"I'm not as good as you say..."
He fluttered his lashes sheepishly before lying back down.
System: You actually accepted it?
Ji Nian sat up. Despite running all the way, her long veil showed no sign of slipping.
As her hair brushed against Lu Jinghuai’s face, he reached up and gently pressed it down.
"So, you still haven’t answered me."
"What did you mean by what you said earlier?"
Ji Nian pressed on with the question that had been interrupted before.
Lu Jinghuai lifted his gaze to meet hers, a sly smile curling his lips.
"That’s a secret for now."
Seeing he didn’t want to elaborate, Ji Nian didn’t push further.
"We’re leaving tomorrow. Will you come back once you’re done with your work?"
She lay back down, plucking a blade of grass and inhaling the earthy, green scent of its stem.
Lu Jinghuai gave a soft "Mm."
"Why did you suddenly decide to come to O Country?"
At this, Ji Nian perked up a little.
"When we went horseback riding, Momo asked why you weren’t there, so I explained that you were celebrating a holiday here. Coincidentally, he knew a lot about it and told He Xiang and me about some local traditions."
"I thought it was really interesting, and since we hadn’t seen each other in a while, I came."
"Oh, by the way, Momo is—"
Before she could explain that Chen Mo was actually her uncle, Lu Jinghuai suddenly spoke up. "I know."
The fact that Chen Mo was Ji Nian’s uncle wasn’t widely known. After all, aside from business collaborations, outsiders would never guess that the Chen family and the Ji family were related.
But it wasn’t entirely surprising that Lu Jinghuai knew Chen Mo’s identity. If memory served, even Uncle Lu Zhi was aware of it.
Ji Nian suddenly remembered.
Technically, what happened to Lu Jinghuai as a child wasn’t directly Chen Mo’s doing, but it was tied to Vengeance.
Vengeance’s roots were originally in O Country, but after the incident, they were completely driven out. To this day, Chen Mo couldn’t set foot in O Country—he’d be detained immediately.
From any angle, Lu Jinghuai and Chen Mo stood on opposing sides.
The person who abducted Lu Jinghuai back then had really screwed Chen Mo over.
Thinking this, Ji Nian decided it was best to mention Chen Mo less around him. The little crown prince didn’t seem keen on hearing the name either.
"Well... anyway, that’s how we ended up coming."
She glossed over Chen Mo and wrapped up the topic.
Noticing her sudden avoidance, Lu Jinghuai’s eyes darkened briefly.
An odd tension settled between them, and neither spoke for a while.
Eventually, they walked in silence along the moat until they found a set of steps leading upward.
But Lu Jinghuai stopped.
Ji Nian paused beside him. "Not going up?"
Lost in thought, he turned to her. "You go ahead first."
Unsure why, Ji Nian wondered if mentioning Chen Mo had triggered memories of his childhood trauma.
As she climbed the steps, she mused—was the little crown prince going to distance himself from her now?
Honestly, Ji Nian didn’t mind. Even the closest friends could drift apart if their paths diverged.
But Lu Jinghuai was beautiful.
Ji Nian really liked him...
Lost in her thoughts, she reached the top, still holding the hem of her long skirt. Just as she debated whether to glance back, a gust of wind swept past.
It rustled the willow branches and fluttered her veil.
A yellow paper bird flapped its wings clumsily before her, turning midair with a mechanical click.
Without thinking, she caught the little bird as it fell.
It was tiny, its frame made of delicate twigs and its skin of paper.
Or maybe it wasn’t a bird—perhaps a little yellow chick.
Curious, she examined it closer and noticed writing on its back.
‘My radiant sun, forever bright.’
Ji Nian stared at the small script, her first thought being—she’d guessed wrong.
Hearing it was a blessing, she’d assumed Lu Jinghuai would wish her health or happiness.
[He called me the sun...]
But if anyone resembled the sun, it was him, not her.
A strange warmth crept into her chest as she cradled the chick and turned to look down the steps.
But the person who should’ve been standing there was gone.
"Ji Nian! There you are."
Just as she wondered how Lu Jinghuai had vanished so quickly, her friends’ voices called from a distance.
Shen Qingtang and the others hurried over, spotting her standing there dumbly with a little yellow thing in her hands.
"Are you alone?" Shen Qingtang asked.
"He Xiang said Lu Jinghuai took you away. We got worried when you didn’t come back, so we came looking."
He Xiang had recognized Lu Jinghuai at a glance.
He Xiang stared at the chick in her hands, expressionless.
Gu Xiuyuan, however, frowned and plucked a few stray blades of grass from her bangs.
"Aren’t you too old to be rolling around on the ground?"
Ji Nian rolled her eyes. "I was lying on the grass, not rolling."
She couldn’t help but glance back down the steps before tucking the chick away. "Where are we heading next?"
"The guide said there’s a restaurant in the west district with amazing food. They only serve their specialty dishes during the Oulei Festival, and there’s a performance too," Shen Qingtang explained.
Ji Nian nodded. "Let’s go, then."
Gu Xiuyuan sidled up to her. "Where’s Lu Jinghuai?"
She tightened her grip on the chick. "Oh, he had something to take care of. He left first."
He Xiang glanced back.
So, when Ji Nian looked back earlier, was it because Lu Jinghuai had been standing there? Googlᴇ search NoveI-Fire.ɴet
After dinner, they joined the O Country locals in dancing and celebrating, then watched fireworks before reluctantly heading back to their lodgings, still buzzing with excitement.
Once washed up, Ji Nian sent some photos from the day to her family group chat.
Wei Yang: You look gorgeous in this. Like a princess.
Ji Tingzhou didn’t reply with words—just a sticker.
A tiny, expressionless Q-version of himself giving a thumbs-up.
Ji Nian had drawn it herself. Inspired by Shen Qingtang commissioning OC fanart for stickers, she’d made a set of Ji Tingzhou emojis, and he’d taken a liking to them.
After replying, she turned her attention to the little chick on the desk.
She snapped a photo and sent it to Lu Jinghuai.
It looks a little wilted. Should I feed it some millet?
Just as she set her phone down, it buzzed.
Lu Jinghuai had replied.
Just let it bask in the moonlight.
Ji Nian wondered—why moonlight and not sunlight?
At the thought of sunlight, her eyes inevitably drifted back to the words on the chick’s back. She scratched her freshly moisturized, soft cheek.
Really, this little crown prince... calling her the sun?
It was the first time anyone had referred to her that way.
Driven by an odd impulse, she picked up the chick and headed to her balcony, fully intending to let it soak up the moonlight.
The wind outside was strong, so she threw a shawl over her nightgown before stepping out.
As she leaned against the railing, she let out a sigh, her gaze drifting downward when something dazzling flashed by, stealing her breath away.
Quickly rising on her toes, she peered below—