Chu Xuanzhen radiated a heavy chill. His scarlet brocade robe seemed to have been stained with another color, a deep, horrifying red.
His hair was immaculately arranged, the corners of his tightly pressed lips turned down. His handsome face looked as grim as a vengeful ghost coming to claim a life.
Countless guards followed behind him, their heads bowed. Like a rigorously disciplined force of Imperial Guards, they exuded an intensely oppressive presence.
The servants in the courtyard dropped to their knees with a thud, terrified. They knew that losing track of the master in that room had doomed them. None dared plead for mercy, lest they implicate their families.
Xia Zao was among the kneeling servants. He knelt with his back perfectly straight but his head firmly lowered, cold sweat trickling from his temples down both cheeks. In the shadows where no one could see, the fear and unease on his face lay bare.
No one knew that his unease came not from the prospect of death, but from Lord Chu standing before him.
He trembled slightly. No matter how hard he had thrown himself to his knees, the pain of them striking the ground was nothing compared to the violent, trembling ache in his heart.
Coldness enveloped Chu Xuanzhen. He stood just outside the threshold, silently staring at the wide-open door and the large, empty wooden tub inside. His icy voice seemed to have rolled through a freezing spring before emerging, one word at a time. "Where is Lord Shen?"
He did not need to check whether Shen Yangge was lying beneath the tub. His instincts told him clearly that the man had vanished again. This time, however, Little Liar had neither run away to leave him nor arranged for someone to take him away.
He had been