Chapter 1: Caught in the Act
Inside a palace built with piles of gold and jade, fragrant smoke curled up from a pine-and-crane patterned incense burner with openwork carvings. Behind layers of sheer curtains, a slender and graceful figure lay reclining lazily, her clothes disheveled.
Her long hair, like ink spilled over smooth, jade-like shoulders, flowed down like the finest satin—black, soft, and shiny, cascading to the floor.
A breeze lifted the light veil like drifting sand, suddenly revealing a breathtaking beauty unparalleled in the world. Even the pearls by her pillow could not compare to her dazzling charm.
“Yu’er, are you in a good mood today?”
A corpulent middle-aged man stood obsequiously outside the curtains, staring infatuatedly at the beauty inside the bedchamber, his voice soft and cautious as if afraid to disturb a heavenly being.
A slender, delicate hand slowly reached out from behind the curtains, smooth and fine like intricately carved white jade, almost outshining the string of translucent jade beads hanging from the fingers.
The jade-like hand gently lifted the curtain, first revealing a pair of eyes half-drunken, half-awake, sparkling like stars. Her long, and feather-like eyelashes framed eyes beneath well-shaped brows that extended into her temples. Between her brows, two or three clusters of trumpet creeper flowers were delicately traced, and one glance from her was enough to captivate and mesmerize.
Her nose was straight and sharp like a mountain peak, and below it were sharply defined crimson lips, naturally curled upwards at the corners.
At this moment, her thin lips parted slightly, revealing snow-white teeth holding a golden wine cup. The wine moistened her lips, giving them a tempting, moist sheen. A faintly visible pink tongue licked the edge of the cup, seductively inviting a kiss.
Truly a born beauty. The middle-aged man could not help but hold his breath, his heart pounding like a drum. No matter how many times he saw her, he would involuntarily tremble with nervousness and feel a burning heat all over.
The beauty’s dreamy gaze settled on the man, her faint eyes rolling slightly with a smile that was both teasing and aloof.
“Thank you for your concern, Marquis. As a ¹rootless wanderer, how could I possibly talk about feeling good or bad?”
Her voice was soft and slow, tinged with a Wu dialect accent, with a gentle rising and falling tone and a slightly nasal quality that sounded like a coquettish purr, making one’s heart itch. Every frown and smile was full of enchanting charm.
The middle-aged man hurriedly asked with concern, “If there’s anything about your living conditions that displeases you, Yu’er, I will immediately order someone to change it.”
“I live very well, thank you for your care, Marquis.”
The beauty smiled as he rose from the couch, and with this movement, a dazzling scene suddenly appeared. He wore only a thin long robe in the bedchamber, underneath which he had nothing on.
His two long, slender legs were bare and flaunted boldly. A plain wide belt cinched his slim waist tightly, making his delicate waist even more slender, almost too slight to hold.
From the open collar, one could see that his chest was flat and smooth, and there was even an Adam’s apple on his neck. The beauty who had made the middle-aged man lose his mind was actually a man.
The man toyed with a priceless translucent jade bead necklace in his hand, each bead was clear and pure like ice, beautiful beyond compare, making one unwilling to put it down. Suddenly, he stopped joking and his expression turned serious: “How did the matter I asked you to handle go?”
The middle-aged man suddenly snapped awake and immediately stepped forward to claim credit: “As the beauty wished, I have already delivered the secret letter to the Third Prince’s palace. When the time comes, everyone will push the fallen wall — it will definitely give that censor a good beating, surely avenging you, my lord.”
The man smiled obsequiously and slowly moved closer to the other man, his eyes sweeping over the exposed skin. Desire was blatant in his gaze, and his meaning was clear: “Beauty, the matter is settled. Now about what you promised me…”
The beauty glanced at him.
Once, he was born noble, handsome and charming, having seen many beautiful women and talented scholars, and he had a high opinion of himself, thinking no ordinary person could catch his eye.
But looking back now, older men who care, who understand romance, who cherish and love in countless ways, are much more considerate than that pack of heartless wolves.
After getting the nod, the middle-aged man seemed to feel greatly honored, eagerly picking him up horizontally and placing him on the bed like a treasured gem.
Men are all like this when faced with beauty — utterly hopeless. The beauty tapped on his chest with his fist, scolding him with mock anger: “You dead ghost.”
Just as the two were about to consummate their passion, a cold flash suddenly appeared before the beauty’s eyes. Before he could react, a long, deadly knife pierced through the middle-aged man pressing on top of him, lodging right in front of him.
The blade was about an inch wide, slightly curved, long and slender like a young rice shoot. The edge was sharp as an autumn frost. Thick blood dripped down along the knife’s Big Dipper Seven Star pattern, spreading on the silk bed sheets.
The key point was — he recognized this knife!
“— Seven Star Dragon Abyss!”
The beauty’s face turned pale with shock. He suddenly pushed the middle-aged man off of him, hastily grabbed his clothes, and curled up inside the bed, looking toward the person holding the knife by the bedside.
That face was one he knew all too well.
For a moment, he was stunned, as if a faint electric current was spreading from his heart through his entire body, then flowing back again—his whole body tingled and went numb. His eyes stung, and a flood of indescribable emotions surged up, hard to put into words, as if he were dreaming.
His throat tightened, and almost choking, he said, “Aren’t you dead?!”
The man wiped the blood off the knife. He looked as if he hadn’t fully recovered from a serious illness and hadn’t slept well for a long time. His extraordinarily handsome face was cold and hard as iron. Deep dark shadows lay beneath his eyes, and his gaze was sharp and gloomy like a deadly weapon. His voice was low and filled with danger: “So, my beloved consort, you couldn’t wait to climb into someone else’s bed?”
The “beloved consort” twitched his eyebrows: “I thought you were dead, so I hurried to avenge you!”
Hearing that it was to avenge him, the man’s gaze softened slightly, but his words were still relentless: “Blame me for not dying.”
The beauty frowned and spat at him: “Bah!”
That just isn’t fun!
He glanced around. Normally, when old lovers meet again after life and death, there should be a dramatic reunion full of emotion. But under the current circumstances, it wasn’t fun at all.
The man’s possessiveness was very strong. He wondered how he would punish himself this time and even felt a little excited and somewhat expectant… Stop!
This was definitely not the time for pleasure.
He wanted to escape, but he knew all too well how strong the man’s martial arts were—it was impossible to avoid.
He could only watch helplessly as the man, like a ghost, approached him. Frightened, he curled up and tried to hide under the covers.
But that bastard showed no mercy or gentleness. Without hesitation, he pulled him out from under the bedclothes, glanced at his exposed skin, frowned, then casually tore down the curtain to wrap him up, carrying him over his shoulder like a hunted prey.
So rough!
A strong sense of guilt and a bad premonition made him struggle, hitting the man’s shoulder: “What are you doing? Let me go!”
Struggling was useless. This bastard was very strong, and the bone on his shoulder pressed hard against his stomach, causing him to cry out, “Ah!” The sour acid in his stomach nearly came up.
Noticing his discomfort, the man shifted his position slightly, and only then did he calm down.
He muttered curses as he watched the man carefully adjust his neatly closed collar, then quietly cursed him as a beast in human clothing. Finally, he couldn’t help but reach out and touch the man’s chest muscles.
The man was about to carry him away when suddenly his steps faltered.
Somehow, the hem of the beauty’s garment on his shoulder was grabbed tightly by the middle-aged man’s hand, who held on firmly, refusing to let go. The man took two more steps forward, but the middle-aged man was dragged along and tumbled to the ground, still stubbornly refusing to release his grip.
“Hmph, a thief’s heart never dies.”
The man looked at him coldly and contemptuously. With a twist of his wrist, a flash of cold light brushed past the middle-aged man’s head. At the same time, a strand of hair and the pulled garment hem snapped.
The middle-aged man shuddered all over, his grip weakened and his hand fell down helplessly. He couldn’t say a word, but stubbornly glared at the beauty.
The beauty felt a little guilty under his stare, fiddled with the jade bead string in his hand, and pointed at the man carrying him: “There’s a culprit and a debtor. I didn’t mean to harm you. Don’t come after me. If you want revenge, go after him—he’s the one who hurt you.”
Seeing the jade beads shaking on the shoulder, the man’s eyes darkened. He raised his hand and snatched it away.
Unexpectedly, the beauty instantly resisted, beating and cursing him was fine, but letting him steal his precious treasure was absolutely unbearable!
He wildly slapped and struggled on the man’s shoulder, trying to snatch back the beads: “Bastard, don’t touch my treasure! Give it back!”
However, before absolute power, any bluff was just a paper tiger.
The priceless jade bead string was thrown to the ground in front of the middle-aged man, and the finest icy jade instantly shattered into pieces.
Along with the jade beads turning to shattered fragments, the beauty’s heart also broke. He stood stunned for a moment before wailing, “My precious! You heartless beast who doesn’t cherish beauty, give me back my treasure! Give me back my treasure!”
“Don’t move,” the man said, a little headache from the commotion. He didn’t understand what was so special about the old man’s stuff, so he coaxed, “If you want, I’ll find you an even better one.”
Hearing this, the beauty finally calmed down, but thinking of the broken jade still brought him pain—it was nearly flawless top-grade icy jade!
Good jade is rare in this world, every piece is unique and irreplaceable, not something money can measure.
Before leaving, the man’s sly gaze swept over the middle-aged man’s graying temples on the ground—he looked close to sixty at least. He snorted coldly, “You really aren’t picky.”
“You don’t know anything. Old men are good, old men know how to care, and old men have money,” the beauty replied confidently.
The man laughed angrily, “Oh yeah? So you’re saying I don’t care about you? Just wait, I’ll take good care of you when we get back.”
“Beast!”
What a curse, truly a curse—he was probably the heaven-sent nemesis who haunted him through lifetimes.
In his previous life, he, the top courtesan of Yangzhou, died on this man’s bed.
After waking up from that sleep, resurrected, he returned to when he was sixteen, cautiously stepping through life, afraid to repeat old mistakes. Yet unexpectedly, he still fell into the same trap, ending up once again in this man’s grasp.
—
¹“Rootless wanderer” means someone who has no home or place to belong and drifts through life without stability.