Dancing Under the Plum Blossoms

Yang Xin furrowed his brow. Through the perspective of his Byakugan, he realized that Lin Daiyu was far too weak. Not only was her physical body frail beyond compare, but her psychological resilience was also exceedingly fragile.

"One is an immortal flower of Fairyland, the other is a flawless piece of jade. If they say we are not predestined, why do we meet in this lifetime? If they say we are predestined, why do our deepest wishes dissolve into nothingness in the end? One sighs in vain, the other harbors empty worries; one is the moon in the water, the other is a flower in a mirror. How many teardrops can the eyes hold? How can they endure flowing from autumn to winter, and from spring to summer?"

The poem "Sighing over Meted Wrinkles" accurately described Lin Daiyu's entire life. However, even as the reincarnation of the Crimson Pearl Fairy Grass, one should not just burst into tears at the drop of a hat. This was an ailment, and it needed treatment!

"Now look here, Sister Lin, please don't create unnecessary drama for yourself at every turn. You start crying so readily, as if your older brother here has done something terrible to you," Yang Xin said with a blink.

"It is not Cousin's fault. It is simply that this younger cousin is sick with longing for her father, her heart weighed down by melancholy, and so the sad tears fall involuntarily," Lin Daiyu replied with a delicate and fragile expression, like pear blossoms drenched in rain. Any man who saw this would surely feel an urge to pull her into his arms and offer comfort.

Of course, whether the word "comfort" carried any connotation of "ravishment" was a matter of opinion, the benevolent seeing benevolence and the wise seeing wisdom. But Yang Xin, being a stereotypical straight-arrow male, remained completely unmoved. Besides, Lin Daiyu was only in her early teens right now—still a young girl, the kind where a relationship would land you a prison sentence starting at three years.

"No crying allowed, or I'll spank you! Such a pretty girl, if I hit her once, she'd probably cry for a very long time," Yang Xin said, putting on a fierce expression.

Seeing Yang Xin acting so deliberately fierce, Lin Daiyu instead let out a giggle. "Cousin shouldn't be like that; this cousin knows Cousin is just trying to cheer me up."

"Well, could you stop calling me Cousin? Every time you call me Cousin, I feel like I'm Murong Fu. You should just call me Lian, or you can call me Yang Xin," Yang Xin said, scratching his head.

"I understand Lian's meaning, but who is Murong Fu? Is he a friend of Cousin's? And who is Yang Xin? Why is Lian referring to himself as Yang Xin?" Lin Daiyu widened her eyes and asked, puzzled.

"Well... never mind such trivial details. Does Sister Lin know that great sorrow and great joy are most harmful to the mind and spirit? Allow me to play a tune on the flute for you to soothe your state of mind." With a wave of his hand, a jade flute appeared in Yang Xin's grip.

"Oh? Cousin knows how to play the flute?" Lin Daiyu's eyes brightened as she spoke. For some reason, she felt that when she was with Yang Xin, her mind and spirit naturally relaxed—a sensation she had never experienced since entering the Rongguo Mansion.

"Ahem... playing the flute. One day, you can play the flute for Cousin, too." After saying this, Yang Xin shook his head repeatedly, banishing the inappropriate thoughts from his mind.

Holding the jade flute, Yang Xin began to play a tune titled "Dancing Under Plum Blossoms" from *The Legend of Chu Liuxiang*.

Amidst the flute music, Yang Xin seemed to witness the poignant and beautiful scene of Li Xunhuan and Lin Shiyin dancing together beneath the plum blossoms. As he immersed himself in this aesthetic imagery, he subconsciously activated an illusion technique, projecting the scene of Lin Shiyin dancing amidst falling plum blossoms directly into Lin Daiyu's eyes.

Lin Daiyu had already lost herself in the elegant, melodious, and exquisite music. Under the influence of the illusion, she felt almost as if Lin Shiyin's spirit had possessed her, and she began to dance along with the music. Yang Xin could not help but stare, utterly captivated.

"Cousin~" Lin Daiyu was physically weak and could only manage to dance for a short while before her body gave out. A tender cry, soft enough to melt the marrow in Yang Xin's bones, snapped him back to reality.

Yang Xin gave a start and mentally chanted "a three-year minimum sentence and the twenty-four core socialist values" over and over again to steady his mind.

"Sister, this physique of yours simply won't do. You mustn't let white-haired parents grieve over a black-haired child," Yang Xin remarked, smacking his lips.

"My late father is about to..." Lin Daiyu started weeping rain-drenched pear blossoms again.

"Stop right there! With me around, your father is not going to die. Not only will he not die, but he'll be jumping around with enough vigor to hold his grandchildren," Yang Xin quickly cut off Lin Daiyu's tearful complaints. Lin Daiyu was wonderful in every way, perfectly embodying a man's deepest desires, but she loved to cry and was always creating her own dramatic subplots, weeping all the while.

"Cousin knows medicine as well?" Lin Daiyu's face lit up upon hearing this.

"Of course! To tell you the truth, this trip to Yangzhou on the surface is to haul your dowry back, but in reality, I am a general acting under the secret decree of His Majesty to save your father." Yang Xin smoothly borrowed the imperial tiger tally to wave a grand banner and began talking sheer nonsense with a completely straight face.

"Really?! That's wonderful!" Lin Daiyu's eyes sparkled, flashing like stars—stars seen through a mist.

"Children are so easy to fool," Yang Xin chuckled inwardly. Strictly speaking, though, he wasn't really deceiving her; regardless of what illness Lin Ruhai had, a single blood-red Bodhi seed down his belly would guarantee him vibrant, bouncing health, and it might even end up giving Lin Daiyu a younger sister or brother.

"You're celebrating too early," Yang Xin suddenly said with a mischievous glint in his eye.

"What does Cousin mean by that? Could it be that Cousin has no intention of saving my father?" Lin Daiyu's excitement came to an abrupt halt, and she looked on the verge of weeping once again.

"Your father, I will naturally save. I am talking about you. Sister, you are as bright as snow and ice; can't you see that Lady Jia of the Rongguo Mansion—your grandmother—along with the senior Lady Wang, and indeed every single master in the Rong Mansion, are plotting to steal your dowry and the property of the Lin clan?" Yang Xin directly stripped away the hypocritical masks of the masters of the Rongguo Mansion.

"And another thing, do you really think Jia Baoyu is worth entrusting your entire life to? Leaving aside the fact that marriages between third-degree blood relatives mostly produce foolish offspring, let's look at Jia Baoyu himself. To put it nicely, people say he is pure of heart and innocent; to put it bluntly, he is an idiot. Do you expect him to shield you from the wind and rain?

"As for status, what is your status? You are the legitimate daughter of the Lin family, and the Lin lineage boasts five generations of marquises! To call you a favored daughter of heaven would be no exaggeration. And Jia Baoyu? He is the legitimate grandson of the legitimate second son of the Rongguo Mansion, possessing neither scholarly honors nor a noble title. To put it plainly, he is a commoner. How could he possibly be worthy of you?

"Furthermore, as for Lady Jia, her matchmaking between the two of you is driven by nothing more than greed for your dowry and the Lin clan's wealth. Once she uses some clever pretext to fleece you of everything and strip you bare, she will undoubtedly kick you far away. Moreover, knowing full well that you are physically frail and psychologically vulnerable, she only needs to set up a slight trap to make you destroy yourself... Yes, Lady Jia is entirely capable of such a thing." Yang Xin said calmly.

In the original novel, Lin Daiyu's end was precisely this. To put it nicely, she wept away her life; in reality, she simply grieved herself to death. As for Jia Baoyu, he was nothing more than a scoundrel.

"How could it be like this? How could it be like this?" Lin Daiyu's face turned ashen white, and her body swayed unsteadily. "Rumor has it that Brother Baoyu was born with jade in his mouth, destined for great fortune and nobility. Will he not protect me?"

"Hmph!" Yang Xin emitted a sneer of disdain, pressing on with his disillusionment: "That's the sort of talk only sheltered women living in grand estates believe. Rumors—you said it yourself, they're rumors. Jia Baoyu born with jade in his mouth, and you actually believe it!

"How does the story go? The moment that fellow Jia Baoyu was born, he had a five-colored, translucent spiritual jade in his mouth, about the size of a sparrow's egg, which is why he was named Jia Baoyu. Sister, have you ever seen a newborn baby? Just how big is a newborn's mouth? And how big is a sparrow's egg?

"If Jia Baoyu had really been born with a piece of jade in his mouth, it would be a miracle he didn't suffocate to death!" Yang Xin stated with absolute conviction.

"Why would it be like this?"