A small spark flickered from the charcoal stove as she regained her senses. Lin Feilu retracted her now warm fingers and rubbed them before she heaved a long heavy sigh.

Song Jinglan handed her a bamboo tube that had a few bamboo leaves painted on it in a very elegant shade of emerald, “I tried making some of the milk tea that the Princess mentioned last time. Would you like to try it?”

Lin Feilu replied with a surprised ‘ah’ before she met his gently smiling gaze. It took her a few seconds to realise what he said and she scratched her head, “It’s not easy for you to get milk from the Imperial Household Department. Just drink it yourself, don’t waste it on this kind of stuff.”

However, the fact remained that she took a few sips of the drink from the bamboo tube after she spoke.

Song Jinglan smiled and asked her, “Is it delicious?”

She smacked her lips twice, “Bamboo-flavoured milk tea is not bad; unfortunately, there were no pearls(1).”

(T/N: Refers to ‘boba pearls’. They’re squishy and chewy, made from tapioca and commonly eaten in milk tea— aka, bubble tea)

Song Jinglan was confused. He thought about it seriously before he asked, “What kind of pearl is the Princess talking about? Are you going to grind it into powder and add it to the milk tea?”

Lin Feilu quickly waved her hand, “No, no, this is already pretty good!”

He nodded slightly and as the light from the fire reflected in his eyes, a calm and warm colour glimmered, “What is the Princess worrying about?”

Lin Feilu drank the milk tea for a while and her small mouth was still on the tip of the bamboo tube. Even so, her facial expressions seemed a bit troubled.

Song Jinglan asked slowly, “Is it because of His Highness the Crown Prince and the Eldest Highness?”

Lin Feilu looked up in surprise, “How did you know?”

Song Jinglan curled her lips slightly, “The two Imperial Highnesses have been caught in a rather tense atmosphere in the Imperial School; it wasn’t hard to tell.”

What do you mean ‘it wasn’t hard to tell’? No one else could tell! Lin Jinyuan for example, happily pranced around as he ushered both of his brothers to play a round of polo with him. Even when he was rejected, he kept asking for the reason and couldn’t get a hint.

Lin Feilu couldn’t help but to sigh again.

Little Pretty Boy is from the Song Empire, after all. Although she had no particular feelings for the grievances between the two empires, her own sense of belonging only belonged to the People’s Republic of China!

However, talking about a sensitive topic such as the throne, it always felt strange to discuss with the captive Prince of the enemy country.

Song Jinglan had a calm expression as he gently rubbed the edge of his tea cup with his fingers and said in a low voice, “Both of the Imperial Highnesses are outstanding, but this path they walk is inevitable— there will always be a winner and a loser. The Princess’s worries at the moment are all done in vain, so perhaps it might be better to think about how to protect the losing side when the inevitable time arrives.”

Two sentences of his were all it took to break through the entanglement in Lin Feilu’s heart.

She didn’t care which brother of hers became the Emperor; she just wanted everyone to live peacefully.

She had never cared about anyone before.

Her parents ignored her, so she ignored them. Her lame excuse of ‘friends’ was hypocritical, so she didn’t show any of her true feelings. The world was indifferent to her, and so in return, she was indifferent to it as well.

Instead, upon coming here, God seemed to be making up for her nonexistent childhood and family love little by little.

But it happened to occur in an era where relationships weren’t important and bonds were fragile.

She could ignore everything else, yet she couldn’t neglect her sincerity.

Lin Feilu lowered her head for a long time before she asked softly, “Then, can Your Highness tell me what I should do?”