At dawn the next day, the light was dim.

Ruyi was sleeping soundly under her covers when she suddenly heard someone shouting outside: “Proprietor, the carriage and horses are all ready. The Lord is waiting for you downstairs.”

She half-opened her eyes and stuck her index finger out from under the bedding to test the air.

The autumn air was bitterly cold, cold enough to freeze one’s bones.

She quickly withdrew her hand, turned over, wrapped herself tighter in the bedding, and continued sleeping.

However, she hadn’t slept long before someone came upstairs and said in a deep voice: “Get up. Grand Preceptor Liu’s manor has already sent people to search the city. The city gates don’t have sentries yet, but if we don’t leave now, it will be too late.”

She groaned and covered her ears: “Don’t make noise.”

The person by the bed was silent for a moment, as if he were laughing in exasperation, then turned and ordered: “Tell everyone downstairs to step aside.”

It seemed like Zhou Tingchuan responded from outside.

Ruyi didn’t care much and was about to drift back into dreamland when the next moment she was rolled up in her bedding and hoisted onto someone’s shoulder.

Normally in such situations, she would curse—disturbing someone’s sleep was like digging up their ancestral graves. Would this never end!

But Shen Qiyuan practiced martial arts year-round, had a stable foundation, and strong arms. Even carrying her on his shoulder while going downstairs, he didn’t jostle her at all.

Ruyi thought about it, swallowed back her curses, closed her eyes again, and let herself be stuffed into the carriage like a rolled pancake.

The carriage began moving.

After an unknown amount of time, she woke up. Pushing aside the bedding, she saw Shen Qiyuan sitting beside her, his brows dark with storm clouds, his thin lips pressed into a line.

Rolling her eyes, Ruyi immediately took the offensive: “The Lord’s conduct is becoming more and more outrageous.”

Shen Qiyuan looked at her coldly without speaking.

This person’s arrogance diminished a bit as she muttered vaguely: “I’m magnanimous and won’t hold it against you.”

Yesterday she had agreed so readily, but today she slept without a care—who should be holding grudges against whom?

He angrily turned his head away.

A small hand reached over and tugged at his trouser leg.

Shen Qiyuan glanced over impatiently to see her looking at him with innocent eyes: “I’m thirsty.”

Fine, so he had to serve her, too? Let her die of thirst—who cared?

Snorting coldly, he kicked the small tea cabinet beside him.

Ruyi sat up, wrapped in her bedding, opened the drawer, took out a pot of warm water, and drank directly from the spout. Some water spilled onto the front of her rose-colored jacket.

—At least she had changed clothes early on, so she hadn’t completely forgotten.

Shen Qiyuan’s anger subsided somewhat, his expression softening.

However, just as he was about to speak normally with her, she looked at her clothes with raised eyebrows: “Is the Lord somewhat disappointed?”

Shen Qiyuan’s jaw clenched again: “What nonsense are you spouting?”

He wasn’t that kind of dissolute scoundrel. Even if she had forgotten to change clothes, he would have found a way to prevent her from being improper—how could he have strange thoughts?

“Oh~” She smiled as she put down the teapot, “I thought this was the Lord’s usual method.”

“You’re not an ordinary woman, which is why I acted this way.” The person before her looked even more displeased as he tried to explain, “What usual method—how could I ever treat others like…”

“That is to say,” she interrupted him, eyebrows lazily raised, “in the Lord’s heart, I’m not someone else?”

How did the conversation turn to that?

Shen Qiyuan glared at her coldly: “You are someone else, even more of someone else than others.”

Ruyi clicked her tongue.

What a hard mouth—it would probably hurt to kiss.

She rummaged around left and right, pulled out a leather water pouch, used the water inside to wash up briefly, then gathered her black hair into a bun.

Shen Qiyuan saw her take the magpie-on-branch hairpin they had chosen together last time and insert it loosely at an angle.

“Did the Lord bring face powder?” She adjusted the hairpin and glanced sideways.

Shen Qiyuan: “…”

Why would a grown man carry face powder on him?

Reading the answer, Ruyi snorted lightly and said with some displeasure: “Dragging me out like this, I thought the Lord had prepared everything.”

She was the one who refused to get up, yet it became his fault?

“Of course it’s your fault.” She lifted her chin, unreasonable yet confident, “For a lady to go out without powder is no different from not wearing clothes.”

“Liu Ruyi.” He frowned.

How could these things be mentioned in the same breath?

“I don’t care.” She flicked her sleeves and dove unhappily into the bedding, saying in a muffled voice, “I want rouge and face powder, and fragrant cream and spiral eyebrow paint.”

“Unreasonable.”

“Waaah!”

Zhou Tingchuan sat on the carriage shaft outside, saying with mixed amusement and exasperation: “Since we’re passing by anyway, let’s go to the shop ahead and buy some for the young lady.”

“Little Lord is the best!” Her eyes lit up.

Shen Qiyuan was furious: “We need to leave the city and can’t delay even a moment. What kind of idea are you suggesting?”

Zhou Tingchuan shrank his shoulders and stopped talking.

Ruyi looked at him with grievance, just about to accuse him of having no humanity, when he produced a gauze hat from somewhere and put it on her head.

“Shut your mouth.”

“…Oh.”

She quieted down and obediently looked out the window.

It was fine when she wasn’t looking, but once she looked, she couldn’t help herself: “Where is this? It’s desolate.”

Having grown accustomed to the tall buildings and pavilions of Lin’an City, these thatched cottages naturally couldn’t catch her eye.

Shen Qiyuan said, “The border wars continue constantly with heavy casualties. His Majesty ordered the various departments in court to take responsibility for several hundred households of war orphans. Now that it’s cold, we need to bring them clothing and food.”

Ruyi pouted: “Why did you have to drag me along for this kind of thing?”

“Not enough manpower.”

What a terrible excuse, completely unconvincing.

Ruyi huffed: “My injuries haven’t healed yet. My hands and legs are weak—I can’t do heavy work.”

Shen Qiyuan ignored her.

The carriage soon arrived at a village. Before they even entered, they saw a group of children fighting at the village entrance.

From a distance, it looked like they were playing, but when they got closer, Ruyi saw an eight or nine-year-old girl beaten down by a group of boys and girls, unable to get up.

Her expression darkened. Without thinking, she got out of the carriage and pulled the little girl out from the crowd.

The group of children nearby bared their teeth and struck her legs with their hands. Each fist wasn’t large, but they hurt when used with force.

The purple-hatted guards behind came forward to drive these children away.

Ruyi looked down to see that the little girl in her arms had blood from her nose and mouth, her face pale green and white, already at death’s door.

She was somewhat angry: “They’re only a few years old—how did they already learn to bully people?”

Shen Qiyuan strolled up behind her, unsurprised: “This is a child who just lost her parents.”

“Huh?”

“The village has limited resources. A child who has just lost her parents has no one to depend on. As long as they beat her to death, the others can get more things.” He said, “Great Qian law doesn’t apply to those under ten years old. Having children, does it mean the adults won’t be guilty of crimes either?”

Ruyi fell silent, listening to this.

Everyone cursed demons for eating people, but clearly, humans in this world devoured no fewer people than demons did.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

She strode forward: “To find a doctor. If we don’t find a doctor for her condition, won’t she die?”

Flipping through the registry in his hands, Shen Qiyuan shook his head: “No need.”