A figure in flowing white robes descended with graceful ease.

He alighted upon the back of the horse that Feng Jiu’er and Yu Jingfeng had ridden, the swift wind lifting his robes so that his sleeves billowed and drifted, and he stood as serene and otherworldly as an immortal.

His hair, slightly disheveled, floated lightly in the wind. In the darkness of the night, those eyes — bright as stars — were fixed upon Feng Jiu’er without blinking.

Catching sight of the bloodstains on her body, Zhan Qingcheng’s dark eyes narrowed, brimming with killing intent.

“I was not injured. The blood from earlier in the prison cell — they helped me pad the wounds and used blood pouches, so it only looked as though the skin had been split and flesh torn open from a beating.”

She did not know why, but the moment she saw the killing intent in his eyes, Feng Jiu’er somehow instinctively understood what he was furious about.

Those people had helped her, after all. If the Ninth Prince became displeased and had those prison guards cut down, that would truly be a terrible wrong.

Zhan Qingcheng’s starlike eyes remained low and fixed upon her face. “Are you injured?”

“N-no.” My, my — the situation was still one of life-and-death peril, a pitched battle barely concluded. Yet the moment the Ninth Imperial Uncle arrived, somehow the atmosphere had shifted into something as strangely, inexplicably romantic as a tender lovers’ exchange.

What happened to the danger? Where were the hidden weapons? Where were the enemies?

She turned to look, and Feng Jiu’er was immediately dumbstruck.

The Ninth Imperial Uncle had only just arrived, and yet these people were already scrambling away in utter, undignified flight, every single one of them. Could they have no more backbone than this?

“Come here.” Amid the evening wind, that voice — magnetic enough to make any woman’s ears swoon — rang out.

Feng Jiu’er, with a rather embarrassing lack of composure, nearly melted at the sound of it.

And then, even more without composure — he had told her to come, and she truly just went.

She walked up to the side of the horse, tilting her head back to look up at him. “Ninth Imperial Uncle, you… ha! Your timing was truly impeccable — it was just like an immortal descending from the heavens, truly incredible… hmm! Why are you looking at me with that expression?”

It was so frightening!

All at once, Feng Jiu’er felt her waist grip tight. Before she could even prepare herself, she had already landed beside him, both of them standing on the horse’s back together.

But a horse’s back was unsteady, and she could not find her footing in an instant.

She swayed — and on instinct, reached out and grabbed onto something. When she came back to her senses, she realized what she was holding was the Ninth Imperial Uncle’s exquisitely toned waist.

The girl was so startled she pulled her hands away at once. “I… I did not mean to.”

But the Ninth Imperial Uncle’s waist truly… felt so wonderful to hold… oh, what was she even thinking? This was not the time for such nonsense!

The Ninth Imperial Uncle’s gaze was still as frightening as ever. She had better think first about how to survive this situation.

“Just now — did you use your own body to shield Yu Jingfeng from the hidden projectiles?” His eyes narrowed.

In the darkness of the night, those eyes seemed almost to glow — yet what they emitted was a fearsome, frigid light.

“I… I couldn’t run away…” It was not that she had wanted to use her own body to shield Yu Jingfeng from hidden projectiles.

Had she any choice, she absolutely would have fled. But the problem was, she truly could not — her lightness skill was simply no good.

Yu Jingfeng was different. With his lightness skill, so long as he did not concern himself with her, he could absolutely have evaded.

Either way she was going to die. One death was still better than both of them perishing together — and besides, who was to say that if she died, she might not slip back through to the modern world.

Yet Zhan Qingcheng’s gaze remained just as frightening — and there was even a tendency for it to become more so.

“What kind of feeling exists between you and him, that you would not hesitate to sacrifice yourself to protect him?”

Feng Jiu’er blinked her wide, innocent eyes and met his gaze.

What? Was he talking about her feelings for Yu Jingfeng? Was he joking? How could she possibly have any romantic feelings for Yu Jingfeng?

What did this murderous look of his even mean right now?

He suspected her and Yu Jingfeng of having a secret attachment? Oh my — Ninth Imperial Uncle, it really does seem like you are jealous. And not just jealous, but irrationally so. Do you even realize what you’re doing?