The scarlet gauze palace lamps hanging from the Golden Silk Nanmu beams cast the Eastern Palace's main hall in a dim, suggestive red glow.
The Crown Prince reclined sideways on a peony-carved couch, his five fingers sunk deep into the proud, snowy flesh of the beauty beside him.
Pain brought tears to the woman's eyes, yet she only dared let out a soft "Mm," then nestled against him even more obediently.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, please drink..."
Twelve dancers clad only in thin gauze held green jade cups in their hands, their delicate fingers seeming carved from crystal beneath the gleam of colored glass.
They took turns kneeling to offer him fine wine. Whenever liquor trickled down from the Crown Prince's lips, fragrant tongues immediately curled out to lick it clean.
The gilt clepsydra in the corner of the hall dripped steadily. Amid the cloying scent of powder and perfume, the Crown Prince narrowed his drunken eyes.
In his haze, he seemed to see Lin Qinghan among those dancers—but how could she possibly be wearing such revealing gauze robes?
This Crown Prince must truly be drunk... Hahahahaha.
Laughing wildly, he hurled his wine cup at a gold-painted pillar. The crash startled every beauty in the hall.
No one dared remind the Crown Prince that, outside the palace city at this very moment, the Eastern Depot's mounted guards had silently encircled the place.
"Ah—!"
A series of shrill screams suddenly rang out from beyond the hall, followed immediately by frantic, disorderly footsteps.
The Crown Prince had been resting his head upon a beauty's jade-like thighs when the sound made his drunken body jolt violently.
"You pack of useless bastards!"
In a rage, he shoved away the woman beside him and staggered to his feet, his golden crown hanging crookedly amid