"!!"
When Jia Baoyu heard the titles of the books the two girls were reading, he sat up slightly in his chair in shock, a look of disbelief on his face.
"The Illustrated Compendium of All Spirits?"
"And The Calculations of Fate and Fortune?"
Although Jia Baoyu was lazy, unlearned, and had no desire to improve himself—or to let anyone else improve either—you couldn't call him stupid!
See?
Just hearing Tanchun mention the titles of those two books was enough for him to guess what Daiyu and Tanchun were planning.
Unable to help himself, he cried out in disbelief:
"Cousin Lin! Third Sister!"
"You..."
"You're really planning to study those things and take that ridiculous immortal examination?"
He had always thought that when the two girls had mentioned it a few days earlier, they were only joking on a whim, or speaking in anger to spite him. He hadn't expected them to actually start preparing, or to begin reading the books required for the imperial examinations.
"Second Brother..."
At last, Lin Daiyu looked directly at Baoyu.
Her gaze was cool and distant. Her eyes shifted, and then the corners of her mouth lifted in a strange, mocking smile. Her voice remained gentle, but her words were laced with scorn, each one striking home.
"Well, this is curious."
"Second Brother, even if every one of us became the sort of vulgar person who 'fishes for fame and reputation,' insisting on wading into that mess of 'traitors to the nation and parasites on the state' you're always going on about—"
"What does it have to do with you?"
"You don't want to study or take the exams, but that doesn't mean you can forbid us from doing so."
"What are we to you?"
"Since when do you get to decide whether other