Dragon Perch Valley, Lord's Mansion.
Morning light filtered through the gaps in the carved window lattice, casting scattered flecks of light across the floor.
Ru Mei lay on her side at the outer edge of the bed, propping her head up with one hand as she quietly watched the man sitting cross-legged before her.
As his personal maidservant, she had naturally attended him at his side last night.
She had been watching him like this for over half a shichen.
She did not dare move or make a sound. She had even deliberately softened her breathing, afraid of disturbing him.
At that moment, the morning light fell upon him, making his already handsome face seem as though it had been coated in a faint golden radiance.
His brow bones were high, his nose straight, his jawline sharp, and his skin carried the warm, lustrous sheen of jade.
Ru Mei's gaze slowly shifted from his face to his chest. His robe hung slightly open there, revealing a lean, muscular torso that rose and fell slowly with each breath.
She bit her lip, her cheeks faintly flushing.
Just then, Lin Mo's eyelids twitched.
Ru Mei's heart tightened. She hurriedly sat upright, placed her hands properly on her knees, and lowered her eyes.
Lin Mo slowly opened his eyes.
Deep within those pupils was an additional Dark Gold vertical streak, like a dormant dragon faintly glowing in the darkness.
A moment later, the vertical streak vanished, and his eyes returned to normal. Yet they were deeper and darker than before.
The instant Ru Mei met those eyes, her entire body stiffened as though she had been struck by lightning.
It was an uncontrollable sense of submission surging up from her very bones.
Like a mouse seeing a cat, a rabbit seeing an eagle,