Chapter 36

The Young Master had been away from the Prime Minister's Residence for days, and the moment he returned, he found them bullying the woman he was involved with... They were done for! The Young Master would hate them to death!

"Y-Young Master! You're back from Dongxu Mansion? We've all missed you!"

"...What are you doing?"

"Before Lord Wei left the Capital, he instructed us to guard the Prime Minister's Residence and be ready whenever you returned! We were..." The guards exchanged glances, then answered with ingratiating smiles. "We were cleaning house. Vases, women, obstacles—anything harmful to your prospects or your health—we're clearing it all away for the good of your body and mind!"

"...Lord Wei told you to?"

His cold gaze swept over them, bearing down with invisible weight. Unable to endure the disgust in their Young Master's eyes, the guards sucked in a breath and broke down, blurting out the truth.

"...Y-Young Master, please don't hate us. We're not bad people. Before Lord Wei left the Capital, he told us to obey the Master. And this woman—uh, this young lady—cost you another promotion, so the Master, well..."

"Your father ordered them to bring me here and make me leave you. But I won't." Liu Rongrong took over without making their story sound any prettier. Her bright eyes shifted toward the Prime Minister's Son, who could save her. "It seems your father doesn't intend to let me go, Chen Jing."

Li Chenjing moved. Without blinking, he looked at the woman before him, pressed his lips together, and strode toward the study. The guards seemed to guess his intentions and rushed forward to stop him.

"Young Master! Lord Prime Minister is doing this entirely for your career. You mustn't quarrel with him over her!"

"Young Master! Before Lord Wei left the Capital, he instructed us to put your safety above all else. But this woman is truly a □□. You cannot keep her at your side!"

"Young Master, she approached you to avenge her father after Lord Prime Minister submitted a memorial against him! She's trying to drive a wedge between you and Lord Prime Minister. Don't let her bewitch you again!"

"Young Master, His Majesty's refusal to promote you to a post in the palace was his final warning. You mustn't throw away your future for this pretty vase!"

"Move."

"Young Master..."

"Who said I was going to quarrel with him? I'm merely bringing someone to meet him."

Li Chenjing lightly raised an arm and held out his hand behind him. A short figure emerged from his back. In the moonlight, the figure proved to be a young gentleman with rosy cheeks and pouting lips. He blinked bewilderedly at the long, elegant hand extended toward him, his face a picture of indecision over whether to take it...

"Come here. Pay your respects to Father." His fingertips stirred, reminding her to play her part to the end. That wavering pig's trotter of hers needed to land in his palm.

"Young Master, do we really have to hold hands and join hearts?" Did he have to be such a brute? Just to save the woman he liked, he was going to put her life on the line?

"Come." He urged her again in a low voice, a trace of impatience in his deep tone.

The instant her hand landed in his warm palm, he gripped it tightly and pulled her forward. Without looking aside, he brushed past Liu Rongrong as though she were already a passing cloud, no longer there before his eyes.

Seeing their Young Master treat that courtesan with such cold indifference, never sparing her a glance or a question, the guards' hearts burst into bloom. Their Young Master was meant to work with His Majesty on great undertakings, seek out talent for the court, do great deeds, and become a man of consequence! Women and all that damned love were nothing but stumbling blocks! Someday he could find an obedient woman to bear him a child and carry on the family line. That was a real man!

Young Master, how mighty! You'd finally seen the light!

"Father, you've seized the wrong person. The person you want is here. This is my new lover."

"This humble scholar is Zhu Bafu. My respects, Lord Prime Minister. I seem to be, perhaps, possibly, maybe... your son's new lover. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Ignoring the tears, the tremor, the helplessness, and the outrage in a certain person's voice, Li Chenjing added, "Since Father detests women of the pleasure quarters, would... a Cut Sleeve do?"

Crack! Boom!

A bolt from the blue exploded over every guard's head—the Young Master had come out!

That unmistakably male creature, incapable of giving birth or continuing the family line, was the new lover he'd brought home?

Young Master, they'd only said "women aren't that important." Surely he didn't have to take it all the way to "women aren't needed at all"?

Young Master,

you'd seen a little too much light...

A cool night wind blew through. An eerie silence settled over the courtyard.

Zhu Bafu stood bowing outside the study, beside Li Chenjing, the Prime Minister's Son who had just announced his resolve to venture into the Longyang Realm. Several resentful, conflicted gazes bore into her back. Before her, candlelight flickered inside the Prime Minister's study. The wooden door stood ajar, offering only a wavering glimpse of a figure through the crack.

After hearing that his wayward son had come out, the man inside the study remained silent for a long while. The oppressive quiet made Zhu Bafu swallow several times. The longer a powerful man stayed silent, the more frightening he became. Who knew how many terrifying ways to deal with his son's newly appointed lover had already turned through his mind?

Burning at the stake, cutting in half at the waist, tearing apart with carts, flaying, beating with a rod, death by a thousand cuts, boiling alive, burying alive, castration... He had probably run through them all in his head by now.

"Young Master, I'm sacrificing myself for you. If your father does anything to me, you can't just stand by and watch me die." The more she thought about it, the weaker her legs grew. She leaned toward Li Chenjing and whispered in his ear.

His eyes narrowed. Without speaking, he ran a comforting hand down her back and gave her a brotherly pat. Don't worry. If we die, we die together.

"I don't want to die together! He's your father; he won't kill you. But... what if he does something to my Little Mushroom?"