With that thought, Situ Sheng slowly loosened his grip, unwilling to watch the expression in Linlang’s eyes any longer.

But Linlang suddenly reached from behind and wrapped both arms around his narrow waist, burying her face against his broad back, and said in a muffled voice: “You have thought about it so thoroughly — why not try it?”

Situ Sheng’s entire body went rigid again. He turned his head in disbelief, holding his breath as he looked at Linlang. “What did you just say? Say it again.”

Words so utterly shameless could hardly be said a second time.

Linlang had had enough of Situ Sheng, the ten-thousand-year-old holy monk! There was no reason that she was the one about to leave, yet —

At that thought, she glared at Situ Sheng with obstinate frustration and asked irritably: “What do you care what I—”

After she said that, she cast a suspicious glance downward. Heavens — if that were the case, then she —

Enough. Even a tamed tiger, no matter how meek, should not be treated like a house cat!

Situ Sheng, too, was driven to the end of his patience by this audacious little she-cat who dared tweak a tiger’s whiskers!

He turned, pulled her toward him, and pressed a fierce, determined kiss to her lips.

The moment their lips touched, the thread of reason snapped completely. Chu Linlang abandoned all restraint, her mind ringing with nothing but his words.

He had said he had never touched her all this time precisely because he had been hiding things from her. He would rather burn in the fire himself than fail to leave her an escape route.

What a pity he had forgotten — every path Chu Linlang had ever walked, was there a single one that had been smooth?

She had always moved forward — there was no need to leave any escape routes!

This time, Situ Sheng seemed to have had every last restraining talisman stripped away. He no longer held himself back in the least — after the deep and lingering kiss, he swept her up in his arms and tumbled her down onto the bed!

He seemed to be making a vow, his hands gripping her slender waist firmly as he said in a low voice: “Chu Linlang — don’t regret this. From now on, I will—”

Chu Linlang had no patience for his words. She sat up and pulled off her own outer robe, and like a fish marinated in fragrant oil, slipped right into his embrace, then playfully nibbled at his jaw and the tip of his nose.

With only a thin inner garment between them, pressed together in this intimate warmth, the heat rising between them seared at every nerve. It was as though each faint breath had been amplified tenfold.

Chu Linlang, as was her habit, was playful and uninhibited — like a child who knew no fear, striking a spark —

Situ Sheng kissed her fiercely, desire barely contained, and asked in a husky murmur: “Do you truly think I won’t—”

Chu Linlang’s hands had been pressed against the pillow by his large ones. She looked up, slightly breathless, at the handsome man leaning over her and felt she truly needed to drink a full cup — she just didn’t know yet if this man had enough proof of substance.

So she deliberately lifted her head and bit the tip of his straight nose, saying with meaningful implication: “Whether a man has real substance — one only knows after trying.”

Not long after she said this, Chu Linlang had second thoughts.

They said this lord’s ailment was quite severe — but from all the intimate time they had spent together over these past days, he hadn’t seemed like a man with any serious condition.

But if it turned out that he really couldn’t — would she need to pretend to be satisfied, for the sake of preserving his dignity as a man?

Lost in this idle worry, her cheek received a not-entirely-gentle bite from him — as though in disapproval of her wandering attention at such a critical moment.

Chu Linlang let her mind stop drifting and simply tilted her head up slightly to meet him in a long, tender kiss.

This time, setting aside all questions of identity, all murky and uncertain futures — they simply raised the cup and drank their fill.

One night of deep wind and passing rain — how many times they settled to rest she could not say.

Chu Linlang had long since exhausted herself in defeat, feeling that her earlier veiled mockery of Lord Situ’s alleged ailment had been nothing but the boldness of the ignorant.

She had fancied herself a woman who had weathered her share of experience — and yet here she had been thoroughly undone by this supposedly inexperienced young man!

Though Situ Sheng had been without experience at first, slightly clumsy and rushed — so much so that she assumed he truly did have something of an early affliction and gently comforted him, assuring him that she truly didn’t mind about length of time, that he was still young, and that if he was truly concerned he could see a physician.

She never expected that these carefully prepared words of comfort would stir up a hornet’s nest.

The smile that spread across Situ Sheng’s face was nothing short of chilling. The refined, gentle, and slightly inexperienced Vice Minister seemed to vanish entirely, replaced by a voice that said quietly: “In that case — why don’t you treat me right now.”

In an instant, the ruthless investigator of the Court of Judicial Review took command, deploying every last intricate interrogation technique across the narrow bounds of the bed.

Once the essential principles were mastered, this relentless investigator took his time — measured and unhurried, his methods refined and precise — teasing until all resistance was abandoned, and the subject had no choice but to confess under the thorough and exacting inquiry.

In the end, she had no option but to push away the man who had come at her again, tears still clinging to the corners of her eyes that hadn’t yet dispersed, and said with breathless exasperation: “If you come at me once more, I shall die! Won’t you let a person rest? This is a serious condition in itself — you need a physician!”

At this moment, Linlang was quite unaware of herself: her piled cloud of hair had come loose, cascading like black silk over the pillow — like a celestial being fallen to the mortal world.

The candlelight filtering through the bed curtains cast its glow — her beautiful eyes, reddened and moist at the corners, her rounded cheeks flowing into a slender neck, still flushed deep red — like a flower bud burst open by a hard rain, fragile yet gorgeous, irresistible.

Situ Sheng was not, in fact, coming at her again.

The desire that had accumulated for so long — now sated — and he finally knew, after all those rounds in dreams, what that beautiful sweetness tasted like.

Only — having once tasted it, he was somewhat addicted, and still wanted nothing more than to hold this soft and tender tofu-pudding of a woman.

Unfortunately, he had worn her out too thoroughly. Linlang refused to let him hold her at all, wrapped herself tightly in the quilt, and left him out in the cold.

What had begun as a farewell had turned into a farewell conducted in a bed. That was truly Chu Niangzi’s style — always unexpected, always impossible to predict.

He simply drew the woman bundled in the quilt close to him and pressed a kiss to her forehead, yet still could not bring himself to ask — did she still intend to leave?

This woman had a craving for his body, and made absolutely no effort to hide it. A woman without a heart like this — if she had tasted what she wanted and satisfied her curiosity, she might very well dust herself off and walk away. It was not beyond the realm of possibility.

Sure enough, after a little while, Linlang placed her flushed face on his broad, solid shoulder and murmured: “I still plan to return to Jiang Kou in person.”

The moment she finished saying this, the man holding her went rigid.

Linlang said with fond exasperation, giving his nose a gentle pinch: “Now that things are what they are between us, if I continue to stay in your residence, it would be a servant conducting a secret affair with her master — said plainly, it sounds ugly.”

She shifted against Situ Sheng’s chest and went on: “I’ll find a reason to make a trip back to Jiang Kou, which also gives me a natural excuse to resign my position at your residence — for outsiders, it’s a proper account of things. When I return, I want to buy a shop and go into business — I can use the shop as a place to live as well. After that, my lord, when you have a free evening and no pressing matters, come and sit with me at my shop. How does that sound?”

Situ Sheng looked down and listened to her gentle, quiet words, taking in her full meaning.

She disdained the name of a servant conducting an illicit affair with her master — so she intended to evolve this into “collusion between official and merchant”?

But her idea was a sound one. As long as she was no longer a member of his household, even if things were ever exposed, she would be spared his implication.

And he would still be able to see her regularly.

With that thought, Situ Sheng tacitly accepted her plan. He only asked quietly: “When I come to your shop — am I sitting in the chair, or sitting in you?”

Chu Linlang found that now this man had once broken his fast, there was nothing he wouldn’t say.

But was she to be intimidated by this young upstart? She deliberately tapped his high nose with a light touch, then with warm, sparkling eyes and a breath of sweet fragrance, said: “You could do both at the same time.”

That one sentence was no small thing — Situ Sheng slowly lowered his head, as though pondering her meaning, and when he had grasped its nuance, reached out and pulled the quilt aside, intending to try this very thing on the spot.

Chu Linlang burst out laughing in alarm, looped her arms around his neck to stop him, and so the conversation that had been intended to settle their future changed direction once again into something far less proper.

But Chu Linlang’s decision to move out of the Vice Minister’s residence was not because she wanted to put distance between herself and Situ Sheng.

Now that the fact of their liaison had been established, the two of them needed to be even more careful to avoid drawing attention.

Beyond not wishing to be the subject of gossip, Chu Linlang also wanted to make more money.

Before, not knowing Situ Sheng’s background or his true intentions, she had felt that however deep this mutual affection ran, when the bond had run its course, they could simply go their separate ways — bridge back to its bank, road back to its road.

But now she understood him fully.

His aim had never been advancement in official rank and title. He was carrying a burden that could not be spoken of openly.

Beyond avenging his grandfather, he also aspired to complete the unfinished great work his grandfather had begun — to root out and weaken the corrupting force rotting the Great Jin from within, and to restore the honor of three thousand Yang family soldiers who had died unjustly.

This path — just listening to it, one could sense the thorns at every step, the extraordinary difficulty, the complete absence of any way back.

And so Chu Linlang wanted to exert every ounce of strength she had to make money. If the worst came to pass, she wanted to be his means of escape.

Even if one day he were utterly ruined, condemned by all under heaven, she could calmly provide him a place to take shelter.

After their joyful frenzy had run its course, when Chu Linlang spoke quietly of her plans and intentions, Situ Sheng only looked down in silence at the woman drowsing in his arms, then without a word pulled her close, his voice dropping low: “Don’t worry — there will be no such day. I will not fail you.”

At his words, Chu Linlang startled fully awake and quickly added: “We are as friends bound by honor — let this be no burden between us. I am not pressing for any vow from you. My lord, should you in the future encounter a suitable woman, you should by all means establish a family and a proper home… one imagines old General Yang also longs for this great grandson of his to carry on the family line—”

She could not bear children, and had no wish to marry. But she absolutely could not allow herself to delay his marriage and family prospects.

It was better to speak these things plainly early, to spare them both the awkwardness of a conversation neither could open later.

By the time he was ready to take a wife, it would most likely be when all his wishes had been fulfilled and he had no more entanglements. At that point, she would not cling to him — she would simply take her leave gracefully.

Hearing Chu Linlang try yet again, with all the neatness of a knife through tofu, to distance herself from him — appeasing both sides at once — Situ Sheng gave a cold laugh, his gaze on her unreadably deep.

Chu Linlang felt that today — what had begun as a farewell had ended with them tumbling into bed together — was thoroughly absurd. Watching the sky outside darken deeply, she urged Situ Sheng quietly to leave.

But Situ Sheng didn’t move. He simply wrapped her into his embrace, closed his eyes, and with great composure fell asleep.

Lying in his arms was truly comfortable. Linlang nestled her cheek against his firm arm and drifted off alongside him.

Necks entwined like mandarin ducks, they slept until broad daylight.

Situ Sheng finally left Chu Linlang’s room in the early hours of the following morning.

Dongxue was carrying water and caught a glimpse of him. Startled, she shrank back beneath the covered walkway, and only after he had gone darted into the young mistress’s room.

She found her young mistress humming a tune as she straightened the rumpled bed.

Dongxue’s sudden intrusion gave Chu Linlang such a fright she nearly jumped, and her humming dissolved completely. When she saw it was Dongxue, she let out a long breath: “What are you doing! Nearly frightened a person to death!”