How many people did the position of Zongzheng offend? Responsible for criminal judgments regarding the imperial clan, royal relatives, and civil and military officials, being unfair would result in impeachment by censors, while being too fair would earn the resentment of noble families. So for all these years, Shen Qiyuan neither married nor took concubines, just to avoid leaving any handle for others to grasp.

However, now, in front of Yuncheng, he extended his hand toward Ruyi, watching her walk toward him step by step, the sharpness in his eyes all melting into gentle water.

Their hands met, ripples spread across the water’s surface, bright and shimmering, stirring the heart.

“Thank you for the trouble, my lord.” He pulled Ruyi up onto the carriage shaft and nodded to Yuncheng.

Yuncheng smiled extremely cheerfully: “Not at all, not at all. Lord Shen, please.”

Both Zhao Yanning and Hua Fuman showed some shock on their faces, but given the current situation, it wasn’t appropriate to say much. They could only follow and board the carriage behind.

The carriage moved forward, its carved door blocking out the wind and snow from outside.

Shen Qiyuan raised his hand and brushed away a cluster of snow that had fallen on her hairpin, the warmth in his eyes already congealing back into ice: “I originally didn’t plan to come. Tingchuan took the wrong road.”

Ruyi grasped his moist fingertips, smiling as she said: “Still, thank you, my lord. If you hadn’t come today, I would have had to make trouble at the Yun Manor.”

Speaking of this, Shen Qiyuan was even more displeased: “Even staying overnight at his manor would have been fine. Why must you do such risky things? If you were recognized, even the demon-slaying platforms in the human world could take your life. Since you’re already in the human world, treat yourself as an ordinary person and don’t always show off.”

If it were someone else nagging like this, Ruyi would be annoyed, but somehow, watching him frown and lecture her so earnestly, she felt like laughing: “Lord Shen.”

“What?” He glanced sideways.

Ruyi reached out and touched his face: “How can an immortal fall so completely into a demon’s hands?”

His expression became even more unpleasant: “What nonsense are you spouting?”

“Isn’t your coming here because you want to protect me?” She chuckled, leaning back lazily. “Not hesitating to sacrifice your reputation to warn Yuncheng that he can’t touch me.”

“He couldn’t touch you anyway.”

“Yes, but he could make things difficult for Yanning, Fuman, and Tinglan.” Her pale finger pointed to her nose tip as Ruyi blinked. “And a foolish demon like me wouldn’t stand by and watch.”

His jaw tightened as Shen Qiyuan lowered his eyes.

“The murder case at the Yun Manor isn’t that simple. Since you’ve already gotten the silver and Yuncheng has gotten what he wanted, leave the rest to me.”

Ruyi was indifferent about this: “What Fuman and Yanning have is enough for you to decide the case. I only want to know one thing.”

“What?”

“If Great Qian and Great Xia were to have disputes again, would His Majesty be willing to send troops to fight?”

Shen Qiyuan shook his head with certainty.

Great Qian’s civilian trade was prosperous, but the national treasury was empty. It no longer had the strength to support war, and His Majesty had just ascended the throne with shallow foundations—he would never allow military generals to overshadow their master with great achievements.

“Even if it means ceding territory and paying indemnities?” Ruyi frowned.

“Even if it means ceding territory and paying indemnities.” He nodded.

The person before him fell silent, a trace of mockery between her brows.

Shen Qiyuan knew she had originally defended cities on horseback, so naturally, she would disdain cowardly avoidance of battle. But times were different now—fighting would inevitably cost lives, and surviving peacefully in the world was better.

Just as he was about to comfort her with a few words, who would have thought that as he leaned closer, he heard her muttering: “Then how can I fulfill Ah Jue’s wish?”

Shen Qiyuan: “…”

His gaze suddenly turned cold as he leaned back to his position and turned his head to the side.

Ruyi looked up and said with amusement, “Angry again.”

“You know how to keep him in your thoughts,” he sneered. “Today, it should have been him coming to the Yun Manor to pick you up.”

After a pause, the mockery in his eyes intensified: “But I forgot—he still has wedding preparations to make. He probably doesn’t have time.”

Bringing up this topic, Ruyi smiled: “My lord is so certain that he’ll accept the marriage you arranged for him?”

“It was decided in front of the Empress. If he wants to ruin it, he’ll have to sacrifice the futures of his clan peers of the same generation.” Shen Qiyuan half-closed his eyes. “With his character, he can’t do such a thing.”

Wei Zijue had yearned for family affection when he was a demon, and as a human, he valued family even more. Having known her for only a few days, how could that compare to over ten years of deep blood ties?

Ruyi nodded knowingly, her eyes full of twinkling laughter: “My lord calculated very well, but unfortunately, you never read his fortune. He has mourning duties at nineteen, so he won’t have any marriage fate for three years.”

Upon hearing this, Shen Qiyuan clenched his fists.

“You read his fortune?” His teeth clenched. “You used a hundred years of your cultivation to read his fortune?”

Human fate is determined by heaven. If demons want to interfere with divination, they must pay the price of a hundred years of cultivation. This price was too great—for thousands of years, not a single demon had been foolish enough to do so, leading people to believe that only immortals knew human destiny.

Shen Qiyuan was truly furious. He knew how torturous and difficult a hundred years of cultivation was, and thus also knew how much weight Wei Zijue held in Liu Ruyi’s heart.

He stood up and angrily pushed open the carriage door.

Wind mixed with snow swept in, filling his chest with ice-cold air. Ignoring the coachman’s alarmed cries outside, he stepped on the carriage shaft, wanting to get down.

A hand wrapped around him from behind, forcefully pulling him back into the carriage.

The carved carriage door closed, and Ruyi pressed him against it with a “slap,” her eyes deep, face to face with him: “Just now you were lecturing me about not showing off in the human world—would you be fine falling like that?”

He turned his head away, not looking at her, the arc of his profile exquisite, elegant, yet radiating intense anger: “It has nothing to do with you.”

“How does it have nothing to do with me?” She lowered her head and sniffed at his neck. “Every inch of my lord’s flesh concerns me.”

“…” He pushed her away and turned his back.

Ruyi blinked and poked her head around from his left side: “People living in this world face extraordinary hardships. He served me for several hundred years—it’s reasonable for me to read his fortune to help him avoid disaster, isn’t it?”

Shen Qiyuan turned his head to the right.

Ruyi followed, poking her head around from his right side: “This is his last lifetime as a human. If I don’t guide him toward divine cultivation now, he’ll become birds and beasts.”

Shen Qiyuan turned his head back to the left.

Ruyi sighed: “How can you be so unreasonable?”

“I’m just naturally unreasonable. If you want to be reasonable, go be reasonable with him.”

The carriage happened to stop in front of the Immortal Meeting Tavern. Shen Qiyuan opened the carriage door and, grabbing the back of her collar, mercilessly threw her down.

Ruyi landed lightly, and before she could speak after getting up, the carriage had already sped away. Even the snow water that splashed carried anger, soaking her shoe tips.

Tsk.

Looking at the darkened flying sparrow embroidery on her shoe tips, she shook her head helplessly: “Men are just so petty.”

In this world, there were plenty of men with three wives and four concubines, and households could even use jealousy as grounds for divorcing wives. She was merely interested in good-looking people—how had that become so heinously criminal?