She really was terrible—unconsciously terrible. She didn’t like him, yet she said these things, leaving his heart in disarray.
The crowd was loud—Jiang Nong couldn’t hear him.
Yu Lingxin didn’t want her to hear either.
Just as tears shouldn’t be shed for someone who doesn’t care, weak words shouldn’t be spoken either—they’d only invite ridicule.
Hadn’t Jiang Nong already said enough cruel things? Why hand her more ammunition?
Jiang Nong crouched on the ground laughing for a while, then straightened up to move to the next stall. The little dog wagged its tail and tried to follow her—until Yu Lingxin gave it a fierce glare. It tucked its tail and whimpered back to its owner.
“Candied hawthorns—last skewer~”
Last skewer—she had to buy it!
Bright red, stuck in a straw bundle—looked incredibly tempting.
Jiang Nong paid. The vendor handed her the skewer, then shouldered his straw bundle and ran off at lightning speed.
By the time Jiang Nong realized something was wrong, he was long gone.
The dyed syrup dripped stickily onto her hand in the warm spring air. She took a bite—it wasn’t crisp. The syrup stretched in strings, gluing her teeth together.
She should have known—candied hawthorns sold in spring couldn’t possibly be good candied hawthorns.
Spitting it out wasn’t ladylike. Jiang Nong covered her mouth, chewing and chewing.
Yu Lingxin asked: “Is it good?”
Jiang Nong chewed for a long time before finally swallowing. The syrup still clung to her teeth. She licked them, then lied: “It’s delicious.”
She waved the half-eaten skewer in front of him.
Jiang Nong was doing it on purpose—giving him food she’d already bitten.
Yu Lingxin didn’t suspect a thing. He glanced at her, lowered his thin eyelids, and took a bite of the half-eaten hawthorn right from her hand.
Jiang Nong deliberately held it low, so he had to bend down to reach it.
The crease of his double eyelids was deep and long, stretching into a soaring arc. When his eyes dropped, his lashes cast a misty shadow. With his head lowered, she could see his pointed chin and the bridge of his nose rising sharply.
So beautiful. But Jiang Nong still didn’t like him—there were so many good-looking, kind-hearted people—why would she love a bad one?
She asked him: “Is it good?”
Yu Lingxin held the hawthorn in his mouth, ran his tongue around it, rolled it to his back teeth, and bit down—the sticky syrup glued his teeth together.
He didn’t quite understand, but it was sweet and sour. He said: “Good. Just a little sticky on the teeth.”
Jiang Nong thought he was joking—playing along with her. But when he asked why she wasn’t eating more, she realized he genuinely liked it.
A wild boar that had never tasted fine bran.
She guessed he’d probably never had candied hawthorns before—sweetness meant delicious to him.
Generally, only children got these sweet, brightly colored treats. Yu Lingxin had never been cherished as a child—he probably never got to eat them.
Jiang Nong looked at him with complicated feelings—she wanted to give him the whole skewer, but also didn’t want to. She didn’t want to bully an idiot either.
Oh well. She nudged Yu Lingxin and said: “Then you have some more.”
He asked why she wasn’t eating.
“It’s sticky! No proper candied hawthorn is like this!”
Only then did Yu Lingxin realize candied hawthorns weren’t supposed to be sticky.
His expression darkened, as if he’d been embarrassed in public: “I thought it was bad too. Let’s just throw it away.”
Oh, come on! What’s wrong now?!
The lively, festive atmosphere softened hearts—it had that New Year’s feeling of “let’s all be happy.” Even enemies would shake hands during the New Year.
Jiang Nong felt a bit more indulgent toward Yu Lingxin, wanting to save his face: “Don’t throw it away! It’s actually pretty sweet—don’t waste it.”
“I just said it’s a bit sticky—I didn’t say I wouldn’t eat it.” She took another half-bite and handed it to him.
Yu Lingxin lowered his head and took the half she’d bitten—sweet.
The area around them was crowded. Eating candied hawthorns was too dangerous—a slip and it could puncture someone’s face. Jiang Nong was quite fond of her face.
They found a quiet riverside embankment and sat down, looking at the clear river water and moonlight, sharing a terrible skewer of candied hawthorns.
Moonlight and willow shade pooled above them.
Jiang Nong swung her legs, unable to speak with her teeth glued shut. Beside her, Yu Lingxin was also concentrating on licking the syrup off his molars.
She braced herself on the embankment, wobbled, and nearly fell in. Yu Lingxin caught her first, his hand on her shoulder, keeping her from falling.
“How can you be this clumsy?” His speech was still garbled from the syrup—scolding turned into something like affectionate chiding.
Jiang Nong had done it on purpose—she wasn’t clumsy enough to fall in. She just wanted to confirm where Yu Lingxin’s attention was.
Confirmed: it was on her.
She leaned back on her arms, propped against the embankment, and looked up with a smile.
There were only five hawthorns on the skewer. They’d eaten them half by half. Jiang Nong stuck the stick into the soft earth and showed him her hand.
Her palm was shiny and sticky, glowing with a faint pink crystalline sheen in the moonlight.
“So sticky—what should I do?”
Her eyes were brighter and clearer than the glistening syrup. Her slender, soft hand nearly touched his nose—he could smell her palm’s fragrance mixed with the sweetness of syrup.
“Then wash it off—down there.”
“Don’t want to move.” Jiang Nong pulled her hand back and licked the syrup from her palm. “It’s pretty sweet too.”
Yu Lingxin didn’t know what she meant. Jiang Nong extended her hand toward him again and asked if he wanted a taste.
She looked up at him with round, smiling eyes—so innocent, so pure, that he couldn’t possibly think she was seducing him. She was just saying the sugar was sweet.
His head buzzed. Stunned, he asked: “Really?”
But his face had already leaned in, landing on her palm. His warm tongue swept across the sticky syrup, leaving a faint pink sheen on his lips.
His lick tickled her palm. Jiang Nong instinctively pulled back—but Yu Lingxin followed, catching her fingertips, retracting his teeth to lick the sugar off.
She was done playing.
Jiang Nong withdrew her hand, pinched his chin, and pried his mouth open, her finger reaching for his teeth. Yu Lingxin’s mouth hung open, head tilted back, his sharp canine teeth frozen in place—never closing on her probing finger.
She found the sugar stuck to his teeth and said: “You’ve got sugar on your own teeth and you still want mine—so greedy.”
She wiped his wet saliva onto his chin, grabbed some grass, and rubbed the syrup off her hand.
Still a little sticky.
Unscrupulous vendor!
Yu Lingxin blinked, turned his head away, and mumbled: “Your hands taste bitter—stop slathering on so many creams and powders.”
Jiang Nong waved her hand in front of him: “I’ll keep using them! Are you really that stingy?”
Tan was much drier than Xi—if she didn’t moisturize enough, her skin would crack.
Yu Lingxin grabbed her wrist.
“Ooh~ What a pretty little lady—sitting here all alone?” A wolf whistle came from behind.
Jiang Nong turned and saw a few louche young nobles, their belts jingling with so many pendants they could open a jewelry shop.
Blind? Isn’t there someone sitting right next to her?
Yu Lingxin flashed them a smile—cold and menacing: “What a nice mouthless corpse—floating in the moat all alone?”
Just the two of them, and Yu Lingxin didn’t mind stirring up trouble. Jiang Nong wanted to avoid it—let it slide and track down who these brainless young lords were later.
But Yu Lingxin’s words were already out.
If they were in the palace, she had no doubt he’d have these people beaten to death and thrown into the moat.
His words enraged the group—until they saw his face and laughed: “Nice! You’re not bad-looking either!”
He ordered his servants: “Go! Take the girl back to me, and the boy to my sister!”
Filial, at least—just not in the right way.
“The Golden Guard are patrolling nearby. How dare you abduct women in broad daylight?”
“Hah! The Golden Guard? Even that Li Ji has to give me face!”
Quite the boast—no one’s ever heard of Li Ji backing down!
The servants rolled up their sleeves and charged. Yu Lingxin had just stood up when Jiang Nong pushed him behind her.
She hated him—yet still treated him like the Yu Lingxin from Xi who needed protection.
Yu Lingxin looked down, staring at the dark whirl of hair on her crown.
Was it love or habit?
Whatever it was—in that moment, his heart burned.
Even those pests suddenly seemed tolerable. He decided to let them live.
He wasn’t that fragile.
Yu Lingxin moved Jiang Nong aside and stepped in front of her. His broad, straight shoulders stood like a mountain before her—shielding her from harm.
Jiang Nong suddenly remembered—Yu Lingxin was no weak scholar.
Just… crispy on the outside, tender on the inside in this life.
She mentally reused that inappropriate culinary analogy.
“Today’s a good day—no blood should be shed.” Yu Lingxin pulled the bamboo skewer Jiang Nong had stuck in the dirt.
The group burst into laughter.
The lead servant charged forward laughing—and was the first to have his palm pierced and pinned to the ground.
He howled in pain, clutching his wrist. Blood seeped into the dirt—but the soil only darkened, no red visible.
Yu Lingxin smoothly drew the sword from the pinned man’s belt, flicked the blade, and sent the other two servants’ swords flying into the moat.
The young nobles and servants all changed expressions, retreating step by step—realizing they’d met their match.
If he could disarm them so easily, he could also kill them.
The young master shoved his servants forward: “Go! Go on! What are you waiting for? Am I supposed to do it myself?”
The servants gritted their teeth and charged—only to be soundly beaten, crying for their mothers.
The commotion drew the patrol. A squad of Golden Guards arrived, separated them, and demanded to know what happened.
“They started it! We were just being friendly—they were alone, so we went to say hello.”
They all talked at once, playing the victim—but the Golden Guard token worked better than their mouths.
Yu Lingxin pulled out his token and tossed it to the Golden Guard: “Take them all away.”
The guards recognized it instantly. Their expressions changed. They didn’t care whose young lords these were—they covered their mouths and dragged them off.
Jiang Nong watched them disappear, annoyed. A perfectly good evening—ruined.
Yu Lingxin followed her gaze, and when he saw her attention wasn’t on him, he pressed his hand hard against the blade.
When Jiang Nong turned back, she saw blood dripping from Yu Lingxin’s palm.
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