This was, in all the time Feng Jiu had known the Ninth Imperial Uncle, the first time she had ever seen this kind of down-to-earth side of him.

Since he wasn’t using his lightness skill, he ran carrying her on pure physical strength alone, all the way down the main street and around several corners, until by the time they reached the back gate of Tianji Hall, his face and forehead were already covered in sweat.

“W-wait a moment, Ninth Lord, where exactly are you taking us?” This man was actually carrying her straight toward Tianji Hall—did he not realize how many people inside would recognize him?

Zhan Qingcheng came to a stop and glanced at her, then finally relaxed his arm and set her down on the ground.

The moment her feet touched the ground, she finally felt some sense of returning to reality. And yet, leaving the Ninth Imperial Uncle’s arms also left her feeling as if something were missing—her heart suddenly felt strangely hollow.

But this was no time to dwell on such thoughts—if she didn’t stop him now, the Ninth Imperial Uncle really would walk straight in like this.

“Ninth Lord, you can’t just walk in like that, you—” The way he furrowed his brow made it almost impossible for her to keep refusing him.

Feng Jiu had long known that the moment the Ninth Imperial Uncle frowned, every woman in the world would feel a pang in her heart for him.

The instant the Ninth Imperial Uncle looked even slightly upset, every young woman around would feel her own heart break along with him.

She truly couldn’t bring herself to say a single word refusing him entry, but for him to barge in so brazenly would genuinely invite a great deal of trouble.

“Ninth Lord, could you wait for me just a moment? Just a little while—stand right here and wait, don’t go anywhere.”

He said nothing, but Feng Jiu knew the Ninth Imperial Uncle had agreed.

Leaving him to stand under a tree for a little while, she immediately strode through the gate.

She at least needed to grab him a hat or something—anything to help hide his face was better than letting him walk in looking exactly as he was.

The moment Feng Jiu stepped through the door, before she even had time to head back to her own room, she saw Xue Gu hurrying over from that very direction.

“Xue Gu, what’s going on?” Feng Jiu rarely saw Xue Gu look this anxious, and she hurried forward to meet her.

“He…” Xue Gu fell silent for a moment, then suddenly seized Feng Jiu’s wrist. “Go see him, now. Something’s happened.”

It was the most isolated corner of the west wing. Hardly anyone ever came near that room under normal circumstances—usually, only Xue Gu visited it with any regularity.

A man lived there, one who was, in truth, remarkably handsome—but because of his withdrawn, solitary nature, out of all the many people at Tianji Hall, no one besides Xue Gu and Feng Jiu could get near him.

The moment he sensed a stranger drawing close, he would attack without warning.

And so, though this room was technically part of the west wing, it felt like its own separate, isolated corner—quiet to the point of feeling almost lifeless.

Just as Feng Jiu and Xue Gu pushed open the door, the man on the bed had broken through the pressure points Xue Gu had sealed, and was lunging headfirst toward the wall.

“Don’t do anything reckless!” Xue Gu cried out in alarm, darting forward, and just barely managed to pull him back as his head was about to slam into the wall.

But the force behind the man’s lunge had been so great that, when Xue Gu yanked him back, he crashed straight into her with a heavy thud.

His mouth fell open, and with a sudden retch, a mouthful of fresh blood gushed out.

Even Xue Gu felt the blood roil violently in her chest from the impact, nearly coughing up blood herself—which gave some idea of just how forceful the man’s lunge toward the wall had been.

A force like that—it was as though he no longer wished to go on living.

“Jiu’er, hurry and use your needles to suppress the gu poison in him!” Xue Gu urged anxiously.

Feng Jiu had already pulled out the needle case she always carried while watching Xue Gu hold the man back, and before he could lunge into another frenzy, she strode quickly over and drove a silver needle into the hollow of his neck.

“Yan, you promised you wouldn’t give up. Have you forgotten?” Even as she spoke, a second and third silver needle were already sinking deep into the pressure points on Yan’s body.

Yan’s eyes burned a fiery, bloodshot red, veins bulging again and again across his body—his agony had reached its absolute limit.

Usually he only had attacks on the night of the full moon, so Feng Jiu hadn’t given it much thought tonight—after all, the full moon was still several days away.

She hadn’t expected the attack to come early. Could it be that the gu poison had changed yet again?

“Be good now, don’t give up. Just bear with it a little longer and it’ll pass—you can get through this, I know you can.”

Feng Jiu’s fingertips came down on the top of his head, pressing firmly around where she had placed the needles, helping to gather the excess true energy at his crown so it could gradually disperse through her massage.

To Yan, her voice carried a strangely soothing power all its own. His star-bright eyes opened wide, and his hand lifted.

“Don’t panic. I told you I’d cure you, and I will—just don’t panic.”

Feng Jiu gave his hand a light squeeze, meaning only to offer him a bit of comfort, but once he had hold of her hand, he clung to it like a drowning man grasping the last piece of driftwood, unwilling to ever let go.

With no other choice, Feng Jiu let him hold on, using her right hand to continue the massage.

Given how things stood now, every time the gu poison flared up, she could administer the needles, but their effect in suppressing the poison was never instant—it took time.

During that stretch of time, Yan had to fight through it on his own.

All she could do was ease his suffering a little—the greater part of the pain, he had to endure and work through himself!

“I’ll cure you. Trust me, I will.”

Feng Jiu’s voice seemed to carry an almost bewitching quality as it drifted softly into Yan’s ear.

His eyes remained bloodshot red, but the despair within them at last began to fade a little.

His large hand gripped her small one, his fingertips still trembling from the pain, but he forced himself to stay calm—at the very least, to keep from looking quite so wretched.

He believed in her—he always had—otherwise, he never would have made it this far!

She had no idea how much time had passed before the large hand gripping hers finally loosened. Looking again at the man seated on the bed, his eyes were now shut tight, his temples and face still covered in cold sweat.

But this time, he had finally drifted off to sleep.

Xue Gu let out a sigh of relief and quickly brought over a basin of hot water, wringing out a towel to wipe the beads of sweat from his face and forehead.

Only then did Feng Jiu withdraw the silver needles. Together, the two women helped ease him slowly down to lie flat.

Xue Gu pulled the blanket over him, and looking at his pale face, felt a wave of guilt rise in her chest.

“If I hadn’t transferred your gu poison onto him back then, he never would have ended up like this.”

Xue Gu truly felt ashamed now—and what shamed her most was that her poison-transfer technique back then had been imperfect. The unfeeling gu now mutated into something unknown within Yan, while the unfeeling gu in Feng Jiu had still never been fully removed.

“It’s not your fault.” Feng Jiu raised a hand and wiped the sweat from her temple.

Seeing Yan in such agony just now had been hard on her too. He trusted her so completely, and yet even now, she still hadn’t found a way to fully dispel the gu poison.

All she could do… was give him a little courage to keep on living.

This man had once seemed cold-hearted, even cruel and merciless, and yet who would have thought that deep down, he still carried such a clean, pure side to him.

Looking back, who would ever have believed it?