Even amid Nanzhao’s bitter winter chill, the days remained scorching hot, though the nights turned cool!

Wisps of white steam rose gently from the warm water filling the large wooden bathing tub, and through the haze, one could faintly make out a man’s powerful, strong hands resting casually along the tub’s edge. A woman knelt beside it, cradling a small ball of bathing beans in her delicate palm, gently working it across the man’s bronzed forearm—an arm already smooth and clean, yet she still insisted on scrubbing every single inch of it with meticulous, thorough care.

Ziqing had always known this man had something of a cleanliness obsession, but tonight was truly the first time she experienced firsthand just how formidable that obsession could be.

Arrayed beside her was an entire row of exquisite, colorful bathing beans—at a glance, they might easily have been mistaken for delicate pastries.

These were the ancient equivalent of modern soap, used for bathing in this era, yet the fragrance infused within these bathing beans was something modern manufacturing techniques could never quite replicate, no matter how hard they tried.

Counting them, there were exactly ten different varieties of bathing beans laid out before her. Jun Beiyue had insisted she use them in strict order, one through ten. Ziqing found herself utterly exasperated, genuinely tempted to ask him just how many days it had actually been since his last proper bath.

Was he really that filthy?

Yet seeing the exhaustion written plainly across Jun Beiyue’s face, she couldn’t quite bring herself to interrupt him with the question.

Jun Beiyue leaned his head back against the rim of the tub, eyes half-closed, his handsome brow bearing what looked like weariness but was, in truth, pure contentment. After a long moment, he finally turned his head to look at her, and seeing Ziqing’s serious, focused expression, he couldn’t help but smile. “So… this is what it’s like.”

Ziqing looked up, puzzled. “What is?”

“What it feels like, being attended to like this,” Jun Beiyue said with a smile. As a prince born into royalty, he’d been waited on hand and foot since childhood—even something as trivial as bathing or dressing had never once required his own effort. And yet, this was truly the first time anyone had ever personally attended to his bath.

Hearing this, an inexplicable joy welled up within Ziqing, and her cheeks flushed at once, unsure quite how to respond. She simply lowered her head again and reached for the next bathing bean instead.

“You must be tired,” Jun Beiyue said gently.

“Not tired at all. If I hadn’t been so stubborn, you wouldn’t have had to rush around like this in the first place,” Ziqing said flatly. She’d been waiting the whole time for him to bring up the matter of the hunting trip and settle accounts with her, but this man hadn’t asked a single question about it—clearly, he already knew everything.

“Let this be the only time you have to work this hard. From now on, I’ll be the one attending to you,” Jun Beiyue added.

The blush that had just begun fading from Ziqing’s cheeks flooded back in full force at once. She said, half-annoyed, “Just how many days has it been since you last bathed, to get this filthy?”

Jun Beiyue simply smiled without answering, glancing at the row of bathing beans still waiting to be used, and said with a grin, “Let me tell you two pieces of good news. Which would you like to hear first?”

Ziqing immediately kicked him lightly. “How am I supposed to tell them apart if you don’t tell me what they are?”

What was wrong with this man? He was being so strange tonight.

Jun Beiyue laughed without answering—perhaps he was simply too weighed down with worry, too exhausted from these past few days, muddling his own thoughts.

“One is a big piece of good news, the other a small one. Which would you like to hear first—the big one, or the small one?”

“The big one… does it have something to do with the Lonely Isle?” Ziqing asked, a flicker of excitement rising in her voice. Wasn’t the whole reason they’d come to Nanzhao because of the Lonely Isle in the first place? Surely this man had brought back some good news from his trip to the Poison Den!

“I knew only the Lonely Isle could make you this happy!” Jun Beiyue said, doting, gently pinching Ziqing’s nose. He smiled and continued, “Because of that totem, the King of Nanzhao has already given orders to search far and wide for traces of the Lonely Isle. It seems the surviving descendants of the Lonely Isle left traces scattered across many places throughout the continent of Longyuan, hinting at the Isle’s secret—this totem, along with the Qinse Valley on Liuxian Isle, and Xijing’s Mingsha Dunes, were all quite possibly left behind deliberately by the Lonely Isle’s own people!”

“Why would the people of the Lonely Isle deliberately leave these traces behind? Could it be that the Lonely Isle people were being persecuted?” Perhaps it was simply the innate sense of belonging tied to her own bloodline, but Ziqing found herself growing immediately animated.

“That… only the King of Nanzhao would truly know,” Jun Beiyue said flatly. Based on his own experience, the disappearance of the Lonely Isle was almost certainly not the result of anything good.

“Isn’t the Medicine Clan Elder one of your people?” Ziqing asked at once.

At this, Jun Beiyue laughed immediately. “No, this King simply asked him for a small favor. He has no idea we’re actually here searching for the secret of the Lonely Isle!”

The Medicine Clan Elder was, after all, the leader of Nanzhao’s most powerful clan—hardly someone easily bought or bribed. Jun Beiyue had specifically enlisted the Medicine Clan Elder’s help precisely to dispel any suspicion the King of Nanzhao might harbor toward him!

Ziqing’s rising hopes deflated at once. She slumped listlessly against the edge of the tub. “How long will it take before we learn the Lonely Isle’s secret, before this poison is finally cured?”

Ziqing understood perfectly well that going forward, Jun Beiyue would undoubtedly use the men the King of Nanzhao dispatched to trace further clues, following the thread wherever it led.

Yet she couldn’t help feeling it was all so distant, so uncertain—especially with her own progress on Lishang stalled at an impasse, leaving her more than a little discouraged.

Seeing Ziqing’s downcast expression, Jun Beiyue bit his lip, seeming to want to say something, then holding it back.

He’d come to Nanzhao for only two purposes: first, to persuade the King of Nanzhao to dispatch men throughout Longyuan to investigate, and second, because of Shiliang!

Whoever had drawn that totem on Ziqing’s carriage clearly knew something significant—he’d simply seized the opportunity as it presented itself.

The weight on his mind now was entirely the matter of Shiliang—whether to tell Ziqing the truth outright, or continue concealing it from her.

Telling her outright would bring no end of complications. To Ziqing, betrayal of any kind would inevitably cause deep pain.

Concealing it meant he’d need to tread with the utmost caution, to somehow protect this woman from being wounded further by manipulation and deceit.

“What’s wrong? Tired? Don’t want to hear the second piece of good news?” Jun Beiyue asked with a smile.

“What?” Ziqing answered listlessly.

“I’ve been thinking you could use someone extra by your side. After that private conference the other night, I specifically requested the King of Nanzhao’s permission to arrange a replacement attendant for you…”

Before Jun Beiyue could even finish speaking, Ziqing sat bolt upright at once. “Has Shiliang arrived?”

Jun Beiyue laughed heartily, though his heart sank deeper still. “Clever girl, aren’t you! You really are that fond of Shiliang?”

“That girl… doesn’t talk much, gets things done efficiently, sharp-witted without needing much instruction. Having her around makes everything so much simpler,” Ziqing said with a smile. These past few days, Hongyi’s constant fretting had given her quite the headache.

“Is that so? Well then, how about I borrow her services for a few days myself?” Jun Beiyue teased.

“You can have Hongyi instead,” Ziqing said, chuckling to herself with obvious amusement, imagining how flustered poor Hongyi would be if left in Jun Beiyue’s company—the girl probably wouldn’t even dare open her mouth.

“How exactly did you come to take such a liking to Shiliang in the first place? Guxi mentioned you first met her at an inn?” Jun Beiyue asked flatly.

“Fate, I suppose. There’s always been something about her that feels like me…” Ziqing nearly let the word “beggar” slip out. She’d told Shiliang as much herself, had taught her a great many things over time—she’d even told Shiliang that she needn’t spend her whole life as a maidservant or a mercenary; if a better opportunity ever came along, Ziqing wouldn’t hold her back.

“Similar temperaments, similar eyes too, perhaps. But… you are you, and she… is herself,” Jun Beiyue said flatly. There was a deeper meaning hidden in his words, one Ziqing failed to catch entirely—she was, after all, someone who truly believed in trusting those she chose to trust, without doubt or suspicion.

“Actually, Shiliang has plenty of good qualities. I’ve even been thinking about finding her a good match, a good family, someday down the road,” Ziqing said earnestly. Toward Shiliang, toward Guxi, just as toward Hongyi, she felt genuine affection and care for all of them—she hadn’t been born into privilege herself, and she understood the hardships of servants all too well.

A flicker of complicated emotion crossed Jun Beiyue’s eyes, but he simply smiled. “Enough about others—we have important matters to attend to.”

Important matters?

Before Ziqing could puzzle out what he meant, Jun Beiyue rose from the tub, casually wrapping a robe around himself, and spread his arms wide toward her, his usually stern, cold expression breaking into a brilliant, radiant smile—sensual, sunlit, and utterly, devastatingly captivating.