135 Keeping Silent

Yun Xueyan pored over the book in her hands, reading every word with painstaking focus and committing every detail to memory. She knew that only by mastering these texts could she hope to carve out a place for herself.

She reached out and took the cup of tea offered to her side without looking up; she knew that no one but Feng Yihan would be by her side.

She had often wondered why Feng Yihan was helping her so much. Perhaps it had started the moment he realized she knew Duan Nanyu. He chose not to speak of it, and she chose not to ask—that was their unspoken agreement.

"It is snowing." The indifferent voice spoke from beside her. He walked to the window and pushed it open. A gust of cold air rushed in, making Yun Xueyan shiver and causing the pages of her book to flutter.

She looked up and out the window. Thin, delicate snowflakes were drifting down, casting a shroud of crystalline white over the world before her. A faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

Closing her book, Yun Xueyan stood up and walked over to the charcoal brazier, adding a few pieces of coal. With her slender, fair fingers, she poked at the embers before walking over to the window. "It is snowing. How time flies..."

She sighed. The years slipped through her fingers so carelessly, and she, too, had grown calm amidst the passage of time. The upheavals of her past had become nothing more than fragmented memories.

Pain or joy—neither was of paramount importance to her anymore. What she wanted was what lay ahead.

"It does fly," Feng Yihan replied. A trace of melancholy flickered across his habitually expressionless face, but it was so fleeting that, if one looked closely, it seemed never to have existed at all.

Yun Xueyan was stunned for a moment, then she smiled serenely. "Do you dislike winter? Or is it... that you dislike the snow?"

She found the snow beautiful, even if the winter was bitter. Back when she was still in the Grand Tutor’s manor, she had always been delighted when it snowed, for in her eyes, the snow was untainted by any impurity—forever pristine and pure.

"I dislike it all! None of it pleases me. I have no love for cold things, nor for the snow!" His tone, sharp with sudden irritation, caught her off guard. Was he angry?

"Then let us close the window. Why look at what you dislike and make yourself miserable?" Stepping forward, Yun Xueyan closed the window naturally, choosing not to ask him why. She knew that deep within his heart lay a hidden pain, much like her own.

"Why?" he asked softly, turning his gaze away from her.

"Hmm?" She looked at him with clear, bewildered eyes. Why? Did he mean why she hadn't asked him for his reasons? "There is no reason. Whatever reason you choose to believe is the reason," she said, echoing his own style of speaking, before returning to the table.

"I am almost finished with the books you provided." She toyed with the pages, a faint smile hidden behind her veil. She needed to know more; although she could not possibly learn everything, she refused to let any opportunity slip by.

"In truth, knowing enough is sufficient. There is no need to study them with such obsessive precision." A knot tightened in his chest; he suddenly found he did not want her to learn too much.

"What is this? Are you reluctant to let me read them?" she teased, pouring out the now-cold tea and refilling her cup before taking a sip. "For the past month, I have poured all my energy into these books. Didn't you say yourself that I needed to understand more?"

"I did." He sat down and poured himself a cup of tea. A chill gathered between his brows. He downed the tea in one gulp and rose abruptly. "I will go and get more for you at once."