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"Dean." Li Chenjing pressed his lips together and raised his hands in a courteous salute. But when he looked up, the dean's face, which had been twisting through a hundred expressions, suddenly lit up—

"Eh? Ah? Oh my! Grand Secretary Li, you're finally here! I've been waiting for you. Come up, come up! Say a few words to everyone, speak from the heart! You're the head of the six ministries in our Dongxu Mansion Student Council! Come on up! We all want to hear your instruction, hahaha! Why not share with the new Academy Students some of the loyal counsel you offer the Holy Emperor?"

"No need. What I say to His Majesty is useless to normal people."

"..." In other words, just how abnormal was the sovereign they would serve and pledge their lives to? "Then, if you don't wish to speak, I won't force you. Shall I con-continue?"

"..." Li Chenjing did not move. He merely stared straight at him.

"Grand Secretary Li, p-please don't look at me like that. It makes me terribly uncomfortable..." Even when Grand Secretary Li turned his alluring, peach-blossom eyes on a man, they could still set the imagination running. "Could it be that you... have other guidance for me? No, no, orders! What are your orders? I'll send someone to carry them out at once."

"You were the one who needed something, Dean."

"Me?"

"The Imperial Sword."

"..."

"You were just shouting that you wanted the Imperial Sword to chop someone down. Shall this student fetch it for you?"

Thud!

The dean lunged to the floor like a pouncing tiger... Half a beat later, he fainted and was taken to the Infirmary.

The dean's speech was officially over!

Thunderous applause erupted from the Student Seating—freedom at last! Thank goodness the Prime Minister's Son had seen an injustice, drawn his sword, and come to their rescue!

Zhu Bafu halfheartedly joined the applause around her, raising an eyebrow as she watched Li Chenjing ignore it and sweep away with a flick of his sleeve. She had long heard that Dongxu Mansion's Student Council, formed by the six ministry commanders, wielded considerable power. All six commanders were handpicked by the emperor, making it a Mini-Court within the mansion. She had not expected even the dean to have to dance to its tune. So the dean ranked below the head of the Student Council? Then the Student Council was practically the Supreme Authority in the academy! No wonder that Minister of Revenue had been bold enough to harass her own little brother with that damned Seal!

Fortunately, Young Master Piao had come to her to ask about the gossip surrounding those six ministry commanders. If anyone else found out Xiaojiu had anything to do with that kind of

old man,

wouldn't Xiaojiu's whole life be ruined?

The urgent thing was to find out exactly who that beast was. Perhaps she could follow the vine to the melon and uncover where the other five Seals were.

Xiaojiu, who worked as a Study Attendant at Dongxu Mansion, had told her that an Annex Courtyard lay within the Inner Chamber of the East Courtyard. The six commanders used it as their private study retreat. From the Square Central Hall, six wooden pavilions led to six separate Elegant Chambers.

Personnel, Revenue, Rites, Military, Punishments, Works.

But... Zhu Bafu frowned as she studied the six identical-looking Elegant Chambers. How was she supposed to tell which one was the Minister of Revenue's study?

One doorway had a pair of lustrous jade ornaments hanging from its eaves. Another had several peonies tucked into its door latch. Two sharp swords hung by the entrance beneath the roof ridge over there. Hmm, why did that one have two cement buckets hanging from it...? Ah! Two abacuses hung from those beams. That had to be the Minister of Revenue's study, right?

Zhu Bafu crept toward the door with the abacuses and peered through its narrow opening. Inside, a slender, jade-white hand held a pale jade vase while its other hand gently placed several gorgeous peonies into it...

A w-woman?!

There was a woman in this academy? What had the dean just proclaimed before everyone about its century-old rules?

Dongxu Mansion's rules were strict. Even the Academy Students' female relatives and visitors were turned away. To put it bluntly, this place was a Monastery brimming with men! That old beast, the Minister of Revenue, not only preyed on children but also kept a woman hidden in Dongxu Mansion?

The delicate hand arranging the flowers paused. A peony spun in its palm, then shot toward her stem-first like a weapon and struck the doorframe with a smack.

Zhu Bafu sucked in a startled breath, clapped a hand over her mouth, and turned to flee down the wooden stairs. But a silver smoking pipe suddenly reached out from the shadows and hooked her foot. Caught off guard, she pitched forward off the stairs and tumbled down with a clattering crash.

"Aiya! Yamete!! Help—Bam! Smack! Thud!"

The fall was both spectacular and brutal. Zhu Bafu lay sprawled on the floor, her face bruised and swollen, whimpering for ages without managing to get up. Propping herself up by the waist, she grimaced and blinked at the man standing above her, smoking his pipe.

"I wondered who had the dog-gall to trespass in the Six Ministries Forbidden Land of Dongxu Mansion. So it's you, Zhu Bajie!"

Huh? That familiar, grating voice, the smell of tobacco all over him, and that nasty habit of calling her Zhu Bajie at every opportunity—

Y-Young Master Long?!

What was he playing at? Why did he keep haunting her like a restless ghost? Had her beauty moved him so deeply that, after chasing her around trying to propose that day, he had flown into a rage when she refused him and followed her here to spoil her plans?

His black boots drew closer, step by step. The fall had left her gasping for breath, and all she could do was crawl across the floor. She could not stop him from closing in with that wicked air of his.

"D-don't come any closer!" A woman's virtue and chastity and all that—she understood those things. If he tried to force himself on her, she would bite off her tongue and die right in front of him.

"Hmph." Young Master Long gave a mocking laugh. He was already crouching before her, meeting her eyes. A smile curled his lips as he let out a thoroughly insincere sigh. "You little wretch! You took my silver, failed to do what I paid you for, and still dared to show your face before me. Have you come looking for death? Hmm?"

"I... I did do it! I delivered the love letter to the Prime Minister's Son! In person, with my own hands, my own—"

"Your own what?" He suddenly reached out, pinched her chin, and pulled her a little closer.