Coming out of Yongshou Palace, both Qin Yao and Lin Xiao were in a somewhat strange mood.

Just now, the Crown Prince had suddenly, in front of everyone, asked the Emperor to issue an edict betrothing him to Qin Yuan. Aside from the Emperor and Consort Yi, everyone else seemed taken aback.

Although the Emperor had ultimately turned the request down on the grounds that Qin Yuan had not yet completed her mourning period, and that the Crown Prince’s betrothal had always required the utmost caution, the Crown Prince’s move was effectively a declaration in front of the entire palace that he favored Qin Yuan—he was only waiting for her mourning to end, at which point the Emperor would arrange the marriage between them.

Qin Yao mused to herself: it had been only a few days since they’d returned from Mount Shouhuai. There hadn’t been the slightest hint of this beforehand, and the Crown Prince hadn’t seemed the type to act on a whim. Why would he suddenly pull something like this right after coming back from Mount Shouhuai?

Lin Xiao’s expression, by contrast, hadn’t changed much.

The two of them walked side by side, each lost in their own thoughts.

Along the way, many palace attendants were moving about, and upon seeing the pair, they bowed in greeting one after another.

Qin Yao thought for a while, and a vague suspicion began to form in her mind. She turned to look at Lin Xiao, and seeing that his expression remained calm, she couldn’t help but ask him, “Did you know about this beforehand?”

Lin Xiao stopped walking, turned to glance at Qin Yao, took her hand, and said in a low voice, “This isn’t the place to talk. Let’s discuss it once we’re at my duty quarters.”

Qin Yao immediately fell obediently silent.

They passed through several palace halls and reached a secluded, shadowy courtyard, then crossed a moon gate, arriving at last at the duty quarters of the Imperial Guards. Several parasol trees grew in the courtyard; since it was deep autumn, the branches were bare. To the north and east stood two rows of side chambers. The three rooms on the east side held a study connected to a meeting room, with Lin Xiao’s bedroom situated in the innermost one.

Qin Yao followed Lin Xiao inside, finding the room extremely tidy and sparsely furnished—just a bed, a desk, and a set of chairs. Fortunately, sunlight came in abundantly, so the room was dry and warm, without the slightest trace of damp.

Qin Yao walked over to the bed and felt around it for a moment; though the boards were hard, the bedding was clean and thick, which set her mind at ease. She glanced curiously around the room, thinking of how Lin Xiao usually rested here, and felt an odd sense of intimacy well up inside her.

Lin Xiao unfastened his sword and set it on the desk, poured tea for himself and Qin Yao, took a sip, and then stood off to the side watching her.

Once she had finished looking around and walked back toward the desk, he reached out, caught her wrist, and pulled her straight into his arms.

Qin Yao, caught off guard, tumbled into his lap. Her face flushed, feeling the position was terribly improper, and she struggled to get up, but Lin Xiao held her fast, unable to move.

“Don’t move. Let’s talk properly,” Lin Xiao said, wrapping an arm around her waist with perfect ease, looking at her with a serious expression.

Qin Yao suddenly recalled the embarrassing things Lin Xiao had teased her with in bed, and squirmed awkwardly. “Then let’s talk properly—don’t you dare get any wrong ideas. I have a lot to tell you.”

Lin Xiao silently laughed at how obviously she was protesting too much, and suppressing a smile, said, “Mm, go ahead. I’m listening.”

Qin Yao then recounted everything she had seen on Mount Shouhuai that day. “The path leading to the cliff is rarely used, so it’s quite muddy—anyone who goes there and back is bound to pick up some mud on their shoes. And that night on Zhuliao Terrace, I told my fellow students that there were evil presences in the mountains and urged them to hurry back to camp. After that, Chen Yuqi and I fell off the cliff, and a horde of monstrous creatures stormed the camp—one disaster after another, without a moment’s respite the entire night. In a situation like that, anyone who still had the presence of mind to dig through their luggage for a clean pair of shoes to change into—however you look at it, something’s not right.”

When Lin Xiao heard Qin Yao mention those two names, his earlier suspicions grew more concrete. After thinking for a moment, he said, “This person is far harder to deal with than we thought. She hides herself extremely well. If she really is behind this, then several strange incidents I’ve encountered before would all make sense now.”

Qin Yao was startled. “Has she schemed against you before, too?”

Lin Xiao made a low sound of assent. “Several times. At first they all seemed perfectly ordinary, but looking back afterward, I realize how dangerous they actually were. A’Yao, this woman is skilled in scheming and extremely composed—several times she’s deflected trouble onto others, link by link, her methods no worse than anyone in the palace.”

Qin Yao pressed him for details, and Lin Xiao laid out the whole story for her. When he finished, seeing that Qin Yao was still frowning, he said, “In the past, she operated in the shadows while we stood in the open—an arrow shot in the open is easy to dodge, but a hidden one is hard to guard against. Now that we know her tricks, all we need to do is turn her own methods back on her. Of course, your caution is reasonable too. Before we act, there are still several things we need to clarify, so as not to wrongly accuse an innocent person. But if it really is her, then just for nearly costing you your life, she will have nowhere to hide her corpse.”

Qin Yao let out a long sigh. “Actually, ever since that case ended, there were too many things that didn’t add up, and I’ve always been wary of her. But I still hoped we were wrong.”

Lin Xiao’s expression darkened, and he said nothing.

Qin Yao glanced at him, hesitating over whether to tell him what she had overheard Yuan Jue say at Qingyun Temple that day. After weighing it for a moment, she decided the matter was too important, and the consequences were far beyond what Qingyun Temple or she herself could bear, so she told him everything, in full detail.

As Lin Xiao listened, his brows knit tighter and tighter, his expression growing more serious than she had ever seen.

“To be honest, I didn’t quite understand it all yesterday,” he said, “but I remember that Yuan Jue had previously gone with others to inspect the area around Mount Shouhuai. It was precisely because he told his master that nothing was amiss that his master never suspected Mount Shouhuai. And this is different from the fact that your Chixiao didn’t sound a warning. Your Chixiao can only sense malevolent energy at close range—if the demonic creature wasn’t on the mountain when we entered, Chixiao naturally wouldn’t react. But given Yuan Jue’s cultivation, he shouldn’t have missed a lingering evil presence that had built up over so many years on Mount Shouhuai. Why would he lie about something so plain?”

Hearing this, it was as if Lin Xiao had heard a clap of thunder. He fell deep into thought, his body unmoving for what felt like half an incense-stick’s worth of time, before finally coming back to himself. Looking up, he saw Qin Yao watching him anxiously, her eyes full of hidden worry. His heart softened, and he cupped her face to comfort her. “I’ll investigate this in secret. Don’t worry—whatever clues I find, I won’t hide them from you. If Yuan Jue really has a problem, the first thing we need to do, before anything else, is to clear Qingyun Temple and the Daoist Master of any suspicion. We mustn’t let them be implicated because of Yuan Jue.”

Qin Yao relaxed slightly, burying her head against the side of Lin Xiao’s neck, and sighed. “So many things have happened over the past half year. I keep feeling like there’s an invisible net behind all these strange incidents, pointing toward something—but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is. Master is also keeping a lot of things from me, and Yuan Jue doesn’t seem like someone capable of unforgivable evil either. I’m honestly a bit lost now.”

As she spoke, an inexplicable wave of fear rose in her chest, and she held Lin Xiao tighter. “Weijin, I’m a little scared. In the early years when I first started going out with Master to catch demons, as long as I trained my skills harder, there was no difficulty I couldn’t overcome, no demon I couldn’t subdue. But over the past year, I’ve discovered it’s not like that at all. So many things can’t be solved by cultivation alone—there’s so much more tangled up behind them. No wonder Master always says that the most terrifying thing in this world isn’t demons, but the human heart.”

Seeing her brows knit deeply, as if she were carrying a burden too heavy to bear, Lin Xiao felt a pang of tenderness. He pressed a kiss to her lips and said, “You’ve already married me. I’ll handle everything—why let yourself worry like this? From tonight on, you don’t need to think about any of it. Just rest and recover for a while. If you’re bored at home alone, go visit your mother during the day, or invite your fellow students over to play.”

Qin Yao knew that Lin Xiao was trying to shoulder the burden on her behalf, and her heart warmed at the thought. She also knew that worrying solved nothing, and that in some ways, Lin Xiao understood far better than she did how to plan and maneuver. So she made an obedient sound of agreement, then looked up at him and asked, “How long will your duty shift be this time? Can you come home tomorrow?”

She herself didn’t think there was anything different about her tone compared to usual, but to Lin Xiao’s ears, it sounded particularly soft and alluring, carrying a hint of clinging anticipation. His heart warmed, and he bit gently at her lip. “Are you missing me? I’ll come home tomorrow.”

As he spoke, he noticed the dazzling expanse of white skin at her collar and couldn’t help but lower his head, kissing his way down her neck.

Qin Yao, not expecting him to act so suddenly, felt something stirring restlessly beneath her and hurriedly twisted to struggle free. “This is the duty quarters—and it’s broad daylight!”

She tried desperately to lift his head, which was buried against her chest.

But Lin Xiao had lost all restraint and couldn’t stop himself. “It’s been days since we’ve been intimate. What couple newly married spends as little time together as we do? Good Yaoyao, I want you so badly. Be good to me.”

Qin Yao, stirred until she was gasping for breath, tried desperately to keep a clear head. “Aren’t you coming home tomorrow anyway? Tomorrow… let’s do it properly tomorrow…”

Lin Xiao simply kissed her again, feeling as though her body and scent held some demonic power to drag him down. The more he kissed her, the less he could control himself. He lifted Qin Yao and set her down on the desk, positioning himself between her legs, reaching for her chest to undo her robe.

Qin Yao, mortified beyond words, tried desperately to press her legs together. “Not on the desk—isn’t there a bed right there? Let’s go to the bed.”

Lin Xiao, focused on undoing the ties at her chest, said hoarsely, “That bed isn’t sturdy. It’ll creak, and it’s not good if someone hears.”

Qin Yao gave up resisting, covering her face. “You already know it’s not good if someone hears, and yet you’re still doing this.”

As she spoke, she felt a coolness beneath her, and Lin Xiao had already succeeded. She drew in a sharp breath, no longer able to speak, only biting her lip desperately to keep from making a sound.

But soon pleasure swept over her like ocean waves, and gradually the last thread holding her composure together snapped like a plucked string. Lin Xiao saw it clearly, and just before she lost herself completely, he leaned down and sealed her lips with his own, swallowing her soft moans whole.