The clamoring sounds from the guests toasting, drinking, and laughing in the dooryard kept traveling over here. It made the silence in the verandah all the more prominent.

Wei Luo froze for a moment. Soon after, she followed Chang Hong's line of sight to look at the top of Zhao Jie's head and very quickly realized what had happened. This was the jade hairpin that she had given him. Chang Hong must have recognized it...

What should she do? She didn't dare to go forward. She felt as if they were going to start fighting in the next moment.

Wei Luo originally intended to silently leave, but Wei Chang Mi's little maternal uncle, Qin Ce, turned his head to look at them and drew attention over to them by saying, "Oh, Chang Mi also came here to play?" His line of sight moved upwards and stopped on Wei Luo's face. He pondered for a moment before calling out her name, "This is... Chang Mi's older sister, niece Ah Luo?"

Please read from the original source at fuyuneko dot org. It's very discouraging to see people reading stolen translations from aggregator sites after I spent hours translating.

When Qin Ce was a teenager and Wei Luo was a young child, he often went to Duke Ying's residence. Although Wei Luo didn’t recognize him, he recognized her.

It was probably because Wei Luo looked very similar to Jiang Miao Lan. Her beautiful face was like apricot blossoms, her cheeks were like peaches, her eyes were exquisitely marvelous, and her lips had the color of cherry blossoms. Before Jiang Miao Lan gave birth to Wei Luo and Wei Chang Hong, Qin Ce had a deep impression of her after meeting her a few times. Later, she had departed without any warning and left behind a son and daughter. Qin Ce had felt very regretful over this matter for a long time. Now, this son and daughter had grown up.

One had grown into a heroic looking young man and was standing right in front of him. The other had grown into a lovely and alluring young woman.

Hearing Qin Ce calling Wei Luo's name, Wei Chang Hong turned towards the sound to look.

Wei Luo resigned herself to the loss and slowly walked until her entire person was within Chang Hong's line of sight. Her voice stumbled twice before she slightly fawningly called out, "Chang Hong, why are you here?"

He looked at her with indignation, grievances, and hurt feelings. He recognized the hairpin on Zhao Jie's head. It was the hairpin that she had bought when she went outside to buy his gift. At the time, he thought she was going to give this to Song Hui. Although he was unhappy, he still grudgingly accepted it. When he had saw that this jade hairpin was with Zhao Jie, he had rushed over here to ask why. Did Ah Luo give this to Zhao Jie? What kind of relationship did they have?

Wei Chang Hong remained silent.

For a moment, he felt as if he was cheated. Wei Chang Hong stopped looking at Wei Luo with pitiful eyes and fiercely glared at Zhao Jie.

He must have coerced Ah Luo. Otherwise, how could Ah Luo like him? Not only was he almost ten years older than Ah Luo, his appearance wasn’t as good as Song Hui's. If Ah Luo wasn't even attracted to Song Hui, then there was no way she would be interested in him.

Wei Chang Hong clenched the fist in his sleeves, walked forward, and opened his mouth to say, "You..."

Wei Luo thought he was going to hit Zhao Jie. After all, there was a precedent. Back when Li Song groped her during Spring Lantern Festival, didn't he also walk forward to punch Li Song? Thinking of this, Wei Luo hurriedly walked forward and grabbed Chang Hong's hand. With beseeching eyes, she anxiously said, "... Don't hit him."

After these words were said, Wei Chang Hong's body stiffened. His eyes were sorrowful and distressed.

Conversely, across from them, Zhao Jie curved his thin lips and had a smiling expression as he looked at the young girl. His recent fierceness faded.

Wei Luo didn't know why she had rushed forward. At the time, she had just wanted to stop Zhao Jie from being hit. She hadn't thought about how this would be the same as tacitly agreeing that she had a relationship with Zhao Jie. A trace of regret swept across her face. This was really vexing. Chang Hong inverse her grip on his hand and turned around to lead her away. She could only helplessly follow him. Before she could take more than a step, her other hand was grabbed by Zhao Jie.

Zhao Jie stood in place. His lips were smiling, but his gaze was burning. "Don't go."

He seemed relaxed, but in reality, he was using some force to hold her. It wasn't enough to hurt Wei Luo, but she also wouldn't be able to easily break free.

Sure enough, Wei Luo wasn't able to pull her hand away when she tried.

She annoyedly thought, what were these two people thinking? They weren't at home. This was Marquis An Lin's residence. Fortunately, there wasn't anyone else in the verandah this time. If someone else saw, what would happen to her reputation?

While Wei Luo was worrying about this, Qin Ce smiled as if he was watching a good play. "My study is near here. How about I bring you over there to drink a cup of tea or sit down to talk?"

Wei Chang Hong stopped, but he didn’t say anything.

Zhao Jie also declined to comment.

Seeing that no one was refusing, Qin Ce gestured for them to follow him with a smile. "Then, follow this one."

Qin Ce had a good relationship with Zhao Jie. The two of them often talked outside of public gatherings. When Zhao Jie was planning on how to deploy Wu Jiang's troops, Qin Ce would often give him advice and ideas. Qin Ce could be counted as Zhao Jie's trusted advisor.

The group of people arrived at the study. Qin Ce pushed opened the doors, invited them inside, took out a jar from the shelves, sat down at the marble table carved with chrysanthemum flowers, used a silver teaspoon to scoop out tea leaves from the jar, poured them inside the teapot decorated with clouds, and covered the teapot. He didn't sit down for a long time. He had the discernment to bring Wei Chang Mi away. "Prince Jing and Sixth Young master, take your time to talk. I'll bring Mi-er outside to walk around."

Zhao Jie fiddled with the jade ring around his thumb and quietly made a sound of acknowledgement.

Wei Chang Mi wasn't willing to leave. Lying against Qin Ce's shoulder, he said, "I don't want to go. I want to be together with older sister Ah Luo. Little maternal uncle.."

Qin Ce patted his butt, smiled, and said, "Let's go. Little maternal uncle will push you on the swings."

Silly child, your older sister Ah Luo doesn't have time to pay attention to you.