Ye Weiguang sighed with his hands clasped behind his back. "She's my own granddaughter. How could I bear to watch her being bullied by that woman, Wang Manwen!"
"But..." Qingfeng still thought it was rather risky. "My lord, you must think this through. If we interfere, we'll be going against the King of Yu."
Ye Weiguang nodded. "Of course I know. But I can't just let my granddaughter face those wolves alone."
Seeing that Ye Weiguang had made up his mind, Qingfeng had nothing more to say. "In that case, Qingfeng will follow my lord to the death."
A look of tenderness flashed across Ye Weiguang's face. "Although you're my bodyguard, I've always regarded you as my own son. You don't have to be so formal with me."
Qingfeng still kept his head down. "There's a clear distinction between master and servant. You're the master and I'm the servant. It's only proper for me to show you due respect."
Seeing his stubbornness, Ye Weiguang didn't say anything more. He just gently patted his shoulder and let out a long sigh. "Alright, go and rest. There'll be many things for you to do in the future."
Qingfeng nodded. "Then you should also rest early, my lord."
After leaving the Ye Mansion, Su Mingyu went straight back to the Su Mansion.
As soon as Zhizhu saw her, she asked worriedly, "Miss, you didn't go to see Lord Ye, did you?"
Seeing how nervous she was, Su Mingyu couldn't resist teasing her. "I wonder why you seem to care more about my maternal family than I do. Could it be that there's someone in the Ye family you miss?"
It was just a teasing remark, but unexpectedly, Zhizhu's face flushed bright red right after Su Mingyu said it. Her shy look clearly indicated that there was something amiss.
Su Mingyu smelled a hint of gossip. She leaned closer to Zhizhu and asked curiously, "Could it be that I've guessed right? Do you have a lover in the Ye family?"
But if she really had a lover, why didn't she want to go back to the Ye family?
"Miss... please stop teasing me," Zhizhu said with a face as red as a bun. "I'm just a humble servant. How could anyone like me..."
Judging from Zhizhu's words, it seemed that she had someone she liked?
Su Mingyu tried hard to recall her memories about Zhizhu, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't remember any man getting close to Zhizhu.
If so, who could be the one who stole Zhizhu's heart?
Moreover, it seemed that Zhizhu had some misunderstandings about that person.
Just as Su Mingyu was about to ask further, Zhizhu dashed out of the courtyard with a deeply blushing face.
Watching Zhizhu's shy back, Su Mingyu curled her lips into a smile.
Her little girl had finally grown up and started to like boys.
Early the next morning, before Su Mingyu even got out of bed, Zhizhu knocked on her door.
Yawning, Su Mingyu got out of bed to open the door. When she saw Zhizhu with an excited face outside, she asked in confusion, "Are you on a caffeine rush so early in the morning? What's got you so excited? What happened?"
Zhizhu was beaming from ear to ear. She excitedly pushed Su Mingyu into the room. "The whole circle of young ladies in the capital has been in an uproar since early this morning. Do you know that?"
Su Mingyu shook her head. "I just woke up. How could I know about such things? What on earth happened? What could make you so excited?"
Zhizhu grinned. "I heard that early this morning, the King of Ruixian went to the palace to ask the emperor for an imperial edict for marriage."
"Ah?" Su Mingyu was taken aback. "You mean Gu Ruobai?"
Zhizhu nodded vigorously. "He's the only King of Ruixian we have. Is there another one? And I heard that when the King of Ruixian asked for the imperial edict for marriage, he said that he would marry no one but you, miss."
Saying that, Zhizhu clenched her fists and jumped up and down happily. "You don't know how envious those young ladies were when they heard that the King of Ruixian, a noble prince, said such affectionate words to the emperor for you, an out - of - favor legitimate daughter."
"Now you're the talk of the town among the young ladies in the capital. Everyone is extremely curious to see what kind of woman could make the King of Ruixian, a high - ranking prince, say such infatuated words. The threshold of our Su Mansion has been almost trampled flat this morning."
The more Su Mingyu listened, the more confused she became. "You're saying that the King of Ruixian went to ask the emperor for an imperial edict for marriage between him and me early this morning?"
Zhizhu nodded. "Yes."
"You're also saying that now the whole capital knows I'm going to marry the King of Ruixian, right?" Su Mingyu pointed at herself, asking in disbelief.
Zhizhu nodded happily. "Yes!"
Saying that, Zhizhu quickly helped Su Mingyu change her clothes. "You don't know, there are quite a few young ladies waiting to see you outside."
"We must dress you up beautifully and go out to outshine everyone, so that those young ladies can see how beautiful our eldest miss is."
Seeing how excited Zhizhu was, Su Mingyu didn't have the heart to dampen her enthusiasm.
But after Zhizhu had dressed her, she said to Zhizhu, "Zhizhu, you know I've never liked this kind of public - exposure thing. I have more important things to do, so I'll leave first. I'll trouble you to handle the rest."
After saying that, Su Mingyu climbed out of the window, leaving Zhizhu in an empty room. Zhizhu stood there stunned for a long time before shouting, "Miss! You're running away again!"
Su Mingyu ignored her and ran out through the back door of the Su Mansion. She went straight to the Prince Ruixian's Mansion of Gu Ruobai and rushed in without even bothering about the guards.
"Gu Ruobai! Get out here!"
Su Mingyu shouted angrily. "What on earth have you done?"
After shouting for a few times, Mu Yi emerged from the shadows. "The prince is in the study. He certainly won't hear you if you shout here."
Without even looking back, Su Mingyu rushed straight towards the study.
When she opened the door of the study and saw Gu Ruobai sitting there reading intently, she got angry. "What did you do this morning? And now you still have the mood to read here."
Gu Ruobai raised his eyes to look at her, his tone rather calm. "Did I tell you about this? Do you have to react so strongly?"
Judging from his tone, it seemed that it was her fault?
Su Mingyu stepped forward and snatched his book away. Then she stared at him coldly. "Although we've talked about this before, you told me at that time that this was the last resort. Why is it on the agenda now? You even told the emperor. Doesn't that mean I have to marry you?"
Gu Ruobai raised his cold eyes and stared straight at Su Mingyu. "So, you really don't want to marry me?"
Seeing the flickering light in his eyes, Su Mingyu turned her face away. "It's... it's not that..."