"It's all right."
Xue Ke's voice remained calm.
Her gaze had already returned to her instrument.
She signaled that she needed to continue practicing.
Tang San understood.
He immediately said no more.
He turned and returned to his seat.
His movements were steady.
As he sat down.
A young noble sharing his table teased him under his breath.
"Hey, you can't even hold your sheet music steady?"
Tang San merely forced a stiff, seemingly embarrassed smile.
He muttered vaguely.
"Mm... I'm rusty."
Then he lowered his head.
He pretended to study the sheet music intently.
He continued his "halting" practice.
He plucked a few monotonous notes on the harp.
They sounded awkward and deliberate.
Yet his peripheral vision.
Was like the most precise probe.
Quietly tracking every brush of her strings, every intent look from the figure ahead.
Patience.
I need more patience.
He repeated the words silently.
He had already cast out the first thread of contact.
It was insignificant.
No one had noticed.
Like a grain of sand tossed onto the water.
It stirred only an almost invisible ripple.
But for him, that was enough.
Xue Qinghe...
He chewed over that name in his heart.
Killing intent and hatred surged like a tide.
Forcibly suppressed beneath his calm exterior.
Today was only a beginning.
He needed to learn more.
To understand this princess.
His fingertips unconsciously rubbed the edges of the strings.
Feeling the chill of the metal.
Like the cold gleam buried deep in his eyes at that moment.
Sunlight spilled through the window.
Stretching the boy's ordinary yet tenacious silhouette.
The lilting music of the lesson continued.
Concealing what lay buried deep in his heart.
A storm of vengeance ready to choose its prey and devour it.
After class.
Xue Ke departed lightly, surrounded by her