Xiao Hanyuan paused, narrowing his dark eyes slightly.
“Why?”
Why? Because of that face of yours, obviously!
What if one of his subordinates recognized him as the Regent Prince? What if they realized he wasn’t dead after all?
Given everything the original owner had done to him, wouldn’t she be chopped into pieces on the spot?
Su Qinghe was panicking internally, but outwardly she looked full of concern.
“Your injuries haven’t fully healed yet. What if the bumps on the road reopen your wounds? And I wouldn’t feel at ease letting you go alone. Besides, I negotiated this business deal. If I don’t go, what if the shopkeeper refuses to honor it?”
Without waiting for an answer, she climbed onto the ox cart, scooted herself onto the haystack, and patted the seat beside her.
“Come on. We’ll go together. That way we can look after each other.”
Xiao Hanyuan looked at her protective attitude and tightened his grip on the whip slightly.
Was she worried his body couldn’t handle it?
This woman…
He pressed his lips together and stopped arguing. With a light leap, he climbed onto the cart and sat on the opposite side.
The old yellow ox let out a low moo and slowly pulled the heavy cart out of the village.
The morning fog had yet to disperse, and the mountain road was rough and uneven.
Sitting behind him, Su Qinghe watched Xiao Hanyuan’s straight-backed figure. Even while driving an ox cart, he sat upright with the calm composure of someone who had once faced thousands of soldiers.
So this is the male lead’s aura?
Even reduced to such circumstances, the nobility in his bones couldn’t be concealed.
When they reached town, the two headed straight for Drunken Immortal Tower.
Manager Liu had already been waiting at the entrance. Seeing the cart piled high with plump, glossy chestnuts, he grinned from ear to ear.
“Madam Su truly keeps her word.”
The goods were weighed, inspected, and paid for.
According to the contract, the five hundred jin of chestnuts, including the agreed premium price, earned them one tael and five hundred copper coins in total.
After subtracting the villagers’ costs, they still made several hundred copper coins in profit.
It wasn’t much, but it was steady income.
Combined with the twelve taels she’d earned from selling the recipe earlier, Su Qinghe finally had a little money on hand.
After leaving Drunken Immortal Tower, Su Qinghe tugged Xiao Hanyuan into a narrow alley.
“Here.”
She pulled out a broken piece of silver worth one tael and stuffed it into his hand.
Xiao Hanyuan stared at the silver, stunned.
“What is this for?”
“Your dividend, of course,” Su Qinghe replied matter-of-factly. “You carried the chestnuts onto the cart, and you drove the cart too. Naturally you deserve a share. A man without money in his pocket can’t even stand straight.”
Xiao Hanyuan froze briefly.
“I don’t need it.” He tried to push the silver back. “The family still has debts.”
“Debt is debt. Money is money.” Su Qinghe smilingly closed his fingers around it. “Take it! It’s more convenient if you have money on you.”
Holding the piece of silver still warm from her body heat, Xiao Hanyuan felt something frozen deep inside him crack open slightly.
Had she… truly changed for the better?
“Come on. There’s somewhere else we need to go.”
In high spirits, Su Qinghe dragged him toward a clothing shop.
The moment they entered, her eyes locked onto a dark blue cotton robe hanging on the wall.
“Shopkeeper, take that one down for my husband to try.”
The material wasn’t silk, but the weave was fine and lined with a thin layer of cotton — perfect for the current weather.
Xiao Hanyuan frowned.
“I already have clothes.”
“Your clothes are patched so many times they’re practically fishing nets.” Without giving him a chance to object, Su Qinghe shoved him toward the changing cubicle. “Go try it on.”
When Xiao Hanyuan stepped out wearing the robe, the entire shop seemed brighter.
The dark blue color made his pale complexion appear even colder and fairer. The well-tailored robe perfectly outlined his broad shoulders and narrow waist.
Though he wore no formal crown and merely tied his hair back loosely with a cloth strip, he naturally exuded an elegant, noble charm.
Even the shopkeeper was stunned.
“This young master is truly handsome. It’s as if these clothes were custom-made for you!”
Su Qinghe’s eyes lit up.
This is way too handsome!
This face could crush half the pretty-boy celebrities in entertainment circles!
“We’ll take this set!” she declared cheerfully.
As she reached to pay, Xiao Hanyuan suddenly pressed down on her hand. His gaze shifted to the faded old jacket she was wearing.
“You’re not buying anything for yourself?”
Su Qinghe glanced down at her current body and waved dismissively.
“I’ll pass.”
“Why?”
“Spend where it counts, save where you can,” she answered honestly. “My clothes are still wearable. There’ll be plenty of things needing money later.”
Besides, she planned to lose weight properly first. She could buy nice clothes after slimming down.
Xiao Hanyuan looked at her silently.
This woman didn’t even blink when spending money on him, yet when it came to herself, she became stingy.
His gaze grew complicated.
Turning around, he pointed at a loose lotus-pink jacket-and-skirt set in the corner of the counter.
“Wrap that one too.”
“Huh?” Su Qinghe froze. “I don’t want—”
“Take it.”
Xiao Hanyuan pulled out the one tael of silver she had just forced into his hand and placed it on the counter.
Su Qinghe stared at the man who was usually colder than ice and fell silent for a moment.
He really was a good person.
Even after everything the original owner had done to him, he was still willing to buy her clothes.
The novel’s future heroine was truly blessed.
The two left the shop carrying large and small bundles, then stopped by the grain and oil store to buy rice, flour, oil, and salt, filling the ox cart to the brim.
On the road back to the village, the setting sun stretched their shadows long across the ground.
Su Qinghe sat cross-legged on the cart, scribbling calculations into a small notebook.
“We still owe the gambling den ten taels in principal. With interest, probably thirteen taels total… And we only have a little over seven taels left…”
She bit the end of the brush pen, brows tightly furrowed.
She needed to figure out another way to make money.
Suddenly, a memory struck her like lightning.
When the original owner had first found Xiao Hanyuan, he’d actually been carrying quite a few valuable items.
A white jade pendant.
A gold-inlaid jade hairpin.
And—
A black jade thumb ring.
Su Qinghe abruptly sat upright, cold sweat instantly breaking out across her back.
Inside the thumb ring was a special carved emblem. It had been a keepsake left behind by Xiao Hanyuan’s mother — and also a symbol of his identity as the Prince of Zhenbei.
But that spendthrift original owner, unable to recognize its value, had pawned it off as an ordinary stone to the town’s largest underground gambling den, “Golden Hook House,” in exchange for a mere five taels of silver to fund her gambling addiction.
According to the novel’s plot, once Xiao Hanyuan recovered his memories, the first thing he searched for was that thumb ring.
But by then, the gambling den owner had already presented it to a corrupt official. After passing through several hands, it was ultimately destroyed.
That incident became the fuse that triggered Xiao Hanyuan’s complete descent into darkness, leading him to massacre the corrupt official’s entire household.
Su Qinghe swallowed nervously and secretly glanced at Xiao Hanyuan, who was driving the cart ahead of her.
His left thumb was bare.
Years of wielding weapons had left a faint pale mark there.
If he ever found out his mother’s keepsake had been pawned off by her…
Su Qinghe shivered violently, suddenly feeling like the head on her neck was becoming rather unstable again.
She absolutely had to redeem that thumb ring before Xiao Hanyuan regained his memories.
Once she repaid the sins of the original owner, erased the hatred in his heart, and saved enough money—
She would run.
That way, even if he regained his memories and discovered she’d disappeared, at least he probably wouldn’t hunt her down and chop her into pieces.