Chapter 113
Chapter 113: Xiao Man, He Thinks of You as His Wife!
Over at the Lin Manor, the courtyard of the three misses was buzzing with satisfaction.
“Eldest Sister, aren’t Xiao Man’s wontons unbelievable?”
Lin Yu Jiao and Lin Yu Ning stared at Eldest Sister Lin Yu Wan with bright, eager eyes, speaking around mouthfuls.
Lin Yu Wan took her time. She lifted one wonton, bit into it slowly, and let the flavors settle before she spoke.
The wrapper was thin enough to catch light; one bite and it gave way, and the filling burst rich and full.
The shrimp was sweet and springy. The pork was juicy. The corn flashed bright and clean through the richness, turning the whole bite from heavy into addictive.
Lin Yu Wan nodded, as if delivering a verdict.
“Either she’s improved again, or she’s been hiding her skill all along.”
She took another measured bite.
“And the corn—that’s the finishing touch. It lifts the whole thing.”
“Exactly!”
Yu Ning drained her bowl to the last sip, then smacked her lips, still hungry.
“Our cook makes mushroom-and-pork filling every single time. I’m sick of it. I told her to change it up, but she said Old Eldest wouldn’t like it. She claimed it’s an ancestral recipe and can’t be touched.”
Lin Yu Jiao leaned closer to Lin Yu Wan, voice dropping as if sharing a secret, a touch smug.
“Eldest Sister, I told Xiao Man today to come to our place as a cook.”
“No indenture. Just a term contract. She can come cook one meal a day and name her pay.”
Lin Yu Wan lifted her eyes and gave her a look full of slow amusement.
“Did your brain short out after one bowl of wontons?”
Lin Yu Jiao blinked, already feeling the trap.
Lin Yu Wan’s tone stayed light, teasing, but the point landed cleanly.
“Did you forget whose person Xiao Man is?”
“She’s the one Cousin protects like treasure. You want to dig up someone’s treasure and drag her into our courtyard to cook—do you think Cousin would agree?”
Lin Yu Jiao slapped her own forehead with a groan.
“Right! Right! Look at my pig brain. I was so busy eating I forgot. If I really tried to lure Xiao Man away, Cousin would stomp our threshold flat.”
Yu Ning drooped too, face full of regret.
“Second Sister… I said it too.”
“If she could cook at our place, that would be so perfect.”
Lin Yu Wan watched her sisters sulk, then calmly dropped a new piece of news like a stone into still water.
“Stop mourning.”
“With how clingy Cousin is, Xiao Man might end up as our cousin-in-law someday.”
Lin Yu Jiao’s eyes went round.
“Cousin-in-law? Really? But… she isn’t a noble lady. Would the family allow it? The status…”
Lin Yu Jiao had grown up believing the eldest grandson’s marriage was always an alliance, always measured and matched.
Xiao Man was wonderful, but her background was a hard wall.
Yu Ning didn’t care about walls. She clapped her hands, delighted.
“Even better! If she becomes cousin-in-law, she’s family. Then when we want to eat something, we can just go to cousin-in-law. That’s closer than hiring her as a cook!”
Her inner abacus clicked happily. In Yu Ning’s world, only food was eternal.
“Oh! Eldest Sister,” Yu Ning suddenly remembered, eyes shining again. “Xiao Man said we should go tomorrow to eat noodle fish!”
“Tomorrow we get another treat!”
The three misses exchanged looks and laughed, already imagining tomorrow’s flavors.
At the Auspicious Cloud Residence, night deepened.
Xiao Man and Lin Qing Xuan spoke by candlelight, the room quiet and warm, as if the world outside had been shut gently behind a door.
Then a black shadow shot in through the window and landed neatly by Xiao Man’s feet.
It was Tuan Tuan, the black cat—gone for days and back as if he’d never left.
“Tuan Tuan?”
Xiao Man scooped him up at once, surprise and delight rising together. She stroked his glossy fur, fingers moving as if to confirm he was real.
“Where did you go? I haven’t seen you at all.”
Tuan Tuan stretched in her arms, yawned hugely, and spoke in a tone of deep suffering.
“Don’t ask. Mouse hunting.”
“This stupid body has instincts I can’t control. The second I smell a mouse, my brain goes blank and I’m chasing it. I chased them for days and nearly couldn’t find my way home. And this manor has way too many mice.”
Xiao Man burst out laughing.
“Fine, fine. Our Chief Steward Tuan Tuan has worked hard. Tomorrow I’ll make you a cat teaser and hang bells and feathers on it. You’ll be so busy playing you won’t have time to hunt mice.”
Tuan Tuan rubbed his head against her palm, purring, then lifted his face and stared at her with pleading eyes.
“You didn’t save me any shrimp, did you? I want wontons too, my dear Xiao Man. I’m telling you, while I was chasing mice, all I could think about was your shrimp.”
Xiao Man laughed harder.
“You thought about me while catching mice? What, you mistook me for a giant mouse?”
Lin Qing Xuan sat quietly to the side, watching.
Candlelight warmed Xiao Man’s face as she laughed. The black cat lay snug in her arms, eyes half lidded, purring like he owned the world.
Something in Lin Qing Xuan’s chest softened.
A thought rose—gentle, dangerous, impossible to stop.
Tuan Tuan’s golden eyes snapped to Lin Qing Xuan as if he’d heard the thought scrape against the air. Then he turned back, meowed once at Xiao Man, and said casually, like he was commenting on the weather:
“Xiao Man, he thinks of you as his wife.”
Xiao Man froze.
Her arms went still around the cat. Slowly, as if her body moved through water, she lifted her eyes to Lin Qing Xuan.
The air tightened. The candle flame seemed to burn too bright.
Heat surged up Lin Qing Xuan’s neck to his ears. Even the edges of his vision felt hot.
He opened his mouth.
“I…”
One word, and then nothing. Explanation had nowhere to stand.
Xiao Man stared, shock and uncertainty written plainly across her face.
Silence stretched. The room held its breath.
At last, Lin Qing Xuan drew in a slow breath, as if choosing not comfort, but courage.
He met her gaze and spoke clearly, without hiding behind anything.
“I’m in love with you.”
Then, after a heartbeat, he added—voice steady despite the flush still burning his ears:
“And this cat… isn’t wrong.”
The confession landed like an arrow.
Xiao Man felt her heart drop heavy, then slam wildly against her ribs as if it wanted out.
Joy flared—bright, sweet, dizzying.
And then fear flooded in behind it.
She was afraid of sinking into his tenderness, of losing herself in the way he looked at her, of abandoning the plan she’d held tight for so long—the plan to leave the manor.
No.
She couldn’t fall into this.
“Um… I’m tired.”
Her words came out scattered, too fast, barely holding together.
“I… I’m going to sleep.”
She set Tuan Tuan down as if her hands had forgotten what to do, then turned toward the door.
“Eldest Young Master, you should rest early too.”
And then she fled.
The door closed, cutting off his gaze like a blade drawn through light.
Tuan Tuan hopped onto the table, looked at Lin Qing Xuan’s stunned expression, and immediately switched into mockery.
“Confessed for nothing, huh? Look how you scared her—she ran faster than a rabbit.”
“Tsk. Being handsome is useless. When it matters, you’re not even as popular as a cat.”
Lin Qing Xuan didn’t respond.
He stared at the closed door, eyes steady, something stubborn and patient settling into him.
“Maybe she just hasn’t figured out her own feelings yet.”
“It’s fine,” he said quietly, certain. “I can wait.”
He reached into his robe and drew out a small brocade pouch.
Inside lay a string of warm-toned sandalwood prayer beads, smooth and cool against his palm.
He had prayed for them for her at the Fa Hua Temple.
He’d gone there seeking an answer from the Buddha, but now he understood.
The answer wasn’t in a statue.
It was in his own heart—and, someday, in hers.
Lin Qing Xuan closed his fingers around the beads.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow he would give them to her.