After being disrupted by Madam Lu’s interference, Qin Yining had also lost her mood for sightseeing. She only spoke with Madam Liao for a while before they each went their separate ways. Before parting, Qin Yining hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not speak about entrusting the Azure Sky Alliance’s people to search for her grandmother.

She thought that perhaps when her grandmother had previously entrusted the Azure Sky Alliance to her, it was because she no longer wished to have any connections with these jianghu people.

What her grandmother cared more about should be how the Sun family’s womenfolk would recuperate and rest, and how they would live their days well. Although the Sun family had no male heirs, the Sun family still had daughters and could adopt sons-in-law through marriage. As long as they settled down to develop steadily, it wouldn’t take many years for the Sun family to flourish again.

Thinking of this, Qin Yining felt relieved. After all, life would only get better and better.

At the same time on West Zhili Street, a spacious vermillion-wheeled canopied carriage was steadily making its way toward Prince Yan’s mansion.

Yuchi Yan sat silently cross-legged, his head lowered as he gazed at the exquisite embroidered patterns on his robe’s hem. This outer robe was newly bestowed by the Emperor just two days ago, said to have been specially sewn for him by the finest embroidresses selected.

However, that magnificently ornate princely attire with its complex patterns could not lift his spirits. The more dazzling the prince’s robes appeared, the more they highlighted how pathetic he was as a fallen sovereign.

He had at least once been an emperor, yet now he had to walk through the Great Zhou capital bearing the title of a prince from another state. He felt that when he went out, the way others looked at him was wrong.

Moreover, he had just witnessed the scene of Qin Yining being cornered and humiliated in the restaurant’s main hall.

Ever since Great Yan was destroyed, Yuchi Yan felt that the inexplicable pressure weighing on his shoulders could finally be lifted, and he had once secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

His ascension to the throne back then was merely to deliver the letter of surrender. Once everything was settled and he came to Great Zhou, he often consoled himself that people should be content and happy, and spending the rest of his life peacefully like this wasn’t a bad thing.

But under the superficially polite yet actually contemptuous gazes of Great Zhou’s court officials, he experienced unprecedented humiliation and only then realized how naive his thinking had been.

The reason he could still survive in this world was to prove the benevolence of Great Zhou’s Emperor and to flaunt the Emperor’s achievements across the four seas. His entire life was nothing but a foil for others’ entertainment. Just by looking at him, Great Zhou’s Emperor would remember how brilliant he was in destroying the Yan Dynasty.

Someone like him, with a glamorous exterior but actually humble existence – what standing did he have to pursue Qin Yining?

Even though Qin Yining had been abducted before, her father was already a Second Rank Grand Secretary and a candidate about to enter the cabinet.

And what about him?

With his current status, he simply couldn’t bring Qin Yining happiness and peace!

Even when she was being bullied just now, he didn’t have the courage to stand up and speak a word for her, but instead left under Li Yanyan’s pulling, following her force.

Because he knew that he currently had no position to speak up, and even if he did speak, no one would listen to him.

Moreover, with his current awkward status, he simply couldn’t afford to offend the Lu family.

Yuchi Yan’s fists unconsciously clenched tight as he fell into boundless self-loathing.

Was there any other man in this world as incompetent and spineless as him?

He didn’t even dare protect the woman he loved – what face did he have to ask Qin Yining to become his side consort?

What face did he have to say to her, “Follow me, I will protect you”?

The promises he made to her – forget the future, he couldn’t even fulfill them right now!

“Your Highness…” Seeing that Yuchi Yan’s complexion was truly awful, with even the veins at his temples bulging out, Li Yanyan gently shook his hand:

“Your Highness, please don’t torment yourself. We still have long days ahead of us. Life has already settled down now, and everything will get better.”

At this point, Li Yanyan’s eyes reddened with moisture, but her voice remained deliberately gentle: “This concubine knows that Your Highness likes Miss Qin. Please rest assured. In the future, this concubine will continue working hard to mediate. Your Highness is talented and refined, gentle and elegant – how could any woman not admire you? I think Miss Qin is just too embarrassed, feeling that having experienced such things in the past makes it inappropriate for her to accept, right? If this concubine visits a few more times, she might agree.”

“No need to go anymore.”

Yuchi Yan, like a slow-reacting puppet, slowly turned his head to look at Li Yanyan and shook his head: “No need to go anymore. I… am not worthy of her.”

Upon hearing this, Li Yanyan was stunned. Tears finally burst forth uncontrollably as she threw herself into Yuchi Yan’s arms, sobbing: “Your Highness, Your Highness, why do you go to such extremes? How could you be unworthy of her? In this concubine’s heart, Your Highness is an upright man who stands tall between heaven and earth, a person of outstanding talent as gentle and pure as a banished immortal! Anyone who looks down on you must be blind! You’re so heartbroken over Miss Qin, how… how should this concubine bear it?”

Li Yanyan buried her face in Yuchi Yan’s shoulder and began weeping pitifully.

Being made sad by Li Yanyan’s tears, Yuchi Yan also felt his nose sting and his eyes grow hot, nearly crying along with her.

After a while, Yuchi Yan finally patted Li Yanyan’s shoulder in an embrace: “Stop crying. Let’s live our days well from now on.”