"You!" Xiao Chengjing felt a tightness in his chest from her words. How dare she say such a thing! How dare she try to distance herself from him like that!

He, the Crown Prince, his bloodline, was described as a "trouble" in her eyes? A burden that required her small silk shop to "make a living"?

What infuriated him even more was the resentment she expressed about the "accident," as if he were the mastermind behind it all!

Looking at the stubborn yet aloof face before him, and at the way she was protecting her abdomen, Xiao Chengjing felt a surge of violent emotion churning in his chest.

He wanted to grab her, to question her about her coldness, to tell her how he had been walking on the edge of a knife these past few days while still searching for her... But in the end, all his anger and complicated emotions turned into a suppressed snort.

He turned around abruptly, the hem of his dark robe catching a gust of cold wind that brushed against Shen Yuewei's cheek.

"Very well, very well indeed! Shen Yuewei, you'd better remember what you said today!" He strode out, and as he passed Chun Tao, who was pale with fright at the door, he didn't stop, leaving behind only a cold and piercing sentence, "Keep an eye on your young lady! If anything goes wrong, I will hold you responsible!"

Before he finished speaking, he had already disappeared from the shop entrance.

A deathly silence fell over the storeroom. Manager Wang clutched the ledger he'd nearly crushed, his back soaked with cold sweat. Chun Tao clutched her chest, her face deathly pale, and after a long pause, she managed to stammer, "Miss... His Highness the Crown Prince..."

Shen Yuewei remained leaning against the shelf, her head slightly lowered, her long eyelashes concealing the turbulent emotions in her eyes. The earlier confrontation had exhausted her strength, and a slight tension in her lower abdomen made her involuntarily furrow her brows.

"It's alright, Chun Tao." Her voice was somewhat tired, yet carried a strange calmness. "Help me back to the backyard to rest. Manager Wang, the shop will remain open as usual. Let's pretend today's events never happened."

She slowly straightened up, took Chun Tao's hand, and walked out of the warehouse step by step with determination. The sunlight shone on her again, but it could not dispel the chill left by the brief storm just now.

Xiao Chengjing's appearance was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake. He brought not only disturbance, but also a declaration—no matter how she tried to avoid it, she and the child in her womb had already been drawn into a massive vortex centered on him. His undisguised jealousy and possessiveness terrified her. These peaceful days were probably... coming to an end.

Back in the backyard, the aroma of the chicken soup that Zhang's mother had just cooked brought a slight relaxation to Shen Yuewei's tense nerves. She sat by the window, watching the banana trees swaying in the wind in the courtyard, her hand gently resting on her pregnant belly.

The child seemed to sense his mother's emotional fluctuation and gently kicked her.

Shen Yuewei took a deep breath, her eyes regaining their sharpness and determination.

If there's no escaping it, then face it. Crown Prince Xiao Chengjing, the score between us still needs to be settled. But... the image of his retreating figure, suppressing his anger, flashed through her mind, and a complex feeling, one she herself hadn't even noticed, swept through her heart.

The weather in Jiangnan is about to change.

Night fell as dark as ink, enveloping the water town. The aftershocks of the storm brought by the prince during the day seemed to have been soothed by the sound of flowing water and the distant clapper of the night watchman. In the small building in the backyard of "Jinwei Ji", the lights were out, leaving only a warm yellow glow shining through the window of Shen Yuewei's bedroom.

Shen Yuewei didn't fall asleep. She leaned against the headboard, a thin blanket draped over her, her hand unconsciously stroking her high, protruding belly. Xiao Chengjing's cold, angry gaze, his harsh question, "Whose child are you carrying?", and the sharp gust of wind as he stormed off replayed in her mind, unsettling her. The baby in her womb seemed to sense her unease, moving restlessly.