The Western Three Rooms fell silent once more.

Only this silence was no longer suffocating—for Seventh Miss, it carried instead a precious tenderness. Sleepiness came like tidal waves, one after another—Seventh Miss waited a moment, then gently pushed Xu Fengjia’s shoulder in gentle reminder.

“This kind of thing—I’m not asking you to make a choice right away.”

Xu Fengjia suddenly collapsed, his entire body pressing onto Seventh Miss, making her breath catch, before he lazily propped himself up, adjusting his weight so she wouldn’t bear his full burden.

“Thank heaven…” his groan carried undisguised relief. “You’re not angry?”

“Why would I be angry?” Seventh Miss couldn’t help but smile. “If you’d agreed immediately, I’d probably be the angry one.”

For such a major matter, if Xu Fengjia agreed without any consideration, it would only show he hadn’t taken Seventh Miss’s words to heart at all.

Xu Fengjia hummed thoughtfully.

He fell silent again, only allowing his long fingers to wander through Seventh Miss’s hair, combing through her tresses over and over.

“You really are…” the words broke off midway, and only after a long while did he continue with a faint murmur. “So special, Yang Qi, you’re truly special.”

Seventh Miss couldn’t help but smile slightly beneath him.

“You think I want to be?” she said softly, bitterly, transforming boundless bitterness, heartache, and defeat into a light confession. “If I could, I wouldn’t want to be.”

“What if… what if I can’t agree?” Xu Fengjia asked while bringing his lips close to her cheek, using the newly grown stubble at the edge of his lips to brush across hers again and again—this wasn’t a kiss, yet it was more intimate than kissing. “What if I can’t agree?”

“Then your life will be much easier,” Seventh Miss answered without hesitation. “You could still…”

She deliberately turned her head and planted a kiss on Xu Fengjia’s lips, then withdrew.

“Physical intimacy could still happen… as long as you want it and I want it.” Her voice carried amusement as she even reached down, lightly flicking the organ that had become excited from just this slightest stimulation. “At the appropriate time, when Fourth Brother and Fifth Brother are a bit older, I’ll promote a bedwarmer. You can have her bear you a son… After that, you can do whatever you like. As long as you don’t make a scene in front of me, I won’t interfere.”

Xu Fengjia grabbed her mischievous hand, rubbing it thoughtfully. “How very virtuous of you.”

Though his words carried light sarcasm, there was also deep contemplation.

“If you hadn’t kept demanding, kept wanting… this was what I was prepared to give you all along,” Seventh Miss said softly. “No matter who became my husband, I would be a dutiful wife, asking for very little—nothing you couldn’t give. But—you also couldn’t demand anything more.”

“All of this…” Xu Fengjia waved his hand.

“All of this,” Seventh Miss agreed gently. “All intimacy would be completely shut away. What you want, you could never obtain… To be honest? I don’t even think you’d like it. I’m really very boring, very… unlovable. Don’t you already know this?”

Xu Fengjia quieted, searching for Seventh Miss’s eyes in the darkness. A bit of faint light allowed their gazes to lock, but because it was too dark, they couldn’t discern each other’s expressions. This very thing gave them both some relaxation—they could immerse themselves boldly in their own thoughts without needing to don flawless masks.

After a long while, Xu Fengjia finally said hoarsely:

“You’re not the least bit lovable.”

“Women should be delicate to inspire affection, but you’ve never, never had a delicate moment.”

“From the first time we met, the expression on your face seemed to say to me, ‘I don’t need anyone, I can do just fine alone,’ ‘I don’t need to rely on anyone to hold my head so high.'”

“The more you’re like this, the less lovable you become… but I… but the more I want to make you bow your head, make you admit that you need to rely on me to live well.”

“If you’d married far away, maybe I would have forgotten you. But you’re right beside me, still with that same attitude, as if whoever became your husband made no difference at all, as if you alone could arrange your life perfectly.”

“Not perfectly,” Seventh Miss gently interrupted. “The husband still needs to provide a little cooperation for perfection.”

Xu Fengjia angrily bit her, right on the lips, with force too great to be considered a kiss—more like trying to bite off a piece of flesh, drawing a bit of blood.

“Among all the women I’ve ever met, you’re the least lovable, so strong I even feel threatened… If you were a man and couldn’t be used by me, couldn’t stand on my side, I would do everything in my power to destroy you.” The fury in Xu Fengjia’s words gradually calmed, taking on a trace of resigned helplessness. “But you’re a young lady, and yet still so stubborn, so strong!”

This was clearly reproach, yet Seventh Miss’s lips couldn’t help but curve into a slight smile. From her toes upward, a warm current seeped through. This long-absent warmth easily melted years of frozen ice. She knew she was gradually melting, but melting felt too good—so good she couldn’t resist at all, didn’t even have room left for panic.

“You’re right beside me now. I can’t destroy you, and I can’t… I simply cannot stop wanting you!” Along with this urgent confession came a kiss, an unreserved deep kiss, which angrily withdrew before Seventh Miss could respond. “You’re truly my nemesis! Yang Qi, how can you dangle my appetite like this and then set such a high price! You want me… you want me to disregard heirs, forget everything, just to buy this one chance?—And I don’t even know if I’ll like what I get! Or if you can even like me!”

Seventh Miss could hold back no longer—she laughed softly.

“Yes.”

Being able to be frank felt truly wonderful.

“I’ll only give you this one chance to choose,” she added almost maliciously. “You’ve always loved talking to me about choices, Shengluan. Now all the pros and cons are laid out before you, for you to choose. So what will you choose?”

Seventh Miss’s final note lifted slightly, revealing a rare playfulness.

Xu Fengjia groaned in frustration, rolling over to lie on his back beside Seventh Miss. In moments, he turned back and pinned Seventh Miss beneath him.

“Have you been hoping all along that I’d give up?” he irritably demanded of Seventh Miss. “So you could shrink into your shell and be that perfect young madam, and whether the man beside you was me or Feng Zixiu, or even that damned Quan Zhongbai, you’d treat them all the same?”

“Yes,” Seventh Miss admitted. “If you didn’t demand it, I would never speak up in my lifetime. I would be a perfect wife. No matter who the man beside me was, I’d treat them all the same. I’d even treat you like I treat my cousin, because I’d have no other desires, so no matter how you treated me, I wouldn’t be hurt.”

Xu Fengjia’s breathing immediately grew rough.

“But I’m special!” he said fiercely, gripping Seventh Miss’s chin. “I’m special! Damn it, Yang Qi! You can’t deny this—you do care for me—”

“Caring can be forgotten,” Seventh Miss said lightly. “You blame me for refusing to choose… Xu Fengjia, actually you’re quite timid too. You also fear making choices.”

Xu Fengjia sucked in a sharp breath.

He relaxed his physical control, his entire body going limp onto Seventh Miss.

“You’re wrong,” he cursed, almost furious with embarrassment. “From the day I met you, I’ve never had a damned choice again.”

He bit down on Seventh Miss’s lower lip, grinding it forcefully between his teeth, making Seventh Miss gasp at the pain and emit broken moans.

“Even if you asked me to regicide or patricide, I’d probably allow it,” Xu Fengjia’s muffled confession between entangled lips and teeth seemed to send short bursts of electricity directly down Seventh Miss’s spine. “It’s just this request—you knew, you knew I couldn’t possibly refuse you? I… I wish I could hate you!”

While complaining, he roughly tore open Seventh Miss’s inner garment. “In front of you, I’ve never won! Always losing… it’s absolutely uncanny, I… I…”

Seventh Miss could hold back no longer—she revealed a triumphant smile.

“Ah!” The next second she gasped in surprise. “If you’re talking, just talk—why are you—”

The dialogue quickly shattered into deep and shallow moans.

Seventh Miss had never known that the union of body and soul, once the woman stopped resisting, truly had the efficacy of uniting body and soul—the entire experience would be completely different.

Their intimacy had once been unpleasant for her. She found it difficult to become sufficiently aroused, and Xu Fengjia lacked deep patience, often needing to use scented oils for lubrication to barely prevent her pain. What followed might be pleasant for Xu Fengjia himself, but she often needed extra stimulation to find pleasure.

However, when she no longer resisted Xu Fengjia’s entry, when his entry no longer counted as invasion but formally received her permission, her body erupted with pleasure like small sparks everywhere, mingling with spiritual ecstasy like ocean tides. Her female body was almost immediately ready, welcoming his entry with accommodation, making embarrassing sounds at their joining. Seventh Miss soon let out thin moans with a strained voice.

“Xu… Feng… jia…” Her plea was distorted, or perhaps it wasn’t even a plea at all. In boundless floating, even in a field of intense white light, the only sound she could make was his name. All the other lovely little moans carried no meaning.

Far from slowing his movements, Xu Fengjia’s actions became even faster. Seventh Miss felt dizzy and weak, feebly raising her hand to cover her forehead, only to have him brush it away.

“Look at me,” he demanded breathlessly. Through the faint dawn light, Seventh Miss could vaguely distinguish the excited flush on his face. This time was different for him too, she thought hazily. He was much more excited than usual, his expression even slightly contorted.

She wanted to close her eyes—habit still gave her the impulse to escape—but now that Xu Fengjia had accepted her asking price, she no longer had the right to dodge. Seventh Miss savored his submission in her heart, and the spiritual joy made her no longer avoid Xu Fengjia’s gaze. He brazenly surveyed the charm she couldn’t hide on her face, and she let him look, allowed him to examine her…

Seventh Miss arched her body, sobbing finely, shaking her head unbearably, begging Xu Fengjia, “Don’t touch there…”

But from beginning to end, she never truly stopped Xu Fengjia from exploring her body. This sweet torture stretched almost into pain, then his control began to loosen, the rhythm became erratic, and accompanied by a low, satisfied sigh, Xu Fengjia collapsed onto Seventh Miss. His fingers lingered reluctantly at her most shameful place for a while before withdrawing to embrace Seventh Miss’s shoulder.

The next moment, Seventh Miss fell into complete sleep, not even pushing away the heavy weight on her body.

#

She had a beautiful dream.

In the dream, she strolled through a train car. All the passengers wore the common air of indifference—they didn’t care about her existence, only treating her as the most ordinary passenger. This was exactly the relaxation she needed after everything.

In her former world, she had everything she needed. She was lonely, yet also free. Outside of work, she possessed genuine joy. No one loved her, so there were no extra burdens.

With a trace of bitterness, she reviewed her life, reviewed the various conveniences of modern life—the longing she had labored so hard to conceal. She didn’t let herself think too much, fearing that attachment to the past would hinder her adaptation to present survival.

But at this moment, these small details buried deepest in memory appeared before her eyes again. She rode the subway to work, shuttling through vast crowds. She entered movie theaters to enjoy good films, one or two men attracted to her… her boring but stable life. But no matter how boring or dull, she was still living. After long survival, those hard-won two or three years of life were what had supported her until now.

Once in the Northwest, just thinking about what she had lost gave her the impulse to break down. It was in the Northwest that she gradually buried her former happiness and satisfaction, donned her battle armor anew, and began struggling for survival.

After that, she never dared easily recall the past. She threw herself so fully into the role of Yang Qi that eventually, she truly assimilated. Though not completely, though traces of before remained, the current her had already changed so much. She was no longer that orphan girl full of hope for life—she was Yang Qi, a concubine daughter accustomed to calculation.

But even so, her past remained her deepest nightmare. She feared dreaming of before—it would only remind her how bleak, how difficult her life now was.

Seventh Miss opened her eyes, gazing at the gorgeous embroidered canopy, awareness gradually returning.

She was surprised to find her emotions still light, not lowered by dreaming of the past.

Though she was very tired—the brief, disordered rest left Seventh Miss with faint pain at the crown of her head—she was happy.

She half-sat up, tilted her head in thought, smiled to herself, then frowned at the sticky wetness beneath her, casually draping on her inner garment whose fastenings no longer closed.

“Where is everyone?” she called out, then lifted the curtain to look at the corner clock.

The chiming clock was approaching ten… she’d woken late by more than an hour and a half.

Seventh Miss’s cheeks immediately flushed warm. She averted her eyes, not daring to look directly at Lixia who entered at her call, instructing in a low voice, “Prepare hot water, I need to…”

Lixia smiled knowingly. “Hot water has long been prepared for you. The heir gave instructions when he rose. He also said you shouldn’t leave Mingde Hall today—he’ll explain to the elders, and you should rest well.”

Seeing Seventh Miss look inquiring, she quickly added, “The heir went to Menghua Pavilion. It seems the Duke summoned him to discuss something.”

Seventh Miss hummed acknowledgment and limped into the washing room. Sure enough, Shangyuan, along with Zhongyuan and Duanwu, were pouring the last kettle of hot water into the bathtub.

After she entered the hot water and let out a contented sigh, Lixia dismissed the attendants and whispered in Seventh Miss’s ear.

“The heir also said that the two concubines in the household and several restless maids should be dealt with by the young madam as soon as possible. When he returns to Mingde Hall tonight, he doesn’t want to see a single obstructive person—he said this while smiling, and specially instructed that the young madam shouldn’t make too much commotion.”

As Lixia spoke, she watched Seventh Miss, seemingly confused by Xu Fengjia’s self-contradictory orders.

After a long while, she carefully asked, “Miss… why are you smiling so happily?”

Seventh Miss hastily forced herself to restrain her smile, waving her hand.

“I was thinking,” her words still carried suppressed amusement, “the heir truly is neat and efficient—whatever the matter, he handles it very decisively!”

Lixia’s expression grew even more confused. After pondering for a long time, when Seventh Miss emerged from the bathtub, she busied herself serving her and wiping her body, while asking Seventh Miss for instructions, “Yufen and Yufang go without saying. But what about Qiqiao… does the miss have a plan yet?”