Outside the high walls, voices roared.
Inside the high walls, someone sat alone in silence, listening to the bustle outside.
In an inconspicuous corner, Li Yingling curled into a ball and raised her eyes toward the azure sky, and toward the high walls that muffled the noise.
The bustle outside could not melt away the rigid rules within.
One example was the old woman standing nearby, who dared not take her eyes off Li Yingling for even a moment despite the constant commotion outside.
Li Yingling liked lively places.
People always liked the things they could scarcely hope to have.
Never getting what one liked-perhaps that was simply the way of life.
Ever since her mother left, what little liveliness and care remained had gone with her.
All Li Yingling had left now was this hidden corner and a heart that grieved alone.
Li Yingling was very clever. Even what she secretly picked up in passing, occasionally listening to a few words, was enough to trounce the children of the Marquis's Residence who studied so diligently.
She had once hoped to use that cleverness to change her mother's circumstances and her own.
But dislike, perhaps, was enough to wipe out all effort and talent.
Her father did not like her mother, so naturally, he did not like Li Yingling either.
There was no delight in his eyes when he looked at Li Yingling, only astonishment and the anger of wondering why it had not been someone else.
In the Black Tortoise Kingdom, even a clever woman had her limitations.
That cleverness, that ability worthy of being called genius, had not been nurtured further. Instead, it had simply become a bargaining chip placed on the table of vested interests.
Minister Wang's Household had a halfwit known to everyone in the Capital