This was truly being slapped in the face without being able to get angry at the person. With Sixth Miss Song being so straightforward and honest, the faint trace of anger that had risen in his heart quickly vanished without a trace. He wasn’t one of those gossipy women—surely he wouldn’t step forward to explain to Sixth Miss Song that whether one liked someone or not wasn’t important at all, that what mattered most was how the two families’ aligned interests could allow them to fight side by side in the future? That would be too much of an insult to his younger brother’s sincere feelings. Sixth Miss Song truly was a remarkable person.

He couldn’t help but smile. The last bit of grudge in his heart disappeared as well. He smiled at Song Chuyi: “Sixth Miss speaks so frankly that I have nothing more to say. I hope that foolish younger brother of mine comes to his senses soon.”

Ziyun and Qing Ying behind them nearly fainted from shock. They never imagined their young lady would be so bold as to directly speak of liking and not liking—these weren’t words a woman should say in front of others! Even young ladies who were engaged, when mentioning their future husbands, never spoke of liking or not liking.

The corners of Song Chuyi’s mouth lifted slightly. She had always been afraid of repeating her mistakes from her previous life, and very afraid of marriage. Marriage hadn’t brought her what she wanted—aside from injuries all over her body and a heart full of resentment, she had gained nothing. Before there was someone she was willing to gamble her future on, she didn’t want to think about these matters.

Now that she had spoken plainly, she felt much more relaxed overall. This was much better than the heavy burden she had carried that had nearly overwhelmed her under the continuous persuasions from Grandmother, Elder Sister, and Stepmother.

She handed the Qi-Nourishing Pills to Officiant Li and the others who had been in the adjacent room discussing prescriptions, then turned to enter Zhou Weizhao’s chamber.

When Zhou Weizhao saw her enter, the dimples on both his cheeks deepened as he broke into a brilliant smile. Qing Zhuo scratched his head, feeling that His Highness’s expression was somehow rather unsettling.

He voluntarily retreated outside, sitting leisurely with his legs crossed in the corridor watching the brazier. Han Feng came up carrying a quilt and, seeing him like this, stretched his head toward the inside: “Who came?”

The corners of Qing Zhuo’s mouth lifted with a bit of smugness: “Of course it’s Sixth Miss Song! Who else could make His Highness this happy?” He had said long ago that His Highness liked Sixth Miss Song, hadn’t he? If he didn’t like her, why would he keep reaching out to save her again and again? This time he had nearly even lost his life. It was just that His Highness was a bit slow—after all, he’d spent so long with Taoists, he couldn’t compare to those romantic young masters in the capital. But there were advantages to being a late bloomer too. He could see that Sixth Miss Song also hadn’t awakened to such feelings yet. These two people could slowly wear each other down, and feelings would gradually develop. Didn’t Master also say that good things take time?

Seeing the smile constantly playing at the corners of her mouth, Zhou Weizhao couldn’t help but smile too: “Why so happy? Did you find some silver?”

Just finding silver wouldn’t make her this happy. Song Chuyi gently shook her head: “No, I just ran into the Prince Consort.”

What was there to be happy about seeing Ye Jingkuan? Zhou Weizhao raised his eyebrows, thought for a moment, then asked: “Is it because of Second Young Master Ye’s matter?”

“Mm.” Song Chuyi looked at the several prescriptions on the round table, then turned her head to glance at Zhou Weizhao: “The Prince Consort asked me why I didn’t think favorably of the Ye family. I told him it wasn’t that I didn’t like the Ye family—I don’t like Second Young Master Ye and cannot delay him.”

The Zhennan Prince Manor wanted to marry her into their family not because she was so wonderful, but because Second Young Master Ye liked her. One couldn’t say they hadn’t considered the Song and Cui families behind her, but at least when rumors were flying everywhere, it was the Zhennan Prince Manor that had come to their residence without hesitation to clearly and openly deliver their message to Grandmother.

Since they could do this much, she didn’t want to carelessly brush them off in return.

“You really dare to say anything,” Zhou Weizhao laughed despite himself. “But speaking this way is good. The Prince Consort and the Prince are not rigid people. By being honest like this and not using talk of family elders and such to deflect, they’ll actually feel better about it.”

Officiant Li and Officiant Hu entered together, saying that these Qi-Nourishing Pills were extremely beneficial for Zhou Weizhao right now and could be used immediately. After he took them for a few more days and they had nourished his vital energy sufficiently, they would perform acupuncture with golden needles.

Song Chuyi lowered her eyes. Zhou Weizhao had been injured saving her. Every time she thought of this, she felt both panicked and guilty. That day, she had thought she would certainly die—her heart had nearly jumped out of her chest. When Zhou Weizhao reached out and grabbed her, she had actually wanted to cry.

Though she ultimately couldn’t cry later, that instantaneous feeling of seeing her savior was branded on her heart, making her restless and uneasy. She couldn’t say what exactly she was uneasy about. She only knew her heart was rarely beyond her control like this, when she had already been able to control her emotions quite well.

She hung her head lost in thought for a while. After Officiant Li and Officiant Hu left, she said to Zhou Weizhao in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s: “Thank you. If not for Your Highness this time, I’m afraid I truly would have lost my life.”

Zhou Weizhao saw the panic and unease in her eyes and slowly shook his head. When he had raised cats, it had been the same way. If he got too close too quickly, the cats that had been injured before would dart far away. If he moved their den even just to relocate it to a better spot, they would go find another place to nest. The Song Chuyi before him now wasn’t much different from that cat he’d had on Longhu Mountain. They even looked similar—when they stared at you with those two watery eyes, you couldn’t muster any temper at all.

He laughed once: “The Prince Consort came to see me too. He asked me what I planned to do about this matter.”

Talking about serious business, Song Chuyi relaxed. She looked at Zhou Weizhao, and the eyes that had just been especially clear from guilt now took on a trace of ruthlessness: “Though we can’t do much openly, making them shed a layer of skin is still achievable.”

She looked exactly like a fox that had bared its claws and fangs. Zhou Weizhao looked at her thoughtfully, his heart turning soft as mush. This young lady didn’t seem to have noticed yet—in the past when encountering such matters, she would lower her eyes and say everything was up to His Highness to decide, that as long as His Highness needed help, the Song family would certainly do their utmost to assist.

Though even then she had been sincere in wanting to help him, there had always been a bit of a retreat path, a bit of reservation, deeply drawing an invisible line between them that prevented closeness.

But now she no longer spoke of the Song family. She straightforwardly said she wanted to make those people shed a layer of skin, her eyes containing undisguisable anger. This anger—perhaps she herself hadn’t yet realized—was not for her own sake.