A flirtatious young lady who doesn't realize how alluring she is VS a sharp-tongued heir who takes even obvious bait but refuses to admit it
Six years after Ning Lv lost both her parents, she suddenly learned that she had an aunt she'd never met, the matriarch of a prominent family in the capital.
After reconnecting with her family, she put her engagement to her childhood sweetheart on hold and traveled from a small incense shop in a winding Suzhou lane to the vast Duke Dingguo estate, which covered more than ten qing of land. She hoped to help her aunt resolve the lingering worry that had kept her bedridden for so long.
On the day she entered the estate, she wore clothes that had been washed so many times they were creased. She endured the scrutiny of all kinds of people in the household as her aunt's well-kept hand touched her face, its feel completely different from her mother's.
So too were the food, clothing, lodging, and marriage arrangements her aunt provided, all unlike what her mother would have chosen.
When her aunt gave matching mandarin-duck jade pendants to Ning Lv and the estate's second young master, her cousin by blood, everyone showed either envy or resentment.
Everyone, that is, except one person.
A short distance behind her, he leaned his cheek on his hand, looking bored as he watched a pear tree budding beside the window.
Ning Lv turned around. Her gaze passed over the crowd and met the young master's eyes by the window.
He was her cousin in name, the heir who would one day inherit the title of Duke Dingguo, and a recent appointee to one of the Three Offices: Yan Lingye.
He seemed to hate meeting people's eyes. Under her gaze, his frown grew deeper, bunching up like a little hill, until she pointed out the pearl earring she'd lost, lying by his boot, and asked if he could pick it up.
He slowly smiled at her. The smile was more lovely than the dappled shadows by the window. His lips formed the words, “Sure.”
Then he turned and walked away, stepping right on the pearl earring.
He wouldn't even spare her a glance.
*
The third year of Jianye was the first year Yan Lingye knew Ning Lv.
That May, he was admiring the lotus blossoms in the courtyard pond from a pavilion, while Ning Lv read a collection of poetry by the water. When she reached Yuan Haowen's “Song of the Wild Geese,” she asked him what love was. Leaning on the railing, he tossed fish food into the water now and then and said his first words to her: “How dare you presume to talk about love?”
Even when he saw her eyes redden, he remained unmoved.
That December, heavy snow blanketed the city.
Ning Lv's aunt died. Once the funeral rites were over, she set off for Suzhou without delay. None of the sixteen gates and checkpoints throughout the Duke Dingguo estate could stop her from riding away. Yan Lingye had not even taken off his mourning clothes before he ordered a carriage and left the city. The first thing he said when he caught up with her was, “Liu Ninglv, even in thirty years, that lame Liang Sanlang won't be able to give you what I can.”
Ning Lv paused briefly as she urged her horse forward.
His voice was as steady as ever. “As long as you come back to my side as before, whatever you want, I can give you...”
She turned around and suddenly said, “You?”
He clenched the bloodstained handkerchief on his knee as she continued, “You think you're worthy of comparison with Sanlang?”
Yan Lingye's pupils shrank to pinpricks. A thousand blades whirled through his mind.
He wished he could die here with her.
*
“Most heartless of all are the willows of Taicheng, still veiling the ten-mile embankment in mist.”
1. An alternate-history setting. The male lead is sexually inexperienced, and the story has a happy ending.
2. The heroine approaches the male lead for another reason.
3. The heroine and her aunt's son are not actually engaged.
4. A short work, written for practice.
* The author does not accept writing advice.
Blurb first posted on Jinjiang Literature City. 2026/1/5. Screenshot saved.
Theme: A story about cousins.
