Cui Shifan knew exactly when to raise his voice and when to lower it, when to speed up and when to slow down.
He knew precisely which tone, which expression, and which gaze to use at any given moment.
Every bit of his performance at this moment was the essence of decades of refinement.
It wasn't meant to deceive anyone, but to make every person present believe.
He was just an old father, exhausted from worry over his children.
As for how much calculation, how much probing, and how many undercurrents of court maneuvering lay beneath that?
Well, that was another matter entirely.
Luo Zhao shifted her gaze from Cui Shifan to Shangguan Yunying.
Shangguan Yunying stood beside her, her back straight, her hands clasped in front of her, her expression calm, her posture graceful.
It was exactly the same as any ordinary day.
But Luo Zhao saw Shangguan Yunying's fingers trembling slightly, the two hands clasped together.
Her fingernails were digging into her own flesh, leaving a few faint white marks.
Her lips were pressed tightly together, so tightly that they had lost all color, leaving only a pale line.
Her breathing was also very shallow, so shallow that it was almost impossible to see the rise and fall of her chest.
It was as if she was using every ounce of her strength to suppress something that was about to burst out of her throat.
Luo Zhao looked at Shangguan Yunying like this and suddenly felt a pang of unease in her heart.
She knew that Shangguan Yunying was nervous, was afraid, was waiting for Cui Shifan to speak her name.
Like a knife being drawn from its sheath, gleaming brightly, pressed against Shangguan Yunying's neck.
After all, Cui Shifan was the Senior Grand Secretary, and behind him stood the formidable Qinghe Cui clan.
The weight of taking the initiative to go to the other party's home to propose marriage, let alone for Luo Zhao herself—
Even if Shangguan Yuan were here right now, he would have to seriously consider it.
Because this was no ordinary marriage proposal; it was a political alliance.
It meant the first marriage between the aristocratic families of the Divine Capital and the Luo Capital.
That was why Shangguan Yunying was so flustered—the implications behind this were simply too vast.
So vast that even if her personal will resisted and refused fiercely,
it was still as fragile as glass before the will of coalition interests.
This wasn't an impossible alliance; it was a very possible one.
But the premise of that possibility was Gu Chengyin's absence.
Even now, Luo Zhao still had a doubt lingering in her mind:
Why did Cui Shifan come to propose marriage to Shangguan Yunying right after Cui Zhenji resigned?
How was that any different from slapping Gu Chengyin in the face?
Since Cui Shifan dared to slap Gu Chengyin, why would he let Cui Zhenji resign?
Wasn't that a contradiction?
It was like losing both his wife and his army.
After Cui Shifan finished speaking, he didn't look at Shangguan Yunying.
He shifted his gaze away from Luo Zhao and turned his head toward Gu Chengyin.
Then he spoke a sentence that Luo Zhao and Shangguan Yunying had never expected:
“Junior Preceptor Gu, are you willing to marry my Zilu?”
The moment those words were spoken, the main hall fell silent.
Time stopped. The air froze. Even the light seemed to congeal.
All sounds vanished in that instant.
The birdsong outside the window, the wind howling under the corridors, the faint hum of the underground heating beneath the golden bricks—
every sound was suddenly strangled by an invisible hand, cut off mid-course.
There wasn't even the sound of breathing.
Luo Zhao’s breath caught at the word “Zilu.”
Shangguan Yunying’s breath also caught at “Zilu.”
Cui Shifan’s own breath stopped at the word “willing.”
In the entire main hall, only Gu Chengyin was still breathing.
Steady and long, as if nothing had happened.
As if he was not even slightly surprised by this turn of events.
Luo Zhao’s eyes widened.
So wide that her pupils pressed against the edges of her sockets.
Her mouth opened slightly, then closed, then opened again.
She wanted to say something, to ask something, to confirm something.
But it was as if something blocked her throat—she couldn't utter a single word.
Luo Zhao’s mind was racing, replaying Cui Shifan’s words from just now.
Every word was seared into her brain like a branding iron, burning her to the point of numbness.
Zilu.
Cui Zilu.
Not Cui Zilong, but Cui Zilu!
The only and most beloved daughter of Cui Shifan, the Eldest Miss of the Cui family, the legitimate daughter of the Qinghe Cui clan!
Cui Shifan hadn’t come to propose on behalf of Cui Zilong.
He had come to propose on behalf of Cui Zilu.
He wasn’t trying to marry Shangguan Yunying; he was offering Cui Zilu to Gu Chengyin!
Luo Zhao’s brain completely shut down in that moment.
All her preparations, all her countermeasures, all the conversational strategies she had rehearsed a thousand times in her mind—
they all crumbled into useless, broken fragments scattered across the floor.
She had never imagined Cui Shifan would propose on behalf of Cui Zilu.
Never.
Because she had never, ever associated the two names “Cui Zilu” and “Gu Chengyin.”
One was the Eldest Miss of the Cui family, the other the Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince.
Those two had indeed spent some time together before.
But so what?
That was only a temporary collaboration.
Besides, Cui Zilu wasn't even in the Divine Capital right now.
So how could these two names ever be linked?
How could they possibly be linked by Cui Shifan through a marriage proposal?
But Cui Shifan had done exactly that.
Right in front of the Crown Prince, right in front of Shangguan Yunying, the Eldest Miss of the Shangguan family.
He had placed the name “Cui Zilu” together with “Gu Chengyin.”
And sandwiched between those two names was the word “proposal.”
Shangguan Yunying stood rooted to the spot, motionless.
Her expression had frozen the moment Cui Shifan said “Zilu.”
Frozen in a state she herself couldn’t define.
Shock? Fear? Anger?
None of that.
It was bewilderment.
Like being shoved from behind and falling off a cliff—
but not yet hitting the bottom, still floating in midair, with no foothold anywhere.
Shangguan Yunying’s mind kept replaying Cui Shifan’s words over and over,
like a stuck needle skipping across the same groove in a vinyl record:
“Are you willing to marry my Zilu?”
“Are you willing to marry my Zilu?”
“Are you willing to marry my Zilu?”
Not her.
It was Cui Zilu.
Her best friend.
Cui Zilu was going to marry Gu Chengyin?
No, not going to marry—she was being proposed to.
Cui Shifan was proposing on behalf of his daughter to Gu Chengyin.
Shangguan Yunying was utterly stunned, staring blankly at Gu Chengyin.
From beginning to end, Gu Chengyin hadn’t said a word.
He simply held Cui Shifan’s hand, watching him with a smile, as if he were an old friend telling a very amusing joke.
His expression had not changed one bit since Cui Shifan’s words ended.
Still that brilliant smile, still those eyes curved into crescent moons.
Still that face, smiling, showing no trace of a flaw.
“Pavilion Elder Cui,”
Gu Chengyin finally spoke, his tone exactly the same as before,
carrying that irresistible familiarity and ease:
“Are you...”
“Trying to marry Zilu off to me?”
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
