It felt like waking from a dream.

The sky was a pale blue, as if a heavy snow had just cleared.

The window was not closed, only slightly ajar. A gentle breeze carried a faint scent of snow and cold. Looking out, plum branches were flourishing, and a thin layer of snow covered the courtyard steps in the distance.

From her perspective, it looked like a field of pure white pear blossoms.

Looking away, Zhan Xinjia blinked repeatedly, her mind in a daze for a while before she came back to her senses.

Where is this?

oh……

This seemed to be the small courtyard that she and Lord Shen had temporarily rented in Canghan City. Every scene and object was extremely familiar. Those big red envelopes were still piled up by her pillow, but the snow rabbit on the windowsill had melted.

She was rescued... but what about her brother?

With a throbbing pain in her forehead, she struggled to sit up, and someone immediately offered her a soft pillow to support her lower back.

Zhan Xinjia froze, looking around blankly, only to realize that she was now lying in a funeral hall receiving condolences from relatives and friends, surrounded by a large crowd, it was quite a lively scene.

There's Qiaoqiao with teary eyes, Cui Wanzhao crying uncontrollably while clutching a handkerchief, and the simple and honest Wangcai with a worried expression...

"Ah Zhi, how are you feeling? Is anything hurting?!"

"Godmother, sob sob sob. I thought you'd never wake up again. You and Godfather haven't even taken me to the capital to see the world yet. And starving to death is such a shameful and horrible way to die..."

"Little sister, are you still hungry? Hehe, I'll go cook for you."

...

Everyone asked questions and expressed their concern.

Zhan Xinjia's gaze swept over their faces, her lips trembled a few times, but she didn't make a sound for a long time.

She lowered her head and covered her face with her fingers.

Warm tears kept dripping through her fingers onto the bedding, one drop at a time, spreading out as damp patches.

It turns out that an overwhelming sense of happiness can also bring tears to your eyes.

That's wonderful... It's as if everything she experienced before was just a nightmare she had while drunk on New Year's Day. After waking up, everyone was still noisily gathered around her, and she was never alone.

This time, everyone was indeed by her side.

When the little girl opened her eyes and started crying, everyone panicked and didn't know what to do. Some wiped her tears, some hugged her and patted her back, and some told her bad jokes to cheer her up.

"Alright, alright, don't cry. Oh, our Ah Zhi is the cutest."

"Why are you so upset? Come here, let me hug you."

"It's okay, don't worry."

Zhan Xinjia felt that she was being dramatic, and being coaxed by him with these words made her eyes even more sore.

Why are you taking so long to arrive?!

Wiping away her tears in Qiaoqiao's arms, Zhan Xinjia sniffed, looked ahead, and finally couldn't help but ask the question she had wanted to ask since she first woke up—a question that had been lingering in her mind for so long.

"Holy crap, old man, what are you doing here?!"

When she first saw the lonely old man sitting on the edge of the bed, she didn't dare to talk to him, thinking it was just a hallucination caused by her own sleep deprivation.

As soon as she finished speaking, the pipe struck her squarely on the head. It didn't hurt, but Zhan Xinjia still let out a "yelp" and covered her head, shrinking back into Qiaoqiao's arms in fear, looking aggrieved.

Damn it, why hasn't that old man changed his habit of suddenly hitting people?

The old man slowly and deliberately tied the bandage on the little girl's leg into a pretty bow, then lowered her trouser leg. He put away his pipe, took a leisurely puff, glared at her, and spoke in an annoyed tone.

"If it weren't for you, would I have been able to save these two legs? Who do you expect to save you? That young man next door who sells fake medicine?!"

Selling fake medicine... You're not talking about Yan Yuyao, are you?

Zhan Xinjia gave an awkward smile.

"No... I mean, aren't you in the capital? Who brought you all this way here? Isn't this just elder abuse?"

As he said this, Zhan Xinjia froze, then belatedly and stiffly turned to look at Yan Huishi beside him.

My pupils dilated in disbelief.

Holy crap, if the old man isn't her hallucination, could this one be real too?

The young crown prince was currently sitting by the window, drinking alone in a depressed and miserable mood.

He originally wanted to get close to Mei Bao, but there were too many people and he couldn't squeeze in. So he had to settle for second best, sitting by the window with a sullen face, looking up at the sky at a 45-degree angle, drinking and pretending to be deep.

Seeing her looking at him, he no longer cared about his dignified image as the Crown Prince. He burst into tears, threw down the wine pot, pounced on her, pushed past Qiao Qiao, and hugged her tightly.

When the wild geese returned, their voices were filled with self-reproach, guilt, and regret.

His eyes were red as he tried to suppress his inappropriate emotions, but his trembling voice still betrayed his disheveled true feelings.

"I should have never let you come to Canghan..."

"Only six months have passed, how did you end up like this? Can't you give me a break once in a while?"

He was heartbroken.

He originally thought that if she wanted to go out and explore, he should let her go out and explore. He had no right or position to stop her. Besides, it was her freedom to do whatever she wanted, and he couldn't bear to restrict her.

But if he had known that letting her venture out into the world would leave her battered and bruised, he would have preferred to do what was written in the banned "canary" novels that were criticized and confiscated: to imprison her, keep her in captivity, and feed her three meals a day.

This method wasn't impossible; Yan Hui had even seriously studied its feasibility. The only operational difficulty lay in his feeling that even with a hundred men, he couldn't defeat her.

The most likely outcome is that the younger sister will tie him up, lock him up, and beat him three times a day. She'll probably squeeze the pee out of him...

Thinking of this, Yan Huishi suddenly felt inferior.

He fell silent, stopped crying, and silently let go of her hand. He walked to the corner, squatted down, buried his head in his hands in despair, and began to withdraw into himself.

Zhan Xinjia was already used to Yan Huishi's intermittent erratic behavior, after all, there was no one in the world who cared about him.

What she wanted to know was something else.

"Since you're here, where's A-Yue? You didn't bring her along, did you?"

Ah Yue has always been the last one to return to the capital, so how could she possibly want to stay there alone? She must have come to Cang Han with him. But the problem is, I looked around and couldn't find Ah Yue anywhere.

The person who answered her question was Zhan Yinshu, who slowly walked in carrying a freshly brewed medicinal soup.

The young man was still dressed in a simple white robe without any ornaments, but the mask on his face was finally removed.

His face was like a piece of cold jade, clear and bright. His eyebrows and eyes were seven or eight parts similar to those of nine years ago, and one could vaguely make out his appearance from back then. However, his pale blue eyes were still constantly reminding everyone that his body was now just a dead thing.

Upon seeing him enter, and recalling his past experiences, everyone's spirits dampened.

Ignoring the well-intentioned, pitying, or sympathetic glances, Zhan Yinshu went straight to the bedside, slowly stirred the medicine in the bowl with a spoon, and carefully blew on it to cool it before bringing it to her lips.

He smiled and explained gently.

“Yesterday, as soon as she saw me, A-Yue fainted from crying. She is resting next door now, and Lord Fu is comforting her.”

Zhan Xinjia blankly uttered an "Oh".

That's true. After all, they've played together since childhood. The fact that their brother is still alive is a huge shock to the Yan siblings, and his current physical condition is truly heartbreaking to hear...

A-Yue is a crybaby who loves to whine, and she's probably crying herself to death right now.

Obediently swallowing the medicine from the spoon offered to her lips, Zhan Xinjia licked her lips, her previously listless spirits seeming to have improved somewhat.

Their eyes were bright.

"Fu Shou'an came along too? Where is Lord Shen?"

Oh right, where is her husband, Xiao Shen?