It is natural for a grown man to marry, just as it is natural for a grown woman to wed. Though Yanu’s face had been disfigured, he was in truth not old at all.

Feng Jiu’er still dimly recalled that when she was young, Yanu had been nothing more than a youth himself.

Though Yanu never spoke of his age, judging from what little fragmentary memory she possessed, the Yanu of today ought to be a young man somewhere around twenty years old.

My, what a tender age!

Unexpectedly, upon hearing her words, the cup that Yanu had been raising to his lips landed on the table with a resounding clatter.

Tea splattered everywhere, even splashing onto Feng Jiu’er’s sleeve.

“Yanu!” Jiu’er was startled and jumped back hastily.

Yanu leapt to his feet, produced a cleaning cloth from somewhere with lightning speed, and wiped the tea away in an instant.

Just as Jiu’er was about to say something to him, he turned on his heel and walked out, his face cold.

He had actually… walked away with a cold, expressionless face — a face that was clearly… displeased?

My, this was the first time Feng Jiu’er had ever seen Yanu unhappy. It was truly something new and remarkable!

But why was he unhappy?

“Yanu, what is wrong?” Jiu’er hurried after him, watching Yanu make his way back to his own room. Feng Jiu’er followed all the way there.

“Why are you angry? Are you displeased with what I said?” She stepped into Yanu’s room and only then noticed just how bare and meager it truly was.

A bed, a chair, a table — on the table a teapot and cups, and a few books. Not far away, a worn and battered wardrobe, with a few garments faintly visible through the gap in its doors.

This was the whole of Yanu’s world.

Since arriving in this era and coming to the Feng family, Jiu’er had apparently never properly looked at the place where Yanu lived.

Now that she did, a pang of sadness struck her immediately.

Yanu’s room was truly this bare and sparse! Even his clothing…

She walked over and opened the somewhat battered wardrobe door — sure enough, there were only two presentable outfits inside.

And yet every time Yanu appeared before her, he was clean and neatly put together, never drawing her attention to the plainness of his attire.

It might be more accurate to say that Yanu simply carried an air of cleanliness about him — no matter what he wore, that air was always there.

You never had the chance to notice what he had on, because his bearing alone was striking enough to claim your entire attention.

Clearly a fine and handsome young man — the figure, the bearing, those clean and beautiful eyes — was this not everything one would expect of a person of extraordinary beauty?

Yet what a pity — it was only that one face that had been ruined.

“Yanu, I am sorry. I did not know your quarters here were… this sparse. It was careless of me.”

She turned to look at him, then suddenly curved her lips into a smile. “Yanu, tomorrow I will take you out to buy clothes.”

Yanu did not respond. He would not even look at her.

He was still angry!

Feng Jiu’er was sometimes a rather thoughtless sort of person. She had known perfectly well just now that Yanu was angry — but the moment she stepped through the door, the state of Yanu’s room had caught her eye and driven the matter clean out of her head.

Only now did it come rushing back to her.

She knocked herself on the head, walked over, and gently tugged at his sleeve. “What are you angry about? Are you annoyed that I mentioned finding you a match?”

The moment those words left her mouth, Yanu’s expression darkened at once, and a chill radiated outward from him in all directions.

My — how cold! He was clearly a person with no martial training whatsoever, yet he looked for all the world like a seasoned expert, his presence sharp and commanding, enough to make one flinch.

“If you are unhappy, I will not say it again. I truly do not understand what you are angry about, though. In this era, does everyone not have to talk about marriage at a certain age?”

Did not ancient times dictate that young women married at fifteen or sixteen, and young men at seventeen or eighteen?

Yet why was it that everyone she knew seemed to have become an overage bachelor? The Ninth Imperial Uncle, Mu Mu, Zhan Yuheng, Xing Zizou — every single one of them was past twenty, and still unmarried. How had they all ended up that way?

Could she have some misunderstanding about the age of marriage in ancient times?

“Forget it — in any case, it is only natural for a grown man to marry. What is there to be angry about?”

It was not as though she had already chosen someone he disliked for him — they were still looking, and of course he would have to like the person first.

“Are you afraid I will find you a young woman you do not care for? There is nothing to fear — I would absolutely never do something that dictatorial. You…”

All at once, Yanu grabbed her hand and pressed it against his own face.

Feng Jiu’er suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and studied his face closely. “What are you doing? Are you afraid that looking the way you do, no young woman would be willing to marry you?”

She had not expected that beneath all his graceful composure, he harbored this fear.

“Do not be afraid. I have been formulating a new medicine of late — it will be ready before long, though it will need a little more time to take effect…”

Well, the deeper reasoning would take too long to explain, and Yanu might not understand it anyway.

She continued, “In short — it can gradually fade the scars on your face. They cannot be completely erased, but once they lighten, the whole face will look much better. Just look at your features and bone structure…”

Jiu’er’s fingertip traced almost involuntarily along the bridge of his nose. She was appraising his features from a purely professional standpoint — but that brush of her fingertip was enough to make a faint heat rise in Yanu’s face.

He turned away, pulling back.

Feng Jiu’er only then realized what she had just done, and laughed with a touch of bashfulness. “Ha — please do not mind that. I, well, that was — listen, my clinic is not going to be an ordinary clinic. Eventually I want to create medicines — the kind for beauty and skincare.”

She thought for a moment and chose the simplest wording she could manage: “Simply put — things that can give young women better skin and make them more beautiful.”

In this era there were no beauty parlors. Once she had developed her first batch of beauty remedies and opened one, it would surely flourish and bring in a handsome profit.

“To return to the point — as for the scars on your face, I can help you make them look better. They would not frighten any young woman away. If you do not believe me, once your scars have faded a bit, I will take you out to meet some suitable prospects.”

Yanu’s expression still was not entirely pleasant, though he understood the general meaning of what she had said, even if not every word.

Jiu’er seemed a little tired — she had been walking across a snowy mountain for the better part of the day and her energy was nearly spent.

“All right, enough of this. You are not allowed to stay angry. What comes later can be discussed later.”

She stifled a yawn and stretched languidly. “I need to go bathe and change, and then sleep properly. Tomorrow I will get up early and take you to buy clothes, and after that I need to return to the academy.”

She turned and headed toward the door, still complaining as she went: “I am so busy! How did my life get this busy — it will be the death of me. Yanu, you rest early too. Goodbye.”

The door swung shut. Yanu merely stood staring at it, his gaze deep and still, his thoughts unreadable.

The evening breeze drifted through, stirring his hair, and the trace of chill within him slowly, gradually stilled.

His slender fingers shifted without thought, and a small wooden box appeared in his hand. When he opened it, inside was a pitch-black insect.

The creature was glossy and dark all over. In the candlelight, it shimmered with an eerie black-violet sheen that sent a creeping unease up the spine…