A young nobleman in embroidered robes leaned out from the carriage window, resting one arm on the sill as he gazed at her with a teasing smile.
From a distance of over thirty feet, he called out loudly, "Hey, Shi Si, have you made up your mind to marry me yet?"
His tone was so intimate that one might easily assume there was something between them.
If not for his sudden appearance, An Jiu would have almost forgotten this man existed! What puzzled her most was that she was dressed in men's clothing, with a low-brimmed hat covering nearly her entire face. She couldn't fathom how this playboy had recognized her. Could it be that the ones following her weren’t Wei Yuzhi’s men, but Hua Rongjian’s?
Passersby, recognizing Hua the Second Young Master, stopped in their tracks to gawk at An Jiu, quickly forming a crowd.
Hua Rongjian stepped down from the carriage and strode toward her under the watchful eyes of the onlookers. He had tanned slightly compared to a few months ago, now clad in a dark blue brocade robe with subtle patterns and draped in a black fox fur coat. The subdued colors lent him a more mature air, but his infuriatingly flirtatious demeanor had only grown more pronounced.
An Jiu felt the urge to punch him.
"Tsk tsk, how did you end up in such a sorry state?" Hua Rongjian grinned, clearly taking delight in her misfortune. After a pause, as if suddenly remembering something, he added with feigned sympathy, "I heard your family suffered a calamity."
"Yes, a calamity!" An Jiu replied expressionlessly, tossing a metaphorical bucket of filth over his head. "Could it be that after your proposal was rejected, you flew into a rage and secretly sought revenge?"
Hua Rongjian had a notorious reputation for mischief, and those who overheard couldn’t help but suspect him.
"Would I go that far over something so trivial? If I asked Mei Shi for you, would she dare refuse?" As he spoke, he actually walked over and took the reins of An Jiu’s horse himself, declaring with conviction, "I would never do anything to upset a beauty."
"Oh really? Then who was the bastard who started a fight with me at the slightest disagreement?" An Jiu sneered.
However, she had clearly underestimated Hua Rongjian’s shamelessness. He looked up at her with an exaggerated expression of shock and righteous indignation. "Good heavens, what a scoundrel! Tell me who it was, and I’ll teach him a lesson for you."
News of Hua the Second Young Master personally acting as a groom for a woman spread like wildfire through the street. In no time, a crowd of curious onlookers had gathered.
An Jiu had never been the center of so much attention before. Her nerves were on edge, and suddenly, she could no longer sense the presence of the person who had been tailing her.
"Get lost!" An Jiu yanked the reins back, spurred her horse forward, and left Hua Rongjian behind.
"Hey!" Hua Rongjian turned to his attendant. "Unhitch the horse, unhitch the horse!"
"Young Master, aren’t we going to Ruiyun Tower?" the attendant asked.
Hua Rongjian snapped impatiently, "Which is more important—some random woman or your future mistress? Use your eyes!"
Seeing his temper flare, the attendant quickly ran to unhitch a horse from the carriage. Without waiting for a saddle to be fitted, Hua Rongjian vaulted onto the horse and galloped after her.
An Jiu found an inn, paid for a room, and had an attendant take her horse away. Once inside, she locked the door and slipped out through the back window.
Hua Rongjian arrived at the inn and knocked on the door for a long while. When no one answered, he kicked it open.
The luggage was still inside. Hua Rongjian untied the bundle and rummaged through it carelessly. "What kind of junk is worth carrying around?"
When An Jiu left, she had only taken the token and silver given by Chu Dingjiang, along with the dagger she always kept on her—these were the only valuable items she possessed. The rest—clothes, a cloak, and the hat—were left behind at the inn.Hua Rongjian circled the room and noticed that all the windows were shut, except for one that wasn’t latched. “She actually slipped right under my nose!”
With that, he pushed open the window and climbed out.
The bright daylight outside illuminated the scene as Hua Rongjian noisily stomped across the rooftops, making a spectacle of himself.
If a young nobleman from a prestigious family took a liking to a lady of equal standing, he would typically act discreetly, quietly sending someone to propose marriage and only making it public once the matter was settled. But Hua Rongjian was anything but discreet—he had a knack for turning things into a city-wide sensation.
Within two hours, nearly half of Bianjing had heard that the Hua family’s second young master had finally decided to settle down, with rumors swirling that the woman he fancied was a tigress.
When Old Madam Hua heard the news, she wept tears of joy.
At the time, the trend of consorting with courtesans was rampant among scholars and literati, often seen as a romantic affair rather than a disgrace. Hua Rongjian’s fondness for lingering in pleasure quarters was a minor issue, but the fact that he had also kept a man in a male brothel had led to rather unsavory gossip. There had even been cases in Bianjing where noblemen fell in love with other men, and when their families intervened, the lovers chose to die together. Old Madam Hua had been living in constant fear of such a tragedy. Now that her son had finally come to his senses, she was overjoyed. Even if the woman was a tigress—or even a Yaksha—she would welcome her into the family with open arms.
An Jiu, however, remained completely unaware of all this.
She arrived at the government office, holding Chu Dingjiang’s token, ready to enter when she suddenly heard a loud thump-thump-thump .
“Ha! There’s no one in all of Bianjing that Hua the Second can’t find!” Hua Rongjian shouted from afar. “Mei Shisi, don’t run! Let’s have a proper talk!”
People on the street stopped to watch.
Before, An Jiu’s mental strength couldn’t sense Hua Rongjian’s inner force, but now she could tell he was only at the fourth stage.
In truth, this was already considered quite skilled among noble youths. But An Jiu, accustomed to seeing eighth- and ninth-stage experts—even those in the Transformation Realm—assumed he was truly a good-for-nothing.
Hua Rongjian leaped down from the rooftop. “I have something to discuss with you.”
An Jiu was used to hiding in the shadows, to being invisible. Yet Hua Rongjian, whether intentionally or not, always thrust her into the spotlight, leaving her at a loss.
“Come with me,” Hua Rongjian said, uncharacteristically serious.
“Fine.” An Jiu tucked the token into her robe and agreed bluntly.
She had planned to follow him to a secluded spot and knock him out, but after walking for a while, she realized her mistake—there was no such thing as seclusion when trailing someone so flamboyant. So she pulled her hat low to conceal her face.
Even after boarding the carriage with Hua Rongjian, An Jiu’s keen mental strength still detected countless eyes watching them.
Hua Rongjian poured a cup of water and handed it to her. “To calm your nerves.”
An Jiu glanced down. His long, clean fingers held a Jun porcelain teacup. A sliver of light from the window fell on the back of his hand, shimmering slightly with the carriage’s movement and refracting a crystalline glow in the tea.
She averted her gaze, ignoring him.
“Still angry? I’ve thought it over carefully these past few days,” Hua Rongjian said earnestly. “I regret fighting with you. It’s been eating at me.”
He was overly familiar, as if they were old friends despite having met only a handful of times, making An Jiu deeply uncomfortable.
With a sigh, he downed the tea in one gulp and lamented dramatically, “To think that I, Hua Rongjian—peerless in elegance and charm—actually fought with a woman. And worst of all, I didn’t even win!”An Jiu's lips twitched slightly. "If you don't want to talk business, you'd better shut up. Don't make me hit you."
Hua Rongjian immediately shook off his melancholy, his eyes crinkling with amusement. "A gentleman uses his words, not his fists. Don't be crude—how about using your mouth instead..."
Two dull thuds followed—An Jiu's fist connecting with Hua Rongjian's face, and his head smacking against the carriage wall.
"Mei Shisi! If you're going to hit someone, don't aim for the face!" Hua Rongjian fumed. What if he lost his dashing looks from now on? "If my face gets ruined, do you have any idea how many young ladies would be heartbroken? Aren't you afraid of divine retribution?"
"Are you selling smiles or your body, that you need a pretty face to win people over?" An Jiu scoffed. (To be continued...)
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