So it turned out that Ninth Imperial Uncle cared so deeply about her being hurt. No wonder that even with the situation so dire tonight, he hadn’t once thought of drawing her blood. Even when she had already removed her outer garment and sat before him, what had been on his mind was… that matter from those books — not using her blood to suppress the Gu Poison.

“Ninth Imperial Uncle, since things have already turned out this way… can you please stop being angry?”

He was still watching her like that, and Jiu’er felt the pressure mounting with every passing moment — so much so that even breathing was becoming difficult.

She didn’t know how long it had been. Just when she could barely keep herself from wiping the sweat from her brow, Zhan Qingcheng settled into a cross-legged position and closed his star-like eyes.

He had finally agreed to channel his energy and begin healing.

Feng Jiu’er didn’t know what to do with herself now, so she simply sat on the long bench and watched him.

More time passed — she didn’t know how long — until even her eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

She slumped sideways on the long bench, her fading vision still holding the image of Ninth Imperial Uncle’s peerless, serene face — but that silhouette was growing more and more blurred.

At last, Feng Jiu’er’s head drooped to one side, and she fell asleep on the bench.

Zhan Qingcheng’s deep, profound eyes slowly opened. Within his line of sight, that small, slight figure was curled up on the long bench.

Lying on its hard surface, she was somehow able to sleep so soundly, so sweetly.

The corners of his lips curved ever so slightly upward, and between his brows there seemed to linger a trace of quiet satisfaction.

She had been watching him all this time. Though Zhan Qingcheng’s eyes had been closed, he could feel the weight of her gaze resting upon him.

It seemed that only when he truly began channeling his energy — when his color began to improve — did this girl finally let out a breath of relief and fall into peaceful sleep.

Did she truly care this much about whether he was well?

His tall figure rose from the bed. He walked to the long bench and gently lifted her into his arms.

The girl’s body was slender and light — holding her was like cradling a gentle, docile little cat.

He had never actually held a cat before, but he knew cats must be light — just as light as his little girl.

That strikingly handsome man held the girl in his arms but made no move to carry her to the bed right away. Instead, he stood where he was, head bowed, gazing down at her — for how long, no one could say.

At last, when the night breeze drifted in through the window and swept across Jiu’er, making her instinctively burrow closer into his embrace, Zhan Qingcheng seemed to come back to himself.

He walked to the bedside and set her down.

He lay down beside her, took hold of her soft, boneless little hand, and sent a thread of his true energy into her body.

The warm, steady current stirred Jiu’er awake in the midst of her dreams. Half-asleep, half-conscious, she felt with perfect clarity that Ninth Imperial Uncle’s true energy was once again flowing into her body.

Jiu’er grew a little anxious. She wanted to open her eyes and look at him, but her eyelids were too heavy — so heavy that she could not pry them open no matter how she tried.

“No, Ninth Imperial Uncle, don’t… don’t expend your true energy…” Her lips moved almost imperceptibly, murmuring in her sleep.

Zhan Qingcheng’s lips — cool and seldom expressive — finally curved slowly upward in response to her sleepy, dreaming concern.

A smile — one that had been absent for a long while — surfaced at last.

“This little bit of true energy means nothing to This Prince.”

But to her, it was entirely different. A little at a time, drop by drop, it would gather and flow like a river — and in time to come, it would bring about a profound, transformative leap in her inner energy.

For now, though, this girl’s own inner energy was far too weak. He could not channel too much into her all at once.

If he did, the true energy would have no room to circulate within her meridians, and the force would rupture her vessels — ending her life.

“Sleep. Tonight’s score — This Prince will settle it with you properly tomorrow.”

The sleeping Jiu’er gave a faint shiver. She had the vague sense that a cold, forbidding aura still lingered close beside her. She was so uneasy — please don’t bully her…