Jia Rui took the opportunity to reach out and support Qin Keqing.
He felt only that beneath that thin gauze garment, her skin was smooth and her figure voluptuous, and his mind couldn't help but sway.
Even more so, those pair of enormous snowy peaks pressed against his chest.
Like inverted stalactites, exquisitely beautiful beyond compare.
With one hand Jia Rui supported Qin Keqing's soft waist, while the other gently caressed her back.
"I am under the Commander's orders to secretly investigate the Ning Mansion. If you are willing to cooperate, then when the Ning Mansion's affairs are exposed in the future, I will guarantee your father and brother's safety, and even securing them official rank and nobility would not be difficult."
Qin Keqing was held firmly in his embrace, unable to break free.
Her heart immediately fell into utter confusion.
She could only blush and, breathing sweetly as an orchid, say: "Lord Rui... how does my humble self cooperate?"
Jia Rui nodded.
"I want you to secretly keep watch on Jia Zhen's study, account books, correspondence, and unfamiliar persons entering and leaving the mansion. When the Ning Mansion's affairs are exposed in the future, I will find a way to extricate you."
"Your father Qin Ye and your younger brother Qin Zhong—I can also guarantee they will not be implicated."
"If you render merit, then even securing a more stable post for your father would not be difficult."
When Qin Keqing heard this, a trace of life finally appeared in her tearful eyes.
She hesitated for a moment.
Then said softly: "My humble self is merely a woman of the inner quarters. I may not truly be able to help you, Lord."
"It is only that since Jia Zhen treats me this way, there is no longer any sentiment to speak of between me and the Ning Mansion."
"In the future, if I truly discover anything, my humble self will find a way to inform you, Lord."
Jia Rui gave a slight nod.
"That is well."
Qin Keqing lowered her head, recalling all that had just happened, her expression still carrying shame, indignation, and lingering fear.
She glanced again at Jia Zhen, who lay unconscious on the ground.
She asked softly: "He... after he wakes up, if he comes to force me again, what should I do?"
Jia Rui said calmly: "Rest assured."
"That kick I gave him just now—even if he is cured, he will never be able to do evil again in this lifetime."
When Qin Keqing heard this, she was first stunned, then seemed to understand something.
Her pretty face instantly flushed red, and she hurriedly lowered her head.
Yet that enormous boulder in her heart that had pressed her so she could barely breathe had, after all, loosened somewhat.
Jia Rui took in her expression, and a faint smile rose to the corners of his lips.
"As for tonight's events, you need only say that after the flying thief wounded someone, he immediately fled, and you know nothing else."
Qin Keqing lowered her brows and nodded: "My humble self... will obey Lord Rui in all things."
Seeing her docile manner, Jia Rui nodded.
Yet his pair of stirred starry eyes once again brazenly sized up her slender, graceful figure from top to bottom.
He said calmly: "I have schemed on Madam Rong's behalf to this extent, which can be considered the utmost of benevolence and righteousness. Now I ask Madam Rong to grant me this, and I will never betray you in the future."
When Qin Keqing heard this, her delicate body suddenly trembled.
She instantly understood the meaning in Jia Rui's words, and her cheeks immediately reddened as if about to drip blood.
She was naturally flirtatious and graceful, yet after half a year of marriage, she had not received the slightest conjugal affection from her husband.
Guarding an empty boudoir, her heart had long been filled with springtime longing.
Tonight, she had again suffered Jia Zhen's every manner of coercion and provocation, making her even more aroused and unable to restrain herself.
Had Jia Rui not burst in, she likely would have already yielded to Jia Zhen.
At this moment, seeing Jia Rui make such a shameful and blunt demand, her heart could not help but turn over a hundred times.
"Now my life and safety, my aged father and weak brother, all rest on this one person... Moreover, he is not as base as the rumors say. Instead, he has a fine appearance, heroic and extraordinary, ten times better than my own husband who is but a silver-plated spearhead..."
Thinking this, Qin Keqing's heart was already half-yielding.
It was only a daughter's modesty that made it hard for her to agree outright.
She could only lower her head, her voice like a mosquito.
"It is not that my humble self is unwilling... it is only that Baozhu and Ruizhu, those two maids, were sent away by Jia Zhen. I fear... I fear that in the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, they will return."
Hearing this, Jia Rui felt elated.
This Qin Keqing was of a flirtatious, water-like nature, and these words were already consent.
If he did not seize the opportunity to completely claim her tonight, there might be complications in the future.
He glanced at the Western enamel striking clock on the wall.
He nodded and said: "One stick of incense is enough. Madam Rong, forgive my rudeness."
Without waiting for Qin Keqing to speak further, he scooped up this utterly limp, peerless beauty around the waist.
This embrace made Qin Keqing blush furiously, her eyes brimming with spring water, her jade peaks rising and falling, her breath panting.
Jia Rui's blood surged at the sight, and he could no longer restrain himself.
With great strides, he gently laid her upon that large bed of carved ivory and gilded wood.
...
One stick of incense later, the clouds dispersed and the rain ceased.
Jia Rui, fully satisfied, straightened his clothes and descended Tianxiang Tower.
That glaring plum-blossom crimson on the bedsheet made his heart swell with delight.
"I never expected this woman to still be a virgin. Worthy of being the first among the Twelve Beauties of Jinling in flirtatious beauty."
As he was sighing inwardly, several lines of pale golden text appeared in the void before his eyes:
【Special event triggered: Plucking the branch of the orthodox register Golden Hairpin Qin Keqing. The causality and fortune of this world have been affected. Obtained Purple Cloud Divine Art（Mystic Grade Upper Rank）（Initial Realm）】
【Reward: Cloud-Laddering Technique breakthrough in realm: High Realm】
【Reward: Cultivation breakthrough in realm: Post-Heaven Third Rank】
【Special acquisition: Imperial Dao Fortune（First Rank）】
...
"Hum~"
In an instant, a warm, gentle, and enduring Inner Breath rose from deep within Jia Rui's Dantian.
At first that True Qi seemed present yet absent, then like purple qi coming from the east, it slowly circulated along his Meridians.
Wherever it passed, his sinews and bones relaxed, and his qi and blood became abundant.
There was even a sense of endless generation, unceasing and continuous.
Jia Rui closed his eyes and comprehended for a moment. When he opened them again, a flash of sharp light flickered and vanished in his gaze.
"The Purple Cloud Divine Art is indeed worthy of being a Mystic Grade Upper Rank heart method."
"Merely at the Initial Realm, it has already made my Inner Breath several times more profound, advancing me to Post-Heaven Third Rank."
As for that so-called First Rank Imperial Dao Fortune, he still could not grasp its mysteries for the time being.
He only vaguely felt that in the unseen, a majestic aura seemed to be added to his body.
Just then, voices suddenly rose throughout Ningguo Mansion.
Lanterns and torches lit up from every corridor.
A large number of servants and estate guards were surging toward Tianxiang Tower.
Jia Rui had already agreed with Qin Keqing beforehand.
After he left, she would only say that a flying thief had intruded into Tianxiang Tower at night, wounded Jia Zhen, and then fled.
Seeing that the mansion had already been alerted, he delayed no further.
With a turn of his Inner Breath, the High Realm Cloud-Laddering Technique unfolded.
In the night, his clothes and shadow swayed lightly.
Jia Rui had already leaped from the tower eaves onto the courtyard wall.
In a few bounds, his figure was like a wisp of pale smoke, crossing the layered towers and pavilions of the Ning Mansion, quietly vanishing into the heavy curtain of night.
...
North of Ning and Rong Street, the night was already deep.
This area was mostly old residences of the Jia Clan's collateral branches.
The walls were mottled, the doorways low.
By the moonlight, Jia Rui silently landed outside his own courtyard wall.
He had just used the Cloud-Laddering Technique, coming all the way from Ningguo Mansion over walls and across tiles.
At this moment his Inner Breath was still slowly circulating through his Meridians, yet not even a speck of dust had stained his body.
Gazing at the narrow, worn courtyard before him, he instead felt a measure of peace in his heart.
Compared to a nest of wealth like Ningguo Mansion, piled with brocade and hiding filth.
This shabby little courtyard, though crude, was the original body's true home.
Jia Rui pushed open the courtyard gate.
The wooden door had just creaked.
When a hoarse yet stern reprimand came from the main room.
"Wicked creature!"
"What hour is this to be coming back? Where have you been gallivanting off to now?"
"Were you drinking or gambling? If you keep being so lacking in ambition, sooner or later you will anger this old bag of bones to death!"
Before the words finished, an old man wearing a half-worn blue cloth straight robe walked out from the room.
His hair was graying, his expression stern.
His whole body exuded the rigid, pedantic air of an old scholar.
This was precisely Jia Rui's grandfather, Jia Dairu.
Jia Dairu had studied his whole life, toiling bitterly for many years, yet had never obtained official rank, only the status of a Xiucai.
Later, relying on being an elder of the Jia Family's collateral branch, he became a schoolteacher in the Clan School, scraping by on that meager stipend.
His son had died young, leaving only this one grandson, Jia Rui.
Over these years, grandfather and grandson had depended on each other.
Though Jia Dairu was old-fashioned by nature and controlled Jia Rui extremely strictly, reprimanding and punishing him at every turn.
Yet in the end, in this world, the only one who truly held Jia Rui in his heart was him alone.
The original body had ordinarily been terribly afraid of this grandfather.
The moment Jia Dairu glared, he would shrink back three parts.
Now Jia Rui saw the old man, not yet asleep late at night, draped in clothes and standing in the courtyard waiting for him.
That bit of impatience at being reprimanded quietly dissipated instead.
"Grandfather."
Jia Rui stepped forward, his expression solemn.
Seeing that he was not like usual, grinning and making excuses and quibbling, Jia Dairu was instead taken aback.
Yet his mouth still remained stern: "So you still know to call me Grandfather? I thought you had drunk yourself silly on flower wine outside and forgotten which way the family gate opens."
Jia Rui did not argue.
He only deeply bowed to the old man.
"In the past, your grandson was immature and made Grandfather worry."
"From now on, I will never again go out to fool around, nor let others look down on me."
Jia Dairu's hand gripping the bamboo cane paused slightly.
Jia Rui raised his head, his gaze calm and resolute.
"Grandfather, rest assured."
"Since I was born a son of the Jia Family, in the future I will not only make you hold your head high among the clan, but also make those who once slighted us grandfather and grandson never dare show you the slightest disrespect again."
These words were not spoken with any particular fervor.
Yet falling into Jia Dairu's ears, they made his heart tremble for no apparent reason.
The grandson before him seemed to still have the same face as before.
Yet whether in his manner of speaking or the calm imposing air between his brows.
He was entirely different from the frivolous, slick, timid, and incompetent Jia Rui of the past.
As if he had become a different person.
Jia Dairu was dazed for a long while.
Though there was some comfort in his heart, his mouth still refused to soften, and he only gave a heavy snort.
"Fine words."
"If you would just cause fewer troubles outside, I could live a few more years."
"As for holding heads high or not, we need only seek a clear conscience in life. Do not learn from those rich young lords, fighting and competing all day long."
With that, he turned and walked toward the room.
After two steps, he stopped again.
Without turning his head, he said: "There is still a bowl of porridge warming in the pot. If you are hungry, go eat it yourself."
Jia Rui watched the old man's slightly stooped back, and his heart warmed slightly.
Though he had transmigrated here and in theory had no feelings for the original body's kin.
At this moment, he could still perceive Jia Dairu's affection for him.
"Your grandson understands."
Jia Dairu did not answer again, only leaning on his bamboo cane and slowly returning to his room.
Yet that back, originally bent, seemed to have quietly straightened a little compared to before.
...