“Why?”

Why? Hua Zhi laughed inwardly. Obviously, because she had no desire to go into another family’s home and be ordered around like a subordinate!

None of the great families in the capital were easy to deal with. A young bride coming into her husband’s household — what would she have to endure before she could finally stand on solid footing? Hua Zhi did not fear any of it; she simply had no wish to touch it, and could even say she found it deeply repugnant at her very core.

Naturally, thoughts this blunt were best kept in her own mind. The reason Hua Zhi offered aloud was a somewhat softened version: “I do not like complicated webs of human relations. I do not like scheming and maneuvering for petty advantage. I do not like the idea of sending a husband nourishing tonics to soothe his fatigue after he has gone to dote on a concubine. I do not like living confined to that narrow patch of ground, spending every day among women so sheltered they believe the entirety of the world is no larger than the capital. What pleasure could there be in a life like that?”

“As it happens, the things you dislike are precisely the things I dislike as well.” Gu Yanxi’s gaze remained warm and lingering. “We could go together to see how vast this world truly is — to see the ocean stretching endlessly to the horizon, to see grasslands so green they fill your eyes in every direction. We could go anywhere you wish to go. I would never ask you to remain confined within the inner chambers. I would not require you to bear a certain number of children, nor to play the dutiful and virtuous wife. In our home, you could do as you please, go where you please — you would only need to bring me along.”

Could she remain unmoved?

Of course she could not.

Hua Zhi bit the tip of her tongue lightly to keep herself clear-headed. Since coming to this world, her one true regret was not being able to travel freely — to see this original, untouched world, unpolluted and undeveloped. But that had always been a fool’s daydream.

And so the future she had set out for herself was to take the few maids who had no wish to marry and move into a house built exactly to her own taste — and then, when she was old enough that no one was paying attention to her anymore, to step out and travel a little. But that “traveling a little” had always been limited in scope. She had never once imagined going anywhere truly far.

She was not afraid — but she had to consider the dangers. If she had Shao Yao’s fighting ability, she could run all over the world freely. Unfortunately, she did not. With her modest few moves, she could not hold off more than a handful of people.

And now Gu Yanxi was offering her that kind of future. Every part of her was quietly stirring with longing. If she had no responsibilities tying her down, she would have nodded simply for the sake of that one promise — go wherever you wish to go.

But — it was nothing more than something to say.

“Has Mr. Lu forgotten his own identity?”

“There will come a day when I can set it down.”

Hua Zhi lowered her eyes, unsure where the flood of disappointment inside her was coming from — but it was real, enough to wash away even the composed smile she habitually wore.

Gu Yanxi rose from his seat and came around to her side, crouching down and taking hold of her hands. From below, he looked up at her with quiet, steadfast intensity. “You carry your responsibilities, and I carry mine — but these responsibilities are not eternal. The Hua Family’s people will return. And as for me — even if a successor for the Seven-Lodge Division has not yet been cultivated, I still hold the identity of Shizi. A Shizi marrying the daughter of a minor noble — no one can stand in the way of that. A’Zhi, trust me. I will steer things in the direction I intend. The future I have promised you will come to pass.”

“Five years? Or ten?” Hua Zhi made no move to pull her hands away, simply allowing him to hold them. “Even tomorrow is uncertain — let alone something so far away. Mr. Lu, what I would prefer is for us to form an alliance of shared interests. I will earn great sums of money for you; you will provide shelter and protection for me and for the Hua Family. If Mr. Lu can bring my family back, I would offer everything I have without hesitation — even if it meant years more of working at your disposal, I would do it willingly.”

She looked at the man whose gaze held steady and unwavering, and for a brief moment her resolve softened. “I have no wish to exploit your feelings to achieve my ends — so, Mr. Lu, please do not always allow me to take whatever I want from you. I am afraid that one day I may cross a line and become the kind of person I myself would despise.”

“I am quite willing to be exploited by you. If there is ever something you need the power of a noble house to accomplish, I hope that noble house is mine.”

Gu Yanxi understood this woman. To others, she might not seem like the proud sort one expected of the Hua Family — but at her core, she was exactly that. Her pride was such that she could not bring herself to take the smallest advantage from anyone without return. Even when she used someone, she put it plainly on the table, so that the person being used also came away with something good. And when she owed someone anything, she kept it in mind and never forgot — never let it rest.

He wanted to be the person she never forgot. And he would not give anyone else that chance.

“There was a saying I once came across — that as people grow up, they become the very things they once despised most. When I read that, I told myself I absolutely would not let that happen to me.” Yet in the end, she had proven that saying true, like every other adult. Now she no longer wanted to be that kind of person — that kind of adult others found contemptible.

Hua Zhi lowered her head and laughed softly, something in her expression taking on a quiet, pained shadow that Gu Yanxi could not quite read but could not help but feel a pang for. “Mr. Lu, I do not want to exploit you, nor anyone else. What I hope for between us is a relationship of mutual reliance — a partnership: I earn silver for you, you give me shelter. That is all.”

Gu Yanxi folded both her hands gently within his palms. “If that is what you want — very well.”

Hua Zhi stared at him blankly, as though she had not expected him to agree.

Gu Yanxi smiled tenderly, and reached out to softly brush her cheek. “Whatever you wish — I will follow your lead.”

The hand moving across her face was warm and dry, the callus at the base of his thumb grazing her skin — and because he pressed so gently, there was no pain at all. Hua Zhi suddenly felt a strange reluctance to lose this closeness. It had truly been — so many years — since anyone had treated her like this. The last time someone had held her in such a way, in the memories she still carried, was her father, at the very end.

This man was really…

Hua Zhi closed her eyes. She tilted her head back, drawing away from his palm, and as she rose to her feet she smoothly reclaimed her hands. She stepped back two paces — as if that alone could free her from whatever spell he had begun to weave.

Gu Yanxi also stood. His height gave him a natural commanding presence; Hua Zhi instinctively wanted to step back again. She bit the tip of her tongue and held her ground. “Mr. Lu’s tea should be well-steeped by now.”

Looking at A’Zhi in this moment, Gu Yanxi felt a joy he had never quite felt before. He recalled asking her once whether anyone had ever made her lose her composure — she had said yes, but he had not witnessed it himself, nor did he know who it had been. Now, though — if he pressed just a little further, that person would be him.

But — he could not bring himself to do it.

Gu Yanxi followed her lead and replied, “Well-steeped indeed. We shall discuss the alliance another day.”

“Please, Mr. Lu.”

Gu Yanxi drew a small box from inside his robe and set it on the side table, then spoke of something entirely unrelated. “I would like to ask A’Zhi for some of the pickled vegetables Fu Dong made — would any be available?”

As long as she could see this imposing figure out the door, she had no objection even to packing up every jar of pickled vegetables in the house. Hua Zhi called out, “Nanny Su.”

“Yes, Miss.” Nanny Su pushed the door open and stood just beyond the threshold, eyes lowered.

“Please take Mr. Lu to find Fu Dong and fetch some of her pickled vegetables — a bit of each kind. However much Mr. Lu wants, take however much.”

“Yes. Mr. Lu, please follow this old servant.”

Gu Yanxi looked at Hua Zhi one last time before following Nanny Su out.

The gaze that had clung to her finally disappeared. Hua Zhi sank back into her chair and let her unsteady heartbeat settle.

This had nothing to do with feelings.

Only — something, in the end, had left a mark inside her.