The most dissolute couple in the capital

Noon seven days later.

Yongxingfang, where the Cui residence is located, was as quiet as ever.

First came the rapid sound of hooves from the alley entrance, followed by a magnificent horse, its body entirely crimson and its mane as red as fire, striding proudly across the street, drawing the attention of passersby who stopped to look.

"What a fine horse! Is this an Akhal-Teke?"

"From the Western Regions, a single horse is worth a thousand pieces of gold!"

Before the first horse had gone far, the second and third horses followed in quick succession.

Five, eight, ten horses—each one a fine steed chosen from thousands, led slowly by strong servants dressed in brocade robes along the main street of Yongxingfang.

The neighbors all rushed out, the vendors put down their stalls, the old lady dropped her needlework, and even the two old men playing chess on the street corner stood up and stood on tiptoe to look in that direction.

"Whose ostentatious display is this?"

"The young master of the Wang family in Taiyuan! I heard he's acquired some fine horses and wants to take them out for a spin!"

A dozen or so hired hangers-on mingled in the crowd, cheering and making a ruckus, quickly blocking the once spacious street.

The gatekeeper at the Cui residence poked his head out to watch the commotion, and even the servants on duty at the gate couldn't help but take a few more glances.

There was also some commotion in the backyard.

"Miss! There are so many horses outside! They're so beautiful!" Su Xin turned her head and said, "I heard it's the young master of the Wang family from Taiyuan walking his horses!"

Cui Qingyi was sitting under the flower stand peeling lotus seeds when she heard this and paused for a moment.

The Wang family of Taiyuan.

She glanced in the direction of the backyard.

"Let's go to the backyard to admire the flowers."

Su Xin was so bewildered by her master's sudden change of direction that she had no choice but to follow him out.

When Cui Qingyi walked to the backyard, she happened to meet a "servant" dressed in coarse cloth and short brown clothes who peeked half his head out from behind the moon gate.

This "servant" was tall and slender with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His face was mostly covered by a headscarf, revealing only a pair of bright, sparkling eyes.

Beneath the headscarf, half of the moon-white brocade collar gleamed out.

A fine piece of mutton fat jade was also tied around his waist.

Cui Qingyi looked at him for two breaths.

"Your Highness," she said in a flat voice, "your clothes are askew."

The servant behind the moon gate froze.

Li Chengjing walked out from behind the door and first looked down at himself—his short brown robe was indeed caught crookedly on the corner of the brick wall, and his brocade robe underneath seemed to mock his disguise, brazenly exposed.

He reached out and tugged at his collar, but missed, instead messing up his headscarf and revealing a patch of dust and a few bits of leaves stuck to his forehead.

"..."

Li Chengjing gave up struggling, simply ripped off his headscarf, revealing his entire face, and smiled at Cui Qingyi: "How did you know it was me?"

"In the entire Chang'an, wearing coarse cloth clothes and mutton-fat jade pendants, at this time, there is probably only Your Highness who appears in my backyard," Cui Qingyi said calmly.

Li Chengjing glanced down at the jade pendant at his waist and suddenly realized, "Oh, I forgot to take it off."

He raised his head, walked confidently under the flower stand, sat down casually opposite Cui Qingyi, picked up a lotus seed from the plate and popped it into his mouth.

"It's quite sweet."

Cui Qingyi watched as someone fed the lotus seeds she had just peeled one by one into their mouth, and her eyes twitched slightly.

"Your Highness climbed over the wall just to eat my lotus seeds?"

"No," Li Chengjing mumbled, chewing on a lotus seed. "I wrote you a letter, but you didn't reply."

"A letter?" Cui Qingyi raised an eyebrow slightly, feigning a struggle to recall. "What letter?"

Lee Seung-kyung's mouth movements slowed down.

He looked at Cui Qingyi suspiciously: "I had Zhao Lu deliver it to you, inviting you to offer incense. Su Xin received it."

He glanced at Su Xin, who was standing behind Cui Qingyi with her head bowed: "Didn't you receive it?"

Su Xin: Thank you for the invitation, please don't mention it.

"Oh—" Cui Qingyi drawled, then nodded as if suddenly realizing something. "Then the letter."

"Yes, that letter!" Li Chengjing leaned forward, his face full of anticipation. "Have you read it?"

Cui Qingyi smiled gently.

"I've seen it."

Lee Seung-kyung's eyes lit up.

"Then it was burned."

"..."

Lee Seung-kyung's expression froze on his face.

The wind blew across the flower stand, and a few petals drifted down onto the broken leaves above his head.

"Your Highness, from the time of betrothal to the wedding, men and women should not have private interactions." Cui Qingyi's tone was calm and unhurried. "If the censor finds out that Prince Liang secretly went out of the city with his fiancée for a spring outing, although it won't be Your Highness who will be impeached, my father, a sixth-rank secretary, will not be able to withstand such trouble."

Li Chengjing instinctively wanted to refute, but after a few moments of thought, he realized that what she said did make sense.

He pointed to the ground beneath his feet: "I understand if it's inconvenient, but I'm here at your house, so I can stay here without anyone bothering me."

Cui Qingyi looked at his dusty brown clothes and the bits of leaves on his head: "Your Highness, you just climbed over my wall."

"Yes, that's why I didn't let you go out."

"..."

Cui Qingyi discovered a serious problem—this person's logic was self-consistent.

Although this self-consistency is based on an absurd premise, he did not actually ask her out.

Cui Qingyi took a deep breath.

"Your Highness," she said calmly, "you know that if I call for help now, you will look very bad."

Li Chengjing tilted his head and thought seriously for a moment: "You know I have someone following me, right?"

Cui Qingyi choked for a moment; royal children must have secret protectors.

He continued, "Besides, I haven't done anything wrong, I just wanted to come and see you."

He spoke with remarkable candor, without the slightest hesitation.

Cui Qingyi picked up her teacup and took a sip, using the rim of the cup to conceal the unconscious curve of her lips.

She put down her teacup and changed her strategy: "Your Highness came today to question me about why I burned the letter?"

"Not entirely." Li Chengjing took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, placed it on the stone table, and pushed it in front of her. "On the day of the betrothal last time, I saw from afar that you seemed to have an injury on your hand."

Cui Qingyi was taken aback.

She looked down at her right hand.

There is a faint red mark on the back of my hand—I was cut a few days ago while pruning flowers in the garden. The wound is not deep, but it has been slow to heal due to the dryness of the changing seasons, and a thin mark is still visible.

"Your Highness saw it from that far away?"

"I have good eyesight." Li Chengjing's lips curled up. "Besides, you were behind the window that day, and I saw you when you occasionally reached out to lift the curtain."

Cui Qingyi: "..."

Li Chengjing didn't notice her expression and had already opened the small porcelain bottle on his own.

A faint medicinal fragrance wafted through the air, not pungent, but with a slightly sweet aftertaste, like the scent of dew-dampened grass in a late autumn valley.

"It was made by the imperial physician, and I added some spices." He pushed the porcelain bottle towards Cui Qingyi. "It won't leave scars and it even has its own fragrance."

Cui Qingyi looked at the porcelain vase.

Seeing that she didn't move, Li Chengjing simply reached out and said, "If you're not going to apply it, I'll apply it for you."

"Your Highness—"

Before Cui Qingyi could refuse, her wrist was grasped by a warm, dry hand.

Lee Seung-kyung's hands were larger than she had imagined, with distinct knuckles and a soft, unproductive quality.

He turned her hand over, examined the red marks on the back of her hand closely, and frowned: "Was this scratched by a flower branch? Doesn't anyone in your household prune the flowers?"

"Someone fixed it, but I wanted to cut a couple of branches and put them in a vase that day."

"You cut it yourself?" Li Chengjing looked up at her, his eyes filled with genuine confusion. "You have maids, why do you have to do it yourself?"

Cui Qingyi was stumped by his question.

Why did she do it herself?

Perhaps it was a habit from a previous life. Having served as the mistress of the Zheng family for over a decade, she personally handled all matters, big and small, even matters like flower arranging. The Zheng family's rule was that "the mistress must be skilled in flower arranging," and she personally changed the flowers in the main hall and ancestral hall every ten days.

One winter, she pricked her hand on a rose thorn and bled quite a bit. The next day, she still had to go to her mother-in-law's house to observe the proper etiquette. Zheng Wenyuan passed by and saw that she had a handkerchief wrapped around her hand. He simply said, "Be careful," and went straight to his study.

"I'm used to it," Cui Qingyi said calmly, pulling herself out of her thoughts.

Li Chengjing did not ask any further questions.

He used his little finger to pick up a little ointment and gently applied it to the red marks on the back of her hand. His movements were slow and his touch was very light, as if he were painting a tiny, exquisite traditional Chinese painting, afraid of hurting her.

But my fingers still trembled a little clumsily.

"Does it hurt?" he asked.

"It doesn't hurt."

"That's good." He breathed a sigh of relief and continued applying the ointment, doing so with exceptional care, even taking care of the intact skin on both sides of the red mark, applying a thin layer.

Cui Qingyi looked down at his movements and suddenly felt something was strange.

She had lived for so many years in her previous life, married into such a good family, and experienced so much glory and prestige, yet no one had ever treated her like this before.

It's just a small scratch.

Cui Qingyi suppressed her excitement; it was just a small scratch.

"Alright." Li Chengjing finished applying the ointment, closed the porcelain bottle, and handed it to Cui Qingyi. "Keep the rest and apply it once a day for the next few days."

He loosened his grip on her wrist.

Cui Qingyi withdrew his hand and held the porcelain bottle in his palm. The bottle still carried the warmth of his palm.

"Your Highness," she looked away, her tone returning to its usual calm, "your 'brilliant plan' is to have the young master of the Taiyuan Wang family ride his horse in front of my house, to provide cover for you?"

Li Chengjing was overjoyed: "You guessed it?"

"It's not hard to guess. With all of Chang'an being so boring, including Your Highness, there are only three people."

Li Chengjing was not angry at all; on the contrary, he was smug: "How about that? Clever, right? Chengyuan paid three hundred strings of cash to hire someone, and He Li is keeping watch at the street corner—"