“I saw you yesterday,” Princess Zhenzhen reached out to pick a bodhi leaf, casually twirling it in her fingers, “on the street.”

“Oh.” Qiao Zhao didn’t quite understand what Princess Zhenzhen meant by this.

“What exactly is your relationship with my cousin?” Seeing Qiao Zhao’s indifferent tone, Princess Zhenzhen became somewhat annoyed. She threw the crushed leaf to the ground and stared at her intently, “Don’t treat me like a fool. Given my cousin’s temperament, if it were just curiosity about the temple fair performance of retrieving money from hot oil, he couldn’t possibly be so warm toward you.”

More than warm—in all these years, Cousin Chi had hardly ever spoken properly with any girl. Yesterday, at the city gate, it almost made her think she was seeing things.

That worried yet helpless expression, still unable to harden his heart even when angered—could that be her sharp-tongued, arrogant cousin?

“Say something! Are you feeling guilty? Hmm?” Princess Zhenzhen drew out her tone.

Qiao Zhao smiled: “This subject doesn’t know that these things needed to be reported to Your Highness.”

Princess Zhenzhen was choked speechless for a moment, then her face suddenly darkened: “How dare you! I’m asking you a question—what kind of attitude is this?”

Qiao Zhao restrained her smile and answered properly: “This subject and Young Master Chi are… friends, I suppose.”

“Friends?” Princess Zhenzhen didn’t believe it, stepping forward closer to Qiao Zhao, “How is that possible? My cousin would be friends with you? Who do you think you are?”

Someone like Chi Can didn’t even regard her, a princess, seriously. How could he possibly be friends with this girl?

“It couldn’t be that Young Master Chi is infatuated with this subject’s beauty, could it?” Qiao Zhao asked in return.

“You?” Princess Zhenzhen was not only not angry but laughed instead, “Don’t be ridiculous. If it came down to beauty, my cousin wouldn’t look at you twice.”

She was much prettier than this girl. Since her cousin remained indifferent toward her, how could he treat this not-yet-grown girl differently because of her beauty?

“Then this subject doesn’t know. If Your Highness wants to know, why not ask Young Master Chi directly?”

Ask her cousin? She wouldn’t invite such embarrassment!

“In any case, behave yourself from now on and don’t use any schemes!” Princess Zhenzhen warned.

She couldn’t forget how unnaturally strange this girl was.

“This subject understands,” Qiao Zhao said lightly.

“Let me ask you, that oil pot money retrieval we saw at the temple fair that day—what was going on?” Although Princess Zhenzhen was quite annoyed with Qiao Zhao, she couldn’t help asking this question that had troubled her for days.

“Because there was vinegar under the oil.” Qiao Zhao explained the reason to Princess Zhenzhen.

This was the frustrating thing—sometimes identity meant nothing, but without identity, nothing was possible.

Like now, she needed the identity of Li Zhao, daughter of the Hanlin Academy editor, but with this identity, she couldn’t avoid bowing her head to a princess.

Perhaps she should make herself a more important person, like Grandfather Li…

This thought suddenly surfaced in Qiao Zhao’s mind, then was suppressed again.

“Then why didn’t you expose that swindler?” Princess Zhenzhen asked after listening.

It was a deceptive trick—those fraudsters were truly detestable.

The young lady’s tone was indifferent: “It’s just making a living. The willing take the bait—why ruin someone’s livelihood?”

Princess Zhenzhen was stunned.

She wanted to argue back, but somehow felt the young lady’s words made some sense, making her, as a princess, seem aggressive instead. She swallowed the words that had reached her lips.

At this moment, the nun Jingxi approached, pressing her palms together in greeting to both: “Benefactors, Master says the weather looks bad and it may rain. She asks you to return home early.”

She handed each of them an umbrella as she spoke.

Qiao Zhao and Princess Zhenzhen each took one and bid farewell to Jingxi.

The two left Shuying Nunnery, and after descending the mountain, each boarded their carriage.

Today wasn’t any special day, and with the overcast sky, there were few people on the road—only Princess Zhenzhen’s and Qiao Zhao’s carriages traveling one after the other.

Princess Zhenzhen’s carriage moved quickly and soon disappeared from view.

Binglu kept watching the sky, repeatedly urging the coachman: “Hurry up, it’s going to rain! Don’t you see the carriage that left with us? They’re already far ahead!”

The coachman smiled helplessly: “Miss, we can’t compare! What kind of horses are they using, and what kind do we have?”

The West Residence wasn’t well-off—they only kept one old coachman and one old horse.

Binglu couldn’t say much more, muttering reluctantly: “Fine, just go as fast as you can.”

She lowered the carriage curtain and pulled out winter melon candy from her purse to offer Qiao Zhao: “Miss, you haven’t eaten anything. Have some candy to fill your stomach. Our horse isn’t good—who knows when we’ll get home? We might get caught in the rain.”

Qiao Zhao took the winter melon candy, lifted the window curtain for a glance, and said lightly: “The rain is about to start.”

Binglu poked her head out to look, somewhat disbelieving: “Really? The sky has been overcast since early morning—maybe it’ll stay cloudy all day.”

“No, it will rain very soon.”

When Grandfather was still healthy, he enjoyed taking her and Grandmother on mountain and water excursions, paying close attention to weather changes. She naturally learned something from this.

Summer rain comes suddenly. Not long after Qiao Zhao spoke, a gust of wind suddenly arose, dark clouds rolled overhead, and heavy rain poured down.

The carriage curtains flapped back and forth as wind and rain surged inside.

Binglu frantically tried to hold down the curtains, but seeing no effect, simply blocked them with her body.

Qiao Zhao pulled her over: “Don’t bother. If it blows in, let it blow in. In rain like this, getting wet is inevitable.”

“I’m afraid Miss will catch a cold.”

“I won’t.” Qiao Zhao patted her arm and took out two pills from her pouch, swallowing one herself and giving the other to Binglu.

Binglu swallowed the pill and asked curiously: “Miss, what was that?”

Qiao Zhao smiled: “Something that will keep you from catching a cold.”

“So magical!” Binglu glanced at the pouch tied at Qiao Zhao’s waist.

That strange-looking pouch was still as ugly as ever, but since that day they went to the women’s academy, Miss seemed to carry it constantly. Who would have thought it contained such good things?

The pill had been sweet in her mouth, dissolving instantly, and now her stomach felt warm.

Miss was truly amazing, the little maid thought silently.

The rain grew heavier. Even riding in a carriage, they felt they could barely move forward, constantly jolting.

A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, followed immediately by rolling thunder.

The carriage struggled through the wind and rain for about a quarter of an hour before suddenly stopping.

“Old Uncle Qian, what’s wrong?” Binglu shouted.

“Third Miss, the road ahead is blocked—a tree has fallen across the road.” The coachman’s voice suddenly rose: “And it’s hit the carriage in front!”

“What?” Binglu was startled and quickly lifted the carriage door curtain.

Wind and rain struck her face. The little maid rubbed her eyes and stared ahead, her eyes widening at the scene before her.