In that instant, Tie Ci only had time to raise her elbow before her chest.

“Hiss!” A soft sound as the blade pierced through her wrist guard and stabbed into flesh and bone.

The bone-chilling coldness penetrated deep. Tie Ci closed her eyes, and with the knife still embedded, her five fingers on that wrist reversed direction, fiercely gripping the assassin’s wrist before he could withdraw it.

Just then, the door beside her opened. Tie Ci swung her hand, flinging the assassin out through that half of the doorway, shouting, “Watch this!”

When she threw the assassin, the man’s dagger, which he hadn’t released, was violently pulled out. Blood splattered everywhere, splattering across the faces of the surrounding crowd. The area immediately fell silent.

The man was still airborne when he turned his head in shock to stare at her, seemingly unable to believe someone could be so ruthless to themselves.

Tie Ci showed no expression.

Unable to awaken her innate abilities, she practiced martial arts desperately, often getting injured and breaking bones. It wouldn’t be wrong to say every bone in her body had been broken at least once.

She had to shoulder the burden of the entire realm—what was this little pain?

Covering her wrist and hastily tearing off a strip of cloth to bandage it, Tie Ci looked up ahead. After all the pushing and shoving, she was now directly facing the tower gate of Cangsheng Tower.

Then she picked up a sizable stone and hurled it fiercely at that gate.

The stone whistled through the air above the crowd in a gray-white arc, drawing many people’s gazes to follow its path.

“Bang!” The tower gate was smashed open with a large hole, and immediately someone rushed over to peer inside through that opening.

There seemed to be some commotion inside the tower.

The crowd was stunned. Tie Ci looked back at the area outside the gate, where Dan Shuang and Chi Xue had already evacuated the outer crowd with the bailiffs. She shouted, “With such chaos in front of the tower, the masters have always shown compassion for life—why haven’t they come out until now!”

Silence fell inside.

At the tower top, Murong Duan struck his palm with his fist, cursing loudly, “Where did this fool come from! Quick! Have them clean up below and guard the entrances tightly!”

Below the tower, hearing these words, the common people were all stunned. The heated blood from their earlier agitation receded, and they vaguely felt something strange about today’s events—even their own inexplicably intense emotions seemed wrong somehow.

Tie Ci didn’t wait for an answer from inside, shouting again, “Closing the tower was the masters’ decision. Why blame me? Monks don’t lie—please have the masters come out and confront me face to face!” She then addressed the people: “Whether the stairs inside the tower are truly deteriorated from age, why don’t we all take a look together? To avoid unnecessary casualties from being manipulated, please form an orderly queue!”

The people found this reasonable and lined up one after another. Just as order was about to be restored, Tie Ci inadvertently looked up and saw a figure suddenly appear at the tower top window—a figure in flowing purple robes, tall and graceful. The wind was strong at the tower top, her sash fluttering in the breeze as if she might fly up to heaven.

Tie Ci was startled and was trying to see more clearly when suddenly screams erupted from the tower gate. The person who had been peering inside through the gate soundlessly collapsed, blood streaming from his forehead.

Tie Ci’s gaze sharpened. Unable to care about anything else, she lifted her leg to rush into the tower.

…

At the tower top, the beauty who had been gazing down below suddenly turned to Murong Duan with a smile: “Second Highness, farewell forever.”

Then she lifted her leg and stepped out of the tower top window.

The wind roared, and her dress bloomed like a vigorous purple flower in midair.

…

Tie Ci had just lifted her leg.

But at that moment, another cry of alarm exploded. People looked up in unison.

Tie Ci instinctively looked up as well.

Then she saw a purple flower continuously growing larger in her field of vision.

Someone had fallen from the tower top!

Her mind went completely blank. Without time to think anything, she rushed forward three steps and raised both hands.

In that moment, her figure nearly became a blur from speed.

The next instant, with a muffled thud and a weight on her arms, the person fell into her embrace.

All around, people gasped in unison, falling silent as if in a vacuum.

The wound on her wrist that had just stopped bleeding gushed blood again, splattering across Tie Ci’s face.

Tie Ci couldn’t care about that. Having caught the person, she immediately ran forward wildly to dissipate that enormous impact force. She barely managed to reach the surrounding wall’s edge when she saw she was about to crash into it. She suddenly kicked out with her foot—crash!—and the wall gained a boot-sized hole.

The wind ceased, dust filled the air, and the raised strands of hair slowly settled down.

Tie Ci withdrew her foot and slowly lowered her head to look at the person in her arms.

The person was entirely wrapped in a deep purple veil, that layer of purple soft gauze outlining the exquisite contours of her face. Her eyelashes were so long and thick they actually made the face veil bulge slightly. Beneath those lashes, a pair of eyes gazed with flowing light, but the look in them was indescribably complex.

Tie Ci looked down at her. Knowing in her heart that she was a woman and the other was also a woman, she inevitably drew closer. Their noses nearly touched, their breaths mingling. She caught a faint, indescribable fragrance—vaguely like sandalwood but more mysterious and alluring than sandalwood, seeming to contain rosemary yet more robust than rosemary. She instinctively took a deep breath, liking this scent that carried no powder fragrance, feeling an inexplicable fondness arise.

But this fragrance seemed somewhat familiar, though she couldn’t remember where she’d smelled it before.

Then she noticed that because of her inhalation, the woman’s veil moved slightly, revealing a strange expression on her face. Only then did Tie Ci realize with alarm that she was still holding the other person, and her earlier action seemed like… stealing a kiss…

Turning around and looking up, she saw a mass of onlooking crowd before her, all stretching their necks like foxes, their faces clearly reading: “There’s gossip!”

Tie Ci: “…”

How slow-witted.

She’d forgotten about the propriety between men and women. Holding another person’s young lady in broad daylight like this, she’d have to take responsibility later, and a patrol inspector’s salary of seven taels of silver per year couldn’t support a wife.

She hurriedly tried to put the person down, but the beauty suddenly hugged her neck, letting out a soft whimper and burying her head in her chest, not moving.

Tie Ci: “…”

Somehow, this action also felt inexplicably familiar.

Tie Ci: “Miss! Miss!”

The miss didn’t move, trembling minutely all over. From her appearance, she seemed frightened and absolutely refused to leave Tie Ci’s embrace.

Tie Ci looked up at the sky in despair.

It’s over.

This woman is probably eyeing my patrol inspector’s salary.

Tie Ci tried to peel this woman off, but the woman’s grip was surprisingly strong. After several unsuccessful attempts, seeing the onlookers’ expressions grow even stranger—their faces had changed from “there’s gossip” to “there’s something supernatural!”

Pulling and tugging in broad daylight was really unseemly. Seeing that no one around seemed to recognize this young lady, Tie Ci could only continue holding her and prepare to call for the Cangsheng Tower gates to be opened first. But at that moment, a group of county yamen bailiffs rushed in. These people always arrived after the dust had settled, but they made quite a show, immediately wielding chains and whipping about to disperse the people. Having encountered successive incidents, the common people finally quieted down, vaguely feeling today’s events were strange. Their enthusiasm for burning incense was gone, and they scattered in small groups. Some said that since they’d come all this way, they might as well release their prayer lanterns to avoid carrying them back home. The bailiffs agreed to this as well.

County Magistrate Li also arrived. While directing the evacuation with a stern face, he walked to Tie Ci’s side. Without time for pleasantries, he said, “Young Master Mao, just now at my residence, we discovered white plum blossoms!”

Tie Ci was startled and almost asked if someone had died in his family. Then she heard County Magistrate Li continue, “They appeared in my daughter’s courtyard. My daughter was frightened.”

Tie Ci breathed a sigh of relief. No deaths was always good—these incidents kept coming one after another, and it was getting tiring.

“White plums foretell murder. My residence is no longer safe, and I fear my daughter has already been targeted. Young Master Mao, you’re temporarily acting as patrol inspector. Protecting the people and apprehending criminals is your unavoidable duty. I’ll handle the aftermath here—please bring people to keep watch in my daughter’s courtyard tonight.”

Tie Ci: “…”

Wait, are you sure these plum blossoms weren’t molded from wax by your daughter to trick me into sleeping first and marrying later?

Having given his instructions, County Magistrate Li went to arrange other matters. Tie Ci had completely forgotten she was still holding a woman and stood in place, looking up at the sky in a desolate and forlorn pose.

Someone shouted, “The lanterns are rising!”

Tie Ci looked down and was immediately stunned.

At some point, those deep red prayer Kongming lanterns had been lit and were slowly rising. The pale yellow light within the red lanterns flickered on and off, tassels swaying, as if countless warm, glowing stars had suddenly appeared beneath the canopy of heaven.

And she stood in the midst of this sea of starlight.

The surrounding people also quieted down, watching in that sea of lanterns: the tall, handsome youth holding a graceful beauty, her gauze dress gently stirring, subtle fragrance lingering, his jaw slightly raised, thin as jade porcelain.

It was truly a beautiful scene—worthy of a painting, of poetry, of being carved in jade and preserved for eternity, fragrant and imperishable.

The people dispersed with the gentle emotion born from this beautiful scene, not knowing that the pair who brought to mind words like “golden boy and jade girl,” “perfect match,” and “beautiful couple” were thinking the following at that moment:

Tie Ci: “This woman is really heavy, damn it.”

The beauty: “Is this hooligan deliberately groping my bottom?”

…