He had never expected that one casual bout of flute-playing to tease the birds would give every member of the Four Seas Hall another pastime that could while away the hours.
What surprised Xing Yan somewhat was that Miss Kou, whose thoughts usually seemed to drift somewhere far away, immediately shed her listlessness whenever she took up a brush to practice writing. Her mind became remarkably clear.
Moreover, only when Xing Yan assumed the role of tutor did Kou Xueyi's conversations with him become natural. Or, perhaps, normal.
Ordinarily, in what few words Kou Xueyi spoke, she treated Xing Yan with the utmost respect, truly like a servant addressing her master. Yet this exceedingly courteous manner always left the Four Seas Hall Master sensing a trace of cool detachment.
With a little of a young man's impishness, Xing Yan had once tried to test this impression by imitating the idle rogues he had known in the streets, deliberately fixing his gaze upon Kou Xueyi's rosy face and staring without restraint-
By rights, judging from the usual response of a young maiden, Kou Xueyi should first have blushed scarlet beneath his brazen gaze, then lowered her head, then plucked wordlessly at her clothes, and finally grown restless with embarrassment. If her skin had been a little thinner still, she might even have stamped her foot lightly, murmured, "How rude!" and turned to flee!
As Xing Yan had imagined it beforehand, under such an impudent stare, never mind Ju Ying-even Ling Yier, that headstrong princess of the Poyang Dragon Palace, would surely have been embarrassed enough to pluck silently at her clothes if he had looked at her that way!
Unfortunately, none of these anticipated displays of maidenly bashfulness appeared in Kou Xueyi!
Judging by the result of his test, he could