Xiao Zai kept smiling at his sister even as his insides tightened painfully. "That's good, gege is glad A-Xiang is happy."
He was happy for her, that much was true. A-Xiang deserved to know who her sire was. And although his feelings for Jin Luan were still ambiguous, even to himself, he could imagine how much it must have pained him to know he couldn't see her, or tell her who he was.
"Look at what A-Xiang has been making!" she said, pointing towards the papers scattered across the tables.
Xiao Zai knelt in front of the table beside her, admiring all the drawings carefully. A-Xiang always worked hard on her calligraphy because Gu Wei had ideas of turning her into a scholarly young lady, but looking at her carefree landscape paintings -- landscapes that she could have only came up with, because she had never left the tiny village in which she grew up -- Xiao Zai had the impression that his little sister had the makings of an artist.