The room fell silent. Atop the tiger-skin couch, an atmosphere thick with unspoken tension—and yet Jun Beiyue did nothing at all!

He couldn’t do anything! All he could do was watch over her, his mind entirely blank—he had never once, in his entire life, felt so utterly powerless before a woman.

As for Ziqing, she remained in distress for a full half hour, entirely unaware of everything happening around her, only faintly sensing something oddly familiar—this state, this same uncontrollable, instinctive helplessness—she seemed to recall having experienced something like it before.

It felt like that time she’d been taken by force, abducted—she kept shaking her head, her fine brows drawing tighter, momentarily unable to distinguish between past and present, unable to tell what was distant memory and what was happening right now.

Water… it was water!

A faint memory surfaced—someone had carried her into water, and the moment she’d entered it, all the unbearable, uncontrollable distress had vanished entirely. Who had that been? Who had abducted her?

“Xuanyuan Lige!” Suddenly, she stopped murmuring and cried out sharply instead.

Xuanyuan Lige!

Jun Beiyue froze completely. What was happening?

At once, every motion of his came to an abrupt halt, his hands, braced on either side of Ziqing’s head, clenching tight without warning.

He was stunned!

What had he just heard?

“Xuanyuan Lige!”

Suddenly, Ziqing cried out again, her dazed eyes flying wide open, staring fixedly at Jun Beiyue—and yet the name she called was someone else’s entirely.

The charm-scent could addle anyone’s mind, let alone someone as thoroughly drunk as she was now.

All her memories had blurred together into chaos, and in this state she genuinely believed she was still being held captive—it was Xuanyuan Lige! That white-robed, silver-haired figure who had abducted her was Xuanyuan Lige!

“Xuanyuan Lige…”

Jun Beiyue’s jaw clenched, teeth grinding. That man again!

Abruptly, he pulled back, sweeping the blanket up over Ziqing at once, turning away without so much as another glance at her, his eyes, moments ago clouded with desire, now blazing with pure fury.

“Imperial Physician Gu!” he called coldly, sitting with his back turned to Ziqing, clearly aware of the restless stirring still coming from behind him, the faint murmuring continuing—yet with his head lowered, his eyes downcast, giving away nothing at all, no one could tell what this man was truly thinking, what he might be calculating, in this moment.

Imperial Physician Gu, hearing that furious shout from outside the tent, assumed their lord had simply lost control of himself entirely—but the moment he stepped inside and saw Jun Beiyue, he froze in shock.

Viewed from the side, this man, head bowed, face dark and forbidding, looked like some demon on the very verge of eruption, radiating an aura of pure, extreme danger from every inch of his being.

Imperial Physician Gu’s heart pounded with alarm as he hurried to check her pulse—and the moment he did, he startled back in shock, crying out, “My lord!”

Yet Jun Beiyue remained utterly unresponsive, as though his soul had left his body entirely.

“My lord, the drug’s effects have subsided!” Imperial Physician Gu cried out again, utterly unable to believe how rapidly it had faded.

After all, the charm-scent poison was never supposed to fade at all!

“My lord, this is truly remarkable—there must be something extraordinary about the princess consort’s constitution!”

“My lord, look, the princess consort is fine now!”

…

Despite the physician’s evident excitement, Jun Beiyue remained utterly unresponsive, seemingly lost entirely within his own thoughts, until Imperial Physician Gu finally worked up the courage to reach out and give him a gentle shake.

“My lord, what’s wrong? The charm-scent’s effects have faded!”

Only then did Jun Beiyue snap his head up, momentarily startled, before turning to look at Ziqing—her small face flushed crimson, brow furrowed tight, apparently suffering from a splitting headache, still lost in a drunken stupor.

“Faded?” he finally said, genuinely taken aback himself.

“Indeed!” Imperial Physician Gu said earnestly. There was no need to ask further—nothing could possibly have happened between the two of them just now, otherwise the poison would have long since transferred to their lord as well.

“Her constitution…” Jun Beiyue murmured, astonished.