"Well in that case, Mother... I wouldn’t mind if you recommended me!"

Madame Zi froze, her hand dropping to her side. Her eyes widened in pure shock. She knew her son Zi Han was deeply quiet, usually keeping his thoughts buried under a calm, scholarly face. She had expected to gently tease a small answer out of him, but she never expected him to be so completely blunt about his intentions.

However, the tips of Zi Han’s ears quickly turned a soft shade of pink. He looked away from his calligraphy paper, his jaw tightening slightly as a shadow of genuine frustration and worry washed over his features.

"Yet... I am not entirely sure if she would be interested in me," he muttered, his voice dropping low.

Madame Zi quickly stepped closer to the desk, her curiosity piqued. "What do you mean, my son? You went after her tonight. Did something happen?"

Zi Han nervously tapped the handle of his calligraphy brush against the desk, looking thoroughly vexed by his own actions. He summarized the disaster on the stone bridge, his tone practical but carrying a heavy undercurrent of regret.

He explained how he had caught up to Lanyin near the bridge, but because he was a man of cold logic, he completely misread her guarded stance. He admitted to his mother that he had bluntly questioned her, asking if her illness was just an excuse to avoid attending the Governor’s gathering with him. He had even flatly offered to have the request rescinded, thinking he was being reasonable by not forcing an "inconvenience" on her.

"I thought I was giving her an honorable way out," Zi Han confessed, his shoulders tensing as he looked down at his ink stone. "But it backfired completely. I managed to sound entirely cold and clinical, as if I didn’t care either way."

Madame Zi closed her eyes, letting out a sharp, exasperated sigh. "Oh, Zi Han... a woman doesn’t want logic when her heart is racing."

"I realize that now," he replied grimly, the memory obviously stinging. "She looked at me with tears in her eyes and snapped that my very tone and the way I speak have been hurting her since the first day we met. She asked if I would ever change."

He let out a heavy, defeated breath, the usual scholarly composure completely shattered. "Before I could even wrap my head around what I had done wrong or find the words to explain myself, she ran off. I was so stunned I just stood there like a fool while she disappeared down the garden paths."

Madame Zi couldn’t help it. A sudden, breathless laugh escaped her lips, breaking the heavy silence of the study.

"Mother," Zi Han muttered, his brow furrowing as a dark flush crept up his neck. "I fail to see what is amusing about this."

"Oh, my foolish son, it is incredibly amusing," Madame Zi said, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye before her expression softened into a deeply affectionate, knowing look. "You truly are your father’s son. You have his brilliant mind, but you also inherited his absolute density when it comes to the heart."

She walked around the desk, placing a comforting hand on his tense shoulder.

"Let me tell you a secret, Zi Han. When your father was a young scholar trying to court me, he was exactly the same. He was so strict, so blunt, and so utterly terrified of saying the wrong thing that he ended up sounding like an icy magistrate passing judgment instead of a young man in love. I can’t tell you how many times I locked him out of my courtyard or wept into my handkerchief because I thought he despised me."

Zi Han looked up, surprised. "Father did that?"

"He did," Madame Zi smiled, her eyes distant with fond memories. "But I was strict with him. I didn’t let him hide behind his books or his logic. I forced him to speak to me like a human being, not a court official. And that is exactly what you need to do with Lanyin."

She leaned down slightly, looking directly into her son’s troubled eyes, her tone turning firm but encouraging.

"Lanyin did not run away because she dislikes you, Zi Han. She ran away because your cold words stung her. A girl’s heart is fragile; she needs reassurance, not a logical exit strategy. If you treat her like a chore you are trying not to ’inconvenience,’ she will believe it."

Madame Zi patted his shoulder, giving him a final piece of advice. "Put down your brush, stop analyzing her like a text, and the next time you see her, forget your pride. Show her your warmth, not your vocabulary. Tell her clearly that you want her by your side, and don’t let her run away until she hears it."

"The Governor’s banquet is in a few days. You are not going to let a piece of paper or a casual message handle this for you. Tomorrow, you will go over to the Xi estate yourself."

Zi Han looked up, blinking in surprise. "Go there myself?"

"Yes, yourself," Madame Zi insisted, giving him a stern, motherly look. "You will look her in the eye and invite her properly to the banquet."

"No talking like you’re writing an official report. You will apologize for your bluntness, and you will ask her to be your escort because you genuinely desire her company."

Zi Han swallowed hard, looking at the neatly written calligraphy characters on his desk. For the first time in his life, a task felt more daunting than passing the imperial examinations.

"But Mother," he muttered, his voice dropping low as he stared at the ink stone. "What if she refuses to see me? After what I said on the bridge... she was furious."

"Then you wait until she is willing to see you," Madame Zi replied without a single second of hesitation. She reached over, gently taking the brush from his hand and placing it back on the porcelain rest, signaling that his studies were officially over for the night. "A woman’s anger is often just a shield for her hurt. If you turn around and walk away the moment she closes the door, you will only prove to her that you didn’t care enough to stay