The Li Residence.
Li Guangquan glared at Li Zhenchun as she stood outside the door, then quickly pulled her inside.
“Didn’t you say you weren’t coming back?”
Li Zhenchun brushed his hand away and dusted off her shoulder.
“I’m just here for the traditional return visit.”
Hearing that, Li Guangquan hurriedly opened the door again. After making sure only her servant was outside and there was no young master from the Wei family, he immediately shut the door.
“What return visit? You know your stepmother doesn’t want to see you.”
“I know.”
Li Zhenchun looked at him.
“If her daughter weren’t still too young, she would have wanted to steal my marriage too.”
“I’ll just sit in my old room for a while before I leave. As for these gifts I brought back, they’re all mine. Don’t touch them. Move them all to the house outside the city.”
Li Guangquan grabbed her arm.
“You don’t have a room anymore.”
She froze and turned to look at him.
“Your stepmother turned your room into a study for your younger brother.”
Honestly, Li Zhenchun was not that heartbroken.
She had already gotten used to this over the years. The fact that Li Guangquan had brought her to the capital at all was already more than she expected.
She took a gold ingot from her sleeve, grabbed his hand, and placed it in his palm.
“This is payment for raising me all these years and bringing me to the capital. From now on, stop saying Aunt Lan owes you anything.”
Li Zhenchun wandered around the streets.
She had just found a seat by the window in a restaurant when she saw Wei Nancheng riding past below.
The streets were crowded, so his horse moved slowly.
Looking more carefully, she noticed he was holding a rope, and the other end was tied to a prisoner.
“Oh! Isn’t that Lord Wei? Did he catch another criminal?”
The waiter delivering tea leaned over to look outside at the man in the dark green official robe.
Li Zhenchun looked down at him.
She had to admit that Wei Nancheng was incredibly handsome.
His brows were sharp, his eyes bright, his nose high, and the slight hollows around his eyes cast soft shadows across his face.
She rested her chin on the window and quietly watched him below.
What a pity.
I married such a handsome man, yet I live like a widow.
Maybe her gaze was too intense.
Or maybe Wei Nancheng happened to glance up.
Before she realized it, their eyes met.
For a moment, her heart skipped a beat, and she forgot to breathe.
Just then, a white silk handkerchief drifted past her nose and floated toward Wei Nancheng.
She watched helplessly as it floated past his face.
Just before it flew away, he reached out with one hand and caught it.
Li Zhenchun’s mind completely stopped working.
Then someone upstairs shouted,
“Miss! Young Master Wei caught your handkerchief!”
Li Zhenchun immediately leaned halfway out the window and looked up.
Several young ladies were standing at the windows above, dressed in colorful clothes.
From Wei Nancheng’s point of view, however, he only saw Li Zhenchun hanging halfway out the window with both hands gripping the frame as she struggled to look upstairs.
He handed the handkerchief to one of his officers.
“Return this handkerchief. Also tell the young lady by the second-floor window not to lean out so far.”
The officer looked up.
Among the entire restaurant, only one woman was awkwardly hanging out of a window.
She was very easy to recognize.
And… not very graceful.
By the time Li Zhenchun pulled herself back inside and looked again, Wei Nancheng had already left.
She could only see his back.
While she was still wondering whether he had noticed her, an officer walked upstairs and stopped before her.
“Our Deputy Magistrate asked me to tell you not to lean your body out of the window.”
Li Zhenchun: “…”
She forced a smile.
“Alright. I’ll remember.”
Now she had her answer.
But another question appeared.
Had Wei Nancheng recognized her?
She was so deep in thought that she completely forgot to notice whether Wei Nancheng had returned the handkerchief, or that the officer had actually come upstairs to do so.
…
As soon as she returned to the Wei residence, the First Madam summoned her.
“What did you learn from today’s visit to your family?”
Li Zhenchun: “…”
She had learned that men were all terrible.
Li Guangquan.
Wei Xinian.
Wei Nancheng.
All of them.
Chen Runiang looked down at her.
“In noble families, when a newly married wife returns to her parents’ home, she must first ask permission from her elders.”
Li Zhenchun: “…”
When she saw the gifts Chen Runiang had prepared, she had assumed they meant for her to return alone.
So she simply left without another thought.
She had never imagined she was supposed to come back and ask Chen Runiang first.
“When your husband cannot accompany you, you may ask an elder of the family to go with you. Returning alone not only embarrasses yourself, but also makes others think the Wei family mistreats its daughters-in-law. That damages our family’s reputation.”
Li Zhenchun: “…”
She looked up pitifully.
“…I was wrong.”
Even though she looked miserable, Chen Runiang showed no intention of letting her off.
“Since you have married into the Wei family, every word and action must be carefully considered. You made the mistake first, and it is now my duty to teach you. Since this is your first offense, your punishment will be to copy one volume of Buddhist scriptures in the ancestral hall.”
The scripture book was about as thick as a finger.
It was not a light punishment.
…
Li Zhenchun sighed.
Half-kneeling in the ancestral hall, she bent over the desk and carefully copied the scriptures.
After only two pages, she heard footsteps behind her.
Wei Nancheng entered carrying a lantern.
Her heart jumped.
Why is he here too?
She immediately lowered her head like an ostrich hiding its face.
Wei Nancheng knelt at the desk beside hers.
He blew out the lantern and set it aside.
Then he looked at her.
“I didn’t accompany you on your return visit, so I was also at fault. Mother punished me with copying the scriptures three times.”
Li Zhenchun paused and sat up a little straighter.
Outwardly, she only answered softly,
“Oh.”
But inside, she was thinking,
Don’t say “also.” We’re not the same. I only have to copy it once.
For some reason, she suddenly felt a strange sense of superiority.
Feeling much happier, she looked at the Buddhist scriptures.
The black words on the white paper no longer seemed so annoying.
That feeling lasted…
Until her legs went numb.
Then she changed her mind again.
Why should I be happy just because Wei Nancheng is being punished too?
The King of Hell is still sitting right beside me!
Her goal was to stay as far away from him as possible, not to act like some suffering married couple in the ancestral hall.
She wanted to finish quickly and leave.
Unfortunately, she wrote slowly.
And since Chen Runiang was obviously someone who would not tolerate carelessness, she dared not rush.
She carefully wrote every single stroke.
The slower she wrote, the more anxious she became.
In the end, she could only hope Wei Nancheng would finish first and leave.
Just as she had completely given up, she heard movement at the entrance.
Turning around, she saw Wei Xinian being dragged inside by two female guards.