Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The eunuch who delivered the edict spoke in a shrill, spiteful tone.

“Of all the people you could have crossed, Your Highness, you just had to send someone to assassinate the Eldest Prince. Now heaven and earth alike are furious, and even His Majesty can’t protect you.”

“Pack your things and leave the palace at once.”

He said to pack, but the eunuchs were all experts at kicking a man when he was down. They wouldn’t even allow Xie Zhaolin to put on an outer robe.

Dressed only in white sleeping clothes and barefoot, he had barely stepped out of the palace gates when his head tilted to the side and he fainted into my arms.

So heavy…

So solid…

But the moment I saw that pale yet still beautiful face, I could manage again.

No one knew I had built a dungeon beneath a pig farm outside the city.

When Xie Zhaolin woke, I was in the middle of stripping off his clothes.

I had fastened a locked blindfold over his eyes. Without the key, it could not be removed.

But even though he couldn’t see, he still called out my name with perfect accuracy.

“Seventeen, what are you doing?”

I ignored him and kept stripping.

My hand was suddenly seized.

Warm fingertips rubbed lightly over my wrist twice, their easy confidence carrying the faintest hint of secret delight.

It had to be my imagination.

Xie Zhaolin’s voice was clearly grinding with rage. “You dog of a servant. Release me at once!”

He struggled furiously, and as if by accident, his already loose sash came completely undone.

A glimpse of fair, slender waist was revealed, its lean, beautiful lines outlined beneath the moonlight.

I stared until my mind went blank, then reached out and touched it without thinking.

In a small voice, I negotiated with him.

“Letting you go is out of the question, but… having you, do you think that would work?”

Xie Zhaolin was so angry he could barely catch his breath. A flush spread over his pale neck.

He opened his mouth, clearly about to curse me again.

Quick-witted, I shoved my hand in to block him, pushing straight in.

I stirred and teased at will.

I watched as my torment left him panting, his eyes growing wet beneath the blindfold.

His former arrogance and aloof pride had vanished without a trace.

I leaned over him, just about to begin enjoying the long-awaited feast.

A muffled groan suddenly spilled from Xie Zhaolin’s throat, and then…

My eyes widened in disbelief.

That was it?

That wasn’t what the illustrated books said!

Furious, I raised my hand and slapped him on the chest.

“How are you this useless?”

With that one slap, Xie Zhaolin’s Adam’s apple bobbed hard, and a blue vein stood out along his neck, stretched taut like a bowstring.

I lowered my head in surprise.

Xie Zhaolin’s face turned even redder.

His whole body trembled faintly, like a lotus leaf battered and swaying in wind and rain.

He bit down hard on his lip, looking as if he wanted to curl his entire body in on itself.

I clicked my tongue softly. “Have you taken too much Fifty Powder?”

I was just about to poke him when my hand was caught again.

The next instant, the world spun. With one hand pressed to the back of my neck, he dragged me down in front of him.

A fierce, storm-like kiss fell on me without warning.

I froze.

How was he even more proactive than me, the ravisher?

“Xie Zhaolin, are you possessed by a ghost?”

A lecherous ghost, at that.

His impatient movements as he tore at my sash abruptly paused.

His Adam’s apple rolled violently.

After a moment of silence,

he acted as if he had gone deaf.

Lowering his head, he once again sealed my lips and tongue with a heavy kiss.

I didn’t know how long it lasted. I only felt as though my entire body had been run over by a carriage again and again.

Somewhere in the middle, I seemed to faint several times.

In my daze, it felt as if there was a huge dog, its head hot and heavy as it nuzzled back and forth, treating me like a giant bone to be licked and turned over and over, wishing it could chew me to pieces and swallow me whole.

Only one thought echoed through my mind:

A man with a high, straight nose really was…

When I woke, Xie Zhaolin was sitting against the wall.

In the dim dungeon, his head hung slightly, his whole body filled with dejection and despair.

He looked as if he were about to shatter.

Nothing like the beast from last night.

Rubbing my aching waist, I snapped, “Last night, you-”

“Shut up!”

His chest rose and fell violently.

His face taut, he rebuked me in a harsh voice.

“Why did you drug me with an aphrodisiac and make me burn with desire until I lost all control?”