The warmth of his fingertip set Feng Jiu’er’s mind adrift for a stretch of time — it seemed as though she could not think of anything at all.

Seeing her remain without answer for so long, Zhan Qingcheng’s eyes darkened, and the cold returned.

A chill that reached straight to the marrow finally snapped Feng Jiu’er fully awake.

Thinking over the question he had just asked, she immediately shook her head: “No! Only the Ninth Imperial Uncle!”

It seemed the Ninth Imperial Uncle had once kissed her just as forcibly before! She could not recall when exactly it had happened — and at this moment, the memory refused to surface.

Yet there was that vague impression of it — that the Ninth Imperial Uncle had… once kissed her by force!

The thought brought a cluster of black lines to Jiu’er’s brow.

This man had been the only one to kiss her like this, and not just once — yet he had the audacity to ask such a question!

She could not resist giving a small pout, feeling rather indignant.

Zhan Qingcheng, however, kept his gaze fixed on her lips, his expression growing even more unreadable and intense: “Girl.”

That sudden, low drop of his voice sent a slight tremor through Feng Jiu’er’s body. She could not say why, but her whole body felt as though it had gone soft.

That address — it was too charged, too… captivating. Utterly impossible to withstand.

But in the very next moment, the words the Ninth Imperial Uncle spoke left Feng Jiu’er entirely stunned.

His fingertip was still on her lips. His voice was low and husky: “I want you.”

…

In the deep of night within the imperial palace, inside the bedchamber of the Xuanhua Hall, the atmosphere was heavy and suffocating beyond words.

“My Lady, we searched Snowy Lotus Mountain for three days and three nights, yet saw not a single trace of the Snow Lotus Beast.”

The guard making the report was distinctly ill at ease. The Lady required the Snow Lotus Beast — and yet, day after day, not even the faintest sign of the Snow Lotus Beast had been found anywhere.

It was unclear whether the Snow Lotus Beast even truly existed, but the Lady needed it — urgently. How could they return with word that there was simply no Snow Lotus Beast to be found on the mountain? In the Lady’s eyes, that was clearly a capital offense.

“How much time did this seat give all of you?” Nanmen Rong was furious, as expected.

Although she could now rise from bed and walk on occasion, her pace was extremely slow, and more often than not she could not walk at all and had to be supported.

That single palm strike from Zhan Luori had truly wounded her far too deeply. The thing that infuriated her most — like a fishbone lodged sideways in her throat — was that the wretched Zhan Luori was not some Seventh Princess at all, but was in fact the Seventh Prince!

No wonder Lady Jing had plotted with such calculating, obsessive determination to destroy her own Heng’er — so it turned out that for twenty years, Lady Jing had been raising her son as a daughter, all as a defense against her.

Twenty years ago, Nanmen Rong had only just been elevated to Empress. In truth, the days during which their Zhan imperial family had wielded full power amounted to no more than twenty-one years.

In the beginning, the current Emperor Qiwen had been only the Prince Wen. They were all concubines of Prince Wen. When the late Emperor ascended the throne, Prince Wen was bestowed the title of Crown Prince, and everyone had followed him into the Eastern Palace.

Then, less than a year after the late Emperor ascended the throne, he passed away from illness, and the Crown Prince became the Emperor Qiwen of today.

After Emperor Qiwen took the throne, the former Noble Consort Rong became Empress. Even before becoming Empress she had been ruthless and merciless — she had killed Lady Jing’s son with her own hands, right in front of Lady Jing’s face.

Once she became Empress, her methods would only grow more vicious still.

And so Lady Jing had endured in silence, bribing the imperial physicians to raise her own son as though he were a daughter.

In the end, that had been the right move indeed. Zhan Luori had survived to grow up in good health entirely because he was a “princess” rather than a prince.

Nanmen Rong truly regretted it. One moment of carelessness, and she had let a great, festering tumor survive all the way to this day.

The current Zhan Luori had not only had his identity as a prince restored, he had also developed a formidable set of skills. Even assassination attempts on him would not be easy.

What infuriated her most was that the worthless, spineless Emperor had actually transferred fifty thousand of the troops from her Heng’er’s hands and allocated them to Zhan Luori. Was that not a blatant, shameless slap to her face and a stripping away of her power?

Nanmen Rong’s mood had been exceptionally poor of late — worse with each passing day. Not a single person under her command was unaware of it.

Even Stewardess Qin, who had served at her side for many years and been most dearly trusted, was being scolded at intervals. Not to mention the palace maids tasked with attending to her.

The day before yesterday, a palace maid had been beaten to death. Yesterday, another palace maid had been blinded in both eyes. Today… hmm. Today the Empress had not yet punished anyone.

And so now, the guard making his report was kneeling before Nanmen Rong’s bedside in a state of genuine, painstaking dread — hands, feet, and body all trembling. Terrified, flustered beyond measure, dreading that today’s punishment would land upon him.

Whether it was to have his hands cut off or his feet — or his eyes gouged out — or his head taken off outright — any one of those was a permanent, lifelong ruination.

Nanmen Rong glared at the guard kneeling with lowered head and said furiously: “This seat needs the blood of the Snow Lotus Beast, and you dare tell this seat that there is simply no Snow Lotus Beast on the mountain?”

The guard was so flustered he could barely form words: “No — it’s not that there is none… it’s — this subordinate simply did not — did not find it.”

If he dared tell the Empress that there truly was no Snow Lotus Beast on the mountain, the Empress would kill him outright, would she not?

No — correct that: she was no longer Empress now, but Noble Consort Rong.

But even as Noble Consort, she remained the foremost figure in the entire rear palace. Among all the imperial consorts, who would dare stand against her?

Nanmen Rong snatched up something — she was not paying attention to what — and was about to hurl it at the guard when that guard suddenly seemed to remember something, and said in a desperate rush: “My Lady, this subordinate and the others found something else.”

Nanmen Rong narrowed her eyes, her voice frosty: “What thing?”

“On Snowy Lotus Mountain, this subordinate and the others discovered a small hut. The hut clearly had someone living in it for many years — only, the person likely knew we were coming and left in advance.”

“My Lady, the summit of Snowy Lotus Mountain is perpetually locked under blizzard and bitter cold, yet someone has been living there all along. If that person is not an otherworldly master of exceptional skill, then there must certainly be something preventing them from facing the world.”

“Get to the point!” Nanmen Rong’s patience had been thinner than anyone’s of late. Was this person still here at a moment like this, muttering on and on, just trying to irritate her?

The guard, in a panicked scramble, reached into his chest and drew out a dagger.

“Insolent! How dare you show disrespect to the Lady!” Stewardess Qin took one look and was immediately outraged: “Guards, seize him!”

To draw a weapon inside the Lady’s bedchamber — was this person a spy sent by an enemy?

The guard, thoroughly terrified, hurriedly dropped the dagger and knocked his head against the floor repeatedly: “My Lady, please discern clearly — this subordinate only wished to present what was found inside the hut. This subordinate has not the slightest disrespect toward the Lady in his heart — please, My Lady, see clearly!”

Stewardess Qin saw that he had dropped the dagger and waved for the guards to stand down.

She walked over, picked the dagger up from the floor, and examined it for a moment. Suddenly, her expression changed completely. She moved swiftly to the bedside.

“My Lady, this dagger — this dagger…”

“What are you flustering about?” Nanmen Rong shot her a look. Her mood had been poor lately and everything had been going wrong, so she had no patience for anyone.

This Stewardess Qin had served at her side for so many years, and yet still carried on in such a flustered manner — truly useless to the extreme.

Stewardess Qin was genuinely shaken, and in this moment spoke not another word. She simply presented the dagger directly: “My Lady, look!”