Jun Buli spotted Li Qinqin from a distance. Though Consort Li didn’t dare set foot inside Prince Yao’s manor, he knew perfectly well this woman had been tailing him quite a bit these past few days.
Jun Buli walked straight toward Li Qinqin, and her smile only grew more radiant as he approached. In her view, Han Ziqing’s departure was, in fact, a kind of surrender.
Without a doubt, she had won this particular battle.
She’d assumed Jun Buli would have something to say to her, but to her surprise, his gaze remained fixed on the distance, and he simply walked right past her without so much as a glance in her direction.
Li Qinqin didn’t mind, turning to follow after him, saying cheerfully, “Jun Buli, you should be thanking me. You’re completely free now!”
Jun Buli’s footsteps faltered slightly, but he didn’t stop, continuing forward.
Free?
Perhaps, as a child, he might have felt resentment—resentment toward his parents for abandoning him without a word, stripping him of all his freedom. But now, he felt no such resentment. He understood that a man’s true freedom wasn’t something granted by others—it was something earned by shouldering one’s own responsibilities.
“I think I’ll move back into Prince Yao’s manor. I don’t like living in the palace, it’s too big, I’ll get lost!” Li Qinqin caught up to him, making her demand.
This time, Jun Buli stopped abruptly. Li Qinqin stopped too, her mood clearly excellent, her smile blooming like a flower.
“I warned you—you are never to set foot in Prince Yao’s manor, or else the consequences will be on your own head!” Jun Buli said, then turned to leave on tiptoe. Li Qinqin quickly grabbed his hand. “I was just saying it. If you don’t like it, fine, I won’t go. Why the temper?”
“Let go!” Jun Buli said coldly. He knew perfectly well that Mother’s departure to Mobei stemmed from genuine heartbreak—he would absolutely never allow Li Qinqin to set foot in Prince Yao’s manor!
“Hey, weren’t you always annoyed that your mother kept investigating your business? Well, good news, they’re all gone now, aren’t you happy? And also…”
But before Li Qinqin could finish her sentence, Jun Buli suddenly wrenched his hand free!
“Ah!” Li Qinqin cried out—a deep gash had appeared on her wrist, torn open by Jun Buli’s own fingernails!
“That’s too much! What exactly do you…”
But before she could even finish her protest, Jun Buli’s figure had already flickered and vanished!
Li Qinqin stamped her foot in fury. “Jun Buli, you’ve got some nerve! We’ll see if you don’t come crawling back to me in three days!”
She stormed off as well, and unfortunately for him, her prediction proved correct. Three days later, deep in the night, Jun Buli made his way to her palace quarters.
Li Qinqin’s quarters never kept any night attendants. Once night fell, everyone had to retreat outside the courtyard, without exception—not even her personal old nanny stayed.
The room was unlit, only a single window left open to let the moonlight stream in, the whole space dim and shadowy, patterns of shadow scattered everywhere.
At that moment, Li Qinqin lounged languidly on a chaise, holding a long-spouted teapot in her hands, sipping from it idly, on and off.
She wore only white gauze, her graceful body faintly visible beneath the sheer fabric, exquisite and alluring, her long hair of three thousand strands cascading loosely, her expression languorous and content. Looking closely, one would notice a faint trace of blood at the corner of her mouth—without a doubt, the long-spouted teapot in her hands contained fresh blood.
A shadow flickered past, gliding from one window frame to another, and in the dimness, a tall, slender figure appeared standing by the window—none other than Jun Buli.
He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, facing away from Li Qinqin.
Li Qinqin didn’t rush him either, smiling languidly as she rose to her feet. “Your Majesty, you have time to chat with me today?”
That day, in a good mood, she’d wanted to talk with him, but he’d completely ignored her. Now that he’d finally come, she wasn’t about to let him leave without exchanging at least a few words with her!
Jun Buli didn’t answer her, seemingly naturally disinclined to speak. He gazed silently out at the moon through the window, apparently lost in thought, his dark eyes growing ever more profound with age, mysterious and captivating, yet also charged with danger.
Seeing him remain silent, Li Qinqin scoffed coldly and lay back down languidly. She wanted to see who could outlast whom in this standoff.
It was another full-moon night—the time when his craving was at its strongest.
The room remained dim, time slipping away quietly in the darkness, until finally, the bright moon rose to its zenith!
That tall, slender figure suddenly trembled slightly. Li Qinqin seemed to catch a scent of something, her eyes suddenly turning cold, and she moved to dodge—but there simply wasn’t time!
In the blink of an eye, Jun Buli was already upon her, pressing forward, pinning her down on the chaise.
“Talk with me, or you’ll get nothing at all!” Li Qinqin said coldly. This woman, once she dug in her heels, never gave an inch.
But this time, she was up against someone even more stubborn than herself.
“I didn’t come here to chat with you!” Jun Buli said coldly, and with that, his large hand seized Li Qinqin’s throat in a punishing grip, pinning her against the pillow!
Li Qinqin was startled—before now, he’d never grabbed her by the throat like this. This time, he was being unusually harsh, clearly determined not to let her struggle at all!
But Li Qinqin was no pushover either. Her eyes flashed dangerously, and she suddenly opened her mouth, baring a pair of fangs, and bit down mercilessly into Jun Buli’s arm without hesitation!
But the vampire clan’s fangs held absolutely no power to harm Jun Buli—this man seemed almost born to be the vampire clan’s natural enemy!
Li Qinqin had wanted to bite him many times before, but this was actually the first time she’d truly done it. Though she knew the vampire clan’s fangs were useless against him, actually biting down and seeing him completely unaffected still left her genuinely shocked.
She couldn’t help but wonder—what would happen if this man were brought before the vampire clan itself?
Or perhaps—could he even kill the blood lord?
The Four Great Guardians were searching everywhere for the Blood of the Five Elements. Even if they never found it, the blood lord would inevitably wake eventually!
And once the blood lord awakened, she would never have any freedom to speak of again!
But what if—before the blood lord awakened—she could get him to kill the blood lord instead?
Li Qinqin’s thoughts began drifting far away, no longer resisting at all, while Jun Buli bit down fiercely into her neck, with such force it seemed as though he might tear right through it—had she not been of vampire blood, she surely would have died from it by now!
No one knew how much time passed before Jun Buli finally released Li Qinqin, leaving a deep mark on her neck, no blood visible, only a stretch of eerie crimson.
By now, the sky outside had begun to grow faintly light. Having gone the whole night without sleep, Jun Buli showed no sign of exhaustion at all—if anything, he seemed considerably more energized.
He rose to his feet, glanced at the still motionless Li Qinqin, privately puzzled by how suddenly docile this woman had become, but didn’t dwell on it further, turning to leave.
Li Qinqin quickly recovered, calling out sharply, “Stop right there!”
Jun Buli didn’t stop, continuing to walk as he warned coldly, “Stay put in the palace like a good girl. I’ll keep you well provided for, and no one will be able to harm you. But if you go looking for trouble, you should know—I don’t actually need you specifically.”
With that, he strode away. Now that everyone had left, only he remained alone, both in the palace and at Prince Yao’s manor. He poured all his focus into matters of state and the Nanzhao campaign. As for Consort Li, he genuinely never invested much thought or effort into her—not before, not now, and he had no intention of doing so in the future either.
Even though many of the elder officials at court had begun expressing concern over the matter of an heir, he still had no intention of considering it just yet.
Life continued on this way. He was only seventeen, with no idea what kind of man he might become in the future—for now, he simply wanted to live each day well.
Watching Jun Buli’s retreating figure, Li Qinqin’s lips curled into a cold smile as she murmured to herself, “You don’t actually need me specifically? Perhaps… we shall see about that!”