Chi Can’s smile faded slightly as he said lazily: “I suppose so. Yang Er has left, and Shao Tingyuan has left too. It’s rather boring for a while. Keep me company for a drink.”

Qiao Zhao hesitated briefly before agreeing, but said: “Let me talk to Wanwan first.”

Chi Can looked at Qiao Zhao with surprise for a moment, then said with amusement: “You really do love the house along with its crow. Go quickly and coax the child then.”

Qiao Zhao went to see Qiao Wan.

Seeing Qiao Zhao, Qiao Wan, who had been waiting at the door, hurried forward with an anxious expression: “Sister Li, has my brother-in-law come out?”

Qiao Zhao smiled and said, “He has come out.”

“That’s wonderful.” Qiao Wan lifted her skirt and spun in a circle. Remembering she should be a proper lady, she immediately stopped and tried to contain her joy as she stood on tiptoe to look around: “Where is brother-in-law? Why didn’t he return with Sister Li?”

“Your brother-in-law has gone to war.”

“To war?” Qiao Wan blinked. “Is he going to fight the Tartars?”

Qiao Zhao led Qiao Wan to sit at the stone table in the courtyard and explained gently: “Yes, the Tartars have come to our Great Liang to steal things again, so we must drive them out.”

She had expected Qiao Wan to cry, but unexpectedly the little girl nodded vigorously: “Brother-in-law is the best! He’ll drive those bad people away. Sister Li, yesterday, while reading, I encountered a problem I couldn’t understand. Can you teach me?”

“Of course.”

Qiao Zhao accompanied Qiao Wan in reading for nearly an hour. Only after the little girl put down her book and fell asleep did she return to the front hall of the marquis’s residence.

Chi Can had also fallen asleep while waiting.

He sat in the chair with one hand supporting his cheek, his face showing slight fatigue. Unlike his usual carefree manner of laughing, cursing, and acting as he pleased, his slightly furrowed brow seemed to reveal infinite worries.

Qiao Zhao stood before him, momentarily uncertain whether she should wake him.

But Chi Can seemed to sense someone’s presence and opened those incomparably brilliant eyes.

“If you hadn’t returned, my hair would have turned white from waiting.” His lazy voice sounded, and that man, heavy with worries, seemed as if he had never appeared.

Qiao Zhao naturally wouldn’t expose this, smiling: “Didn’t you say we should drink?”

Chi Can stood up: “Let’s go to the pavilion in the courtyard. It’s stuffy inside the room.”

The two sat down in the pavilion. A white jade wine pot and two cups of the same material were placed between them.

One pot of wine was drained, though Qiao Zhao had drunk little—most had gone into Chi Can’s stomach.

His cheeks were flushed red with the effects of alcohol. He instructed the servant Taosheng to bring more wine.

“Elder Brother Chi, don’t drink anymore.”

Chi Can raised an eyebrow and looked at Qiao Zhao with a half-smile: “What, are you already exercising the rights of the marquis’s wife, stopping guests from drinking?”

Qiao Zhao was choked speechless and pressed her lips together.

She wouldn’t argue with a drunkard, especially one with troubles on his mind.

Chi Can looked at the composed young woman and suddenly smiled: “Fine, no drinking. Let’s play chess instead.”

Qiao Zhao took the wine pot from Taosheng’s hands and pushed it toward Chi Can: “Let’s drink instead.”

Chi Can: “…” This chess master was being looked down upon?

Cup after cup of wine went down. Qiao Zhao silently refilled Chi Can’s cup without further persuasion.

Soon, three or four empty wine pots appeared on the stone table. The wine’s fragrance drifted from the pavilion, and the fish hiding at the bottom of the lake seemed to smell the aroma and leaped out of the water.

Chi Can rested his cheek on his hand, his eyes rippling with light, startlingly bright.

He wasn’t looking at Qiao Zhao but staring blankly at the fish jumping from the lake surface outside the pavilion.

“Elder Brother Chi, has something happened to you?” Qiao Zhao finally asked.

“Something happened?” Chi Can tried hard to think, then shook his head: “No.”

Qiao Zhao thought he had nothing more to say, but Chi Can turned his head, his beautiful eyes slightly narrowed: “The one who encountered something was Shao Tingyuan.”

“But he’s fine now.” Qiao Zhao spoke calmly, though her heart stirred.

Chi Can’s strange behavior was related to Shao Mingyuan?

“Fine?” Chi Can’s voice rose slightly. “How is he fine? Uncle Emperor will settle accounts with him sooner or later.”

In being loyal to the sovereign and filial to parents, Shao Mingyuan had always been beyond reproach.

But as a good friend, he knew clearly that Shao Mingyuan was not one for blind loyalty or blind filial piety.

When that day came, he could be certain that with Third Miss Li by his side, his friend would not sit and wait for death.

How troubling it was. When the time came to help Shao Mingyuan overthrow Uncle Emperor, Mother would surely kill him, wouldn’t she?

Chi Can drained another cup of wine and finally couldn’t hold up anymore, collapsing on the stone table and falling asleep.

“Help your young master to the guest room. I’ll go make sobering soup for him.”

Qiao Zhao added a medicinal ingredient to the sobering soup. After Taosheng helped Chi Can drink it, he woke up in just an hour.

“Young Master, you’re awake?”

Chi Can sat up and looked down, discovering that his clothes had been changed. He looked suspiciously at the properly dressed Taosheng: “Where is this?”

“This is Marquis Guanjun’s residence. You were drinking with Miss Li—”

Before Taosheng could finish, Chi Can remembered and grabbed Taosheng’s wrist: “What happened then?”

“Then?” Taosheng blinked. “Then you got drunk.”

“Did I—”

Taosheng quickly waved his hands with a smile: “No, no! How could Young Master be someone who acts improperly when drunk?”

“Get lost!” Chi Can knocked Taosheng’s forehead once and asked with a serious expression: “Did I say anything I shouldn’t have?”

“You didn’t.”

Chi Can relaxed slightly and rubbed his temples: “This time being drunk didn’t give me a headache.”

“Miss Li personally made the sobering soup.”

Chi Can was stunned for a moment, then got up from the bed: “Where is Miss Li?”

“Miss Li has already returned home.”

“Oh, then we should go back too.”

When Chi Can and his servant returned to Princess Changrong’s residence, a servant reminded him: “Young Master, Princess Changrong requests that you go see her as soon as you return.”

“I understand. I’ll go after changing clothes.”

Though Chi Can had already changed clothes at Marquis Guanjun’s residence, the smell of alcohol couldn’t be concealed. He hurriedly bathed and changed into casual clothes before going to Princess Changrong’s quarters.

Though early summer had not yet arrived, Princess Changrong had already changed into thin garments, looking like a woman in her twenties. Seeing Chi Can enter, her powdered face showed slight anger: “Where did you go?”

Chi Can smiled: “I’m not a child anymore. Must I report to Mother everywhere I go?”

Princess Changrong snorted coldly: “Did you go see off Marquis Guanjun?”

“Since Mother already knows, why ask?” Chi Can adopted a tone of complete indifference.

“Didn’t I tell you not to get too close to Marquis Guanjun in the future?”

Seeing Chi Can remain silent, Princess Changrong’s expression grew colder: “Don’t tell me you want to cause trouble for your uncle?”

Chi Can was silent for a long while, then suddenly smiled: “If Mother wants me to break off relations with Marquis Guanjun, that’s fine.”

Princess Changrong stared at Chi Can, seemingly trying to figure out his intention in saying this.

“Speak up. What are your plans?”

Was he trying to negotiate with her?

“I’m coming of age this year. I don’t want to continue idling like this. I want to ask Mother to find me a position to do.”

“Previously, you wanted to join the Imperial Guard, but quit after just a few months. What do you want to do now?”