The wind swept in from beyond the courtyard wall, brushing past the girl’s angry hair strands and his cold, clear eyes.

Shen Qiyuan stood stunned for a long moment, then suddenly lowered his gaze.

“Do you think it’s because I don’t want to marry?”

This was the first emotionally-laden sentence he had spoken to her. Though the emotion was heavy and dejected, making her heart tighten, Li Zhaoying still felt very surprised.

What did he mean? If it wasn’t that he didn’t want to marry, could it be that Sister Ruyi didn’t want to wed? What a joke—which woman in this world wouldn’t want to marry Shen Qiyuan? Which woman wouldn’t want a stable and reliable second half of life?

She wanted to mock him for making excuses, but when her gaze fell upon this person’s face, the words that had reached her lips were forcibly swallowed back.

Li Zhaoying had never seen Shen Qiyuan like this. Heaven’s favored son, clearly possessing an entire body of jade-like noble bearing, yet he stood there with head lowered, disheveled hair covering his eyes, the teardrop mole saturated with self-mockery and dejection.

“Perhaps the Princess could find a way to make decisions for me,” he said hoarsely. “If she were willing from the heart, what would the clan elders amount to?”

The dark-colored long robe gently lifted as Shen Qiyuan turned and walked away without looking back, his figure gradually disappearing into the shadows, proud yet lonely.

Li Zhaoying remained dazedly in place. After thinking for a long time without understanding, she took a dry bite of roasted pigeon.

Could two people in this world love each other yet cannot be together?

Ruyi’s answer would be no. If they truly loved each other, no matter how many difficulties there were, the two people would still end up together.

But who said she and Shen Qiyuan were in love?

They met with perfect courtesy during the day. At night when they were intimately entwined, bathed in moonlight, Shen Qiyuan held her, burying his head in the hollow of her neck, asking in a muffled voice: “You went to see the Ningyuan Marquis earlier?”

Ruyi came back to her senses, indulgently stroking his head: “What are you upset about? I went to see Wen Zhenxue. She insisted on dragging me to speak with the Ningyuan Marquis.”

“What did you talk about?”

Mentioning this matter made Ruyi want to laugh.

Because He Zeyou had been negligent in patrolling and guarding the hunting grounds, he was publicly reprimanded by His Majesty and stripped of his third-rank military position. Though it had been an idle post anyway, it still didn’t look good.

With this premise, she thought Wen Zhenxue might have come to question why she didn’t speak up for He Zeyou, or perhaps had seen through her intention to harm He Zeyou.

Instead, the little girl’s opening line was: “You two have already settled accounts, so why do you still keep pestering Zeyou?”

Seeing how she looked sweet and pure, Ruyi magnanimously advised her that there wasn’t only one man in this world, and this man wasn’t liked by everyone. Moreover, it had always been He Zeyou pestering her—from the moment he wanted to use her, he had never been able to escape her trap.

But Wen Zhenxue wouldn’t listen to a single word, cursing her as shameless for stealing men with every sentence.

Since persuasion was impossible, Ruyi could only applaud: “Didn’t you steal your man the same way back then?”

This statement choked Wen Zhenxue half to death. She cried dramatically, wiping tears and swearing her innocence, and just happened to run into He Zeyou passing by, collapsing into his arms.

In the past, He Zeyou would have comforted her well and turned to blame Liu Ruyi instead. But this time, perhaps because he had just been demoted and was feeling vexed, He Zeyou directly pushed her away and told her to mind her propriety.

Remembering Wen Zhenxue’s expression at that moment, Ruyi still wanted to laugh.

Who said there was no such thing as karmic retribution in this world?

Her throat ached slightly. She came back to her senses to see Shen Qiyuan looking at her with obscure eyes: “Very happy?”

“No, no.” She pressed down the corners of her mouth, twisted her waist, and with sparkling eyes diverted the conversation: “Yesterday I told you about my demon cultivation days. Today it’s your turn.”

His eyes still held displeasure, remaining silent for a long while.

Ruyi pressed close to him, softly pecking his lips, then twisted her waist again, hugging his arm and shaking it: “Hmm?”

His features gradually softened. Shen Qiyuan tightened his grip on the back of her neck, speaking indistinctly between their intertwined lips and teeth: “I’m afraid I’ll disappoint you. My path of spiritual cultivation was smooth sailing.”

Liar.

She lightly bit him and laughed: “If this immortal had smooth sailing, why didn’t he ascend to the Nine Heavens, instead of becoming a Nature God in the mortal realm?”

Nature Gods reincarnate every hundred years, enduring much human suffering. Usually, they are higher gods who committed errors and were banished to serve as punishment. Many immortals choose soul dissolution rather than endure this cyclical torment, which is why she had said earlier that he wouldn’t have a good ending either.

“The mortal realm is a good place,” he said seriously. “It’s the best place.”

“Then good. After I complete my merits and ascend, I’ll come to see you once every hundred years.” She smiled, tracing her finger across his chest. “A hundred years apart is more than newlywed bliss—”

Her trailing voice was swallowed into his throat, dissolved into softness.

Heaven and earth were overturned, and breath intertwined passionately. Shen Qiyuan held her tightly, a flash of darkness in his eyes, his hands suddenly applying force. But before she could cry out in pain, he restrainedly loosened his grip.

Ruyi was somewhat stunned.

She wouldn’t be moved by ultimate pleasure, but was easily stirred by these extremely subtle movements.

Shen Qiyuan seemed to truly care about her.

But why? They had only known each other for a short time.

Was an immortal’s heart so easily hooked?

Shen Qiyuan was different from other cold-hearted immortals. Though he also maintained his dignity and wouldn’t look at her directly in public, he knew what she wanted and would satisfy her imperceptibly.

For instance, in the returning procession, she was assigned to guard the prisoner’s cart.

Though called a prisoner cart, since this was a pleasure-seeking autumn hunt procession, they hadn’t brought wooden railings. They just used a board cart with a grass-woven canopy on top, throwing the bound Grand Preceptor Liu inside.

Ruyi sat to one side, calmly watching this person who had ruined Liu Ruyi’s entire life.

“I should have guessed earlier that the person you attached yourself to would be Shen Qiyuan. How could it be the Ningyuan Marquis?” Grand Preceptor Liu looked at her coldly and spat: “I never expected that my Liu family’s proper lineage would produce such a rotten thing as you.”

“When the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam naturally slants too.” Ruyi felt no hurt at all, only full of mockery: “If Grand Preceptor hadn’t been rotten to begin with, how could he have given birth to me?”

“You, you’re insolent!” Being squeezed by these words from a junior, Grand Preceptor Liu’s face turned green with rage: “All your learning went to the dogs’ bellies—how dare you speak to your father this way!”

“Yes.” She nodded: “If Grand Preceptor weren’t full of poetry and literature, he couldn’t have deceived so many people either.”

“…”

Realizing that he was no match for this little girl in either eloquence or bearing, Grand Preceptor Liu turned his head aside, staring fixedly at the road through the gaps in the grass canopy.

Yes, this was the road to Nanlu Daoist Temple. As long as the Dowager Consort intervened, as long as His Majesty had a way to save face—

He was full of hope.

Ruyi watched him with a smile, not telling him the truth, just letting him hope. After he had hoped eagerly for an hour, the procession stopped at the temple, but didn’t stay long before continuing.

Only then did Grand Preceptor Liu finally panic: “What’s happening? Why so quick?”

Could Literary Elder Wen and the others be handled by the Dowager Consort in just a few words? Or had the Dowager Consort not pleaded for him at all?

Impossible. The Dowager Consort was his aunt and had always doted on him most.

Unless…?

He suddenly looked toward Ruyi beside him.