There were finger marks on Ninth Master’s collar!

Who was it! Who had the nerve to grab Ninth Master’s clothes like that? Were they tired of living?

Only now did Qin Fei notice it, and his face immediately flushed with anger.

“Who on earth were they? They must have a death wish! If I catch them, I’ll beat them senseless!”

There was another face turning red as well.

Lu Beicheng shot her a flat glance and said nothing.

Zhen Jiu’er had no choice but to explain quietly, “It… has nothing to do with them. Those people never got close to Ninth Master.”

“Then who was it?” Qin Fei and Ji Mingyu asked at the same time.

Ji Mingyu paused for a moment, and then seemed to understand — though he was too stunned to quite believe it.

This meant… someone had gotten close to Ninth Master! Could it be… that someone had actually been held in Ninth Master’s arms?

“Miss Jiu’er, this… are these your fingerprints?” Ji Mingyu compared the size of the marks — they really didn’t look like a man’s hand.

Zhen Jiu’er’s cheeks burned even hotter.

The position they’d been in just now really hadn’t looked proper at all — she’d been curled against Lu Beicheng’s chest the entire way.

With nowhere else to put her hands, she’d ended up gripping his collar.

But she’d forgotten — from picking mushrooms, her hands had been covered in mud.

Qin Fei looked at her hands, then at the marks on Lu Beicheng’s collar, and the more he looked, the more it seemed to fit.

“But… our Ninth Master never holds women in his arms…” His blunt, straightforward remark made the atmosphere thoroughly awkward.

Zhen Jiu’er’s face gradually shifted from a deep flush to something closer to pale.

He wasn’t her Ninth Imperial Uncle.

Yet just now, she had curled up in his embrace — for a moment, it had felt exactly like being held by her Ninth Imperial Uncle.

She had actually mistaken him for her Ninth Imperial Uncle and let herself lean on him that way.

Her mood inexplicably grew heavy.

Qin Fei looked like he wanted to say more, but Ji Mingyu pulled him back at once.

Couldn’t he see that Zhen Jiu’er’s expression had turned somber?

They had no idea what had happened, but her mood clearly wasn’t good right now.

Lu Beicheng was also watching Zhen Jiu’er, his eyes gradually growing deeper and more unreadable.

But he didn’t say a word — only flicked his fingertips lightly.

Ji Mingyu spoke up quickly. “A’Ke has already made lunch — we’re just waiting on a pot of fresh vegetables.”

“Oh, I have mushrooms here.”

After handing the mushrooms over to A’Ke, Zhen Jiu’er found a small stream nearby, sat by the water’s edge, and drifted into a daze.

She really did miss her Ninth Imperial Uncle.

And yet, being around Ninth Master seemed to be growing more and more comfortable for her…

…

As for who exactly had attacked Lu Beicheng, they had no leads for now.

The matter had been handed off to the reserve team, with instructions to send people to investigate.

As for the rest of them, once they’d eaten their fill, they continued on toward the ruins of Ying’an City.

But along the way, Jiu’er seemed weighed down with something on her mind. She hardly initiated conversation with Ninth Master anymore, and even when Qin Fei tried to tease her into talking, she wasn’t in much of a mood to respond.

That evening, when she gave Ninth Master his acupuncture treatment, she kept a strictly businesslike manner too — administering the needles and leaving right after, without lingering at all.

Even Qin Fei noticed. “…Is Jiu’er mad at Ninth Master or something?”

Ji Mingyu, who was drinking tea, frowned. “Why would she be angry, out of nowhere? Besides, didn’t Ninth Master save Miss Jiu’er?”

Later, when he privately asked Zhen Jiu’er, he learned that all the way from the thorny thicket, it had actually been Ninth Master who had protected and carried Miss Jiu’er through.

So the source of those finger marks on Ninth Master’s collar became clear.

The two of them had, in a way, shared an intimate physical moment — yet instead of growing closer, their relationship had turned worse.

Could it be that Ninth Master had done something improper to Miss Jiu’er?