A Lifetime Promise

Chapter 6

During the rest of the month, Lin Xinglan realized that the young prince was actually fast-learned. He had it easy to understand things. She wondered how he would be the next time she was going to meet him.

How she envied him, if only she was like him in studying, that would had make her life much easier.

On the bright side, she did indeed have a bright student, wouldn't that make her, as his teacher, proud and happy?

Truly, weeks went to months and it had already been eleven months since the first time Lin Xinglan met the young fourth prince, Qiang Jingyi. Ever since she began to teach him, he had become smarter and gained more knowledge. Despite the fact that she could only teach him the basic of things she knew, it was nevertheless a good start to learn.

His pace of learning really shocked her as she could only drown in envy, she really had to depressingly sigh at her own incompetence. Lin Xinglan also noticed that the young prince no longer cried and would always become happy whenever he saw her, his eyes would lit every time. He also stopped referring himself as a prince when he would talk to her.

It was good for a child to have such energy, it really made her envy. Her mental state was of an 18 years old so she was too tired to act like a child because it brought too much of energy. On her way out of the capital, she saw something that piqued her interest. She tugged at the end of her father's sleeve, trying to catch his attention.

"Father, father." She called him, "Can little Da buy something from here before we leave?"

Her father could only see her sparkle eyes and gave her the permission. She happily ran to the shop that caught her attention, it looked a bit worn-out but it was still decent with a sign above the entrance with the words 'Jade Destiny' carved in.

She went in to see many accessories made of mostly jades. It was a pretty sight. Lin Xinglan awed at her surroundings, having looked around the shop, she took the accessory that had taken into her liking the best. It was a necklace with a fine blood red cord and an oval shaped green jade pendant. It was really beautiful and it did had a faint masculine feeling.

She asked the shopkeeper if it was possible for him to carve a name into the jade. Luckily, he had the experience and happily accepted her request. Although it costed extra, she was still happy with the result. In the middle of the oval shaped jade was a finely carved name, Jingyi.

Her father didn't mind the price even though it was a bit expensive but he did wonder why his daughter would put a name on the jade pendant. He didn't know any child named Jingyi, only the fourth prince of Qin but it wasn't possible for his daughter to know him, and she didn't want to answer him so he could only unwillingly forget about it.

Yes, the reason Lin Xinglan bought the jade necklace was because of the promise between her and the young prince. They had promised to give each other something as a sign of their friendship. She still could remember the boy's face becoming red as a tomato when she mentioned it, it was really a sight to behold. She felt like she left him speechless but he was extremely happy and couldn't wait until the next time to give her the gift. Lin Xinglan wondered what kind of present the young prince would give her.

To get a gift personally from a prince is really daring... I don't know what to do with that child, honestly.

Time flew quickly and a month had passed, it had already been a year since they had met. They decided to exchange their gifts as friendship tokens. Seeing him sitting on a big rock in a distance, she could only call his name to catch his attention.

"Lan! I waited for you forever, what took you so long?" The young prince quickly hopped off the rock as soon as he saw her, and ran happily towards her.

"Sorry, little prince. It has been a year, right? Why don't we take a break from studying this time and just hang out together." Lin Xinglan smiled at him. She patted him even though he was a bit taller than her but she couldn't help herself from it.

"Alright! But first we need to exchange our gift." The young prince, Qiang Jingyi, excitedly exclaimed.

"Yes, yes." She helplessly looked at the overexcited prince.

She took out the jade necklace and placed it around his neck. After she was done, the young prince took the chance to observe his jade necklace that was given by Lin Xinglan. He was dumbfounded, it was his first time to receive a gift from someone he cared and it was also really beautiful. It even had his name carved into the jade.

Although it was a little too big for the young prince to wear, Lin Xinglan wasn't too worried because the young prince would soon grow bigger in the future.

"Woah! Thank you, Lan... I really love it, I'm gonna treasure it forever!" He quickly gave her a big hug. She was first surprised but then she just smiled sweetly and hugged him back.

"Now, now... Where's this big sister's gift?" The young prince broke the hug and slightly pouted.

"What big sister, it's clearly that I'm older than you..."

She laughed at the silly young prince in front of her, she couldn't stop herself from teasing him, "Yet you act more childish than me. Doesn't that prove the point?"

Hearing this, he couldn't stop the heat from coming to his face.

"Stop teasing me, Lan! Really, here's my gift for you." The young prince swiftly put something in Lin Xinglan's hand.

It was a plain looking green jade hairpin but if you looked closely, you could find the fine details embedded to it. What caught her surprise was that the green color belonged to the jade had the exact same shade of green as his jade necklace. Truly a coincidence. The hairpin was really to her liking.

Seeing Lin Xinglan liking the hairpin, his face became even redder. He was feeling satisfied that she liked it but he was at the same time feeling a little embarrassed because it was his first time giving a girl a gift.