A Rebirth: Joined As One - Chapter 8

After Jing Ya had sat alone in Lingyun Pavilion for more than half an hour, the Princess Royal had only just begun preparing to rise and wash up.

Palace attendants came to lay out breakfast. After the Princess Royal finished washing, she sat down to eat. She first scooped up a spoonful of congee and gave it a gentle stir. When she saw Xue Chan come in from outside, she leaned the spoon against the edge of the bowl and asked, “Did she go?”

Xue Chan nodded. “She went. I heard she got up at the beginning of the yin hour and rushed over to Lingyun Pavilion without even eating breakfast.”

The Princess Royal made no comment, only gave a soft laugh, and all her meaning was contained within it.

But Xue Chan looked a little unable to bear it. She asked, “Princess Royal, counting last night’s meal, Miss Jing has already missed two meals. What if hunger causes some kind of problem…”

The Princess Royal lifted a brow. “So what if she misses two meals? Would anything happen to you if you missed two meals?”

“This… Princess Royal, how could I compare with Miss Jing? Someone like me, forget missing two meals—even missing two days wouldn’t cause any problems! But Miss Jing is different. She’s Prime Minister Jing’s only daughter, raised delicately from childhood.”

Raised delicately?

The Princess Royal caught onto those four words and pondered them, then thought of the events of her previous life and shook her head. “Not necessarily.”

Those words, raised delicately, would fit any young master or young lady in the capital.

Only they did not fit Jing Ya, that little mouse.

“Not necessarily?” Xue Chan repeated with a puzzled face, looking at the Princess Royal as though waiting for her to explain.

But the Princess Royal did not elaborate. She only said, “Go have someone prepare a box of pastries. Bring it along when we go to Lingyun Pavilion later.”

Xue Chan guessed what she meant and happily answered yes, then went down to have it prepared.

The Princess Royal watched Xue Chan leave with a faint bounce still in her steps. She shook her head and smiled, somewhat helplessly. But after thinking about it again, she felt there was nothing bad about it.

Among the few people at her side, Xue Chan had the best martial skills, was the youngest, and had the simplest thoughts.

If she liked something, then she liked it. If she disliked something, then she definitely disliked it.

However, looking at it this way, Xue Chan seemed to rather like that little mouse…

The Princess Royal lowered her eyes and stirred her congee, pulling her thoughts back.

It was not until the end of the mao hour that people began entering Lingyun Pavilion one after another. Most came in groups of three or five, though it was not as if there were none who came alone. It was simply rare.

And today, Jing Ya was the one who came alone.

Earlier, when she saw that the time was almost up, she had someone remove the lamp, then went out to take a walk in the small bamboo grove beside Lingyun Pavilion. Only after she saw several groups of people go inside did she return from the bamboo grove, pretending she had just arrived as she entered the pavilion openly and calmly.

When the people already in the classroom saw Jing Ya, they were all somewhat stunned. Fortunately, they were all people who had seen the world, so they quickly recovered and nodded to Jing Ya with expressions that were appropriately close or distant.

Jing Ya returned the courtesy in the same way, then went back to her own seat.

After that, people trickled in sparsely. Some did not notice Jing Ya, and once they saw familiar faces, the atmosphere gradually changed from quiet back to cheerful.

Jing Ya sat in her own seat and quietly observed those people who were currently joking and playing with one another.

There were close friends now with their arms around each other’s shoulders who would later become enemies that could never reconcile. There were also childhood sweethearts who were secretly exchanging glances now, yet would later become a resentful couple, unable ever again to live in mutual respect.

But it was not as if every story ended badly.

Jing Ya’s gaze fell to the left and slightly behind her, where two desks were placed side by side in a corner, and two people were sitting beside them.

One was a shy, bashful boy who would glance sideways from time to time at the girl beside him. The girl seemed to sense it and would turn to look at the boy as well. Whenever their eyes happened to meet, it was always the girl who blushed first and shyly looked away. Only afterward would the boy belatedly turn his head back.

The girl was Prince Rui’s youngest daughter, Commandery Princess Qingyang. The boy was the study companion of Prince Rui’s third son, the grandson of the Duke of Anguo, Xie Ruyi.

In Jing Ya’s previous life, the two had married immediately after coming of age. They had always been a worthy couple, and no discord or disagreement between them had ever been rumored. Instead, stories of their affection were often passed down as beautiful tales.

Jing Ya withdrew her gaze, no longer looking at those two who already held feelings for one another, and instead looked at the people laughing and playing.

Among those people, some would later become enemies of each other. There were even more who had kicked the Jing family while they were down in her previous life. Those people, one by one, every face and every name, she remembered them all. She would not forget a single one.

Jing Ya lowered her right hand beneath the desk. Hidden inside her sleeve, it clenched tightly, even trembling slightly.

With her left hand, she pinched the upper corner of the page and turned the book to the next one. Her eyes followed the page number before landing on the words in the book. Her expression remained calm from beginning to end, as though no intense emotion had ever appeared in her, and no one noticed anything.

No rush. No rush…

The urgent matter now was first to pull the Jing family onto the Princess Royal’s ship. As for these people… later. When she had her hands free later, she would definitely deal with them one by one. Properly.

Jing Ya slowly loosened her right hand inside her sleeve and very naturally lifted it back onto the desk.

As the time gradually approached, the Princess Royal finally arrived.

The moment the Princess Royal appeared, the voices in the classroom immediately dropped by several degrees. Everyone’s eyes gathered on the Princess Royal, while the Princess Royal was long used to it and very naturally sat down in her own seat—that is, the seat directly in front of Jing Ya.

She sat down, yes, but she sat facing backward.

Xue Chan, who followed behind the Princess Royal, placed the food box she was carrying on Jing Ya’s desk. When she opened the lid, the exquisitely made pastries packed full inside the box were revealed.

Jing Ya lifted her eyes, first looking at the pastries inside the food box, then at the Princess Royal, who had turned around to sit face-to-face with her.

The Princess Royal looked at Jing Ya and smiled. “Is there anyone who has not eaten breakfast?”

Her voice was deliberately raised, so everyone in the classroom heard it. Someone who had always been close to the Princess Royal’s residence immediately lifted a hand and said, “Me, me! Princess Royal, I haven’t eaten!”

Those people gathered around and stood in a cluster at one side of Jing Ya’s desk, looking at the food box almost as if they were drooling over it.

Originally, they had not truly wanted to eat. They had only wanted to go along with the Princess Royal’s words. But now that they had come over and seen the pastries inside the food box, they immediately did feel a little hungry.

The Princess Royal pushed the food box to the side and said, “Then all of it is bestowed to you.”

That group’s eyes lit up. They picked up the food box and hugged it in their arms. “Then we thank the Princess Royal for the reward! Mm, the pastries from the Princess Royal’s palace are indeed exquisitely made!”

After saying that, as if afraid the Princess Royal would take it back, they carried it to a table nearby and started dividing the pastries among themselves.

Standing on the other side of the desk, Xue Chan watched them carry the food box away, her eyes wide and full of disbelief. But that group was busy eating pastries, and no one paid attention to her. So she turned to look at the Princess Royal, her gaze full of accusation.

The Princess Royal pretended not to see it either. She only looked at Jing Ya, who had lowered her head at some unknown point and started reading again.

Lowering her voice, with a hint of laughter in it, the Princess Royal asked, “Hungry?”

Without even raising her head, Jing Ya replied, “No.”

Hearing this, the Princess Royal deliberately said, “Still not hungry? Then why don’t we skip today’s lunch as well? What do you think?”

Jing Ya still did not lift her head, only said, “I will obey the Princess Royal’s decision.”

At this, the smile on the Princess Royal’s lips deepened further.

As expected, this little mouse was still as good at enduring as ever…

Jing Ya looked as though she was reading, but in truth, not a single word entered her mind, especially after she had just seen that full box of pastries.

But there was nothing she could do. When one was under someone else’s roof, one had to lower one’s head.

What was more, this roof belonged to the Princess Royal.

Endure it. Endure it a little. In any case, the Princess Royal would not starve her to death.

Thinking this, Jing Ya was about to turn another page. Just as she was about to flip it, something wrapped in oil paper pressed down on the page she was going to turn.

Jing Ya lifted her head in surprise to look at the Princess Royal.

The Princess Royal only raised her chin. “Eat.”

Only then did Jing Ya take the oil-paper package pressing on her book. Once she held it, Jing Ya realized that threads of warmth were steadily passing through the oil paper into her palm.

“Thank you, Princess Royal.”

The Princess Royal did not respond to her thanks. She only looked at her once, then turned around and sat properly.

The moment the chen hour arrived, Xue Chan withdrew from the classroom before the lecturer entered. The group of people who had been fighting over the pastries in the food box had also eaten most of them by now, and at this moment, they were all busy wiping their mouths, tidying their clothes, and straightening their appearance.

Finally, before the lecturer came in, everyone had managed to put themselves in order, and the food box had been hidden beneath one person’s desk.

Jing Ya listened to the lecturer’s voice, looked at the upright back sitting properly in front of her, and tightened her grip on the oil-paper package in her hand. Her heart stirred slightly, but the feeling passed in an instant, and she did not truly grasp anything.

The first day of class was always easy. The lecturer did not drag it out either. As soon as the beginning of the si hour passed, class was dismissed, and no assignment was left to be handed in. When the students heard this, they were all very happy.

Jing Ya did not care much whether there was homework or not, but being able to leave class early still made her happy.

After all, she had gone hungry for two meals in a row. Although the Princess Royal had brought her breakfast earlier, in a place like the classroom, with the lecturer speaking above and many people around watching her, she really could not eat like that.

And so Jing Ya could only hold that oil-paper package the entire time, wanting it to cool a little later. But the weather at the beginning of the third month was still not that warm. Even with her palm covering it, the breakfast wrapped inside the oil paper still went cold.

So once someone left the classroom, Jing Ya tucked the oil-paper package into her sleeve so no one could see it, then hurriedly followed them out. She did not greet the Princess Royal.

It was not that she was so hungry she forgot. Jing Ya had done it deliberately.

The identity Jing Ya had set for herself in the Princess Royal’s faction was that of an allied minister. Since she was an allied minister, there was no need for her to lower herself too much and cooperate with the Princess Royal in these small games of teasing people.

Besides, she still had to remember her current identity.

If she endured too much, the current Princess Royal might instead become suspicious of her. Having a little temper was the kind of temper that the only daughter of the Jing family ought to have, and so she could not restrain it.

Therefore, the Princess Royal remained sitting in her seat, watching Jing Ya, that “little mouse,” slip past her without saying a word, her expression still calm and composed.

Princess Royal: “…”

Why had this little mouse grown so bold today?