Chu Yunge completely understood what everyone had said online: one should never casually consult a traditional Chinese physician, because once you did, you had no privacy left.
The imperial physician had been like an angel descending the previous second, giving Li Guangi hope, but the next second, he exposed all his secrets completely in front of Chu Yunge.
Under Chu Yunge’s gaze, Li Guangi’s face visibly flushed red. He wished he could burrow into the ground.
Chu Yunge held back her laughter with all her might. “The imperial physician seems to be hinting at me.”
The young lad appeared to have been teased by her until he was holding it all in.
At that moment, Li Guangi hated that he could not speak, so he could not explain at the fastest speed. Yet he also felt fortunate that he could not speak; otherwise, how could he explain?
At a time like this, no explanation would work.
Chu Yunge looked at Li Guangi, whose face was pale with a flush of pink, and her index finger twitched. Her gaze held a half-smile.
Li Guangi hurriedly wrote: “I merely had some internal heat syndrome these past couple of days.”
“Then why the internal heat and fire?”
Chu Yunge asked deliberately.
Li Guangi’s writing paused; he found himself unable to continue.
Chu Yunge was just about to speak when a timid voice rang out. “I know why.”
Chu Yunge turned back and saw a little head poking out from the doorway. When it saw her looking, it startled and shrank back. Moments later, it poked out again, and the girl even raised her hand.
“Your Highness, this common girl… this common girl knows.” It was Li Guangi’s little sister, Li Guanning.
Temporarily changing her self-reference to “this common girl” was somewhat cute.
Chu Yunge beckoned. “You know? Then tell this Princess.”
Li Guanning looked very much like Li Guangi and was extremely well-behaved. She curtsied in the cutest way and promptly sold out her brother in just a few sentences.
“Big Brother has been acting strange lately. He keeps spacing out, smiling to himself one moment and fretting the next. When asked what troubled him, he would not say.”
“These past two days have been even stranger. He suddenly claimed to be practicing punches and kept touching his belly. When no one was around, he even secretly looked at his belly.”
“This common girl thought he was hungry, but he hardly ate. Everyone says Your Highness no longer likes Big Brother, so that’s why he’s upset. Your Highness, you really don’t like Big Brother anymore? Big Brother is very good…”
Li Guangi shot Li Guanning plenty of meaningful glances until his eyes nearly cramped, but Li Guanning did not look at him.
In the end, with no other choice, he covered his little sister’s mouth, manually muting her.
But it was already too late. He had been thoroughly sold out by his sister.
Chu Yunge had been puzzled at first, but then she realized what secretly touching his belly and practicing punches meant.
He had been secretly practicing abs.
It was probably because of Pei Ji’s words that made him self-conscious, so he planned to secretly train up an eight-pack.
Heavens, how could Li Guangi be so cute?
His face full of shy annoyance, helpless yet unable to do anything about his sister—it was even cuter.
Li Guanning saw Li Guangi’s expression and thought she had said something wrong. She anxiously apologized at once.
She had only wanted to help her brother and did not want him to be sad.
Seeing Li Guanning worry for Li Guangi, Chu Yunge smiled. “No need to apologize. This Princess really likes what you told me. Moreover, this Princess does like your brother; there’s no dislike at all.”
Li Guanning’s eyes lit up at those words. She tugged at Li Guangi’s hand. “Big Brother, Your Highness likes you.”
The flush on Li Guangi’s face never faded; it merely shifted from shy annoyance to pure shyness.
He had not expected Chu Yunge to say such a thing. He felt both delighted and at a loss.
He wanted to apologize on his sister’s behalf, but Chu Yunge pulled Li Guanning over and teased her into talking more.
The little girl spoke in such an amusing way that she could even be called Li Guangi’s mouthpiece. At such a young age, she took on the responsibility of advancing the relationship between her and Li Guangi.
More importantly, as siblings who depended on each other for survival, she understood her brother extremely well.
“Today, when Your Highness came, Big Brother was happy. He smiled more than in the past few days and was not as wilted as he had been earlier.”
Chu Yunge could not resist pinching Li Guanning’s little face—it was too endearing. “Was your brother very wilted just now?”
“Mm, like a little flower lacking water. Once Your Highness came, he came back to life.”
Li Guangi: “…” It was not that exaggerated.
Unfortunately, though he signaled with his eyes, Li Guanning ignored him entirely. She knew he could not speak and wanted to say more on his behalf.
“Big Brother likes looking at the plaque of Cloud-Gazing Pavilion the most because it has the character for ‘cloud’ on it.”
Chu Yunge looked at Li Guangi. “Is there such a thing?”
He had chosen this courtyard himself back then. “You didn’t choose it because of the ‘cloud’ character, did you?”
In modern times, Chu Yunge had also been called by this name, but originally it was Aige, which basically meant “aid brother.”
But it was too straightforward and criticized for favoring boys over girls, so it was changed to Yunge.
A princess’s name often carried punning meanings too, so although Yunge sounded nice, Chu Yunge did not find it particularly wonderful.
But she had not expected Li Guangi to choose this courtyard because of the “cloud” character.
Li Guangi could not deny it. He nodded somewhat bashfully. Back then, the moment he saw the name Cloud-Gazing Pavilion, he had selected it without hesitation.
Gazing at clouds—he hoped he could see Her Highness often in the future too.
Chu Yunge looked at Li Guangi’s ears, red through and through, and smiled. She gave plenty of rewards to the talkative Li Guanning, listened as she recounted studying with Li Guangi, and finally agreed to let her attend school.
Li Guanning was overjoyed at the chance to study and eagerly went to pack her things.
She knew it was something everyone envied for a girl, but many did not understand. Li Guangi did, though.
The Princess not only protected them siblings, found an imperial physician to treat his illness, but now even let his sister go to school…
“You’re overthinking again, aren’t you? The imperial physician said not to think too much at your young age. This Princess just finds her cute, or perhaps it’s love me, love my dog—liking you means liking her too.”
No wonder successful men liked taking care of their little sisters-in-law and in-laws; this feeling was indeed quite nice.
Li Guangi did not want to think too much, but she had said she liked him.
The Princess had said she liked him again, and it was not the first time.
But she had just taken on so many new male favorites…
By coincidence, Li Guangi’s gaze fell on the wooden auspicious cloud hairpin atop Chu Yunge’s head.
The craftsmanship was not good—in fact, somewhat crude—so it stood out as ugly among her jewelry.
But that previous male favorite had carved it by hand and even injured his finger for it.
They were clever with their thoughts, knowing that as a princess, Chu Yunge had seen all the fine things. What mattered was the sentiment.
Chu Yunge appreciated it too, so after the examination found no issue, she wore it on her head.
Seeing Li Guangi’s gaze, she coughed lightly. “Really, no matter how many male favorites I have, right now, I like you the most.”
How could she not like him, when he had been secretly practicing abs?
She was also looking forward to inspecting the results.
When Li Guangi heard “like you the most,” his heart swung high like on a swing.
He tried hard to restrain his soaring mood and told himself it was only because she had not gotten him yet…
The next instant, he heard the Princess say, “Let this Princess see the results of your practice.”
His heart jolted before he could react. Chu Yunge drew close, hugged him, and her hand reached down to touch…
Your Highness!!!
At that touch, all those thoughts flew off to the ninth heaven.