Near noon the next day, the sky was dim and obscure. Great masses of dark clouds gathered overhead, as though an invisible black net had covered the entire world, blocking out all light.
Zongzheng Wuyou sat cross-legged beside the hot spring pool with his eyes closed, his palms pressed together and laid flat. Currents of air surged around him like mist, coiling endlessly. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and thrust both palms outward. With a thunderous boom, the jade stones by the pool shattered and shot in all directions. The surrounding trees snapped at the sound, and water exploded from the pool, splashing several zhang high.
Zongzheng Wuyou rose and stood with his head held high. At last, he had mastered the highest level of the Yixin Scripture. It had not been in vain that he had spent over ten days racking his brains to please a woman. Thinking of that woman, he glanced toward the small building nearby, and before he realized it, a faint smile had appeared at the edge of his thin lips.
Man Yao was awakened by that heaven-shaking crash. She opened her eyes and found herself in an elegant yet unfamiliar room. Frowning, she sat up, only to feel her entire body aching and weak. Chaotic scenes from the night before flashed through her mind. Looking down, she saw that beneath the silk brocade quilt, she was completely bare. Startled, her mind cleared at once. She hurriedly clutched the quilt tight and lay back down, her heart pounding wildly.
She had truly given herself to him! Closing her eyes, she tried her best to calm herself. So be it. Since she loved him, she had nothing to regret. In fact… in her heart there was even a sweet sense of fulfillment, mixed with a faint, hidden unease. She had not forgotten that in two days, she was to marry Fu Chou by imperial decree. Now, she could no longer marry him, nor was she willing to! No matter what, she had to confess her identity to Zongzheng Wuyou at once. If his feelings for her were true, he certainly would not allow her to marry another man. But he would surely be angry because of it, or perhaps misunderstand her. She… was willing to explain it to him. Thinking this, she immediately threw on her clothes and got out of bed. She had just put on a single inner robe when she heard someone outside shout loudly, “Seventh Brother!”
The Ninth Prince was always like this—his voice arrived before he did. Man Yao curved her lips in a faint smile and walked to the window, gently lifting a narrow crack to look outside. She saw the Ninth Prince lying on his stomach on a chair-couch, carried there by others. In his booming voice, he called, “So you were here, Seventh Brother! You made me search all over! I say, Seventh Brother, your body isn’t suited for soaking in hot springs. What are you doing here?”
Man Yao frowned slightly. Wuyou’s body was not suited for hot springs? She suddenly remembered that his usual body temperature was always ice-cold. Could it be related to this? Tilting her head, she opened the crack in the window a little wider. The tall, outstanding figure standing by the hot spring pool came into view—it was none other than the man who had entwined with her for the entire night. Her face could not help but flush faintly.
Seeing the Ninth Prince lying on the chair-couch, not daring to move, Zongzheng Wuyou frowned and said, “You haven’t recovered yet. Why are you running around everywhere?”
Only then did the Ninth Prince remember why he had come to find Zongzheng Wuyou. Excited, he tried to get up, but unexpectedly pulled at his wound and immediately cried out, “Aiyo!” His handsome face crumpled into a grimace, yet he still could not stop smiling as he said, “I’m happy, that’s why! Aiyo! It hurts, it hurts like hell…”
Zongzheng Wuyou smiled and said, “You took a hundred strokes and you’re still happy? Next time, I’ll have him punish you with another hundred!”
“No, no, don’t!” The corner of the Ninth Prince’s mouth twitched, and he hurriedly waved his hand. “I’m not happy because of that. I’m happy because Princess Rongle of Qiyun is going to marry Fu Chou, so I don’t have to marry her anymore. Haha… I finally escaped a calamity!”
Man Yao shook her head with a bitter smile. So marrying her counted as a calamity.
Zongzheng Wuyou’s smile faded. The corner of his eye lifted as he asked, “You think this marriage alliance… is a good thing?”
Emperor Qiyun had personally chosen him as the groom for the political marriage. After he refused the marriage, the emperor had not been angry, but had instead chosen Fu Chou, who had returned triumphant from war. And that princess, in the great hall, had tried every possible way to obtain half a year’s grace. Yet now, before even three months had passed, she was willingly choosing a husband and marrying. This marriage alliance had likely already lost its original purpose!
The Ninth Prince was startled. He too put away his smile. His eyes turned several times as he pondered, “Seventh Brother means… there’s something fishy about this? Ah, let me think… Actually, that war ended more than a month ago, but Fu Chou used a smokescreen and dragged it out for so long. Could it be…”
Zongzheng Wuyou clasped his hands behind his back, his eyes deep as a pool. In a low voice, he said, “I don’t care about these matters. The person I asked you to find—still no news?”
The Ninth Prince shook his head with a bitter expression. “It’s been twenty years. Back when Imperial Consort gave birth, everyone present at the time either disappeared or died of illness… Seventh Brother, are you certain the person you’re looking for is still alive? But we don’t even know whether that person is male or female. With only a birthmark that may or may not even exist, this… this is far too difficult to find!”
Zongzheng Wuyou lowered his eyelids. His gaze was calm, his thin lips pressed tightly together. He said nothing. The Ninth Prince inwardly cursed himself for bringing up exactly what he shouldn’t. He hurriedly waved for the attendants to carry him closer to Zongzheng Wuyou. As he propped himself up to pull at him, he apologized, “Seventh Brother, I was only speaking casually… The person you’re looking for must still be alive and well!”
Expressionless, Zongzheng Wuyou glanced at him. The Ninth Prince bared his teeth and laughed dryly twice, then hastily withdrew his hand. Suddenly, he seemed to think of something else and reached out again to grab Zongzheng Wuyou’s arm, pinching it several times as though confirming something.
Zongzheng Wuyou frowned and unceremoniously slapped his hand away with force.
The Ninth Prince paid no attention to the pain in his hand and cried out in shock, “Ah?!! Why is it warm? Seventh Brother, you, you… why is your body warm? Did you actually master the Yixin Scripture? That’s not right. You said that cultivating the Yixin Scripture couldn’t go against the laws of nature, but because you refused to touch women, you soaked in the cold pool all day, causing your meridians to become blocked… Last time, you asked me to help you find a woman. I spent money on it, but never mind that you wouldn’t touch her—you even killed her! It took me a lot of effort to smooth that over…”
Zongzheng Wuyou glanced at him sidelong and said mildly, “Oh? In this capital’s pleasure houses, there’s still something that you, ‘Ninth Master,’ can’t smooth over?”
The Ninth Prince immediately laughed. “Of course not! But that woman… it really was a pity! Cough… we’ve strayed too far. Seventh Brother, hurry and tell me—how exactly did you succeed in cultivating it? Don’t tell me you secretly found a woman yourself? Right, on the night of the assassination at the tea garden, you suddenly asked me to find a woman for you, then complained that the woman I brought wasn’t good enough. Could it be you truly already had someone in mind? Who was it? It couldn’t be… Liyue, could it?”
The Ninth Prince tilted his head as he asked, his face filled with astonishment and curiosity.
Inside the room, Man Yao had been quietly listening to their conversation all along. Hearing this, her heart gave a violent thud. An unprecedented panic and unease rose from the depths of her heart, and many scattered fragments of information began piecing themselves together, bit by bit, beyond her control.
To suppress the desire within his body, Zongzheng Wuyou had long soaked in a cold pool, causing his body to turn icy and his meridians to become blocked. To resolve this predicament, he asked the Ninth Prince to find him a woman, yet he killed that woman. He avoided women as if they were snakes and scorpions—so why was she alone different? Was it because that night, when she had accidentally fallen into his arms, he had not felt repulsed? She remembered that at the time, the color of his pupils had changed, and he had lost control and pinned her down by the water channel… Thinking of it now, that seemed like a sign of cultivation deviation. And also… that night, she had rejected him and told him that it could only happen if there was love…
The sky grew darker and darker, as though night were about to descend, making one feel stifled and uneasy. The fingers with which Man Yao gripped the window frame slowly turned bluish-white. Her heart seemed to fall into a bottomless black hole, sinking endlessly. She steadied herself and, through the crack in the window, saw Zongzheng Wuyou staring coldly at the shallow ripples stirred by the wind on the surface of the hot spring pool. She could not tell what he was thinking.
“Seventh Brother, you and Liyue… you took her…” The Ninth Prince was still probing, wondering how he could get an answer.
Zongzheng Wuyou turned around, his face without a ripple, and said faintly, “She… was willing.”
Those words—was willing—followed the cold wind through the window and blew into the elegant little room, taking away the last trace of warmth inside.
Man Yao stood blankly before the window. Her mind and heart were both empty. After the emptiness came a bone-eroding chill.
“Seventh Brother, you… will you marry her?” outside, the Ninth Prince asked.
No one answered.
The Ninth Prince sighed. Thinking of that calm, intelligent, and beautiful woman, he felt some regret after all. He turned his head and looked toward Chenxiang Cottage. With that one glance, he could not help but cry out, “Liyue…”
Hearing him, Zongzheng Wuyou turned his head and saw Man Yao, who had already stepped out of Chenxiang Cottage.
Her clothes were thin, and she stood in the cold wind. Her long hair was somewhat disheveled, and her sleeves billowed open in the wind, as though she were about to bid farewell to the mortal world. Zongzheng Wuyou’s heart tightened. Involuntarily, he walked forward to take her hand, his dark brows slightly furrowed as he said, “Coming out dressed so lightly—aren’t you afraid of catching cold? Hurry inside and put on another layer.”
His concern was so natural. It was precisely this naturalness that made it impossible for her to distinguish illusion from reality, truth from falsehood. Man Yao smiled without a sound. Abruptly, she flung off his hand and stepped back. Forcibly suppressing the violent turmoil in her heart, she stared fixedly into his eyes and asked, “You used me?”
There was no hysteria, no tearful interrogation. Her tone was so calm that it made one’s heart tremble. Zongzheng Wuyou’s gaze flickered, and she asked again, word by word, “It was all fake, wasn’t it?”
The tenderness was fake. His words about treating her as his wife were fake. The heart that had let down its guard after fifteen days of living together day and night was fake… Everything, all of it, was fake. Even the affection she had believed she felt with her own heart was fake!
Why? From beginning to end, the only one who had been honest and opened her heart… was her! Everything he had done was for the sake of obtaining her body, to resolve the signs of his cultivation deviation.
She truly was foolish! She had lived two lives, had been used to the point of death, and still could not see through love—that flower in the mirror, that moon in the water, illusory and without substance.
Zongzheng Wuyou froze. His gaze changed several times, extremely complex. He looked at her, his eyes lingering on her pale face. He did not speak, but she had already received her answer. Closing her eyes, she turned her back to him and raised a hand, pressing it tightly, tightly against her suffocating chest. The force was so great it was as though she meant to crush her heart through flesh and bone.
Behind her, the man looked at her straight back. He kept feeling that she seemed unable to bear the weight, as if she might collapse at any moment. He could not help but reach out to support her, but the instant his fingertips had only just touched her sleeve, she avoided him with the same loathing one would show snakes and scorpions. Zongzheng Wuyou’s gaze sank. Man Yao turned back and said coldly, “Since your purpose has already been achieved, there is no need to keep putting on an act! Your Highness Prince Li… there is still one matter on which I seek your instruction.”
Your Highness Prince Li? Zongzheng Wuyou’s brows drew together. Suddenly, he felt that this form of address was exceedingly grating. And the cool, mocking smile that remained on the woman’s lips made his entire body uncomfortable. He did not speak, only indicated with his eyes that she should ask.
With difficulty, Man Yao said, “The tea garden being sealed… my arrest and imprisonment… those were all arranged by you… weren’t they?”
She had been thinking all along: that night, very few people had known he was assassinated at the tea garden. Why had Ling’er been arrested the moment she went to the tea garden the next morning? She had thought he would not like Emperor Lintian interfering in his affairs. Yet she had not known that his goal… had been her all along!
A sharp light flashed in Zongzheng Wuyou’s eyes. He turned his gaze away and said in a voice without ripples, “This Prince has said before, it is not good for a woman to be too clever. Being appropriately foolish makes life much easier. Some matters, once past, are past. Why insist on getting to the bottom of them and seeking trouble for yourself?”
He said it so easily! Man Yao could not stop herself from laughing aloud, filled with self-mockery. “Clever? Heh… If I were clever enough, how could I have fallen into your trap? Your Highness Prince Li, you truly overestimate me! For an ordinary woman like me, you spent so much effort.”
In his wrath, Emperor Lintian had sealed the tea garden and arrested everyone involved; in order to clear himself of suspicion, the Crown Prince would certainly search for a scapegoat; to save the people of the garden from prison, she could only rely on him… All of this had been within his calculations. In the name of protecting her, he had smoothly made her move into his estate, then used false affection to lure her heart, all to achieve his goal. So this was… the love she had so self-righteously believed in? Pitiful, and laughable.
Zongzheng Wuyou said, “It is not that you are not clever enough. You merely encountered this Prince! You need not worry. Since you are already this Prince’s woman, this Prince will naturally marry you!”
He held his noble head high, lowering his eyes to look at her. That lofty posture of one looking down upon all beings— in her eyes, it was a kind of charity. The charity of marriage; she, Man Yao, had not yet become so lowly as that!
“No need!” She rejected him flatly, also lifting her head and returning the same gaze. Her smile was cold and resolute as she said, “Mutual pleasure between a man and a woman… is merely a matter of mutual willingness. What need is there to speak of marriage? Last night… just treat it as a spring dream. Your Highness Prince Li should forget it.”
At this point, if he still thought marrying her was a kind of favor, then he, Zongzheng Wuyou, understood her far too little! Her body trembled faintly. Her hands clenched into fists, her sharp nails sinking into her tender palms. Yet she was still smiling, faintly sarcastic, faintly cold.
Zongzheng Wuyou’s gaze changed. She had actually rejected him again! Other women, in order to stay by his side, could disregard status and even threaten death. Yet she was something else entirely—she had lost her body to him, yet spoke of it so lightly, even saying to treat it only as a spring dream!? Could it be that she truly did not care at all whether his feelings for her last night had been sincere or false? Irritation suddenly rose in his heart, and a layer of anger appeared unconsciously in his eyes. He reached out and gripped her uplifted chin. He disliked this indifferent expression of hers, always holding her head high as though she regarded everything with contempt, as if in all the world, no person and no matter could enter her eyes or be carved into her heart. He narrowed his phoenix eyes and stared tightly into her ink-dark eyes. His sharp gaze seemed as though it would pierce through her soul as he said in a low voice, “Do you know how many women in this world… wish to marry this Prince?”
Man Yao’s chin hurt from his grip. She tried to struggle, but the more she struggled, the tighter he held her, as though he would not stop until he crushed her. She simply let him do as he pleased. However painful her jaw was, how could it compare to the pain in her heart? Stubbornly, she curved her lips, her gaze calm as she said, “Your Highness Prince Li is of noble status and has looks surpassing Pan An. Naturally, countless women wish to marry you. You may… marry each of them one by one if you like. But… among those people, I will never be included.”
Zongzheng Wuyou’s expression darkened heavily. If these words had been spoken by an ordinary person, they would have sounded more like anger. But from her mouth, they made one feel that this was exactly what she thought in her heart.
This woman, who just last night had been moved to tears by a single sentence from him, could today smile so calmly upon learning that he had not been sincere. That smile felt extremely glaring to him. He narrowed his eyes and stared at her for a while. Apart from the mockery in her eyes and the chill at the corners of her mouth, he could see no other expression. He refused to believe that her heart was as calm as she appeared on the surface.
Suddenly, he reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist. That slender, supple waist could scarcely fill his grasp, making him think of their entanglement last night. His heart could not help but stir. He yanked her forcefully toward him, and their bodies pressed tightly together.
Man Yao’s expression changed. Without hesitation, she pushed at him with all her strength and said coldly, “What are you doing? Let go of me.”
Not only did Zongzheng Wuyou not let her go, he instead used one hand to lock her body in place while the other caressed her pale face. His fingertips lightly teased her lustrous white earlobe, and with a frivolous, wicked smile, he said, “I merely want to take you back to relive the feeling of last night… How is it? Do you remember now? You now refuse to marry this Prince, yet last night… you were holding the thought that you would soon marry this Prince, and willingly… offered up your own body.”
The color drained completely from Man Yao’s lips in an instant. This man was truly cruel. He could not bear to see her calm, and insisted on cutting open the wound she had hidden, laying it out bloody before him, then stepping on it viciously before he was satisfied!