The old woman listened, stunned for a moment, then stared at Lian Jie and stammered: “This… just because the elder brother hasn’t married doesn’t mean the younger brother can’t either. Otherwise, if the elder brother never marries, wouldn’t the younger brother be delayed forever?”

At the end, she looked at Lian Qin again. Lian Qin was somewhat dumbfounded—it had come back to him. Fortunately, after exchanging pleasantries, with Lian Yu responding politely, the old man, being perceptive, led the old woman away.

Except for Lian Yu and Suzhen who remained silent, everyone teased Lian Jie about taking on great responsibilities tonight. Lian Jie was furious and went to beat up Xuan Wu, but unfortunately their strength was too disparate—in the end, it was Lian Jie who was forced to bend over and pick up soap pods.

“Was that the town mayor, village secretary, or someone else? They’re not Central Plains people, right?”

Suzhen became interested in the robes, hats, and accessories of the two elders, finding them bright and lively, different from elsewhere.

Zhu Que stole a piece of meat from the plate in front of her while answering: “Before we came, we sent people ahead to buy houses here and greet the village chief. After all, we’re outsiders, and the residents here aren’t Han people but a different ethnic group. Though under Great Zhou’s jurisdiction, their customs are quite different from ours—courtesy costs nothing.”

Lian Qin was stingy, clutching the food basket and refusing to let go. As Zhu Que spoke, he continued stealing food. Suzhen didn’t hoard food and didn’t mind, quite liking this Zhu Que, suspecting it might be Xiao Zhou.

Thinking about certain things, it wasn’t impossible, but she couldn’t be certain. This Zhu Que had always kept his face covered when she’d seen him before, only showing painted eyes. Before the meal, he’d gone into the room, applied heavy makeup, and came out wearing a bamboo hat with hanging gauze for convenient eating—you couldn’t see clearly. Xuan Wu was the same way.

She had no idea what their real faces looked like.

She wasn’t in the mood to guess now anyway. After all, meeting didn’t require knowing each other—feeling close and knowing this much was enough.

Seeing her quite interested, Lian Jie drank some tea and explained: “I personally had people arrange this matter and sent silver as well. Since we don’t want to reveal our identities and create unnecessary trouble, the money was just a token—not much. Though this village isn’t wealthy, it’s generally self-sufficient. Ever since outsiders discovered jade mines underground and gave the village some benefits, they began mining here.”

“Initially, the villagers didn’t know there were mines here. After setting agreements, they could only watch others make the first fortune. Later, the village wasn’t stupid either—they wouldn’t let outsiders mine anymore. If they wanted to come, they could only work as helpers, paid by the hour. Several knowledgeable village leaders went to the prefectures and brought back experts who discovered a second site. Though this one didn’t have great stone materials, they still made some money, and some people became wealthy.”

“Later the villagers wouldn’t have it and got together to explore again, discovering a third site. Tonight they’ll worship the earth spirits, and soon they’ll start construction.”

Suzhen nodded, remembering past events and falling into some reminiscence. She suddenly felt someone watching and frowned slightly. Lian Yu’s eyes were calmly fixed on her.

She turned her head away. Lian Xin put an arm around her, eyes bright with excitement: “Susu, let’s go watch the excitement later. Sixth Brother said he’d bring his wife along. If you go, that means we can all go play.”

Lian Yu said nothing, still smiling slightly as he looked at Suzhen. Suzhen stepped on Lian Xin’s foot, making her cry out “Ow!” Suzhen looked at Lian Yu: “You go if you want. I’m not going. I’m not your wife—Aluo is.”

Lian Yu’s gaze paused slightly, the corner of his mouth curling: “I never said my wife was you. Why do you keep taking it upon yourself?”

Now, even Xuan Wu stopped forcing Lian Jie to pick up soap, Zhu Que’s meat-stealing hand froze, and all conversation immediately ceased—everyone was greatly shocked.

Initially, no one understood why Lian Yu had brought all of them when he supposedly only wanted to spend time alone with Feng Suzhen.

Later, when Ming Yanchu asked, everyone learned that he was very clearly aware that with just him and Suzhen alone, she would definitely insist on leaving. He brought them all, even Lian Xin, to prevent her from making a scene on the spot.

He understood Suzhen’s temperament thoroughly—she wasn’t like other girls who would take out their grievances on innocent people. Though it couldn’t really be called taking it out on them, since all of them except Lian Xin, plus Xuan Wu and Zhu Que whose brain structures differed from normal people, despite getting along very well with this Miss Feng, were extremely opposed to her getting close to Lian Yu due to concerns about his safety, having clashed with her multiple times.

People were just this strange—everyone had two sides. As they say, “The deepest and shallowest is a clear stream, the closest and most distant are husband and wife”—such was the principle.

Learning on the way that she was willing to end her own life rather than harm Lian Yu, everyone’s feelings toward her were complex with guilt. But sometimes apologizing openly was difficult to voice, so they all worked hard to please her, wanting to pull her back to Lian Yu’s side.

And if even they were so careful, the complexity in Lian Yu’s heart and what he’d experienced could well be imagined.

How could he speak like this now?!

“Master…” Zhu Que kept signaling with his eyes, but Lian Yu remained unmoved, simply beginning to eat from her leftover dishes.

Everyone was extremely anxious—this provocation was too much, definitely not a good thing. Was it because she kept refusing that he finally couldn’t swallow his imperial pride? After all, though he’d been very caring toward Aluo in the past, he’d maintained proper boundaries and wouldn’t be too accommodating.

Even when emperors loved someone, there seemed to be limits.

“Little Lian Xin, you go have fun. I’ll go out for a walk.” Suzhen didn’t explode either. She set down her chopsticks, took the small fragrant handkerchief that Lian Xin was about to use to wipe her mouth, dabbed at her own lips, stuffed the handkerchief back into Lian Xin’s hands, and quietly walked out.

Everyone couldn’t tell whether Lian Yu was strategizing or rebelling, but seeing him quickly finish eating a few bites, also take the handkerchief from Lian Xin’s hands, wipe his mouth, stuff it back into her hands, and walk out.

For a moment there was dead silence. Lian Xin’s eyes went round as she stared at her handkerchief.

Their courtyard was quite far from other buildings—both front and back were about half a li away. Coming out hastily earlier, she hadn’t noticed, but now in the last rays of twilight, looking into the distance, many households were moving about their courtyards or outdoors, talking and laughing. There were young men and women, household heads and wives, plus elderly people and children. Cooking smoke rose in spirals—though nestled in a mountain hollow, it had its own charm.

However, the emotion in her heart didn’t calm with this pleasant atmosphere.

She couldn’t tell if it was anger, hatred, pain, or something else.

In the distance, some people seemed to see her looking and pointed in her direction.

She wanted to walk over and chat with those people, but discovered she’d lost that inclination to socialize. Having experienced too much recently, she’d actually become preferring solitude.

She wanted to leave this place, but that would undoubtedly make everyone mistakenly think she still had feelings for Lian Yu. Avoidance was also a form of caring.

Slight sounds from behind made her somewhat alert. She spun around sharply to see him in white robes slowly following behind. Seeing her look back, he nodded at her.

“Why are you following me?” Something cold rushed straight to her throat as she asked with an unfriendly tone.

“I said I have responsibility toward you. You have injuries, and now that you’ve come out, I naturally must follow to ensure nothing happens to you.” He answered very calmly, making it seem as if she were making a fuss over nothing.

Suzhen remembered his earlier attitude—she didn’t care about wife or not wife, but his manner… She suddenly bent down to pick up a rock and hurled it at him forcefully. He didn’t dodge, looking straight at her as the thing hit him right in the forehead, immediately drawing blood.

“Not bad—at least you still care about me and didn’t aim for the eyes.” He smiled, pointing to his eyes, as if she were an unreasonable little girl having a tantrum, and he was indulging her willingly.

“If you’re done venting and want to continue walking, go ahead. I won’t disturb you, just follow quietly. If you want to keep throwing things, that’s fine too. I won’t leave.”

“I’m happy when you lose your temper with me—it means you still care in your heart.” He spoke slowly, indeed standing there without moving, waiting with hands behind his back for all her actions.

Suzhen hadn’t expected him not to dodge. Hearing this, her heart felt even more uncomfortable, as if something wanted to tear apart her internal organs. She wanted to go up and slap him.

But she sensed something dangerous—her intuition told her he was using the same concentration and seriousness he used against enemies to deal with her. She took a deep breath: “Don’t follow. If you want to protect me, you can send someone to follow, but I don’t want that person to be you.”

After speaking, she immediately turned around, ignoring him, and wandered aimlessly for a while. Hearing footsteps consistently behind her, she gritted her teeth and turned back, only to find he was no longer there—trailing behind was Xuan Wu.

She breathed a sigh of relief, but the emotion in her heart felt even more blocked and stifled. She didn’t walk toward the nearby houses but toward the front mountains, standing there for a long time watching the sky turn fire-red, then completely black.

After an unknown time, Xuan Wu escorted her back to the courtyard entrance, bowed, then used his lightness skills to depart.

“Magistrate Li, I’m going to join the others.”

Suzhen knew they must have all gone to watch the excitement and naturally didn’t stop him. She didn’t need company either. After bidding farewell, she entered the courtyard alone, seeing two lanterns placed on the stone table, making the entire courtyard appear hazily dim with a sense of declining splendor.

Suddenly, weak chirping sounds from the courtyard caught her attention. Looking up, she saw a bird that seemed to have a broken wing caught between tree branches. Startled, she wanted to leap up to rescue it, but the movement pulled at her injuries, making her groan involuntarily.

“What’s wrong?” Someone immediately nervously embraced her.

With everyone gone, who was still here?