She might not have the ability to marry the Crown Prince like Lin Yuanjin—but now, in Lin Yuanjin’s mouth, she wasn’t even worthy of the Pei heir?
“Mother need not say more.” Lin Weiyin stepped out, going forward to interrupt her mother, staring at Lin Yuanjin as she spoke word by word, “My future, I will earn it myself.”
“Just now, I happened to be discussing elder sister’s marriage with Mother.” Lin Yuanjin slowly turned around, looking thoughtfully at Lin Weiyin, sensing a very obvious hostility, and gradually lifted a smile. “Elder sister is angry with me.”
“Elder sister surpasses me in everything, yet now it is I who married first. Elder sister is so annoyed with me—could it be because the one you wished to marry… was in fact my husband?”
She spoke lightly.
Lin Weiyin had always been proud and unwilling to concede, insisting on competing with her in everything—marriage especially. Naturally, if she were to marry, it had to be the very best.
Lin Weiyin wanted a marriage that could surpass hers, but she could never become Empress—how could she accept that?
“This subject daughter would not dare.” Lin Weiyin’s face turned pale, completely unprepared for her bluntness, and she spoke stiffly.
Yet Lin Yuanjin paid no heed to her reply. She only stepped forward, looking curiously at Lin Weiyin, who was half a head taller than her, and smiled innocently. “Would elder sister be willing to be a concubine?”
If she dared to conspire with others to kill, what was there that Lin Weiyin would not dare?
Lin Weiyin suddenly looked at her, only feeling that she did not care at all for the dignity of the family, insisting on humiliating her face to face. She retorted firmly, “Naturally not.”
“My marriage has nothing to do with the Crown Princess. There is no need for the Crown Princess to test and slander me!”
“Weiyin?!” Lin Mother looked at her stubborn eldest daughter in shock, wanting to pull her hand, but unable to move her at all. Instead, she heard sudden applause from the side.
“Clap, clap.” Lin Yuanjin clapped her hands lightly, smiling brightly. “Elder sister has always been capable; it should be so. Only…”
She paused, walking to Lin Weiyin’s side, and in a voice only the two of them could hear, said softly, “If I were you, I would be a bit more careful.”
“Lest another group of mountain bandits suddenly appear somewhere and ‘happen’ to abduct elder sister.” Lin Yuanjin smiled again, speaking considerately, “If elder sister does not have my kind of luck—being saved by the Crown Prince—then forget marrying the Crown Prince… wouldn’t it be that even the person helping you wouldn’t be able to marry you either?”
Lin Weiyin’s whole body stiffened. A chill suddenly rose from the soles of her feet. She took a step back, staring at Lin Yuanjin in shock, whose smile was pure, as though the threatening words by her ear just now had nothing to do with her at all.
She knew?!
Lin Weiyin had long felt that since the incident on the mountain path, Lin Yuanjin seemed different from before—but now, the way she spoke of it so casually with a smile made it all the more chilling.
After all, Lin Weiyin had never imagined that the Lin Yuanjin who had always been timid and cautious, who weighed her words carefully before speaking, would one day dare to threaten her.
Could marrying into the imperial family for just a few days really change a person so completely?
“No need for the Crown Princess to trouble herself.” Lin Weiyin steadied herself, casting a gloomy glance at the smiling Lin Yuanjin, then turned and left, not even caring about Lin Mother calling her name in alarm.
Lin Yuanjin watched her figure stride away without moving at all. Instead, she looked unexpectedly at Lin Mother beside her, slightly tilting her head as she asked curiously, “Aren’t you going after her?”
One had to know, if Lin Weiyin suffered even the slightest grievance, this good mother would wish to comfort her for half a day, and had punished her countless times for it.
Even when she had done nothing at all.
Lin Mother met Lin Yuanjin’s puzzled eyes, as if struck, and only stiffly shook her head, unconsciously lowering her voice. “It was Weiyin who was unreasonable and offended the Crown Princess.”
“Is that so.” Lin Yuanjin curved her eyes in a smile and said nothing more.
Lin Mother fell into thought. With no other sounds by her ear, she began to enjoy this brief moment of quiet.
The Lin residence was not large; going back and forth took no more than a quarter of an hour.
The arrangement inside had not changed in the slightest, familiar to the point of irritation.
Passing by the rockery and clear pond, just as she turned toward the direction of the main hall, Lin Yuanjin let out a soft “Eh,” stopped in her tracks, and looked curiously toward the eaves ahead.
Beneath the osmanthus tree, beside the wooden railing.
She saw Lin Weiyin slightly bending as she said something, seemingly paying her respects, her back straight like a stalk of grain, revealing a slender and fair neck.
Cui Yiyu’s gaze was calm, his expression indifferent, saying nothing as if lost in thought, until his pupils shifted, and in an instant he noticed Lin Yuanjin approaching from the corner.
In that brief moment.
Lin Weiyin stepped forward, intending to say something more, but Cui Yiyu frowned, moved back two steps in guarded caution, and looked at her coldly, as though he had encountered something troublesome to deal with.
It was the first time Lin Weiyin had been avoided in such a manner, as if struck by lightning. Her eyes reddened immediately, and she stared in disbelief into the young man’s dark pupils before her, only feeling that the scrutiny in his gaze was like a blade that would cut her open completely.
As though she were not a young maiden, but an annoying trouble.
There was not the slightest sign of interest.
This was not Lin Weiyin’s first time seeing the Crown Prince, but it was the first time she had felt his authority at such close range. Her strong sense of pride was wounded, her face flushed red, and in humiliation she clenched her skirt so tightly her hands seemed ready to draw blood.
She truly could not understand what she lacked compared to Lin Yuanjin, but merely standing before the Crown Prince had already exhausted all her strength—how could she dare question the will of one in such a position?
But just what did the Crown Prince like about Lin Yuanjin?
Without his favor, what gave Lin Yuanjin the right to now put on airs in the residence, act arrogantly, order her about, and belittle her at will?!
Both were young and beautiful—so why was it that she, the legitimate eldest daughter, was not chosen instead?
Lin Weiyin keenly noticed the gaze of the person before her shift silently. As if pricked by a needle, she suddenly turned around.
Sure enough, she saw Lin Yuanjin and their mother walking slowly from the corner.
“Crown Princess.” Cui Yiyu inclined his head.
Lin Weiyin, on the other hand, stepped back a few paces, staring at Lin Yuanjin as she approached leisurely. Her eyes were filled with intense unwillingness and hatred, as if her own younger sister had taken everything that originally belonged to her. With a stiff smile, she unwillingly performed a salute.
The words “Crown Princess” sounded unbearably harsh.
“Your Highness, were you waiting for this consort?” Lin Yuanjin walked briskly to Cui Yiyu’s side, intimately taking his arm, treating others as though they did not exist.
“Mm.” Cui Yiyu lifted his eyes slightly, looking at Lin Yuanjin indifferently. “Your health is weak; you should not be going out. Today was already an exception, yet you even left the nanny behind.”
He could not come out himself, so he had specially sent Nanny Zhang to follow Lin Yuanjin, precisely to prevent any mishap from happening to her in the Lin residence.
“When have I been that fragile?” Lin Yuanjin held his wrist. Though she spoke thus, her smile grew even brighter. “Has Your Highness taken his leave?”
No one dislikes being cared for and cherished.
“Mm, I came to fetch you.” Cui Yiyu nodded. His eyes were dark and clear, as if they could hold only the girl before him, unable to see anyone else.
Lin Weiyin stood stiffly to the side, as though an invisible wall separated her from them.
Watching the Crown Prince’s completely different attitude toward Lin Yuanjin, the intense unwillingness and hatred burned along her spine like flames, forcing her gaze to become twisted.
“It’s getting late.” Only then did Lin Yuanjin turn her head. She happened to catch Lin Weiyin’s pale face and evasive, gloomy gaze, yet seemed unaware, smiling kindly. “His Highness and I will not stay long.”
Having said that, the two left together, like a perfectly matched pair, inseparable.
They declined the Lin family’s attempt to keep them, their movements clean and without hesitation, and in the blink of an eye, they boarded the carriage back to the Crown Prince’s residence.
“What do you intend to do?”
Inside the carriage, Cui Yiyu quietly looked at Lin Yuanjin and asked.
Such seemingly insignificant figures within the inner household were not to be underestimated. Back then, she had nearly been killed by someone like this. Now that they had torn off all pretense, there would certainly be a second time in the future.
Since it was already known that this person posed a hidden danger, it could not be ignored.
What he had said yesterday—today, it was his turn to ask her.
Lin Yuanjin was humming a tune. Hearing Cui Yiyu’s voice, the hand fiddling with the incense box paused. A thoughtful look appeared in her eyes, as if she had remembered something, her fingertips slightly stilling.
A life for a life—only natural and just.
After a while, a smile appeared on her face, her lowered eyes dark and boundless.
