Zhan Yuheng’s words had truly been spoken with deep feeling.

He hadn’t even used the formal “this one” to refer to himself, but had said “I” directly instead.

That inscrutable obsession startled not only Feng Jiu’er — even the other members of the Feng family found it strange.

No one could understand what the Crown Prince’s words meant. Jiu’er was standing right there before his very eyes, wasn’t she?

But as Zhan Yuheng looked at that carefree, smiling face, the obsession in his eyes vanished in an instant.

His Jiu’er had already been gone for many years now. This foolish girl standing before him now was not the one who had once haunted his every dream.

“Take Ninth Miss’s gifts back to…”

“My lord, my lord, something terrible has happened!” A maid came rushing in in a panic. “My lord, Eighth Miss… something has happened to Eighth Miss!”

…

Feng Jiu’er, of course, already knew that something had happened to Feng Qingyin.

Only, what unfolded before her eyes was worlds apart from what she had imagined.

Feng Qingyin had been poisoned — the toxin had struck her heart and she had collapsed to the floor. A physician was now using needles to draw out the poison and save her.

As for Feng Qingyin’s room, two men lay dead from poisoning inside — and Feng Jiu’er recognized them at once as the two spies who had been following her earlier.

As for the two men in black who had clearly inhaled the floral fragrance and lunged at Feng Qingyin, they were nowhere to be found.

Feng Jiu’er wanted to go inside to take a look, but Feng Junzhuo’s men blocked her and turned her away.

Zhan Yuheng went inside. Whatever he discovered there, his expression was unusually grave when he came back out.

Afterward, both Zhan Yuheng and Feng Junzhuo kept watch outside the room, waiting for news of Feng Qingyin’s condition.

From the looks of it, Feng Qingyin’s place in Zhan Yuheng’s heart was anything but small.

Even though he had once openly rebuked her, wasn’t he clearly anxious for her now?

Were men of this era all like this? Talking about marrying Jiu’er once she “came back,” while at the same time worrying himself sick over Feng Qingyin?

Feng Jiu’er couldn’t make sense of this man, so she stopped trying.

With no one paying her any attention, and Zhan Yuheng ignoring her as well, Feng Jiu’er had no choice but to return to her own courtyard.

Yanu had been waiting anxiously in the courtyard, and only let out a sigh of relief once he saw her return safe and sound.

Feng Jiu’er walked into her room, so exhausted she wanted nothing more than to collapse onto her bed and rest.

But her mind kept circling back to what she had glimpsed earlier outside Feng Qingyin’s room.

She had seen with her own eyes the two spies being carried out, their lips black and their fingernails darkened — clearly, they had died of poisoning.

When she had left, all four men had clearly been lunging at Feng Qingyin like men gone mad — and yet, when Feng Qingyin was carried off for treatment, her clothes hadn’t been particularly disheveled at all.

Under such circumstances, the only explanation was that the moment she had left, someone else had immediately entered and rescued Feng Qingyin.

The thought sent an involuntary shiver through Feng Jiu’er.

Who could possibly possess martial skill so formidable as to have been right nearby all along, without her sensing a thing?

If such a person truly existed, then everything she had done in Feng Qingyin’s room must have fallen under that person’s watching eyes.

The instant this thought crossed her mind, Feng Jiu’er felt her scalp prickle, cold sweat breaking out along her spine.

The feeling of being watched was, truly, an unpleasant one.

Yanu carried the food in, and as always, kept silent watch beside Feng Jiu’er without a sound.

Jiu’er pressed her lips together and went over to eat, but just as she came beside Yanu, her right hand suddenly formed into a palm strike and shot toward his face.

That strike carried a fierce and forceful gust, delivered in haste. Given her current level of skill, pulling back such a strike midway was no easy feat. In other words, she had thrown the palm strike with all her strength, with no intention whatsoever of holding back…