“What filthy thing?” Ah Ke didn’t catch on and even brought her finger to her nose again out of curiosity.
“I told you not to smell it!” Seeing her daughter’s silly behavior, Chen Yuanyuan grew both frustrated and anxious. She grabbed Ah Ke’s hand and whispered in her ear, “That’s a man’s… you know…”
“Ah!” Ah Ke jerked her hand away from her nose as if burned.
“Don’t shout!” Chen Yuanyuan quickly covered her daughter’s mouth.
“Mmph-mmph~” Ah Ke’s peach-blossom eyes widened. She waved her arms about frantically, mumbling indistinctly, “Your hands… they’re covered in that… that smell…”
Chen Yuanyuan started, remembering that she had just wiped some of the substance onto her own palm to examine it. She quickly released her hand. Ah Ke immediately wiped her mouth with her sleeve.
“Ah Ke, don’t blame Mother. What happened tonight cannot be known by anyone, or you’ll have no place in the harem.” Seeing her daughter’s distress, Chen Yuanyuan quickly comforted her.
By now, Ah Ke was beginning to understand what had happened to her. Her pretty face turned deathly pale. “My pure body… was taken from me without my knowledge?”
She had once proudly declared that her future husband would be a great hero—one who could govern the nation in peace and lead armies in war. Though she had ended up married to a eunuch emperor, she had still carefully protected the beautiful, radiant dream in her heart. But now that she was a deflowered flower, even if such a hero did appear, how could she ever be worthy of him?
Shattered by the shattering of everything she had held dear, Ah Ke burst into tears.
Chen Yuanyuan sighed inwardly. *Wasn’t I vi0lated too?* But having weathered so many storms over the decades, she was far more resilient than her daughter. Setting aside her own grief, she focused on comforting Ah Ke.
After weeping for a while, Ah Ke suddenly sat upright, her voice cold as ice. “I will find whoever did this and tear them to pieces!”
Chen Yuanyuan was also trembling with rage. *Of course I want to tear that person to pieces too. But we can’t investigate this openly, and we can’t use the imperial consort’s authority. Finding the culprit might be harder than reaching the heavens…*
Suddenly, Chen Yuanyuan’s eyes lit up. She threw back the blanket to examine her daughter’s thighs.
“Mother, what are you doing~” Ah Ke was both embarrassed and flustered. Even though they were both women, having such a private area exposed was still mortifying.
Chen Yuanyuan peered closely, then searched the bedsheet. A look of joy spread across her face. “No blood… no blood…”
“Mother, what are you talking about!” Ah Ke pulled the blanket back over her legs, utterly mortified.
“I mean, you didn’t bleed…” Seeing her daughter’s blank expression, Chen Yuanyuan quickly explained, “That means you haven’t lost your purity!”
“Ah?” Though Ah Ke was naive in these matters, she wasn’t a child. She knew at least some things. Hearing her mother’s words, she was overcome with a mix of surprise and joy. “Really?”
Chen Yuanyuan wasn’t entirely certain either. She pulled her daughter closer and asked a few questions. “Does it hurt?”
“Yes, it hurts.” Ah Ke rubbed her thighs. “My whole body aches.”
Chen Yuanyuan rolled her eyes. “I meant… does it hurt *down there*?”
Ah Ke’s face flushed red. She stammered, “I-I don’t know.”
Chen Yuanyuan urged, “Quick, try walking.”
Ah Ke nodded, hastily wrapped a dress around herself, and got out of bed. Taking a deep breath, she silently prayed, then tentatively took a step. A peculiar expression appeared on her face.
“How is it?” Chen Yuanyuan asked anxiously.
Ah Ke didn’t answer. Instead, she continued walking—at first cautiously, then with a normal gait, and finally she even jumped up in joy. “Mother, it doesn’t hurt at all! I haven’t lost my purity~”
“Keep your voice down~” Chen Yuanyuan rushed over and covered her daughter’s mouth. Then she froze. Only now did she realize that there was no unusual sensation between her own legs either. This realization filled her with both shock and delight. She had always felt she had caused too much trouble by attracting so many men over the years. That was why she had moved out of the Pingxi Prince’s mansion and taken up a monastic life at the Sansheng Nunnery, keeping herself pure all these years. Naturally, she didn’t want to lose her cultivation like this.
This dramatic turn of events left mother and daughter weeping with joy. They held each other for a long time before gradually calming down.
“Mother, do you think that person is some kind of pervert? To do… to do something like that, and yet… not actually defile us.” After the excitement faded, Ah Ke suddenly spoke. In truth, she should have been grateful. But she still found it hard to believe. With their beauty, how could any man in the world have resisted?
“He really is a pervert~” Remembering what she had inadvertently swallowed upon waking, a faint blush rose on Chen Yuanyuan’s exquisite face. She also couldn’t understand why it had turned out this way.
“Who could it be?” Ah Ke sounded like she was asking, but also like she was talking to herself.
“Do you think it could be His Majesty?” Chen Yuanyuan ventured. In her view, whoever it was could have easily taken their bodies but had ultimately refrained…
She was equally confident in her own charms. She alone could make any man kneel at her feet, let alone with her equally beautiful daughter beside her. No man in the world could resist such temptation—unless… he wasn’t a man.
Who else could come and go freely within the palace, making all the maids dare not speak the truth? Chen Yuanyuan could only think of Zhao Gou. Though Zhao Gou didn’t need to sneak into Ah Ke’s bedchamber, tonight *she* had been sleeping there as well.
Chen Yuanyuan had endured so many twists and turns in life. Having come from the pleasure quarters, her understanding of men’s psychology was unmatched. She knew all about those unspoken, filthy desires men harbored. She and Ah Ke were beautiful, and they were mother and daughter. It was entirely natural for Zhao Gou to have wicked thoughts.
But as the sovereign, such incestuous behavior, if exposed, would invite impeachment from every official in the court and tarnish his name in the annals of history. Moreover, the Southern Song was currently allied with Wu Sangui. If word of this reached him, and he once again “rose in rage for the beauty,” the consequences would be dire.
Especially the fact that the culprit had only toyed with them without actually going all the way… The more Chen Yuanyuan thought about it, the more she suspected Zhao Gou. A flash of anger crossed her clear, painting-like features.
“It shouldn’t be him,” Ah Ke shook her head, blushing. “If he could produce… that stuff, he wouldn’t be childless.”
Chen Yuanyuan suddenly realized her mistake. *How foolish of me. If Zhao Gou could actually produce that, even if he couldn’t perform, the imperial physicians would find ways to impregnate the consorts. There would be no need to choose two imperial clan heirs as successors.*
“But if not him, who else in the palace could it be?” Chen Yuanyuan wondered.
“Maybe some martial arts master.” Having studied martial arts herself, Ah Ke instinctively thought of wulin night-thieves.
Chen Yuanyuan shook her head. “The palace is heavily guarded, especially the inner harem. If wulin masters could come and go so easily, this palace would be a marketplace. Since you’ve been in the palace, have you ever heard of any master breaking in?”
“Never,” Ah Ke admitted, though she wasn’t convinced. “Ordinary masters might not get in, but what about the top-tier ones?” Having drifted through the wulin herself, she had always held a reverent admiration for legendary figures of the martial world.
“The Weapon-Bearing Officers in the palace are all top-tier experts. And besides…” Chen Yuanyuan trailed off vaguely, then continued, “Unless that person’s martial arts were the best in the world, how could they vanish without a trace?”
“But if someone’s martial arts were truly that high, wouldn’t they be an elderly, respected senior? How could they stoop to such base, despicable acts?” Chen Yuanyuan spat.
“Whoever it is, I will find them and tear them apart,” Ah Ke clenched her fists and silently swore.
*****
Meanwhile, shortly after Song Qingshu and Li Yuanzhi had left, he suddenly sensed something and came to a halt.
Li Yuanzhi was still riding the high of her successful revenge and only realized something was wrong when he stopped. Before she could ask, Song Qingshu pressed a hand over her mouth and made a silencing gesture.
“With martial arts as profound as yours, you must be a well-known figure in the wulin. Why would you stoop to such despicable acts of breaking in to steal women’s affections?” An aged voice came from diagonally behind them. Though each word was spoken softly, every syllable struck like a bell tolling in their hearts, making Li Yuanzhi dizzy and deeply uncomfortable.
She peeked out from behind Song Qingshu and gasped.
A figure in a black cloak, revealing only a white-bearded mouth and chin, was slowly descending from the sky with the moon at his back.
“Is he human or ghost?” In the dead of night, such an entrance made Li Yuanzhi’s hair stand on end.
Song Qingshu did not turn around, nor did he use his real voice. Instead, he spoke in a strange tone, “To have cultivated the Nine Yin Scripture to such an unfathomable level… could you be Huang Shang?” He too had practiced the Nine Yin Scripture and knew that among the current masters, aside from Wang Chongyang, only the original author Huang Shang could have reached such a level. He had met Wang Chongyang, so the identity of this man was obvious.
Though the wulin rumored that Huang Shang had long passed away, during his trip to the Jin kingdom, Song Qingshu had learned from the Yellow-Robed Maiden that Huang Shang was still alive.
“Without turning around, without even crossing blades with me, you can tell that I practice the Nine Yin Scripture?” The man in the black cloak was clearly taken aback. “When did such a formidable young man appear in the martial world?”