thinking that life is so long, and his cousin would eventually be willing to tell him.
His patience is boundless; he can wait and endure.
But she would rather write it down, risking being spied on, than tell him...
He could clearly discern the emotion surging within him at that moment; it was the burning flame of jealousy, exactly the same flame he had first tasted when she called Prince Dan "Brother Prince" in front of him when he was a child.
He wanted to be the most important person in his cousin's heart; he couldn't accept anyone being his equal!
They knew nothing about any of these things.
“Everyone has secrets, that’s not surprising.” She was still determined to retrieve her bamboo slips.
“No.” Ying Zheng calmed down. “Since you won’t let me see it, then you tell me yourself.” He threw the bamboo slips back onto the table.
"I don't want to." Banban threw a tantrum, turning her head away from him.
She wouldn't look at him, but he insisted that she look at him.
I pinched her little face and forcibly turned it around.
Banban was speechless. It was the first time he had ever seen his cousin so persistent. "Ugh, my cousin is so annoying!"
"Say it." He pinched her cheek and stared at her.
"I don't want to." She drawled, her mouth as stubborn as a dead duck. "I won't say, I won't say, I won't say."
He suddenly squeezed her, and as she was talking, her saliva splattered out and slid down to the base of his thumb.
Banban turned into a screaming chicken, her face flushed with embarrassment, and she quickly pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve, "What are you doing!"
Ying Zheng didn't care at all, nor did he find it dirty.
“…Okay, I’ll tell you.” Banban was at her wit’s end. She tried to push him, but he stood firm and wouldn’t budge. “It’s someone else’s diary.”
"What is a diary?" Ying Zheng was taken aback, not quite understanding, and unconsciously released her face. "Something to record every day? Is it homework?"
"That's right—" she couldn't get through to her, so she simply took the documents from the desk. She was very wary and gripped the documents tightly. "You can only show my cousin a little bit of it. Some parts can't be shown to him."
Ying Zheng didn't speak, but gestured for her to open it.
Banban turned her back to him, opened the documents and examined them carefully. She found the ones that were suitable for him to see, rolled up both ends and showed him only the middle part. "Here, take a look."
The document on the desk read:
—[Summer of the second year, May 13th, sunny.]
—[I overslept today, all because of Qianyin and Congyun. Why didn't they wake me up when I said I wanted to sleep? I got scolded by the Grand Tutor, and I'm going to make sure they finish all their iced drinks today!]
—[Sigh, my cousin is getting more and more handsome. I really like him. Thinking about him kept me awake in class today.]
The word "ya" stopped abruptly. Banban quickly rolled up two inches again and muttered softly, "Oh dear, I can't see the rest."
"This is a diary." Ying Zheng already understood what a diary was.
"My cousin is getting more and more handsome—" Before she could finish repeating herself, she covered his mouth tightly with both hands. "Alright, alright, you can see it, but don't read it out loud!"
I've already told him I don't want to show him this stuff, which is practically a record of a fangirl's infatuation.
Ying Zheng breathed a sigh of relief, but he also felt a little strange. He wasn't surprised at all that his cousin had written these things. She was always like this. When she saw someone good-looking, she would stare at them for a while, but when she saw someone ugly, she didn't want to look at them at all, and even wanted to run away.
That day, Prince Dan's companion, Li Xiesheng, was not entirely satisfactory; every time she saw him, her eyes...
She cherishes everything, whether it's people, cats, dogs, flowers, or grass, as long as they are well-behaved.
How can we accurately describe the snobbishness of human nature?
"You seem disappointed?" Banban bristled. "What kind of expression is that? I praised my cousin, and he's not happy about it?"
Ying Zheng choked, "I'm not disappointed, I was just thinking that you might write down some important secret, and I thought you would rather write it down than tell me, so I was angry."
Banban bit her finger, suddenly remembering her cousin's appearance and look just now, "Cousin, are you jealous of those few volumes of official documents?"
This has nothing to do with love; it's all about the possessive desire to become each other's most important person.
Ying Zheng: "No."
Strangely, my cousin actually used a modal particle.
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