But some people couldn’t be judged by common reasoning. Song Yan looked at his sister with some concern. After hesitating for a long time, he finally voiced his doubt. “In the past when you mentioned marriage, you always weighed it out in terms of value and importance, as if you were certain you wouldn’t invest genuine feelings or fall in love with someone.” He thought for a while about his wording before continuing, “But just because His Highness the Grand Prince jumped into the water to save you at Tianshui Town, you suddenly changed your mind. Sister, you must understand that people can change. When Mother first married over, I heard Father treated her like a precious pearl and jade too. I’m not asking you to give up on His Highness the Grand Prince based on the Crown Prince’s attitude. I only hope you can be more rational, at least as clearheaded as before.”
Otherwise, one day, after giving everything, after accompanying the Grand Prince through the most difficult days, only to be betrayed—that would truly be despairing.
Outside the room, the sun gradually sank westward, its lingering rays spilling through the window frames and coating them with a layer of pale golden yellow. Song Chuyi met Song Yan’s gaze and smiled slowly. “I used to worry about this even more than you. As you said, back then I was already prepared to weigh out my marriage to a suitable price and spend this life that way. But after going from Yangquan to Jinzhong to Tianshui Town, I suddenly understood something. As Grandmother and Maternal Grandmother said, if I truly spend my whole life living according to my own calculations, what difference would that be from the life I lived in my dream? The only difference would be that I learned to be smarter, experienced more, and gained heavier schemes to deal with men. Living this way, perhaps no one could hurt me, but equally, I wouldn’t gain anything either. So from the moment the Grand Prince jumped down from the boat to save me despite his injuries, I suddenly understood. The best kind of love is two people keeping each other company—no restraints, no entanglement, no possession, no desire to dig out intentions from the other person. Rather, it should be two people standing side by side together, experiencing this world’s warmth and cold together. I can’t have that dream again, and I can’t start over again. So between my dream and now, I should at least once, occasionally believe in the eternal devotion that the plays talk about.”
Song Yan’s eyes grew somewhat sore from her words. He thought of before departing from Jinzhong for Jinling, when his maternal grandmother had pulled his hand and said her only worry was Song Chuyi’s destiny, saying Song Chuyi was truly too intelligent, and overly intelligent people always had difficulty being that happy. She had also said that muddleheadedness was a blessing, that suffering losses was a blessing. At the time he hadn’t really understood, and even now he still didn’t quite comprehend, but there was one thing he did understand—Song Chuyi had mustered all her courage to trust Zhou Weizhao. He stared fixedly at his sister. After holding back for a long time, when he finally spoke, his voice still carried some choking emotion. “Yes, you’re right. One should be willful at least once. Even if it doesn’t succeed, you still have me.”
Song Chuyi knew the weight of these words. She thought again of Song Yan’s blood-red eyes in her previous life. She reached out to grasp his hand, as if making a promise both to herself and to him. “There won’t be such a day. There absolutely won’t be such a day.”
She had worked so hard to be able to trust someone, to dare to confidently entrust the remainder of her life into his hands. If this life still ended as miserably as the previous one, then she deserved it. But in this life, she was at least more capable than in the previous one. The people she wanted to protect would definitely not meet the same fate as in the previous life.
On the other side, Zhen De stood before the Crown Prince with a somewhat pale face alongside the eldest master of the Wei family, so frightened his legs were trembling. He hesitated for a while, exchanged glances with Master Wei for a moment, then raised his head to look at the Crown Prince. “This isn’t quite appropriate, is it? Why not think of another method? Achieving a marriage isn’t easy, but ruining someone’s good fortune is much easier. There’s no need to use such a mutually destructive method, is there?” As he spoke, he kept signaling with his eyes toward Master Wei.
Master Wei was also shocked speechless by the Crown Prince for quite a while. Seeing Zhen De signaling to him, he quickly nodded along. “Your Highness, Lord Zhen makes sense. Isn’t this also too… too risky?”
He had originally wanted to say, wasn’t it too unconscionable—after all, Song Chuyi was the Crown Prince’s future daughter-in-law. Wasn’t striking so viciously too sensational? But he shuddered and suddenly realized that the one speaking and giving orders before him was the Crown Prince. The words at his lips immediately changed direction. “Moreover, the Song family isn’t easy to deal with.” The lesson of his wife being reprimanded by an edict from the Empress immediately after spreading rumors about Sixth Miss Song was still vivid in his memory.
The Crown Prince glanced sideways at Master Wei, lowered his head to toy with his fingers, and made a playful sound of acknowledgment. “I didn’t know you two were such kindhearted, soft-hearted living Bodhisattvas.”
Cold sweat from Zhen De’s forehead dripped down along his nose. Like a startled bird, he sprang up and shook his head as if his rear was on fire. “Your Highness, that’s not what we meant. It’s just that His Highness the Grand Prince is after all your legitimate son. For you to do this…”
The Crown Prince’s gaze toward him became even more bone-chilling. He coldly swept over the two of them from head to toe, only speaking with a cold laugh after rendering them speechless. “My eyes haven’t grown dim yet. Do I need you to remind me that he’s my son?”
Zhen De’s hand hidden in his wide sleeves clenched tightly into a fist. He felt he couldn’t keep up with the Crown Prince’s thinking. For no good reason, why must he make things difficult for his own future daughter-in-law? His Highness the Grand Prince was so accomplished—if he had such a son who brought honor before the old master and was liked by the old master, he’d be overjoyed. Yet the Crown Prince seemed possessed or something, insisting on making things difficult for them. Before, when it wasn’t brought into the open, that was one thing, but now he openly wanted to harm his son—actually wanted to strike at Song Chuyi to prevent this marriage from succeeding. What on earth was the Crown Prince thinking? He truly couldn’t figure it out.
The Crown Prince paused, his tone suddenly becoming sharp. “I don’t like that calamity star Song Sixth Miss, yet Weizhao’s heart is perversely bewitched and he insists on having only her. Someone like her who can bewitch people’s hearts so before even marrying—how could such an evil creature be fit to be Crown Princess?”
Master Wei opened his mouth, scratched his head, and said nothing—his wife had gotten into trouble precisely because she spread word that Song Sixth Miss was an evil creature, and the Empress herself had issued an edict saying Madam Wei was spreading demon talk to confuse the masses. Now the Crown Prince was also saying this. He was quite puzzled, but the Crown Prince’s meaning now was abundantly clear. He had made up his mind not to have Miss Song Sixth as his daughter-in-law. After pondering for a moment, he ultimately didn’t speak.