Lu Chonghua had now truly witnessed it—so there really were men in this world as devoted as those sung about in operas. She looked at Ye Jingchuan with his dejected, drooping shoulders, then looked at Qing Zhuo running off in the distance. Raising an eyebrow, she asked him: “Wasn’t it to find Miss Song Sixth? How is it that now you’ve found her, you’re saying you want to leave?”
Earlier when she had asked him to escort her, he absolutely refused, insisting on coming to find someone. Now that he had found her, he wanted to leave.
Ye Jingchuan was silent for a while, not even turning his head back. He stared at the tops of his feet for quite some time before turning to ask Lu Chonghua: “Miss Lu, are you still leaving or not? If you want to go back, I can escort you back right now. But if you don’t want to…” He thought for a moment: “If you don’t want to, going to Sixth Miss’s location would be just the same. Someone will escort you back afterward.”
Having found Song Chuyi, Lu Chonghua naturally didn’t need Ye Jingchuan to escort her. Upon entering the shop where Song Chuyi was, she couldn’t help but stop and look back—she only managed to see Ye Jingchuan’s retreating figure. Not knowing why, she suddenly felt somewhat saddened.
Song Chuyi was chatting with Madam Chang. Madam Chang had come out today with two daughters-in-law, three grandsons, and one great-granddaughter. She had never imagined encountering such distressing events and still hadn’t completely recovered from the fright even now.
If Song Chuyi hadn’t been so insistent in stopping them earlier, they actually would have been more inclined to flee with the crowd. After all, their stewardess had inquired and said many people in the shops on the east side had burned to death, the fire was burning extremely large, and there was simply no time to escape. Fortunately they hadn’t followed along. She secretly rejoiced in her heart and became increasingly warm and pleasant toward Song Chuyi.
When Song Chuyi wanted to make people like her, she could very easily make people like her. She held Little Miss Chang’s hand, laughing and joking with her a few times. Looking up, she saw Lu Chonghua.
“They found you?” She hurriedly stood up. Seeing that though Lu Chonghua’s hair was somewhat disheveled, her clothes were still fairly neat, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief: “How did you find your way here?”
Having walked all this way, the shoes on her feet had been worn through. She needed to go to the adjacent room to change shoes first. Fortunately, when young ladies went out, they had spare clothes and shoes. Lu Chonghua’s feet were about the same size as Xiang Mingzi’s, so she first borrowed Xiang Mingzi’s shoes from Song Chuyi to change into. Hearing her question, she didn’t hide anything: “Searching shop by shop.” As she spoke, she even made a gesture: “From Chongyin Hall down this whole row, not a single one was missed. Every shop was searched.”
Qing Luo poured her a cup of tea to soothe her throat. Upon hearing this, she couldn’t help but look at the shoes she had changed out of and sighed: “Now that Miss is safe, going home first would be best. It’s not safe out there at all.”
Lu Chonghua reached out to pinch her feet, moved them around a few times, then stood up: “There was no choice. Neither of the two would escort me. The Prince Consort also had duties to attend to. If I hadn’t followed along to find you all, what else could I have done?”
The smile on Song Chuyi’s face faded slightly. Her brow furrowed lightly as she slowly sighed—the ones who had gone to find Lu Chonghua were Song Jue and Ye Jingchuan. Song Jue’s refusal to escort her was because he was anxious to find his sisters, but Ye Jingchuan… Ye Jingchuan truly didn’t need to act this way.
Song Chuyi increasingly felt she could never repay the debt she owed Ye Jingchuan. Lu Chonghua was a perceptive person, so there was no need to hide anything. She glanced at Lu Chonghua and pressed her lips together: “Second Young Master Ye is a good person.”
Lu Chonghua had already heard these words countless times from Zhou Weizhao and Song Chuyi, but never once had she agreed with them as much as now. Hearing this, she also nodded along: “Though he’s a bit foolish, he really is a good person.”
To still pour out one’s heart and soul for someone who doesn’t hold you in their heart, and moreover to pour out one’s heart while fearing others would know, considering everything big and small for that person—if this wasn’t foolish, what was?
Lu Chonghua had seen plenty of shrewd people, so suddenly encountering such a foolish person truly left a deep impression. When she returned home and saw her mother, she still couldn’t help but sigh: “Since coming to the capital, this is the first time I’ve seen someone whose foolishness doesn’t make people dislike them.” Compared to those whose foolishness harmed the people around them, the foolishness on Ye Jingchuan’s person particularly made one feel fond of him.
Song Chuyi waited until Master Chang personally led people to come pick up Madam Chang and his wife. Madam Chang still couldn’t help but remark to her son: “In the past when your father always said Sister Yuan wasn’t as good as Miss Song Sixth, I quite disagreed. Observing her words and actions today, I now know your grandfather’s words were not false.” Not only could she clearly judge the situation and choose the advantageous path to take, she could also firmly maintain her position without the slightest waver, while at the same time protecting the people around her as much as possible—this ability…
Master Chang also expressed his agreement: “Crown Prince’s Grandson and Sixth Miss truly are well-matched. When he saw that people from the Five City Military Commissioner’s Office and Shuntian Prefecture had started fighting the fire, he immediately said Miss Song Sixth definitely wouldn’t continue following the crowd anymore, that we should search the shops along the street. Who would have thought we would actually find her?”
Madam Chang pondered thoughtfully, finally understanding why her family’s old grandfather had never set his sights on the Crown Prince’s Grandson—it truly wasn’t necessary. There probably weren’t many young ladies in the world with such formidable scheming and methods as Song Chuyi.
Moreover, the Crown Prince’s Grandson cared so much about her. With such scheming and methods, plus the Crown Prince’s Grandson’s favoritism, wouldn’t families who still tried to send girls in be foolish?
If Qing Zhuo knew Madam Chang thought this way, he would definitely feel he had found a kindred spirit. His Highness truly cared about Miss Song Sixth to the extreme. How could His Highness still regard other girls?
To find Miss Song Sixth, he had nearly run his legs off, but his own Highness was only more exhausted than himself. After rushing non-stop out of the palace, he had originally intended to find Miss Song Sixth. Who knew that just upon reaching Zhengyang Street, an incident occurred? The firelight on Zhuque Avenue could be seen even from Zhengyang Street. Everywhere were people fleeing in chaos and scattering. Zhou Weizhao couldn’t just stand by and watch. He first cleared the pedestrians on Zhengyang Street, not letting them continue squeezing toward the troubled Zhuque Avenue, and only then hurriedly came to find Miss Song Sixth.
Zhou Weizhao didn’t feel particularly tired at all. He only completely breathed a sigh of relief. Though he had already heard from Qing Zhuo that Song Chuyi was fine, not until he truly confirmed with his own eyes that Song Chuyi was unharmed did he genuinely feel at ease. He pulled her to look her over from top to bottom once more before slowly smiling at her.
Song Chuyi hadn’t been particularly frightened. Her courage had always been quite large. Moreover, after the incidents at the hunting ground and Yangquan, the current scene didn’t even count as causing a ripple for her. Just earlier when she heard Lu Chonghua say Ye Jingchuan had searched for her room by room, she had only felt moved and guilty. But now, seeing Zhou Weizhao, she suddenly felt her nose sting—clearly she wasn’t afraid at all, but not knowing why, seeing Zhou Weizhao so anxious about her, as if she had suffered tremendous grievance, she suddenly truly felt aggrieved.