Like You

Hearing this, Shangguan Yunying turned her head away in embarrassment, not daring to meet Gu Chengyin's probing gaze, and said in a low voice:

"Although I am known as the youngest Foundation Establishment cultivator in Great Luo, in the eyes of ordinary people, especially when it comes to marriage, my age... is actually not considered young anymore."

She paused, her voice growing even softer. "Many girls are already engaged and married by the time they are fifteen or sixteen."

"For someone my age... if I weren't in the palace, shouldering important duties, I would have been pressured endlessly long ago."

"My mother didn't marry my father until she was twenty, which was already considered very late at the time. So she cares exceptionally about my marriage, always feeling that I've been delayed."

Gu Chengyin listened, feeling a sudden realization in his heart, yet also finding it somewhat absurd.

Looking at the peerlessly beautiful face before him, made exceptionally vivid by her shyness, her skin was so delicate it seemed a breath could break it, and her features were as picturesque as a painting.

Her aloof temperament carried a hint of a young girl's naive charm. No matter from which angle he looked, she had absolutely nothing to do with the words 'not considered young'.

He couldn't help but ask, "Master Yunying, if I may be so bold to ask, how old... are you this year?"

Shangguan Yunying was slightly taken aback, seemingly not expecting Gu Chengyin to ask this, but she still answered softly, "My nominal age... is twenty-three."

"Twenty-three?!"

Gu Chengyin was just about to say, isn't this the perfect age in the prime of youth?

But the words reached his lips and he swallowed them back down.

He shook his head helplessly and sighed in a low voice, "Feudal society... is truly not easy."

"Feu... feudal?" Shangguan Yunying didn't catch the second half of his muttering.

"It's nothing."

Gu Chengyin waved his hand, pulling his thoughts back to reality.

Now was not the time to lament over this; the most urgent task was to solve their current predicament.

The two sat there awkwardly, one leaning against the head of the bed, the other sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at each other.

Gu Chengyin's gaze swept across the room.

A thought flashed through his mind.

He raised his hand, pointing at the window facing the backyard, and probed, "Since the door is a dead end, how about... we jump out the window?"

"Jump out the window?"

Shangguan Yunying followed his finger to look at the window. A trace of temptation flashed in her eyes first, but it was immediately replaced by hesitation.

"Jumping out the window... wouldn't that make us look even more guilty, like we are... fleeing in a panic after a secret illicit affair?"

Shangguan Yunying's voice was as quiet as a mosquito, and her cheeks burned up again.

Moreover, what if there was an ambush outside the window too? Since her mother could lock the door, couldn't she have anticipated that they would jump out the window?

Gu Chengyin also thought of this. He smiled bitterly. "That's still better than being blocked in the room, right? At least jumping out the window gives us a sliver of a chance."

Shangguan Yunying bit her lip, struggling fiercely internally.

Ultimately, her worry about their current situation overwhelmed her concerns about the risks of jumping out the window.

She nodded vigorously, stood up, and a trace of decisiveness flashed in her eyes. "Alright! Let's jump!"

Gu Chengyin quickly got up and put on his outer robe and boots.

Shangguan Yunying walked to the window, listened attentively for a moment, and then carefully used her divine sense to probe outside the window, confirming that there was no abnormal aura nearby.

She turned back and made a safe gesture to Gu Chengyin, then reached out her slender hand, hooked the edge of the window frame, and exerted a slight force with her fingertips.

With a soft click, the window's inner latch was silently shaken open.

She gently pushed open a window pane, and a night breeze carrying the fresh scent of vegetation immediately rushed in.

Outside the window, the moonlight was hazy, the starlight was dim, and the scenery in the courtyard was indistinct.

Shangguan Yunying took the lead and lightly leaped onto the windowsill. Her figure in the night was like an agile swift. She turned back and waved to Gu Chengyin. "Great, there's no one here, I'm leaving then!"

However, just at the moment when Shangguan Yunying prepared to backhandedly close the window gently, erasing the final traces...

"Cough."

A clear cough, not loud, but like a thunderclap, suddenly sounded in a quiet corner of the courtyard!

Gu Chengyin and Shangguan Yunying's bodies stiffened simultaneously!

They looked toward the sound, only to see that by the moon gate not far away, under a leafy osmanthus tree, a slender figure was quietly sitting there since who knows when.

The moonlight was dim, making her face unclear, but that body silhouette, and the aura that was no longer deliberately concealed...

It was precisely the Minister's wife: Madam Jiang.

She seemed to have been sitting there for a while, holding a small, exquisite pastry plate in her hand, her posture elegant.

The air seemed to freeze, with only the night breeze passing through the moon gate, bringing up the faint rustling of the flowers, grass, and leaves in the courtyard.

And... the crisp cracking sound of someone cracking open a melon seed shell with their fingertips.

Under the osmanthus tree, by the stone table.

Madam Jiang sat calmly on the stone stool, her posture relaxed, even carrying a bit of leisure.

With one hand supporting a palm-sized small plate, her other hand was skillfully picking up a melon seed and bringing it to her lips. With a soft crack, the melon seed kernel fell onto the tip of her tongue, while the shell was casually flicked aside.

The moonlight filtered through the gaps in the branches and leaves, sprinkling mottled shadows over her body.

At this moment, Madam Jiang was like a completely different person from the gentle and dignified Minister's wife during the day.

Rather than a noble lady from a deep mansion, she looked more like a martial arts heroine who occasionally came to the mortal world on a whim to watch a good show.

Her gaze slowly swept back and forth between Gu Chengyin, who stood frozen on the spot, and Shangguan Yunying, who wished she could dig a hole in the ground and hide in it.

Gu Chengyin was the first to recover from this extreme awkwardness.

Since things had come to this, whether it was escaping or covering up, it would only make the scene more embarrassing.

He took a deep breath, grabbed the windowsill with both hands, and calmly vaulted out.

He came to a stop about three steps in front of Madam Jiang, cupped his hands, bowed deeply, and said with a frank attitude:

"Junior Gu Chengyin pays his respects to Madam. I apologize for the late-night disturbance and any lack of manners, and I hope for Madam's magnanimity."

Madam Jiang placed the small plate in her hand on the stone table and dusted off the crumbs on her hands.

Only then did she nod slightly, her gaze falling on Gu Chengyin, carrying an unconcealed appraisal and... a bit of satisfaction?

"Young Master Gu does not need to be so polite."

Her voice also lacked the deliberate softness of the daytime and carried more straightforwardness: "I am the one who came uninvited and disturbed the two of you... hmm, admiring the moon? Or discussing the Dao?"

These words carried an obvious teasing tone, making Shangguan Yunying behind him flush red to the roots of her ears. She lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously twisting the corner of her clothes, like a child caught red-handed by a parent after doing something wrong.

Madam Jiang glanced at her daughter, a trace of exasperation at her failure to meet expectations flashing in her eyes.

She had heard that Gu Chengyin would stay overnight in the manor, and coincidentally learned that her daughter had left her boudoir late at night, which was why she dropped by to take a look.

By locking the door, she originally hoped to facilitate something, or at the very least, let them spend more time together to deepen their understanding of each other.

But look at the result. After struggling for half a day, they actually chose to jump out the window?!

It was truly a waste of her painstaking efforts!

Under Madam Jiang's highly penetrating gaze, Shangguan Yunying felt her scalp tingle.

Eventually, she had to bite the bullet and dawdle over, calling out in a voice as soft as a mosquito, "Mother..."

Madam Jiang acted as if she didn't hear her. She continued to look at Gu Chengyin with great interest, and then at her daughter, her gaze seeming to weigh something.

Suddenly, she got straight to the point:

"Young Master Gu, I am a straightforward person and don't like to beat around the bush, so I'll just tell you directly."

She pointed at her daughter: "My Yun'er likes you."