When Li Ying awoke from the fire-like excruciating pain, she found herself lying on the cold bluestone brick floor. She opened her eyes in confusion, enduring the scorching pain as she propped herself up. With this movement, the pain blinded her again with darkness. After catching her breath twice and digging her fingernails deep into her palm, her consciousness gradually returned to clarity.

She saw that surrounding her was a circle of bright yellow Taoist talismans written in black dog blood. The talismans were nailed to the brick crevices with peach wood daggers. Crimson bloodstains slowly converged along the talismans to the dagger tips. The blackness of the peach wood and the redness of the blood merged, emitting an eerie glow.

Li Ying shook her aching, dizzy head and slowly got up, but her gaze suddenly froze.

This was a huge cell. In the center of the cell was an iron cage where Cui Xun lay with his eyes tightly closed, his long eyelashes lowered, his fate unknown. His crane-white neck was bound by a heavy, dark iron chain that wound its way to one end of the cage, making him look like a wing-broken hawk imprisoned and at others’ mercy.

Li Ying was shocked. She called out “Seventeen” while trying to rush to the cage to save him.

But before she could take a step, she suddenly felt as if hundreds of flames were burning on her body, the pain penetrating to her marrow. Li Ying couldn’t help but cry out in pain, falling to her knees.

She looked around at the talismans in confusion. This was… a prison confining her. As soon as she stepped out, the spells formed by the black dog’s blood and peach wood would make her suffer the pain of being burned alive. She simply couldn’t step out.

Cui Xun probably heard her cry and struggled to open his eyes. He only remembered that last night he was supposed to rescue Wang Xuan but unexpectedly fell into Ashina Wuduo’s trap. Li Ying was injured by the black dog blood, and he was knocked unconscious, knowing nothing afterward.

He only felt that something seemed to be locked around his neck, something that should be all too familiar to him.

He reached up to feel it and indeed touched a section of cold, heavy iron chain.

In his daze, he could no longer distinguish what year it was. He seemed to have returned to the Turkic royal court, back to the prison of the Court of Judicial Review, beginning to fear daylight amid day after day, year after year of torture and torment, gradually sinking forever into darkness.

Suddenly, he heard a plaintive calling: “Seventeen… Seventeen…”

It was the clear, spring-like voice of a young woman. Cui Xun’s consciousness was pulled back at once.

No, this was not the Turkic royal court, nor the prison of the Court of Judicial Review. He had not fallen into eternal darkness. He had been illuminated by a bright moon, slowly walking out of the boundless hell.

Cui Xun used all his strength to prop himself up and search for the direction of the young woman’s voice. When he saw Li Ying trapped among the talismans, he was stunned for a moment, then rushed to the edge of the iron cage, trying to reach for Li Ying. But the chain was firmly locked around his neck, and despite being choked almost to suffocation, he couldn’t touch even the hem of Li Ying’s clothes.

Tears fell from Li Ying’s eyes. She also wanted to touch Cui Xun, but under the effect of the talismans, as soon as she extended her hand, it was as if being burned by fierce flames. Wisps of white smoke rose from the back of her hand, and blisters appeared on her jade-like skin. Li Ying trembled all over from the pain, but still couldn’t touch Cui Xun’s fingertips. At that moment, a burst of laughter suddenly came: “Interesting! How interesting!”

It was Ashina Wuduo.

Ashina Wuduo stepped into the cell. She was dressed just as when she first met Cui Xun—sheepskin boots, a red robe, black hair braided into two plaits, radiantly beautiful. The only difference was the vivid lotus mark on her right cheek.

She carried several bloody heads in her hands, which she threw to the ground. They rolled between Cui Xun and Li Ying. Li Ying was frightened, her eyes wide. She didn’t recognize these people, but Cui Xun did.

They were Cui Xun’s four brothers.

Ashina Wuduo said languidly, “Lotus Slave, our connection originated from those three words ‘Lotus Young Master.’ I know you hate these three words and even more hate the brothers who gave you this name. Since your father was biased and your stepmother was cruel, I simply killed all their children to avenge you.” She paused, smiling. “See how good I am to you.”

But in Cui Xun’s eyes, there wasn’t even a hint of gratitude. Or rather, he didn’t care about the lives of those brothers at all, nor did he care about Ashina Wuduo. He only stretched out his hand, trying to touch Li Ying. Ashina Wuduo felt a surge of anger. She had risked killing people for him, but he wouldn’t even look at her. It was the same in Turkic territory—he had tried to escape numerous times. Her father Khan said this man had a fire in his heart, a fire that could burn the grasslands to ashes. Her father Khan, wanted to kill him to prevent future trouble. It was she who desperately saved him, but he never appreciated it and instead hated her more.

She had originally thought that was just his nature—no matter how much humiliation he suffered, he would always remain proud, always cold, with no one able to win his heart. She couldn’t, and neither could Ashina Jia.

But she discovered she was wrong. There was someone who had won his heart. No, it wasn’t even a person, but a ghost.

The vines of jealousy in Ashina Wuduo’s heart grew increasingly wild. Jealousy had made her kill Ashina Jia, and jealousy also prevented her from sparing Li Ying.

If he didn’t love her, then he would hate her.

Her sheepskin boot crushed Cui Xun’s fingers. Cui Xun frowned in pain. Ashina Wuduo said, “Don’t waste your energy. I calculated this distance deliberately. I wanted you to be very close yet confined in your separate prisons, unable to touch each other. Hmph, you’ll never touch her again in this lifetime.”

Cui Xun gritted his teeth and glared at Ashina Wuduo, his gaze so fierce it seemed he wanted to flay her alive. Ashina Wuduo sighed: “Have I ever told you how much I hate that look in your eyes?”

She walked to the edge of the prison, untied the iron chain locked to one side of the iron cage, gripped it in her hand, and yanked it hard. Cui Xun was involuntarily pulled to her side. Ashina Wuduo wasn’t satisfied yet. The iron chain tightened inch by inch. Cui Xun’s fair neck was rubbed with hideous bloody marks. He was choked until he could barely breathe, his expression gradually becoming pained. Li Ying was alarmed and wanted to save him, but under such intense pain, she didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger. How could she save him?

The chain in Ashina Wuduo’s hand tightened more and more. Watching Cui Xun’s pained expression, she raised her eyebrows and said: “Do you remember? I also told you before that cages and chains are the most suitable things for you. They can wear down your claws, break your wings, make you stop thinking about flying back to Great Zhou, and obediently stay by my side.”

After saying this, she finally relaxed the iron chain. Her hand extended into the cage to grip Cui Xun’s chin. Cui Xun no longer had the strength to resist. He had almost been choked into unconsciousness just now and didn’t even have the strength to knock her hand away. Ashina Wuduo carefully examined his pain-stricken, sweat-covered face and smiled: “Lotus Slave, your current plight is entirely your fault. Who told you to have a face more beautiful than a lotus? Who told you to have a temperament more stubborn than a hunting falcon? Any noble woman of the grasslands would want to conquer a man like you. If not me, there would be others. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself.”

Just as she finished speaking, she suddenly heard a voice, weak but very firm, from the young woman: “No, he is not at fault in any way. Don’t push the responsibility onto him!”

Ashina Wuduo frowned. She released Cui Xun, stood up, turned to look at the young woman trapped within the talismans, and said: “I almost forgot about you.”

Li Ying propped herself up. Though weakened and in continuous waves of excruciating pain from the talismans, she still glared at Ashina Wuduo and said: “Stop twisting right and wrong. Your innate cruelty has nothing to do with Seventeen.”

“Seventeen?” Ashina Wuduo raised her eyebrows in jealousy: “How intimate you sound.”

She turned her head to look at Cui Xun in the iron cage and yanked the chain hard: “You would rather be tamed by a ghost than by me?”

Cui Xun’s neck was already a bloody mess, and the pull made it rub against his wounds, turning his face as pale as paper from the pain. Li Ying gritted her teeth: “Stop hurting him!”

She glared at Ashina Wuduo and said, “Let me tell you, I have never tamed Seventeen. Like you, I admire his appearance and personality. But my admiration isn’t about conquest and possession like yours. I truly see him as a person, an equal, not a man waiting for me to conquer. I respect him, cherish him, so I received all his love in return. If you call mutual love ‘taming,’ then I’m afraid you’ll never be able to tame him in this lifetime.”

Ashina Wuduo tightened her grip on the chain. The four words “mutual love” undoubtedly pierced her heart deeply. The fleeting glance during the captive presentation ceremony had made her, the haughty first beauty of the Western Regions, remember a man for the first time in her life. All her cruel methods afterward were only in the hope that, like a hawk, he would submit to her. If he were truly willing to submit, she would certainly unlock his chains and let him soar in the skies again.

But he stubbornly refused. No matter how much torture and humiliation, he would not yield.

So taming him became her obsession. But if she were to examine her heart, was what she sought merely taming?

Was there nothing else?

Li Ying must have seen what Ashina Wuduo was thinking. She saw that Ashina Wuduo was angry about the phrase “mutual love.” Li Ying’s lips curved into a mocking smile: “You’re so pitiful. You met him first, but you have no idea how to love someone. So, you’ll never have him in this lifetime.”

“Shut up!” Ashina Wuduo exploded with rage: “I said shut up!”

She sneered: “How could I not have him?” She raised the chain in her hand: “He’s right in my grasp.”

“Ashina Wuduo…” Cui Xun struggled to sit up. In a hoarse voice, he said: “This isn’t Turkic territory. Even if you’ve captured me, you can’t escape Chang’an.”

“I don’t plan to leave Chang’an,” Ashina Wuduo said calmly. “I’m going to keep you locked up here until you die.”

She looked around the cell built with thick bluestone blocks. Soft moss filled the gaps between the stones, preventing sounds inside the cell from being heard outside. Ashina Wuduo said to Cui Xun, “No matter how much you scream for help, no one will hear you. If someone does come to save you, rest assured, I will kill you with one strike before that happens.”

Li Ying felt a chill run down her spine, but Cui Xun gradually calmed down. He covered the wound on his neck and said with difficulty: “It’s not easy to find a place like this in Chang’an, is it?”

Ashina Wuduo scoffed. Cui Xun continued: “You didn’t find it.”

In a hoarse voice, he asked: “Whose idea was this ‘oriole behind’ scheme?”

Ashina Wuduo didn’t answer but instead mocked: “What? You’re allowed to send people to investigate Changchun Temple, but we’re not allowed to discover it and set a trap for you to step into?”

She unconsciously said “we,” which made Li Ying draw in a sharp breath. Wang Xuan’s words “Emperor killed six states,” this bluestone private prison, and the “we” from Ashina Wuduo’s mouth all led her to make an unpleasant association, a fact she was most unwilling to believe.

In Chang’an, who could command Ashina Wuduo, capture Wang Xuan, and then capture Cui Xun?

Who would have such audacity? Who would have such capability?

Except for that person.

She finally understood the sequence of events. Wang Xuan must have discovered some secret, which was why he was taken to Changchun Temple. But Wang Xuan, a frail scholar, endured extreme torture yet still refused to reveal anything. The mastermind gradually lost patience. Upon discovering that the Investigation Department had spies investigating Changchun Temple, they turned the situation to their advantage, deliberately allowing Cui Xun to rescue the dying Wang Xuan, then capturing Cui Xun afterwards.

Wait? Capturing Cui Xun? Li Ying looked up and asked Ashina Wuduo, “Why did you leave the palace? Could it be that from the beginning, the one you wanted to deal with was Seventeen?”

Ashina Wuduo did not deny it. Her Chinese wasn’t good, and she didn’t notice Li Ying had deliberately used the word “you” in the plural. She instinctively replied: “Who told him to be so stubborn? Who would believe he truly let go? Hmph, even if he resigned from office, he still couldn’t leave Chang’an!”

With these words, Li Ying felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave.

Coincidentally, when Ashina Wuduo saw her bewildered expression, she thought Li Ying was frightened because she mentioned killing Cui Xun with one strike. Seeing how much Li Ying cared for him, Ashina Wuduo felt a surge of jealousy. She looked at the solid, tightly built iron cage. The dense, intertwining thick black iron bars made escape impossible even with wings. She asked Li Ying: “Do you know how long I’ve been preparing this cage?”

Li Ying was stunned.

Ashina Wuduo continued: “A full two months. Originally, it wouldn’t have been completed so quickly, but I urged the craftsmen to finish it faster. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

A trace of jealousy flashed in Ashina Wuduo’s eyes: “Because I saw it.”

“Saw what?”

“I saw you catching fireflies together, saw him picking flowers for you.” Ashina Wuduo turned her head, glanced at Cui Xun chained in the iron cage, then turned back, playfully looking at Li Ying confined by the talismans: “From that day on, I had the craftsmen rush to finish it. I wanted to lock him in a cage so he couldn’t catch fireflies for you or pick flowers for you anymore. I also wanted to confine you beside him, so he could watch how you die in agony.”