Chapter 63 "Cousin Zhi, you can do whatever you want to me..."
About fifteen minutes after Cui Huai left, Qi Song arrived.
Seeing Shen Yunzhi's sallow and emaciated appearance, she was startled: "Yunniang, what happened to you? What happened to you?"
Although she knew that the things Shen Yunzhi carried were beyond her control, Qi Song still came today. She was moved to learn from Cui Huai that Shen Yunzhi had never revealed her true identity as a woman.
She had no way of knowing what had happened between Shen Yunzhi and Cui Huai.
However, she simply couldn't believe the claim that he was so naughty and mischievous that he ran away from home.
Perhaps it was because she was a woman herself that she had this intuition: the young woman in front of her must have gone through great pain.
She was willing to help her as much as she could.
Qi Song had learned about Shen Yunzhi's situation from Cui Huai, so she quickly went to cook porridge.
Shen Yunzhi refused to use it. She gently persuaded, "His Highness ordered me to pass on a message that now that you have been sent back, he will no longer restrict you."
“Yunniang, I don’t know about your affairs, but I got along well with you before, and I think you like living here. I have no connections and can’t help you much, except cook you a few meals and try my best to take care of you. But there’s something you should think about. Last time, he wouldn’t allow us to see each other, but today he’s asking me to take care of you. In the eyes of the neighbors and my classmates, I am a man, and we used to be husband and wife.”
Seeing that Shen Yunzhi remained unmoved, Qi Song said no more.
She didn't force-feed him; she placed the bowl of porridge on the small table beside the bed and then left.
The same thing happened the next day.
But Shen Yunzhi did not touch the food that Qi Song brought her.
Qi Song was unaware of Shen Yunzhi's concerns.
Thinking that the woman he knew was always a person with her own ideas, Qi Song gave up trying to persuade her and focused on doing his own thing.
On the third day.
Around midnight, the sound of fighting broke out in the courtyard.
Qi Song was startled awake from her sleep and rushed to the door in a panic, only to hear someone outside telling her not to open it. The fight didn't last long, but she didn't leave the room until she was told that "everything is alright" before going to find Shen Yunzhi.
The person who had been lying down for three days sat up at this moment.
Qi Song gently patted his chest and stepped forward, his voice unconsciously lowered to a whisper: "Yunniang, it's all over now." If she hadn't smelled the faint scent of blood in the air when she came over, she would have thought it was her imagination.
Shen Yunzhi slowly lay back down: "Ruzhu."
For the first time in three days, she spoke to Qi Song, saying, "Please cook me plain porridge tomorrow morning too."
Qi Song hesitated for a moment, then quickly agreed.
Every morning, as usual, a bowl of plain porridge was delivered to Shen Yunzhi's room, but from then on, Shen Yunzhi's attitude changed.
She started eating and taking care of her health, and her complexion gradually regained its rosy hue.
After his health improved, he was willing to go out again, and slowly he returned to the familiar Qi Song he used to be.
The bookstore has reopened.
Shen Yunzhi bought a lot of firecrackers and asked someone to set them off as much as possible to get rid of bad luck.
Dinner was at a nearby restaurant.
She booked a private room and invited Qi Song to dine with her under the guise of celebrating the bookstore's reopening.
There were only the two of them in the private room.
Shen Yunzhi poured wine for Qi Song, but instead offered her tea, considering her health.
"Thank you for taking care of me these past few days, Ruzhu."
After she finished her hot tea, she pushed a small box that she had prepared in advance in front of Qi Song.
The box contained half of her savings, which was also her thank-you gift.
Qi Song glanced at it and quickly pushed it back.
Shen Yunzhi said, "You were dragged into this mess because of me, and now you have something to hide in someone's hands. Your future may be difficult, and this little bit of money is nothing. You don't owe me anything, so you don't have to do so much for me."
"If Yunniang hadn't gone to Jinling because of me, she would probably be living a more comfortable and carefree life."
Qi Song smiled and shook his head. "If I say I don't owe you anything, then Yunniang doesn't owe me anything either. I was the one who agreed to it back then."
The two young women had spied on each other's secrets.
That's why I feel pity for them.
Shen Yunzhi was silent for a moment, then smiled and sighed, "But my situation is still unclear, and who knows what might happen if I get entangled with her. It would be best if Ruzhu moved out as soon as possible; I can take care of myself."
Qi Song neither said it was good nor bad, but simply poured tea for her and clinked glasses with her again.
After the meal, the two of them went home together.
As the waiter entered the private room and was about to clear away the dishes, a tall, slender figure appeared at the door. Looking over, he saw that the person had an extraordinary bearing and was dressed in fine clothes, but his expression was strange, staring intently at the teacup on the table. He respectfully asked, "What can I do for you, sir?"
"No need to pack yet."
Cui Huai spoke and stepped inside. While the waiter was still in a daze, Lin Yue directly stuffed a silver ingot into his hand.
The waiter looked down and was overjoyed. When asked where the young lady from before was sitting, he happily pointed to a spot before leaving.
Lin Yue then left the private room and stood guard outside the door.
Cui Huai sat down in the spot where Shen Yunzhi had been sitting and picked up the teacup.
There was half a cup of cold tea inside.
...
Qi Song moved out of Shen Yunzhi's courtyard.
The bookstore reopened, but business was not as good as before. Rumors spread, and most of the students in the academy were unwilling to patronize it anymore.
That would be fine if it were just that.
Along with the rumors came many ill intentions and ulterior motives.
Business was bad, and there were also problems with the newly purchased batch of goods. After Shen Yunzhi discovered this, she went to confront the merchant. The way he looked at her today was downright lewd. After a few words, this man actually took advantage of his wife's absence and became lustful.
Enraged, Shen Yunzhi grabbed a nearby wooden stick and struck the man several times before he could react.
When he was seeing stars, she went up to him and slapped him a few more times.
"You'd better go to the authorities and report me."
After uttering a single sentence and throwing down the wooden stick, Shen Yunzhi walked out of the shop with a terrible expression.
She returned to the bookstore and sorted out all the problematic goods. Then she hired an oxcart and took them all over.
She couldn't just suffer this in silence; she had to at least get her money back.
The shop was bustling with activity at that moment.
All the shipping containers had been vandalized, and the goods were scattered all over the ground in a mess. Faint cries and pleas could be heard coming from the backyard.
Shen Yunzhi frowned and glanced around from the doorway. Just then, the shopkeeper's wife returned. The woman, oblivious to her presence, cried out in surprise and, cursing the man, rushed through the shop to the backyard to find her husband.
After hesitating for a moment, she did not go in, but instead took the goods back.
Cui Huai came out from the backyard and watched Shen Yunzhi's figure disappear into the distance, a barely perceptible smirk appearing on his lips.
That day, the merchant personally went to the bookstore to apologize.
Shen Yunzhi then told him to take the problematic goods away and, in the meantime, get his money back.
"With your thin arms and legs, I really couldn't tell you were so capable."
Although Qi Song moved away, he would still visit the bookstore or cook at her home when he had free time. Sometimes the two of them would eat together and chat about random things.
Shen Yunzhi said calmly, "If we're not tough, won't we be even more bullied?"
Qi Song sighed softly and picked up a piece of food for her with his chopsticks: "Yunniang, you've worked hard today, eat more."
Although the bookstore had no business, there was no need to deliberately conceal her identity, so Shen Yunzhi took advantage of her free time to start painting. While she dared not call herself a master painter, her skills were enough to earn some money. However, when she went to sell her paintings, a wealthy merchant who happened to pass by and saw her work spent a fortune on them, simply because he was captivated by her paintings and loved them very much.
Shen Yunzhi refused the other party's kindness, put away the painting, and left.
A few days later, she went to a different calligraphy and painting shop and sold the painting for one tael of silver.
Cui Huai spread the painting out on the desk.
This is an autumn scene: a light drizzle, falling sycamore leaves, and a pond of withered lotus leaves standing forlornly in the cold wind.
His fingers traced the scroll.
Closing his eyes and suppressing the urge to immediately go find Shen Yunzhi, Cui Huai put away the painting. A short while later, he came out of the room and went to the kitchen.
...
Shen Yunzhi returned home in the afterglow of the setting sun.
As I walked along the veranda, I smelled a delicious aroma. Stepping into the main room, I saw several dishes, each with its own unique color and flavor, already laid out on the table.
The food wasn't completely cold, and the small stove in the kitchen was still warm.
Dinner was just prepared recently.
Shen Yunzhi rummaged through the food box, placed several dishes inside, and then, carrying the food box, went to find the aunt next door who kept a big yellow dog. After watching the dog eat the food and confirming it was safe and sound, she took the food box back home.
Cui Huai watched Shen Yunzhi's actions in astonishment from afar, his usual aloof demeanor crumbling.
He turned his head and saw that Lin Yue's expression was tense, as if he was trying his best to suppress his laughter. He asked coolly, "Do you also think I'm ridiculous?"
Lin Yue shook his head repeatedly: "Your Highness is overthinking it!"
Cui Huai sneered and turned to leave.
Shen Yunzhi cooked a simple dinner herself, and after eating, she boiled water to take a bath.
She went to bed before 9 PM as usual, but unusually woke up suddenly in the middle of the night.
The clear moonlight cast a long, slender shadow of the person beside the bed.
Shen Yunzhi glanced at it, then turned over and continued sleeping.
Cui Huai caught her gaze.
That one glance was enough to make his blood boil.
Cui Huai leaned down, inhaling her faint fragrance, and couldn't help wanting to get closer to her. Shen Yunzhi turned around, and with her came the gold hairpin tightly clutched in her hand. He could have easily dodged it, but he didn't move, and the hairpin pierced his flesh, just like in that dream he once had. He met her gaze and saw the indifference in her eyes.
"Cousin Zhi, you can treat me however you want."
Cui Huai smiled slightly, took Shen Yunzhi's hand, and helped her insert the gold hairpin an inch deeper.
Shen Yunzhi instead let go.
She replied calmly with three words to Cui Huai: "You're dreaming."
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