When Zhai Le called out her name, Lin Feng was momentarily stunned too. She seemed not to have expected him to remember an "insignificant nobody" like her. Her expression softened, and a hint of warmth entered her eyes. "It's been years since we last met. How have you been, Lord of Zhai Country?"
Zhai Le did not reply.
He simply stared blankly at the mature woman before him, whose stature and bearing now made it clear she was no longer a girl, and suddenly sighed. "I didn't feel it so strongly when I saw Lady Shen earlier. So many years really have passed."
When they first met, Lin Feng had been a helpless orphan girl who'd suffered a terrible upheaval and hidden in a chest, cowering as she struggled to survive. She'd willingly followed Shen Tang as a servant, casting aside her old name. Zhai Le remembered telling her back then that Wind under the Woods didn't suit her. The name was too grand; he'd feared the ill-fated orphan girl wouldn't be able to bear it and would die young. Looking back now, Lin Feng had lived up to his hopes. She lacked neither ability nor grace.
The girl from back then could now stand on her own.
Her bearing and presence were no less than Chu Yao's had been.
No, they were even greater.
"When I look at you, Lord of Zhai Country, it's as though the years have stood still."
Lin Feng had grown into a mature woman, but Zhai Le had changed little since those days. He simply looked more solid and imposing now, with a stern, upright bearing befitting a heroic ruler and general of his generation. Still, Lin Feng preferred the Zhai Xiaofang of years ago.
The Lord of Zhai Country no longer had the