Chapter 74

Shen Yu glanced at him, her grip on the chess pieces almost crushing them, before finally tossing them onto the board. “I’m done playing.”

The smile on Xie Tingzhou’s face finally dispersed, like a warm spring breeze.

He patiently picked up the last few moves from the chessboard, his slender fingers pointing to a spot. “See that?”

Shen Yu nodded. “I made a mistake here.”

Xie Tingzhou spread his hand, revealing a few white pieces. This was giving her a chance, indicating that she should continue from where she left off.

“How can this be!” Chang Liu exclaimed angrily, but before he could finish, Xi Feng covered his mouth and dragged him to the corridor, gesturing for him to look.

Chang Liu looked closely and saw that the Crown Prince’s expression was unusually gentle and relaxed, with a hint of indulgence.

It’s over. Chang Liu complained softly, “With His Highness going easy like this, I’m bound to lose this game.”

“More than that,” Xi Feng, sword in hand, stood nearby and calmly remarked, “We both can’t win.”

Shen Yu struggled to suppress a smirk, plucking the white pieces from Xie Tingzhou’s palm.

Her fingertips lightly traced over his palm, a tingling sensation spreading up her arm.

Xie Tingzhou’s gaze flickered slightly as he looked from his palm to her face, then slowly clenched his fist on the table.

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside.

Xie Tingzhou didn’t even lift his head, commanding, “Go check it out.”

Xi Feng stepped out.

Moments later, Li Jifeng arrived, complaining before even reaching them, “I had a stomachache a few days ago, and you didn’t even come to see me. It’s really disheartening.”

Shen Yu turned to look, and Xie Tingzhou tapped the table to remind her, “Focus.”

Shen Yu: “Oh.”

Li Jifeng snorted, “I came to see you, and you didn’t even welcome me. You didn’t even offer me a chair.”

Shen Yu just learned that he was a prince and wanted to get up to greet him, but as soon as she moved, Xie Tingzhou said without looking up, “Just stay seated.”

He added, “He’s the ninth in line.”

Shen Yu nodded in acknowledgment. “Greetings, Ninth Prince.”

“No need for formalities,” Li Jifeng waved his hand casually and turned to ask, “Who is this master?”

The implication was that if Xie Tingzhou was taking it so seriously, the person must be a master.

Chang Liu covered his mouth and laughed, “Our Master Shi Yu.”

Li Jifeng perked up immediately and approached Xie Tingzhou to scrutinize Shi Yu.

Come to think of it, Li Jifeng had seen Shi Yu before, but at that time, the lighting in the prison was too dim to see clearly. Now, upon closer inspection, Shi Yu was indeed fair-skinned and attractive. If dressed as a woman, she would add some charm to the room.

Thinking of this, Li Jifeng quickly shook his head to dispel these messy thoughts and sat down on the chair the maidservant brought.

“Xie Tingzhou…”

“Silence while observing the game,” Xie Tingzhou reminded.

Li Jifeng reluctantly closed his mouth. He never liked these refined matters and found them extremely boring. He stretched his legs and called for tea, eating snacks while watching.

But this observation was astonishing. Normally, watching people play chess was just back and forth, but watching Xie Tingzhou play truly overturned his rigid impression of chess.

Could a game of chess be played like flirting?

When Shi Yu placed a piece, felt something was wrong, and secretly took the piece back, or lightly hooked her pinky when placing a piece to steal Xie Tingzhou’s piece, Xie Tingzhou clearly saw it but let Shi Yu do as she pleased.

Li Jifeng stared dumbfoundedly at Chang Liu, silently asking, “What’s going on here?”

Chang Liu nodded heavily, then responded silently, “It’s always been like this.”

Li Jifeng couldn’t help but take a few more glances at Shi Yu. This person managed to smooth out Xie Tingzhou, which was not easy at all.

Just as he was engrossed in his observation, something cold suddenly hit his eyelid.

“Ah—!”

Li Jifeng exclaimed in pain, quickly covering his eyes. When he looked down, he saw a black chess piece. Xie Tingzhou’s hand hadn’t even retracted yet.

“What are you doing, Shen Yu? If this prince goes blind, will you compensate?”

Xie Tingzhou lifted his chin, pointing at Shen Yu. “Let her compensate, she’s got money.”

Shen Yu was puzzled. “But I didn’t make the move, why should I compensate?”

Xie Tingzhou’s gaze seemed meaningful. “Don’t you like robbing the rich to help the poor?”

Shen Yu detected his sarcasm. It was from the time when Shen Yu said she was robbing the rich to help the poor on the road, and this person actually remembered it.

“But you’re not poor,” she murmured softly.

The more Li Jifeng looked, the more he felt that the way these two interacted was unusual, one silently indulging, the other acting as if nothing was wrong.

He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, even Xie Tingzhou had days like this.

…

In the afternoon, after Shen Yu changed shifts with the guards, she left the house. Today happened to be the third day since she arrived at the Shen Mansion, and she needed to see Shen Yan for something.

A person stood by the wall outside the east gate, rubbing his hands anxiously.

The person was a clerk from a clothing shop. When he saw Shen Yu, he approached her. Shen Yu gave him a meaningful look, and the two bypassed the intersection.

The clerk said, “I’ve been waiting for a long time. The shopkeeper said there’s something important for you.”

“What is it?”

“This morning, a servant from the Shen Mansion came to deliver a letter.”

It was probably related to the whereabouts of the green medicine, Shen Yu thought, so she hastened her pace to the clothing shop with the clerk.

Just as they reached the entrance of an inn, a young man in fine clothes came galloping down the street from the other end.

The horse charged recklessly, and pedestrians scattered to avoid it. Despite their efforts, the horse still knocked over several stalls and people.

The man on the horse shouted, “Get out of my way!”

Shen Yu furrowed her brows, about to step forward, but was pulled back by the clerk from the clothing shop.

In a low voice, the clerk said, “That’s Duke Dou from the Dou family. He’s known for being a tyrant. There are people backing him up, so I advise you not to interfere.”

Seeing Dou Qing approaching rapidly, Shen Yu was immediately alert, as he was about to collide with a child who couldn’t get out of the way in time.

Shen Yu swiftly moved forward, and as she passed the horse, she drew the dagger from her waist and swung it horizontally.

The horse stumbled, its front legs buckling under it and it knelt to the ground.

Dou Qing was thrown off and rolled on the ground. When he got up, he wiped his face, blood oozing from the abrasions.

Dou Qing roared, “Who the hell are you? How dare you block my path!”

Shen Yu helped the frightened child up and turned to Dou Qing. “I didn’t block your path, I just saved someone.”

The child’s mother hurried over, took the child from Shen Yu, and quickly retreated into the crowd, not daring to provoke the tyrant, Dou Qing.

Dou Qing glanced at the horse kneeling on the ground and shook the reins. “I don’t care who you are. You blocked my way, injured my horse, and hurt me. You won’t see the sun tomorrow.”

Shen Yu chuckled as if she had heard a joke, then turned and walked away.

Dou Qing, furious and embarrassed, lashed out with his whip, but Shen Yu quickly grabbed the whip’s tail and wound it around his wrist, then pulled it hard. Dou Qing, caught off guard by the seemingly weak youth’s strength, almost fell.