The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

"I...I..."

Pei Yanchuan's face suddenly turned red.

"Your Highness, Your Highness..."

His voice sounded somewhat bewildered.

"I...I just..."

"Just what?"

Tang Xixue looked at him with a calm and composed expression.

"I just don't know how to do it. Didn't you say you knew how?"

She drew out the last syllable, her eyes darting around with a hint of mockery.

"Or... are you afraid?"

Pei Yanchuan bit his lower lip.

The movement was very light and brief, but Tang Xixue saw it.

His lower lip was bitten, leaving a shallow mark that quickly disappeared, like the surface of a lake ruffled by the wind.

"Afraid."

His voice was deep, carrying a frank honesty.

Tang Xixue was slightly taken aback.

She hadn't expected him to admit it so readily.

"What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid... Your Highness will think I'm not good enough."

When Pei Yanchuan said this, his gaze was lowered, and he dared not look at her.

Her eyelashes trembled slightly, like the wings of a butterfly struggling in the wind and rain.

His fingers gripped the blanket tightly.

Tang Xixue looked down at him.

Those wet eyes were filled with trepidation and anticipation.

Those ear tips were so red they looked like they were about to bleed.

He was clearly terribly nervous, yet he still obediently lay down.

That restless, humble heart of a young boy who wanted to please her but didn't know how.

My heart softened for no reason.

It was as soft as cotton soaked in spring water, almost melting away.

"fool."

Tang Xixue sighed softly.

She leaned down, her dark hair falling and brushing against his cheek.

The touch was slightly cool, carrying the fragrance of crabapple blossoms, like a spring breeze brushing against his skin.

Pei Yanchuan's breathing became completely disordered.

It's like a perfectly crafted poem that's been torn in half and can never be pieced back together.

He could smell the fragrance in her hair, feel the warmth of her body, and see the starlight in her eyes.

Her eyelashes are so long.

Her eyes are so bright.

She was very close.

He was so close he could count her eyelashes.

This is the prince whom he reveres like a god.

"Ah Lin".

Tang Xixue called to him, her voice sweet and soft, like the first cherry blossoms on the branches adorned with morning dew, or the spring breeze wrapped in honey.

Every syllable is sickeningly sweet, yet it's just the right amount of addictive.

"Yes... Your Highness, I'm here."

Pei Yanchuan responded, his voice trembling with barely suppressed emotion.

He stared at her, bewildered, his pupils slightly dilated, like a deer cornered, wanting to escape yet also wanting to stay.

"The first step in serving someone in bed is not lying down properly."

Tang Xixue leaned down, close to his ear, and breathed softly into his ear.

Her breath brushed against his earlobe, warm and soft, like a feather gently sweeping across.

His ears turned bright red instantly, as red as two agates.

"What...is that?"

Pei Yanchuan's voice was already somewhat hoarse.

His gaze lingered on her face, from her eyes to her lips, then hastily averted.

"They're looking at me."

Tang Xixue stepped back slightly to meet his gaze.

The moment their eyes met, Pei Yanchuan felt as if his soul had been stolen.

Her eyes were so bright.

It was so bright it looked like it contained the entire Milky Way.

He saw himself reflected in those eyes.

"Ying Lin, what are you so nervous about?"

Tang Xixue asked softly, her voice so gentle it was almost unbelievable.

"Afraid I'll eat you up?"

Pei Yanchuan slowly raised his hand.

His hand was still trembling as he gently grasped a strand of her hair that had fallen onto the pillow.

The hair was so fine and soft that it slipped through his fingers like flowing water or moonlight—things that cannot be grasped.

He held that strand of hair in his palm, his grip so light it was as if he were afraid of crushing it.

"Your Highness."

His voice was very low, so low that only she could hear it.

"Ying Lin isn't afraid that His Highness will eat me."

His Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"I was afraid... Your Highness wouldn't like it."

After saying that, he seemed to have used up all his courage, and his face turned so red that it almost burned.

He closed his eyes, unable to bear watching her reaction.

Tang Xixue was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

Then she smiled.

Her peach blossom eyes were filled with shimmering light, and her heart softened into a pool of spring water.

"Is it delicious?"

She leaned down, her lips almost touching his.

"You'll only know once you've tried it."

Pei Yanchuan nervously closed his eyes.

Their eyelashes trembled violently, like two startled butterflies fluttering their wings, at a loss.

He could feel her breath getting closer and closer.

Warm and sweet.

His breathing stopped completely.

The ink spread across the pillow, like a roll of unpainted Xuan paper, pure white and flawless, waiting for someone to pick up the brush and add ink.

He lay there, as still as a painting.

The boy in the painting has exquisite features, red lips and white teeth, flowing black hair, and fluttering eyelashes.

Spotless, so beautiful it seems unreal.

"Does Ah Lin know how handsome he is? Like a masterpiece painting."

Tang Xixue's fingertips started from his brow and slowly slid down the bridge of his nose.

Like a writer gently beginning to write on paper.

Her fingertips brushed against his trembling eyelashes, his eyelashes brushing against her fingertips, tickling her, like the touch of butterfly wings.

She could feel the heat of his breath through the tip of his delicate nose; it was rapid and disordered, like a flame scattered by the wind.

It brushed against his slightly cool cheek, the touch as smooth and delicate as jade, like the finest white jade, warm and slightly cool.

"Your Highness, Your Highness..."

Pei Yanchuan's breath hitched.

Every place her fingertips touched felt like it had been scalded, turning a faint pinkish hue.

From the center of the forehead to the bridge of the nose, and from the bridge of the nose to the cheeks, it spreads all the way, like melting snow in spring flowing across the fields, and the spring breeze turns the banks of the Yangtze River green.

"Ah Lin, why are you being so obedient? It makes me want to bully you even more."

Tang Xixue called him softly, her voice low and gentle, like the night breeze brushing against the strings of a zither.

Pei Yanchuan's eyelashes trembled.

He opened his eyes.

He met those peach blossom eyes that held both starlight and laughter.

Those eyes were so bright that they made him feel dizzy.

He wanted to say something.

But as soon as he opened his lips, she gently pressed them against his.

"Shhh."

Tang Xixue pressed her thumb against his lower lip.

Warm and soft.

His lips trembled slightly beneath her fingertips, like tender buds covered in the first snow on a branch.

He could feel the lines of her fingerprints, fine and dense like a net, enveloping his entire being.

"Call me 'sister'," she said.

Pei Yanchuan's eyelashes trembled violently.

The red on the tips of his ears deepened, as if someone had lit a lamp on his ears.

He lowered his eyes, not daring to look at her.

His lips moved a few times.

"……elder sister."

The two words trembled with a hint of youthful awkwardness as they escaped the boy's lips.

Like a magnolia bud about to bloom, it trembles and opens gracefully when gently blown by the wind.

He was so innocent-looking.

It's so sweet it makes your heart flutter.

Tang Xixue's eyes darkened.

Those two words were like a key, unlocking a door in her heart that had always been closed.

"Sister, you can do whatever you want..."

The boy's voice was clear and pleasant, and the warmth of the room made one's bones feel soft.

As he said this, he finally looked up at her.

There was no evasion or retreat in his eyes, only a frank and unreserved surrender.

It's as if it's saying, "I'm giving myself to you; you can do whatever you want with me."

Tang Xixue lightly touched his lower lip with her fingertip, as if dipping it in ink.

It was a very light touch, yet it left a small indentation on his lips.

"Do you know?"

She leaned down, her breath brushing against his cheek.

"You are like a blank sheet of paper right now."

"It has been dyed peach-colored."

She pressed her lips to his earlobe and gently breathed into his ear.

"Waiting for my older sister to put her pen on it."

He felt a tingling sensation in his ears, and an electric current surged through his limbs, even turning his fingertips a faint pink.

That feeling was so strange.

It felt as if someone had set fire inside his body, burning every inch of his skin and making him extremely hot.

He turned completely pink.

"Sister... what do you want to write?"