Did Miss become a nun today?

Xie Yunchu lost.

An hour and a half had passed, and the three of them were still sitting there motionless.

She put down the scripture, her brows furrowing slightly. It was too eerie.

She stood up, and the three of them followed suit, their wooden fish mallets pausing in mid-air.

She sat back down, and they sat down as well.

They got up again and followed each other.

After this happened twice, she finally lost her temper, put the wooden fish on the table, and stared at them for a long time.

"What exactly do you want?" she asked.

"I just wanted to see you because I was worried you might be bored," Pei Changfeng said.

"You finally made it down the mountain, we just wanted to come and see you," Wei Lin chimed in.

Meng Qi'an didn't speak, but simply closed the book in his hand, placed it neatly back on the table, raised his eyes to look at her, his gaze gentle, neither arguing nor fighting, but determined not to leave.

Xie Yun Chu took a deep breath, closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and pointed at the Buddhist scriptures in front of them.

"I also spend an hour copying Buddhist scriptures every day."

He placed paper and pen in front of them and said, "Copy it. After you've copied it fifty times, we'll talk."

The three of them exchanged glances, and then actually picked up their pens and began copying diligently.

Xie Yun Chu felt a sudden darkness before her eyes. She had to return to Qingyun Nunnery and leave tomorrow!

Outside the courtyard, Zhao Zhang and Zhao Mingyue stood on the roof of the opposite courtyard, craning their necks to look in their direction.

"Your Highness, how do you know that after I said those things to her, she would come down the mountain?"

"She grew up in the Marquis's mansion. Even if she's not close to others, it's where she grew up, and she has deep feelings for it. How could she really let go?" Zhao Zhang said confidently. "Didn't you say she's soft-hearted, loyal, and wouldn't abandon us?"

"But what if they can't do it either?"

Zhao Zhang narrowed his eyes. "It's better to try it than to just sit around waiting."

Before the three entered the courtyard, Prince Su had instructed them that if they could persuade Xie Yun Chu to give up the idea of ​​becoming a nun, they would have the opportunity to become his son-in-law.

Those kids naturally scrambled to get in.

Zhao Mingyue then asked, "Whom does Your Highness favor?"

Zhao Zhang scoffed, "No one is good enough for his daughter!"

Even if his and Shen Heng's child doesn't get married, and he takes in ten or eight men in the future, no one will dare to say anything.

My daughter is already a princess, who says she has to get married?

However, neither the Pei nor the Wei family's sons are good enough for him; they're not even worthy of being called male concubines. Only Meng Qi'an is a true gentleman and barely worthy of my attention.

Four people were bent over copying scriptures inside the room. The window was open, and the scene inside was completely visible.

Pei Changfeng picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote with a steady wrist, each stroke neat and upright. He had never been so serious when he was a child studying.

Wei Lin clicked his tongue inwardly and muttered something, but didn't stop talking.

Meng Qi'an picked up his brush with ease, and his brushstrokes were even and clean. He finished the first line in just a few breaths.

Xie Yun Chu leaned back in his chair, picked up his pen and began copying the scriptures. He only glanced at them out of the corner of his eye before ignoring them.

The three people opposite, however, would look up every few lines they wrote, and when they saw that no one was paying attention to them, they stopped being distracted.

As the sun moved from its zenith to the mountain peak, Pei Changfeng put down his pen and handed over the paper filled with writing. "It's done."

Xie Yun Chu took it and glanced at it; the handwriting was indeed neat.

She couldn't help but feel a little frustrated. Back then, she and Pei Changfeng practiced calligraphy at the same time, so why was his calligraphy so good, while hers was crooked and she just couldn't write it well no matter what?

Fortunately, Buddha wouldn't find her handwriting ugly.

He folded the paper neatly and placed it aside without changing his expression, and didn't say anything.

Meng Qi'an and Wei Lin handed her the copied Buddhist scriptures one after another. Wei Lin had a look on his face that looked like he wanted praise, but he found that Xie Yun Chu was expressionless.

She put the three papers into the drawer, clapped her hands, and stood up. "You're done copying. You can leave now."

The three of them froze. Pei Changfeng was the first to react, "Didn't you say you were done copying...?"

"What I said was, let's talk after we finish copying," Xie Yun Chu interrupted him. "That 'You can leave now' I said earlier."

Before Wei Lin could say anything more, she had already lowered her head.

Meng Qi'an's eyes flickered, he chuckled, and cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to her, "It's getting late, I really shouldn't stay any longer, so I'll take my leave."

After saying that, he turned and left without the slightest hesitation.

Wei Lin opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing more, and followed them away.

Pei Changfeng stared at her for a long time; her face was as pale as the moon on the mountain, and the energy in his heart dissipated.

In his cousin's eyes, he should be no different from anyone else, right?

He had written a few words on the back of the sutra while he was copying it, but she acted as if she didn't see them and didn't even glance at him.

"Cousin, you..."

Can you please stop acting like this?

He didn't dare say those words aloud; he had wronged her, and he was already incredibly fortunate to be able to see her again.

He took a few steps and stopped at the door. "I also brought you some pine nut candy today. It's on the stone table outside. Keep it if you like it, or throw it away if you don't."

As the footsteps faded into the distance, Xie Yun Chu finally raised her head.

She walked to the stone table and sure enough, she saw an oil paper package containing pine nut candy coated with icing sugar, and a sweet aroma wafted out.

She shook her head. Why bother?

Just as she was about to put away the candy bag for Hui Niang, she saw Shen Heng leaning against the courtyard gate, having stood there for an unknown amount of time.

"They've all left?"

"I'm gone."

"Are you really not wavering?"

"No," Xie Yun Chu said. "I'm going back tomorrow. Please take care."

Shen Heng looked at her for a moment, but ultimately said nothing more. "Well, just take care of yourself."

That evening, she went to bed early, but unexpectedly, Hui Niang came to knock on her door in the middle of the night.

"Yun Chu, something's happened."

She got up and opened the door. Hui Niang looked anxious. "Yun Chu, something seems wrong outside."

"What's wrong?"

"I went to the outhouse just now and heard a noise outside. I went out to take a look and saw the servants of the Prince's Mansion hurrying eastward. I wonder what happened."

Xie Yun Chu paused in her rubbing of her eyes. East? Her mother and aunt lived in the east.

"I didn't see clearly, but I heard someone calling for a doctor and heading towards the east courtyard."

Is someone sick?

Xie Yun Chu's heart tightened. Without thinking too much, she quickly put on her clothes and headed to the east courtyard.

The east courtyard was brightly lit and filled with people.

No one spoke. Shen Heng stood under the eaves with a sullen face, but her aunt was nowhere to be seen.

"What's wrong?"

Shen Heng asked in surprise, "What brings you here?"

"Huiniang said a doctor has come to the east courtyard, so I came to see him. Where is my aunt?"

Shen Heng's eyes immediately reddened. "Her old illness has flared up... her condition isn't good."

"An old ailment? When did this old ailment begin?"

"Don't you know? Your aunt was wounded on the battlefield when she was young, which ruined her health. She has relapses from time to time, and each time it almost kills her."

"You should know from your years in the Marquis's mansion that she usually doesn't seem sick, but once she does get sick, it takes a long time to recover," Shen Heng sighed.

Xie Yun Chu knew this; others would recover from a cold in a few days, but her aunt's colds would drag on for half a month or even a month each time.

Her aunt kept saying it was nothing, so she didn't think much of it.

Is it really that serious?

Seeing her worry, Shen Heng patted her hand and said, "It's alright, I'll keep an eye on things here. You should go back to sleep; you need to return to Qingyun Nunnery tomorrow."