“I…” Su Nanqiao hesitated, momentarily speechless. She couldn’t exactly say that Su Zhang was here too and that she had come to warn him not to return home tonight.
“My mother said you came to the Fragrant Butterfly Pavilion, and I… I was furious. I came to confront you!” Su Nanqiao quickly put on a righteous expression.
Lin Ce’s heart sank.
This was bad. He had completely forgotten—this was the Fragrant Butterfly Pavilion.
The largest brothel in all of Bianjing.
Now that his fiancée had come looking for him here, wasn’t he doomed?
Worse, his future mother-in-law had found out too. This was a complete disaster.
“Impressive, Lin Ce. Really impressive.” Su Nanqiao looked around the room with an amused expression. Her eyes swept over the wooden tub, then back to Lin Ce, as she twirled her small sword in her fingers with a teasing gaze. “You just confirmed our engagement at my house, and now you turn around and come to the Fragrant Butterfly Pavilion.”
“No one plays like this. What do you take me for?”
She advanced step by step, leaving Lin Ce with his heart pounding in panic. How was he supposed to explain this?
“Let me explain! I came here… actually, I came to meet… Prime Minister Xue!” Lin Ce blurted out, finally grasping a decent excuse.
“Prime Minister Xue?” Su Nanqiao blinked in surprise. She knew who that was—Xue Yuzhang, the current Prime Minister, a man second only to the Emperor. He was also Lin Xiang’s student, and it was thanks to Lin Xiang’s guidance that he had climbed the ranks.
“He’s actually at the Fragrant Butterfly Pavilion?” Su Nanqiao looked shocked. She remembered that in her past life, Xue Yuzhang had helped Lin Ce on many occasions. However, she had always found the man to be dangerously unpredictable. Overall, she didn’t like him.
Lin Ce nodded rapidly, squeezing out a smile.
“I’ve come to Bianjing this time specifically to visit Prime Minister Xue. But given the Lin family’s current status, meeting him openly wouldn’t be appropriate. So I had no choice but to take this approach.”
Lin Ce silently praised his own quick thinking. What a brilliant excuse.
Everyone knew Xue Yuzhang had once been Lin Xiang’s student, and it was he who had halted the investigation into the Old Grain Transport Case, preserving the Lin family’s foundation. Now that Lin Ce had come to see him, it naturally couldn’t be done publicly, or it would raise suspicion.
So meeting at the Fragrant Butterfly Pavilion was actually quite a clever way to stay under the radar.
“Still, you can’t just come here. My mother completely misunderstood,” Su Nanqiao muttered. She could accept it now, but the key issue was that Madam Su was currently devastated at home—angry either because of what Lin Ce did or because Su Zhang was also at the Fragrant Butterfly Pavilion.
Everything was a mess, and Su Nanqiao had a terrible headache.
She was returning to the Myriad Sword Sect tomorrow, and now this had happened.
“Nanqiao, go home and explain it to your mother for me. I swear I’m a proper gentleman. I never come to places like this,” Lin Ce said solemnly.
“Come on, just help me out,” Lin Ce said with a helpless frown. His expression grew pale, and a wave of cold surged through him. He sat trembling on the bed, lips colorless.
Su Nanqiao’s expression shifted in alarm.
She had been reborn and knew Lin Ce suffered from the Frost Marrow Curse. Today was the fourteenth of April. By tomorrow, it would completely erupt. Lin Ce must already be in terrible pain.
“What’s wrong with you?” Su Nanqiao asked, though she already knew the answer. She couldn’t let him know she was aware of the Frost Marrow Curse.
Lin Ce shook his head with a bitter smile. “I’m fine.”
“You’re clearly not!” Su Nanqiao walked over and grabbed his wrist. A gentle warmth flowed from her palm, and a thread of soft, fine true Qi began seeping into Lin Ce’s arm.
That energy entered his body and eased the cold within him.
But at the same time, Su Nanqiao’s face also turned pale.
In the Great Zhou Empire, martial cultivation was the path. Among countless cultivators, warriors practiced true Qi. When cultivated within, it could manifest transformations as mighty as dragons and serpents. The Myriad Sword Sect was the top martial sect in the Great Zhou Empire. As a core disciple of the sect, Su Nanqiao had already reached the Heart-Knocking Realm, with extremely powerful true Qi.
One of the two conditions Su Zhang had set was that Lin Ce must reach the Dragon Transformation Realm, above the Heart-Knocking Realm.
“Nanqiao, this is an old illness. Don’t waste your true Qi on me,” Lin Ce said bitterly, pushing her hand away.
The Lin family had tried treating him with true Qi before.
Though it helped suppress the Frost Marrow Curse, it came at a great cost to the one providing the Qi.
If Su Nanqiao continued to transfer her Qi, she would eventually be infected with the curse herself. The price was too great.
“My fate is sealed. I’ll just have to accept it,” Lin Ce said calmly.
“Then defy the heavens and change it!” Su Nanqiao gritted her teeth. “If you can’t do it, I’ll help you! My husband will never surrender to fate!”
Hearing that, Lin Ce was stunned.
In that moment, Su Nanqiao once again looked like the white-robed woman who had leapt off the cliff with him in his past life.
To have a wife like her—what more could a man ask for?
But just then, the door knocked.
“Who is it?” Lin Ce and Su Nanqiao both turned toward the sound. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
A sweet and gentle voice came from outside.
“Young Master Lin, didn’t you wish to see me? I’m Yu Youwei. Pardon the intrusion.”
The voice wasn’t loud, but it was incredibly alluring. Lin Ce’s spirit lifted—she was here!
The Courtesan of the Fragrant Butterfly Pavilion. Also a chess piece the Lin family had planted in Bianjing.
“Lin Ce, I’m leaving. Don’t mention that you saw me,” Su Nanqiao said with a frown. She knew this Courtesan belonged to the Lin family and had provided Lin Ce with a lot of intel in the previous life. Now that she had arrived, Lin Ce would be safe.
“Wait, you’re leaving now?” Lin Ce was speechless. This was the Fragrant Butterfly Pavilion—the head Courtesan had just arrived. Shouldn’t Su Nanqiao stay behind to supervise?
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll make a mistake?”
Hearing Lin Ce’s shameless remark, Su Nanqiao turned her head with a meaningful look in her eyes.
“If you dare mess around, I’ll cut it off.”
“And if you see my father later, be sure to tell him that too.”
With that, Su Nanqiao jumped out the window.
As a Heart-Knocking Realm expert, she moved like the wind.
Just then, the door opened. A wave of pink fragrance swept in, thick with intoxicating scent. While Lin Ce was still stunned, a pink silhouette glided in with a seductive smile and arrived before him in the blink of an eye.
Even though Lin Ce had met this Courtesan in his past life, seeing her now still left him slightly dazed.
Yu Youwei had become the head Courtesan of the Fragrant Butterfly Pavilion due to her breathtaking beauty and voluptuous figure.
She exuded the charm of a mature woman. Though her clothing was loose, it couldn’t hide her astonishing curves. Her chest looked as if it might burst through the fabric at any moment. When she bent down, the deep valley between her breasts became even more eye-catching.
Looking up, one saw a youthful and delicate face. Her phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, radiating affection and allure.
“Greeting, Young Master Lin,” Yu Youwei said with a sweet giggle and directly sat down beside him.
With a casual wave, she closed the door, and the scent from her body rushed over, pushing Lin Ce back onto the bed.
“Yu Youwei, I’m Lin Ce. Stop right there!” Lin Ce shouted.
Here we go again!