Now that Zhenzhen was off for a vacation, Xiaoling felt she could finally breathe without consequences. Alone in her room, she pulled her dusty qin from the top shelf. She hadn't used it in so long that even the court maids had forgotten to tend to it.
She put it on a table and grabbed a cotton cloth to wipe it clean. She sat before it and grabbed the book the Arbiter had gifted her before she arrived at the Eastern Palace.
She bitterly smiled as she opened the book. The Arbiter had crafted all these songs for her to learn one day, given that she would be lonely in the Eastern Palace. The truth was that she hadn't found herself safe enough to even dwell on her hobbies in peace. With Zhenzhen's life on the line, she dared not step ahead recklessly.
