"Y-you... are you and my mother really close?" Zhong Ling's big eyes flickered beneath the moonlight, seeming to brim with the stars above. She was utterly curious.
Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow and asked in return, "What makes you say that?"
"Because..." Zhong Ling gathered her thoughts and muttered softly, "I noticed that every time Mother sees you, she smiles so happily."
"It's not the way she smiles at guests, and it's not the way she smiles at Father, either. It's... it's a kind of smile I've never seen before."
"Her eyes shine, like there are stars in them."
She tried her best to describe it, her little cheeks puffing out slightly with concentration. It was adorable.
"And," she added, as though she'd found new evidence, "I was secretly counting during dinner just now. She sneaked seven glances at you!"
"She looked away right away each time, and her face got a little red. Brother Xuan, does my mother... like you?"
Children spoke without a care, yet what they said was often closest to the truth.
Lin Xuan smiled to himself at her words. The little girl was certainly observant.
He turned to look into Zhong Ling's clear, unclouded eyes and deliberately teased her. "Aren't you happy whenever you see me, too?"
"That's different!" Zhong Ling immediately protested, shaking her head like a rattle drum.
"I'm happy because I think of you as a big brother, a good friend I can play with! But the way Mother looks at you... it's different!"
"I've never seen Mother look at any man that way—not even Father. That look reminds me of what the books say about how a woman looks at the man she loves."
Lin Xuan's heart stirred. He hadn't expected the little girl to be so perceptive. He decided to