Jin Lingzhi

"Was Wonderful Music Tower fun?"

Once she left that familiar embrace, the jealousy in Jin Lingzhi's voice could hardly have been more obvious. She had wanted to give another huff, but with Fang Yunhua holding her right hand firmly in his, the displeasure on the tip of her tongue lost all its power to fuel her anger.

She tried to pull free, but the struggle looked more like a young lover acting coy.

Only after she had followed him in a daze all the way into the room the Mount Hua Trading Company had arranged for Fang Yunhua did she snap out of it.

Jin Lingzhi suddenly jerked her hand away and stamped her foot, completing her signature two-move combination.

"I waited four double-hours for you! And I heard you spent all four of them at Wonderful Music Tower!"

"You heard?" Fang Yunhua looked at her curiously.

"Hmph." Jin Lingzhi folded her arms and turned her head to avoid his gaze. Whenever she kept looking into his eyes, she somehow felt her resolve weakening. "Of course! The illustrious Amorous Young Master going to Wonderful Music Tower to seek pleasure-the news spread throughout the Capital City in a single afternoon!"

Fang Yunhua rubbed his chin, knowing that Wonderful Music Tower's behind-the-scenes owner had made a move.

This was exactly what he was happy to see, and those scraps of gossip had a negligible effect on him.

After all, the prevailing culture of this martial world was especially forgiving toward young swordsmen with talent, looks, strength, and powerful backing. Of course, his immediate priority was still to soothe Jin Lingzhi's wounded feelings.

"You must have heard some of the romantic gossip about Yan Wushuang and me."

Jin Lingzhi still refused to look at Fang Yunhua. She merely huffed to indicate that she had heard-and thoroughly disapproved.

Then Fang Yunhua earnestly explained how, in order to strengthen Mount Hua, he had first been forced to build his own reputation. To that end, he had reached a tacit understanding with Yan Wushuang, now the Capital City's foremost courtesan, to link their names together.

Mount Hua's development was now beginning to bear fruit. Naturally, his reason for spending an afternoon at Wonderful Music Tower on his very first stop in the Capital City-a place at odds with the Jade Hall of Spring, where Yan Wushuang resided-was to sever that association.

"It was all just playing a part for the occasion. Besides, you smelled me just now. If anything really had happened, would I smell this clean?"

"Who knows whether you took a bath beforehand..." Jin Lingzhi's voice inexplicably weakened again. She stopped stiffening her neck and arguing with him, looking at Fang Yunhua with a little heartache instead. "When I returned to the Ten Thousand Blessings and Longevity Garden a while ago, I asked some of my elders about how Mount Hua was doing.

"Some of them said you were using that romantic notoriety to help develop Mount Hua's trade routes. They also said it was your ties to certain friends that had allowed Mount Hua to shake off its decline. My fourth uncle, for instance, thinks very highly of you.

"But they also said... you might only be playing a part with those friends.

"Then am I... am I someone you're only playing a part with, too..."

Before Jin Lingzhi could finish, her lips were sealed.

Only after a long while did she draw great gulps of air and nestle docilely into Fang Yunhua's embrace.

As he gently stroked Jin Lingzhi's silky hair, Fang Yunhua recalled the chance encounter that had brought them together.

To bring back all the branches that had split away from Mount Hua long ago, he had spent his early years running all over the land. In this vast martial world, such travels inevitably gave rise to many stories born of coincidence.

He and Jin Lingzhi had both been traveling with the same merchant caravan. It was her first time sneaking away to explore the martial world, and a bandit attack had brought them into closer contact.

Fang Yunhua had killed seventeen of the bandits. Jin Lingzhi had killed only one before the bloody scene before her eyes sent her vomiting uncontrollably. Then, seeing how calmly Fang Yunhua behaved, she had begun to want to compete with him.

As Madam Jin's youngest granddaughter at the Ten Thousand Blessings and Longevity Garden, she had been showered with every conceivable affection since childhood. For a pampered young lady whose life had always gone smoothly, Fang Yunhua was the first man who dared not to indulge her in the slightest.

To borrow a line from a domineering CEO: Man! You've caught my attention!

After that, Jin Lingzhi, who had no particular destination or purpose, had taken the initiative to follow Fang Yunhua on his travels.

She had watched him use his superb eloquence to persuade a flourishing branch to rejoin Mount Hua outright.

She had also noticed how, after a setback left him somewhat downcast, he quickly rallied his spirits and headed for the next stop.

That spirited, youthful vigor-and especially his refusal to give an inch whenever her stubborn streak flared up-had drawn her to him more and more.

Of course, an even more important point was that Fang Yunhua was handsome.

He was the most handsome man she had ever seen among those her own age.

With her domineering-CEO tendencies and weakness for handsome faces both maxed out, their feelings had more or less reached a bottleneck, unable to take that final step. Then fate had offered an assist.

The Ten Thousand Blessings and Longevity Garden had learned that its little princess was roaming about and sent an urgent message summoning her home.

Parting was always bitter. Fang Yunhua had, in fact, grown accustomed to having this girl beside him-spoiled and headstrong, yet occasionally endearing-and the prospect had left him somewhat low in spirits, too.

As a result, the drinking session they shared before going their separate ways had brought their relationship through its final breakthrough.

With a newfound touch of womanly charm, Jin Lingzhi had waved goodbye to Fang Yunhua with apparent nonchalance, insisting over and over that she was the one who had taken advantage of him. After all, when they woke up in the same bed the next morning, both remembered that she really had been far too forward the night before.

In truth, she had not even traveled three li away from him before she began secretly shedding little pearls.

But after returning to the Ten Thousand Blessings and Longevity Garden, she had received his letters. She had also sneaked out several times to meet Fang Yunhua, leaving this willful young lady even more hopelessly in love with him.

Only now, at this reunion, Jin Lingzhi found that Fang Yunhua had changed again.

Before, they would occasionally bicker, neither willing to yield.

Now, he seemed more mature in the way he handled things. Although he had lost some of the youthful spirit that had set her heart racing when they first met, looking into those increasingly gentle eyes, with their boundless acceptance, seemed to intoxicate her even more than before.

As for whether he was merely playing a part, she already had her answer.

Jin Lingzhi's eyes gradually grew misty, as hazy as the glimmer of stars veiled in fog.

Those glimmers drifted slowly through a night sky washed in moonlight.

What happened next left Jin Lingzhi feeling that all the jealousy and anger pent up in her heart had finally drained away. She no longer thought about anything or wanted to do anything.

The fiery little pepper who had brimmed with energy was now as soft and limp as a cloud floating through empty space.

And while Fang Yunhua was enjoying his reunion with a beauty...

At that same moment, Chu Liuxiang was still diligently working his way through the plot. With his lead on Fang Yunhua temporarily cut off, all he could do was have Su Rongrong venture deep into the Divine Water Palace to investigate.

He himself began with the other four corpses instead.

Before the body of the Killer Scholar, Ximen Qian, had been discovered, his last known movements had led into the Vermilion Sand Gang's territory. Leng Qiuhun, the gang leader's disciple and the actual controller of Pleasure Hall, was a key figure Ximen Qian had contacted before disappearing.

Thus, Chu Liuxiang set his sights on him.

But just as he uncovered the first hint of a lead, he encountered a sudden attack from Red One Point in the Central Plains.