Memories (13): Build a Plank Road in the Open, Slip Across to Chencang in Secret

I took a deep breath and tamped down the turmoil in my heart. My face returned to its usual gentle expression, tinged with a hint of distance. My gaze swept over Yi Jiang's stubborn face, then settled on Yi Xuan's resentful eyes. I spoke earnestly, trying to guide their intense feelings into the realm of "reason":

"Yi Jiang, Yi Xuan," I said, my voice softening into a brotherly tone as I tried to reason with them. "You're still young, and you haven't experienced much. A lot of the time, you can't tell the difference between dependence, gratitude, and what true... love is."

I deliberately paused on the word "love," watching their reactions. Yi Jiang's eyelashes quivered almost imperceptibly, while Yi Xuan pressed her lips together.

"Perhaps taking you in and looking after you gave you the wrong impression," I continued, keeping my tone as calm and objective as possible. "Once you've grown a little older, seen more of the world, and can truly understand your own feelings..."

I paused, then offered a promise that seemed open-ended but was really just a way to put things off:

"We can talk about it then. There's no rush."

It was called "setting aside the dispute and postponing a decision." By blaming their age and lack of maturity, I was simply lengthening the fuse on an emotional bomb I had no way to defuse right now. At that moment, I felt like a negotiator trying to placate a group of agitated investors.

Yi Jiang stared at him. The smile on her face gradually faded, until it became a soft chuckle that seemed to suggest she understood everything. "Heh..."

She didn't say anything cutting, nor did she challenge his claim that they couldn't tell the difference. But her gaze seemed to pierce through Yun Lan's delaying tactics and see the helplessness and evasion in his heart.

"All right," she said, suddenly smiling again. Her smile had returned to its usual sweetness, with even a hint of slyness, as if their earlier confrontation had been nothing but an illusion. "Then we'll wait until my sister and I can 'tell the difference.'"

She placed special emphasis on the words "tell the difference," then stepped forward until she was almost right in front of Yun Lan. Lifting her face, she spoke slowly and clearly, in a voice only the three of them could hear:

"When that day comes, you'd better listen carefully, Big Brother."

She stepped back and took the silent Yi Xuan by the hand.

"And you'd better not run away again."

With that, she didn't wait to see how Yun Lan would react. She turned and walked lightly toward the door, leading her younger sister along. Yi Xuan followed her sister, but just before leaving the room, she looked back at Yun Lan one last time. There seemed to be something more than resentment in her eyes now... perhaps certainty?

The door opened once more, then gently closed. The sisters disappeared into the light and shadow of the corridor outside.

Silence returned to the room. Yun Lan stood alone, with only the faint fragrance of a young girl lingering in the air. He remained there for a long while before letting out a soft, helpless sigh at the empty room.

He rubbed his aching temples and walked to the window, looking out at the courtyard.

Better to put it off for as long as possible.

That was what I told myself. At least I'd managed to get through the situation for now. As for what I'd do when the day came and they could "tell the difference"... I'd deal with it then.

A transmigrator's optimism—or perhaps his ostrich-like tendency to bury his head in the sand—was serving him well at that moment. Yet somewhere in his heart, a faint voice reminded him that Yi Jiang's final smile and her words, "You'd better not run away," probably wouldn't be so easy to brush off. The path they had chosen seemed to be one they had never considered turning back from.

The room fell completely silent again. The subtle tension left behind by the silent tug-of-war with Yi Jiang and her sister seemed to still tremble faintly in the air. Yun Lan let out a long, helpless breath. The sigh sounded especially clear in the overly neat room. He rubbed his temples, feeling more exhausted than he did after training.

My eyes wandered aimlessly before finally landing on the corner of the desk, where the apprenticeship application Ye Shunguang had given me lay undisturbed. It had a plain indigo cover and slightly rough paper edges. Earlier, at my master's place, the sudden arrival of the two girls and my master's amused, watchful attitude had left me in a muddle. I'd simply accepted it, glanced hurriedly at the neat but familiar handwriting, and thought there was something a little odd about it. That faint suspicion had been like ripples on the water, quickly swallowed up by greater waves.

Now that I had some time to look at the application, I felt as if there was something extra on it. "Wait a second... No way. Could it be what I think it is?" I immediately turned off the lights and took out a flashlight, shining it on the application.

Under the flashlight, new writing appeared on what had seemed to be an ordinary apprenticeship application. The first two characters read "marriage contract."

"Well, look who's been waiting for me here! So that's why Xiao Guang wanted to become my apprentice. Turns out she wrote a marriage contract on the application in invisible ink."

"What a clever scheme—building a plank road in the open while slipping across to Chencang in secret. If I signed this application, Xiao Guang would become my fiancée."

"That little girl..." Ye Shunguang's clear, stubborn eyes surfaced before him, leaving him at a loss for words. "She looks so innocent and harmless, so delicate and pitiful, but she's planned this out with such precision and foresight... She went straight for the most crucial move. I almost fell for it."

Along with his wonder came a deeper sense of helplessness and a faint headache. I set the application down as if it were a hot potato, leaned back in my chair, and stared at the beams overhead.

"One Yi Jiang, one Yi Xuan. Their feelings have already clearly 'changed,' and they're both fiercely possessive. They're wearing me out." He rubbed his temple as if it really did ache. "And now there's Xiao Guang... She seemed grateful and dependent on me, but she went and handed me a 'marriage contract'? Isn't this change in feelings a little too sudden, a little too direct?"

"What am I supposed to do..." Yun Lan murmured with a sigh, this time with genuine distress in his voice.

He wasn't heartless, and he respected sincere feelings. But this situation was like suddenly being handed a tangled mess of red strings, knotted tight and intertwined with one another.

Yi Jiang's passion and sharp wits, Yi Xuan's quiet resentment, and now Ye Shunguang, who appeared to be asking him to be her master but was actually trying to get him to sign a marriage contract and outsmarting him...

"Too much romantic luck" could sometimes turn into "romantic misfortune." Especially when none of these girls were pushovers, and every one of them was unusually determined.