"Come with me, let's find a good quiet spot, so I can play it for you. You will be my spectator today, Shushu!"

Huang Shu followed Bai Yunyu to wherever he wanted to go. They got stares left and right, and Yunyu got called by some people, signifying that he was very popular in the capital.

This wasn't a surprise, knowing that he was a beautiful ger man with amazing martial art skills and supposedly proficient in playing Guqin and reciting and writing a poem. 

'Maybe he is also actually a talented young man that would be great as a scholar…' Huang Shu pondered. 

Bai Yunyu stopped in front of a stall with an old lady that sold fruits. The old lady saw Yunyu, and her expression brightened instantly, "Ah, Yunyu. Where have you been? I've been waiting for you!" 

"I've been busy helping my father to deliver some of the order to the nobles," Yunyu replied with a smile. 

The old lady went inside her stall and gave Yunyu a bag full of apples, "This is for you ah. You must eat a lot."

"Grandma, this is too much. I don't bring enough money…" Yunyu said.

"Who said that I need money? This is a gift for you! You must eat a lot. You need to maintain that ruddy cheek ah, so beautiful!" The old lady didn't spare any modesty to praise Yunyu.

Inevitably, Yunyu's cheek reddened, just like a ripe apple, and he smiled, "Thank you, grandma. I will visit often."

"Of course, you should visit often! Ah-Deng keeps thinking about you. He said he dreamed of you again. When will you accept his hand-in ah?" The old lady asked. 

"Ahahaha, I don't have any plan to marry yet, Grandma. I will think about it later."

Huang Shu watched as Bai Yunyu kept getting stopped in the middle of their walk by so many old ladies and aunties, giving him fruits, snacks, even as far as a bowl of noodles. 

By the end of their walk, Bai Yunyu and Huang Shu arrived near a lake quite far from the capital city, with a lot of food, enough for a big family to eat for a day. 

Yunyu walked behind a tree and took out a jute carpet that he hid inside a tree trunk. He prepared the place for them to sit, and Huang Shu helped Yunyu set up their small picnic.

"Shushu, please put the drinks in the middle. I'm afraid it will get spilled," Yunyu ordered, and Huang Shu followed obediently. Honestly, as the Seventh Prince, doing something like this was already crazy enough, let alone to actually have a small picnic with a Ger in a quiet lake.

Huang Shu and Yunyu sat side by side, with fruits, snacks, and drinks that Yunyu got from the old ladies and aunties. They stared at the lake in serenity. 

But Yunyu's popularity sparked Huang Shu's interest because he never saw someone so popular. It seemed that Yunyu was a lot more popular in the city than he expected.

"I didn't know that you're popular in the capital," Huang SHu commented out of curiosity. "Did you know all of those old aunties?"

Yunyu giggled shyly and replied, "Well, some of them. They are just giving me free food because they want to have a ger son like me, apparently."

'I can see that,' Huang Shu said in his heart. He glanced at Yunyu at the edge of his eyes and commented again, "Is that only it?"

"Ahaha, some of them want me to be their son-in-law as well," Yunyu smiled. He ate one apple and munched slowly. "Most of them have a son younger, around my age or older than me. Some are even a lot older than me. They want me to be their son-in-law because I'm a Ger."

…

Huang Shu gulped upon finding the realization that Yunyu was actually a beautiful man. It wasn't strange if he had tons of admirers, but it did give Huang Shu a sense of crisis.

At first, he thought he was the only one who liked Yunyu, so all he needed was to cater to the love between them. But now, he just realized that it was more complicated, because Yunyu wasn't desperate to find a suitor.

He had plenty of them lining, and Huang Shu might've been the one in that long queue. 

'Crap, what should I do now? I can't just go and dress in my Princely robe and proposed to Yunyu as Seventh Prince. Knowing how much my mother hates Ger man. It's better to just come to Yunyu as a normal man instead of a prince…' 

'I'm not even sure if Yunyu is willing to marry me because of my status. I can always use Emperor Father's edict to force Yunyu to marry me, but then, what's the point of forced marriage? Yunyu won't be happy, and I will not be happy if my wife isn't.'

"H—Have you accepted any of them?" Huang Shu asked nervously. 

"No. I'm just sixteen years old, and I don't want to be married too early," Yunyu replied lightly. "Besides, they only see me as a marriage candidate because of my appearance and that I was born as a ger that could conceive birth."

"I have a dream bigger than just being a housewife. My father always told me to achieve many things in life before settling down. So I would rather marry late or not marry at all, so I can achieve what I wanted."

"W—What do you want to achieve then?" Huang Shu asked again. 

"I'm not sure. I can always take on the national test next year or join the military to study. I heard His Majesty Emperor Jing was thinking about training promising youth as a strategist. I wonder If I can go in."

…

'His goal is far from my expectation. I really thought that he just wants to marry a powerful man, so he can have a nice life as a Ger instead.'

Bai Yunyu turned his head and looked at Huang Shu with a smile on his face, "Why do you ask? Do you think that all I want is to be the wife of someone powerful, so I can have a comfortable life?"

"I—I don't—"

"It's alright, that's the stigma, right? Since I'm just a weak ger, I should be treated less and become a good housewife instead," Yunyu smiled bitterly. 

"Anyway, people's opinion won't change my mind. I still want to achieve many things great in the future. Even though I was born a peasant, but I will die a noble!"

Bai Yunyu's spirit stunned Huang Shu. He was both calm and courageous. Huang Shu always never liked the beautiful housewife type, both woman or ger man. Maybe it was just his nature, but he preferred to hang out with his sparring partner to train or study seriously, rather than playing this flower and butterfly game.

"Anyway, enough of me. We keep talking about me. This is supposed to be a conversation, right?" Yunyu gently patted Huang Shu's shoulder and asked, "How about you, Shushu? Do you have a story to tell? Where do you come from?"

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