Zhang Xingjian was a child who, though raised in comfort and privilege, was also recklessly bold.

Shen Qingwu’s recklessness only ever outdid his.

The two children vanished without a trace in the capital, driving the adults nearly out of their minds with worry.

The next day, when Zhang Rong received word that Zhang Xingjian was missing, he sent people out to search. Once he discovered the matter was connected to the Shen family, and that the Shen family couldn’t produce Shen Qingwu either, his heart sank.

The boldness of the two half-grown children exceeded anything he’d imagined, and the Shen family’s absurdity infuriated him. But this wasn’t the time to settle scores with the Shen family — the urgent priority was finding the two children.

His wife, Li Lingge, heard of his troubles and suggested with a smile, “Brother Rong, why not have the search party look along the direction of the official post road, outside the capital?”

Zhang Rong’s face went stiff. “Outside the capital…”

He had never once considered that the two children would dare leave the capital.

Li Lingge wore a half-smile. “That young cousin of yours isn’t nearly as well-behaved as he looks. You keep assuming he’s a good, obedient child, but I don’t think he is. Honestly, I think little Qingwu is far more straightforward than him — this whole running-away idea was probably cooked up by your little cousin.”

Zhang Rong said, reluctantly, “The children in our family are all well-behaved. They wouldn’t cause this kind of worry.”

Li Lingge spread her hands.

Yet even as Zhang Rong insisted he didn’t believe it, he went out and instructed his elite guards to search beyond the capital, which had Li Lingge doubled over laughing on the couch.

Shen Qingwu and Zhang Xingjian had indeed made it out of the capital together.

At first it was rather novel — relying on Zhang Xingjian’s fine, delicate face as a young nobleman and his talent for making up nonsense on the spot, they charmed a kind-hearted carriage driver leaving the city into giving them a ride.

Shen Qingwu stayed silent the whole way; she didn’t like lying, so she kept her mouth shut, letting Zhang Xingjian chatter on and on, winning the driver’s favor.

Once outside the city, the driver bid the two children farewell, still uneasy, wanting to deliver them safely back to their parents.

But Zhang Xingjian smiled sweetly. “No need, uncle. My parents already agreed to let me and my little sister go.”

The driver glanced at the “little sister,” supposedly slapped by her mother for misbehaving and now running away from home, sighed, and finally left them a bag of chestnuts before reluctantly departing.

Zhang Xingjian bounced over to Shen Qingwu’s side and handed her the warm chestnuts to eat.

Shen Qingwu was amazed, marveling at it all.

So they could really talk their way into food and fun the whole trip?

She’d actually been quite anxious at first… she’d assumed that once she left the Shen household, she’d have no way forward, that she’d surely starve out in the wilderness.

Shen Qingwu praised him: “You’re really impressive.”

Zhang Xingjian grinned. “Not really, that uncle just had a kind heart. But this kind of good luck won’t happen every day. Little Wutong, eat a little less.”

Shen Qingwu asked, “Why?”

He tucked a peeled chestnut into her mouth, looking at her face, still red and marked with fingerprints from being struck, and said, “Because I want to trade some food for medicine. You can’t go around all trip looking like that.”

He swallowed hard, holding back his own hunger.

For a boy who’d always lived in comfort, restraining himself over something as small as a chestnut was hard — but also, oddly, fun.

Shen Qingwu suddenly understood. “It’s because my face is still swollen, so I can’t talk clearly, and you can’t hear me well, and it’ll draw attention too, right?”

Zhang Xingjian froze.

He murmured, “That’s not it.”

Shen Qingwu looked puzzled.

Zhang Xingjian stared at her. “When you’re hurt, you put on medicine. What does that have to do with drawing attention?”

Shen Qingwu said, “…Oh.”

Zhang Xingjian put on a stern face and lectured her: “When you’re hungry, you eat. When you’re thirsty, you drink. When you’re hurt, you take medicine. Don’t you even understand something this simple?”

Shen Qingwu felt looked down on, and protested, “I wasn’t like this before.”

She’d genuinely never thought an injury needed treating.

At the Shen household, no one looked after her. When she got hurt training martial arts at the Zhang household, the masters considered injuries part and parcel of training and paid it no mind. She wasn’t about to be as delicate as him, crying out in pain over the slightest touch.

Zhang Xingjian said, “Well, you need to get used to it now.”

He snatched the oil-paper packet of chestnuts from her arms, rubbed his face, and put on an exaggeratedly adorable smile. Shen Qingwu, startled, spotted a passing carriage on the road nearby, and realized Zhang Xingjian was about to go swindle someone with his chestnuts again…

Through Zhang Xingjian’s smooth talking, the two children traded chestnuts for medicine.

Shen Qingwu let him pull her under a tree to apply the medicine. He washed and dried his hands with great ceremony, mimicking the way adults at home handled ointment. Shen Qingwu found it thoroughly amusing… he really was like a proper little gentleman.

The two children carried on this way, playing as they traveled.

On the whole, it was a happy time.

But Young Master Zhang, who knew nothing of hardship, soon ran into a setback — his act of pitiful helplessness eventually stopped working.

Outside a small village, the two children’s clothes were already filthy, and Zhang Xingjian’s pitiful act failed to earn them even a single meal. At dusk, Zhang Xingjian sat hungrily against a wall outside the village, watching enviously as a few children near the village entrance played hopscotch.

He was so hungry he felt dizzy, too weak even to make a fuss.

Shen Qingwu crouched beside him, studying him.

She asked, curious, “Are you very hungry?”

He gave her a resentful look.

He complained, “It’s all your fault for eating so much! You ate my dry flatbread.”

Shen Qingwu, usually tongue-tied around others, was quick on her feet when it came to him: “You’re the one who wouldn’t eat it because it was too hard.”

She counted off his offenses on her fingers: “You said the well water tasted off and wouldn’t touch it after one sip. You said the plain congee had no flavor and called it eaten after one mouthful. You said the candied hawthorn was too sweet, the fruit too sour… you refuse to eat anything, no wonder you’re about to starve.”

Zhang Xingjian was left speechless, glaring at her.

But Shen Qingwu was a loyal sort at heart.

Her blunt recitation hadn’t been meant to blame him; she thumped her chest. “It’s fine, I’ll figure something out for you. I’ll try acting pitiful like you do in a bit, once the village starts cooking dinner, and beg for food.”

Zhang Xingjian scoffed, eyeing her mostly expressionless face. “You? Forget it.”

So Shen Qingwu thought of another way instead.

She pointed at his robe. “Actually, you could pawn the jade pendant and hairpin you’re wearing, and then we’d have money.”

Zhang Xingjian said, “You’re really dense. Those things can’t be touched — they’re for emergencies, to save our lives if it comes to that.”

Every expensive ornament on his body bore the Zhang family’s mark. If even one of them turned up on the market, it could lead the Zhang household’s adults straight to them. But Zhang Xingjian was still angry at Zhang Rong at this point, angry that those people had insisted on sending Shen Qingwu back to the Shen household, which was what got her beaten in the first place…

If they wanted the Zhang family to find them, these ornaments would naturally serve as the trail… but if things ever became truly dire, they were a means of saving their lives. How could he use them so casually now?

Shen Qingwu was astonished. “Isn’t this dire enough? You’re about to starve.”

The ten-year-old Young Master Zhang had his own logic. He leaned weakly against her shoulder, whining about being hungry, yet still refusing to sell any of his valuables.

Shen Qingwu relented reluctantly. “Then — then just wait a little longer. Once it’s dark, I’ll go find us something to eat in the village…”

A flash of insight struck Zhang Xingjian, and he instantly understood what she meant.

His heart lurched.

He widened his eyes and grabbed her wrist. “You can’t go. You can’t go steal.”

Shen Qingwu looked at him.

She said, “Because I’m bad — you can’t accept that?”

Zhang Xingjian said, “What are you talking about!”

He poked her cheek. “If you got caught, you’d be beaten again. I won’t allow it.”

The starving boy flung his arms around her, his warm breath brushing her ear, his voice soft and babyish: “I don’t want you getting beaten. Wutong, little Wutong, no one is allowed to hit you… I’m so angry at my family, and at yours too.

“How could they hit someone!”

He lifted his moist eyes to look at her.

Shen Qingwu was stunned.

It was the first time the two children had spoken of the Shen family at all.

Shen Qingwu said slowly, “It’s always been like that…”

Zhang Xingjian said, “That’s exactly why I don’t want you going back to the Shen household.”

He told her his plan: “Wutong, look — once you and I run away together like this, Cousin and the others are bound to be worried sick, and afterward, once they find us and hear that the Shen family hit you, Cousin will definitely feel guilty and regretful.

“My cousin is the type who likes to take all the blame onto himself. If he thinks it’s all his fault, then when the Shen family comes to fetch you next time, he’ll do everything he can to stop them. He may be a soft touch, but he’s clever — if he wants to block something, he’ll find a way. That way you can stay at our house all the time… and if you occasionally visit your own family, Cousin will definitely send plenty of people to guard you, and you’ll never be beaten again.”

Shen Qingwu stared blankly at the ten-year-old Zhang Xingjian.

She thought it must be because she was younger that she didn’t have a clever mind like his.

She couldn’t help reaching out enviously to touch his head: she wished she could cut it off and transplant that clever little brain onto herself.

Zhang Xingjian, unsettled by the look in her eyes, said quietly, “Wutong, don’t look at me like that… I’m scared. You’re going to make me cry.”

Shen Qingwu came back to herself.

She withdrew that nakedly covetous look and covered it up by saying, “I just think you’re really smart. I thought running away was something you decided on the spur of the moment — I didn’t realize you had another purpose in mind.”

She praised him again: “You’re really clever.”

The corners of Zhang Xingjian’s mouth curled up.

He said, modestly, “It’s such a simple thing, I figured it out right away.”

He blinked at her.

She blinked back.

Zhang Xingjian prompted, “Go on, keep praising me.”

Shen Qingwu: “…”

Unfortunately, before Young Master Zhang could get his next round of praise, his stomach growled loudly again, sending him into a fresh wail. He collapsed against Shen Qingwu’s shoulder, rubbing his eyes.

Shen Qingwu found him thoroughly entertaining.

She poked his cheek, soft and tender.

She said, “I want to play with you forever.”

Zhang Xingjian looked up, dazed.

He said, “Of course, forever… aren’t you my — my fiancée?”

Dizzy with hunger, he still managed to blush over the word, his cheeks flushing red.

Zhang Xingjian declared solemnly: “We’re already meant to get married. And we’ll also — we’ll also kiss, and hold hands, and hug, and have babies…”

He stammered through it, and Shen Qingwu looked on in a daze.

Having talked himself into a red-faced shrimp, Zhang Xingjian clamped his mouth shut.

He shut his eyes crossly. “Don’t look at me! The adults said all that, not me… I don’t even know what it means, but that’s just what they said.”

Shen Qingwu asked, “Then why don’t I know about it?”

Zhang Xingjian said, “I just have a good memory, is that my fault? They were talking quietly, and I remembered it instantly — how is that on me?”

He fumed for a moment, then softened, wrapping his arms around her small, soft body, murmuring bashfully in her ear: “Actually, I remembered it because I thought it sounded fun. Wutong, hurry up and grow up — I want to, want to fall in love with you, and… grow old together with you.”

Shen Qingwu didn’t quite understand what he meant, but she nodded. “Okay.”

Still, the matter of the starving young master needed solving.

He wouldn’t sell his precious belongings, wouldn’t let Shen Qingwu con people with her looks, and wouldn’t let her go steal food either… so what were they supposed to do?

The two children stared at each other blankly.

The village children’s laughter drifted over, a sharp contrast to the bleak, cold mood on their end.

Shen Qingwu gazed at the children’s happiness, the dusk light falling across her forehead.

Zhang Xingjian draped himself over her shoulder from behind, holding her, still bravely whispering in her ear: “Don’t envy them, I can play with you too. What do you want to play…”

Shen Qingwu said, “I’m not envying them. I… I don’t envy them anymore.”

Since arriving at the Zhang household, she’d had Zhang Yuelu to play with regularly, and had long since stopped envying other children traveling in packs.

She was watching those children now only because she was thinking of something else: “Zhang Yuelu, before we got engaged, I once asked Brother Rong what a ‘child-groom’ was, and whether a child-groom could be sold.”

Zhang Xingjian was baffled for a long moment.

He turned and met her dark eyes.

It was the first time he’d heard the term “child-groom,” but he was a sharp child — the word rolled around on his tongue once, and he roughly grasped its meaning.

Zhang Xingjian was shocked. “You’re going to sell me?”

Shen Qingwu hurried to reassure him: “No, no. I won’t sell you, but I suddenly thought of a way to make money…”

She touched his face, looking thoughtful. “The boys and girls at home all like playing with you, don’t they?”

Zhang Xingjian felt a flicker of unease and pouted. “That’s because I’m well-behaved and obedient…”

Shen Qingwu’s eyes lit up.

She promised to trade for some food for Zhang Xingjian, and ignoring his bewilderment, she jumped up and walked toward the group of children, gathering her courage to strike up business with the village children in a tone that carried just a hint of a threat.

Zhang Xingjian craned his neck, unable to tell what she was muttering about.

But before long, Shen Qingwu came back leading a gaggle of excited children.

Zhang Xingjian saw some of the boys wander off, uninterested, but a few of the girls glanced at him, then reached into their pockets and, with great care, handed over a coin to Shen Qingwu.

One girl asked, “Is that enough?”

Shen Qingwu nodded.

Zhang Xingjian then watched as the girls playing at the village entrance rushed to hand Shen Qingwu their coins, then ran eagerly toward him. He’d barely managed to put on a reserved, polite noble-boy smile when a rather strong-armed girl poked him hard in the cheek.

The poke hurt enough to bring tears to his eyes.

Shen Qingwu frowned. “Don’t hurt him.”

Zhang Xingjian said, “Wutong, what are you doing…”

The girl stopped poking him, instead cradling her own face happily. “Husband, you’re so handsome.”

Zhang Xingjian: “…?”

She reached to take his hand, and Zhang Xingjian immediately put his hands behind his back, refusing to be touched. The girl frowned slightly at his lack of cooperation but, given how good-looking he was, kept smiling anyway:

“You’re my fiancé right now, and every moment belongs to me. I want to have babies with you.”

Zhang Xingjian: “…”

His fair, delicate face immediately turned ashen.

Sharp as he was, he understood at once what Shen Qingwu had done —

She’d used his identity as merchandise to make money.

She was selling his “fiancé” status — for one coin, anyone could come pinch him, play with him, drag him into games of house.

For the first time in his life, Zhang Xingjian shook with fury.

He erupted: “Shen Qingwu, you scoundrel!”

Shen Qingwu, bent over counting coins, was so startled she looked up just as the half-dead Young Master Zhang crawled out of the ring of children and charged at her.

He grabbed her hand, flung away the coins in it, and dragged her by the hand, running out of the village.

Zhang Xingjian had never in his life suffered such humiliation, and her sheer absurdity had him nearly in tears.

Shen Qingwu, however, felt she’d done nothing wrong — “You earned your own keep, traded yourself for a little money, and now we have money to buy good food so you won’t be hungry anymore. What’s wrong with that?”

Zhang Xingjian said, “You said you wouldn’t sell me!”

Shen Qingwu said, “I didn’t sell you.”

She said, a bit guiltily, “I only sold your status a little bit. It’s not like you lost any flesh over it.”

He pinched her cheek, utterly furious: “And you still talk back! You’re impossible, you’re a menace, you — you bullied me, I’ll — I’ll…”

He wanted to threaten her, wanted to say he’d tell on her, but he wasn’t even particularly fond of his cousin, and he stammered for a long moment, unable to get any words out.

Zhang Xingjian stared at her, his eyes damp, lashes trembling.

Shen Qingwu suddenly panicked and threw herself at him, hugging him. “Are you crying? Why are you crying…”

It was only when she wiped his face that Zhang Xingjian realized he’d shed tears. Overcome with shame and anger, and furious at himself for being so useless as to be made to cry by her… the more flustered he got, the more the tears came, and the harder Shen Qingwu tried to wipe them away, the more ashamed he felt.

He pushed her. “Don’t touch me!”

But she was too worked up for him to push away, and he had no choice but to let her clumsily wipe at his tears.

Young Master Zhang wept.

Caught in the vicious cycle, he only grew more upset.

But after a good cry, the two children had worn themselves out and grown tired of fussing.

They sat together by the roadside, Zhang Xingjian leaning against her shoulder, tears still welling in his eyes, watching Shen Qingwu fret over how to find him food.

Shen Qingwu went quiet for a long while.

The silence was unusual.

Zhang Xingjian followed her gaze and saw her watching some adults by the street — the adults were bending down amiably, speaking to a little girl by the roadside. A moment later, they led the girl away by the hand, buying her some candy.

Zhang Xingjian’s eyes lit up.

He perked up at once: “Let’s go over too…”

Shen Qingwu grabbed his hand.

She whispered, “They’re bad people. They sell children. They’re about to lure that little girl away…”

Zhang Xingjian froze.

Shen Qingwu spoke with the air of experience: “I saw this happen on the streets when I was little.”

Though she herself was still only seven.

Zhang Xingjian had never encountered anyone who abducted children before. A little frightened, he clung to Shen Qingwu’s arm, wanting to say they should run. But Shen Qingwu kept staring at the little girl, murmuring to herself: “She’s about to be taken.”

She repeated it twice, and Zhang Xingjian immediately turned to look at her.

Her brows had knit together like two ugly little twisted worms. There was a light flickering in her eyes, and the moment the adults turned around, she grabbed Zhang Xingjian and pulled him back against the wall.

Zhang Xingjian understood at once.

He whispered, “You want to save her?”

He didn’t understand. “But you’re just a child too.”

Shen Qingwu thought it over and said, “You hide here. I’ll go try, see if I can…”

Zhang Xingjian looked at her still slightly swollen profile, and his expression softened, bit by bit:

In truth, he didn’t much care about injustices like this.

His usual principle was to help when he could and walk away when he couldn’t, never dwelling on it a moment longer. There was so much injustice in the world; Zhang Xingjian had always figured he was too small and powerless to go looking for trouble.

But Shen Qingwu seemed different from him.

She was so reckless, so impulsive… she simply couldn’t walk past an injustice and let it be.

Ten-year-old Zhang Xingjian was pushed by Shen Qingwu deep into the alley; as she turned to run out, he reached out and grabbed her, watching her turn back, puzzled, to look at him.

Something stirred in Zhang Xingjian’s heart that he’d never felt before.

He blinked at her, and smiled. “Wutong, let’s pull off something big, shall we?”

Early that year, Zhang Xingjian, thanks to his fine and delicate face, was abducted by kidnappers.

Shen Qingwu went to report it to the authorities, leading the officers back to rescue Zhang Xingjian. Along the way, Zhang Xingjian shed his noble ornaments one by one to mark the trail for the officers. With the two children’s help, the authorities successfully located the kidnappers’ den and rescued at least a dozen or so children, then notified the families of the missing children to come collect them.

Zhang Rong rushed there from far away, and was received with great deference by the officials.

Anxious as fire, he was led to a room, listening the whole way as the officials praised their family’s two children—

“The young lady has a sharp eye, wasn’t afraid to get dirty, crawled through the grass on the ground and helped us find quite a bit of evidence. The young master is quite the talker, too — he thoroughly confused those crooks and guided us along the way, helped us out a great deal.

“No wonder, being children of the Zhang family — they really are a cut above ordinary people.”

Zhang Rong said nothing, his face grim.

He pushed open the wooden door. Dust drifted through the air. Standing in the doorway, Zhang Rong saw at a glance the two children sitting together, leaning against each other on the couch bed.

Shen Qingwu leaned against Zhang Xingjian, eyes closed in sleep, her arms wrapped tightly around his arm. Zhang Xingjian’s fine silk robe was now entirely gray with dust. He lifted his face, his dark eyes breaking into a smile at the sight of his cousin.

Zhang Xingjian called out silently, sweetly: “Elder Cousin.”

Zhang Rong sighed.

The tension he’d carried the whole way finally eased — the two children were safe.

He looked at them again with a complicated expression — not one of them ever made things easy.

Back at the Zhang household, Zhang Rong confined both children.

But this confinement was nothing like the pitch-black world of the Shen household.

Someone kept Shen Qingwu company, someone lectured her with long-winded moral lessons — annoying to listen to, perhaps, but at least it didn’t leave her afraid.

Zhang Rong scolded each of them in turn and spoke with them individually.

Shen Qingwu bowed her head and took the lecture.

But when it came to Zhang Xingjian, before Zhang Rong had even finished his scolding, Zhang Xingjian obediently admitted his fault:

“Cousin, I was wrong. I’ll study hard from now on. But could you find me a new tutor — part of why I never wanted to study before was that the lessons were too easy.”

Zhang Rong was taken aback.

His expression eased. “You’re willing to study now?”

Zhang Xingjian nodded.

He said earnestly, “It’s not just studying — I want to learn everything you want me to learn: archery, horsemanship, the zither, chess, strategy… all of it, I’m willing to learn.”

A wish had taken root in his heart.

Running away from home had shown Zhang Xingjian his own weakness, the treachery of the world, the complexity and overwhelming force of human nature at large, and how different Shen Qingwu’s preferences were from those of an ordinary young lady.

He wanted to keep Shen Qingwu far away from the Shen family.

He wanted to protect her.

He wanted—

“When I grow up, I want to fall in love with her, to court her. I want to be her lover, her husband.

“I want her to grow up quickly, to fall in love with me quickly, to marry me quickly.

“I want her to be carefree and unburdened, free of any constraints — not from the Shen family, not from the Zhang family, not even from me. I don’t want anything to hold her back.

“I want my little Wutong to live a joyful life, and get everything she wishes for.”

For that, he was willing to study things he’d never otherwise have bothered to learn.