Li Xuandu drove the carriage from the front, going quickly and smoothly. Inside the carriage behind, the Pu household’s little girl had burrowed into the thick outer cloak that still held the warmth of his body heat. Not only was she toasty warm — her nose was also filled with a faint fragrance of incense that belonged to him alone, and it smelled wonderful.

She buried her small face in it and drew two deep, satisfied breaths. Then she raised her head and saw that A’Ju was still staring at her anxiously, eyes all red, nearly in tears. She quickly scrambled out of A’Ju’s arms, wrapped both small arms around her neck, and whispered in her ear: “Nurse, I’m better now — the pain is all gone, don’t worry!” Afraid A’Ju wouldn’t believe her, she grabbed A’Ju’s hand and pressed it down on her little belly, pushing firmly: “See? It doesn’t hurt! It really doesn’t hurt at all!”

A’Ju had truly been frightened half out of her wits just now. Seeing her suddenly recovered, she was both relieved and delighted, but still a little uneasy. She gently pressed the girl’s little belly herself, testing it.

She really didn’t cry out in pain this time. Her little cheeks looked rosy and flushed, and apart from the bitten lip, she did seem to be perfectly fine. Only then did A’Ju let out a long breath of relief, pulled her tightly into her arms, and patted her on the back to comfort her.

Pu Zhu knew she had frightened A’Ju and felt a little guilty about it.

But there was truly nothing else she could have done. In a situation like that, if she hadn’t pulled that stunt, that little fool Li Xuandu would certainly have been led away by the Xiao family.

She stuck out the tip of her small tongue and carefully licked her lip.

Her stomach didn’t hurt — but her mouth… it hurt so much… it was still burning hot and painful now!

A person in real abdominal pain would have gone pale as a sheet, breaking out in cold sweats.

She couldn’t fake that, and to cover for herself and achieve the goal of frightening him immediately, she’d had no choice but to inflict a little self-harm and draw a bit of blood.

The lengths she was willing to go to in order to protect him! In the future, once he was truly hers, he absolutely had to be twice as good to her to make up for today’s pain…

Lying in A’Ju’s arms with her eyes closed, Pu Zhu let her thoughts wander idly. Gradually, she heard the outside growing lively again, various sounds of noise and bustle reaching her ears — she knew they were nearly entering the city.

The gate warden of the western city knew Prince Qin very well indeed, but today seeing him actually serving as a coachman, personally driving a small canopied carriage into the city, the warden was astonished — yet dared not ask questions, and immediately let them through.

Pu Zhu lifted a corner of the curtain and glanced outside. The carriage was not heading in the direction of her own home; she knew he was taking her to see a physician.

She absolutely could not go.

If she went, wouldn’t she be exposed on the spot?

She pushed open the carriage door and called out to his back as he drove: “Your Highness, where are we going?”

“Bear with it a little longer. I’m taking you to a physician’s home — we’ll be there very soon!”

He gave her a word of reassurance without turning his head.

“…But I’m not in pain anymore. I’m all better! There’s no need to go! Your Highness, please take me home — I want to go home!”

Li Xuandu pulled the carriage to the side of the road, stepped down from the driver’s bench, and glanced at her, then asked A’Ju: “Is she really better?”

A’Ju nodded.

Pu Zhu saw him look her over once more, eyes traveling up and down, and quickly straightened up and puffed out her small chest.

“I really am better — not even a little bit of pain! I think I must have gotten chilled earlier, and once Your Highness lent me your cloak, my stomachache went away!”

She finished speaking, saw he was still thinking it over, and began to wheedle: “I haven’t seen Mother all day. I miss Mother. I want to go home…”

Pu Zhu had assumed he would agree, but to her surprise he paid no attention to her whatsoever, and simply told A’Ju: “Her abdominal pain symptoms may have passed, but there could be an underlying condition. It would be better to have a physician take a look. This physician is skilled at treating children’s ailments, and his home is not far from here. He is not on duty at the palace today and should be at home. It won’t take long to go.” With that he closed the carriage door and continued driving forward.

A’Ju thought the Fourth Prince was young but remarkably thoughtful, and felt deeply grateful to him. Pu Zhu, however, was completely at a loss.

The physician he mentioned — skilled in children’s ailments, living near the western gate — she knew exactly who that would be. It had to be Physician Lin.

Physician Lin was widely regarded as a master of his craft, extraordinarily skilled, and especially renowned for treating all manner of difficult and complicated children’s ailments.

If she ended up in his hands, one examination would expose everything.

She absolutely was not going to see the physician!

“I’m not going! I’m really better! It’s dark already — I want to go home!”

Pu Zhu panicked and quickly pushed open the carriage door again, poking her head out to shout at his back.

A’Ju was afraid she’d fall out, and hurriedly pulled her back, holding her snugly and coaxing her without pause. Li Xuandu paid her words even less heed, heading straight to the physician’s home. After passing through two streets, they arrived at Physician Lin’s residence.

They turned into the alley. The one at the end with a lantern hanging by the door — that was it.

The alley was narrow; the carriage could not enter, and stopped outside.

A’Ju stepped down from the carriage, stood on the ground, and moved to help the young mistress down.

Pu Zhu gripped the carriage door with both hands and braced her feet hard against the frame, refusing to get down.

She stole a glance at Li Xuandu.

He stood to one side watching her, wearing an expression of impatience once again.

What to do? What to do?

Should she just brazen it out and go in, then insist that the stomachache had come on inexplicably and gone away on its own?

Could she fool the seasoned and experienced Physician Lin?

Could she fool Li Xuandu once he regained his wits and thought it over?

After all, right before his eyes, she had been in enough pain to bite her own lip until it bled.

She regretted it — she should not have been so vicious toward herself. If she’d only told him she had a stomachache without the dramatics, he probably would have believed her anyway and wouldn’t have gone off with the Xiao family. That way, she wouldn’t be in this impossible position right now.

It was because she’d been too anxious at the time, too set on stopping him from going to the Xiao family’s villa, and had overplayed her hand so badly that even now saying it didn’t hurt was no use, and he’d still brought her here.

“…Oh oh oh… Nurse, I really am better… I don’t want to take medicine… I want to go home…”

Li Xuandu’s already meager reserves of patience had finally been utterly exhausted by the Pu household’s little girl.

He even wondered — if he couldn’t think of any reason why she would lie to him — whether the stomachache had been a fabrication all along.

All this crying and fussing and unreasonable behavior was giving him a splitting headache.

It wasn’t as though he had never seen children before — which child was anything like her?

She looked soft and pale and delicate, a little sprout of a thing, and yet she was this much trouble.

It seemed Pu Yuanqiao truly doted on his daughter — had absolutely spoiled her rotten…

Li Xuandu shook his head inwardly.

In any case, sick or not, he only wanted Physician Lin to take a quick look at her now so he could be sure she was fine, and once it was done, he could send her straight back to the Pu household and be rid of this unexpected nuisance that had clung to him all day.

He furrowed his brow, came over, moved A’Ju aside, gripped the girl with one hand, tucked her under his arm like a small chicken being carried off, and headed into the alley.

“No —”

Pu Zhu struggled with all her might in his grip.

Unfortunately her legs were too short to even reach the ground. She kicked furiously, and all she managed to do was kick off one of her little shoes.

Watching as he showed no sign of stopping and was about to carry her right up to the door at the end of the alley, Pu Zhu panicked: “Wait! I have something to say!”

Fine, fine.

Better to come clean on her own than to go in there and be found out, arousing his suspicion.

He stopped walking and looked down at her.

“Put me down first.”

He put her down.

Pu Zhu stood on the ground in her sock-clad little foot and said in a small voice: “If I tell you the truth, can you promise not to get angry…”

He narrowed his eyes.

This was bad!

From everything she knew of him, he was such a petty, ungenerous person — asking him not to get angry seemed highly unlikely to work…

Pu Zhu put on a miserable face, muttering, not daring to open her mouth.

A’Ju picked up the little shoe Pu Zhu had kicked off and hurried over to put it back on her.

Li Xuandu took it himself, picked the girl up again with one hand, walked back, and lifted her back into the carriage.

“The stomachache was faked?”

He fixed her with a stare as he asked.

Pu Zhu nodded timidly, her big eyes sneaking glances at him, not daring to breathe.

He seemed to choke on something, paused for a moment, and then knocked the little shoe against her head: “Well then! At such a young age, telling nothing but lies — you dare deceive me?”

He actually hit her on the head with her own shoe?

She had thought he was about to put it back on her foot for her.

She was, after all, a proper and respectable young lady of the Pu household.

Besides — if she hadn’t rescued him, how much longer could he have stayed so insufferably high and mighty? And he was about to get married — not just to one woman, but two at once!

Pu Zhu was immediately incensed. Puffed up with indignation, she snatched her shoe back from him in one swift motion and jammed it back on her own foot.

Li Xuandu was taken aback for a moment, then flicked at one of her little buns on top of her head: “Quite a temper for someone so small. Speak! Why did you deceive me?”

Thinking back to that moment when she had frightened him earlier, he felt a surge of irritation all over again.

This was truly a case of an old hand slipping up on an easy task — capsized in a shallow ditch. He had actually been run around in circles by a little girl.

He finished asking and saw the small girl say nothing at all, cheeks puffed out, glaring at him defiantly. An image of a tiny little frog suddenly surfaced in his mind, and his palm immediately began to itch. Unable to help himself, he reached out and poked her puffed cheek with his finger.

With a soft “puff,” the air deflated from the side of the little girl’s bloated cheek.

Li Xuandu couldn’t stop himself — he let out a snort of laughter, then shook his head.

Very well; why make a fuss with a little girl who had been thoroughly pampered by her family?

The important thing was that she was fine.

It was dark now — better to send her home quickly and put today’s business to rest.

He was just about to turn and call the Pu household’s mute A’Ju over to have her take the little girl into the carriage and watch over her, when he noticed the girl was still tilting her small face up, staring at his face without blinking, as though completely absorbed in looking at him. He involuntarily touched his own cheek.

“Why are you staring at me?”

In the end he couldn’t help asking.

Pu Zhu had been utterly dazzled by his laugh just now.

Truly dazzled.

Night had fully fallen and the streets on both sides glittered with flowing lamplight. Yet when he smiled like that, it was like a star falling from the sky, instantly blurring out every lamp and light in the human world.

In her eyes, there was only him.

Li Xuandu — he could only ever belong to her alone.

How could she bear to let another woman claim the name of his princess consort?

How could she bear to let someone like him live through a nightmare life all over again?

Hearing his question, Pu Zhu finally came back to herself.

She smiled at him again — a sweet, sweet smile.

“Prince Qin Brother, you look so wonderful — I like you so much!”

Li Xuandu was startled.

He was outstanding in appearance and of exalted status, and from childhood onward he had heard so much of this kind of praise about his looks and bearing that he was long since weary of it.

As for the admiring gazes from females around him in the palace and outside it, in all manner of settings — in recent years, as he had grown older, these had become a source of deep annoyance.

He had never expected that at this moment, he would hear such words of praise from this small girl’s mouth.

Not only praise — she was actually declaring outright that she liked him?

For the first and only time in his life, he did not find it tiresome. Not only not tiresome — he actually found it rather amusing. His heart even felt a small, private flicker of satisfaction.

He thought of how, that afternoon, she had hidden behind Pu Yuanqiao’s shoulder with only her two big eyes peeking out at him, and the corner of his mouth tugged into something between a smile and not a smile: “Oh? So you know what good-looking means, do you?”

“Mm-hmm!” Pu Zhu nodded vigorously.

“Prince Qin Brother, you are the best-looking brother I’ve ever seen! You are the most good-looking person in the whole world! I don’t have any brothers — will you be my brother? If you’re my brother now, when I grow up I’ll marry you and become your princess consort, alright?”

Prince Qin Brother?

Hearing it, it sounded rather pleasant, actually.

Li Xuandu hesitated for just a moment, then quickly made up his mind, permitting this small girl from the Pu household to address him in this way. He was just about to nod when, without warning, he heard her append another sentence: “Right now while I’m still small, you can be my Prince Qin Brother. But when I grow up, I’ll marry you. We’ll wed, and I’ll be your princess consort, alright?”

Li Xuandu nearly laughed out loud, quickly glanced back, saw that the Pu household’s A’Ju and his two attendants were standing behind, at some distance, and likely had not heard clearly. He hastily lowered his voice: “Just calling me Prince Qin Brother is fine. As for the rest — don’t talk such nonsense.” He finished speaking, only to see the little girl shaking her head and saying with great seriousness: “I mean it! It’s what I truly think! Prince Qin Brother, will you promise me?”

Li Xuandu was caught between tears and laughter. He thought of her name, which he had heard Pu Yuanqiao use that afternoon: “Your name is Shuzhu?”

She nodded.

“Very well, Shuzhu, let me ask you — do you know what getting married means?”

“Getting married means two people sleeping together while hugging a little lamb.”

She tilted her small face up and said it with complete seriousness.

“If Prince Qin Brother’s household doesn’t have a little lamb, we could raise a small lapdog instead, and sleep together hugging the dog. That would work too.”

She blinked her bright, shining eyes and added this additional clause.

Li Xuandu could no longer hold it in at all — he burst into great roars of laughter, laughing until tears nearly streamed from his eyes, drawing the attention of passersby who all turned to look.

Pu Zhu watched him laugh, and thought of Huaiwei in her heart.

Forgive me, sister-in-law — I’m borrowing your words just a little ahead of time. Don’t hold it against me.