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A/N: EARLY CHAPTER JUST BECAUSE! Gonna post another one on Sunday. Enjoy~

There was a moment of silence. When they heard the word "wangye", even the two courtesans stumbled on their knees and hands, prostrating themselves on the floor while shivering. Who else would be called Lord King in Suliang?

Even if they didn't know her Highness' face, just the aura this lady was making was intense already. They wouldn't dare risk their lives here.

Wan Li Wang's gaze was profound. She didn't plan on making an appearance like this.

But Feng mei ren's mouth got even more daring and she couldn't take it anymore. Hiring entertainers was already the height of shamelessness but he even dragged Sangyu's and her names. Preposterous!

Beside Wan Li Wang, Xiao Hao exhorted the courtesans to leave. Looking like they were granted amnesty, the ladies almost ran and didn't dare to look back. If they knew this young master Feng was related to Wan Li Wang, they wouldn't be courageous enough to approach him.

JuZi helped young master Feng to kowtow but he was able to break free from her clasp and grumbled.

"Ah, my clothes! Zizi, you bad bad. Mother doesn't like wrinkled clothes. She'll be angry when I get home." His lips puckered.

Hearing this, the palace maid wanted to just bury her body right here and then. From the corner, Guard Tang also wanted his existence to scatter to the wind. What mother was he saying all of a sudden?

"Home?" A magnetic voice sounded out.

Feng Yanyan's half closed eyes and rosy cheeks looked bewitching. But his actions weren't.

"I want to go home to my mom!" He clutched the dark clothes in front of him and swayed it back and forth.

JuZi was about to grab the young master Feng's hands but she was stopped by a mere glance. Her back went cold from just from wangye's brief look.

"Leave." Long Xu Le's thick lashes made shadows on her cheeks as she looked down at the drunk man. Her order was for Xiao Hao and the rest.

Xiao Hao hoisted the soulless maid and guard, scolding them in his mind but also didn't forget to close the door. He didn't know what wangye wanted to do but it was alright. She didn't look like she was out to kill someone so he just let her Highness be.

Feng Yanyan, however, thought the word was addressed to him. "You think I don't want to leave? I want to go home to my eldest brother. Eldest sister-in-law bakes good pastries. Now that I think about it, even Father's burnt dumplings are good. I don't want to be here anymore. They all hate me anyway."

By the end of his complaints, he was firmly hugging Long Xu Le's knees. She could feel her robe getting damp.

He's... crying?

This isn't the first time Wan Li Wang saw a grown man's tears. On the battlefield, young lads would call their mothers in fear. They would pour their hearts out while attacking the enemies. They were afraid but they were also brave. But she was the one leading them to their potential deaths.

Although she knew that some of them would shed silent tears at night due to loneliness, this King had never seen another person's vulnerability up close.

Long Xu Le unclasped his hands on her legs and raised his face to look. Red nose and crystal tears. If it was any other person standing in her place, they would melt and give anything he wanted. Too bad this is King Wan Li we're talking about.

She squatted to his level and squinted. It looks like he really isn't faking to be drunk.

The King glanced at the bottles on the table and did a quick count. Seven. How come his breath didn't stink?

Meanwhile, our Beauty Feng, who could finally see the person's face, appeared to be mesmerized. In his blurry vision, the person in front of him was covered in halo and looks very... very pretty!

Long Xu Le was still studying everything inside the room. There were no traces of other people having been here. So he really just went out to drink. That was when a person jumped on her. She cursed under her breath. Behind her was the table with ceramic bottles and hot stove for the liquor.

She had no choice but to hold Feng Yanyan and twist her body so she would fall under and take all the brunt. Her face held traces of anger while lying underneath the man. She could see his thick yet delicate brows clearly in this position.

But Feng Yanyan wasn't done. He directly straddled her and poured warm wine on his hands and proceeded to wipe them clean with his handkerchief. Everything was done in a drunken kind of precision that it was hard to believe.

Long Xu Le was too lazy to move. After all, she could finish him in one move if she wanted. "What are you doing?"

"Wine is alcohol... Alcohol is antiseptic." His words were slow and drawled like fine wine swirling inside a cup. There were still streaks of tears on his face but it didn't diminish his sly charms. This Feng Yanyan was never seen by the palace before.

"Your face is top quality goods. It can't be touched with dirty hands."

Long Xu Le was speechless. She could hear Xiao Hao coughing from the outside. That old man's martial arts was the best among her people. Naturally, he could hear normal conversations inside this room.

Before she could hurl him away, the man leaned down. His hands on both sides of her head, propping himself up. The ring on his index finger made tapping sounds on the floor.

Feng Yanyan's velvet voice rang. "Where are you from? It's not good to work in this brothel with that face of yours, the lady owner would use you as her money cow. Come, I'll help you escape."

By now, Wan Li Wang's face was as black as a pot. Did this damn man take her for a courtesan?!

She spoke through gritted teeth. "And how does the gentleman propose to do that?"

Feng Yanyan's sincere yet intoxicated face seemed to think for a while. "I know some martial arts. I can hold them down while you run. I also still have a good chunk of silver in my pocket, you can take all of them."

Long Xu Le clutched his lapels and chuckled dangerously. "How bold of you. They will just outnumber you within seconds."

"Oh... don't worry about that. As long as one of us escapes." His lips arched into a hopeless smile.

The King was dumbstruck by that smile. Her hands relaxed from the tight hold on his clothes as she remembered his previous statements. He wanted to go home.

Her expression cooled down. And her knuckles knocked the jade pendant on his waist, she grasped it and recognized it immediately.

A Feng family pendant.

Her thumb unconsciously traced the sculpted character. Under the dim and ambiguous lights of the brothel room, Long Xu Le's eyes held obscure meanings that could hypnotize any person. 

With a flick of her wrist, their positions changed. Feng Yanyan only felt his world twirl and his back was on the cushion again.

"I heard you liked Junwang." Long Xu Le pressed her lips close to his ears and whispered.

Beauty Feng gasped by the sudden fan of hot breath. He felt more muddled and dizzy. His shoulders shook, feeling cold.

"Don't like..." He clung to Long Xu Le with a pout.

King Wan Li had to adjust her position again to accommodate his clinging. If anybody else were to see this, it would cause an uproar. Even Xiao Hao wouldn't believe it if someone were to tell him that wangye allowed a drunk person to snuggle like this.

But Long Xu Le's eyes were unreadable. She was only waiting for one wrong word and the man in his arms would perish.

The person himself was unaware of the crisis he was in. He only wanted to air out his grievances.

It didn't occur to him that the person holding him was too strong to be an ordinary woman. She was almost carrying his whole weight.

"Empress said Junwang is friendly and will take good care of me. But she's wrong. He's cold and mean. He saw the people hurting me but said that he didn't.  Yanyan... Yanyan doesn't want him."

And so King Wan Li was able to gather information like this.

"What else did the Empress say?" She was still whispering, coaxing him like he was a child.

"She said... wangye is cruel and bloodthirsty. Yanyan shouldn't get close."

But of course, the Empress never said these things. In truth, what she wanted Feng Yanyan to do was get close to either one of the siblings. If he could ensnare both of them, that was even better. So the siblings' relationship will be fractured.

But Feng Yanyan intentionally interpreted her words as only getting close to Long Sangyu.

Hearing his words, Long Xu Le's cat-like eyes flashed. "If the Empress wants to give you to Junwang, she should have named the edict to Junwang. Still crafty as ever."

Knowing that she couldn't get more information, she pressed his sleep acupoint and his body went soft under her.

Outside, JuZi was waiting anxiously. She didn't know what state the young master would be in when that door opened. But she didn't dare ask master Xiao Hao about wangye's plans.

She was not in any position to ask or even beg for forgiveness. She could just pray the young master will be intact.

JuZi and Guard Tang waited and waited.

Xiao Hao, on the other hand, was the opposite. He was amused by the drunken words of Beauty Feng.

Too bad, Xu Le must have learned he was listening in so she lowered her voice. But the idea of the formidable wangye lowering herself to whisper things to Beauty Feng was still interesting.

If this gentleman Feng cleared his name, Xiao Hao wouldn't mind him being part of wangye's harem.

After all, up to now, there was no heir in the wangfu.

The middle-aged man seemed to forget that the King had an adopted daughter, Long Tang.

The door opened revealing a lithe figure carrying something.

Or rather, someone.

JuZi gasped and already fainted a hundred times inside. Why was wangye carrying the young master? Isn't this inappropriate?!

---

Mini theater:

FYY: Flirting time!
LXL: Make a wrong move and you're dead.
XH: Dang, is it possible that mah master will have a lover?!
JZ: I hope the young master isn't dead yet...

Edited: Feb. 13, 2022