Wen Nuannuan woke up in the middle of the night, startled. In the dim light, she saw a figure standing outside the curtain, silently observing her for who knows how long.
A dark shadow, motionless, standing there like a statue.
The night mist was cold.
She couldn’t see the person’s eyes, but she felt as though she was being watched by a wild beast in the wilderness.
She shivered, her teeth chattering as she sat up, her voice trembling, “Yan… Yan Nantian?”
Her heart pounded, “Do… do you need something?”
The shadow moved, and a small flame flickered to life—he lit a candle.
Then, the curtain was pulled aside.
Her gaze trembled as she bit her lip and looked up.
“…Huh?”
The person who had barged into her room in the middle of the night wasn’t Yan Nantian.
It was Yu Fengyun.
He held the curtain with one hand and a candleholder with the other, his eyes filled with concern as he whispered, “Sister Wen, it’s me!”
It was him.
The chilling aura from earlier had been an illusion.
Instinctively, Wen Nuannuan pulled the blanket tightly around herself, covering her body completely, and panicked, “What are you doing here! It’s the middle of the night, get out!”
The flame in his hand wavered slightly as he took a half-step back, his expression wounded.
After a moment of silence, a self-deprecating smile appeared on his lips, “He can come, but I can’t?”
Wen Nuannuan bit her lip and shook her head, “You don’t understand.”
“Yes, I truly don’t understand,” he said with a hint of sarcasm, “You’ve always been afraid of pain, so how could you bear to hurt yourself like that? Is wealth and status really that important to you?”
He lifted his eyes and stared at her intently.
Their gazes met, and the flames flickered in both their eyes.
They had known each other for years, and there was no point in pretending in front of Yu Fengyun.
“Brother Yu,” she took a deep breath and spoke slowly, “You and I are different. You’re just a commoner, your only family, your grandfather, passed away long ago. No matter how capable you are, what can you achieve? At best, you’ll end up like my stepfather, smelling of fish, or become a bodyguard for some nobleman.”
His eyes grew colder.
A mocking smile curled on her lips, “You’ve accepted your fate because you have no other choice! But I’m different. My father is a man of high status, and I’m a noblewoman! Wealth and status are rightfully mine. Why should I give them up? It’s what I deserve! You want me to accept my fate and become the wife of a fisherman or a bodyguard?”
*Are you worthy?*—her eyes seemed to say.
He pressed his lips together and remained silent.
“What I want, you can’t give me. I have to go back and fight for it,” Wen Nuannuan’s eyes gleamed, “But Lady Xiangyang, that poisonous woman, harmed my mother back then, and she’ll harm me too! If I don’t cling to a powerful tree, how can I fight? How can I seize what’s mine?”
He looked deeply into her eyes.
There was a desperate, all-or-nothing light burning within them.
Stripped of her soft and harmless facade, her eyes were filled with ambition and ruthlessness.
They stared at each other for a moment, neither backing down.
“Brother Yu, if you truly care about me, you should find a way to help me!” she sneered at him, “Why are you helping my enemy instead?”
He replied coldly, “I’m not.”
“You’re not?” She sat up straight, glaring at him, “I saw you getting along with her! How could you smile at her like that? Brother Yu, you used to only smile at me!”
His lips tightened, and his fists clenched at his sides, knuckles cracking.
“I advise you to give up,” he said coldly, “Yan Nantian is not someone you can control. He doesn’t like you. If you force yourself to stay here, you’ll only humiliate yourself.”
She seemed to recall something unpleasant, her body shivering involuntarily as she hugged the blanket tighter.
Seeing her like this, Yu Fengyun’s gaze softened. He gently sat on the edge of the bed, his voice gentle as he coaxed, “Besides, he already knows you’ve been deliberately getting close to him. He won’t have any goodwill toward you now. You’ve lost your chance. Why don’t I take you away?”
He reached out and shook her hand through the blanket.
“How about it?” he said, “I won’t let you suffer. Give me some time, and I can give you the life you want.”
“No,” she lifted her innocent face, a stubborn smile on her lips, “I don’t need him to like me.”
He frowned, confused, “What do you mean?”
“His father has ordered him to take me as his concubine, and he agreed,” she chuckled softly, “The Emperor’s word is law; he can’t go back on it. As long as I stay by his side, that’s enough.”
He looked at her with frustration, “He already has someone he loves!”
“So what!” she retorted, “Yun Zhao is so temperamental, she’s only like that because he loves her. But over time, he’ll get tired of her, won’t he? When that happens, he’ll finally see me—the more he looks down on me now, the more he’ll regret it later!”
He shook his head slightly, stood up, and stepped back, his eyes filled with cold disappointment.
“I won’t let go, I’ll never let go!” she said, as if speaking to him or to herself, “As long as I stay by his side, everything will be mine!”
She suddenly looked up at him, her eyes burning with unbridled ambition, almost scorching him, “Have you thought about it, Brother Yu? What if… what if the Sky-Reaching Tower is completed in this generation, or the next?”
Her voice trembled with the grandeur of the dream—a dream that had been three thousand years in the making.
She whispered, “What if it’s completed? What if the gods and immortals return to the mortal world, and the Emperor ascends to immortality? I could become a divine consort, an immortal… Who doesn’t dream of becoming immortal? Who doesn’t want eternal life and eternal youth?”
He remained silent for a long time.
Finally, he gave a faint, mocking smile, “You cut ties with me for this?”
Wen Nuannuan sneered, “Do you think too highly of emotions? Isn’t this enough?”
“It’s enough,” he nodded lightly.
He turned to leave but glanced back halfway.
“So you’re doing this for yourself,” he asked, “Your father’s dead. Aren’t you sad?”
Wen Nuannuan smiled and shook her head, “Brother Yu, you already know what kind of person I am. I’m just a piece of trash. You can’t hurt me. No, I’m not sad, and I’m not interested in avenging him. I’m just using this opportunity to climb the social ladder.”
He was silent for a moment, then asked hoarsely, “What about your mother?”
She was silent for a long time, “…If I could save her, that would be wonderful. But it’s been so long, I’ve stopped hoping. I think if I rise to power, she’d be happy for me in the afterlife.”
He turned his head, facing the wooden wall.
After a while, he let out a long breath, “I don’t know if your blood is hot or cold.”
“Brother Yu, don’t say such things,” she said indifferently, “If you had been on the boat that day, maybe you could’ve saved her. But you weren’t there.”
He pressed his lips together, “…I’m sorry.”
“Just go. Don’t come see me in private again, to avoid misunderstandings.”
“Understood.”
He was about to leave when she called out, “Brother… Brother Yu!” She clutched the blanket, her knuckles white, her voice soft, “You don’t even suspect that I killed my stepfather… You trust me that much?”
Suppressing his emotions, he replied calmly, “I told you, I trust you.”
“Thank you, Brother Yu,” her tone returned to its usual warmth, “So, you’ll keep helping me, right? It’s hard for me. Sometimes, I’m really scared.”
“…Alright.”
*
Yun Zhao was being capricious again, suddenly upset.
She grabbed Yan Nantian’s sleeve and asked, “Do you have to keep getting involved with Wen Nuannuan?”
Yan Nantian: “…”
He should’ve just stuck to telling her the story about the Demon God crashing into Mount Buzhou.
Now he was paying the price for half-heartedly trying to lull her to sleep.
“A-Zhao, I know you can’t stand even a grain of sand in your eye,” he said, “But don’t worry. In this life, and in all lives to come, I will never have any emotional entanglements with anyone else.”
“Oh—” Yun Zhao suddenly realized, “No emotions, just sleeping together?”
*Thunk!*
Her forehead was met with a sharp flick.
Yan Nantian glared at her, “Aren’t you disgusted? I’m disgusted just thinking about it.”
His light amber eyes flashed with a cold glint—even a hint of killing intent.
“It’s all in the novels,” Yun Zhao rubbed her forehead and started counting on her fingers, “There’s aphrodisiacs, hallucinogens, and…”
He massaged his temples, “If I ever fall for something like that, I’ll castrate myself as punishment, alright?”
Yun Zhao: “…Oh.”
He let his wide sleeve fall, brushing coolly against her face.
He said, "In this lifetime, there is only you, no one else. No emotions, no sleep."
Perhaps it was the fabric brushing against her ear, but his voice sounded unusually cold as it reached her.
Suddenly, he raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Found a lead?" he asked. "What, are we sure it wasn’t that mother and daughter who did it? Not going to chop her head off?"
Yun Zhao clicked her tongue.
Talking to someone with eight hundred schemes up their sleeve was always a surefire way to spill secrets.
She turned abruptly to face the wall.
Yan Nantian chuckled softly, lowering his voice as he voluntarily explained to her.
"On this trip, it’s Eunuch Shunde who’s protecting Wen Nuannuan, not me. There were earlier clues that the fabled Loulan Mirage is connected to the True Dragon. And the True Dragon might be the key to completing the Sky-Reaching Tower—His Majesty is very serious about this."
Yun Zhao snapped back, her eye twitching slightly. "...That kind of dragon?"
"Yes," Yan Nantian nodded. "That kind of mythical creature, the dragon."
Yun Zhao nervously fiddled with her fingers.
She wanted to say something but held back.
The Sky-Reaching Tower was no small matter, of course.
For three thousand years, the Sky-Reaching Tower had been built taller than the legendary Mount Buzhou, yet it still failed to connect heaven and earth.
Reaching the top of the tower was just that—reaching the top.
It lacked that mysterious, "sudden moment when heaven and earth invert."
"The dragon is the key to completing the Sky-Reaching Tower?" Yun Zhao repeated, seeking confirmation.
Yan Nantian: "Eight or nine out of ten chances."
Yun Zhao: "Hiss."
Yan Nantian: "Right now, the only lead on the Loulan Mirage lies with the Wen mother and daughter. His Majesty wants the dragon, and no one can stand in his way."
Yun Zhao: "..."
She discreetly rolled her eyes.
If... just if, if Yan Nantian knew that the dragon had been stewed by Lady Xiangyang, and that he himself had drunk several bowls of that soup...
Wouldn’t he have to... well, not castrate himself, but at least commit seppuku to atone for his crime?