The Fourth Miss (Pathetically) Runs Away

A hesitant look cast onto Fu Yushang's face when he saw the girl's bold confidence morph into a look of horror. What was she even thinking about for her expression to change to two drastically different things? He really didn't want to be in this situation anymore, but he didn't want to play the card of revealing his identity either unless it was the last choice. For now, maybe it was a good idea to just be rude and ignore the girl and run away? It wasn't like she could do anything, and as rude as it was, it wouldn't hurt anyone in any way.

While he was thinking about what he should do, Yujia's thought process jumped again when she looked at the quietest one out of the three— Si Shen. She was worried that she was about to be the cause of someone losing both of their hands a second ago, but then, the glint of light reflecting off of a blade caught her eyes. Focusing on the object, she realized that it was a dagger halfway sheathed on the man's belt, just barely visible in the light. Her eyes widened, and she looked around him, realizing that three more of these were attached to his belt, each one larger than the next until she found that one of them was even a full-length sword.

Yujia's eyes then turned to the rich boy, finding that no obvious weapons were on him, but judging by the fact that the other one had four weapons broadly displayed on him, the rich one had to have some sort of weapon concealed too. Perhaps it was that fan he had carelessly dangling off his belt. Maybe, like those wuxia and action novels, it would transform into a weapon when opened. Or, maybe that luxurious fur cape draped over his shoulders was lined with all sorts of daggers on the inside.

As for the thief who originally stole her bag… she was sure that he must have a weapon on him as well!

It is at that moment that logic and intelligence finally returned to Yujia, and her anger fueling her boldness vanished. She realized that this was a dark alley, and that there were three grown men so close to her that she could reach over and easily touch them. She looked down at the bag of supplies in her hand that she snatched from the quiet one earlier.

She already got what she came here for in the first place— her art supplies. If any of these people decided to take action and take the art supplies and the taels on her away at the very moment, she would be powerless to respond. Although all three of them look young, Yujia had to remember that she was only eighteen in this body as well, and it was a very weak and fragile body.

Ah, what was she thinking before? Reckless decisions were wrong! She shouldn't have inserted herself into such a situation!

Her inner voice was taunting her again, and Yujia looked back at the bag in her hands. There was no longer any reason to stay here. The saying that people make foolish decisions when guided by their anger was right.

Putting a shaky smile on her face, Yujia grinned and nodded, gathering the attention of all three of them.

"Well, I had a change of mind! Since I already have my things returned to me, you three no longer concern me… and my kindness is too great to cause harm to you despite the fact that you harmed me… emotionally. I will leave now. Yes. Goodbye."

With that, she left, quite anticlimactically to all her previous words, but Yujia had to remind herself that now was not the time to be bold and daring— she could save that for later. Yujia didn't wait a single second before running back to the light shining from the outside of the alley.

Yushang blinked.

Did the girl… just run away when he was planning to do so himself?

He was the crown prince; how dare someone run away from him without his permission?

…

Hui'er was frantic. She didn't like the fact that her Fourth Miss was always running off without telling her exactly what she was doing. It was dangerous and troublesome.

Lately, her Fourth Miss was acting different. Too different. She knew how the other girl acted— she had served the Fourth Miss for a large part of her life. After drinking too much the previous night, her Fourth Miss already had a drastic change in personality. Before, she was a quiet and kind girl who never really saw sunlight or offered to go to the market to buy things— Hui'er was always the one who did so— yet now, she was easily irritable and arrogant, nothing like how she previously was.

The Fourth Miss also never knew how to paint before. She never had any interest in any arts besides her embroidery. How could someone learn painting within a few seconds? Although this version of her Fourth Miss certainly didn't know much about the exact economy and details of art, her skill in painting belonged to someone who was not a beginner. So, even though she acted like a beginner with her lack of knowledge, her skill clearly argued otherwise.

Everything was inexplicably confusing. Hui'er was not dense— she knew that something happened. Her Fourth Miss was practically a different person now.

While she wandered through the markets, her mind still focused on the issue of the overall personality change of her Fourth Miss, a familiar shade of white cloth appeared in her vision, and she looked up, seeing the smiling face of her Fourth Miss.

"Hui'er, were you worried?" The Fourth Miss smiled again, grabbing Hui'er's hands. "I told you I'd be back soon, and guess what, I got the art supplies back from the thief! All good, isn't it? There's no way a thief would dare to steal from me and not face the consequences."

While her Fourth Miss boasted, Hui'er continued thinking, looking very carefully at the face of the woman in front of her. This was all too strange. The girl in front of her clearly looked exactly like the Fourth Miss, but in every other way, she was not the Fourth Miss.

Hui'er drew her hands out of the grasp of the girl who looked like the Fourth Miss in front of her, her face blank while she slowly asked the question that had been on her mind the entire day.

"You are not the Fourth Miss. Who are you?"