Listening to the verse the young woman recited and looking into her eyes, Xiao Mo froze for a moment.
Her clear eyes stirred Xiao Mo's heart. An inexplicable sense of guilt and apology quietly took root within him, along with an emotion he could neither name nor explain, leaving him unsure where to begin.
"What's wrong, young master? Have you never heard this poem?" Yan Ruxue covered her rosy lips with her sleeve and smiled softly.
"I have, but I didn't expect it to be this particular verse."
Xiao Mo came back to himself and shook his head with a smile.
This poem had appeared not only in the China of his previous life, but in this world as well.
Here, however, "Yearning" had been composed by the Prime Minister of Yun Kingdom, one of the human dynasties, and had spread far and wide.
"So this poem really was difficult to guess," Yan Ruxue said.
Xiao Mo merely smiled and said nothing. He knew she was actually protecting his dignity.
"Let's try twice more, or we'll make ourselves a laughingstock," Xiao Mo suggested.
"All right," Yan Ruxue agreed. "May I do the guessing this time?"
"Of course."
Afterward, Xiao Mo and Yan Ruxue took turns guessing a few more poems. Both answered correctly, and in the end, they won two boxes of pastries.
Before long, Zhen Tea House's renowned virtuoso, Miss Sisi, arrived.
Xiao Mo and Yan Ruxue sat down by the window, drinking tea and eating pastries as they listened to Miss Sisi play the zither.
Listening to the music and watching the people coming and going below, Xiao Mo found his thoughts drifting.
The gloom of being confined deep within the palace seemed to dissipate considerably all at once.
"Say, if the man in the palace chooses someone