Chapter 178 - Contemplations and Worries of the Crown Prince

Over the past two days, things went down like this:

First, Yushang had been an absolute idiot. Just thinking about everything in retrospect, he wanted to curse himself out. The servants in the stable apparently gave him the wrong horse. 

He wanted to let Yujia borrow his sister's favorite mare, since he knew how gentle and mild-natured Little Cutie was. He had seen his sister ride Little Cutie for years now. Just like how he grew up along his black stallion, his sister grew up along her Little Cutie. 

Yet somehow, some switch-up occured, and Yujia ended up riding the newly brought in— and very wild-natured— chestnut horse. 

Yushang didn't know of this at the time. He straight up panicked when everything occured, with the horse that he thought to be Little Cutie running off to the distance carrying a screaming rider. 

Once his senses came back to him, he immediately went back to the palace. At the stables, he found out about everything, but he didn't even have time to bestow a punishment on the stableboys and grooms before he created a search party, rushing the servants to go look through the forest to find Yujia. 

He couldn't create too big of a search party, as he didn't want to raise the suspicions or notice of his father. But Yushang created the best search party he possibly could, some of them given horses and some of them searching on foot. 

And then, he could only wait and pace with anxious thoughts going through his brain. 

Yushang considered joining the search party himself— that was how anxious he was— but with careful thought, he realized that it wouldn't make any difference if he went. It wasn't like one more person would make to big of a difference, and he wasn't free all afternoon either. Regardless, he expected the search party to find Yujia— who was probably dead, injured, or unconscious— within a few hours. 

When they searched the whole day without any discoveries and returned at night without any news, that was when Yushang truly panicked. 

How? Could? There? Be? No? News?

One of the servants who searched towards the eastern part of the forest even reported coming across a grassy area near a cliff with some horse tracks around it. 

What if the Little Cutie imposter chucked her off a cliff? 

This idea didn't help any of Yushang's increasingly frantic thoughts. He instantly slammed his hand on the table and ordered the servants to all go back to the woods to search with torches. If they didn't find her, he threatened them with the fact that they liked their heads to be connected to their necks.

This threat worked well enough, for the servants all immediately scrambled back into the forest. 

By this point, it was already late, and Yushang was forced to go to bed. But that didn't stop him from staring into darkness, stricken with insomnia and waiting for any news to come to him.

There was nothing.

No news at all. Not a single word. Not even a shadow of Yujia was discovered. 

There was that saying that no news was good news, but Yushang couldn't think that way. He could only imagine various possibilities of death that could occur to Yujia. Every second ticking by meant something— she could be dying from starvation, she could be dying from blood loss, she could be dying from getting eaten by wolves. 

Morning came. No news still. 

Yushang had to go participate in governmental affairs, but he couldn't focus at all. Once the session was over, he rushed back to his palace to be delivered with the news that there was still no news. 

That was when Si Shen, who was sitting back and watching all this time, suddenly said, "She could've just returned home. Have you ever considered the possibility that she was no longer in the forest?" 

This idea brought immense surprise to Yushang. He clapped his hands in amazement, his eyes widening in realization.

It was true that the quietest ones always had the best ideas!

Thus, Yushang listened to his guard's advice and sent a servant to Lingxin Academy, where he knew that Yujia was at. Before the servant left, Yushang even tucked a few taels in his hands so that the servant had some money to bribe with if no information was provided to him for free. 

Sure enough, within an hour, the servant returned with news— finally, some news!— that just like Si Shen said, Yujia had returned to Lingxin, safe and sound! 

Hearing this news, it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off Yushang's shoulders. He was so overjoyed that he rewarded taels to everyone in the search party, even though they had been absolutely useless. He wanted to rush to Lingxin immediately, to see for himself that she was okay, and that he could beg for her forgiveness, because he was truly sorry. 

Seeing this sight, Si Shen only smirked. 

Yushang caught on this smirk, and the smile on his face vanished. He knew that the smirk crossing his bodyguard's face was definitely a sarcastic one. 

"What?" he snapped. 

Si Shen only shrugged. "You're hilarious."

"How so?" Yushang's celebratory attitude almost entirely vanished upon hearing this one statement. 

Si Shen still didn't want to say anything more, shrugging again. 

"Tell me what's hilarious!" Yushang demanded in return, grabbing onto Si Shen's shoulders.

Finally, his guard relented. "You never bow down in front of anyone except for the Emperor, yet here you are, fretting and worrying your head off over some girl."

"She's not just 'some girl'!" Yushang said with a scowl, crossing his arms.

"Then, what is she?"

"She's my—!" Yushang paused. 

What was Yang Yujia, really? 

He realized that Si Shen did have a point, yet again. 

What was Yang Yujia to him? Why was he so concerned over her well-being that he was ready to plead for her forgiveness? Why had he put so much thought into everything yesterday that he couldn't even sleep at night?

There were so many women in the world. Yet why was his mind stuck on only one?

"She is— um— my business partner," Yushang ended up awkwardly saying. "Yes. Business partner."

The second half of his words came out more confident. Right. Yushang was only worrying about Yujia because she was his business partner! He still needed her to come up with product ideas so that he could make more money off his business and please his father even more with all the new art supplies. 

There was no other reason! It was as simple as that!

Si Shen only snorted. Then, he cast his eyes down, mumbling, "When was the last time you paid so much attention to the Crown Princess?"

"Siying?" Yushang asked with an arched eyebrow. "I give her plenty of attention." 

"She came by yesterday, but you turned her away." 

"I was… busy! Very busy yesterday! You knew what was happening!"

Compared to Wen Siying's brief moment of happiness, Yang Yujia could've been dying. That was definitely a concern on a higher spot in Yushang's list of priorities.

Si Shen now looked up. "What about the past few days? You barely had more than a few conversations with her."

"I can't help that," Yushang sighed, "Father-Emperor gave me so many tasks to cover, with everything happening with the small flooding in the south. Most of my day went to that, and only recently did the situation start to clear up. I didn't have time for her. Besides, why are you worrying so much about her?" 

"I thought that you forgot who your wife was, Crown Prince," Si Shen quietly noted. 

Yushang waved his hand in dismissal. "Nonsense." 

He then straightened himself and turned around, looking around his room. 

"I suppose I can't go apologize to her empty-handed…" he muttered to himself, "Should I bring some gifts along? Or maybe some medicine? But the servant reported that she was alive and well, so there should be no need for medicine… what do girls even like?"

And that was how, the next day, Yushang came up with the idea of bringing tens of servants to send gifts valued at least a fortune to Lingxin Academy, all in the hopes that perhaps Yujia could forgive him.