"Yuer..."
Lin Ruhai saw her like this and grew terribly anxious, yet had no idea how to comfort her. All he could do was urge her in a strained voice:
"You... you, what are you doing?"
"Please, don't be like this..."
After a long while, Lin Daiyu finally seemed to come back to herself after that tremendous shock.
"..."
She turned her face slightly and, with the handkerchief in her hand, swiftly and almost soundlessly dabbed at the corners of her eyes. When she turned back, she managed to force a sorrowful smile onto her face. Her voice was hoarse with tears as she murmured:
"How could I not understand Father's loving intentions?"
She paused, and her voice sank lower, becoming a whisper like a dream:
"It's just..."
"Even if Rongguo Mansion in the Divine Capital has brocade carpets, halls full of jewels, and rare flowers and immortal herbs growing everywhere, in the end... in the end, it's still my mother's family, bound to us only by kinship."
"However fine it may be, it isn't home..."
As she spoke, she lifted her tear-filled eyes and looked around the room where she had lived since childhood. Her gaze passed over the familiar bookshelves, the qin table, and the embroidery stand, then finally settled on the bamboo shadows swaying outside the window in the moonlight. Her voice was as soft as a sigh.
"Nor is it like our old courtyard, where bamboo shadows sweep the steps and moonlight spills through the door."
"Even when I sit listening to the rain fall on the few withered lotus stems in the courtyard, or watch the bitter bamboo by the steps wreathed in mist, I feel I can breathe freely, and I sleep soundly."
Her words were gentle yet heartrending, laying bare the thoughts of