With every sentence he spoke, the maid seemed to lower her head a little further.
"Those two are both your incarnations, aren't they?"
Gu Sheng asked at last. Though phrased as a question, his tone carried unquestionable certainty.
Silence hung in the air for a moment.
The maid who had kept her head bowed finally slowly raised her face. It was still that ordinary, delicate-looking face, but the light in her eyes had changed completely—lively, sly, carrying a trace of surprise and amusement at having been seen through.
She blinked gently, a faint, ambiguous smile curling across her lips. Her voice no longer held a maid's obedient deference, returning instead to Jin'er's distinctive tone, tinged with laziness and mystery.
"Young Master Gu has sharp eyes and an excellent memory. From so far away, amid thousands upon thousands of people, you remembered exactly what my incarnation was wearing and where she was hiding. Could it be... that you are this 'attentive' toward every one of my incarnations?"
She did not admit it outright, but her words amounted to tacit acknowledgment.
Gu Sheng's expression did not change as he replied calmly.
"I was not paying special attention. I merely happened to possess a minor method that lets me identify 'you.' In a vast sea of people, I naturally cannot find all your incarnations out of thin air. But if you enter the range of my perception, I do not think it would be difficult to distinguish which one is you and which is truly someone else."
"A minor method?"
The interest in Jin'er's eyes deepened. She looked Gu Sheng up and down, especially at his deep eyes that seemed to contain a starry sky. Then, as if she had understood something, the teasing look on her face faded slightly. Using a secret