A golden full moon hung high in the sky. Under the night’s veil, the entire Prince Chen’s Palace crouched like a slumbering beast.

The old nanny clasped her hands before her, walking swiftly past the palace walls. Several sturdy eunuchs followed behind her, two of them supporting Jiang Yu, who had completely fallen into unconsciousness.

Tree shadows swayed. After the old nanny lightly knocked on the corner gate of Jianning Palace, the palace servants inside opened the door and respectfully allowed the group to enter.

—

The instructress nanny guarding outside the side hall had been waiting for some time. Just as she was craning her neck to look, she saw the old nanny’s group approaching and hurried forward, directing them to carry Jiang Yu into the hall.

The old nanny entered the inner hall and smelled the incense fragrance that had not yet completely dissipated in the air. Using a wet cloth handed over by the instructress nanny to cover her mouth and nose, she examined Wen Yu, whose raven-black hair lay scattered across the couch, and asked, “I heard Lady Liang has two highly skilled martial handmaids by her side. Are you certain everyone has been knocked out?”

The instructress nanny said dismissively, “Elder sister, rest assured. Before Lady Liang arrived, the sedative incense had already been burning in the hall for a full hour. All the garments prepared for changing had also been soaked in sedative beforehand. Within half a quarter-hour of entering this hall, even an ox could be knocked unconscious. Fearing any mishap, before opening the hall doors, I had people blow another round of sedative smoke inside. Twelve handmaids accompanied Lady Liang to the palace banquet, and all have been knocked out—not one is missing. They’re being held in the adjacent room right now.”

The old nanny relaxed. Glancing at Jiang Yu, whose armor was being removed by young eunuchs, she said, “I’ll leave things here to you. I must return to the Empress Dowager to report.”

The instructress nanny escorted her all the way to the hall entrance before removing the cloth from her mouth and nose, saying, “Elder sister, take care.”

Turning back to see that Jiang Yu’s armor had been mostly removed, the instructress nanny directed people to carry Jiang Yu to the couch where Wen Yu lay, while ordering the palace servants, “Light the aphrodisiac incense.”

Just then, someone knocked on the hall door again, but there was no announcement from the palace servants stationed outside. The instructress nanny’s heart inexplicably skipped a beat as she demanded sharply, “What is it?”

“Nanny, the Clarity Pills have been brought,” answered the person knocking.

The instructress nanny breathed a sigh of relief, privately chiding herself for being overly anxious tonight.

To knock out the several skilled martial handmaids accompanying Wen Yu, she had ordered a rather large dose of sedative incense. The Empress Dowager’s side had also used quite a bit of knockout drug in the wine to subdue Jiang Yu. Lest Wen Yu and Jiang Yu remain unconscious and the aphrodisiac incense prove useless, ruining the Empress Dowager’s grand plan to continue the royal bloodline, she had sent someone to fetch two Clarity Pills that could counteract the sedative.

The instructress nanny peered through the small hole in the door screen to glance outside. Confirming it was the palace servant she had instructed, who had returned carrying a medicine bottle, she opened the hall door with relief, saying, “Why did it take so long? Give me the—”

The word “thing” never left her lips. When she clearly saw the Feathered Forest Guards standing with drawn swords on either side outside the hall and Prince Chen’s cold expression, the instructress nanny’s legs went weak. She collapsed to the ground, stammering tremulously, “Your… Your Highness…”

The palace servant carrying the medicine had also long since knelt on the ground, trembling.

Prince Chen walked forward leisurely. His face, pale from years without sunlight, wore a smile that made one’s heart pound with dread. The dark circles under his eyes added several degrees of cruel coldness to his entire bearing. He looked at the instructress nanny and, pretending ignorance of their scheme, said, “The Consort has been gone a long time changing her clothes. This Prince came to check.”

In that instant, the instructress nanny found courage from somewhere. She steeled herself and knelt at the hall entrance, blocking Prince Chen’s path, trembling as she said, “You… You cannot go inside…”

Prince Chen acted as if he had heard a joke, asking with a cold laugh, “The entire Chen Kingdom belongs to this Prince. Is there anywhere in this palace where this Prince cannot go?”

The instructress nanny knocked her head against the floor, saying tearfully, “Your Highness knows full well—the Empress Dowager is doing all this for your sake!”

Prince Chen, who had been smiling a moment before, suddenly changed expression. He directly kicked the instructress nanny in the chest, sending her sprawling on the ground, and said viciously, “Did you truly think this Prince didn’t know your schemes? For this Prince’s sake? Or for the Jiang family’s sake?”

The instructress nanny’s expression was agitated as she tried to say something more, but Prince Chen had already coldly issued his command: “Drag this slave who dares to flatter outsiders and deceive her master out of here!”

The instructress nanny was quickly gagged and dragged away by the Feathered Forest Guards loyal to Prince Chen.

The palace maids and eunuchs remaining in the hall panicked the moment Prince Chen arrived, collapsing to their knees with a collective thud, crying out, “Your Highness, spare us! It was all Instructress Xing who made us do these things…”

Jiang Yu, stripped of his armor and wearing only his inner garments, had not yet been moved to the couch and lay unconscious on the carpeted floor.

Prince Chen glanced at Wen Yu lying on the couch, then approached Jiang Yu. With a cold smile, he used his shoe tip to prod Jiang Yu’s face, finally pressing the sole of his shoe viciously against Jiang Yu’s cheek and grinding hard: “What a good subject of this Prince, what a good cousin!”

The palace servants fearfully pressed their heads to the floor, not daring to make a sound.

Maintaining his position with one foot on Jiang Yu’s face, Prince Chen used his sword tip to trace down Jiang Yu’s shirt, finally stopping at his lower abdomen. The smile on his face slowly twisted into madness.

“Your Highness, you must not!” The Feathered Forest Guard vice-commander loyal to Prince Chen seized the sword hilt in time, advising, “If you castrate Jiang Yu, Prime Minister Jiang will surely act desperately. When that time comes, if he makes everything public and selects a new ruler from among the clan’s sons, even the Empress Dowager may be unable to protect you. The loss would outweigh the gain…”

These words seemed to suddenly drain the venom from Prince Chen’s heart. He let the vice-commander withdraw the sword from his hand and tilted his head back, half-crying, half-laughing in a strange manner.

Seeing this, the vice-commander quickly had two Feathered Forest Guards support Prince Chen, while signaling other guards to drag Jiang Yu out immediately.

He continued advising Prince Chen: “Lady Liang is your greatest trump card. As long as this marriage alliance exists, Prime Minister Jiang won’t dare move against you. As long as that secret isn’t exposed, Qi Simiao, Han Wenji, Sikong Wei, and all those veteran officials will support you. Your Highness, no matter whose offspring Lady Liang bears, it will only be your child. In the future, you will also become the joint ruler of Chen and Liang through this heir. Don’t let a momentary lack of forbearance ruin the greater plan…”

Prince Chen took a deep breath and closed his eyes, saying, “Where is the person you were told to find?”

Shortly after, a ragged man with a diseased, scabby head and a foul odor was brought in. The man had beady rat-like eyes and hunched timidly, appearing very cowardly, yet his eyes revealed a treacherous, lazy cunning. When he knelt before Prince Chen, he trembled incessantly.

Prince Chen told him to raise his head. The man smiled ingratiatingly, exposing a mouthful of uneven yellow teeth.

Seeing him like this, Prince Chen smiled with savage satisfaction: “Didn’t the Empress Dowager want this Prince to have an heir? This Prince finds this man quite suitable. The seed born from Lady Liang’s belly—can the Jiang family refuse to acknowledge it?”

He looked toward Wen Yu on the couch, still wearing her magnificent golden-orange palace dress. Adoration and venom surged together in his eyes as he murmured near madness: “This Prince has become a useless wretch, so naturally this Prince’s Consort should also enter this mud pit. Why remain so clean? After today, you won’t despise this Prince anymore…”

The scabby-headed man clearly knew what he had been summoned to the palace to do. He cautiously raised his eyes to steal a glance at the unconscious Consort on the couch. With just one look, his entire heart melted, utterly captivated. Only because Prince Chen and all the Feathered Forest Guards were still in the hall did he timely withdraw his gaze, not daring to be too brazen.

Seeing that Prince Chen showed no intention of leaving, the vice-commander could only urge, “Your Highness, time is pressing. The Empress Dowager will arrive shortly.”

Prince Chen stared absently at Wen Yu’s sleeping form, as if transfixed. Thinking that from the wedding until now he had never once been intimate with Wen Yu, and that his Consort—who deserved the title of the foremost beauty of Chen and Liang—would soon be at the mercy of a common scabby-headed man, a sense of unwillingness rose in his heart again.

He said, “You take everyone outside first.”

The vice-commander froze, then saw Prince Chen point at the scabby-headed man: “He stays in the hall.”

The vice-commander understood Prince Chen’s intentions. This time, he wisely refrained from further advice and led the Feathered Forest Guards out first.

The hall door closed again. In the inner hall with heavy curtains drawn, only the gauze windows admitted half an expanse of moonlight. Prince Chen approached the soft couch step by step. Gazing at that incomparably beautiful face, he felt all the blood in his body suddenly boil. His feet felt as if treading on cotton, light and floating, while his head grew dizzy from extreme excitement.

The Pearl of Great Liang, Hanyang, his Consort.

He could finally do more than merely gaze at her from afar!

Staining this pearl with filth—from now on she would no longer be able to hold her neck proudly high before him, but could only lower her head like the little favorite in Xinyu Palace, allowing him to humiliate her!

No! In her bones, she would still be that lofty Liang Princess, but what of it?

This pearl could only hold back tears as she shattered piece by piece in his hands!

Just imagining it, Prince Chen grew unbearably excited. His tailbone tingled as if electrified, wave after wave of numbness spreading through him. His breathing grew uncontrollably heavy.

He hadn’t yet used the whip on her, hadn’t yet bound her with red rope—just looking at that face already brought him immense gratification.

The hall was unventilated and had been stuffy too long. A layer of extremely pale pink had risen on Wen Yu’s fair cheeks. Prince Chen panted, extending the back of his hand to touch those peony-petal-like cheeks, when his neck suddenly felt bone-chilling cold.

“Dare approach my Princess another inch, and I guarantee your head will fall.”

A long sword steadily pressed against Prince Chen’s throat, the blade’s edge subtly pressing downward.

The heat rushing to Prince Chen’s head suddenly retreated. Fearing the other party would directly sever his head, he dared not cry out for help. Just as he desperately tried to think of an escape plan with his muddled brain, he heard an extremely cold voice from directly ahead: “Truly a fine performance.”

Prince Chen abruptly raised his eyes and saw Wen Yu moving normally, propping herself up from the couch with a pillow, her expression as coldly indifferent as ever. Greatly alarmed, he exclaimed, “You didn’t pass out?”

Wen Yu smoothed the creases on her sleeves, speaking calmly, “The Empress Dowager went to such great lengths to set up this scheme. If this Palace did not cooperate somewhat, wouldn’t I have missed this excellent opportunity to learn of this palace secret?”

From the moment the dancing girl “accidentally” spilled wine on her dress while provocatively teasing Prince Chen, Wen Yu knew matters would not be simple.

Openly, twelve handmaids had accompanied her to this palace banquet, but those lurking in the shadows would be no fewer.

Wen Yu had cooperated with the Empress Dowager’s people in this charade until now merely to discover what the Empress Dowager intended to do.

Thinking of his earlier conversation with the vice-commander, Prince Chen’s expression instantly turned ugly. Rage overwhelmed reason temporarily, and he glared viciously at Wen Yu, saying, “So what if you know? The Feathered Forest Guards are all stationed outside the door. With one command from this Prince, tonight they could take turns with you and—”

Zhao Bai’s sword edge suddenly pressed down sharply. Blood beads already welled from Prince Chen’s neck. Fear of death finally restored his rationality, cutting off his words. Yet facing Wen Yu, he still refused to show such weakness, taunting, “Hanyang, you dare kill this Prince?”

But his earlier loss of control had caused him to speak without lowering his voice, apparently alarming the guards outside. Soon the vice-commander’s voice came from beyond the hall: “Your Highness?”

Zhao Bai’s expression was extremely cold. While vigilantly watching the hall entrance obscured by heavy curtains, she pressed the sword threateningly another half-fraction deeper into Prince Chen’s neck.

Wen Yu said, “Tell the people outside to leave.”

Prince Chen felt he now held the advantage and wanted to bargain with Wen Yu. The moment he raised his head and met Wen Yu’s gaze, his heart suddenly jumped.

How to describe the coldness in those eyes?

Merely from locking gazes with her, Prince Chen had the illusion that half his body had been frozen.

Yet the owner of those eyes showed no emotion of favor or displeasure on her face.

Under this double pressure, Prince Chen could only suppress his anger and shout toward the door, “Get lost! This lord merely cursed this whore once—do you dare have ideas?!”

Zhao Bai kicked a low table at the opportune moment. The porcelain bottle on it fell to the floor with a clang, as if Prince Chen had truly smashed something in rage.

The vice-commander’s panicked voice came from outside the hall: “This subordinate dares not—this subordinate only fears the Empress Dowager’s arrival…”

“Then get far away and watch for movements from the Empress Dowager’s side before reporting back!” Prince Chen roared with suppressed fury.

“This subordinate obeys.”

Soon the sound of armor moving came from outside, as if the vice-commander had truly led his men away.

Prince Chen said, “Can you release this Prin—”

Zhao Bai struck the back of Prince Chen’s neck hard with her elbow. Had she not held back somewhat to avoid killing him outright, that blow could have directly shattered his cervical vertebrae.

For those insulting words he opportunistically used against Wen Yu alone, she could kill this muddled ruler a hundred times.

Prince Chen’s vision went black and he collapsed limply to the floor, lying together with the scabby-headed man Zhao Bai had knocked out earlier.

When Zhao Bai turned back to Wen Yu, her expression remained extremely ugly: “Princess, this Chen Kingdom is… utterly rotten beyond redemption. That they dared deceive and scheme against you so—just give the order, and this servant will immediately summon forces to escort you back to Great Liang!”

Wen Yu was about to say something when the hand supporting herself on the couch suddenly went soft. Zhao Bai quickly stepped forward to steady her: “Has the sedative’s effect not worn off?”

To ascertain whether the Empress Dowager’s people had tampered with anything, Wen Yu and the twelve Azure Cloud Guards who entered the hall together had not initially taken antidotes.

After they were drugged unconscious and the instructress nanny had people carry away the twelve Azure Cloud Guards, the Azure Cloud Guards hidden in the shadows infiltrated separately and fed both Wen Yu and Tongque and the others universal Clarity Pills to counteract sedatives.

Having resolved matters at Wu Palace, Zhao Bai learned of the situation here and immediately rushed back to hide in the hall’s rafters, ready to protect Wen Yu at any moment.

Now touching Wen Yu’s hand and finding her palm burning hot, Zhao Bai said urgently, “Princess, you seem to have developed a high fever…”

The pink flush on Wen Yu’s face was deeper than before. Feeling as if insects were biting her body, she understood what this was. Digging her nails hard into her palm, she said, “It’s not a fever from illness. Leave this place first.”

After a moment’s shock, thinking of the several poisonous schemes in Prince Chen’s palace, Zhao Bai also understood. Her gaze suddenly turned toward the incense burner that had been relit.

Having practiced martial arts for years, she possessed an excellent constitution. Moreover, hiding in the hall’s rafters and knowing the breathing techniques of shadow guards in concealment, she had not inhaled much incense and thus showed no abnormalities until now.

Looking again at Prince Chen and the scabby-headed man lying on the floor, Zhao Bai could not help but seethe with rage.

These filthy, maggot-ridden vile things had actually tried to use such despicable methods against the Princess!

She pulled a handkerchief from her bosom, lifted the water kettle from the table, poured water to wet it, then handed it to Wen Yu to cover her mouth and nose first, avoiding inhaling more aphrodisiac incense.

She herself walked to the incense burner and rummaged through the cabinet below, finding the same incense. She dumped it all into the burner and lit it, then tore down the gauze bed curtains and ripped them into strips to use as rope, hauling Prince Chen onto the soft couch and binding him tightly. She also used the remaining water from the teapot to splash the scabby-headed man half-awake, eliciting low groans.

After completing all this, Zhao Bai blew a whistle like an oriole’s call, signaling the Azure Cloud Guards concealed outside the hall to provide support. Then she lifted Wen Yu onto her back, opened the rear window with one hand, and leaped out.