"If you can't guess, you can ask someone to calculate it, and maybe you will know it."

Wei Jiaoniang made no secret of her dislike for Yu Chaoyun.

"Why? Do you need a reason to hate someone?" Lu Qin said with a smile, "Do I need to explain to others that I don't like barking dogs?"

Yu Chaoyun clenched his handkerchief tightly, his face was pale and his eyes were uncertain.

Now that things have come to this, it's more than just her being slapped in the face in public.

She was representing the aristocratic family in the piano competition today. If she lost, it would hurt the family's reputation, but as long as she could maintain the family's integrity, she could still gain recognition from others.

But now, Gu Yanfei, Wei Jiaoniang and the others had trampled her into the mud. If she went back in such a disgrace, how would other girls from noble families look at her?! Who would look up to her in the future?!

"The snow has stopped!" Wei Jiaoniang shouted happily out the window, stood up from her chair, and pulled Gu Yanfei and Lu Qin up with her, "We can play hide-and-seek now."

"Okay, okay, I'm almost sitting stiff." A girl in green clothes jumped up excitedly, and the others were also eager to try.

Lu Qin huddled up, and even though she hadn't left the water pavilion yet, she could already feel the biting cold.

She didn't want to go outside in the cold wind at all, but she couldn't resist the enthusiasm of the other girls, so she reluctantly followed the other girls out of the water pavilion.

No one paid any attention to Yu Chaoyun anymore, and she was left standing alone at the table.

The girls' cheerful laughter gradually faded away.

Miss Zeng and others on the west side of the water pavilion were still sitting in the distance, looking at Yu Chaoyun with complicated expressions, and no one came forward for a long time.

There was dead silence all around.

Yu Chaoyun's hand, hidden in his sleeve, was tightly gripping the incense ball, almost squashing it.

She didn't know how long it had been before she heard a friendly and soft female voice: "Zhao Yun."

The voice came just a few steps behind her. A slender and graceful shadow was cast beside her, and the silhouette of the butterfly and pearl flower swayed slightly on the ground.

Even if he didn't look back, Yu Chaoyun knew that the person coming was Gu Yunmeng. The fingers in his sleeves tightened a little more, and the haze in his eyes was so thick that it was about to overflow.

She had known since she was a child that her cousin Fang Mingfeng was betrothed to Gu Yunmeng from the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion, so she could only hide her feelings well.

After coming to the capital this time, she learned from her aunt, the wife of the Duke of England, that Gu Yun'er had an affair with Prince Kang, and for this reason she pushed her cousin to Gu Yanfei, the second daughter of the eldest branch of the Gu family who had been living away from home for more than ten years.

And Gu Yanfei actually told the Queen Mother in public at Prince Jing's Mansion that she did not recognize her marriage with the Fang family.

This news was like a bolt of lightning to Yu Chaoyun.

The cousin she loved wholeheartedly was pushed around like a hot potato by the Gu sisters. What on earth did they think of her cousin? !

"Chao Yun?" Gu Yunmeng from behind called out again, and the shadow on the ground also moved forward a step.

Yu Chaoyun closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, calmness returned to his eyes.

She turned around slowly, and when her face met Gu Yunmeng who was a few steps away, her expression was full of grievance, her eyes were watery, her slightly pale lips were tightly pursed, and she looked like she was enduring embarrassment.

It looked as if the bright and elegant peony had been roughly plucked from the branch, with a few petals falling from the corolla.

"Chao Yun, you didn't lose, and you don't need to admit defeat. Don't take it too seriously." Gu Yun'an gave Yu Chao Yun a soothing smile. The pair of dimples at the corners of her lips looked like they were filled with honey, and she looked very amiable.

"Ming-ming, thank you." Yu Chaoyun nodded, took a step closer to Gu Yun-ming, and forced a smile that was a little bitter.

She reached out and held Gu Yunyan's hand. In her every move, she was like a naive white rabbit, delicate and innocent, with a childlike dependence.

Gu Yunmeng felt the coldness of Yu Chaoyun's palm and felt more and more sorry for him, so she sighed in her heart.

She held Yu Chaoyun's hand soothingly, trying to give her strength and warmth.

Yu Chaoyun turned his gaze to the sparkling lake outside the window again, and said softly, "Mr. Meng, I was actually sent to the capital by my family."

"I won't hide it from you. They are after the eldest prince's wife."

Her voice was vague and weak. As she spoke, her long eyelashes trembled slightly and her chest rose and fell violently.

It seemed like he had been suppressing this emotion for a long time, and there was really no one he could talk to, so he could only confide in Gu Yunmeng.

"thump!"

A golden and silver carp in the lake outside the window flew up from the water, then fell down, splashing water everywhere. A few drops of water splashed onto their dresses through the window. Yu Chaoyun's cuffs were wet, as if stained with tears.

"Chao Yun..." There was a stronger sense of pity in Gu Yun'er's words. He was touched and wanted to persuade her.

In this era, no matter whether they were common women or girls from aristocratic families, they had no choice. Their marriages were controlled by their families, and they could only go with the flow and find a marriage that was well-matched with them. From then on, they would take care of their husbands and children, and live their lives in mutual respect.

It's really pitiful that a bright pearl gradually turns into a dull and dead fish eye.

However, before Gu Yunmeng could finish her next words, she heard Yu Chaoyun softly say, "Yanmeng, I'm actually very happy."

Gu Yun'er opened her rosy lips slightly and looked at Yu Chaoyun in astonishment.

Yu Chaoyun looked at Gu Yunyan again and smiled slightly, with three parts of gentleness and three parts of sweetness in her smile, and then said: "I am very happy. I have admired His Royal Highness the First Prince since I was a child."

"When I was young, I came to the capital several times..."

"When I was seven years old, I went to the palace with my aunt and met His Royal Highness the First Prince in the Imperial Garden. At that time, I was admiring the lotus with a few girls by the lake. Two girls had a quarrel and accidentally bumped into me during the shove. I almost fell into the lake, but fortunately His Royal Highness the First Prince pulled me back."

"To me at that time, His Highness was like a hero... He was really a very gentle person."

What Yu Chaoyun said was half true and half false, but her feelings were real.

When she was seven years old, she did go into the palace with her aunt, but she omitted one person in the story, her cousin Fang Mingfeng.

Back then, the person who held her back in the palace was her cousin, and the person she fell in love with was also her cousin.

There is no one else except my cousin.

(End of this chapter)