Fu Tinghan closed his hand, grasping hers in his palm, staring at her nervously.

Zhao Hanzhang wanted to withdraw her hand but found it held tightly, unable to pull free.

Zhao Hanzhang looked at him with confusion. “Professor Fu, let go.”

Fu Tinghan instinctively started to obey and release her, his fingers lifting halfway before he remembered something and closed them again to hold on. “At the funeral, I gave you a cassette tape—an all-English recitation of ‘Three Days to See.'”

Zhao Hanzhang stopped trying to withdraw her hand and let him hold it, placing her right hand under her head as a pillow while looking at him. “You knew then that I was going to lose my sight?”

“I didn’t know,” Fu Tinghan paused before continuing. “But I knew that feeling of loneliness after losing parents and loved ones. I hoped Helen Keller could give you the courage to get through that difficult time.”

He said, “When my parents died, I got through it by reading this book. You had injured your eyes at the time, so I gave you the cassette. I didn’t expect…”

He hadn’t expected it wasn’t just an injury—she’d gone completely blind in both eyes. Her family directly had her take a leave of absence from school.

By the time he found out, three months had passed and they were all about to advance to their second year of high school.

He knew they could never again be in the same grade, so he directly skipped to the third year. When he returned to his old school, he encountered Zhao Hanzhang being bullied, but before he could play the hero, Zhao Hanzhang had already beaten them down herself.

Fu Tinghan gripped her hand tightly, looking at her eyes with some heartache, asking softly, “When you returned to school, it was very difficult, wasn’t it?”

Zhao Hanzhang tilted her head to think, then said, “It was okay. When I returned to school, the classmates I was close with had all advanced to the third year. Originally I was supposed to go directly into the second year, but I’d only been learning Braille for just over a year and wasn’t very proficient. I didn’t pass the exam, so I could only enter the first year and start over with a bunch of little kids.”

Fu Tinghan couldn’t help laughing. “You’d already skipped a grade yourself. There were plenty of students your age then. You got bullied later—wasn’t it because you treated them like children?”

“Of course not,” Zhao Hanzhang withdrew her hand and lay properly, looking at the twinkling stars above, saying softly, “People are always full of curiosity about those different from themselves. Some carry goodwill, but some carry malice. I was just unlucky enough to encounter the group with malice.”

Zhao Hanzhang thought of those youthful years, a faint smile playing on her lips, cold light flashing in her eyes. “But it really was a very special experience. From childhood, I’d always been very popular. If not for going blind, I wouldn’t have known that in this world, fifteen and sixteen-year-old youths could harbor such great malice toward their peers.”

She said with a smile, “I also wouldn’t have discovered that my heart is quite hard.”

That year, others bullied her and she fought back, often drawing blood. She didn’t have it easy, but that group who bullied her also suffered plenty under her retaliation. And she learned how to show weakness before others, how to become a white lotus flower who was secretly ruthless.

When it came to being disadvantaged, who could compare with her?

Blind, a girl, injured from being bullied, and both parents were martyrs, plus she excelled academically. From the police and teachers handling the case to the parents and relatives of the other party, no one could in good conscience push responsibility onto her.

Though she had been somewhat ruthless in her actions. Zhao Hanzhang felt her hands itching, and suddenly sat up. She said to the astonished Fu Tinghan, “I want to fight.”

Fu Tinghan replied, “…Then why don’t you go practice now?”

Zhao Hanzhang swept a glance around the wilderness, but finally gave up and lay back down directly. “Forget it. What if I scare Mother?”

Wang Shi was currently watching this way secretly, full of conflict. “Qinggu, should I call Third Miss over? They haven’t married yet—how can they sleep together?”

Qinggu said, “At a time like this, who still cares about such proprieties? Staying close to Young Master Fu is also safer. What if bandits come again at night?”

Wang Shi worried about exactly this. After struggling with herself for a while, she lay down. “Fine. According to the original plan, she should have married tomorrow anyway. They’ve already exchanged marriage documents—they’re not much different from husband and wife. But still keep watch. Don’t let them get too intimate either.”

Qinggu glanced that way, seeing the two currently very close together, not knowing what intimate words they were whispering. She pretended not to hear Wang Shi’s instructions.

They were already like this—what more intimate actions could there be?

Third Miss wasn’t someone without judgment. However she acted, she had her reasons.

Zhao Hanzhang and Professor Fu chatted about various random topics for half the night, incidentally calculating the next day’s route and the provisions this group might consume. Finally, the fighting urge active in her mind gradually subsided, and she unknowingly fell asleep.

Fu Tinghan noticed she hadn’t spoken for a long time. He lifted his head to glance at her, saw her eyes tightly closed and already asleep, and couldn’t help smiling. He also lay down properly.

Listening to her light, steady breathing, Fu Tinghan also began to feel drowsy and slowly closed his eyes to sleep.

Just as dawn broke, Zhao Hanzhang’s eyes snapped open. She pulled up the garment covering her to look, only then discovering Fu Tinghan had removed his outer robe to cover her.

Seeing him curled up on his side nearby, she gently covered him with the garment and carefully got up.

Ting He also climbed up and came over quietly. “Third Miss, there’s a water channel over there. I’ll go fetch water for you to wash.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded and instructed, “Take two retainers with you. Don’t go too far.”

“Yes.”

Zhao Hanzhang began rummaging through their luggage.

Before they set out, they’d brought quite a bit of luggage. Besides some gold and silver, there were many ornaments and fabrics, but now very little remained.

Especially Wang Shi’s makeup box—so many treasures, all stolen.

So they didn’t have much left.

Zhao Hanzhang rummaged around and pulled out a piece of cloth, spreading it on the ground. She began feeling through the luggage box for items.

There were three thin gold bracelets and two silver ornaments. Zhao Hanzhang searched through and pulled out an intact box. Feeling the box made of golden thread nanmu wood, she raised an eyebrow. What a pity—golden thread nanmu wasn’t as valuable in this era as in later times.

However, anything that could be kept in a golden thread nanmu box couldn’t be ordinary.

She opened it to find a set of pearl ornaments inside. Each pearl was round and lustrous. Even though she wasn’t very familiar with jewelry, she could tell this was a very valuable set.

Wang Shi basically never wore pearl ornaments, and among these was a hairpin inlaid with pink pearls. Even using one’s toes to think, it was obvious whom these items were prepared for.

Zhao Hanzhang guiltily glanced toward Wang Shi’s direction. Seeing she was still asleep, she immediately placed the box on the cloth, rolled it up, and took it to Ji Ping. “Buy as much grain as possible. Use the breakfast time, then set out immediately.”

Ji Ping accepted it with a solemn expression. “This subordinate will do his utmost.”

Master Chen had also awakened. The father and daughter simply washed up, gnawed half a steamed bun each, then stood up.

Zhao Hanzhang assigned them two horses. This way, their speed would be faster.

—