The heartache and tenderness in her clear, almond-shaped eyes were like a needle, pricking the softest part of his heart. In an instant, his heart felt utterly sodden.
For some reason, he found her gaze held a distant quality that stirred a sense of longing.
All the defensiveness and hostility that had filled him moments before vanished under her gaze, like air leaking from a punctured ball. He lost all his fight. The boy abruptly looked away. His clear voice, now thick with an unexpected wave of emotion, said, "Thank you for just now. Even if… I'm not in this manor anymore, I'll find a way to repay you all…"
'Not in this manor?'
Shen Qing gazed at the top of the boy's head for a moment before walking over and crouching in front of him. Looking at him with gentle eyes, she said, "You are our young master. If you aren't in the manor, where else could you be?"
Yu Zihan faltered, unconsciously lifting his gaze to meet the woman's eyes once more.
'It wasn't just her eyes. Her voice, the feeling she gave off—it was all so familiar...'
'She was a little like… the woman who had appeared in his life many years ago, the one he had called "Mother."'
But that was ten years ago. He hadn't even turned three back then, so most of his memories were hazy and fragmented. Even when he desperately tried to recall them, he often couldn't distinguish between real events and fantasies born from his own desperate yearning.
Besides, his mother had been twenty-two when she suddenly vanished. She would be in her thirties now. How could she possibly be this young maid?
At this thought, Yu Zihan averted his gaze again, looking uncomfortable. He bit his lower lip and whispered, "I hate my father. I don't want to stay in this manor any longer."
Shen Qing was taken aback.
The moment Yu Zihan said this, the grievances buried deep in his heart burst forth like a flash flood. For the first time, he couldn't control himself. He sniffled in front of this strange woman and said, "I hate him. Now that he has so many concubines, he'll have new children soon enough. He won't need me anymore.
"No, that's not right. He never really needed me in the first place. All these years, no matter how well I did, no matter how much my teachers at the academy praised me, he didn't care.
"Even when I started acting out—not studying, not doing my homework—he still didn't care…"
As Yu Zihan spoke, he hugged his legs tighter, like a small, wounded animal protecting itself. His voice, hoarse and tinged with resentment, continued, "He's changed… He's becoming less and less like the father I once knew, and this place is becoming less and less like the home I once knew.
"If that's the case, I might as well leave. He has all those concubines to keep him company now, so he won't be lonely anymore…"
Shen Qing felt her own heart clench, tightening bit by bit with the boy's every word.
She had been absent for ten important years of his life. After returning to this world, she had tried every way she could to learn about Yu Jiuqing and Yu Zihan. But few commoners dared to casually discuss the affairs of the reigning Prime Minister and his only legitimate son.
This was especially true for Yu Zihan. After extensive inquiries, all she could find out was that he had once been called a child prodigy. It was said he could compose poetry at five and write essays at six. His stunning, brilliant talent was in no way inferior to his father's. Many had even predicted he would follow in his father's footsteps—who had become an Advanced Scholar at thirteen—and become another bright pearl in the world.
In recent years, however, for some unknown reason, his personality had undergone a complete one-eighty. Not only had his academic performance plummeted, but he also went around stirring up trouble, on the verge of becoming another one of the Capital City's young hellions.
The public was not only shocked but also deeply regretful. A perfectly good child prodigy was, before their very eyes, about to fall from grace.
Shen Qing looked at the boy before her, sighing to herself. She was just about to say something.
From not far off, another burst of chaotic footsteps suddenly rang out!
By the sound of it, they were clearly coming from the direction of the back gate!
A sense of foreboding washed over Shen Qing, but the young boy in front of her reacted even faster. He grabbed her, pulled her down to sit beside him, and whispered, "Tsk. It must be Zhou Hui and his men. They must have realized something was wrong and come back…"
Shen Qing, now forced to hide with her own son: "…"
'Look how practiced he is,' she thought. 'I wonder how many times he's played hide-and-seek with his attendants.'
Seeing the young boy beside her carefully tilt his head to peek out through a gap in the bushes, Shen Qing felt both amused and helpless. She wanted to tell him that he probably wouldn't be able to escape this time.
After all, Zhu Yuan and Chen Ying were still out there.
Without her there to run interference, those two young maids wouldn't be able to fool the shrewd men Yu Jiuqing had specifically assigned to his son's side.
Sure enough, just a few moments later, Zhou Hui's low, suppressed voice, laced with a hint of tension, came from outside. "Young master, please come out."
Yu Zihan's body stiffened slightly, but he remained still, clearly clinging to a sliver of hope.
Zhou Hui said in a grim voice, "You've been in confinement for the past month. The Lord knows you're in a bad mood, so he probably won't hold today's incident against you too strictly, young master. However, if the Lord were to find out that three audacious maids dared to…"
Yu Zihan trembled. His hands clenched into fists as he shot to his feet. He spun around and glared at the man, who seemed to have just breathed a sigh of relief. Like a cat whose tail has been stepped on, he seethed, forcibly suppressing some powerful emotion. "This has nothing to do with them! I threatened them not to give me up!"
Shen Qing glanced at Yu Zihan, then also stood up and moved to stand behind him.
Outside, it was indeed the same group of men from before. Surrounded by them were Zhu Yuan and Chen Ying, their faces deathly pale. The two girls were clinging to each other for support, looking as if they might collapse into a miserable heap on the ground at any moment. They looked utterly pathetic.
Zhou Hui's gaze fell heavily on Shen Qing, who stood behind Yu Zihan.
A moment ago, the woman's demeanor had been so natural, so flawless, that he had been completely deceived.
If he hadn't been halfway on his way when he suddenly recalled the odd expressions on her two maids' faces—the way their eyes kept darting toward a large, nearby tree—he would never have grown suspicious and turned back to check. By now, the young master would have been long gone!
'What a… detestable, cunning woman!'
Sensing the displeasure in Zhou Hui's eyes, Shen Qing arched an eyebrow slightly. 'Oops,' she thought, belatedly lowering her head in a belated attempt to appear inconspicuous.
In any case, it wouldn't do for her to stand out too much in this manor right now.
She hadn't expected, however, that Yu Zihan would also keenly sense the hostility in Zhou Hui's eyes. His brow furrowed as he said, "I told you, I threatened them into doing this! Zhou Hui, you're not really going to report them to my father, are you?!"