Chapter 157: A Bit... Hard to Describe

Lou Yan had thought that since the Princess was willing to kiss him, they had made up.

However, when he returned that night to scale the walls of the Princess Mansion, he discovered they were now covered with nails.

He managed to get over with great difficulty, only to find Rong Qing sitting there, sword in hand.

The scene was all too familiar.

"General Rong, what is the meaning of this?"

’What business is it of a guard like me what goes on between you and the Princess?’

"The Princess gave the order, so I am standing guard. As for why, you’ll have to ask the Princess."

Lou Yan asked, "You still won’t let me pass?"

"I can’t."

Lou Yan was speechless.

He was forced to return the way he came. His dejection on the way back was as deep as his anticipation had been when he schemed his way over.

Would Xiao Li feel sorry for him?

Not in the slightest.

’Men... they’re all the same, always chasing what they can’t have.’

The unattainable ideal, the one that got away.

Because it’s unattainable, their interest is piqued. Because they want it, they’ll stop at nothing.

You can’t let him get it too easily. At most, you give him a little taste of sweetness. This keeps his passion burning, leaving him itching for more and unable to stop.

If you let him have his way too easily, you lose your mystery and your power over him.

That kind of passion comes on fast and fades just as quickly. It also makes you seem cheap.

She was the one who did the controlling, not the one to be controlled by a man.

Besides, desire wasn’t about indulgence. Restraint, distance, and torment—that was what truly tantalized the heart.

Her bed wasn’t so easy to climb into. The Lord Seal Master still had a long way to go.

Right now, the tormented Lord Seal Master was striding down an empty palace path, heading for the Imprisonment Department.

It was a long night. He had to do *something*.

A dark, murderous aura emanated from him. The few little eunuchs who happened to pass by scrambled to hide, trembling in fear. ’Who managed to provoke this demon tonight?’ they wondered.

And yet, despite his fearsome appearance that sent everyone scattering, someone deliberately approached him.

"Mr. Lou."

Two Palace Attendants were passing by with Princess Wen Shan. The attendants were so frightened they bowed without daring to make a sound. They couldn’t believe it when the little princess they were escorting actually walked forward, lantern in hand.

Lou Yan stopped, his expression unchanging.

Although Wen Shan was intimidated, she offered a sincere smile. "I’ve only just learned that it was Mr. Lou who sent someone to save me."

She finished with a curtsy. "Thank you for saving my life, Mr. Lou. I will always remember this kindness and will certainly repay you one day."

Lou Yan looked coldly at Princess Wen Shan. ’When did I ever save her?’

He seemed to recall the Princess asking him to look into it. He had indeed sent men, but his orders were to kill the old nanny who had been abusing the princess, not to save Princess Wen Shan herself.

He sized her up, walked around her, and left.

His relationship with Princess Xuanyang couldn’t be revealed, so he couldn’t explain. He also had no intention of getting entangled with another princess, so he simply ignored her.

After he left, the older nanny came forward, her palms slick with cold sweat and her heart still pounding with fear. "Your Highness, how could you? That’s Mr. Lou! If you offend him, you won’t even know what hit you."

Wen Shan just smiled. "He saved me. He’s a good person, so I’m not afraid of him."

The nanny and the palace maid exchanged a look of disbelief. The Chief Eunuch, a man who killed without batting an eye, was a good person? Based on the attitude he just showed, how could anyone possibly think he was good?

Should they really keep following this princess? She seemed to have a screw loose. They didn’t want to end up dead without even knowing why.

Wen Shan didn’t look back, but she knew they wouldn’t believe her. They had only been assigned to her, an out-of-favor princess, a few days ago. It was only natural that she hadn’t earned their loyalty yet.

But she wasn’t counting on their loyalty. She had learned long ago that in the Imperial Palace, the only person she could rely on was herself.

Regardless of why Lou Yan had saved her—whether to use her or for some other ulterior motive—she would latch onto this opportunity. She would use him to secure a good marriage for herself. Once she was married and out of the Imperial Palace, she would finally be free.

She looked up toward the palace gates, her eyes filled with unyielding determination. She *would* get out.

She thought of how she had begged and pleaded, only to receive not an ounce of pity. She would never again lower herself to beg anyone for anything. She would live a better life than Xuanyang!

-----

The "results" Song Junzhan delivered to Xiao Li were... a little hard to describe.

That He Chengfeng was a complete wolf in sheep’s clothing. Not even a broken rib could stop him from going out to carouse.

Barely a dozen days later, the moment he felt slightly better, he immediately sought out his pack of degenerate friends for a wild party—the kind of no-holds-barred, adult debauchery.

As it turned out, several of them suddenly went berserk and started biting everyone in sight. Many people were seriously injured.

Two men were particularly unlucky. Their "tools of the trade" were bitten clean off, splattering blood everywhere as they fainted from the pain. And as luck would have it, one of them was He Chengfeng.

Ewww...

’Scumbags deserve what they get,’ she thought, ’but the process is a little hard to stomach.’

And for someone as ethereal as Song Junzhan to use such methods... it did tarnish his celestial image a bit.

In truth, however, this hadn’t been Song Junzhan’s original plan.

He Chengfeng and his friends had taken a boat to the middle of a lake. When their revelries got particularly wild, they would take certain... special drugs to heighten the mood.

This wasn’t the first or second time they had done so. Many of them were already addicted and felt like they couldn’t enjoy themselves without the drugs.

To deal with this scum, Song Junzhan hardly needed to do anything. He just had someone increase the drug’s dosage, which was enough to drive them mad and lead to their self-destruction.

His original plan was to let them exhaust themselves in their frenzy. Simultaneously, he had the boat’s hull breached. The idea was that they would be too weak to save themselves and would sink into the lake. The water was icy cold, so by the time anyone from the shore could reach them, they would have all frozen to death.

But the plan had deviated in an unimaginable way.

While Song Junzhan was not as pure and innocent as Feng Yin, he was still a man who conducted himself with propriety. There was no shortage of crass jokes in the city, but none were as jaw-droppingly vulgar as this reality.

The news hadn’t come from Song Junzhan himself; he was too embarrassed to deliver such a report.

"Hahaha..."

’Isn’t this great?’

Overjoyed, Xiao Li called out, "Someone! Go buy a statue of the child-giving Guanyin Bodhisattva and send it to Marquis Xuanping. His son becoming a eunuch is no small matter. He should start trying for a new one as soon as possible."

Everyone was speechless.

Yang Jun gently cautioned, "Your Highness, isn’t this a bit too provocative?"

Xiao Li arched an eyebrow. "You think he won’t hate me if I don’t send it? And if I do, what can he do about it?"

’Besides,’ she thought, ’if I say nothing, Marquis Xuanping might try to pin this on me anyway. Since his hatred is unavoidable, I might as well make his life miserable.’

And sure enough, when Yang Jun went to deliver the gift, he was nearly beaten.

Marquis Xuanping smashed the Guanyin Bodhisattva to pieces, hopping mad with rage.

"Princess Xuanyang, you’ve gone too far! This is an outrageous insult!"

He hated Xiao Li for gloating and kicking him while he was down. But her malice was so blatant and undisguised that he, ironically, didn’t really suspect she was behind the incident itself.

The streets were buzzing with rumors about a group of young masters using drugs for fun, only to end up castrated. That sort of gossip was far more titillating than any stories about a malicious princess.

Soon enough, everyone knew exactly who had been involved and, more importantly, who had bitten whom.

All over the streets, you could see people huddled in groups, their faces flushed as they chatted with feverish excitement. The moment a stranger walked by, they would instantly fall silent, only to resume their heated discussion once the person was gone. It was the first time many of them realized that gossiping about others’ misfortunes could be so embarrassing for the gossiper.