Upon reaching the Huo mansion’s garden, Shen Lingzhen discovered that Huo Shuyi and Huo Miaoling were also there.

Early in the morning, Yu Wanjiang had led these two daughters to visit Shen Lingzhen, only she had still been sound asleep at the time and hadn’t met with them.

As soon as she arrived, Huo Miaoling, who had originally been selecting sugar figurine designs, immediately set down the album in her hands and rushed over urgently: “Sister-in-law, how is your health?”

Shen Lingzhen nodded: “Thanks to your second brother caring for me through the night, the fever has already broken.”

Huo Shuyi glanced at her coldly without speaking, pretending to flip through the album.

Huo Miaoling lowered her head to look at Shen Lingzhen’s foot.

“This foot is nothing serious. I’m just accompanying your second brother in sitting in a wheelchair for a few days so he won’t be bored alone.” As Shen Lingzhen spoke, she smiled and glanced at Huo Liuxing.

Huo Liuxing looked back at her: “I have to sit in this wheelchair for a lifetime. You’re only accompanying me for these few days?”

Shen Lingzhen froze: “But if I keep sitting in a wheelchair too, who will take care of you?”

Huo Liuxing shook his head and looked away.

Huo Miaoling covered her mouth, unable to contain her amusement: “Sister-in-law, you’re so honest! Second brother isn’t really making you sit in a wheelchair—he just wants to hear you say sweet words! Just tell second brother you’ll accompany him for a lifetime!”

Shen Lingzhen gave a soft “eh,” turning to Huo Liuxing: “I didn’t expect you would actually like that kind of flowery sweet talk?”

Huo Liuxing smiled: “I didn’t say that.”

Huo Miaoling giggled, when suddenly a crisp “smack” was heard—Huo Shuyi on the side had set down the album: “I’m going to practice martial arts.”

Shen Lingzhen’s smile faded.

Huo Miaoling grabbed her elder sister’s sleeve: “Elder sister, they haven’t started making the sugar figurines yet!”

“Can sugar figurines keep you alive under an enemy’s blade?” Huo Shuyi gave a cold laugh. “This isn’t carefree Bianjing where you eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. This is Qingzhou, controlling Xiqiang to the north and screening Guanzhong to the south. If you don’t practice martial arts properly, when enemies attack, you’ll only add to the chaos with your supposed cleverness! Wasn’t last night’s incident lesson enough?”

After Huo Shuyi finished speaking, she strode away.

Though Huo Miaoling was still young, she understood the meaning in her elder sister’s words. She wanted to chase after her, but glancing back at Shen Lingzhen’s awkward expression, she didn’t know which way to go for a moment, her feet fighting each other. Finally she struggled to say: “Sister-in-law, you were especially brave last night. We all remember it and thank you. Elder sister is having a tantrum. I’ll go check on her.”

Shen Lingzhen forced a smile to signal her to go, but she’d also lost her appetite for eating sugar figurines. Touching her nose guiltily, she looked toward Huo Liuxing: “Husband…”

“You don’t need to take those words to heart.” Huo Liuxing’s smile carried a trace of consolation. “With her amateur martial arts skills, if she really went into battle against enemies, she still wouldn’t be good enough.”

Shen Lingzhen nodded, but her heart didn’t feel any better. The rest of the time selecting designs and eating sugar figurines felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Just like that phrase “we” that unconsciously slipped from Huo Miaoling’s mouth, just like how Huo Liuxing absolutely refused to be honest with her about his secret—to them, she remained an outsider.

In this Huo family, they and she were different. They were family; she was a guest.

——

After that day, Shen Lingzhen didn’t leave her courtyard for several consecutive days. One reason was that Huo Shuyi’s words that day had cast ripples in her heart. The second reason was concern for Zhao Xun who was still at the Huo mansion.

She didn’t know whether Zhao Xun still had other moves planned. Afraid that she might carelessly expose something in front of him, revealing and implicating Huo Liuxing, she simply avoided him when possible, obediently staying in her room to recover from her injuries.

She saw Zhao Xun again on the day when Jianjia and Bailu, citing “beneficial for recovery” as their reason, urged her to go out for some fresh air.

The two moved her into the wheelchair and pushed her out to relax. Passing by the martial arts training ground, she saw from afar Huo Shuyi leading Zhao Xun in touring the place, pointing at a longbow and saying something to him. They seemed quite engaged in conversation. When they reached an exciting point in their discussion, the two even laughed heartily together.

Shen Lingzhen’s arrival interrupted their discussion about weapons. Because of Zhao Xun’s status, she had no choice but to go forward and bow to him.

Huo Shuyi’s expression visibly grew considerably colder.

Zhao Xun’s complexion was pallid, his right arm still wrapped in a thick circle of bandages. He raised his left arm and waved to indicate Shen Lingzhen needn’t be so formal, then inquired about her injuries.

Shen Lingzhen felt genuine fear toward this cousin deep in her heart, saying dryly: “Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. I’m completely fine.”

Fortunately, she originally wasn’t a lively and warm person in front of Zhao Xun anyway. Such an attitude wasn’t too awkward.

Zhao Xun glanced at her, then looked at Huo Shuyi who had lost all her smiles since her appearance, and smiled: “I’m a bit tired. I’ll go back to rest. You two chat.” With that, he turned and left.

Huo Shuyi seemed to find Shen Lingzhen displeasing to the eye. Whatever she heard her say or saw her do made her uncomfortable. After Zhao Xun left, she said sharply: “Just now His Highness condescended to show concern for second sister-in-law. Why didn’t second sister-in-law reciprocate with concern for His Highness? This way, it makes our Huo family seem lacking in propriety.”

That Shen Lingzhen didn’t remember to show concern for Zhao Xun was naturally first because she knew he couldn’t possibly have been too seriously injured by assassins he’d arranged himself, and second because now that all her favorable feelings toward him were lost, she truly couldn’t muster the energy for false sentiments.

Speaking of which, her acting skills earlier were indeed not yet perfect, but Huo Shuyi’s picking at this was truly too unreasonable.

After all, Zhao Xun was the chief culprit of that night’s teahouse incident. No matter how much Huo Shuyi disliked her as a sister-in-law, when facing an “external enemy,” she should at least stand on the same side as her.

With such an attitude, it seemed as if Huo Shuyi had no idea what Zhao Xun had done to Huo Liuxing.

Suspicions sprouted in Shen Lingzhen’s heart. She probed: “I thought His Highness’s injury wasn’t serious. Could it be His Highness’s condition still hasn’t improved?”

Huo Shuyi laughed sarcastically: “Second sister-in-law truly hangs matters high when they don’t concern you. The day before yesterday, His Highness’s wound became infected with pus, and at night he even developed a high fever. You actually haven’t heard anything about it?”

Shen Lingzhen frowned slightly.

Whether Zhao Xun’s injury was a self-inflicted scheme was worth examining in the first place. Now seeing his condition of prolonged non-recovery, it was most likely that he was deliberately staying at the Huo mansion and had some scheme planned.

But looking at Huo Shuyi’s appearance, she seemed to truly have no awareness whatsoever of Zhao Xun’s sinister intentions.

Shen Lingzhen found it hard to believe. Huo Shuyi was two years older than her and had spent years coming and going on the martial training grounds—someone who had seen the ways of the outside world. How could she so easily trust Zhao Xun?

Unless she simply didn’t know that Huo Liuxing’s legs were fine.

After all, Shen Lingzhen wasn’t naturally brilliant either. It was only because she had this foreknowledge that she could deduce Zhao Xun’s plans.

So even Huo Shuyi didn’t know about Huo Liuxing’s secret? No wonder that day Huo Shuyi said she was adding to the chaos with her supposed cleverness.

Shen Lingzhen suddenly thought of something and broke into smiles, replying: “I didn’t know about it. That’s my fault. I’ll go back first.”

“…” Huo Shuyi watched helplessly as Shen Lingzhen departed cheerfully in her wheelchair, stunned for quite a while without moving.

Jianjia was also very surprised. After leaving the training ground, she complained: “Young madam, your magnanimity is too great. The eldest miss spoke so harshly, yet not only are you not angry, you’re even this happy?”

Shen Lingzhen said delightedly: “Isn’t that right? It’s precisely because she spoke so harshly that I should be happy.”

Because Huo Shuyi was Huo Liuxing’s family, yet even she was kept in the dark by him. This meant such deception wasn’t necessarily from lack of trust.

The reason Huo Liuxing refused to explain the truth was first perhaps considering that the fewer people who knew, the safer, and second because this crime of deceiving the sovereign was a grave offense—once exposed, the implications would run deep. He had to protect his family.

Then, she was also family that he protected.

Shen Lingzhen’s mood, which had been gloomy for several days, suddenly brightened. Seeing Jianjia and Bailu about to push her back to the inner courtyard, she called them to stop, smiling: “Change course. I’m going to find my husband.”

——

Huo Liuxing was idly in the courtyard watching servants prune flowers and plants when he saw Shen Lingzhen suddenly arrive all smiles. He gave Jingmo and Kongqing beside him a look that said “see, isn’t this young lady’s heart like a needle at the bottom of the sea?”

Her low spirits the past few days—he’d naturally seen it all. At first he thought Huo Shuyi’s words had hurt her. Later he discovered she held the same reservations toward him. But when he asked, she refused to say, instead putting on an aggrieved appearance that left him at a loss.

Only now, seeing her call out “husband, husband” eagerly from afar, those reservations had clearly been completely cleared away.

He still hadn’t figured out “why,” yet she was already “nothing wrong”—quite interesting too.

Huo Liuxing watched her so delighted she was practically jumping out of her wheelchair to run over, and proactively went to meet her: “Sit steady. The ankle is a place that once sprained easily sprains a second time.”

Shen Lingzhen obediently gripped the wheelchair’s armrests.

“What’s the matter? What are you so happy about?”

All the way here, Shen Lingzhen had secretly decided that since Huo Liuxing was so considerate of her, she shouldn’t speak to him sarcastically anymore.

But this happiness was also a secret that couldn’t be brought to the surface. She said: “Nothing, I just wanted to come ask if you have time to take a stroll with me.”

A stroll? Two people in wheelchairs?

Huo Liuxing nodded: “If you want to, we’ll go.”

“Then can it be just the two of us?”

He raised his eyebrows: “You’ve learned to wheel a wheelchair?”

“As the saying goes, even if you haven’t eaten pork, haven’t you seen pigs run? I see you wheeling your wheelchair every day—I’ve learned just by watching.”

“…” This analogy didn’t sound particularly comfortable.

Huo Liuxing opened his mouth wanting to say something, but on second thought gave up arguing with her about it.

When her mood was good, he was more relaxed too, sparing him from having to guard against Zhao Xun on one side while guessing her thoughts on the other during this period.

He nodded: “Then let’s go.” As he spoke, he started wheeling his wheelchair first.

Shen Lingzhen waved off Jianjia and Bailu, following closely behind while using a metaphor to tell him: “Husband, from now on whatever injuries you have on your body, I won’t ask about them anymore. If you don’t want to tell me, don’t say it. I won’t be upset with you again.”

What did these words mean? They sounded a bit like saying his life and death no longer had anything to do with her.

Huo Liuxing stopped wheeling. But because he spaced out momentarily and didn’t guard against Shen Lingzhen following too closely, his sudden stop caused her to panic. She jerked the wheelchair’s direction, looking about to fall to the ground along with the tilting wheelchair.

Before Shen Lingzhen had time to cry out, Huo Liuxing grabbed her and pushed her aside. But because he was sitting and the force was uneven, his own wheelchair lost balance and crashed straight toward the thick wall beside them.

With a muffled “bang,” Huo Liuxing’s knee smashed into the wall—it sounded as if the bone might shatter.

Shen Lingzhen was greatly alarmed. Not caring that her foot hadn’t healed yet, she limped over, crouched down and clutched his knee tightly, rubbing it desperately: “It’s all my fault. Does it hurt terribly?”

With that force, how could it not hurt?

But Huo Liuxing was accustomed to ten years of day-in, day-out pretense. He didn’t even furrow his brow, and had just been about to say casually “it doesn’t hurt” when he suddenly stopped himself.

He had clearly told Shen Lingzhen that his legs no longer felt pain. How could she still be so anxious and flustered?

Huo Liuxing looked down at the crown of Shen Lingzhen’s head, his eyes gradually deepening.

Unless she had known all along that his legs were fine.