Shi Fa Ke looked at her mother’s suddenly reddened cheeks with confusion, feeling completely bewildered. “…So Father really did beat Chu Yizhi?”

What about the three agreements? What about not fighting people casually?

She had spoken so confidently that it was impossible for her father to beat anyone! This slap in the face came so unexpectedly!

“I would have liked to beat that turtle grandson myself, but unexpectedly, before I could act, someone beat me to it.” Shi Changhuai’s voice suddenly sounded from behind, carrying a tone of great regret.

Shi Fa Ke turned around and saw that Father and Second Brother had returned at some point and were standing behind her.

“Father, it wasn’t you?” Shi Fa Ke asked, then exclaimed, “Ah right, Young Master Lu said it was several young ladies who did it…”

How had she forgotten this detail… Had she subconsciously thought Lu Chi had lied to save her?

A gentleman like Young Master Lu would never lie.

However…

“Then who could have beaten Chu Yizhi? Could those young ladies really be his romantic debts? …Who would have thought Chu Yizhi was that kind of person.” Shi Fa Ke murmured to herself.

“Impossible.” Tao-shi scoffed. “He must have been targeted for revenge… Wonder who he offended.”

No matter how bad Chu Yizhi might be, Tao-shi couldn’t in good conscience say he was promiscuous. He was just someone who’d read himself silly… Yet he was also quite timid. Though his feelings for Ah Ke were obvious to anyone with eyes, he didn’t dare speak up, and in the end let his mother arrange his marriage to a teacher’s daughter.

“Regardless, as long as this matter has nothing to do with our family, that’s good. Father, Second Brother, you must promise me not to strike at him again.” Shi Fa Ke stopped dwelling on who had beaten Chu Yizhi and instead spoke seriously. “And Big Brother too—when he returns, you must tell him as well.”

These words sounded quite heartless.

As if Chu Yizhi, who had grown up with her, had suddenly become a stranger.

While Tao-shi felt relieved, she also thought Chu Yizhi was rather pitiful…

“Don’t worry. That boy’s been beaten so badly he can’t get out of bed. Consider this matter settled.” Shi Changhuai waved his hand magnanimously.

Seeing Father’s statement, Shi Fa Ke felt reassured.

But Tao-shi asked again, “Your foot injury only healed a few days ago. Why did you go out today?”

If she hadn’t gone out, she wouldn’t have encountered that evil mother-in-law and daughter-in-law pair from the Chu family.

Tao-shi’s question was fine until she asked—then Shi Fa Ke became dejected again, her face written all over with unhappiness.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you say Young Master Lu helped you out and you didn’t suffer any grievances?” Seeing her like this, Tao-shi became somewhat nervous.

“It’s not because of that. I went out today because I accepted Young Master Lu’s request for matchmaking and went to the He family to propose to Ketian.” Shi Fa Ke said gloomily. “But I never expected the He family would break the engagement and refuse to acknowledge their previous embroidered ball marriage proposal.”

“The He family broke the engagement?” The Shi family father and sons looked at each other, then all showed expressions of sudden understanding. “I see.”

On the way home, Shi Changhuai had told his son about the foolish scholar coming to redeem his bracelet. Father and son had marveled all the way that he came to redeem it after only five days—fortunately they had tricked him into making it a dead pawn. So it turned out the He family had broken the engagement, which was why the foolish scholar had gone to the pawn shop trying to redeem his bracelet…

However, that foolish scholar had actually asked Ah Ke to be his matchmaker? And judging from Ah Ke’s words, the two were acquainted? And he had helped Ah Ke out of trouble?

“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Shi Fa Ke looked puzzled.

The Shi family father and sons all shook their heads and said in unison, “Nothing.”

Shi Fa Ke looked at them strangely, feeling something was odd…

Shi Changhuai cleared his throat. “I’ve been tired all day taking inventory. I need to go inside and rest.” With that, he pulled Tao-shi inside, saying he wanted to check what was for dinner.

This left Shi Chongshan and Shi Fa Ke standing at the door staring at each other.

Shi Chongshan glanced at Shi Fa Ke. She held a gleaming cleaver in one hand and a rolled-up paper in the other. He decisively pointed at the rolled paper and asked curiously, “Ah Ke, what are you holding?”

“Ah, this is a painting Young Master Lu gave me.” Shi Fa Ke’s eyes curved with her smile. “I plan to have it mounted and put in my room.”

Young Master Lu… that foolish scholar? Shi Chongshan’s gaze immediately sharpened. Why would that foolish scholar give a painting to his sister? What were his intentions? Could it be that after failing to propose to the He family, he had turned his sights to their silly sister?

Though this little drama played out in his mind repeatedly, it actually only took an instant. Shi Chongshan was already smiling as he said, “I’m good at mounting paintings. Leave it to me.”

Shi Chongshan sometimes helped restore things at the pawn shop, so mounting paintings was indeed no problem for him.

Shi Fa Ke happily agreed—Second Brother was quite reliable after all.

Shi Chongshan naturally took the painting scroll from her hands.

“Second Brother, please be careful. This painting accidentally got splashed with soup before and has been restored.” Shi Fa Ke instructed.

“Alright, I’ll be careful.” Shi Chongshan smiled in agreement. Seeing she still looked worried, he quietly added, “Ah Ke… would you like to watch me mount the painting?”

“May I?” Shi Fa Ke’s eyes sparkled.

Being looked at with such sparkling eyes, how could Shi Chongshan refuse? He immediately nodded. “Of course. Why don’t you come with me to the shop tomorrow? They have the mounting tools there.”

“Second Brother is so good!” Shi Fa Ke cheered.

Shi Chongshan was pleased by the praise, but felt somewhat glum inside. That foolish scholar was truly stingy—having six hundred taels of silver on him, yet casually giving his sister some inexplicable painting. That was bad enough, but it was even a painting that had been splashed with soup and patched up.

…And his silly sister treasured it like a precious find.

Early the next morning, Shi Chongshan took Shi Fa Ke to buy mounting materials. However, they hadn’t gone far when they encountered someone the Shi family didn’t particularly want to see at this stage.

Chu Yizhi.

He wore a brown tea-colored robe and moved with some difficulty, walking slowly. Judging by this direction… was he heading to the Shi family home?

What was he planning? Father was still at home. With the pawn shop’s inventory period over, Father was resting at home today. Was he walking into a trap by coming now? Though Father had promised her he wouldn’t beat him again, that didn’t account for him delivering himself to provoke! Shi Fa Ke looked at the slowly advancing figure with a complex expression, her head throbbing with pain.

“Ah Ke!” Sure enough, Chu Yizhi saw them and called out to Shi Fa Ke with a delighted expression. “What a coincidence! I was just going to your house to find you.”

Shi Chongshan’s face immediately soured. He was standing right here—was Chu Yizhi blind?

As if sensing Shi Chongshan’s unfriendly gaze, Chu Yizhi awkwardly called out, “Second Brother.”

Having grown up together, Chu Yizhi had always followed Shi Fa Ke’s lead in addressing people. This “Second Brother” was something he’d called since childhood. But Shi Fa Ke suddenly remembered what Chu’s mother had said on the street yesterday.

Yesterday, Chu’s mother had called her “Miss Shi” and wouldn’t even acknowledge her calling her “Auntie Chu,” saying only “I dare not accept such a form of address from Miss Shi.” Thinking about it this way, it was also inappropriate for Chu Yizhi to call her second brother “Second Brother.”

They needed to avoid impropriety.

Shi Fa Ke hesitated, then said, “Young Master Chu, please don’t address my second brother that way in the future.”

Chu Yizhi was stunned. “You… what did you call me?”

Usually when she was happy she’d call him “Yizhi,” and when unhappy she’d call him by his full name. What was this “Young Master Chu”… She was still angry, wasn’t she?

“Ah Ke… are you still angry with me? There were so many people that day, and when you caused such a scene, I really had no choice. The next day I planned to come explain and apologize to you, but somehow I was ambushed and beaten on the road. I couldn’t get out of bed these past few days.” Chu Yizhi explained somewhat helplessly. With injuries still visible on his face, he looked rather pitiful.

He still didn’t know who had beaten him. The most unjust part was that he clearly didn’t know any of those young ladies, yet somehow he’d been saddled with these romantic debts… Even classmates who came to visit had joked “youth is wasted without romance,” which was terribly unfair.

Shi Chongshan frowned, somewhat disdainful of this pitiful act to gain sympathy. He couldn’t help but look worriedly at Shi Fa Ke, concerned she might fall for it. Sure enough… he saw her slight frown.