If you were cold and aloof in your past life, why are you crying in this one?

Xi Lingxian has always had a bad temper; her gentleness and consideration are only possible when she is willing.

If she's not happy, she won't serve anyone.

Wang Jue also understood her temper. In his previous life, he would argue with her back and forth, and sometimes he felt that she was unforgiving when she was in the right.

Now I think it's pretty good this way.

He held the candy box she had tossed to him between his fingers, opened it casually, and a sweet aroma wafted out, revealing several plum candies wrapped in white candy wrappers.

Xi Lingxian poured herself a cup of tea and sipped it slowly. "If you like it, you can have it all. Goodbye."

Wang Jue stared at the candy in his hand for a moment, his expression dark and unreadable.

"What? Is there something wrong with the sugar?"

Wang Jue glanced at her: "No, do you want to eat?"

"..." problem.

Why aren't you leaving yet?

He casually poured himself a cup of tea. "You haven't given me your punishment copying yet."

Xi Lingxian choked.

"...I'm sleepy, I need to rest and take a nap." If you can't afford to offend her, then avoid her; she's definitely not going to write about it anyway.

"Then I'll wait until you wake up."

Xi Lingxian jolted awake, instantly losing all sleepiness.

"Are you deliberately picking a fight?" she said angrily.

"You smile so sweetly at Xiao Yun, but I kindly supervise your studies and you don't appreciate my good intentions," he paused, then sneered, "What? Does Miss Xi want to be a princess?"

"What do you mean?"

Xi Lingxian retorted, "Let alone the fact that Xiao Yunyuan doesn't have the ability to make me like him, even if he did, I haven't forgotten how he tried to assassinate me by any means necessary."

He said, "It's kind of you to still remember that he had ill intentions towards you. I thought you had forgotten all about it after spending time with him at the retreat."

Xi Lingxian found him utterly unreasonable.

Okay, it's just copying as punishment, she'll do it!

To avoid him using it as a raft and constantly bothering her.

She went behind the screen to change into some comfortable clothes, and her freshly dried hair was simply braided and hung down in front of her.

When she turned back, she saw Wang Jue sitting upright beside the desk, his sleeves rolled up to his forearms, his slender fingers holding an ink stick, the dark ink stick pressed against the inkstone, slowly grinding the ink; the ink gradually spread, from light gray to dark black.

His expression was calm, as if nothing around him mattered. He looked up when she approached, "Sit down, write."

Xi Lingxian took a deep breath, walked behind the desk and sat down. The white jade paperweight brushed against the fish-egg paper, soft and clean.

With her left hand pressing down on the edge of the paper and her right hand holding the pen, Xi Lingxian carefully wrote down the neat and tidy characters of Xiao Kai with hairpins on the paper.

He taught her calligraphy, so it was hard to deliberately hide the traces. In any case, this copying was written for him to see, so Xi Lingxian didn't try to hide it.

Every drop of ink flowing from the tip of the pen bears his mark.

Wang Jue rested his chin on one hand, his gaze falling on her, sliding from her lowered eyes to her fingers holding the pen, and then to the handwriting on the paper, stroke by stroke...

The handwriting was clear and upright, with a steady and firm stroke, no longer the crooked and weak style I remembered.

But as she began to write, and the ink spread, another overlapping image seemed to appear before my eyes—

At that time, they had just gotten married.

She accompanied him to practice calligraphy in the study. Out of curiosity, he asked her to write a character for him to see.

The way she readily agreed gave him the illusion that her calligraphy must be quite good as well.

But when he saw the result of her writing, he almost choked.

The Wang family passed down their calligraphy skills, so how could the young mistress of the Wang family not be good at writing?

At that time, his father was still managing affairs of the court, so he still had some free time.

Without saying a word, I flipped over a calligraphy copybook and assigned her the task of practicing calligraphy.

She was quite mischievous back then; she would glare at anyone who asked her to write, and he would glare back at her too.

She instantly became soft and pouty.

"Okay, how much to write that day? How many pages?"

She was naive back then, like every student who doesn't want to do their homework, bargaining and making demands before even starting.

Can he still be manipulated by her?

With many good-for-nothing younger brothers in the family, he had plenty of ways to deal with these lazy and unmotivated "students."

Of course, she was no pushover either.

Many times, he was so angry at her that he laughed; how could someone be so unreasonable and eloquent?

They say they know they're wrong, but they never change; if you say anything more, they'll turn around and blame you for being mean.

So much so that many times, he wondered who was tormenting whose temper.

……

The candlelight flickered, and the sound of the candle flame bursting was particularly abrupt and clear in the quiet room.

Wang Jue's gaze lingered on the handwriting for a long time, a sense of melancholy gradually spreading in his eyes.

No matter how you live your life, it's still a lifetime, but when you have a companion by your side, everything in the world takes on a different kind of charm.

A strangely shaped cloud or a sudden downpour can be the key to starting a conversation.

When returning home in glory, there must be someone to share it with, so that the arduous journey will not have been in vain.

"Finished writing!"

Xi Lingxian, unaware of what he was lost in thought, slapped the few pages of paper she had written in front of him and yawned several times in a row.

"Take it back and look at it, don't bother me while I'm sleeping." That was her immediate message to get rid of her.

Wang Jue gently stroked the paper in her palm, her gaze falling on the person who was stretching by the window and then walking to the dressing mirror to admire herself.

Her personality doesn't seem to have changed much; those hysterical outbursts in my memory were brought about by those unclean things.

Xi Lingxian noticed him looking at her, turned around, her gaze unfriendly, and said, "I've given you all the copying as punishment, can you leave now?"

Wang Jue tucked the copied pages into his sleeve, stood up unhurriedly, and stood in front of her.

She came up to his chest, her face as beautiful as a lotus emerging from clear water.

The warm afternoon light streamed in through the cracks in the window, casting long shadows of the two people.

Everyone who saw them said they were a perfect couple, a handsome man and a beautiful woman.

His eyes were clear and sharp. "You should be more resolute and completely extinguish any thoughts he might have."

Xi Lingxian recognized who he was talking about.

What should have been normal words, when spoken by him, inexplicably stirred up the rebellious spirit deep within her.

"None of your business. By what right do you speak to me like this?"

Wang Jue chuckled, "If you only refuse because you want a title, I can give it to you anytime."

Xi Lingxian disregarded the decorum expected of a well-bred young lady and rolled her eyes in response.

He tossed the candy box up and it landed in his palm. "Imperial power and aristocratic families are always two sides in a power struggle. You didn't actually believe his claim about being a beast of burden for the Xi family?"

Of course she didn't believe it; she's not stupid.

How many of these scions of wealthy families who fawned over her were truly in love with her?

It's nothing more than because of beauty or power.

"Uncle is good in every way, but he still has some Confucian loyalty to the emperor in his bones, which is a big taboo."

Xi Lingxian blinked. "Don't you have one?"

"Yes, and then I deposed the crown prince."

"..."

Okay, he didn't.

"You should advise your uncle to plan for the long-term future of the family as soon as possible, and not to rely too much on his official position in the central government."

Xi Lingxian took a step back, her expression wary. "Why are you suddenly showing concern for my family?"

Wang Jue remained unmoved, "What distinction is there between us?"

Xi Lingxian's breathing suddenly became shallow. "What do you mean by 'not distinguishing between each other'? There's nothing between us, so how can we not distinguish between each other? Don't say such ambiguous things to ruin my reputation."

"Furthermore, I've said it more than once: I have no intention of marrying you in this lifetime. Don't you understand?"

Wang Jue suddenly closed in, and she retreated step by step.

"The northern barbarians are eyeing us covetously, and the infighting in the court has never ceased. I have been planning for the future of both our families, and now you're saying you don't want it anymore?"

Xi Lingxian's brow twitched.

Wang Jue's gaze darkened slightly as she emphasized, "We've had our share of bad times, but also our share of good times. Think about the good things I did for you, hmm?"

No one would repay Lady Xi with such unreserved generosity as he did.

Xiao Yun couldn't do it, and Xi Wen was even less likely to.