The mistress who remarried has returned.

Su Yunxi recalled that Qin Huai had warned her not to provoke Xue Wenying in the future, and the desolation in her eyes could not be concealed. She did not greet him without knowing her status, and walked straight past him.

As she passed by Qin Huai, her wrist tightened as a warm hand gripped it. His hand touched the back of her hand, sending shivers down her spine. She paused, and then he applied some force, pulling her back slightly.

In a secluded place, Qin Huai intimately held her wrist. This hidden and unspoken intimacy made Su Yunxi feel depressed and distressed.

"What are you doing?" Su Yunxi tried to break free from his wrist. "What if she sees us?"

"I won't let her see," Qin Huai said in a low voice. "I've sent her away."

His hand gripped her slender wrist like an iron clamp. Su Yunxi struggled for a while but couldn't break free, so she stopped struggling.

Qin Huai gently pulled her closer to him, and she had no choice but to take a few steps forward. The tassel of the purse at her waist brushed against his thigh with her movements, bringing a slight but undeniable ticklish sensation through his not-so-thin winter clothes. The layers of her skirt gathered around his shoes, partially covering his feet.

Su Yunxi wondered if he had deliberately sent Xue Wenying away to cause her trouble again, to clarify her identity, and to tell her not to embarrass Xue Wenying in the future. She turned her face away and waited for him to speak first.

Are you angry?

Su Yunxi's tone was unpleasant, and she guessed that he was probably referring to Su Yuanzhou marrying her off to someone else, and his attempt to distance himself from the matter. She said in a trembling voice, "No, it's none of your business whichever man my father gave me away to. What reason do I have to be angry?"

"If you're not angry, why aren't you looking at me?" Qin Huai asked.

Upon hearing this, Su Yunxi turned her face to face him, meeting his restrained and suppressed gaze. "I'm not angry."

"Then give me a smile."

Su Yunxi couldn't laugh; her eyes stung with tears. "I don't want to laugh. I'm not a giggler."

Qin Huai smiled gently, "I must have done something to offend you that made you cut up my cloak."

Su Yunxi thought to herself, "He's pretending to be innocent now. Doesn't he know what he's been using her for for seven years?"

Qin Huai's gentle gaze carefully examined her hair, appearance, figure, and clothing. "You look really beautiful dressed today."

Su Yunxi's heart skipped a beat. Was he going to punish or warn her for dressing like this to put Xue Wenying down? She pursed her lips and stared at him uneasily. This was something she had done intentionally. She was just waiting to see how he planned to punish her. If that didn't work, she would immediately clarify that she hadn't wronged him. He didn't need to make things difficult for her in every way.

Seeing the wariness and suspicion in her eyes, Qin Huai gently patted the top of her head.

Su Yunxi felt gentle stroking on her head, and her icy heart warmed up a little. She heard Qin Huai say slowly, "I understand that you've gone to such lengths to dress up, not to put Xue Wenying down. You're doing it to please me."

what?

Su Yunxi was taken aback. He actually thought that way? She realized that he must have received a report from Kang Yin about the Crown Prince's awakening, which meant that she had dressed up to fulfill her promise to him to steal a moment with him while the Crown Prince was ill.

Su Yunxi immediately lowered her head, touching her face with her hand, afraid of revealing that she actually intended to renege on the agreement and had no intention of having a relationship with him. If he knew that she had broken the contract and was being dishonest, he would definitely feel tricked and make him pay.

Seeing her shyly covering her face with her hands, looking incredibly alluring, Qin Huai couldn't help but show his affection. He took her hands in his and softly called her, "Xixi."

When Su Yunxi's scalded hand was grasped by him, she hissed. When he gently called her Xixi, she felt as if she had returned to the seven years when he loved her dearly.

Qin Huai looked down and saw the large blister on her palm. He had seen it in front of everyone earlier, so he couldn't ask. Now he asked in a low voice, "Did you burn your hand when you were making medicine for Zhou Yu?"

How could Su Yunxi say that she was burned while making medicine for Zhou Yu? It wouldn't be right to cuckold him so easily. Besides, she and Zhou Yu were completely innocent. It's just that he never believed her, and given his previous experiences of not liking her being nice to Zhou Yu, she had no choice but to tell the truth: "It wasn't from making medicine for Zhou Yu."

"How did you get burned?" Qin Huai asked, puzzled.

"That afternoon, when I was attending to him at the East Palace, I heard the guards at the East Palace say that the Qin family was going to arrange a concubine for you to carry on the family line. After I helped him take his medicine, I was so distracted while cleaning up the medicine-brewing stove that I burned my hand."

Qin Huai inquired carefully, "The household has arranged for me to have a concubine to carry on the family line, so why did you seem so lost in thought?"

Su Yunxi dared not reveal that she still couldn't forget him, lest he feel she had been desecrated, so she gave a vague answer, "I don't know either. If I knew, I wouldn't have been so lost in thought."

Qin Huai smiled gently and said, "Because you don't want me to have children with other women?"

Seeing that his expression had softened and he showed no sign of anger, Su Yunxi was quite pleased. She knew she had to appease him. If she said she didn't care, he would surely regret that she had been lying to him with sweet words all those years, using him as a stepping stone to climb higher. In that case, her life would definitely be in danger. So she nodded. "Didn't you say you wanted me to have a few children for you? Then I just can't understand why you want to have children with someone else."

Qin Huai asked, "Where have you been these past few years? How did you manage to give birth to me?"

Su Yunxi immediately fell silent. She wasn't just sulking with him in the East Palace; she was really trying her best to spite him. Whenever she had a chance to meet Qin Huai, she dressed up extravagantly, adorning her hair with two or three gold hairpins that swayed wildly as she walked. In short, she wanted Qin Huai to know that she could live a thriving life even without him. She... never expected that the East Palace would be raided and that she would fall into Qin Huai's hands.

Qin Huai said slowly, "Why aren't you wearing your gold hairpin today?"

Su Yunxi felt a jolt in her heart. In the past, whenever they met by chance, he would ignore her. She thought he didn't care at all. But now that he asked her out of the blue, she realized that he had only seen her, but had ignored her in order to maintain appearances with the Tian family.

Su Yunxi glanced at him, and he looked at her with great interest. She was extremely annoyed, wishing she hadn't caused so much trouble these past few years.

"They confiscated everything during the raid..." She tried her best to justify her past actions, saying, "I never really intended to wear it; I just had to wear it for social occasions."

Su Yunxi said awkwardly, then touched the hair ribbon on her hair bun. The ribbon was blown up by the wind and fluttered around his neck and cheeks, tracing patterns. She hurriedly reached out to take the ribbon back, but Qin Huai raised his hand and pinched the ribbon between his fingers. She pulled the ribbon out from between his fingers, and the ribbon wrapped around his fingers. With her pulling motion, it left a cool and itchy sensation on his fingers.

Qin Huai took a breath and stared at her with great interest.

Su Yunxi carefully put the hairband back behind her hair bun.

For some reason, the atmosphere became quite intimate and ambiguous.