Ye Yuqing furrowed his brow and closed his eyes briefly.
He had tried everything possible to protect Yin Gezhi’s life, but there were too many people harboring ill intentions. With enemies lurking in the shadows, while he operated in the open, it was truly difficult to ensure complete protection. Fortunately, Yin Gezhi had his capabilities and had managed to survive safely for a year. Sometimes, the methods he employed even left Ye Yuqing in admiration. Now that Yin Gezhi was safe and Fengyue seemed so composed, it appeared she too had confidence in protecting herself. Since that was the case, he saw no need to interfere.
Softening his tone, Ye Yuqing sighed, “If you need any help, just have someone outside send me a message.”
“All right.” Fengyue nodded with a smile, looking at him with apparent gratitude. “The young master is so good to me.”
Taking two steps closer to her, Ye Yuqing lowered his head, his facial features bathed in the light streaming through the window, his eyes gentle as water: “If I’m not good to you, then who should I be good to?”
Oh, there were plenty! Like Yi Zhangzhu, his consort in the palace, various people from the Menghui Tower! Wherever this prince’s radiance shone, people were basking in his favor and drowning in his affection. Were there ever too few?
While internally picking apart his pretenses, Fengyue’s expression was the very picture of being moved. Her brows slightly furrowed, eyes filled with both affection and worry, her crimson lips trembling slightly, she looked at the person before her as if gazing upon a living Buddha: “Young master…”
Ye Yuqing paused, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear: “You’ve suffered.”
Wow, if being imprisoned meant being cherished like this by such a handsome man, she really wouldn’t mind staying a bit longer!
However, Ye Yuqing left after staying for only the time it took to burn three incense sticks – after all, he was the crown prince of a nation and had many matters to attend to. After he left, the jailer brought Fengyue a decent lunch, which she ate with a smile, then crouched in the corner to continue counting straws.
For some reason, she felt uneasy. Although everything was currently under control, whenever she thought of Yin Gezhi’s eyes, she felt chilled to the bone.
Back when she served in the Wei army, some people said that the current Crown Prince was indeed the most suitable heir to the throne, but spending all his time campaigning wasn’t appropriate – after all, ruling a country required someone with strategic wisdom, not just a warrior.
The older soldiers who heard this would laugh and say that when the Crown Prince first started, General Xu looked down on him, but during military training, he was beaten so badly he couldn’t leave the city. Unable to save face, the general then challenged him to discuss military strategy, debate literature, and discuss principles of governance.
“And then what happened?” the young soldiers would ask.
The older soldiers would laugh and say that afterward, whenever there was a chance for competition, General Xu would choose, without hesitation, to continue being trapped in the city by the Crown Prince rather than engage in any more scholarly debates with him.
Everyone would respond with sighs of amazement.
Guan Qingyue, who was among the listeners at the time, thought this person was truly formidable, becoming a legend in people’s mouths at such a young age. And such a terrifying legend at that. So from a young age, she held a kind of reverence for Yin Gezhi – the kind of awe that mortals hold for divine beings.
This current nervousness probably stemmed from that reverence, after all, playing tricks in front of him carried enormous risk.
But thinking about it, she had successfully played tricks before! Everyone was human, all the same – he wasn’t a god!
Having given herself this reassurance, Fengyue hummed a tune while weaving straw, continuing to wait.
The sky outside gradually darkened, and as the last ray of light disappeared from the window, Yin Gezhi stepped into the prison cell.
Fengyue looked up, her face immediately blooming into an extremely happy smile: “Young master, you’ve finally come!”
The person at the cell door stood motionless, an invisible pressure emanating from his eyes, instantly binding her entire body. The small prison cell seemed to be shrouded in a massive shadow, the air growing thin. The figure at the door was like the descent of a vengeful spirit.
Her heart skipped a beat, but Fengyue blinked, forcing herself to move, ignoring the pressure as she recklessly drew closer to him, smiling coquettishly: “Has the young master come personally to release me?”
“I have questions for you.” Yin Gezhi spoke expressionlessly, his eyes slightly lowered as he looked at her calmly.
Their eyes met, and Fengyue’s face paled slightly.
Why did she feel like he was looking at her as if she were already dead?
“…Young master may ask anything.” Withdrawing her limbs, Fengyue unconsciously took two steps back, leaning against the wall, her heart pounding.
Taking a step into the cell, Yin Gezhi spoke in a deep voice, each word crystal clear: “The yellow pear wood box – do you know of it?”
Her whole body tensed, Fengyue’s pupils constricted as she pressed herself against the wall, lowering her head to avoid his gaze, but immediately denying: “I don’t know.”
“I’ll give you one chance.” As if he hadn’t heard her answer, Yin Gezhi reached out, placing his hand against the wall beside her ear, while his other hand gently gripped her chin, lifting her face to meet his gaze: “Either you explain everything clearly – the cause and effect, the reasons behind it. Or, I’ll tell you the cause and effect, then send you to the yellow springs.”
The emotionless tone, without even a hint of fluctuation, made Fengyue’s teeth chatter involuntarily. Pressed against the wall by his presence, she felt like a lamb under the butcher’s knife, ready to be slaughtered in the blink of an eye!
“We’ve shared a bed several times, could you bear to do it?” Unsettled, Fengyue had no idea why he would come to ask her about the yellow pear wood box, and could only force herself to continue acting coy: “I don’t understand what you’re talking about!”
His gaze was dark, filled with thousand-year-old snow and ten-thousand-year-old ice. No matter how Fengyue batted her eyes, twisted her body, or tugged at his belt, there wasn’t the slightest change.
And so Fengyue knew – things had truly gone bad.
The man before her wasn’t bluffing; he would kill her. No matter how intimate they had been in bed, how many delicious meals she had cooked for him, how much she had seduced and teased him – when he decided she should die, she would die.
What a ruthless man…
Letting out a soft laugh, Fengyue withdrew her hands, adjusted her hair, and looked at him seriously: “Since I can’t hide it anymore, then Crown Prince Yin, shall we sit down and talk?”
Prey being chased by wolves should all run away in panic, trembling with fear. But when he tore away this sheep’s clothing, the person before him stopped calmly and said, let’s sit and talk.
“Do I have any reason to talk with you?” he asked, unclear whether he was asking her or himself.
However, the person before him gave him a very convincing answer: “If what’s in the yellow pear wood box can help you, then there’s reason to talk.”
Having spent a night in prison, Fengyue’s makeup was somewhat smeared, her whole appearance disheveled, but when she spoke these words, light sparked in her eyes, making him feel as if the surroundings had brightened.
Withdrawing his hand with disgust, Yin Gezhi took out a handkerchief to wipe the dust that had gotten on his hand from the wall.
The suffocating feeling in the surroundings instantly dissipated, and Fengyue was smiling like a fox spirit again, snatching his handkerchief to wipe her face, and using his eyes as a mirror to arrange her disheveled hair.
“Do you think I have a good temper?” Seeing her flirtatious behavior, Crown Prince Yin’s expression darkened.
Fengyue smiled, kneeling properly in the straw pile, looking up at him: “I know your temper has never been good, so I’ll keep it brief.”
“With my help, if you want to investigate someone, find someone’s weakness, enter someone’s manor, or exchange someone’s token – it will all be very simple. The yellow pear wood box was sent to you on my orders because the person you want to eliminate is also the person I wish to eliminate.”
His eyes deep as an abyss, Yin Gezhi lowered himself, asking in an extremely soft voice: “Do you want to help me, or use me?”
Her back tensed, but Fengyue laughed flirtatiously: “When people help each other, it’s also for mutual benefit. If it’s good for everyone, why speak of using or being used? These things would be very simple for me to obtain, but for you to get them would require great effort, and might not even succeed. Your Highness, do you choose the shortcut or the long way around?”
Yin Gezhi looked at her unmoved, the killing intent in his eyes not diminishing in the slightest.
He had things he wanted, but that didn’t mean he would allow himself to be manipulated for those things.
Taking a deep breath, Fengyue softened her expression, her clean face looking particularly sincere in the moonlight: “I’m not threatening Your Highness, I just want to seek your protection. Many things in my possession – I can’t do much with them, given my lowly status. But in your hands, it’s different, Your Highness.”
She had the knife, but he was the one who could kill.
The prison cell was quiet for a long time, so long that Guanzhi outside almost thought there was no one there, before hearing his master’s voice again.
He said: “What do you want to do?”
Light flickered in Fengyue’s eyes as she licked her lips, looking at him with particular excitement: “I want to kill people!”
“Why?” Yin Gezhi sneered, “Aren’t you just a common citizen?”
“Can’t common citizens have patriotic hearts?” Tilting her head, Fengyue swayed her slender waist and smiled: “Wu Kingdom soldiers trampled our Great Wei’s mountains and rivers, destroyed my home, killed my parents, took all my siblings – tell me, shouldn’t I kill?”
His eyes flickered slightly as Yin Gezhi raised his chin, still staring at her: “Do you want to slaughter everyone from the Wu Kingdom?”
“I don’t have that ability.” Looking deep into his eyes, Fengyue curved her lips: “But whoever Your Highness wants to eliminate, I will assist.”
“Oh?” Yin Gezhi looked at her coldly: “Just because I’m the Crown Prince of Wei?”
“There’s another reason.” Fengyue covered her mouth, her eyes suddenly brimming with boundless affection: “Because I admire Your Highness, and am willing to be of use to you!”
The previously tense atmosphere was completely broken by her bewitching words. Yin Gezhi let out a derisive laugh and reached out to grab her neck, pulling her in front of him: “Tell the truth!”
“This… is the truth!” Blinking with a feigned grievance, Fengyue said: “Your Highness is so brilliant and mighty, what’s wrong with me admiring you?”
Well, it did seem quite logical.
His hand loosened, and the person in his grip fell back into the straw pile with a thud. Yin Gezhi turned around, looking at the moon outside the window, and began to contemplate.