If this prince ever takes a wife, he will marry only one woman for his entire life…

That day, after the Ninth Imperial Uncle left those words behind, something came up and he hurried off.

Three full days passed, and Feng Jiu’er didn’t see him again.

She heard he wasn’t at Longwu Academy — though of course, Longwu Academy wasn’t the Ninth Prince’s Manor; he couldn’t be expected to stay there all the time.

Over these three days, Jiu’er spent her time recovering from her injury. This time, it counted as “injured in the line of duty” — even the Dean knew she had been carrying out a secret order from the Ninth Prince when she ran into trouble.

In short, it was all because of that packet of medicine the Ninth Prince had given her that she’d ended up in this mess.

Since her injury was the result of official business, the Dean personally stepped in and excused Feng Jiu’er from the next few days of competition, advancing her directly to the next round.

In other words, Jiu’er had been left behind, but Mu Mu, Dan Yidao, Xing Zizhou, Xiao Yingtao, and the rest of them still had to take part in the selection trials every day.

Fortunately, everyone in their group was talented, and after three days, not a single one of them had been eliminated.

It was now the third day since the case of Feng Jiu’er’s stolen aphrodisiac had been closed.

Officer Zheng had already been sent off, due to depart for the border on an appointed day. As for Zeng Lanyue, the Dean had shown leniency, merely expelling her from the regular military academy and forbidding her from ever joining the military again in this lifetime.

Beyond that, there was no further punishment.

On the evening of the third day, Zeng Lanyue was released.

When she left, she was utterly alone — no one came to see her off.

Having committed such a transgression, none of the other young women were willing to associate with her, and the young men looked at her as though she were something filthy, unwilling to go near her either.

She left through the back hill, since she wasn’t permitted to pass through the front gate of the Imperial Academy.

A woman’s status in this era was truly very low. Having committed the crime of promiscuity meant her standing would only sink lower still from here on.

Even once she left, she would be nothing more than a shameless wanton woman in everyone’s eyes — unless she found somewhere to live out her life under a false name, she would never be able to hold her head up again.

Zeng Lanyue went out the back gate, with no idea at all where she was supposed to go, and before she knew it, she found herself in the dense forest behind the hill.

Past this ridge, there would be a small village in the distance — but it was very far away, too far to reach by tonight.

But she truly had nowhere else to go, so she could only try her luck and see if she might rest there for the night.

Suddenly, Zeng Lanyue’s steps halted, and she abruptly looked up.

Not far away, a slender figure sat on a tree branch, gazing down at her.

“Feng Jiu’er?” Zeng Lanyue’s expression darkened, wariness and hatred immediately rising in her eyes.

“Honestly, you don’t have any right to hate me. If it weren’t for me, you’d already be dead. I can’t understand what you have against me.”

Feng Jiu’er leaned against the branch, swinging her legs idly, gazing down at her coolly.

Her expression was distant — not cold, not warm, just distant.

Zeng Lanyue bit her lip. The hatred in her heart had been real at first, but once she calmed down, that hatred had faded.

In truth, Feng Jiu’er was right — she really had no right, and no reason, to hate her.

So she said nothing more and turned to leave.

But Feng Jiu’er leapt down from the tree and strode after her. “Zeng Lanyue, do you think that by leaving like this, you can really hide the truth and your secret?”

Zeng Lanyue stopped abruptly and turned to look at her. “What do you mean?”

Feng Jiu’er’s thin lips curved into a faint, cold smile. “The man you truly slept with wasn’t Officer Zheng at all. It was someone else.”