The afternoon was warm and quiet.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell in scattered patches across the stone path.
A light breeze passed through the courtyard from time to time, stirring the branches and carrying the soft rustle of leaves into the pavilion.
Shen Qinglan sat beside the rock garden with her chin resting on one hand.
Her other hand tapped lightly against the stone table while she stared absently at the flowers ahead.
She had been thinking about what to do next.
Her first problem had been Shen Mo’an.
For years, her brother had watched her so closely that going anywhere without him knowing was almost impossible.
Now, thanks to the engagement, she finally had a reasonable excuse to spend some time away from him.
She still wasn’t entirely sure how things had developed this way.
All she had wanted was to use Bai Yanzhou to make her brother loosen his grip a little.
Instead, Bai Yanzhou had turned out to be her actual fiancé.
Still, the result worked in her favor.
At least she could finally breathe.
The question was what she should do next.
Shen Qinglan’s fingers stopped tapping against the table.
Finding her biological parents remained her main goal, but rushing into that without knowing more about Bai Yanzhou would be foolish.
Especially after what she had seen that morning.
Her expression grew thoughtful.
Those shadow guards had appeared almost without warning.
They moved quietly, reacted quickly, and clearly knew exactly what they were doing.
Shen Qinglan had seen enough danger in her previous life to recognize people who had truly killed before.
Those men had.
She was certain of it.
Yet every one of them obeyed Bai Yanzhou.
That alone was enough to make her suspicious.
She had also noticed Shen Yuxing’s reaction when the shadow guards appeared.
Her father hadn’t said anything, but the brief change in his expression told her that possessing such a force was far from ordinary.
Then there was Bai Yanzhou’s own attitude.
He had openly admitted that the shadow guards belonged to him and even claimed that the emperor himself would find nothing wrong if he investigated.
At the time, Shen Qinglan had thought he was simply confident.
Now she wasn’t so sure.
Perhaps those shadow guards had been approved by the emperor.
Or perhaps the emperor had given them to Bai Yanzhou himself.
Shen Qinglan frowned.
Either way, one thing was becoming clear.
Her newly discovered fiancé was much more complicated than he appeared.
“What are you thinking about?” The voice beside her pulled Shen Qinglan from her thoughts.
She looked up and found Bai Yanzhou standing there.
For a moment, she simply blinked at him.
The serious expression she had worn a second ago disappeared so quickly that Bai Yanzhou almost smiled.
“You’ve been sitting here lost in thought all afternoon.” He placed a food box on the table.
Shen Qinglan’s attention immediately shifted to it.
Bai Yanzhou noticed.
“Hungry?” She hadn’t even answered when he opened the box and began taking out the dishes.
The smell of food spread through the pavilion.
Shen Qinglan hadn’t thought she was hungry until then, but her stomach seemed to change its mind the moment she smelled the food.
She sat up a little straighter.
Bai Yanzhou pretended not to notice.
“Eat.” Shen Qinglan didn’t need to be told twice.
She picked up her chopsticks and began eating.
There was nothing particularly delicate about the way she ate.
She didn’t take tiny bites or deliberately slow herself down the way some young ladies did at formal banquets.
She simply ate at her own pace without worrying about whether anyone was watching.
Bai Yanzhou began eating as well.
After a while, however, he found himself looking at her.
There wasn’t really anything unusual to see.
Shen Qinglan wasn’t talking.
She wasn’t doing anything interesting either.
She was simply sitting across from him and eating.
Yet his attention kept drifting back to her.
Shen Qinglan noticed after the third or fourth time.
At first, she ignored him.
She picked up another piece of food and continued eating as though she hadn’t seen anything.
But he looked over again.
Shen Qinglan lowered her eyes to her bowl.
What was he staring at?
Had he never seen someone eat before?
She tried to ignore him for a little longer, but eventually even she began to feel uncomfortable under his gaze.
She put down her chopsticks.
“Fiancé.” Bai Yanzhou raised an eyebrow.
He still wasn’t used to hearing her call him that, especially when she did it so naturally.
Shen Qinglan tilted her head.
“Am I pretty?” That wasn’t the question he had expected.
Bai Yanzhou looked at her for a moment before laughing softly.
So that was why she had suddenly called him fiancé.
He picked up a piece of rabbit meat and placed it in her bowl.
“My fiancée?” His gaze moved over her face.
“Of course she’s beautiful.” Shen Qinglan raised her brows.
That was a decent answer.
She reached for her chopsticks again.
Then Bai Yanzhou added, “How else could she have stolen my heart?” Her hand stopped.
Shen Qinglan looked at him.
She could almost feel goosebumps rising along her arms.
That was terrible.
Bai Yanzhou caught the disgust that flashed across her face and had to suppress a laugh.
Before Shen Qinglan could complain, he stood and leaned toward her.
She looked up suspiciously.
“What are you doing?” Bai Yanzhou didn’t answer.
He reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
Shen Qinglan went still.
The gesture was unexpectedly intimate, especially with him standing so close.
Then he lowered his voice.
“Play along.” Shen Qinglan blinked.
“What?” Bai Yanzhou kept his hand near her hair, making it look as though he were still fixing it for her.
“Your brother is hiding over there.” Shen Qinglan immediately understood.
She didn’t turn her head outright.
Instead, she followed the direction Bai Yanzhou indicated and glanced over from the corner of her eye.
Sure enough, Shen Mo’an was hiding nearby.
Or at least, he seemed to think he was hiding.
His face was dark, and he was staring at Bai Yanzhou so intensely that it was obvious he had been watching them for some time.
Shen Qinglan almost laughed.
So her brother still hadn’t given up.
Fine.
If he wanted to watch, she would give him something worth watching.
Her expression changed at once.
Before Bai Yanzhou could guess what she was planning, Shen Qinglan reached out and took his hand.
He looked down at their joined hands.
When he looked back at her, her eyes were already beginning to turn red.
“Brother Bai…”