Qin Shuying’s mind suddenly stirred, and she asked, “Ziyu, what exactly did you say to Huo Luo? Why would he voluntarily seek to marry Liang Qiong?”

Abandoning the chance to marry a princess and instead actively seeking to marry Liang Qiong—there must be something fishy about this.

Liang Zhe’s hand stopped in mid-air. Only then did he realize his actions were somewhat improper. His handsome face suddenly flushed red as if swept by fire, and he hurriedly withdrew his hand.

“Cough cough… I’ve had contact with Prince Huo Luo before. He has a secret unknown to outsiders that I happen to know about. I spoke with him, and he very willingly considered my suggestion. Besides, marrying Liang Qiong isn’t inferior to marrying a princess.”

“That day when we discovered Liu Junqing and Princess Fu’an together, the Sixth Prince was also there. How did he happen to be there?”

“Shuying, the Sixth Prince is a fence-sitter—you must be wary of him. Previously, he could fully utilize you but wouldn’t stand up for you. Now he thinks you have more value to exploit, so he’s stepping forward to help you. I merely hinted slightly, and he automatically volunteered to go watch the excitement.”

Having finished speaking with nothing more to say, the atmosphere became somewhat subtle.

Qin Shuying thought for a moment and brought up Huo Luo’s matter again. “What secret of his do you actually know?”

Liang Zhe looked at the young lady before him—fresh and refined, gentle and pretty, her dark gem-like eyes gazing at him. Liang Zhe couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander, staring at her in fascination.

Qin Shuying became even more embarrassed and lowered her pink neck. What was he doing?

Those rumors were absolutely true—he always did whatever came to mind…

“Cough cough… That… Prince Huo Luo has a preference for mature women. He has some… unspeakable sordid affairs.”

Qin Shuying instantly understood and hated herself for bringing up this topic. Her pretty face immediately turned completely red, and she dared not raise her head even more.

Liang Zhe looked at her pink earlobes and neck, feeling that everything before his eyes was tinged with pink—infinitely wonderful and intoxicating.

Qin Shuying kept her head down while eating fish. After finally finishing slowly, she hadn’t heard Liang Zhe say anything more. Gathering courage to look up at him, she was immediately stunned.

He… why was he having a nosebleed!

“Ziyu, what’s wrong with you?”

Qin Shuying was terrified. What illness had struck him?

Liang Zhe also tasted something metallic in his mouth. Wiping his nose, the red color that had barely faded returned to his face. He immediately put on a stern expression: “It’s nothing, nothing. It must be because the weather is somewhat hot.”

Qin Shuying asked with concern, “Is it really nothing? Is it serious? Does it hurt?”

“It’s really nothing.”

Liang Zhe’s embarrassment was simply indescribable.

He had seen this sort of thing when he was at the frontier.

Back then, there were no women in the military camp, and there weren’t many women in the city either—beautiful young women were even rarer.

Once, a young soldier saw a beautiful woman walking by on the street and had a nosebleed. Everyone was surprised because the young man was in good health.

A married veteran soldier revealed the truth: “He’s having that reaction because he saw how pretty the girl was—he’s aroused!”

From then on, this became a running joke in the camp, an eternally amusing story.

So Liang Zhe knew that he was becoming aroused looking at Qin Shuying…

How embarrassing…

Suddenly, Qin Shuying stumbled and fell headfirst into Liang Zhe’s arms.

Being hit by her like this, Liang Zhe fell backward.

Qin Shuying was sprawled in his embrace.

Qin Shuying was extremely embarrassed and tried to get up in a panic. Who knew that in her confusion, Liang Zhe also moved chaotically, and her hands and feet ended up pressing on inappropriate places on his body.

She had been married and given birth—she knew everything.

Immediately, her face burned like fire, and she blamed herself endlessly.

Being handled by her like this, Liang Zhe’s face also turned bright red, and his heart pounded wildly.

However, he had always been sharp and alertly surveyed the surroundings—why would they suddenly move like that for no reason?

“What’s happening?” Qin Shuying rubbed her head, covering her embarrassment.

Liang Zhe slowly sat up, his expression changing from previous embarrassment to gravity. “This is bad—it’s an earthquake!”

Qin Shuying stared blankly. An earthquake? How could there be an earthquake in the capital?

“Shuying, we need to hurry back. This is an earthquake!”

Qin Shuying naturally knew the seriousness of the situation. In her previous life, she had heard about the great southwestern earthquake ten years ago that killed and injured countless people.

Liang Zhe said, “When there are earthquakes in the southwest, there are often tremors in the northwest as well. Although not as severe as in the southwest, they’re still strongly felt. The earthquake definitely didn’t originate here but somewhere very far away.”

Therefore, the surroundings showed no signs of anything amiss—the river still babbled, the green mountains remained beautiful, and butterflies still danced gracefully.

So while they could feel it here, it hadn’t caused any destructive force.

The two threw down what they were holding and headed back the way they came.

Qin Shuying stepped forward, and Liang Zhe walked a few steps before realizing something was wrong and immediately slowed his pace.

However, they had been in a valley earlier, and by the time they climbed up the slope, Qin Shuying was already gasping for breath. Then the scene before them left them stunned.

Actually, they hadn’t traveled very far from the camp—just over two hills and around some paths.

On the way here, it had taken just over half an hour. Now, even spending two more hours probably wouldn’t get them back.

Because going down from here was another slope, and the bottom had actually split open!

The crack extended beyond sight, and crossing over the split area was absolutely impossible because it had already filled with water, with surging water continuously flowing in.

Liang Zhe pointed at the water that hadn’t been there before and said, “There must be an underground river below. The earthquake opened up the underground river, so suddenly all this water appeared.”

Looking at the surging rising water, Qin Shuying couldn’t help but step back two paces.

“Miss! Miss!”

Ziteng appeared on the opposite slope, waving her hands and shouting loudly.

She tried to scramble down into the valley to cross over but was stopped by Qin Shuying: “Ziteng, don’t come any further! Go back quickly!”

Behind Ziteng, another person appeared stumbling—it was Liang Yanjun. He moved quickly, caught up with Ziteng, and grabbed her: “Young Master, don’t worry—I’ll watch over Miss Ziteng!”

Master, this is truly a heaven-sent opportunity. You must seize it well, otherwise how can you be worthy of me standing here with a dry mouth and parched throat, persuading Ziteng not to run around recklessly?

Ziteng angrily pushed him away. “Our miss is on the other side! She can’t get across! We need to think of a way to save her! Think of something quickly!”

Liang Yanjun shook his head: “With the young master there, it’ll be fine.”

Ziteng was so angry that tears came down. “What do you mean it’ll be fine? Think of a way to save Miss quickly…”

Although they spoke loudly, they were too far away to hear clearly.

Seeing Ziteng’s intense emotions, Liang Zhe quickly said, “Shuying, tell your maid to go back quickly and not run around recklessly. We’ll return safely.”

Qin Shuying shouted at the top of her lungs: “Ziteng, go back quickly! We’ll return safely!”

After shouting for a while, Ziteng heard and finally returned to higher ground with Liang Yanjun’s pushing and half-carrying her.