Feng Jiu’er had barely stepped out through the main gates of the Imperial Academy when ahead of her, a horse and rider came galloping toward her at full speed.

The sound of hoofbeats rose sharply as the horse pulled to a stop right in front of her — so abruptly that a cloud of dust billowed up all around.

Zhan Yuheng leapt down from the saddle in a single motion and strode toward her with large steps. “You are unharmed?”

“Why? Is Your Highness the Crown Prince hoping that I had been harmed?” Feng Jiu’er’s mood today was genuinely poor, and she could not even muster the energy to bother dealing with him.

His own mother had, not long ago, nearly gotten her killed. Now, seeing the son of the Empress, she naturally had no warmth to spare.

Even if she clearly knew the matter had nothing to do with him — the fact that his mother could so casually mobilize the Imperial Guards was, after all, an indication of his own failure to govern properly, was it not?

“I apologize, Jiu’er. I only returned from outside the city today and just now learned of what happened at the Imperial Guards’ compound and the Longqi Academy.”

Zhan Yuheng handed the horse off to the attendant who had followed behind him and fixed his gaze on Feng Jiu’er’s face. “Are you injured?”

Jiu’er tilted her head up and met his eyes.

The concern in his gaze was unmistakably genuine — sincere and real.

She could not understand it. The last time they had parted, he had still been full of anger, unwilling to give her even a second glance.

And now, all of a sudden, he was being this considerate. They say women are prone to changing their minds — yet how was this Crown Prince’s shifts any less swift, fast enough to leave a person entirely off balance?

“Are you still angry with me?” He simply enjoyed watching her face — so long as she wasn’t giving him that simpleminded, fawning smile, any expression suited him.

“I apologize. The last time, my words were too harsh, and I was too impulsive. I should not have said those things in anger.”

“And now? Are you not angry anymore?” The last time, he had been visibly furious.

Zhan Yuheng said nothing. His gaze swept briefly over her neck, and then he let out a long, silent breath of relief.

Feng Jiu’er gave a cold little laugh. “Your Highness, you are so tangled up in contradictions yourself — I truly cannot fathom why you still seek me out.”

Zhan Yuheng truly was in a tangle. Yet the cold smile curving her lips at that moment captivated him completely.

It was as though he had been bewitched. He would rather she face him with cold mockery than watch her smile at him in that simpleminded, fawning, eager-to-please way.

Because the Jiu’er of right now was the one most familiar to him in his heart.

Then, without warning, Zhan Yuheng reached out a long arm and closed his fingers firmly around Feng Jiu’er’s wrist.

Before Jiu’er could fully react, she had already been lifted up onto the saddle of his horse.

That dust-laden figure in his warrior’s attire mounted up in one fluid motion and settled in behind her. His cool, commanding voice fell: “Ride!”

Jiu’er was completely dumbstruck. By any measure — did this not count as being kidnapped?

The Crown Prince had kidnapped her?

“Hey, you—” The horse shot forward at a pace that made her heart lurch. She had barely opened her mouth before the wind came, merciless, snatching her voice away in an instant.

Whatever she wanted to say, in the end she could not get a single sentence out intact. Like that, she was jostled along for the entire journey, with no idea where she was being taken.

What made it all worse was that just as Zhan Yuheng had swept her away, she had glanced back — and seemed to catch sight of that familiar carriage.

Behind the curtain of the carriage, she had not had even a chance to make out that figure clearly. Yet from such a great distance, it was as if she could feel the unceasing cold emanating from him.

It was over. The Ninth Imperial Uncle had just watched Zhan Yuheng carry her off. The misunderstanding this time was enormous.

But very quickly, Feng Jiu’er found herself a little muddled.

The Ninth Imperial Uncle had watched her be carried away by the Crown Prince — why did she find that so terrifying?

Did she honestly assume that the Ninth Imperial Uncle would be furious?

Well — with that much cold air pouring off him, he was certainly furious. Feng Jiu’er only felt that the sky above her head had grown heavy and overcast. How frightening indeed…