Fortunately, she was experienced and clever, unlike those delicate young ladies who would only clutch their chests and scream when faced with trouble. With quick eyes and hands, she took to her heels and ran. The prince’s quarters were the most spacious in the Imperial Manor, giving her enough room to run in circles for quite some time before the Seventh Prince could catch her.

This only made the Seventh Prince angrier. As he chased, he cursed, “Don’t let me catch you! Just wait until I get my hands on you—I’ll give you a couple of hard slaps! Stop… You’re still running!”

The Seventh Prince was twenty-eight years old and considered himself aging, with declining physical strength. Although he practiced martial arts daily, he was merely going through the motions. Tai Chi was good for cultivating the body and mind, but for agility, one needed Buku. Yet he couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had practiced Buku. Ever since establishing his household, he had grown lazy. He was the eldest in the entire family, and all the nanny-maids who could discipline him had been sent away by him. With no one above him exerting pressure, he had even stopped reading books. When shooting arrows, he frequently missed the target. As for martial arts skills, they had all been returned to his outer tutors.

He stared at Xiao Shu with both eyes, knowing he couldn’t catch him but wanting to frighten him. Seeing his panic-stricken appearance like a rabbit was quite adorable. Men are just like this—a person they like, even with pockmarks, would appear as a flower in each hole, genuinely appealing to them.

He ran until he was out of breath. After the two of them had circled the Eight Immortals table for quite some time, he finally couldn’t continue. Leaning against the table edge, he said, “Stop running! If you keep running, I’ll call people in to catch you. Stripped naked, you’d be embarrassed… You’re something—refusing to be led willingly but retreating when forced. Unfortunate child!”

Ding Yi was also quite tired, and afraid. Her calves were trembling. “If you don’t chase me, I won’t run. If you chase me, I’ll keep running… Please sit down. Sit down and rest for a while. I’ll rest a bit too.”

The Seventh Prince was quite dejected. Thinking about it, he decided to calm her first; continuing the chase was not the solution. He felt for the bench, sat down with a thud, and gestured with his hand, saying, “You sit too. Let’s sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk.”

This contest ended so miserably, with the two sitting across the table resting their feet. The Seventh Prince even poured her a cup of tea.

Ding Yi looked at him. In the candlelight, the Seventh Prince’s head was covered in sweat from running. The Yu Wen family all had fair skin, becoming even fairer when sweating. With his long eyelashes drooping, when not speaking, he had a somewhat scholarly air. She gulped down some tea and said, “Your physique needs proper training. You start panting after running just a few steps. What will you do during the autumn hunt in Chengde?”

He said it was fine. “The Emperor’s brother-in-law is even worse than me, yet he lives quite comfortably.”

She thought of the famed Lord Kun from rumors and nodded. “That’s true. You’re the Emperor’s brother, even closer than a brother-in-law. If it doesn’t work out, you can just feign illness. Every autumn you could develop a cough. The Emperor would see and say, ‘Well, stay home and rest. If you come hunting with us, you’ll surely cough up blood.’ Then you’d be free.”

The Seventh Prince snorted, thinking to himself, if my physique were good enough, would you still be sitting here joking with me about coughing? Don’t get too complacent after gaining an advantage. Just wait—after I’ve rested enough, you’ll suffer. But outwardly he said, “It’s because I don’t wish to show my prowess. Back when the crown prince hadn’t been established, there was a need to perform well. The wild game hunted by all my brothers combined didn’t match what I caught alone. The Grand Emperor said, ‘The Seventh deeply resembles my imperial self.’ I even thought I had a claim to that chair in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Who knew the Second would be established in the end? Since I couldn’t become Emperor, I laid down my bow and horse. There’s no point in risking my life for someone else’s empire. I’m not a fool.”

She sincerely sighed, thinking it was fortunate the old Emperor hadn’t passed the throne to him. Such a reckless master would squander the family fortune. If the Great Ying’s state were in his hands, it wouldn’t take many years for a dynasty to change.

After sitting and catching their breath for a while, the Seventh Prince brought the conversation back on track. “Don’t change the subject. I’m asking you, what exactly is going on between you and the Twelfth Prince? Do you love the Twelfth Prince?”

Someone with thinner skin, or with even a bit of consideration for him, would not utter that “yes.” Yet Mu Xiao Shu said it—a resolute and forceful “yes.” The Seventh Prince was immediately dumbfounded. “Then what about me?”

In Ding Yi’s view, he had never been part of the equation. He had forced his way in, even without knowing her gender. What was there to say to a homosexual lord? She blinked her eyes and said, “You are my good master. You let me enter your household and found me a way to earn my living. You are my second parents.”

The generational relationship was a bit confusing—entangled with Hong Ce yet calling him second parent. What excellent pacification! The Seventh Prince was filled with anger but temporarily couldn’t vent it. His determination, however, became even stronger. He nodded, each nod filled with gritted teeth. “Then your registry is in my banner. How do you plan to handle that?”

She lowered her eyes and bit her lip. “If you could lift a hand to help, both the Twelfth Prince and I would be grateful to you.”

The Seventh Prince let out a scoffing laugh. “You’re too familiar. What, do I look like someone who loves to play matchmaker? You met me too late. In my early years, I was the King of Yama at the Back Lake. With eyes wide open, I knew all about fighting. Whoever dared to persuade me, I’d scoop them up too. In recent years, I’ve aged and become less aggressive, so you think I’m easy to deal with?”

“I didn’t mean that…” she said, twisting her fingers. “I just feel you’re good-hearted. On the surface, you seem quite formidable, but actually, you’re kind-hearted. How could you fight with people!”

The Seventh Prince turned his face away and said, “Don’t try to flatter me. I don’t fall for that. Even in fighting, I choose people. I’m a prince; I can’t fight with just anyone—that would be beneath me. I especially pick princes and nobles. Those junwang and beile, they hide when they see me. If they displease me, I’d grab the Third and give him a good beating too…” He turned his eyes back to look at him. “Shu’er, what’s wrong with me that you don’t choose me? The Twelfth Prince can’t hear with his ears. If you have any whispers, how troublesome would it be to tell him? Haven’t you thought about this?”

She lowered her head and said, “The Twelfth Prince can see. I face him when I speak, and he understands everything.”

“Is that all you rely on? That’s not reliable. What if one day his eyes don’t work well either? What would be left between you and him?”

She was silent for a moment, then sighed long. “If that were the case, I wouldn’t need to speak anymore—that would be convenient. My thoughts have never been important. As long as he can speak and I can listen, that’s enough.”

The Seventh Prince felt a mixture of emotions. “Are you stupid? Do you like him that much? You would still like him if he were both deaf and mute?”

Some feelings can’t be explained clearly. The parts that others find unappealing, she likes them all. In her eyes, the Twelfth Prince was flawless. His hearing impairment didn’t detract from his value; instead, it made her heart ache for him even more. In a relationship, simply being madly in love won’t last long. There needs to be something that moves you, that places him in your heart for a lifetime.

As for the Seventh Prince, it was largely due to a momentary impulse. Once the excitement passed and he let go, he might not even remember her name. So for now, she tried to navigate cautiously, avoiding words that might hurt him. After all, he had good feelings toward her, though somewhat blindly, which couldn’t be considered a sin.

“One day when you meet such a person, you’ll understand,” she smiled. “I like the Twelfth Prince and am grateful to the Seventh Prince. Both of you are important people to me, but you’re placed differently—the Twelfth Prince is in my heart, while you are in my mind.”

Why? Why must the Twelfth Prince be in her heart? What did being in the mind mean? When he considered harming someone, he thought about it in his mind too. The mind is spacious—anyone can enter. The heart is different; it can only hold one person, and it isn’t holding him.

He wasn’t convinced, squinting as he said, “How do you know I haven’t met that person? You say the Twelfth Prince is good, but right now I have you locked in my room. You could shout until your voice breaks, and he wouldn’t hear, nor could he come to save you. What’s good about that?”

Put, it was indeed a shortcoming, but once someone is determined, it seems nothing is a problem. She murmured, “I just feel he’s good. I can’t explain it, but he just is.”

The Seventh Prince was so frustrated his teeth itched. Just good? When real trouble comes, let’s see what good there is! With his teeth slightly misaligned, a plan formed in his mind. He slapped the table and said, “I’ve figured it out. Later, I’ll go find him for a duel—best two out of three. Whoever wins gets you. Is this idea fair?”

Ding Yi frowned slightly. “Why would you do that? Look at you, running just a few steps makes your legs tremble and your body shake…”

He was undeterred. “Don’t underestimate me. I’ve never lost a fight. Look, I have a whorl on my eyebrow. This whorl is powerful—General Guan also had one. It’s the mark of a great general!”

She didn’t quite believe it. She knew about double or single whorls on the top of the head but had never heard of whorls in the eyebrows.

The Seventh Prince, seeing her expression, seized the opportunity and moved closer, pointing to his eyebrow. “Don’t believe it? Come look, it’s perfectly formed.” She was truly simple-minded, actually stretching her neck to look. Unexpectedly, the Seventh Prince had set a trap and immediately grabbed her arm, mocking her, “Caught you! Now let’s see where you can escape to!”

Ding Yi was shocked and frightened. By the time she reacted, it was too late. The Seventh Prince was humorous; she had never felt he was dangerous until she fell into his hands and truly knew fear. She resisted, unwilling to move, but his strength was great. He pinched her arm and dragged her toward the inner chamber, like dragging a sack of rice he had picked up. She began to cry, calling for help in a shrill voice, but all around were people from the Xian Prince’s household. As long as the voice wasn’t the Seventh Prince’s, even if someone’s brains were beaten to dog brains, no one would care.

The Seventh Prince threw her onto the kang bed. Without bedding, the edge of the kang was hard, leaving her dazed from the impact. The Seventh Prince’s eyes had reddened. Dishes arranged on a plate—when would chopsticks not move toward them? It seemed her heart couldn’t be won back, so he might as well strike first. Once she truly became his, the Twelfth Prince could regret all he wanted, but it would be too late.

Gritting his teeth, he hardened his heart. No amount of crying or fussing would shake his resolve. He pinned down both her hands, freeing himself to undo her buttons. The guards all wore split-collared short jackets—just a rightward fold covered everything, but once opened, it revealed a large area. The short jacket had many frog closures, and he became a bit impatient. With a forceful tug, the buttonhole didn’t open, but the fabric tore. The silk cotton from the padded jacket spilled out, revealing the undergarment beneath.

Ding Yi screamed until her voice broke. If this continued, it would be disastrous—one step further and her true identity would be exposed. She cried, begging him, “Master, please pity me. I have no father or mother. How could I live after this? You are a kind person, with a bodhisattva’s heart. Spare me this time, and I will serve you with my life to repay you…”

The Seventh Prince said nothing. He knew about her background—her family was indeed gone; she was a pitiful person. Being pitiful, when given an opportunity, she should strive to climb upward. Wasn’t every prince a prince? Why be so picky? He paused his actions and wiped her tears. “How could I not pity you? Why don’t you obey? The Twelfth Prince’s feelings for you are genuine, but how do you know mine aren’t? Don’t look at my improper behavior; actually, people like me are the most devoted. The Twelfth Prince has weathered storms and knows how to seek fortune and avoid calamity. Who knows, one day he might come to his senses and abandon you. I’m different. A rabbit doesn’t eat grass at the edge of its burrow. Since I’ve touched you, I plan to take responsibility for you for a lifetime. What are you afraid of?”

Her face was covered in tears. Both her hands were restrained by him, unable to move. She could only beg him, “Then please release me first. The more you do this, the more afraid I am of you.”

The Seventh Prince had hit a sore spot and sneered, “A forced melon isn’t sweet? I only know that uncooked rice must be cooked into cooked rice, and once cooked, it can’t run away.”

His anger surged like a mountain. What barrier could that layer of undergarment provide? With a wave of his hand, the two clothing bands were easily snapped. He thought this would finally reveal what was inside, but taking a close look, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him—why was there still more? A three-inch-wide cloth band was firmly binding the area above the navel, bound so tightly that the curves were tense. He stared in astonishment, his mind buzzing. “You…”

Before he could finish speaking, the door was kicked open with a bang. Hong Ce entered with a flushed face, grabbed him off the kang, and pushed him, causing him to stagger. He pulled a blanket to wrap around the person, then turned to glare at him with eyes that seemed ready to devour him alive.

The Seventh Prince was still in a daze, standing there stunned. The scene from moments ago flashed repeatedly before his eyes—Mu Xiao Shu with a bound chest… Why was he binding his chest? Binding it to look like a rice dumpling with an exploded waist… He had large breasts!

Could it be that she was a woman? The Seventh Prince felt dizzy, his feet swaying, almost losing balance. A woman? The person had been before him for several months, and he hadn’t discovered it.

The Twelfth Prince was shouting at him, looking like a madman. He only saw his mouth opening and closing; not a word entered his ears. Slowly turning his head, he asked, “Shu’er… what’s going on with you?”

Ding Yi hated him to death, buried in the Twelfth Prince’s arms, sobbing loudly. She felt she could never face anyone again. Last time, she had only been grabbed a few times; this time, she had been almost completely stripped.

The Seventh Prince had caused trouble. Looking both timid and terrified, he stammered, “I didn’t know… If I had known, even if killed, I wouldn’t have done such a thing…”

Hong Ce was no longer the refined and elegant person he usually was. His ferocious expression was truly frightening. Holding her in his arms, he said with severe countenance and tone, “She’s my person. From now on, you’re not allowed to touch her with even a finger. If there’s a next time, I will kill you!”

They left, leaving the Seventh Prince and Jin staring at each other. Jin trembled as he said, “The Twelfth Prince must be possessed, sweeping in like a gust of wind, knocking down everyone outside… Looking at all this time, how come you still hadn’t succeeded!”

The Seventh Prince was on the verge of tears. “Jin, I didn’t labor in vain this time. I saw everything. It turns out Mu Xiao Shu… she’s a woman!”