Volume Three, Chapter 15

He did not know when she had started plotting a counterattack, nor whether she had ever considered using him to get close to His Majesty. He did not want to ask, nor did he want to know. He clearly was not as foolish as the Young Master, yet he still believed the words she had tearfully confessed that day—even if she had never believed him.

Her gaze rose with his words. His Adam's apple, his heartbeat, and the scent on him were exactly the same as the Young Master's, yet his voice was so cold that she could not tell whether he had just been mocking her in return.

"From the sound of it, Lord Li and I really are evenly matched, neither of us better than the other..." She kept her voice level and composed, then added a mocking smile. "I appreciate Lord Li's good intentions. Put me down. I can walk in by myself."

She made as if to struggle free from his arms, only to find that his hold around her tightened.

Just as she reached out to shove him away, she suddenly heard a voice crash down from above, muffled to the extreme before finally forcing its way out.

"You can't let bygones be bygones, so what about me? What makes you think I can?"

What did that mean? Her heart had not returned from the Young Master's side, and she could not let bygones be bygones. But Lord Li's heart should never have been with her from beginning to end. Why could he not treat her like a stranger?

She froze and was just about to look up at him when His Majesty's voice came from the entrance to the Sleeping Quarters, interrupting her.

"Xiaoru?" His Majesty called her by her maiden name, making her