In a small wooden cabin on the outskirts of Mo City, a slender figure knelt by the window, gazing at the night beyond it in silence.

With a crack, a thick, long vine whip came down across his back. Driven by inner force, it sliced through his garment in an instant, leaving a bloody wound in its wake.

Once his clothing fell open, everyone could see clearly — the man’s back was already covered in countless wounds, every last one of them the mark of a whip.

Another crack, and a fresh bloody welt landed. The sight of it was enough to make one’s blood run cold.

The man kneeling at the window showed no expression whatsoever. Each time the vine whip fell, it left nothing more than a streak of blood across his back, adding a few more beads of cold sweat at his temples.

Yet between his brows, there was not even a trace of anguish — as though he had long since grown accustomed to this kind of punishment.

“Palace Mistress!” At last, when the woman raised the vine whip for the third time, the young woman at her side dropped to her knees and threw both arms around her hand.

“Palace Mistress, please stop — if you keep going, you will beat the Young Palace Master to death!”

Two welts this long had already been drawn out — it made one’s heart ache to look at them! The Young Palace Master had been raised by the Palace Mistress herself. Could it be that the Palace Mistress felt no pain in her heart at all?

“Get out of my way!” Palace Mistress Ye Luosha shoved hard — yet to her surprise, she could not push the girl aside.

She furrowed her brows and snapped furiously, “If you don’t move, I’ll beat you too!”

“Palace Mistress, I beg you — spare the Young Palace Master. He already knows he was wrong!”

Liuli shuffled on her knees to the side of the man before her, wanting to reach out and touch him, yet not daring to. She could only look at him and plead, “Young Palace Master, please just admit your fault to the Palace Mistress. Liuli begs you!”

Every blow that landed on the Young Palace Master’s body sent pain through her own heart. Heaven alone knew how much it hurt her inside!

Behind her, Ye Luosha gripped the vine whip tightly, her gaze fixed hard upon the back of the young man she had raised with her own hands.

If this wretched boy would truly say the words — “I was wrong” — perhaps she could bring herself to forgive him.

But what she had not expected was this: the young man before her simply raised his head to look at the night beyond the window, kneeling straight and tall, unwilling to speak a single word.

“You—!” Ye Luosha, furious, raised the vine whip in her hand once more.

“No — Palace Mistress! The Young Palace Master truly knows he was wrong, I beg you, please forgive him!” Liuli was so frightened that tears came rolling down her cheeks.

“Stop hitting him, Palace Mistress — your heart aches too, doesn’t it? Palace Mistress, please forgive the Young Palace Master!”

“You unfilial wretch! Do you have any idea how many of our brothers paid the price for your recklessness?”

Ye Luosha shoved Liuli aside, and the vine whip fell again — crack — adding yet another crimson welt across the Young Palace Master’s back.

“It was you who told Feng Jiu’er about our men lying in ambush on the ridge of Black Tiger Mountain. It was you who caused this entire operation to fall apart — wasn’t it?”

Liuli stared at the Young Palace Master, desperately hoping he would say “no.”

But he disappointed her. The man kneeling at the window said in a low, steady voice, “Yes.”

“Why did you do it? Have you truly fallen for that wretched girl?”

Ye Luosha pointed at his back, her fingertip trembling ceaselessly. “I sent you to the Imperial Academy to get close to Zhan Qingcheng — to find a way to be rid of him. Not to spend your days in flowery romance with some woman!”

The man kneeling at the window let his gaze drop. Beyond the window, moonlight lay upon the world like water, falling across him and stretching a long shadow out along the ground.

Such a perfect figure, such a strikingly handsome and distinguished face — who else could it be but Mu Mu?

It had been he who passed word to Feng Jiu’er about the ambush. Yet even he had not anticipated that the girl was far cleverer than he had imagined.

She had slipped past the ambush, evaded the wolf pack, and even extricated herself from the Empress’s entanglement — three gains with a single stroke.

It was a scheme so brilliant that even he could not have devised it. Only that sharp and cunning girl could have come up with something so wickedly clever.

By now, they ought to have already reached the Southern Wilderness.

At the thought of Feng Jiu’er, a faint ripple of pleasure passed through Mu Mu’s eyes, and even the cold aura about him seemed to ease somewhat.

Ye Luosha could no longer see through this child at all. She had raised him herself, with her own hands — and yet now, not only could she not govern his actions, she could not even guess at what was passing through his mind.

“You worthless thing! Can you face your father and mother? Can you face your elder brother and younger brother who died for you?”

This was the one thing Ye Luosha still had with which to reach him. He did not fear pain, did not fear bleeding — he did not even fear death. She had no means left of making him obey.

He was like a child who had grown up and would no longer listen — and now, the only thing that could still move him was the family he had lost.

“Your elder brother — what a remarkable existence he was in his day. Young as he was, he shone as brilliantly as the moon in the sky. But where is he now?”

Ye Luosha’s eyes turned red with rage. All these years, she had never liked to speak of the past — but now, if she did not speak of it, would he forget it entirely?

“He is dead — killed by people of the Zhan family. And what are you doing now? Not only are you failing to avenge him — you are going out of your way to save the Zhan family’s people?”

“If you cannot remember your elder brother, then surely you remember your younger brother — the one who had barely been born, not yet three months old?”

“He was still an infant. And what did the Zhan family’s people do to him? He died — burned to death in that fire. He lived for only a little over two months!”

“Your father and mother were peerless warriors, and yet they were cruelly betrayed. If they had not trusted so deeply, how could they have been brought to their deaths?”

“All of it was the Zhan family’s doing — and you have forgotten. You have actually forgotten!”

Her fury was so great that even her body trembled. The vine whip in her hand rose and fell without mercy — crack, crack, crack.

“I will beat you to death, you heartless wretch — I will beat you to death, you unfilial son! You dare forget what the Zhan family did to them — you actually dare forget!”

“I have not forgotten!” Mu Mu’s jaw tightened, and he spoke loudly.

He had not forgotten. Even though he had been no more than three years old at the time — he had not forgotten. He remembered it all with perfect clarity.

His father and mother. His elder brother. His beloved little brother… He had not forgotten. He had never, not once, forgotten.

He raised his head and looked at the full moon outside the window. The moonlight was desolate; the calm sky seemed to gradually catch fire, blazing up in roaring flames.

The fire was savage, burning everything to nothing.

He stood in the sea of fire, calling out again and again for his parents, calling out again and again for his elder brother — and for little Wuyou, who had been barely two months old.

But the only answer was the fire that could not be quenched, and the bone-deep, consuming pain.

That pain had been branded into him from the age of three, all the way to this day. No matter how young he had been — it was something he would never forget for as long as he lived.

His family. His closest kin. Every last one of them had perished in that fire.

It was the people of the Zhan family. They had taken everything from his imperial father. They had killed every member of his family.

He would not forget. Never, not ever.

“But — given the Ninth Prince’s current age, he was himself no more than a child at the time. That matter had nothing whatsoever to do with him!”