The young lady is delicate and soft, yet she criticizes the powerful minister for bowing and scrapin

"cousin."

When Qi Yunli returned to the manor, night had already fallen.

He hadn't looked for her for a while, but when he returned from the banquet, he came looking for her again.

"Where did you go? Why didn't you come back with the carriage?" Wei Jun reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her close.

"Something came up along the way, so I got off the carriage, took care of some business, and then hurried back."

Wei Jun didn't believe him: "What important business is it? Or did you go to meet the person who picked up your veil?"

Qi Yunli's breath hitched, and she suddenly felt a little suffocated: "What nonsense is my cousin talking about?"

"Nonsense?" Wei Jun gripped her wrist even tighter. "I saw it last time at Prince Rong's flower-viewing banquet. Your veil fell off, and afterwards he sought you out to speak. Ah Li, tell me honestly, do you have feelings for him? Have you fallen for him?"

"If you, cousin, are going to randomly pick any man and presume to know my feelings, then think whatever you want."

Ignoring the pain in her wrist, Qi Yunli insisted on pulling it back.

She struggled to break free, but inevitably a red mark appeared on the bottom of her palm, very noticeable on her delicate, fair skin.

Seeing his docile little rabbit bristle again, Wei Jun pressed on, "Do you think that just because you were able to negotiate with me last time when I was under the influence of medicine, you can always negotiate with me?"

"Isn't my cousin engaged?" Qi Yunli's eyes suddenly reddened.

She couldn't figure out why the person in front of her had suddenly become angry with her.

"I am engaged, and you have already met my future mistress. After we get married, you will become my concubine." Wei Jun's tone left no room for negotiation.

Qi Yunli didn't say anything more. She took out a veil from her sleeve, threw it on the table, and then left.

Before leaving, her gaze swept over the original painting "Drinking Alone Under the Moon" on the wall.

Just as the servants had rumored, the original "Drinking Alone Under the Moon" painting was transformed into "Drinking Together with a Man".

After a long while, Wei Jun picked up the veil on the table and muttered to himself, "Ru Feng, perhaps I really misunderstood her."

Ru Feng also learned other information at this time: "Master, the young lady got off the carriage halfway to buy wound medicine to apply to her arm. Yue said that the young lady's wound was very deep, and she was worried that the bleeding would not stop and that someone would find out, so she had to find an excuse to get off the carriage to buy medicine."

"She's injured?" Wei Jun's voice turned somber.

The candles were lit at dusk, their flames flickering and dimming as the wind blew in through the window.

Wei Jun was clutching her veil in his hand, and when he looked down, he could see two very faint drops of blood on the floor.

This is exactly the spot where Qi Yunli was standing just now.

In the courtyard, Tingyue applied medicine to her mistress with a frustrated expression: "Miss was injured outside, and when the young master returned, he ignored her and instead called you over to scold you."

As they talked, they noticed how deep the master's wound was and that the dressing needed to be changed, so they applied it several times.

The master was in so much pain that his face turned deathly pale, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Tingyue couldn't help but start crying as she spoke.

"Don't expect him to care about me anymore. Let's go our separate ways. I'm just glad he doesn't bother me." Qi Yunli felt extremely wronged.

Faced with traps set by others time and time again, she could only passively accept them, or turn the tables and try to find loopholes in them in order to save her own life.

In the end, she managed to protect herself, while those who framed her often escaped punishment.

"I wonder how the old lady will punish you for framing you this time," Tingyue said. "Last time she said she would be punished for half a year, but she was able to come and go freely from banquet to banquet after only half a month."

Qi Yunli: "This is none of our business; worrying too much is useless. As your master, I want to make you happy."

She sat on the edge of the couch, the wound on her right arm burning with pain, the pain reaching deep into her bones. She dared not move.

She didn't expect that there would be a sharp stone there that cut her.

When she first got cut, her arm was just numb and not very painful. Perhaps it was because she was in a panic, busy explaining to others why Qin Xue had fallen off the horse, so her body was quite docile and didn't react with much pain.

Back in the relaxing courtyard, her arm began to feel like countless tiny needles were pricking her flesh, causing her aches and pains all over her body.

Qi Yunli couldn't bear to see Tingyue worrying about her all day, so she gently and slowly raised her left hand and placed it on Tingyue's brow, gently smoothing away her furrowed brows with a hint of comfort.

"Don't worry, it's just a minor injury, it'll heal in a few days."

Physical pain is nothing compared to the pain in one's heart.

Perhaps it was because her body was in too much pain, or perhaps it was because she had been suffering one injustice after another recently, and she hadn't yet adapted to the intense level of grievances she was experiencing.

She was afraid of pain, but she didn't have enough money to buy painkillers, so she could only afford to buy some hemostatic medicine. After entering the mansion, she lived frugally, thinking of saving some money for her younger brother, which would also be a way to accumulate some dowry for herself in the future.

Qi Yunli rubbed her eyes: "Are you done wiping them?"

"Okay, go to sleep early, young lady." Tingyue nodded, put down the medicated oil, and went to the room to light a charcoal fire.

They didn't have much charcoal, and they were always reluctant to use it. They would only use it once a year when Qi Yunsi came back and the weather was cold, to warm up in the room before going back to their own rooms to sleep. But Tingyue still started a fire.

The door closed gently. Qi Yunli lay on the bed, her right arm outside the blanket, her whole body flat on the floor.

A flood of memories washed over her like a tidal wave, unstoppable, just like the tears welling in her eyes. Strangely, the more she tried to control it, the less she could. That's just human nature, isn't it?

If her parents were still alive, she would probably choose an ambitious, kind, and gentle man from among those who proposed to her and marry him.

The husband's family home should be within easy walking distance of her parents. This way, she can help with the family business and see her parents and brother whenever she wants.

No one blew out the candles outside the tent. Qi Yunli let them burn out on their own, indulging herself this one night.

After an unknown amount of time, Qi Yunli, exhausted from a day's work and physically injured, slowly drifted into a dream as her thoughts wandered.

In a daze, she felt a cool, itchy sensation on her arm. Qi Yunli slightly opened her eyes, which were blurred with tears, so she couldn't see the other person's features clearly, only the color of their clothes and their figure.

"Wei Jun," Qi Yunli called softly, but he just stood there without saying a word.

Half-asleep, she drifted back to sleep, mumbling to herself, and snuggled deeper under the covers. Her right arm seemed much better, and she pulled it further in.

Why would I dream about him?

Wei Jun stood tall by the tent. He held a bottle of wound medicine in his hand, a medicine that had a pain-relieving effect.

He just stood there. With his excellent eyesight, he saw that the woman inside the mosquito net had her eyes closed, but tears were streaming down her face from the corners of her eyes, and two large tear stains had spread across the back of her head on the pillow.