Yu Wensang pushed Huayi to sit down at the qin table. Huayi looked troubled, but she also knew Yu Wensang’s temperament—once Yu Wensang had decided on something, ten horses couldn’t pull her away from it. Finally sighing, she began slowly plucking the qin strings.

Seeing that Huayi wasn’t objecting further, Yu Wensang opened the door and peeked out to make sure no one was paying attention, then tiptoed to a grove within Dajing Palace and climbed up the wall from the exquisite rocks behind the artificial mountain. Seeing that she had climbed up the wall, Yu Wensang smiled secretly with satisfaction, feeling proud of herself. Just as she was about to step forcefully onto the willow branch outside the wall and climb down, her foot slipped unexpectedly, and her entire body lost balance and fell from the willow tree.

“Ah…” Yu Wensang screamed and squeezed her eyes shut tightly, thinking she was about to fall and bruise her bottom badly. But unexpectedly, she only felt her arm tighten and a force catch and support her legs—she didn’t feel much pain before landing safely.

After a while, confirming she wasn’t falling anymore, she slowly opened one eye and saw a pair of astonished eyes staring down at her from above. A few fallen willow leaves floated down and landed on her face. Yu Wensang was momentarily dazed, feeling the strength beneath her, and quickly understood the situation.

“Perverted thief!” Instinctively swinging her hand to slap the person’s face, she quickly got up, only to discover the person was sitting on horseback holding her. But it was too late—she had already fallen heavily from the horse’s back to the ground.

“Ah…” Yu Wensang cried out as she hit the ground.

“Little thief, speak! What did you steal from this palace?” The man who had originally caught Yu Wensang nimbly dismounted, and before Yu Wensang could recover, he twisted her arm behind her back. Yu Wensang let out another cry.

“You maniac, you perverted thief! Let me go quickly!” Yu Wensang tried hard to break free but to no avail, only managing to curse angrily.

“You climbed over the wall from someone’s palace—if you’re not a thief, what are you? You even hit this young master. I want to break your arm right now so you’ll never dare steal from others again.” As he spoke, Zi Feng applied force with his hand, causing Yu Wensang more pain.

This was when Yu Wensang first met Zi Feng, the phoenix royal descendant. From the beginning, they were destined not to be the type of combination that treated each other with mutual respect.

…

…

“I am a little… prince from this palace.” She almost said she was a princess, then remembered she was in men’s clothing and quickly corrected herself.

“Do you think I’m a child under a hundred years old? Watch me teach you a proper lesson.” As Zi Feng was about to apply more force, Yu Wensang cursed her bad luck. Just then, with the sound of two horse hooves, a pleasant voice rang out, saving Yu Wensang’s life.

“Enough, second brother. We’re now in Dajing City. Let’s send him to Dajing Palace and let the masters handle it themselves. If he’s a thief, they’ll send him to the authorities. If he truly belongs to this palace, we shouldn’t harm him by mistake.” Yu Wensang frowned and looked up at this person who saved her, seeing a young man standing tall on horseback. He wore a light azure scholar’s robe, had a tall and slender figure, a clear and bright spirit, and an aloof, otherworldly air. The corners of his eyes were slightly upturned, and sunlight filtered through the willow leaves above, shining down from behind him. Yu Wensang squinted and silently sighed that he was truly an elegant and composed handsome man.

In contrast, the young man currently restraining Yu Wensang wore a purple robe embroidered with golden silk patterns, exuding noble arrogance. He had sword-like brows and starry eyes, extremely handsome like flawless, beautiful jade, yet with a rebellious and heroic air. If he hadn’t been rude to her, Yu Wensang would have silently praised his extraordinary handsomeness, but now she only wanted to slap his face.

This was Yu Wensang’s first encounter with Bai Zhi and Zi Feng. The princess of the Fengjian clan’s Yuwen royal family met the descendants of the phoenix divine clan in a dramatic encounter that destined a dramatic life to begin from this point. During their first meeting, she never thought about the ending, much less imagined what roles they would play in Yu Wensang’s life.

Action was faster than thought! Just as Zi Feng looked toward Bai Zhi on horseback, Yu Wensang had already quickly gotten up from the ground, twisted her hand back around, and lifted her foot to kick. Zi Feng instinctively raised his hand to block her foot, and Yu Wensang used this opportunity to forcefully withdraw her wrist and turn to run.

“Little thief, do you think this young master is afraid of you?” Just as Yu Wensang had only run two steps, her waist tightened as an arm heavily encircled her and pulled her back against a chest behind her.

“Perverted thief!” Yu Wensang shouted, angrily raising her hand to strike backward. Zi Feng raised his hand to catch Yu Wensang’s wrist, leaning close to her side face with a satisfied smile, “Can’t you curse with anything else? You are a stupid thief.”

Yu Wensang struggled to create distance from Zi Feng, gritting her teeth, “Lecher!”

Zi Feng smugly twisted Yu Wensang’s hand behind her back, turning sideways to look at Yu Wensang’s face flushed red with anger, raising his eyebrows, “Is that all?”

“Scoundrel!” Yu Wensang roared.

“Haha… This young master is lustful but not ghostly, rogue but not villainous. With just a move of my finger, countless beauties and fairy maidens surge toward me. Besides, I don’t have a preference for men either—you’re cursing the wrong person!” Zi Feng teased Yu Wensang with a playful smile.

Yu Wensang was so angry her teeth chattered, “Shameless!” As she spoke, Yu Wensang suddenly lowered her body, slipped around Zi Feng’s arm to withdraw her restrained wrist, and was about to run when she crashed right into Bai Zhi, who was dismounting from his horse.

“Mm…” Bai Zhi hummed softly as Yu Wensang’s face pressed against his clothing, and she smelled a faint sandalwood fragrance.

“Still not behaving, watch this young master…” Zi Feng was about to reach out and restrain Yu Wensang again, but was stopped by Bai Zhi’s gaze.

Bai Zhi looked at Zi Feng with a calm gaze, “Don’t be angry anymore. Let’s send him to this manor.”

Yu Wensang felt she had bumped into someone and quickly stepped back two paces. Looking up to see Bai Zhi smiling gently while speaking to Zi Feng, she suddenly forgot about escaping, feeling this person had a strange magic about him—even just a light sentence made people feel they had to obey.

“Very well, I’ll follow big brother’s words.” Zi Feng gripped Yu Wensang’s arm tightly, glaring at her as he continued, “Send this little thief to the palace.”

“You’re the thief!” Yu Wensang jumped and shouted. Zi Feng immediately turned his head away.

“Whether you’re a thief or not, we’ll know once we get there.” Zi Feng pushed Yu Wensang’s arm toward the palace gate. Yu Wensang thought she couldn’t escape now, and returning in this state would probably mean at least another month of confinement. She couldn’t help but hang her head in regret for not listening to Huayi’s words.

“What? Scared now? If you were scared, why did you steal things?” Seeing Yu Wensang suddenly quiet down, Zi Feng couldn’t help but smile and speak.

Yu Wensang turned her head to glare at him and was too lazy to argue further.

Seeing Yu Wensang remain silent, Zi Feng turned back to look at Bai Zhi teasingly, “I’ve always heard that we two brothers of the phoenix clan are the first choice of women in the six realms. Today I’ve truly witnessed it—not only do women become obedient when they see you, even this little thief became honest after just one sentence from you.”

Hearing Zi Feng’s joking, Bai Zhi smiled nonchalantly. Zi Feng turned his face again to look at Yu Wensang, who was looking down and thinking hard of a solution, “Only this little thief is overthinking—we brothers don’t have a preference for men!”

After saying this, Zi Feng looked at Yu Wensang’s face, flushed red with embarrassment, and laughed.

Yu Wensang forcefully suppressed her anger, raising her head slightly to look at Zi Feng beside her with vicious intent, “Don’t bully people too much!”

Seeing Yu Wensang angry beyond measure, Zi Feng became even more amused, “So what do you want to do about it?”

“Slap you!” Yu Wensang swung toward Zi Feng’s face. Zi Feng’s expression changed as he immediately raised his hand to block, but Yu Wensang’s martial arts skills were limited to begin with—how could she withstand Zi Feng’s forceful block? Her entire body fell backward, and with her feet slipping, she toppled toward the ground beside them.

“Careful…” Seeing Yu Wensang fall, Bai Zhi reached out smoothly. Yu Wensang stared wide-eyed in panic as the azure silk binding her hair completely came undone at that moment. Zi Feng immediately stared wide-eyed in astonishment.

Yu Wensang stared wide-eyed at the person before her, still shaken, until she was helped up and then frantically reached to fix her hair.

“You’re a woman!” Zi Feng looked at Yu Wensang in disbelief, his mouth slightly agape.

“Princess!” A guard unit discovered the group of three.