A woman in white silk robes stood in the moonlight outside the door, her face turned at an angle to show her best profile. She was indeed tearful and truly pitiful, naturally arousing sympathy, but she was no longer a young maiden by any means.

At the very least, she was old enough to be that maiden’s aunt.

The person from the coffin walked out. This man wore hemp clothing, had deep facial features, yet possessed a refined scholarly temperament with quite an elegant bearing. However, his brow was deeply furrowed, his under-eyes were dark with bags, and his expression always carried a hint of weariness.

When he spoke, his voice was deep and thick, as if three speakers were placed in his chest cavity, the resonance humming and making people dizzy and disoriented.

However, this thunderous voice spoke gentle words: “Qiong’er, it’s no matter. Fengli won’t hold it against you.”

That middle-aged Qiong’er immediately broke into a smile through her tears, saying softly: “Senior Brother, you’re so kind. I know elder sister won’t hold it against me, but I still need to apologize to her. Otherwise, my heart won’t be at ease.”

The man tapped her forehead and said: “You… always so good-natured.” He turned and said: “Fengli, just say directly that you forgive her, so she won’t keep dwelling on it and lose sleep over it.”

There were only four people in the room, yet when he turned, he faced the wall.

The solid wall suddenly and silently softened, collapsing like liquid mud with a splash, leaving only the tie-dyed fabric on the wall to fall intact into a pair of snow-white hands.

Behind the wall sat a woman properly and upright, wearing simple red cloth clothing. With her elegant features and the faint flame-pattern marking between her brows, she always reminded one of a newly wed bride.

She caught the torn tie-dyed fabric, looked down at it for a long while, then said flatly: “This tie-dyed piece was purchased at great expense from a family as their heirloom when you and I traveled to Dong Mountain together, before our betrothal. It was the first gift you gave me.”

The man said with slight impatience: “Was it? Xuan Qiong didn’t do it on purpose.”

Xuan Qiong also said tremblingly: “Elder sister, I didn’t know… I…”

The woman in red slowly folded the tie-dyed fabric and tucked it into her bosom, saying: “Ignorance is not a crime. I understand this principle.”

The man then showed a smile, nodding: “You’ve become increasingly learned and reasonable in recent years, learning to restrain your temperament. Very good. Being constantly with Qiong’er, you must have benefited from her influence.”

The woman in red said nothing. After a long while, she slowly nodded: “Indeed.”

Xuan Qiong smiled bashfully.

Though the three spoke among themselves, their positions all blocked the exits. While the three chatted and laughed as usual, their outward aura was thick as iron – ordinary people would be suffocated by the pressure. Under these circumstances, Tie Ci and Feiyu couldn’t escape, so they simply stood there watching the drama unfold.

Tie Ci whispered to Feiyu: “What are your thoughts watching this scene?”

Feiyu seemed to find it quite interesting, but hearing her question, he couldn’t help but pause: “What?”

Tie Ci stared at him, her face showing neither joy nor anger, and slowly nodded: “Oh, you don’t feel anything.”

Feiyu was momentarily confused, but with sudden inspiration, his heart flashed with understanding: “Ah, no, I think the interaction between these three is strange. The man is unfair and heartless, the woman in white is hypocritical and artificial, and the two of them together bully the one in red.”

Tie Ci stared at him for a long while, thinking that obviously he didn’t really feel that way – just another male chauvinist pig characteristic of the era, but fortunately smart enough to be salvageable.

She watched these three interact and her fists were clenched hard. If she hadn’t understood their identities and didn’t dare act rashly, she would have wanted to knock those two on the head.

However, the victim herself seemed to have no such intention.

She whispered: “Have you heard of the Three Madmen and Five Emperors?”

Feiyu hummed and said: “I know. The madmen are Thunder Madman Gui Haisheng, Medical Madman Jingxu, and Poison Madman Jingju. As for the Emperors… I’m not clear about those, but I know there’s a female grandmaster among them called Emperor Yan. I don’t know her real name.”

“Her name is Chi Fengli. The only woman among the Five Emperors. She’s the wedded wife of Thunder Madman Gui Haisheng.”

Feiyu’s gaze turned to the scene.

“It looks like her, but according to legend, Chi Fengli practices the Blazing Yang technique. Influenced by this martial art, her nature is fierce as fire. Looking at her now, it seems that fire has been extinguished. This is strange. The Blazing Yang technique burns like fire, making practitioners constantly hot and restless. If they don’t release it, they’ll suffer internal damage. So as long as the Blazing Yang technique remains, the temperament can’t improve. How can she achieve such contradiction between her martial art and personality?”

“Maybe she’s gotten older, thought more about things, and her temper has stabilized. Look at her now – like a bodhisattva.”

“Gui Haisheng comes from a prestigious family. He’s the most accomplished in his sect. He also has a junior sister who’s quite famous – not for martial arts, but because she’s always stayed by his side, advising him and managing his affairs, never leaving even after he married Chi Fengli. She practices extremely cold techniques, loves plum blossoms, and is known in jianghu for being pure as ice and jade, dignified and self-controlled. She’s called Master Mei Po Fang.”

“Matchmaker Master?”

Tie Ci almost laughed out loud.

Feiyu continued: “Just these three? They match up well. Pure as ice and jade? Dignified and self-controlled? What, do naive jianghu people really believe this junior sister stayed by her senior brother’s side for years and both remained chaste without any impropriety? Gui Haisheng clearly has quite the romantic fortune…” Seeing Tie Ci’s look, he immediately became serious: “What nonsense – embracing left and right, maintaining ambiguous relationships!”

“You men, don’t you think having three wives and four concubines is normal? Why pretend to be indignant?”

“It is normal – at least my father and brothers all do this.” Feiyu smiled: “So then, would you allow it?”

“Me?” Tie Ci smiled and patted his shoulder: “You’ve asked a good question. I was originally struggling with whether to have three wives and four concubines myself. Now that you mention it, I feel at ease. I’ll arrange it when I return.”

Feiyu stared at her and scoffed: “Darling, you’ve already removed your own mask. Still pretending to be a young master from a wealthy Shengdu family?”

Tie Ci said meaningfully: “That’s not for you to worry about.”

She turned her head away and said no more. Feiyu vaguely sensed her mood had changed. He glanced at her once, then again, then leaned over: “You saved me twice earlier… Gui Haisheng struck so quickly – how did you realize the person in the coffin was him?”

“The person in the coffin wasn’t him.” Tie Ci said flatly: “There was a sound earlier – that was him throwing out the corpse from the coffin and sitting inside himself. I saw it from across the rooftop.”

“Speaking of this, I’ve always wanted to ask you – ordinary people can have gifted abilities, but at most one. You seem to have several. What’s your background? Some otherworldly immortal sect that entered the court?”

“Why don’t you guess I’m royalty?” Tie Ci smiled: “The Iron royal family can also possess multiple gifted abilities, can’t they?”

“Honestly, I’ve guessed that more than once. I’ve even considered you might be the Crown Princess.”

Tie Ci’s heart jumped, and she unconsciously said “Oh?”

Feiyu took her reaction as surprise and smiled: “Strange? Your background, actions, and many other things make it hard not to think of the royal family.”

“Then why did you dismiss it?”

“The Iron royal family’s gifted abilities don’t exceed two at most, and they’re mostly useless. After all, enjoying supreme earthly power while also having powerful gifts doesn’t align with heavenly balance. Besides, everyone knows Iron royal family members must awaken their gifts before age twelve. When I first met you, you had no gifted abilities – otherwise, when Li Yao broke out of prison, you wouldn’t have been injured so badly trying to save his daughter.”

“What if there were exceptions?”

“There are no exceptions.” Feiyu said decisively: “I met someone absolutely reliable who personally examined the Iron royal family’s constitution. He said the Iron royal family’s gifts are purer than ordinary people’s – born with them, growing and manifesting over time, like children naturally growing teeth and learning to eat and drink. If nothing appears after over ten years, then the bloodline doesn’t carry it, and there’s absolutely no hope.”

“You trust him that much?”

“If you knew who he was, you’d trust him too.”

Tie Ci fell silent.

Indeed, while the Iron royal family had quite a few with gifted abilities, they were born different, showing clear signs by age two or three. Throughout all dynasties, none had ever awakened after age twelve.

Why was she an exception?

Feiyu casually looked away.

Dismissing her Crown Princess identity naturally had other reasons.

For instance, he knew that the Crown Princess was born with an ailment and couldn’t practice martial arts – the deeper her skills, the faster she’d die. With martial arts like Eighteen’s, she should have died eighteen times over already. How could she keep getting stronger?

So when rumors circulated about the Crown Princess’s superior martial arts, he just laughed it off. It was just the royal family gilding their heir’s reputation. Knowing a bit of flowery fist and embroidered leg techniques, then inflating it to claim she was a peerless master.

These two pieces of information came from absolutely reliable sources, so even with some doubts, they quickly dissipated.

“Isn’t it better that the Crown Princess is useless?” he smiled: “Otherwise, the various fiefs and kingdoms would lose sleep.”

Tie Ci glanced at him, deeply agreeing.

As they exchanged a few words, the conversation there had also concluded. As Chi Fengli put away the tie-dyed fabric, a hint of amusement flashed in Xuan Qiong’s eyes. She first looked at Tie Ci: “From your earlier moves, you seemed to know we were three people all along.”

Earlier, besides using banknotes to escape Gui Haisheng’s attack from above, Tie Ci had simultaneously dealt with Xuan Qiong and Chi Fengli with her jade brush, avoiding the three-person pincer attack.

Tie Ci gestured to the room’s furnishings: “Whether the divine statue or the various decorations in the room all present three completely different styles. It’s difficult for one person to simultaneously like completely opposing styles, so I guessed there were three masters.”

Xuan Qiong smiled in praise: “Very clever.”

She then turned to Feiyu, looking him up and down carefully, and smiled: “Though the young gentleman is rather dark, his appearance is acceptable. No wonder Ping’er would fancy him. In that case, stay and keep Ping’er company.”