The Gu Poison within Ninth Imperial Uncle had already penetrated deep into his blood and vessels, and could not easily be removed.

Injury after injury had caused the poison gu within his body to lose control time and again.

At first, he had still been able to suppress it somewhat with his inner energy — but now, after circulating his true energy so many times, even that inner energy could no longer hold it down.

Feng Jiu’er wanted to apply her needles to suppress the Gu Poison, but in the end she was pushed away by him once more.

Though not as forcefully as before — he simply would not allow her to touch him.

Ninth Imperial Uncle’s temperament was actually anything but gentle. When he dug in his heels, he was more difficult to deal with than anyone.

After returning, Zhan Qingcheng threw Yu Jingfeng a single instruction — “No one is to enter” — then went into his room and did not come back out.

“He circulated his true energy and damaged his heart meridian.” Feng Jiu’er stood before Yu Jingfeng, so anxious that perspiration had broken out at her temples. “Senior Yu, do you or do you not want Ninth Imperial Uncle to recover?”

“Miss Jiu’er, of course I do, but… but His Highness does not wish to see you.”

This placed Yu Jingfeng in a genuinely difficult position.

In truth, everyone understood that the best thing right now was to let Feng Jiu’er go in and soothe the Ninth Prince — only then would the anger in His Highness’s heart have any chance of dissipating.

But the Prince had issued an absolute command, and Yu Jingfeng dared not defy it.

“Actually,” Yu Jingfeng glanced furtively toward the inside, then looked at Feng Jiu’er and lowered his voice to a near-whisper: “His Highness has not eaten his evening meal. After he saw you taken away by the Crown Prince, he did not say another word.”

“Not until…” He still did not dare speak too loudly, afraid the person inside might hear him gossiping behind his back.

“Not until it grew dark, and His Highness’s mind was in such turmoil, that he suddenly decided to go to Yuyang Hall.”

Feng Jiu’er might not yet have understood why Ninth Imperial Uncle had suddenly decided to go — but Yu Jingfeng understood it perfectly well in his own heart.

The night was dark, the wind was high, and it was a lone man and lone woman — certain things could very easily happen.

The Ninth Prince had endured for so long, and when Miss Jiu’er still had not returned and the sky grew darker and darker, of course he could no longer hold back.

What if something truly did happen? What then?

As it was, after His Highness went over and came back having spat blood in his fury, it was obvious he had also exchanged blows with someone — without question, His Highness had gone to Yuyang Hall and witnessed something he should not have seen.

Yu Jingfeng had been standing guard outside the chrysanthemum garden at the time and had no clear picture of what exactly had transpired — but it seemed he could guess well enough.

He looked at Feng Jiu’er, somewhat hesitant about whether to voice the question on his mind.

But Feng Jiu’er had already spoken: “I wasn’t careful enough, and Ninth Imperial Uncle saw me rolling about in the flower field with the Crown Prince.”

“You two actually—!” Yu Jingfeng’s eyes went wide, disbelief written all over his face.

Miss Jiu’er had truly gone ahead and… with the Crown Prince… Good heavens! Didn’t Miss Jiu’er know she was the Prince’s person?

“What are you staring at — it wasn’t on purpose!” Feng Jiu’er was full of her own grievances. At the time she truly hadn’t known what was happening. Her head was too crowded with things — she had even seen, within the sea of fire, the figure of her mother.

No. Not her mother — Jiu’er’s mother… Yet why did she always feel as though that was her own mama?

Oh, this was maddening! She couldn’t make any sense of it at all.

Hadn’t Jiu’er’s mother passed away long, long ago? Then why had she seen her in the sea of fire?

And hadn’t Jiu’er grown up without ever laying eyes on her mother from childhood? Yet she had seen her in the sea of fire — so why had she recognized her immediately, in an instant, as her mother?

What on earth was going on? And what about herself — where had all her memories from before the age of ten disappeared to?