The sound of “clip-clop” horse hooves echoed along the official road as two fine horses galloped side by side, raising clouds of dust in their wake. Pedestrians and ox carts on the road hurriedly moved aside to avoid them.

As the horses drew nearer, one maroon and one white, each carried a young man. The youth on the maroon horse appeared to be sixteen or seventeen years old, with handsome brows and starry eyes, upright and sharp-spirited. The youth on the white horse was only thirteen or fourteen, with rosy lips and white teeth, handsome and amiable. Both were uncommonly good-looking, clearly not ordinary young masters from common families.

The younger youth on the white horse led the maroon horse by half a horse’s length. He slightly tightened his grip on the reins, and his horse’s speed slowed down, followed immediately by the maroon horse.

“Ayi, ahead is the Willow-Breaking Pavilion. After riding for another half cup of tea’s time, we’ll be able to see Yunyang City’s gates.” The white horse youth turned his head and said with a smile.

The youth called Ayi nodded and frowned: “Let’s enter the city earlier. The Prince and Princess Consort’s carriages returned three days ago. You’ve lingered outside for three extra days—think about how you’ll explain this to the Prince and Princess Consort when you return.”

Hearing this, the white horse youth’s handsome little face fell, and he looked pitifully at Ayi: “Ayi, Second Cousin, won’t you accompany me back?”

Ayi glanced at his cousin unmoved: “The Prince and Princess Consort are both good-tempered—what are you afraid of?”

The white horse youth wore an expression that said ‘you’re really naive’: “Let me ask you, are you more afraid of Aunt or Uncle?”

Ayi pressed his lips together and said nothing.

The white horse youth gave him a look that said ‘see, just as I thought’: “So you see, those with good temperaments are the scary ones! Because you can’t guess what’s waiting for you. Besides, Father has found me displeasing since childhood—I used to think I was adopted.”

Ayi rolled his eyes: “The new emperor has ascended and granted general amnesty. You’ll turn misfortune into fortune. I should be the one worried about how Second Uncle will deal with me.”

The white horse youth hung his head dejectedly, tugging at his horse’s mane: “This place is a hundred thousand li from the capital. Even if Imperial Brother grants general amnesty, it won’t reach me. I snuck out to play during his enthronement—if he finds out, my fate will be even more miserable.”

Ayi scoffed: “Knowing this, you still dared to run around?”

The white horse youth became angry and immediately showed his claws: “You ran away too!”

Ayi cleared his throat and said seriously, “Alright, Axuan, stop making a fuss. There seem to be people in the pavilion ahead. Let’s not rest—go straight back to the city. Better to die sooner and be reborn sooner.”

Xiao Weixuan completely changed from his previous high spirits, following dejectedly behind Yun Yi on horseback.

“Eh?” Yun Yi’s expression suddenly changed. He reined in his horse and stopped.

Xiao Weixuan frowned and immediately became alert and wary: “What’s wrong?”

Yun Yi’s voice trembled slightly: “The person in the pavilion ahead… seems… seems to be my Second Uncle…”

Xiao Weixuan shaded his eyes with his hand and looked ahead. His face immediately lit up with joy, and quite familiarly, he waved his little hand cheerfully, shouting: “Uncle Yun, Uncle Yun, look here, look here! Ayi is back…”

Yun Yi wanted nothing more than to strangle this heartless little bastard Xiao Weixuan.

However, it was too late for Yun Yi to sneak away now. He could only urge his horse forward.

Standing in the pavilion was a middle-aged man who appeared to be around forty years old, tall and upright in stature. Though already middle-aged, his appearance remained handsome. He looked at Yun Yi with a half-smile, saying nothing.

Yun Yi dismounted with his head lowered and obediently walked to the man: “Second Uncle.”

Xiao Weixuan followed suit, walking over with a grin and calling out: “Uncle Yun.”

The man’s gaze swept toward Xiao Weixuan, paused for a moment, then said “I dare not,” lowered his head, and bowed: “Yun Wenfang pays respects to the Prince Heir.”

Xiao Weixuan blinked and muttered quietly in grievance: “I told you—from childhood, Father doesn’t love me, and Second Uncle doesn’t care for me. I was born into the wrong family…”

Hearing these words and looking at Xiao Weixuan’s face that resembled someone he disliked, Yun Wenfang’s mouth twitched. He pretended not to hear and turned to discipline his nephew.

Yun Yi listened to the lecture with his head lowered. Second Uncle had no children of his own, and since childhood, Yun Yi had spent most of his time in Yunyang City with Second Uncle. So he wasn’t particularly afraid of his parents, but he feared Second Uncle. He deeply understood what Axuan had said earlier about good-tempered people being more frightening when angry, though Second Uncle had never hit him or hardly even scolded him.

Seeing it had nothing to do with him, Xiao Weixuan bounced around playing by himself. When Yun Wenfang finished lecturing Yun Yi and turned around, he found Xiao Weixuan had disappeared, though his horse remained in place. He couldn’t help but frown.

Almost immediately, Xiao Weixuan’s voice came from high above: “Hey, Uncle, look here! Look here! I’m up here! This tree has so many oranges!”

Yun Wenfang looked up to see that the little troublemaker had somehow climbed up the tree and was now swinging his legs while peeling a green orange, grinning from ear to ear.

Yun Wenfang’s mouth twitched uncontrollably again, and he suddenly felt that his nephew was truly well-behaved and obedient, too good to punish severely.

The three rode back to the city. Yunyang City’s gates soon appeared before them, and a large carriage bearing the Yanbei Prince’s mansion insignia was stopped at the city entrance.

Seeing that carriage, Yun Wenfang involuntarily stopped, somewhat dazed.

Xiao Weixuan also saw it and looked at Yun Yi with horror: “It’s Mother’s carriage! What do we do? What do we do? I’m dead! Cousin, save me!”

Yun Yi glanced at Xiao Weixuan from the corner of his eye and sneered inwardly: Hmph! Evil will meet its match!

Just then, the carriage curtain moved. A maid first stepped down from the carriage, then helped out a clear-featured young woman.

Yun Wenfang stared blankly at the beautiful young woman walking toward them, his blood freezing throughout his body.

He seemed to hear a familiar voice that always appeared by his ear during midnight dreams, crying and pleading, begging him to spare her life.

He remembered their first meeting at the Ren family’s old residence. He watched her lift her skirts and run quickly toward the corridor, coming closer and closer to him, making him, who had been speaking with Qiu Yun, forget the rest of his sentence and just stand there staring at her blankly.

But her gaze hadn’t been on him. She had pouted slightly, her eyes somewhat red as if she had suffered some grievance. He didn’t know what mindset possessed him at the time, but he just stood there without moving, then watched her crash into his arms.

Yun Wenfang still remembered the heart-stirring feeling from that moment, though he didn’t know what had gotten into his head—he very annoyingly whistled, earning himself a slap from her.

Where had Yun Wenfang ever been slapped by anyone in his life? And after slapping him, she ran away without saying a single word. He had been furious then, and when meeting with Old Madam Ren, he casually mentioned it, resulting in her being locked in the ancestral hall.

That day was very cold. He didn’t know why his heart felt constantly uneasy—he thought it might be because he wasn’t quite used to being in a new place.

“Hey, where is the Ren family’s ancestral hall?”

When these words slipped from his mouth, Qiu Yun looked at him with some surprise. He regretted it as soon as he asked, then added nonchalantly: “That girl was locked in the ancestral hall, wasn’t she? She offended me, so I definitely can’t just let it go. Take me to see—I’ll play some tricks on her!”

Qiu Yun hesitated for a moment but still took him there.

As soon as they reached the ancestral hall entrance, he heard crying. She was crying in the ancestral hall.

That day was New Year’s Eve, and it was very lively outside, but hearing her crying made his heart feel somewhat cold. He didn’t want to admit he regretted it then—there was no need for him to argue with a little girl, was there? It was just one slap, and it hadn’t hurt.

He thought if she apologized and made amends, he would forgive her and put in a good word for her.

When he entered the ancestral hall, she was hugging her legs and crouching under the offering table. He tugged at her hair knot and deliberately smiled: “Kowtow three times to this young master and call me ‘good big brother’ three times, and I’ll go with Qiu Yun to plead for your release. How about it?”

He was just teasing her—he didn’t want her to kowtow. But if she was willing to call him big brother, he would give her all the fireworks he had brought to play with.

But before he could say these words, she pounced at him like an angry little cat, scratching his face. His neck burned with pain, and when he touched it, his hand came away covered in blood.

Now he was truly angry and wanted to kick her to death. Just as he raised his foot and saw her terrified face, he forced himself to hold back, though his expression couldn’t help but look fierce and hateful.

In the end, he was dragged away by Qiu Yun, who worried things would get out of hand.

From then on, she would take detours whenever she saw him, making him feel both angry and wronged.

Until one day she leaked information about his presence at the Ren family, causing his elder brother to come find him and take him away. He looked at her with such hatred his teeth itched.

So he left her with harsh words: “Ren Yaoqi, you’ll regret this! Just wait and see!”

She only looked at him coldly, raising her head with stubborn disdain.

He thought he would hate her for a long time, but not long after returning, he kept thinking of her. Later, he secretly snuck to Baihe Town several times but never entered the Ren family gates. Once he even secretly climbed the Ren family’s wall, but he didn’t see her.

He heard she had been confined by Old Madam Ren again. He curled his lip inwardly, thinking it served her right for not being willing to yield to him. Otherwise, with his protection, Old Madam Ren wouldn’t dare lose her temper with her. What an ungrateful dead girl.

But it was this dead girl who occupied his thoughts for several years, thinking of her until he was nearly obsessed.

At the time, he didn’t understand how he had come to regard this girl differently. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen prettier ones, and he had never encountered a girl with a worse temper than hers. How could such a dead girl possibly get married?

Thinking this, somehow his heart became happy again. He thought that when she grew a bit older, he would just marry her—consider it a good deed.

Unfortunately, his happiness was premature.

She gradually grew up and became more and more beautiful, finally attracting trouble.

Her elder sister had married Zeng Kui, the only son of Ningxia’s garrison commander, then killed Zeng Kui and committed suicide. The shameless Ren family planned to send her to Eunuch Lu, having Eunuch Lu protect the Ren family.

When he learned of this, he was furious and went to his grandmother to request permission to marry her. He thought the Yun family was the premier family in Yanbei—that damned eunuch could go as far away as possible.

But his grandmother, who had always doted on him, didn’t agree to his request. Kneeling for a day was useless. Originally, he planned to wear his grandmother down slowly, but the person he had sent to watch her reported that she wanted to escape.

Hearing this, Yun Wenfang couldn’t bother kneeling to his grandmother anymore. He went to the stables, took a horse, and chased after her. He couldn’t let her escape like this—if she ran away, where would he find her?

What damn Zeng family, what damn Eunuch Lu—what was there to fear? His grandmother might be afraid, but he wasn’t. Since grandmother wouldn’t agree to let him marry her, he would take her away. After a few years, the grandmother would surely let them return.

He would take her to the frontier—he had long wanted to go, but the family wouldn’t agree. When leaving, he hadn’t forgotten to ask the maid for his silver—eight hundred taels, quite a lot.

He indeed blocked her on the road. She had lost a lot of weight and was deathly pale. He couldn’t tell if she was beautiful anymore, but he still thought everything about her was lovely—even her fingernails grew exactly as he liked them in his heart.

But before he could say he would take her away, she cried and knelt, begging him to spare her.

He was somewhat angry, so his expression wasn’t good either, but he still wanted to explain. Just as he was about to speak, he heard many horse hooves approaching. Looking at her still crying and making a fuss, he really couldn’t stand it anymore, so he knocked her unconscious and threw her over his horse.

Mm, the world was finally quiet, and she was finally obedient. How nice.

He took off his cloak to wrap around her, carefully holding her in his arms, then turned his horse toward another direction.

At that time, his heart felt somewhat happy and soft. Thinking she was so thin, when she woke up, he would find a place for her to have a good meal and fatten up. Then he would also improve his temper and stop arguing with women; otherwise, fighting every time they met was too childish. When she scolded him, he would just endure it. After all, she would be his wife, and giving in to her wouldn’t benefit anyone else.

But he didn’t know he would never have the chance to give in to her again.

When two groups of horsemen charged toward him, he knew he was in trouble. He discovered one group was from the Yun family, and one group was Eunuch Lu’s people.

Thinking about it, encountering either group would spell trouble for him. So after hesitating, he decided to hide her first and lead the horsemen away himself, then return for her. He felt that with his horsemanship and skills, he should be able to return quickly without letting her encounter danger, so he found a hidden place to put her down, then rode away himself.

Both groups of horsemen were indeed led away by him. He felt somewhat proud and was thinking of shaking them off to return for her, but he didn’t expect Eunuch Lu’s people would dare shoot arrows at him.

When three arrows struck his back and he fell from his horse down the slope, his only thought was that he should have left the silver he brought with her—with silver, she could live without hardship wherever she fled, and she was too thin.

Just as Yun Wenfang was lost in reverie, he heard a carefree voice shout “Sister—” and then saw someone rush toward the girl who greatly frantically resembled her.

The troublemaker’s voice violently pulled Yun Wenfang’s thoughts back to reality. He also recognized that no matter how much the girl before him resembled her, she wasn’t her. His entanglement with her had ended in the previous life—only he stubbornly refused to let go.

The girl smiled gently at the troublemaker: “Axuan, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Do you know the consequences if you don’t return soon?”

Xiao Weixuan wagged his tail coquettishly: “Sister, I’m the most well-behaved and obedient! You must remember to plead for me when we return. Father has always doted on you—if you protect me, he won’t punish me.”

The girl smiled helplessly and gently tapped his forehead with her finger: “I’ve told you many times—don’t learn from Silly Girl to act coquettish! Be careful, or Mother will punish you by making you copy books.”

Yun Yi silently watched the siblings talk. When the girl looked his way, he lowered his head in greeting: “Greetings to the Princess.”

Awu smiled at him: “We’re all family here—cousin needn’t be so formal.”

Xiao Weixuan’s mischievously rolling eyes looked at Yun Yi’s serious expression and red ears, giggling chaotically for a while.

Awu ignored her brother’s antics and turned to look at Yun Wenfang, taking the initiative to greet him with junior courtesy.

“Uncle Yun, did you come to meet your cousin?”

Compared to his indifference toward Xiao Weixuan, Yun Wenfang’s expression was much gentler. He nodded: “Mm.”

After a pause, he couldn’t help adding: “Princess, remember to bring more guards when you go out next time.”

Xiao Weixuan couldn’t help but tug at Yun Yi’s arm in grievance, muttering quietly: “See, I told you I was adopted… adopted…”