What, so much backbone?

She wasn’t in a hurry either, sitting down beside Murong Duan’s bed. Murong Duan now instinctively shuddered all over whenever he saw someone sit beside his bed.

Tie Ci crossed her legs and pulled out a thin piece of paper, rustling it as she waved it. “Second Prince, being human requires the ability to bend, bend, bend, bend, bend—that’s what makes a smart person. Tell me, if this marriage certificate were sent to your wife in Ruzhou, what do you think she would think?”

Murong Duan’s expression changed again.

He didn’t know what she would think, but he knew she would definitely kill her way to Da Qian. Her extremely protective and hot-tempered father would definitely file a complaint at court. If the marriage certificate was proven genuine, her family’s hundred thousand troops and bunch of brave young men would never support him again from then on—they might even rush over in fury to slaughter him. This he absolutely knew.

But his silver had already been scraped away by half by Murong Yi. Now looking at this amount, the remaining half would also be gone. Without silver, how could there be any future great enterprise?

Tie Ci seemed to guess his thoughts and smiled. “As long as the green mountains remain, there’s no fear of lacking firewood. Silver—as long as a person is alive, it can always be earned back…”

Murong Duan gritted his teeth. “Then you must rescue me!”

Learning from this painful lesson, he couldn’t let anyone take advantage of him empty-handed again.

“Fine.”

“You rescue me first, then I’ll stamp it.”

“Not possible right now. This room is surrounded by guests on all sides. Wait until deep in the night when all is quiet…”

“You think I’ll believe your delaying tactics?”

“Then shall I provide you with a once-and-for-all solution?”

“What?”

A gleaming knife appeared in Tie Ci’s hand, and she jutted her chin. “There, the reason A’Hei took a fancy to you—besides this face, isn’t it also your capital as a man? Solve your capital problem, and I imagine A’Hei would have no interest in keeping a useless person either. Wouldn’t you be free then?”

The knife spun beautifully in her palm, and she reached out her hand.

“Don’t!”

The knife tip pressed against a certain spot. Tie Ci raised her eyes. “Hmm?”

With others holding the knife and himself as the fish on the cutting board, Murong Duan finally despairingly realized he had no capital for bargaining at all. He could only take out his seal from his chest and stamp it fiercely, cursing as he did, “A pair of wolves and tigers!”

His voice was muffled, and Tie Ci didn’t hear clearly. She pushed the second paper in front of him.

This paper was blank. Murong Duan looked at her in astonishment. Tie Ci said, “Write a family letter to your wife.”

Murong Duan almost thought this person would be like Murong Yi, wanting to tell that jealous woman about the affairs here, but he heard Tie Ci say, “In the letter, introduce the person bearing this letter, saying he’s your lifesaver, reliable and loyal. You’re trapped in Da Qian, and thanks to this person risking his life to escape and bring back your plea for help, have your wife arrange a real position in the royal court for this person, and hand over the elite forces you privately maintain to him, so he can bring people to rescue you.”

Murong Duan exclaimed in shock, “You actually want to use me to arrange for a spy to infiltrate Ruzhou’s military!”

Tie Ci smiled. “What else? Don’t you want freedom?”

“You promised to rescue me!”

“I did promise you, but I never promised when I would rescue you.” Tie Ci stood up and slapped the paper on his face. “You send my person into Ruzhou, and then someone will come rescue you. Otherwise, prepare to stay in these deep mountains where heaven won’t answer and earth won’t respond, serving A’Hei for the rest of your life!”

Murong Duan’s eyes blazed with fire. “You humiliate me like this, when I…”

Halfway through speaking, afraid of provoking Tie Ci and arousing her vigilance, he swallowed back his vengeful harsh words. But Tie Ci’s attention was on the first half of the sentence. “You plural?”

Having taken the medicine, Murong Duan now dared not mention Murong Yi’s identity. He gritted his teeth. “You and that black fatty!”

Tie Ci made an “oh” sound and smiled. “It’s all because you wore too little and looked too good. A young man wandering around in the middle of the night, even heading to where people bathe—no wonder she took a fancy to you and forced herself on you. If you ask me, being forced is like life—if you really can’t resist, then just lie down and enjoy it.”

Murong Duan glared, listening to this pile of strange words, wishing he could spit his nearly ground-to-powder teeth at this face. But in the end, he could only helplessly pick up the seemingly thousand-pound-heavy brush and write another deadly “family letter.”

As he wrote, he thought that evil people really were birds of a feather—Murong Yi and this person used exactly the same methods of extortion and blackmail. How hateful that at this moment, living under someone else’s roof, he had no choice but to bow his head. Just endure this trial…

Tie Ci didn’t care what he thought—nothing more than ten thousand harsh words he didn’t dare speak. But what use were harsh words? A knife pulled out was never as vicious as a knife thrust in. She, Tie Ci, never spoke harsh words—she acted on them.

Taking the two papers, she went out satisfied. Outside, the guests were gradually dispersing. The drunken bride lifted the curtain and entered, meeting the groom’s ashen face. Tonight’s joyful groom welcomed the third wave of torment on his wedding night…

That night, Feiyu and Tie Ci slept back-to-back, each sleeping very well, not hearing the groom next door’s neighbor’s neighbor crying “woo woo woo” all night.

Two more days passed. Tie Ci sat by the river watching an eighty-eight-year-old man fish, helping him dig earthworms. The old man squinted his eyes sitting in the sun. When the float moved, he would lazily flick his rod and could always accurately land the fish in the bamboo basket. In the blink of an eye, the basket was full. Just as Tie Ci was about to help kill the fish, the old man suddenly said, “Your injuries have healed. Why haven’t you left yet?”

Tie Ci efficiently killed the fish and said, “Want to meet the village chief.”

“There’s no village chief in this village.”

“Then I want to find the person in charge.”

“There’s no person in charge either.”

“Old sir, if you just agree to let me meet the person in charge, I’ll give you my wife as a second wife.”

Before the words finished, a hand reached out from underwater and pulled the crouching Tie Ci down into the water.

With a splash of flying water, Feiyu’s black hair hung wetly over her shoulders as she held down her husband underwater and started beating him. “Just catching a fish, and you’re already selling off your wife!”

Tie Ci struggled underwater and stuck out one hand, holding up three fingers toward the old man. “Old sir? How about it? Such a spirited woman—opportunity doesn’t knock twice! Plus thirty taels of silver as betrothal money!”

“Fifty taels!”

“One hundred taels!”

Feiyu splashed in the water, shouting to the old man, “Old sir, I’ll give you a big one for free!” She tried to hang Tie Ci’s collar on the old man’s fishhook.

Tie Ci laughed and escaped, turning like a swimming fish in Feiyu’s embrace. Feiyu happened to turn her head just then, and Tie Ci’s lips brushed her jaw—red lips with a touch of water waves.

Both paused.

Both had their long hair loose, entwining sinuously in the water waves. Each saw the other’s jade-like lustrous skin, water droplets flowing from jaw down into the depths of their collars, while their soaked clothes outlined beautiful shoulder lines.

Tie Ci unconsciously moved her gaze from Feiyu’s jaw to her lips. The other didn’t have a cherry-small mouth—her lips were slightly thin, beautifully shaped and hard to describe with a paintbrush. For a moment, she very much wanted to reach out her finger and trace them herself.

But she immediately curled her fingers, her heart momentarily confused.

Playing and fooling around so unguardedly with someone—it seemed she had never done this in her memory.

Only now did she realize that the previous wariness and defenses between her and the courtesan had somehow been lowered considerably.

What made her even more uneasy was that it was just playful fooling around, so why was her heart stirring like being bathed in spring light?

This was serious. Could she really be a lesbian deep down?