To Nanzhi’s ears, the Crown Prince’s pleasant-sounding voice carried the chilling ring of a demon’s. Her pupils contracted slightly, and as she lowered her gaze to mask her complex emotions, she quickly tucked the rising wave of dread deep into the corners of her heart.
Taking a steadying breath and smoothing over her expression, Nanzhi stepped toward the carriage: “This subject’s daughter wouldn’t dare trouble Your Highness’s grand carriage.”
Just as she drew close, Qingyu reached out to assist her upward. Nanzhi had barely placed her foot on the mounting block when Shen Huaixu’s figure suddenly materialized right at the carriage entrance. Extending his right hand toward her, a faint smile played across his refined, noble features as he looked down at her with a gleam of intense amusement.
Startled by his abrupt appearance, Nanzhi’s first instinct at the sight of his outstretched hand was to pull back in rejection. Yet, constrained by his status as the Crown Prince, she swallowed her lingering reluctance, extended her own soft, white hand, and placed it gingerly into his palm.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
Lifting her gaze, Nanzhi allowed her cool, moon-bright eyes to sink straight into Shen Huaixu’s fathomless pupils. The corners of his lips curved upward as if deeply satisfied with her compliance.
Yet fear bloomed anew in Nanzhi’s chest. Even though the Crown Prince wore an immaculate, cultured smile, a sudden shiver ran straight down her spine at that very instant. The smile on her face almost cracked, and she instinctively averted her gaze.
The Crown Prince was a complete and utter fraud—wearing the mask of a gentle, refined scholar while harboring a pitch-black, rotten heart underneath.
Noticing her reaction, a cold flash flickered through Shen Huaixu’s pale eyes. His grip on Nanzhi’s hand tightened a fraction before he pulled her up into the carriage in one fluid motion.
“Get up here first.”
Once Nanzhi was safely inside the carriage, the smile vanished from his face as quickly as it had appeared. Casting a chilling, condescending glare at Qingyu outside, he murmured, “Qingyu, you were late.”
The surrounding air seemed to freeze over in response to his words. Seated inside the carriage, Nanzhi knit her brows slightly; though the Crown Prince’s remark was directed at Qingyu, the cold delivery struck a jarring chord in Nanzhi’s chest.
Shen Huaixu’s voice remained low, detached, and entirely devoid of warmth. It was a light, offhand sentence, yet it fell like a heavy hammer against Qingyu’s heart, making her tremble.
Hearing this, Qingyu stiffened her posture, kept her head bowed low, and replied in a cautious, trembling tone of absolute submission: “It was this subordinate’s fault for delaying Your Highness’s schedule.”
Having a favorable impression of Qingyu and not wanting to see her punished by the Crown Prince—especially since it wasn’t really Qingyu’s fault that she had been delayed—Nanzhi hated the idea of the Crown Prince making things difficult for an innocent bystander.
With that thought, Nanzhi pushed down her instinctive terror of the Crown Prince, mustered her courage, tugged lightly at his sleeve, and called out in a soft, delicate whisper: “Your Highness.”
Sensing the tiny tug at his sleeve, Shen Huaixu withdrew his gaze from Qingyu and slipped back into his gentle, cultured persona: “What does Zhizhi wish to say?”
“It took this subject’s daughter a little longer to pack her things, which is what delayed the hour. Please do not blame Qingyu; if anyone is to be blamed, blame me instead.”
Outside the carriage, Qingyu caught the sound drifting from within, and her heart gave a heavy jolt. A beauty truly possesses such a kind heart! Her favorability toward Nanzhi instantly skyrocketed.
Just moments earlier, she had been forced to turn down the beauty’s plea, yet here the beauty was, pleading on her own behalf. Qingyu felt a chaotic mix of emotions swirling in her chest; had she known, she would have boldly agreed to the beauty’s request in the first place, taking whatever punishment the Crown Prince handed down as a result.
Though her face remained rigid on the outside, Qingyu was internally weeping tears of profound moving gratitude: Wuwuwu, I’ve failed the beauty!
As the crisp, jade-chime voice reached his ears, Shen Huaixu curled his lips into a smile and stared fixedly at her. Clearly, she was terrified of him, yet she was willing to summon her courage and intercede on behalf of someone else.
“Do you want Gu to spare her?”
“Your Highness, it truly wasn’t her faul—”
Before Nanzhi could finish her sentence, the Crown Prince shifted with lightning speed. A sudden rush of warm air grazed her ear, tickling her lobe as he murmured: “If Zhizhi kisses Gu once, Gu will let the matter drop.”
Nanzhi froze up entirely. Twitching the corners of her mouth, she managed to squeeze out a strained smile: Is Your Highness joking with me right now?
What exact breed of scoundrel dog is the Crown Prince, anyway? How could he possibly be this shameless?!
“Never mind. If Zhizhi is unwilling, Gu will simply have to let her—”
Shen Huaixu deliberately dragged out his tone, speaking slowly and pausing right before finishing his sentence. Without waiting for him to say another word, Nanzhi closed her eyes, leaned forward, and pressed her lips against his cheek in a flash, as light as a dragonfly skimming the water’s surface.
“Is Your Highness satisfied now?”
How could Nanzhi not realize that the Crown Prince was simply toying with her? Yet playing along with his whims was still infinitely better than openly defying him.
Turning her face away slightly, her smooth, glowing cheeks flushed with a faint tide of heat that looked remarkably like genuine shyness.
“What if Gu says it wasn’t enough, Zhizhi? What would you do then?”
Pinching her chin, Shen Huaixu forced her face back around to face him.
Forced to lift her head, Nanzhi feigned a look of pure, cool-faced astonishment, her eyes shimmering as if misted with a layer of water: “Your Highness, how can you go back on your word?”
Her expression seemed to amuse him. Releasing his grip on her face, Shen Huaixu brushed his cool, smooth fingertips across her delicate cheek, rubbing the soft skin gently a few times.
“Gu naturally won’t break his promise.”
With a slight curve of his lips, Shen Huaixu withdrew his hand and casually gave an order to the outside of the carriage: “Depart.”
Hearing the word depart leave his lips, a sudden wave of reluctance clutched at Nanzhi’s chest. As her eyes flickered, tears began to pool within them, yet swallowing her underlying fear of him, she forced herself to plead: “Your Highness, can we wait just a little longer? Just long enough for this subject’s daughter to see her mother one last time?”
A smile lingered in Shen Huaixu’s eyes as his right hand returned to stroke her cheek once more. His tone was honey-sweet and gentle, yet the words he spoke sent an instant chill straight down Nanzhi’s spine, freezing her heart to the core:
“Zhizhi, Gu has urgent matters to attend to right now and cannot afford any delays. Be a good girl.”
“Depart.”
“This subordinate obeys!”
Outside the carriage, Qingyu vaulted smoothly into the saddle upon hearing the command, riding up beside Wei Feng as the entire entourage set off in a grand, sweeping procession.
The carriage rolled forward, kicking up clouds of dust in its wake.
Having just emerged from the front gates of the Nan residence, Madam Nan and Nan Huaimin ultimately arrived a step too late, left with no choice but to watch helplessly as the Crown Prince’s carriage bore away into the distance.
“Zhi’er!” Madam Nan cried out, her voice choking on a sob.
Inside the carriage, Nanzhi had yet to recover from the crushing sorrow of parting when she faintly caught the sound of her mother calling out to her name. Hastily lifting the curtain, she thrust her head out and looked back toward the direction of the Nan estate.
She spotted her mother standing outside the gates, her eyes brimming with a deeply reluctant gaze. A sharp pain pierced through Nanzhi’s heart, instantly turning her eye rims burning red as she mouthed a silent, grief-stricken cry: Mother!
Tears swirled in Nanzhi’s eyes, hanging on the verge of falling—a picture of absolute, heart-wrenching pity.
Yet Shen Huaixu didn’t bother giving the command to halt the carriage. Merely glancing up briefly at Nanzhi’s movement, he promptly retracted his gaze, picked up a book, and resumed a posture of complete indifference, as though everything happening around him was entirely unrelated to his world.
As the carriage rumbled further and further away, Madam Nan’s figure finally dissolved completely from her line of sight.
Nanzhi desperately wanted to beg the Crown Prince to stop the carriage so she could bid her mother a proper farewell, but recalling how he had flatly rejected her plea just moments before when she first boarded, she knew all too well that the Crown Prince possessed a heart of stone and wouldn’t change his mind for her sake.
Gripping the window frame tightly with both hands, she bit her lip to forcefully suppress her turbulent emotions, refusing to let her tears fall. Red-eyed and aching, she swallowed down the agonizing pain of separation.
Just as she was about to pull her head back inside, a streak of black lightning suddenly galloped past on horseback outside the carriage, and in a hazy blur, she thought she caught a glimpse of Wen Tingyue’s figure.
Nanzhi’s lips parted as if to cry out, but the words died in her throat. Complex emotions washed over her as she stared at his rapidly retreating figure—a gaze mingled with shock, hidden regret, and lingering reluctance.
Tingyue, farewell.
Thus, Wen Tingyue’s figure slipped past Nanzhi in a tragic, irrevocable missed connection.