Gu Jianshen’s eyes were fixed on the woman before him. Flaming desire burned within those deep orbs, yet he forcefully restrained himself.
However, Jiang Ning seemed completely oblivious to his forbearance. Her tender, white hands moved over Gu Jianshen’s body like nimble butterflies, attempting to unbutton his clothing.
Those round spheres pressed tightly against Gu Jianshen, rubbing up and down along with her movements, delivering intoxicating sensation after sensation.
Gu Jianshen’s body trembled slightly against his will, and his breathing grew increasingly ragged, as though every breath could ignite the suppressed fire of lust.
“Woman, you are playing with fire.”
Gu Jianshen’s voice was deep and magnetic, sounding as if it were holding back an immense force, making one tremble involuntarily.
Before Jiang Ning could even react, her whole body had already been hoisted onto his shoulder.
Half an hour later.
Snap! Snap! Snap!
“Woo-hoo~ Help!”
Inside the martial arts practice grounds, dust flew everywhere. A delicate, petite figure was sprinting forward for dear life while a tall figure chased behind, swinging a thick, long whip. Should the person in front slow down even a fraction, the unseeing whip would come lashing down.
“Ahhhh—”
Jiang Ning was sprinting forward as if fleeing for her life, cold sweat drenching her back. If that whip caught up to her, the pain would surely make her scalp go numb. All those messy, chaotic impulses were ultimately squashed by a pure awe for staying alive.
Afraid of pain, she didn’t want to be lashed by the whip.
Afraid of death, she didn’t want to be caught by the lunatic behind her.
So, she could only run relentlessly. The more she ran, the hotter she felt; the hotter she felt, the more she sweated. The clothes on her body were soaked with perspiration, and her disheveled hair stuck messily to her scalp and neck.
As she ran, her mind became clearer and clearer, and the clearer it got, the more she realized what had transpired earlier.
She had been drugged.
Looking back at everything she had consumed today, the only thing that could have gone wrong was that glass of hot water from Wen Ya.
The Prince of Jing had ordered her to drug Wen Ya, but in the end, she was the one who got drugged by Wen Ya instead.
What a complete joke.
And while her senses were clouded by desire, she had tried to lay her hands all over Gu Jianshen.
The result?
She was hauled off to the martial arts grounds by Gu Jianshen and chased around with a whip!
Jiang Ning, oh Jiang Ning, you are nothing but a laughingstock. Wen Ya will despise you, and Gu Jianshen will look down on you.
Failing to recognize your own place—you brought this on yourself!
“Ah—”
A wave of pain hit Jiang Ning’s back as the ruthless whip wrapped around her.
“Ah!” Jiang Ning screamed at the top of her lungs and bolted forward, with only one thought in her mind—faster, go faster! In this world, you can rely on no one but yourself!
Gu Jianshen’s hand holding the whip trembled slightly. He had swung the whip countless times, but every lash landed in the spaces surrounding Jiang Ning, never actually touching her body. He simply wanted to scare her into running.
That lash just now was purely an accident.
After chasing her around for a few laps, he too had broken out into a heavy sweat, and his mind had cleared up significantly. As a former military commander, his willpower and self-control were far beyond ordinary men.
The drug’s effect on him had been considerable, and he had almost been entranced into embracing Jiang Ning at one point.
At that critical moment, the image of his fairy maiden appeared in his mind like a sea-anchoring pillar, pulling back his near-collapsing rationality.
He already had a woman in his heart; how could he get entangled with another female?
He would not allow it.
His fairy maiden was pure and holy; he would not permit himself to become filthy.
Lashing the whip was a desperate measure as well. While he could rely on sheer willpower to resist the drug’s effects, Jiang Ning was a weak woman for whom resistance was difficult.
When one’s own life was threatened, however, it was a different story.
In fact, this method proved effective. Jiang Ning was no longer making any strange moves, concentrating all her thoughts entirely on escape.
Only, much later, Gu Jianshen would pay a heavy price for what happened tonight.
Up on the roof.
Yingyue examined the portrait in his hand several times against the moonlight, comparing it again to Jiang Ning, who was sprinting madly below.
Feeling a bit perplexed, he asked himself: Isn’t this person the closest match to the target?
However, he quickly dismissed the thought. How could the woman his master was searching the whole world for end up right in his own backyard?
Yeah, his master’s beloved definitely couldn’t be Jiang Ning.
Otherwise, after mistreating Jiang Ning like this, his master would probably end up a bachelor for the rest of his life.
.
Jiang Ning fell ill.
Jiang Ning had no idea how she survived that night. When she regained consciousness again, it was already noon the next day, and she was lying inside the Qingxiang Residence.
The maid, Chuntao, was carefully applying ointment to the whip marks on her back.
Jiang Ning wanted to speak, but her throat was so raspy she couldn’t make a sound. Her whole body ached with zero strength, and her legs in particular felt like they no longer belonged to her.
Chuntao was quick-witted. Seeing her awaken, she immediately poured a glass of water for her to moisten her throat.
Chuntao mentioned that Doctor Jiang Cheng had been here and prescribed a formula to adjust her body’s condition, along with an ointment, saying that applying it several times a day would ensure no scars were left behind.
Doctor Jiang Cheng rarely made house calls. The fact that Gu Jianshen could invite him over to treat Jiang Ning showed that Gu Jianshen was paying attention and wasn’t completely ignoring her.
Even so, Jiang Ning’s impression of Gu Jianshen was engraved in her bones as terribly bad—repulsing her even more than the rough fellow Zhang Tao did.
She felt zero gratitude toward Gu Jianshen for summoning a doctor for her.
Chuntao remarked, “Concubine Jiang, that cinnabar mole on your shoulder is truly peculiar. When I applied ointment for you last night, it was clearly still there, but now it’s gone.”
Jiang Ning had never paid attention to it, nor did she care about some cinnabar mole right now.
Once her throat felt a bit better, she asked in her raspy voice, “Where is the Lady?”
Chuntao replied, “The Lady left last night, saying she was returning to her maiden family.”
Did she flee overnight?
Jiang Ning drifted back to sleep in a daze.
She slept until nightfall. When Jiang Ning woke up, Chuntao, who was guarding the bedside, startled awake as well.
“Concubine Jiang, you’re awake! Would you like to eat something first?”
Jiang Ning felt her stomach was completely empty; having gone a full day without food, she was indeed hungry.
Chuntao returned shortly with hot porridge and said, “Seeing Concubine Jiang lying down for the whole day, I was worried you’d be hungry when you woke up, so I had the kitchen keep some porridge warm. Come, give it a try and see if it suits your taste.”
Jiang Ning propped herself halfway up and finished a bowl of hot porridge under Chuntao’s feeding. Feeling somewhat full, her spirits lifted a bit.
She also felt a bit closer to Chuntao.
In this damnable world, there were still a few warm people after all.
During the late night, Jiang Ning fell asleep once again.
Upon sleeping, she entered a dream.
This time, she was in a water-side villa at the foot of a green mountain, a place resembling an academy for nobles.
This was the first time Jiang Ning had dreamed of such a clear scene. In the past, it was always like looking at flowers through a fog, but now it was in vivid 3D. She couldn’t help taking a few extra glances.
Boys and girls in their early teens were dressed in exquisite, luxurious attire. Sitting before their desks, they appeared quite well-behaved, listening attentively to the lesson.
The female instructor on the podium wore a white dress, every gesture filled with elegance and serene grace, reciting a poem by the Song Dynasty poet Qin Guan:
“Clouds float with delicate skill, stars carry quiet grief, as the Milky Way softly spans the vast night sky.
A single encounter amidst the autumn wind and dew surpasses countless ordinary unions in the human realm.
Tenderness flows like water, the sweet moment passes like a dream; how can one bear to glance back at the Magpie Bridge path?
If true love endures between two hearts, why must they cling to every morning and evening together?”