Li Buyan entered her room, picked up a towel, dampened it, and carefully washed her face.

After washing her face, she wrung out the towel again and cleaned her neck and wrists thoroughly.

After washing, she sat before her vanity, loosened her hair, picked up her comb, and slowly combed it while looking in the mirror.

The young woman in the bronze mirror had a bare face—brows somewhat thick, nose not high enough, lips too thin. Only her eyes were startlingly bright, hiding an untamed wildness within.

“Would you like me to help you comb your hair?”

Li Buyan turned around.

Yan Sanhe walked forward, took the comb from her hand, and gently combed downward.

“The first time I saw you, you also had loose hair like this, dressed in white. I thought to myself then: this young lady is truly beautiful. I wonder who she’ll end up with someday.”

“Did you hear what Zhu Qing said?”

“Mm.”

Li Buyan gently closed her eyes, speaking from her heart. “Yan Sanhe, I actually had feelings for him.”

“I know.”

Yan Sanhe’s comb paused.

“After we got together, aside from when Grandfather passed away, we were never apart. But for him, you abandoned me.”

“At the time, I thought he was all alone in the south, not easy for someone of his status.”

Li Buyan seemed to be speaking to Yan Sanhe, but also to herself.

“I thought I should go help him, even if just washing clothes and cooking meals.”

The wild, untamed girl, upon meeting someone whose gaze she couldn’t look away from, was willing to bend her proud neck into a soft, downward curve.

“When I got to the south, I discovered he didn’t lack people to wash clothes and cook at all.”

Li Buyan murmured, “He just lacked someone who could talk with him, keep him company when he was bored. Most of his time was spent handling official business. Occasionally when tired, he’d set aside his work and glance my way.”

She slept with her eyes closed, but her heart was transparent.

She knew when he looked her way, and she counted in her heart how many times per night.

“I made him a meal once. He ate it all. The next day, a servant asked me to cook for him again. I flatly refused, and he was listening outside but said nothing.”

Li Buyan sighed deeply.

“Yan Sanhe, as long as he’d asked, I wouldn’t have refused. A person who keeps what they want and don’t want hidden in their heart—how deep must that heart be?”

“Women in this world all hope a man’s heart won’t be too deep—just deep enough to hold her perfectly.”

Yan Sanhe smiled. “Buyan, for someone like him, that’s asking too much.”

“Yes, too much.”

Li Buyan shook her head. “But unfortunately, I’m also not so willing to wrong myself.”

Wrong herself by standing at his side, watching him work busily, then waiting for him to have free time to glance her way.

“Sanhe, you know what? That box of mooncakes sent from so far away actually gave me the courage to fantasize.”

Li Buyan chuckled. “I fantasized that I was different from others, unique, that I even held significant weight in his heart.”

After a moment of silence, she said, “But actually, I don’t.”

Since returning from the south, he’d never once come looking for her.

The only time he came to the villa was because of other matters, happening to glance her way.

Feelings and egg fried rice are actually the same—neither tastes good when cold.

Reheating it just changes the flavor.

Yan Sanhe pinned up the last strand of hair, crossed her arms and looked left and right. After a long while, she smiled and said:

“My Buyan is truly beautiful. I wonder who she’ll end up with someday.”

“Anyone is fine, but he’s no longer an option.”

Li Buyan stood, let out a long breath, and said to Yan Sanhe:

“Have Tangyuan prepare some dishes and warm some wine. It’s my first time developing feelings and then giving up on them—I should at least drown my sorrows in wine. Otherwise, it wouldn’t seem serious enough.”

Yan Sanhe: “I lent one shoulder to Zhu Weixi. I happen to have another shoulder free to lend you.”

Li Buyan replied domineeringly, “Both shoulders are mine.”

…

Zhao Yishi heard footsteps and turned around.

The young woman stood smiling at the threshold. “The moonlight is lovely. How about I accompany Your Highness for a walk?”

Zhao Yishi froze.

In his memory, this person was either sleeping soundly or laughing.

When she laughed, unlike other women, she wasn’t just slightly upturned lips. When this person laughed, her eye corners lifted, her mouth opened wide, revealing a row of small white teeth.

Indescribably radiant.

Zhao Yishi instantly understood why he’d made this trip—because aside from the person before him, no other woman would smile at him so openly and honestly.

He stepped forward, his voice gentle. “I would be delighted.”

“Shall we go to the back garden? Several plum trees are blooming.”

“As you wish.”

As they spoke, the two walked out of the courtyard.

In the yard, Xie Zhifei and Pei Xiao stood side by side, watching them leave.

Xie Zhifei touched his nose, saying in a low voice, “Huairen’s meaning is quite obvious—he wants to take her as a concubine.”

Pei Xiao’s heart felt strange, hard to describe. Sour, perhaps—somewhat sour. Sad, perhaps—truly somewhat sad.

Sad for that troublemaker.

Someone as bold and unrestrained as her—how could she become a concubine?

But Huairen’s concubine wasn’t an ordinary concubine. When Huairen eventually sat on that throne, she’d be an imperial consort. If she could bear a son or daughter…

“I think…”

After hemming and hawing for a long time, Pei Xiao spoke honestly: “…the troublemaker won’t agree.”

Xie Zhifei: “Why not?”

Pei Xiao imitated Yan Sanhe’s tone, saying flatly, “Intuition.”

Xie Zhifei turned his head to look at him.

“What are you looking at?”

Pei Xiao was angry. “Only your Yan Sanhe can have intuition—I can’t have any?”

“You can.”

Xie Zhifei forced out each word. “And very accurate.”

…

The plum blossoms were indeed blooming, their dark fragrance floating.

After walking a circuit through the back garden, Zhao Yishi stood before Li Buyan, looking down at her.

Li Buyan lifted her head, meeting his gaze directly—not evading, not avoiding. “Your Highness looks somewhat weary.”

Zhao Yishi didn’t speak. Rather, he paused for quite a while before gently beginning.

“That day, standing alone outside the Louwailou Restaurant, looking at West Lake’s waters, what filled my mind wasn’t the realm or the nation, not family or empire—it was you.”

He finally spoke what was in his heart.

“I wondered how there could be a woman who, at a scene of house confiscation, would still have the audacity to stare directly at me.”

Li Buyan smiled. “Because you’re handsome.”

Zhao Yishi: “That one glance—I remembered you.”

“My honor.” Li Buyan smiled again.

“Would you be willing to be with me? Stay by my side.”

Zhao Yishi’s voice was low and gentle. “Aside from that position, I can give you everything else.”

Li Buyan was silent for quite a while before asking, “What if I said I want that position—would Your Highness be willing to give it to me?”

Zhao Yishi’s expression changed abruptly.

“Not only must that position be given to me, but Your Highness’s person and heart must belong only to me alone.”

Li Buyan’s smile faded as she spoke seriously. “If it were like that, I’d be willing.”

Anger rose strangely in Zhao Yishi’s heart, his breathing suddenly becoming rapid. “Li Buyan, you…”

“You’re merely a lowly maid, yet you dare covet my person and my heart—simply ignorant of your place, utterly delusional.”

In the night air, Li Buyan exhaled a puff of white breath.

“But Your Highness, people may be divided into high and low, noble and base—a heart is not.”