!----
"Ah-ha!"
"Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!"
"It's been a year, Miss Song, and you've become even more dazzling!"
"This is incredible! The first moment I saw you, all I could think about was how to carry you off and make you my wife!"
At the Yuhang docks, the moment the Song Clan's enormous warship had pulled alongside the pier, Kou Zhong—dressed in fine clothes, riding a fine horse, and wearing a treasured saber at his waist—could no longer hold back. He used his lightness skill to leap onto the ship first, laughing as he hurried toward Song Yuzhi, the Song Clan's graceful young lady, who stood at the bow.
"You sure know how to sweet-talk!"
"But..."
"Now that I think about it, it really has been almost a year."
Watching Kou Zhong approach and greet her, Song Yuzhi did her best to maintain the poise and composure of a noble young lady. She smiled at him graciously and gave a graceful curtsy.
Yet she could not hide the surprise, excitement, and emotion in her eyes.
It was no wonder. A little over a year ago, when Kou Zhong, Xu Ziling, and Fu Junzhuo had been hunted by Yuwen Huaji, they had been in a truly miserable state. Back then, the two young men had been nothing more than petty thieves and street toughs from Yangzhou. They could not even beat an ordinary Sui soldier, and in the end, they had been forced to stay aboard her Song Clan's salt-trading ship with Fu Junzhuo for many days while they recovered from their injuries.
At the time, her brother Song Shidao and her clan uncle Song Lu had hosted the two young men. Song Yuzhi herself had only shown her face a few times. Although she had already met Kou Zhong and Xu