"What has Miss Xia been chatting about with a fool for so long here?"
"Mmph…!"
The hand gripping Xia Jian's face suddenly tightened with a cruel force, completely distorting her features. Xia Jian raised her hands to grasp Pei Guanzhu's icy wrist.
"What are you doing?" Pei Guanzhu glanced at the girl's translucent, jade-like hand resting on his pale wrist, frowning slightly.
"Mmph… we weren't talking about anything…"
"Not talking about anything?"
Xia Jian hurriedly nodded.
The fingers squeezing her cheeks abruptly loosened. Xia Jian quickly covered her face, now marked with finger imprints, and stepped back.
"Really?" Pei Guanzhu's expression was complex, a faint, ambiguous smile playing on his lips. He lowered his hand and caught the small tassel hanging from Xia Jian's outer garment, toying with it between his fingers. "Miss Xia mustn't bully a fool, you know."
As soon as he said this, Xia Jian knew he had likely overheard her entire conversation with Laixi.
How could a murderer walk without making a sound!
"Really, nothing," Xia Jian straightened up a little. "I just passed by and smelled medicinal herbs, so I came in to talk with him, just exchanging a few words."
"Exchanging?" Pei Guanzhu laughed again, his fingers gently winding around the small tassel on Xia Jian's garment. "What could Miss Xia possibly exchange with a fool?"
"Exchange… exchange some insights," Xia Jian said, feeling somewhat strange as she watched his slender fingers leisurely fiddle with the tassel on her clothes. "After all, I want to stay by your side and serve you, Young Master Pei. Seeing that there's only him as a servant in your courtyard, I thought I'd exchange some insights with him…"
She looked up and saw the look in Pei Guanzhu's eyes—it had returned to the same expression he had when he first heard her say she wanted to be his guard, the look that said she was insane.
…Insane it is, then.
Xia Jian retrieved the wooden box from behind her and placed it in front of Pei Guanzhu.
"What is this?"
"This is the fox fur cloak I hurriedly made for you, Young Master Pei."
"Hah," as if touching on some strange sense of humor, the young man's eyes curved. "Miss Xia is truly peculiar. You came here for a matchmaking visit, yet insisted on becoming my guard. Now, with April approaching, you've sewn me a fox fur cloak."
"Keep it for next year?" Xia Jian handed it over, afraid that Pei Guanzhu might immediately discard the cloak she had worked on through several long nights. "Young Master Pei, please take good care of it. I stayed up many nights to finish this fox fur cloak."
The fingers resting idly on the wooden box paused. Pei Guanzhu looked up, surprisingly refraining from making any more sarcastic remarks. Instead, his gaze lingered on her with curiosity. "Miss Xia is truly strange."
His bony hands pressed down on either side of Xia Jian. The dark blue hem of his robe tangled with her light pink gown as he leaned forward. Three thousand strands of black hair cascaded down like a curtain, enveloping Xia Jian within. The cool scent of sandalwood permeated the air, emanating from his hair and sleeves. Pei Guanzhu suddenly drew closer, their noses almost touching.
In all her life, Xia Jian had never been this close to a man, especially one who looked like Pei Guanzhu. Even though she had initially been afraid, her heart couldn't help but race at such proximity.
"Does Miss Xia like me?"
"Ah?" Xia Jian's heart felt like it was about to leap out of her throat. She stared directly into Pei Guanzhu's dark eyes above her, speaking rapidly. "No, I don't like you."
"Don't like me, yet stay up all night sewing me a fox fur robe?" Pei Guanzhu frowned, seemingly dissatisfied with her answer. His cold fingertips suddenly touched Xia Jian's lower lip, his gaze fixed intently on her reaction.
He had always disliked things he couldn't figure out.
This Miss Xia—first she bribed the servants with money to inquire about his health, as if afraid she'd be left a widow after marrying him. Then she said she didn't want to marry him, only wished to be his guard. And today, she suddenly gave him a fox fur robe, telling him she had worked through the night to finish it.
Pei Guanzhu hated this feeling the most.
"Does Miss Xia actually like me," Pei Guanzhu's fingertip lightly traced, like a cold, blunt knife sliding over Xia Jian's lower lip, "or is it, as you say, simply that you want to serve and take care of me?"
"I…" Xia Jian's cheeks burned with embarrassment. "I don't like Young Master Pei. I've already said so."
"Then why is your lip so hot?" Pei Guanzhu didn't understand. "I've heard that women only feel their faces flush and hearts race when they see someone they admire. Since Miss Xia doesn't like me, why would you react this way?"
"Could it be, Miss Xia, that you have a constitution where your face heats and heart races even around people you don't like?"
His questions, one after another, annoyed Xia Jian. Mindful of the person behind her, her sense of shame soared even higher. She grabbed Pei Guanzhu's hand. "Did the person who said that never run?"
She leaned back, refusing to let Pei Guanzhu touch her anymore. "People's faces flush and hearts race not only when they meet someone they admire, but also when they see someone attractive! Or when they run! Sometimes even seeing a painting of a handsome man or beautiful woman can do it! And it's not just women—men experience it too!"
"Absurd," Pei Guanzhu withdrew his hand, leisurely tying up his long hair above her, revealing his pale neck and the distinct collarbones beneath his collar. "I've never experienced that."
Xia Jian screamed inwardly, Are you the same as normal men?! The same?! In this novel, the female lead is practically a femme fatale, and your first thought upon sharing a room with her was to chop her to death with an axe. Who could possibly make you blush and your heart race?!
"Anyway, we all do."
"Ridiculous," Pei Guanzhu shifted his gaze to behind Xia Jian. "Laixi, do you blush and your heart race when you see a beauty or a painting of one?"
Xia Jian: "…"
Xia Jian turned around and, sure enough, saw Laixi silently shake his head.
The young man chuckled softly, his dark eyes catching a gleam of bright light from the sun filtering through the window lattice.
"See? It seems Miss Xia is the strange one after all."
"I'm not strange," Xia Jian said, unruffled. "Anyway, Young Master Pei will understand someday." Though in her opinion, the chances were slim.
Getting Pei Guanzhu to blush and his heart race at the sight of a beauty? Might as well have him run a 1,500-meter race.
"I should head back now. Young Master Pei, try on the fox fur robe when you return. The size should be just right." Xia Jian patted her skirt and stood up from the floor. Just as she was about to step past Pei Guanzhu, he suddenly stepped on the hem of her outer robe.
"Hey!" Xia Jian nearly tripped, her annoyance flaring again. "What are you doing now, Young Master Pei?"
"What do you mean by 'understand someday'?" Pei Guanzhu stood up. "Miss Xia always says things I don't understand."
"Well…" Xia Jian didn't understand why this was so hard to grasp—the murderer was clearly sharper than anyone else. "It means that when you meet someone who matches your taste, your heart might beat faster. Though I'm not entirely sure myself."
"Someone who matches my taste?" Pei Guanzhu frowned. "I've already met them."
"Huh?" Xia Jian widened her eyes. How had she never heard about this? "Who?"
"Him." Pei Guanzhu raised a finger.
Xia Jian turned to look in the direction he pointed. Laixi lifted his slightly larger-than-average head, his somewhat bewildered beady eyes meeting hers.
Xia Jian: ??
"Well, Young Master Pei's taste…" Xia Jian stared at Laixi's features, struggling to find words. "Hmm, it's quite good."
"Sister Liu," Xia Jian sat down opposite Liu Ruoteng. "Take a look at me."
"What's the matter?"
"How would you describe my appearance?"
"Miss Xia has delicate and refined features—a rare beauty." A faint smile graced Liu Ruoteng's lips. She hadn't expected the usually clever and alert Miss Xia to ask the kind of question only young girls would care about.
Xia Jian turned to the only man in the room. "Brother Xu, what do you think?"
Xu Zhi exchanged a glance with Liu Ruoteng. After spending several days together, the two protagonists had already come to regard Xia Jian as a younger sister. It was natural for a woman to care about her looks, and having just returned from Young Master Pei's courtyard today, it was possible that her admiration for him had made her more conscious of her appearance. Xu Zhi studied Xia Jian's face seriously and affirmed gently, "I share my junior sister's opinion."
Strange.
These two locals' aesthetic standards seemed perfectly normal too.
Case solved. It wasn't her taste that was off, nor was it that beady eyes, thick lips, and large heads were considered beautiful in this era—it was Pei Guanzhu's taste that was the problem.
Thankfully, she had never harbored any foolish hopes of making Pei Guanzhu fall in love with her from the start. Instead, she had planned to stay by his side as a guard or maid. Otherwise, with her face completely failing to meet Pei Guanzhu's aesthetic standards, he would probably have chopped her head off eight times with his axe.
"Well, that's a relief," Xia Jian's expression turned more serious. "I came here today because I made some new discoveries."
"What new discoveries?" Hearing this, the two of them—one pulling down the bamboo curtain, the other closing the door—dragged chairs over and sat beside Xia Jian.
"While wandering in the courtyard today, I overheard some servants chatting on the other side of the flower bed. Something about it struck me as odd."
"What was it?"
"I heard a coarse servant lamenting how a group of servants had been driven out of the estate a few years ago."
"What?" Liu Ruoteng exclaimed, her eyes filled with obvious shock. "My senior brother and I have been investigating for days and never heard about this."
"It's the first time I've heard of it too," Xia Jian looked straight at her. "Our estate has always treated servants exceptionally well. I've never heard of a group of servants being driven out years ago."
"Did Miss Xia not go around to ask that person for more details?" Xu Zhi inquired.
Xia Jian wore a troubled expression. "Actually, I was just about to go around and question them further, but my footsteps were probably too heavy and startled those lazy servants. They scattered like birds and beasts, and I couldn't catch up."
"So that's what happened." Liu Ruoteng's face turned grave.
Xia Jian sighed with a smile. The male and female leads truly lived up to being martial siblings—just by pondering a problem, they made the surrounding atmosphere grow much more serious. "That's all there is to it. Sister Liu and Brother Xu, you can just take it as something you've heard. Who knows whether what they said is true or false?"
Xu Zhi's smile was gentle, unlike Pei Guanzhu's unsettling one—his eyes held genuine warmth. "Thank you, Miss Xia, for telling us about this matter. Whether it's true or false, we'll investigate it further later."