TSFLIP Chapter 571

She said timidly, “B-but you’re a man and I’m a woman. Men and women shouldn’t be so intimate… You really shouldn’t have changed my clothes…”

“This matter is known only to you and me. No one else will hear of it, and your reputation will remain untouched,” Si Jia replied, his expression indifferent as he echoed the very same words she had once said to him at the inn when she tried to barge into his room. Spoken from him now, though, they carried not even a hint of roguishness.

Fengguang’s expression turned complicated. “When you say you changed my clothes… just how far did you go?”

He finally shifted his gaze from the wooden figure and looked at her, but didn’t say a word.

His silence said it all.

Fengguang wanted to dig a hole and bury herself alive!

Seeing her face turn a little pale, he even asked considerately, “Are you feeling unwell?”

“No…” Her tone suddenly stiffened. Instinct told her she needed to change the subject fast, or she’d just end up more embarrassed. “I was just wondering—where are we right now?”

“A small town in Jiangnan,” he replied.

“A small town?”

Understanding her concern, Si Jia explained, “Don’t worry. It’s not the same kind of town we wandered into a few days ago.”

Fengguang frowned. “Wait, even if we managed to escape that place, that town mayor was still under the imperial city’s authority. So, how did we end up in Jiangnan?”

“I don’t have an answer to that either. But things involving ghosts and spirits are often beyond reason. Maybe… that haunted town was a sort of passage, a link between Jiangnan and the capital.”

“That’s not impossible… But now that we’re so far from the capital, it’s going to be such a hassle for me to return to the palace…” She slumped onto the stone table like she had no strength left and let out a long sigh. “I’m doomed. Father, Mother, and my brother… they must be worried sick.”

Having grown up in the palace, she had wanted to see the outside world—but now that the impulsive excitement had passed, she couldn’t help feeling homesick.

Si Jia asked calmly, “You want to return to the palace?”

“A little…”

“Then I’ll take you back.”

“Really?” She didn’t sound excited—more like uncertain.

He nodded, then lifted a hand to his chest and frowned slightly. “But… my injury…”

“It’s okay. There’s no rush. Your recovery is more important,” she said quickly. She remembered the serious wound on his chest. It looked bad—he probably wouldn’t heal in just ten days or two weeks. She grew worried again and asked, “Are you sure it’s okay for you to be sitting here like this when you’re still hurt?”

“It’s fine. Staying cooped up indoors all day isn’t good for me either. It’s better to find something interesting to do.”

By “something interesting,” he probably meant carving that wooden figure… that looked just like her.

Fengguang wasn’t sure what to make of it. And after the whole changing-her-clothes incident, she didn’t have the nerve to ask. She just sat there, tangled in her thoughts, looking quite pitiful.

“Okay,” he said suddenly.

She blinked. “What?”

“That question you asked me that night. My answer is… okay.” His pitch-black eyes seemed to light up in that moment.

It felt like they could pull her in—like once you fell into his gaze, there was no escaping.

That night, she had asked him if he thought she was pretty. He said yes. Then she followed up: “If you think I’m pretty, then stop liking Feng Miyin. Like me instead, okay?”

At the time, he didn’t answer. First, because he didn’t think he liked Feng Miyin. Second, because back then… he truly didn’t know how to respond.