Lian Yu… Suzhen was startled and quickly looked up to indeed see Lian Yu looking at her with slightly pursed lips.

“Pretending, right?”

He studied her expression and grasped her hand to pull her to a nearby artificial mountain. The mountain was hollow in the middle, with a water pool on one side splashing water, perfectly blocking the surprised and curious gazes of the crowd.

“Li Huaisu, what are you trying to pull now?”

Inside the mountain cave, Lian Yu released her hand.

Suzhen looked down at her toes and muttered, “I want to leave the palace with you.”

After a long silence with no response from Lian Yu, her heart grew anxious. Just as she was about to repeat herself, she heard Lian Yu scold, “Nonsense.”

“You’re the one being nonsensical. I heard you’re taking Gu Shuangcheng out of the palace.”

Suzhen couldn’t help but hum slightly. She had decided to “get along” with Lian Yu, thinking this was acting, but unexpectedly her voice really carried the tone of a resentful wife, which even scared her.

“Oh, who told you that?”

“Your two brothers. They were afraid I wouldn’t know. When I came over this morning, I ran into them on the road, and they spoke quite loudly.”

Suzhen found it amusing while feeling somewhat resentful as she looked over.

Lian Yu’s mouth twitched slightly, probably also thinking his two brothers were rather foolish. However, looking at her, his gaze remained calm. He said, “She is she, you are you. You are a minister and should stay here to do your duty.”

“But I’m afraid she has designs on you.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Suzhen had to admire her own audacity.

“It doesn’t matter as long as you don’t have designs on me.”

Lian Yu was even more direct, immediately countering. Suzhen widened her eyes slightly and after a long moment managed to squeeze out, “Don’t you like me? How come I feel you don’t like me as much anymore?”

Unexpectedly, Lian Yu nodded, “Mm, I’ve also discovered these past days that I don’t like you as much.”

“Since you want to go, suit yourself. You can’t bring any attendants—you yourself are merely an attendant.”

After saying this softly, he left without a trace of lingering attachment.

Suzhen was completely stunned, feeling like she had just had a swaying dream where there were piles of delicious food. She didn’t particularly like those delicacies, but later, when others ate them, her heart felt very uncomfortable.

The remaining two days passed quickly.

When evening gradually darkened, Suzhen was already on the road leaving the capital.

Suzhen looked with some facial expressions at the two people sitting across from her—Lian Jie and Lian Qin.

This was an irritating arrangement. Lian Yu and Gu Shuangcheng rode in one carriage.

She was with his two brothers.

Strangely, Yan Da had disappeared somewhere, though she had clearly seen him when boarding the carriages at the palace.

The convoy of dozens of plainclothes elite soldiers and several carriages, some carrying accompanying clothes and other items—he had boarded a carriage alone, but when the accompanying soldiers stopped to rest midway, she hadn’t seen him come out of any carriage.

The Feng family matter—he was the person who supervised the execution… The two lives Father had bargained for from the executioner were probably obtained from him…

But she couldn’t do anything now, couldn’t ask Yan Da about anything, because Yan Da didn’t seem to know her identity—otherwise, how could he not report to Lian Yu?

Lian Yu… Lian Yu…

Just thinking of this name made her heart fill with anger.

She didn’t know what she was doing on this trip—it would be better to stay at the Chief Justice residence playing with pigeons with Leng Xue and the others, guessing who was the spy. That would be much more interesting.

Thinking this way, she saw Lian Jie and Lian Qin across from her whispering about something, the two talking and laughing as if she didn’t exist at all.

She grumbled internally when she suddenly heard a sharp shout from outside, “Heavy rain! Seventh Master, Ninth Master, Lord Li, His Majesty orders the carriages to stop and let the soldiers rest at the inn ahead to avoid the rain.”

Suzhen was startled. Over here, Lian Jie had already quickly lifted the curtain. Outside, dark clouds pressed heavily down with sudden wind and urgent rain. They had seen the weather wasn’t good earlier, but there was no shelter. Now these bean-sized raindrops had also soaked the reporting Eunuch Chu into a mess, and he was squinting and shouting at the top of his lungs.

Getting out of the carriage, she saw the inn was quite large but built on a long stairway. The carriages couldn’t go up, so everyone took umbrellas. Xuanwu walked in front, Lian Yu held an oil-paper umbrella protecting Gu Shuangcheng as they walked, the umbrella tilted toward her side, soaking half his shoulder. Mingyan Chu and Qinglong hurried to get umbrellas to shield Lian Yu.

Lian Jie and Lian Qin each held umbrellas and followed.

Suzhen walked behind, staring at that sapphire blue figure, pulled at the corner of her mouth, and suddenly thought that even if she disappeared at this moment, probably no one would notice.

Why did the words they had spoken not count—Zhaoting was the same, and so was he.

There was a bone-piercing chill on her shoulder, and water drops flowed from her hair into her eyes, making them sting. Only then did she realize that damn umbrella had been blown far away by the wind. She was too lazy to retrieve it and rushed forward through the rain.

“Excuse me, excuse me…” When she reached Lian Yu and Gu Shuangcheng’s side, she deliberately passed between the two, bumping her shoulder into Shuangcheng’s.

Shuangcheng was knocked to one side and looked about to fall. Lian Yu reached out to steady her, glared fiercely at Suzhen, and said sternly, “Li Huaisu, if you act up again, get lost and go back.”

Suzhen snorted. Shuangcheng looked at her, her gaze also slightly cold, but she was extremely well-mannered and only said flatly, “Lord Li, the ground is slippery. Please watch your step.”

Entering the inn, Mingyan Chu quickly arranged rooms for everyone. The innkeeper, seeing the visitors’ elegant clothing and numerous attendants—clearly wealthy guests from the capital—naturally showed no negligence. Although the inn was quite full with guests seeking shelter from rain, dining, and lodging, occupying most of the floors, the innkeeper still had several attendants drop their current tasks to lead everyone to their rooms first to get cleaned up and dried off.

Suzhen entered her room and closed the door. Among everyone, she looked the most bedraggled—completely like a drowned chicken.

But she just sat blankly on the bed, thinking about Lian Yu and how he could change so suddenly.

“Lord Li, dinner is ready. Please come down to dine.”

She didn’t know how long she had been sitting. Her body was ice-cold, and she suddenly sneezed loudly, reaching up to wipe her nose when she heard Baihu’s voice coming flatly from outside the door.