25 Exchanging Apologies With the Fourth Miss

Without casting the person before her another glance, Yujia bends down and picks up the fabric holding the clay that she dropped earlier. Observing the amount, she decides that there wasn't as much clay as she already planned for, but perhaps it would be enough. And if it wasn't… she still had eighteen taels that would definitely be enough to pay for some more clay in the marketplace.

With that in mind, Yujia folds up the cloth and turns around, ready to leave.

"Wait!"

Upon seeing that she was completely prepared to leave him in the spring, the boy called out, causing Yujia to stop in her tracks.

"What?" Yujia gives him a tired look. She just wanted to go home and get her pencils finished. It wasn't that much of a wish, was it? "Oh, is it this?" Looking down at herself, Yujia points at the cloak he gave her a moment ago. "Do you want it back? Here let me just—"

Panic rises up in his eyes and quickly, he waves his hands. "No! Not that. You can keep that. It's not too expensive. I don't care much about that."

"But… it's yours?"

"I have tens of cloaks and capes that look just like it." The boy shrugs. "Losing one doesn't really matter to me."

"What do you want, then?"

"Well…" Red flushes up on his cheeks again. "I just wanted to say that… I guess it really was my fault for pulling you in the water."

Ah. That was the apology Yujia was looking for. Turns out this boy wasn't that bad of a person like she thought he was.

"But," the boy quickly adds on after his words, "Yesterday. At the market. I know we've had a… disagreement… but I really wasn't related to the thief." The red vanishes from his face, and a more serious tone settles on his voice. "I don't appreciate it when people accuse me of things that I haven't done."

"Oh." Yujia thinks back to the events that occured yesterday. She truly was a little too reckless, wasn't she? She didn't bother to hear what others were saying and went along with what her own mind was telling her. Perhaps if she was in the modern word, where she was her own self, she wouldn't have acted like that, but since she transmigrated to another world, she seemed to lose her timidness and take on the haughty airs of a strong female protagonist that seemed to always appear in transmigration novels.

She didn't like the idea of that. Now that the boy brought it up, if she took a little more time to listen to other people, she wouldn't have acted like such.

"Alright. That's my bad." Yujia bends down and looks at the boy in his eyes. "Sorry about before. I shouldn't have done what I did. It's just that in the moment, the things that the thief stole were really important to me, so…"

Triumph settles in the boy's expression, and he lifts his chin up. "Okay. Except… how old are you, even? You act like I'm a kid. I'm already eighteen."

"Eighteen?" Yujia scoffs. She was twenty-four already. Of course she would act like he was a kid.

Yet, before Yujia can reply, Hui'er's words echo in her brain as a helpful reminder. "Miss, you're Yang Yujia of course— the fourth daughter of the Old Master. You'll be eighteen this year."

At times like these, it was difficult to keep her two lives separate while they blended into one. Even though it was only her second day living as the Fourth Miss, Yujia didn't exactly like the idea of how she was already mixing everything up. Still, now that she already mocked his age, it wouldn't make sense to tell him that she was eighteen as well. She had to think of a good response fast.

"There's no way that you're eighteen. I'm eighteen." With wide eyes, Yujia shook her head with disbelief and internally applauded herself at her acting skills. "Stop lying already. You look like you're thirteen."

If Yujia were to speak the truth, the boy didn't look like he was thirteen at all. It's not that Yujia knew exactly how everyone looked like at certain ages, but she knew that he definitely looked old enough to be eighteen. He could even pass off for nineteen or possibly twenty if he tried hard enough. The only reason why she claimed as such was to back up her previous actions and words.

"I do not look thirteen," he indignantly responds, "you have no right to say that."

Yujia shrugs, as if she was just saying the truth. "Oh well. Looks like someone can't take any other opinion at all."

The boy gives her a blank, unamused stare. She gives him one back.

"If you don't have any more apologies to give or demand for me, I'm going to leave." She gives him a carefree wave after looking up at the sky, determining that noon was going to come soon and that it would be good to go.

"Sure?"

…

Si Shen observes the crown prince, noticing how ever since he returned from the trip to the spring that he thought Si Shen didn't know about, he seemed to be focused on staring intently at a mirror that he requested to be brought to him.

"Si Shen… be honest here… how old do I look? Thirteen?"

Si Shen looks at the expression on the crown prince's face, noticing that he seemed down. Something must've happened at the spring. Maybe he caught a glimpse of his own face that was distorted in the reflection of the spring water and hurt his own self-esteem?

Plus, after all the years of accompanying the crown prince, he knew that the number one pet peeve the crown prince had was when others called him young and looked down on him for it.

"No."

After hearing Si Shen's reponse, the crown prince seemed a little happier, though he was still staring at his reflection and muttering something under his breath.

"That's what I thought… how dare she call me thirteen… I look mature… yes… very mature…"