The night was deep.

The moment Lu Beicheng stepped away from his computer desk, the color of his eyes darkened in an instant.

His electric wheelchair carried him to the window, and his long fingers pulled the curtain aside.

With a soft rustle, the girl who had just been sitting on the balcony railing, one leg still trying and failing to touch down, was caught red-handed by him.

Zhen Jiu’er felt more than a little awkward — in this position, one leg hooked over the railing, the other dangling in midair.

His railing was very high, so her foot still hadn’t reached the balcony floor.

Extremely uncomfortable, not the least bit graceful, just hanging there on his railing like that.

“Heh, um… Ninth Master, hello.” This Ninth Young Master of the Lu family might be crippled, but his alertness was absolutely sharp.

Jiu’er had thought that when she climbed up just now, she’d made essentially no noise at all.

And yet, he’d still noticed.

She had, after all, received professional training! She felt a bit defeated.

Since she’d already been caught, Jiu’er no longer needed to be careful — she simply hopped down off the railing and walked straight over to the floor-to-ceiling window he’d remotely opened.

“What does it mean, Miss Zhen climbing into my room in the middle of the night? Has no one told you I have no interest in women?”

Lu Beicheng’s expression was none too good, dark and gloomy, very much like the black sky outside.

“Uh… well, actually, no one’s told me that.”

So he didn’t like women, then… did that mean he liked men?

Lu Beicheng knew she’d misunderstood, but he had no intention of explaining — he had no energy to spare for that.

Seeing that she wanted to come in, his eyes darkened even further in an instant.

“Miss Zhen, I don’t have the habit of entertaining guests at night. Please leave.”

“I don’t need you to entertain me, I just want to chat with you for a bit — just… just a little while.”

He really did seem to resist this. Was it because she was a woman?

Right, he liked men.

Zhen Jiu’er gave an awkward little smile and quickly retreated several steps, right back to the railing’s edge.

“Is this distance all right? I just have a few questions I want to ask Ninth Master, but the butler wouldn’t let me go up to see you, so…”

“So you resorted to this method?” Lu Beicheng narrowed his eyes and glanced past her.

“You didn’t know how high my second floor is?”

Though this was only the second floor, it was still at least six meters off the ground.

One careless slip and, while she might not be smashed to pieces, it could certainly be fatal.

Still, how had this girl gotten past his bodyguards and climbed up here? Not one of those useless men downstairs had noticed a thing.

His expression grew even darker.

Jiu’er knew that breaking into someone’s room at night must have upset him.

“I really just want to ask Ninth Master a few questions. I mean no harm.”

Zhen Jiu’er nearly raised both hands to swear an oath to him: “Ninth Master, I… I just wanted to ask you, why do you call Ying’an City by the name Bei Mu City?”

At those words, Lu Beicheng’s deep black eyes turned icy cold in an instant.

That storm-gathering gaze actually sent a chill straight through Jiu’er’s heart — she, who feared nothing under heaven or on earth — and a shiver ran through her for no clear reason.

It looked like—

It really looked like—

It looked exactly like Ninth Imperial Uncle’s eyes when he was angry — that gaze that made people’s blood run cold!

Even though Ninth Imperial Uncle doted on her, when he was truly angry, Jiu’er would still feel afraid.

Ninth Imperial Uncle…

In that instant, it was as if Jiu’er had been bewitched — her feet moved entirely on their own, walking straight toward Lu Beicheng.

“Ninth Imperial Uncle… You’re Ninth Imperial Uncle!”