The moment she left Feng Qiongcang’s palace, the smile at the corners of Feng Jiu’er’s lips faded away.

She lowered her head to watch the path beneath her feet. All the way back toward Feng Jiang’s quarters, she walked in complete silence, seemingly lost in thought.

Feng Jiang was finding this girl more and more impossible to read. Just moments ago in the side hall she had been bumbling and simple-minded, yet the moment they stepped through the door, her entire air shifted. A little cold. A little detached. And a little… profound.

A small girl, playing at being deep — what for?

“You should not have told Father Emperor just now that you were going to see Fourth Imperial Uncle. Are you not afraid Father Emperor will think you are deliberately trying to win Fourth Imperial Uncle over to your side?”

These were things one needed to know to survive in the palace, and Feng Jiang felt it was necessary to have a proper talk with Feng Jiu’er. Otherwise, the girl would not even know when she had poked a hornet’s nest.

“The throne will be mine sooner or later, won’t it? What would I need to win Fourth Imperial Uncle over for? Could he help me ascend?”

“Shh! What are you babbling about? Shut your mouth this instant!”

Feng Jiang was thrown into a panic, stepping quickly forward to clap his hand over her mouth. “Stop talking carelessly — do you not know that words bring disaster?”

“Mmph, mmph…” Feng Jiu’er struggled for a good while before she finally managed to push his hand away.

She shot him a look. “What are you doing? Was I wrong? Since everyone already knows the throne will certainly be mine, putting on a pretense is even more revolting, is it not?”

“Besides, someone who speaks this freely has no inner scheming at all — what mind would she have left to go cultivating alliances for her own gain?”

“How is that possible? You cannot…”

Feng Jiang broke off and stared at her, narrowing his eyes. “So you are saying you said all of that just now deliberately?”

Jiu’er did not wish to answer that. Whether it had been deliberate or not, it was not of great significance at this moment. Father Emperor’s mind was far too calculating, his schemes too deep — utterly unlike those of the Feng family members.

So the performance of foolishness she had put on just now before him — Feng Jiu’er now felt a trace of unease about it. She did not know whether it had been overdone.

Then, abruptly, her brow drew tight again. Her head felt muddled — confused and beginning to ache.

The Feng family? Which Feng family? Those Feng family members she found so foolish — what did that mean? When had she ever encountered them?

Feng Jiu’er clutched her head, and her complexion went pale all at once. Feng Jiang immediately noticed something was wrong and hurried over to steady her. “What is it? What is the matter?”

“It is nothing.” Jiu’er gave him a light push and thought for a moment before saying, “Do you know where Yanu is now?”

——

After Yanu had been reassigned away from the princess’s quarters, he had been sent to the medicine storage. When Feng Jiu’er and Feng Jiang arrived, Yanu was in the rear courtyard of the medicine storage, drying medicinal herbs.

It seemed he had made some error while sorting the herbs earlier, and a young medicine attendant had spotted it. The attendant’s face promptly darkened, and a round of verbal abuse erupted.

“You cannot even do the simplest task properly. What use does our medicine storage have for a useless piece of work like you?”

“No wonder you were thrown out by the princess — was it that after playing with you until she was tired of you, she cast you aside?”

Several other young medicine attendants joined in with their mockery. The sight of Yanu’s face and figure irritated them to no end.

He had not been there long, yet several of the senior medicine officials had already been eyeing him covetously. And this was a man, no less — and yet better-looking than any woman! With a face like that, he attracted trouble wherever he went. The way those medicine officials looked at him, it was as if they wanted to swallow him whole.

Every time there was good food, it was set aside for him. Every good task was given to him. The other medicine attendants were left to do the heaviest and roughest work.

So when the officials were away, everyone wanted to vent their frustrations on him.

“Look at those hands — pale and soft as silk. Hardly the hands of someone suited for rough work. He only needs to tend to his masters properly — why should he have to do this kind of coarse labor with us?”

“Well, he did not tend to his master properly enough — that is why he was thrown out.”

From start to finish, Yanu did not make a sound. Even Feng Jiang, watching, could barely stop himself from going over to stand up for him. Such a gentle and compliant servant — why should he have to be bullied?

He could not stand to see good people suffer injustice.

But Jiu’er gave him a light tug, stopping him from acting rashly.

The two medicine officials wanted to step forward and stop the unruly attendants from speaking out of turn — lest they lose face before the princess. But the princess had not even allowed the Third Imperial Prince to speak — how could there be any room for them?

The group stayed put, and the medicine attendants, unaware that anyone had arrived, only knew they had each other’s support and their boldness mounted all the higher.

Yanu continued to sort the medicinal herbs. Amid all of them, he was quite likely the only one actually working with any diligence.

Seeing that no matter how long they went on, Yanu remained expressionless and utterly unmoved, they began to lose interest.

One of them moved in close, fixing his gaze on the pale expanse of skin at Yanu’s collar above his robe, a suggestive smile curling at his lips.

“Come on, tell us — how did you tend to the princess? Was it that your technique was not up to standard, and you ended up angering her?”

Someone like Yanu — setting aside all else — that face alone was truly one in ten thousand. Though no one wanted to admit it, they could not but admit that even the three imperial princes of the palace were not as fine-looking as the wretch before them.

These words at last made the color in Yanu’s eyes darken. He was plainly displeased.

“Oh ho, he’s angry now!”

The medicine attendant caught this, and immediately said again with a laugh, “Could it be you look pretty but have no real skill — and though you appear fine on the outside, the actual performance was a complete failure?”

“Ha! Could it be that our princess is simply too fierce for you to handle…”

Crack — a clear, sharp slap rang out. Five distinct finger marks appeared, vivid across that medicine attendant’s face.

Everyone was struck dumb. This was the first time since Yanu had arrived at their medicine storage that he had ever lost his temper — the first time he had ever struck someone.

He actually hit someone.

The medicine attendant who had been slapped, after a moment of stunned disbelief, felt his expression go cold, and a towering rage ignited within him. He had already lost all his favored standing because of the medicine officials’ partiality toward Yanu, and had long harbored a deep resentment.

Now, Yanu had actually dared to raise his hand against him — how could he swallow this?

The attendant snatched up the wooden box holding the sorted medicinal herbs and moved to bring it crashing down onto Yanu’s head.

“Assistant!” The two medicine officials could no longer keep silent — they cried out in alarm at once.

Everyone froze at the sound.

The attendant who had hurled the box was startled as well, but the box had already left his hands — there was no way to pull it back now.

Crack — it struck Yanu on the head.

A thin thread of blood slid down from the top of Yanu’s head. He paid it no mind at all, merely raising a hand casually to wipe it away with his sleeve.

But when he turned and looked back at the two medicine officials, he went completely still: “…Jiu’er?”