"Really?"
Jiang Xiaobai gave a dry chuckle and glanced toward the Elder Princess.
Had the two of them... met before?
Otherwise, Lin Qinrou would not have said that.
With that thought, Jiang Xiaobai offered an explanation for the Elder Princess. "Oh, she's deaf and mute!"
"She used to be a maid serving the Little Princess."
"The last time I attended court, the Little Princess invited me over for a visit and gave me this maid while I was there!"
"I see!"
Lin Qinrou murmured an acknowledgment and asked no further questions, but her gaze still drifted toward the Elder Princess from time to time.
The Elder Princess naturally noticed Lin Qinrou's scrutiny, but her expression remained composed, and she stayed silent.
Jiang Xiaobai glanced at them both, said nothing more, and turned to strike up a conversation with Li Zhiwei.
As Li Zhiwei listened to him, her heart pounded for reasons she could not explain, and her face beneath her veil flushed crimson.
She kept her head lowered almost the entire time, not daring to spare Jiang Xiaobai another glance.
"Zhiwei!"
Seeing her like this, Jiang Xiaobai smiled again. "How about coming over to our Marquis's Residence for a while?"
"N-no, thank you!"
Li Zhiwei hurriedly shook her head, her delicate hands nervously clutching her dress.
At the same time, the image of Jiang Xiaobai gently kissing her through her veil rose unbidden in her mind again.
At the thought, Li Zhiwei's cheeks grew even hotter.
The sight of her bashful expression sent a faint ripple through Jiang Xiaobai's heart.
For a moment, he became even more curious about what sort of beauty lay beneath this woman's veil.
Lin Qinrou sat beside them, smiling with her lips pressed together.
Yet whenever she glanced at Li Zhiwei, a trace of envy