Wei Xun thought himself utterly ridiculous.
Her eyes were on her own face; naturally, she could look at whomever she pleased, and no one had any say in it. Seventh had always looked like that, too. She had not suddenly sprouted another nose and two extra mouths.
Then where had this irrepressible agitation, this nameless hellfire he had to pretend was not burning him, come from?
Especially when she had tossed out a casual compliment that left him rooted to the spot, only to turn around and stare unblinkingly at someone else. The plunge in his heart was like soaring to Falling Geese Peak on Mount Hua, finding nothing to grab, and tumbling headfirst back into the valley.
Once, nothing had irritated him more than these tangled human entanglements. He had never understood why people poured their time and energy into such insignificant trifles. Now even he could be unsettled by a glance or a word, turning it over and over in his mind without escape. Experiencing such unfamiliar feelings for the first time, Wei Xun tasted bitterness and astringency in his mouth. His chest rose and fell, and the little color in his face had drained away entirely, leaving him paler still.
Tracing it back to its source, he was only taking her to Youzhou to find her family out of loyalty. This precious pearl had never belonged to anyone, and no one had the right to constrain her. His hand tightened on the railing, loosened, then tightened again. Wood shavings fell from between his fingers, but in the end, he could not utter a single word.
Unaware that someone upstairs had overturned an entire shop of flavors in his heart, Baozhu finally emerged from her longing for her elder brother after a long while. She walked over to