The moment someone mentioned her favorite dish, Su Mingyu couldn’t help but lick her dry lips. In her previous life in the twenty‑first century she’d never been much for indulgence, but somehow under Gu Ruobai’s care she’d been spoiled—made picky, even.
A whole table of food sat before her, and her appetite woke at once. She hugged the bowl to her chest and ate with both hands, mouth full and eyes bright.
Gu Ruobai watched her for a long beat, amused. “Slow down,” he said, one eyebrow lifting. “No one’s going to snatch it from you.”
“Mmm.” Su Mingyu swallowed and mumbled around a mouthful of rice. “I didn’t eat anything this morning. I was starving. I’m not some prim lady who has to daintily nibble her food. That kind of fuss is exhausting.”
Gu smiled—half helpless, half fond—and picked a piece of vegetable off her plate with his chopsticks and pushed it toward her. “I know you’re blunt by nature,” he said, “but try to eat slower when you leave. Don’t choke on your own hurry.”
She finished in a few swift mouthfuls, wiped her lips, and stood. “Alright. I’ve got to go back and deal with the girls at my house.”
“If you don’t want to go back yet, you can stay a bit longer,” Gu said, watching her. “I can’t afford to keep you forever, but you’re welcome to linger.”
Su Mingyu hesitated only a second. “If Zhizhu finds me hiding out here and has to face those women alone, she’ll tear me limb from limb.”
Gu’s gaze softened as he remembered how Zhizhu fussed over her. “She’s probably the one who cares for you most in the whole Su household.”
At the mention of Zhizhu, Su Mingyu couldn’t keep a smile off her face. “She’s been through enough. If she didn’t have someone to care about her, what would she have left?”
Gu’s mouth twitched into a small smile of his own. “I’ll have Mu Yi escort you.”
After the alley ambush last time, she no longer refused his offers of protection. They slipped through the back gate of the Su estate. No sooner had they crossed the threshold than Zhizhu’s sharp voice stabbed the air.
“You finally come back. Where were you? Do you know how close those girls came to tearing me apart?”
Su Mingyu laughed at Zhizhu’s flustered expression. “Couldn’t you have told them I was out?”
“I did!” Zhizhu pouted. “But they didn’t believe me. You disappearing at dawn—who would?”
“Enough.” Su Mingyu waved Zhizhu forward. “Show me where they are. They can’t have been waiting long.”
She had assumed “a big crowd” was an exaggeration, a colorful way to say a few curious neighbors. But when she rounded the garden and saw the company of ladies gathered in the yard, she realized Zhizhu hadn’t exaggerated at all.
Did these women have nothing better to do with their days than form gossip circles?
They surged toward her the moment they saw her. “You must be the Su Mingyu Prince Rui Xian says he only wants to marry?”
She managed a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I slept in because I wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t mean to keep everyone waiting.”
They inspected her as if she were some novelty. “After hearing how he’s pining, I thought she’d be some celestial beauty,” one of them sniffed. “But she’s no great shakes.”
Su Mingyu let the corner of her mouth lift. “I’m nothing special—just happened to catch Prince Rui Xian’s eye.”
“And yet—” She swept a meaningful look across them. “If someone like me can win Prince Rui Xian, why are you still unmarried?”
The question was a direct strike to the pride of the assembled ladies. A gilded young woman—gold and silver in her hair, wealth written in every stitch of her gown—stepped forward with a mocking smile.
“You married a prince, sure,” she said. “But you married a cripple. What’s there to flaunt?”
She added with a pointed look, “Look at your sister, Su Yueyue, cozy with Prince Yu—she keeps quiet and lets her affairs be. Why all this boasting from you?”
They were supposed to be the ones making trouble. Su Mingyu raised an eyebrow. Someone had stirred up this group to come calling; it was obvious.
“So why didn’t you go bother my sister, if you have a bone to pick?” Su Mingyu asked coolly.
They hadn’t expected her to push them out like that. The gilded girl narrowed her eyes. “He only got an imperial match for you; it’s hardly something to crow about. Why act so high and mighty?”
Su Mingyu sank onto a nearby stool with a lazy grace, looking up at the speaker. “Do I have to be beautiful and refined for him to like me? Or is that what you think—he chose me because I’m well‑bred, gentle, modest?”
The ladies’ chattering rose into a hum of indignation, offense wearing their faces like armor. “You’re just a neglected daughter of a noble house, who do you think you are, strutting around like that?”
“Everybody knows your family favors Su Yueyue.”
“We came all the way to pay our respects—”
“We were being generous! And you repay us with this attitude?”
Su Mingyu’s smile sharpened. “Tell me, then—who said Prince Rui Xian likes me because I’m all prim and proper?”