By the time she left the Zhu Family’s estate, the sky had already gone dark. Zhu Ziwen had been instructed to escort his cousin home. As the gate swung open, there was someone already waiting outside — a familiar face.

Remembering what his grandmother had quietly said to him before he left the house, he could not help but raise an eyebrow. Even without being told explicitly, he knew what his grandmother had wanted him to see. This was the man who wanted to take their family’s young miss away?

“Why did you come?” Hua Zhi stepped forward with a light smile.

“To bring you home.”

Zhu Ziwen stared at his cousin’s expression for a moment, taken aback. He was no stranger to what it felt like to be drawn toward someone, and he knew what it meant when a person as reserved as his cousin softened without even realizing it. What she had shown in that moment spoke volumes.

He looked again at the man. There was a scar on his face, yet it did not make him unpleasant to look at. On the contrary, this was a man of considerable presence — and yet that same man was looking back at his cousin with eyes full of warmth. If he did not care for her, he would not have come.

“Cousin, you can head back. We’re still within the city — nothing will happen to me.”

Zhu Ziwen shook his head. “I’ll see you home.”

Hua Zhi offered no further protest. The two of them flanked the carriage on either side as it passed through the streets and arrived at the Hua Family home. Zhu Ziwen did not linger and made his way straight back, walking in to find, unsurprisingly, that his grandfather, grandmother, father, and second uncle were all gathered together.

Without waiting to be asked, he told them directly, “That man came to bring her home.”

“The one with the scar on his face?”

“Yes.”

The matriarch pressed him eagerly, “What did you make of him?”

“I would not dare to give an answer to that.” Zhu Ziwen smiled and settled into a seat at the lower end. “Only — he does seem genuinely devoted. When she was stepping up into the doorway, he bent down to lift the hem of her skirt out of the way. A person who did not care for her deeply would not have done that.”

He paused, then added, “It is not that such a thing cannot be done — it is that one would not think to do it. I, for one, have never thought to do that for anyone. Giving a word of warning to be careful would already be considered attentive.”

The matriarch’s expression eased slightly, though she still looked somewhat troubled.

It was Zhu Haodong who caught something else in what had been said. “That man went inside the Hua Family’s gates?”

“Yes.”

“At this hour!” Zhu Haodong glared at his nephew. “And you didn’t think to stop him?”

“Uncle, I wanted to stop him too, but my cousin told me he and Master Lu still had matters to discuss — what was I supposed to do? Not let him in? I would never dare interfere with my cousin’s affairs! If I had, every one of you would have come after me.”

It was a reasonable thing to say, and yet it still sat uneasily. Zhu Haodong looked toward his father. “Father, what do you think…”

“Zhi’er does not need us telling her what to do with her own affairs. Keeping a closer eye is fine, but she knows her own mind — we don’t need to tell her what she may or may not do.” The patriarch glanced toward the matriarch. “From the sound of things, the person she mentioned is exactly this Master Lu.”

The matriarch nodded. “I suspected as much. Still… how did he come to be disfigured? Even if our Zhu Family wanted to elevate him in the future, there would be no way to do it.”

“Enough of that. For all we know, the man has his own path and has no need of us. When there truly comes a time he needs our help, we can do our utmost then.” The patriarch thought back to the source of Zhi’er’s information. If it came from this Master Lu, it suggested he was not entirely without standing, even if he held no official title — nothing else could explain it.

Besides, what was Zhi’er’s judgment like? She would not spare a second glance for just anyone. There must be something exceptional about this man to have earned her regard.

“Haodong — keep your accounts clean on that business of yours. Don’t be eyeing what’s in the pot while you’re still eating from the bowl. I won’t stand for that kind of conduct.”

“Yes.”

“And you, eldest — rein in those thoughts of yours. I can see that Zhi’er figured them out a long time ago. Don’t go bringing your official court tactics into dealings with family. I know that game better than you do.”

Zhu Haocheng flushed red from the scolding and could not help defending himself. “I have no ulterior motives where Zhi’er is concerned. Is it not natural to look out for one’s own niece? What kind of person do you take me for?”

“Telling yourself that, are you?” The patriarch’s brows drew together sharply. “I have no objection to the two families becoming connected by marriage because I think well of Bolin and of the Hua Family’s values. Even your sister — with that temperament of hers — has not been badly treated after marrying in. Shan’er would be treated no worse. Stop scheming. To put it plainly, even if Shan’er does marry into the Hua Family, she becomes a member of the Hua Family. No advantage, however great, can be carried back to the Zhu Family. If you keep holding onto these ideas, it would be better not to arrange the match at all — better that than to turn a union into a grudge.”

Zhu Haocheng hung his head and bore the rebuke in silence. Zhu Haodong felt a private rush of satisfaction — when he had first spotted his elder brother’s calculations, he too had found them deeply distasteful. Were it not for the fact that his brother genuinely cared about Zhi’er, and that Ziwen had gotten into several fights on Zhi’er’s behalf without ever being blamed for it, he would have started with a quarrel of his own. You simply could not be that shameless.

It was only when he caught his mother’s glance that he leisurely stepped in to smooth things over. “Shan’er is his daughter after all — a father naturally tends to think more. It’s easy to let the thinking go a little sideways. Father, let it go — it has not come to that point. Zhi’er is sharp as a needle; if my eldest brother truly harbored some scheme, do you think she would have missed it? Isn’t that right?”

Zhu Ziwen also spoke up in defense of his father. “Father is the eldest son of the household — it is only natural that he would think more carefully about things. If he did not think at all, that would actually give you cause to worry, Grandfather.”

The patriarch let out a low sound and said nothing more. His temper had gotten the better of him just now and he had forgotten that Ziwen was present — it was no good giving a son a dressing down in front of his own child.

While the Zhu household was occupied with reprimands, the Hua household was uncommonly warm. Hua Zhi was ladling food into a bowl for Yan Xi when she said, “You knew perfectly well I would be eating at the Zhu Family’s — why didn’t you just eat on your own first? Once it got dark, they were never going to let me come home alone.”

“It is not the same.” Yan Xi accepted the bowl. He was thoroughly contented with this quiet life together, small and domestic as it was, and the warmth in his eyes deepened. “Them sending you is them sending you. Me coming to bring you is me bringing you. Not the same.”

Hua Zhi did not argue the point. She poured half a bowl of mushroom broth and sat companionably, drinking it slowly alongside him.

“There was a reply from Haoyue’s side this morning. She says that a correct set of birth characters is needed to calculate the right person. Chenqing followed your instructions from yesterday and gave her the false birth characters of the Fourth Prince. She knew they were wrong. As for the Fifth Prince and Sixth Prince — she gave no indication of noticing anything amiss. She knew this was a test, and went along with it in good spirits.”

Hua Zhi felt a sense of having already guessed as much. What sort of person could possibly know the Fourth Prince’s exact date and hour of birth? It would have to be someone among his elders, or someone extremely close to him — anyone of lower standing would be out of the question. By process of elimination, the most likely candidate was someone who shared his bed.

“What was the result? Did she calculate it on the spot?”

“Right there on the spot. Stripping away all the mystical trappings, the gist of it was: the Fourth Prince faces a death calamity at some point — with no solution. The Fifth Prince faces a blood disaster. And Little Six…” Yan Xi paused. “…died young.”

Clatter. Hua Zhi set down her soup bowl with enough force that the broth splashed over the rim. “And did she predict that she herself would not live long?”

Gu Yan Xi reached out swiftly and moved her hand away from the spill. “Take it as you will and let it go. It is not worth getting upset over.”

Hua Zhi took two slow, deep breaths. She could not tell Yan Xi why these predictions could not simply be dismissed — because in that other life, the Fourth Prince might truly have died, the Fifth Prince might truly have been wounded, and Little Six… might truly have not survived.

Author’s Note: Three chapters — making up for yesterday’s missed update.