Was it shameful to fall in love with an elder who was not related to you by blood?
For a long time, Qian Renxue had been immersed in these complicated feelings. At first, she spent a long time trying to determine whether what she felt was truly love.
She did not get many chances to meet Lin Xun—only once a year. Before every reunion, she had no way of knowing where he had gone or what he had experienced during that time. Yet whenever she learned he was about to come, ripples would rise uncontrollably in her heart.
Instinctively, she wanted to show him her very best side. After reaching adulthood, those feelings only grew more complicated.
Whenever they met, she would remove Xue Qinghe's disguise and change back into women's clothing that belonged to her. She would arrange her clothes, comb her long hair, while her heart continued to race beyond her control.
She kept asking herself whether this concern was merely dependence. She even recalled again and again the days and nights in Spirit Hall's corridors, recalling the night she had broken down and wept in the depths of the palace, and the support he had given her, trying to distinguish the boundary between dependence and affection.
What truly made her understand her heart was an accidental encounter.
That day, she saw from afar several women walking beside Lin Xun, chatting and laughing with him. That sight alone instantly filled her chest with an indescribable sourness. Her heart felt inexplicably stifled, and even maintaining her outward calm became exceptionally difficult.
At that moment, she finally understood.
If she merely regarded him as an elder she could rely on, she would not feel such intense possessiveness and unwillingness.
She did not want to see others approach him, nor did