Qin Ye!
Yun Si shook her head.
The face in her vision was still Qin Ye’s.
Why was it so clear this time?
Yun Si suddenly sat up in bed.
“You…”
It really was Qin Ye—but this was not a dream. This was reality.
Qin Ye’s expression was awful. In the depths of his dark eyes, there was obvious, tightly restrained annoyance, along with a hint of embarrassment and a touch of mockery.
What had happened?
Yun Si swept her gaze around the room.
There was no mistake. This was her room.
“Why is Your Highness here?”
Yun Si looked at Qin Ye in confusion. Qin Ye coldly tugged at the corner of his clothes, and only then did Yun Si realize that her hand was gripping his clothing tightly and refusing to let go.
She hurriedly released him.
Qin Ye said nothing. He turned and walked away.
After taking two steps, he suddenly stopped. “This prince was merely passing by. I never expected to hear you calling for your little brother in your dream. I disturbed your sweet dreams—truly, I am terribly sorry.”
“…What?”
Before Yun Si could react, Qin Ye had already opened the door and strode away.
Yun Si pressed her lips together.
Why had she dreamed of that again?
Even now, she still could not completely forget how that experience had made her feel.
Strangely enough, whenever she thought of Shen Qian now, all she felt was hatred and disgust. She was not particularly heartbroken. But when she thought of what had happened in the cave, a sense of regret and bitterness rose within her.
In truth, at the beginning, her feelings for Shen Qian had been limited to friendship and the affection between siblings. She had cared deeply for him and relied on him greatly, because Shen Qian had been the only person willing to approach her of his own accord and show her kindness.
After the incident in the cave, Shen Qian had said that he wanted to marry her, and her feelings toward him had clearly changed. That was why she had agreed to become engaged to him.
At the time, she had not understood. She had thought that this was what love was. After their engagement, she had relied on and trusted Shen Qian even more. Under his coaxing and deception, she had nearly cut off all contact with the outside world apart from her parents and elder brothers.
Shen Qian often told her, “A-Si, people’s hearts are unfathomable. You must remember that I am the only person in this world who truly treats you well. I will never harm you.”
“If you trust me, then don’t pay attention to what those people outside say.”
“A-Si, although you are frail and often ill, and you know nothing about managing an inner household, I truly love you. I won’t mind your shortcomings. As long as you obediently listen to me, once we’re married, I promise I’ll treat you well for the rest of your life.”
“You’re always so willful. No wonder those people dislike you and don’t want to be friends with you. I’m the only one who can tolerate you like this.”
“I’m doing all this for your own good. Your parents and brothers don’t understand—don’t you understand either?”
At that time, she had seemed to be pulled into a dense fog, unable to react no matter what happened. She had even believed for a while that Shen Qian truly liked her, and that was why he had taken so much trouble and spent so much time earnestly advising her.
Looking back now, the things he had said were clearly carefully woven mental shackles.
Later, when Qin Ye had appeared and forcibly taken her away, she had finally escaped Shen Qian’s psychological control—at least temporarily.
But she had been unable to distinguish good from bad. Even after marrying Qin Ye, she had continued to place her faith in Shen Qian. As a result, her already precarious relationship with Qin Ye had fallen all the way to freezing point, ending in misery.
The past was too painful to recall.
Yun Si dressed and got out of bed. When she opened the door, Lan Xin and Lu Yu were both standing outside. Their faces were full of curiosity and amusement.
Lu Yu was too straightforward to hold back. “My lady, did His Highness spend the night in your room?”
They had been married for over a year, and this was the first time they had seen His Highness come out of her room.
Could it be that last night, the two of them had…
Lan Xin was also brimming with excitement and curiosity. She looked at Yun Si and asked, “My lady, did His Highness say when he would restore your status as Princess Consort?”
Yun Si poked each of them once on the forehead and said calmly, “I’m hungry. Go prepare breakfast for me.”
“Oh.”
The two of them left dejectedly.
While eating, Lan Xin told Yun Si about Lin Shuyan’s situation.
For the sake of recuperating, Lin Shuyan had already moved into the residence. She had been settled in Rose Courtyard, not far from the main courtyard.
It was Nanny Qian who had arranged it for her.
After listening, Yun Si continued calmly picking up food and eating. Not the slightest hint of urgency could be seen on her face.
Lan Xin sighed mournfully.
Hadn’t my lady said she was going to win His Highness back?
Could it be that she was planning to retreat?
That Miss Lin… Although she seemed like a decent person, they absolutely could not give her the chance to steal His Highness away.
“My lady.”
Lu Yu came rushing in from outside. “Something terrible has happened!”
“Can’t you be more composed?” Lan Xin glared at her and lectured, “What kind of appearance is this, rushing around in such a panic?”
Lu Yu pouted but did not take offense. “My lady, something major has happened to the Shen Family. Young Master Shen has disappeared. Even His Majesty has been alarmed. He has dispatched people from both Dali Temple and the Patrol Battalion, and they’re searching the entire city.”
“Is that so?”
Upon hearing the news, Yun Si merely curled her lips in an almost imperceptible smile.
The disappearance of a fourth-rank official was naturally no small matter.
All of this was within her expectations.
Neither Dali Temple nor the Patrol Battalion would think that Shen Qian had been locked inside the secret chamber of the sealed Yongyi Marquis’s Residence.
However, if a third person had known about Shen Qian’s actions that night, someone would certainly remind them to search the Yongyi Marquis’s Residence for him.
And the person who provided that clue was very likely connected to the mysterious figure behind Shen Qian.
“Is His Highness in the residence?”
Yun Si set down her bowl and chopsticks and rose, walking outside.
She had only Lan Xin and Lu Yu by her side, and neither of them knew martial arts. She could not let them handle dangerous matters.
In her previous life, she had stayed by Qin Ye’s side and knew that the struggle for the throne had been fierce. There had been no shortage of ambitious princes in the imperial court. Yet she could follow only Qin Ye, and she had been unable to hear a single sound.
She had relied on the scenes she saw to guess at many things. Because of that, even now she did not know who the mysterious person speaking secretly with Shen Qian on the night she died had been.
Just as Yun Si reached the main courtyard, she saw Chief Mu, the residence’s leader of guards, walking out of the study.
When Mu Ze saw Yun Si, he did not look pleased.
This was all because of the poor treatment she had once shown Qin Ye, and the consequences it had brought her.
In this residence, aside from Lan Xin and Lu Yu, probably no one liked her.
Yun Si glanced at Mu Ze and caught the scent of blood on him.
Had he also been injured when Qin Ye was ambushed last night?
“Wait.”
Mu Ze did not spare Yun Si even an extra glance. He walked straight past her.
But he had never expected that Yun Si, who had always held herself above everyone else and treated no one as worthy of her attention, would actually take the initiative to call out to him.
In truth, Yun Si had never been someone who looked down on everyone. When she had lived in the Marquis’s Residence, she had always been kind to the servants around her. She had never treated them as less than human merely because she was a young lady and they were servants.
She had simply… hated Qin Ye too much at the time, and had taken her anger out on these people.
“What is it?”
Mu Ze was a tall, cold, upright, hard-edged man. Every emotion was written plainly across his face; he did not know how to disguise anything.
“His Highness was ambushed last night. Was the opponent very formidable?”
Yun Si noticed that Mu Ze’s left shoulder was slightly raised and guessed that his injury was there.
Mu Ze’s martial arts were by no means weak, while Qin Ye’s true abilities were unfathomable.
However, Qin Ye had concealed his strength. Perhaps to avoid exposing himself, he had not taken action. Even so, for someone to injure Mu Ze, that person had to be someone not to be underestimated.
If Lin Shuyan had orchestrated the entire incident herself, then she was rather capable.
Yun Si did not dare to underestimate anyone who had been reborn.
“Why is Mistress Yun asking? If they weren’t formidable, how could we have been injured?”
Mu Ze was somewhat impatient. After saying this, he was about to leave.
He was annoyed just looking at this woman.
If not for her, how would His Highness have been summoned to the palace and reprimanded by His Majesty?
He had even been punished by being made to kneel.
Most importantly, did this woman have a heart at all?
Could everything His Highness had done for her earn even the slightest bit of gratitude from her?
He felt that His Highness was being treated unfairly.
Yun Si took a step forward and pulled out a bottle of her own Golden Wound Medicine, holding it out to him. “Take this. It should help your injury heal more quickly.”
Mu Ze’s cold, rigid expression froze. A trace of astonishment appeared on his face.
“If Mistress Yun has this much concern, you should use it to care more about His Highness. I’m a rough man. I’ll recover quickly enough even without medicine.”
“I’ll take care of His Highness myself.”
Yun Si directly stuffed the bottle into his hand. Without saying anything else, she walked toward Qin Ye’s study.
Mu Ze stared at the medicine bottle in his hand. A trace of disdain flashed through his eyes, and he casually tossed it into the haystack beside him.
Yun Si knew nothing about this.
Even if she had known, she would not have cared.
She had never expected the people in the residence to change their attitudes and opinions of her immediately. Their prejudices had accumulated over a long period of time, and eliminating them would likewise require time.
The study door was open. When Yun Si entered, Qin Ye was sitting behind the desk, organizing some things without raising his head.
After entering, Yun Si closed the door. She then moved a chair over and placed it opposite his desk. Only after sitting down did she speak to him.
“Qin Ye, let’s talk.”
The hand organizing the items paused slightly. Qin Ye raised his eyes to look at her. “Talk about what?”
“We need to be honest with each other.”
Yun Si met his gaze and said solemnly, “There has been a misunderstanding between us. I want to explain it clearly to you.”
“Oh?”
At last, aside from indifference, another emotion appeared on Qin Ye’s exquisitely handsome face. “What misunderstanding? Go ahead. This prince is listening.”
“I know you weren’t the one who framed the Marquis’s Residence.”
“You’ve already said that.”
“It was Shen Qian.”
The moment Yun Si said this, the gaze Qin Ye had fixed on her face faltered slightly.
She continued, “Do you think that even if you put the evidence right in front of me, I still wouldn’t believe that Shen Qian was the one who harmed my entire family? That I would instead accuse you of trying to drive a wedge between us?”
Qin Ye remained silent.
His tacit acknowledgment made Yun Si let out a bitter laugh.
“There is a mysterious person behind Shen Qian. I don’t know how they learned that my father possessed something that would be detrimental to them. That thing is very likely hidden somewhere in the sealed Yongyi Marquis’s Residence. Shen Qian has already gone there.”
“How do you know he’s already been there?”
“Because he is currently locked inside the secret chamber in my father’s study.”
Qin Ye frowned, his gaze at her becoming complicated.
He was probably too surprised. He had never imagined that she would tell him about such a secret matter.
At present, the entire city was searching for Shen Qian, and the commotion was enormous. If people learned that this matter was connected to her, the consequences for a disgraced official’s daughter with no one to rely on would be self-evident.
At the very least, this proved that she trusted him.
“Shen Qian is trapped in the secret chamber of the Marquis’s Residence. The mysterious person behind him must have received the news as well and knows that Shen Qian went to the Marquis’s Residence. So, if we want to investigate that person’s identity, we only need to keep an eye on Dali Temple and the Patrol Battalion. Once we discover that someone provides them with a clue…”
“Yun Si.”
Qin Ye abruptly interrupted her. “Let this matter end here.”
“Why?”
Yun Si thought he did not believe her, or that he was unwilling to help her. She suddenly rose and leaned across the desk toward him, staring into his eyes.
“Qin Ye, do you really… not want me anymore?”