Lin Shisan held the Jade Box, feeling the faint coolness against his palm as an inexplicable feeling welled up inside him.
Bai Youyou stood beside him. Her gaze fell on the Jade Box, but after one look, she angrily turned away.
"You really do attract romantic debts. You aren't picky, either. Not only do you like young delinquents, you like old ones too."
"Dark-Skinned Boy, I only agreed to let you take a second wife. I never agreed to a third! I won't accept that old delinquent."
"A... a third..."
Lin Shisan felt his head swell to twice its size. It was starting to ache again.
What did any of this have to do with anything? Since when did giving someone a box make it a token of love? When had Bai Youyou become so jealous?
"Come on, let's go home."
Lin Shisan said without much confidence, "If we hurry before dark, we might still make it back to Little Fishing Village for dinner at the Old Zhou Household."
"Fine. Let's leave this den of trouble first, then I'll settle the score with you. Come on."
Bai Youyou spoke irritably.
Her eyes brimmed with anger. When we get back, I'll make you kneel on a washboard and sing 'Conquered' to me.
Yet when Bai Youyou said, "Come on," neither of her feet moved.
She stood quietly beside the corridor, gazing between the pillars at a patch of coral illuminated by the morning light.
She looked at it for quite a while.
Like a young girl who had spotted something she liked.
"Youyou, aren't we going?"
Lin Shisan had taken two steps before realizing that no footsteps had followed him.
He stopped and turned back. Bai Youyou was tilting her head, gazing at the coral in a trance.
The coral was