Chapter 93 Being Open and Honest with Each Other

Pan Yueqing returned to her room in the Dingyuan Marquis's Mansion. She quietly sat on the stool, allowing Wan'er to do her hair and makeup. Earlier, Old Madam Zhao had just let out a deep sigh and casually instructed her, "Go and rest first. Stay for lunch."

Pan Yueqing dismissed everyone around her. Looking at herself in the rhombus-shaped mirror, she slowly let out a sigh. She needed some time to be quiet.

"How do you feel about the person I sent you?"

Pan Yueqing instinctively turned around and saw Qi Sian leaning against the window, smiling brightly at her. Pan Yueqing turned her head away, raised her round fan to cover her face, and said angrily, "Your Highness doesn't know that this is a woman's boudoir..." Before she could finish her words, she was interrupted by the other person. He let out a long "ah" sound, released his hands from the window sill, and looked surprised, "Sorry."

"You're Shen Ping'an," Pan Yueqing chuckled. It was within her expectations because she didn't think Qi Sian would smile like that, and Qi Sian had directly broken into her boudoir last time without any sense of guilt. Shen Ping'an stood three steps away from the window and nodded at Pan Yueqing, "His Highness isn't convenient to come out."

"Oh," Pan Yueqing wasn't curious about why Qi Sian wasn't convenient. She looked at Shen Ping'an and asked curiously, "How did you know I was here? Did Canghe tell you?"

"No, I asked Su Ruoqing to invite you here," Shen Ping'an said with a grin.

So that's how it was. Pan Yueqing nodded to show she understood. She got up from the chair, opened the door, and sat directly on the steps. Shen Ping'an followed her and sat on the ground five steps away from where she was sitting without any care. He picked a willow leaf and blew a clear melody with it. Pan Yueqing listened quietly until he finished playing. Without changing her expression, she said indifferently to Shen Ping'an, "Why did you ask me to come here?"

"I'm here to apologize," Shen Ping'an released the leaf from his mouth. He fidgeted with the willow leaf in his hand, as if he was rolling tobacco leaves before smoking dry tobacco. After a long while without hearing Pan Yueqing's response, he coughed softly, "I used to... just think that you were a woman who could be easily manipulated. So I was a bit impatient... and didn't show enough respect... I'm truly sorry."

Looking at Shen Ping'an stuttering as he apologized, Pan Yueqing couldn't help but smile. It was strange. She actually felt more relaxed when dealing with Shen Ping'an than with Qi Sian. Perhaps it was because Shen Ping'an gave off a more real feeling than Qi Sian. She had always wondered what kind of experiences could make someone develop such maturity that didn't match their age. If she had the opportunity to have her own child, she definitely wouldn't want her child to be like that.

"Is it just for the apology?" Pan Yueqing suppressed the smile on her lips and her expression was calm. She didn't wait for Shen Ping'an's answer to this question. Instead, she heard Shen Ping'an sighing to himself, "The person we're targeting has too much power. If we succeed, we can change the world. But if we fail..."

"We'll be completely destroyed. You're going against the interests of everyone," Pan Yueqing said in a deep voice. She looked at Shen Ping'an, who had a surprised expression, and secretly smiled. Shen Ping'an would surely be curious about how she knew. But in this plan, she didn't know which part had gone wrong. She had always been kept on the periphery, neither excluded nor involved deeply.

"So you know," Shen Ping'an said in a low voice. He averted his gaze and refused to meet Pan Yueqing's eyes. His voice also subconsciously lost its youthful tone. At that moment, Pan Yueqing had an illusion that the person sitting near her was "Poisonous Snake Qi"! She heard Shen Ping'an chuckle and then slowly say, "I won't kill you today. You can take this opportunity to go to the court and file a complaint." Then he smiled self-deprecatingly, "This way, the current difficulties of the Pan family will be easily solved."

Pan Yueqing shook her head. She tilted her head back and looked at the high and blue sky, "If we maintain the status quo, the Pan family will still be targeted. I know how difficult it has been for my father to walk on thin ice all these years." But she swallowed the words that in the end, the family would still be raided and exterminated because in the eyes of those aristocratic families, they were an anomaly.

"Please help me pass on a message," Pan Yueqing made up her mind. She didn't want to continue to be involved in those disputes in the inner courtyard that would drag her until she got married. Although these disputes would surely continue, she didn't want them to fill her entire youth. She slowly said to Shen Ping'an, "I want him to promise me that after we succeed, he'll confer a title on me and give me real power."

A female noble title?! Even though Shen Ping'an had prepared himself for everything, he never expected that this woman actually wanted real power. At this moment, he didn't even think that Pan Yueqing's promise of success was a ridiculous thing. The other person's calm gaze seemed to have a magical power. Such an absurd statement... he actually believed it.

Shen Ping'an nodded silently and responded in a deep voice. Anyway, the world was already so unfair, and the wise and the foolish had been reversed for too long. So what if they were a bit crazy?

"Please also help me convey one more thing. Absolutely don't let Qi Sicheng go to the Changyan Army," Pan Yueqing said in a deep voice. Seeing her serious expression, Shen Ping'an couldn't help but ask, "Why?"

"Because the Changyan Army is the place where Qi Sicheng rose to power," Pan Yueqing said without hesitation. But she didn't say that it was also the starting point of the ten-year war. Looking at Shen Ping'an's shocked expression with his eyes wide open, she chuckled. She knew that no one would believe it, but people in the Northern Qi Dynasty believed in fate. She slowly said, "Just tell him that it was Yang Lin who said it." At the right time, it wasn't a bad thing to shift the blame to Yang Lin.

After all, no one would believe it if it came from her mouth. But if it came from the former Director of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, most people would think twice. She wasn't worried that Shen Ping'an would leak the information.

She just hadn't figured out why the young master of the Shen family, a powerful aristocratic family, would help Qi Sian.

"Third Young Master! Third Young Master, you can't go in!" The voices of Gu Pan and Wan'er came from outside the courtyard gate. Shen Ping'an stood up calmly, stepped forward, and pulled open the door. He crossed his arms and looked at Su Ruoqing with a leisurely expression, "Young Master Su, long time no see."

"It's not really been that long," Su Ruoqing's eyes were sharp. His hands were tightly clenched under his long sleeves. After holding back for a long time, he still couldn't help but raise his hand and punch Shen Ping'an on the shoulder. There was a dull sound. Pan Yueqing instinctively thought that Shen Ping'an's shoulder must have been dislocated. She saw Shen Ping'an take two steps back, hold his shoulder, and kneel on one knee on the ground. He let out a long hiss and reached out to press on his shoulder.

In an instant, Su Ruoqing stepped forward and grabbed his hand. Then, with a click, he put the dislocated hand back in place. Shen Ping'an was in so much pain that he was sweating profusely. After a while, he caught his breath and laughed softly, "It's not necessary..."

"I told you to stay away from my sister," Su Ruoqing raised his eyebrows. He stepped forward and looked at Pan Yueqing, who was standing aside and saying nothing. Before he could speak, Pan Yueqing said indifferently, "Cousin, I've been straightforward with him."