Mu Mu returned swiftly with the medicinal herbs Feng Jiu’er required.

Jiu’er measured out the portions herself, divided them into three packets, and handed one to Mu Mu to go and decoct.

They were in an inn — hardly ideal — and borrowing someone else’s kitchen to boil medicine was an inconvenience.

All the more reason, then, that moving elsewhere was unavoidable.

Only, going to the Night Prince’s manor — that was, in truth, rather inconceivable.

After all, the man who had wounded them was the Night Prince himself.

Jian Yi returned in the dead of night. Jiu’er extracted a certain essence from the red spider and let it fall drop by drop into the medicinal liquid.

The entire bowl of medicine was then administered to Zhan Qingcheng.

He still did not wake, but half an hour after taking the medicine, his pulse had clearly steadied, and even his breathing had become deep and even.

They had known all along — once Jiu’er came, the Ninth Prince would certainly recover.

No one would ever doubt her medical skill.

“I have temporarily restrained that true energy within him with needles and medicine. He should be able to wake by dawn tomorrow. Over the next two days, I will find ways to come and apply needles again. However…”

She looked at Jian Yi, travel-worn and dusty, and blinked at him. “If I want to leave the palace on my own, I am afraid it will alarm my Imperial Father…”

“I’ll take you out — just give me a signal.” Jian Yi said at once.

But thinking it over, he felt uneasy. She would likely find it difficult to leave a signal for anyone outside the palace walls.

Jian Yi spoke again: “How about this — I’ll come wait in the Princess’s hall each night?”

“Don’t — what if I happen to be bathing and changing? Won’t you, you lecherous thing, see everything?” Feng Jiu’er replied with a look of utter disdain.

Her words brought a warmth to both Xue Gu and Qiao Mu’s hearts.

The Jiu’er they knew had truly come back.

This carefree, irreverent way of speaking was uniquely hers. An ordinary young woman would never be capable of saying something so shameless.

The tips of Jian Yi’s ears went hot. He immediately recalled the incident earlier that night when he had torn her robe.

But that had been unavoidable, hadn’t it? He hadn’t expected Jiu’er to cry out for help at the sight of him — he had genuinely been startled out of his wits at the time.

“Then… how am I supposed to find you?” Jian Yi asked in a lowered voice.

Jiu’er saw that his face had gone entirely red and knew perfectly well what he was thinking about.

She herself couldn’t care less. It was only her shoulder he had seen — had she not used to bare her arms and shoulders all the time before?

But where had these fragmented memories even come from? Baring arms and shoulders?

In an age as conservative as this one, had she really done so regularly?

Her way of thinking was sometimes truly strange — so strange she couldn’t explain it herself. It seemed entirely at odds with the era she lived in.

It was precisely because of this that she was more willing to give them a chance to prove themselves — and to give herself a chance as well.

Perhaps the truth of everything, as it stood now, was not really as it appeared.

“You had better not just wander into the palace as you please. Your lightness technique may appear truly impressive, but how many masters are hidden within those palace walls is something even I don’t know.”

Jiu’er thought for a moment before saying, “After the hour of Hai, wait outside the section of palace wall you left from tonight. When I come, I will give you a signal — it must be the spot from tonight, the one near the towering ancient tree.”

The palace was too vast and the walls too high. If she chose a different spot, her signal might never reach him.

“Understood.” Warmth spread through Jian Yi’s chest. Knowing she was willing to trust him, the embarrassment of a moment ago was swept away entirely by a surge of gratitude.

“Let’s set out now — to the Night Prince’s manor.”

The Night Prince’s manor was, as always, utterly silent — just as everyone had imagined it, like a ghost city unto itself.

In truth, the Night Prince’s manor was very large, but fully nine-tenths of its rooms stood empty.

Though everyone still held some misgivings about the idea of going there, this was Jiu’er’s arrangement, and so no one raised any objection.

Old Ya saw the Princess arrive with a group of people and looked entirely baffled.

Jiu’er spoke quietly: “They are all friends of Fourth Imperial Uncle’s from outside the palace — Imperial Father doesn’t know about this. Whatever you do, don’t let the palace soldiers find out. If they do, Fourth Imperial Uncle will be in trouble.”

Old Ya nodded frantically and gave his word: “Your Highness need not worry. This old servant will not breathe a word of it. Everyone is welcome to stay here at ease — it is safe here.”

The true relationship between the Night Prince and the Emperor was, in fact, far less amicable than it appeared on the surface. Old Ya had been at the Night Prince’s side for so many years — many things, he had noted and kept in his heart.

So whatever the Night Prince would not want the imperial household to know — he would do his utmost to keep from them.

Though Old Ya did not know the reason behind all of this, anything that would displease the Night Prince was something he would never do.

Jiu’er did not quite know why, but anyone the Night Prince trusted, she found herself trusting as well — and so she trusted Old Ya.

As for the conflict between Fourth Imperial Uncle and the people before her, she could actually guess at it vaguely.

It must have been Imperial Father who had sent Fourth Imperial Uncle to stop them — and so Fourth Imperial Uncle had been forced into a fight with them.

In all of this, the most pivotal figure was, in truth, Imperial Father.

If what they had told her was not false, then she was not Imperial Father’s own daughter.

This matter — she would have to see it through to the very bottom.

When Jian Yi escorted her back, Jiu’er deliberately chose to walk. There were still many questions she had not found answers to.

“You said that in the past I was not without martial ability?”

“That’s right. Your martial arts, while not on par with the Ninth Prince and the others, were still those of a true master.”

“At some point afterward, for reasons unknown, your martial ability was stripped from you. Word is that the Feng clan possesses a secret technique that allows a person without inner energy to cultivate a formidable power in a short period of time — and that is why we escorted you all this way here.”

“And that Ninth Prince — did he come to the Feng clan as well in order to escort me?”

The whole thing sounded genuinely inconceivable.

A prince of a great nation, traveling ten thousand li through mountain and road, venturing to a place as perilous as this — all for her sake?

“In truth, even I had not known, at first, that he had truly come.”

Jian Yi did not hold any particular fondness for the Ninth Prince. He had even been injured by him once, back in the day.

But the moment he learned that the one called Jiu Qing was the Ninth Prince, he had found himself suddenly filled with deep respect for the man.

To lay down an entire kingdom for the sake of one woman — to carry such devotion — he was genuinely in awe.

“Jiu’er, he has given up so much for you. If he wakes and discovers you no longer remember him…”

Jian Yi did not finish the sentence, but he was confident Feng Jiu’er understood.

Jiu’er said nothing, lowering her gaze to the path ahead.

The Night Prince’s manor was not especially far from the palace, yet walking the entire way had still taken them half an hour.

At long last they reached the towering outer wall near the agreed-upon spot. Looking up at the great tree beyond it, something inside Jiu’er’s chest lurched with a sudden force.

She looked at Jian Yi, and an inexplicable reluctance rose within her.

As though, once she stepped back inside, they would be completely separated — as if by a wall that could not be crossed.

He was someone she had only just met, and yet she already felt such an intense and undeniable tie to him.

If she said they had not known each other before — she herself would not believe it.

“Remember — don’t let the Ninth Prince exert himself.”

Jian Yi gave a nod, and only then did Feng Jiu’er say, “See me in.”

Jian Yi brought her only as far as inside the palace wall. The rest of the way back to the Princess’s hall, Jiu’er walked alone.

What she never could have anticipated was this: the moment she stepped inside, she found every palace maid and eunuch kneeling on the ground, and from a corner of the courtyard came the faint, agonized cries of a young maid, as though some punishment was being carried out…