Feigning injury to win sympathy, taking liberties by imperial decree

Seeing the small fry flee into the distance, Chen Xuan, still standing where he was, immediately rolled his eyes and launched into an award-winning after-sales performance.

First, he deliberately relaxed his taut muscles, letting his shoulders sag slightly as he panted for breath. Then he shook out his right fist, its knuckles a little red from the recoil, turned around with difficulty, and dragged his "heavy, unsteady" steps toward Treading Snow. With a thud, he dropped to one knee, bowed his head, and said hoarsely:

"This subordinate... failed in his duty to protect you. I failed to stop those madmen a hundred paces away and allowed them to disturb your noble presence, Third Young Miss. Please pass judgment and punish me!"

He kept his head lowered, his voice so weak he sounded ready to faint at any moment, while inwardly he gleefully worked his little abacus:

Tsk, staging that move where I deflected the back of the blade with both palms really did let that bastard's blade wind scrape a little skin off me. But no big deal. Trading this insignificant scratch for the young miss's completely conquered heart? This deal is pure profit!

Only now did Xiao Ling'er finally recover from her overwhelming shock atop the horse!

She stared blankly at Scarface, lying in a pool of blood in the distance, his fate unknown, then looked down at Chen Xuan kneeling before her horse, every breath a heavy pant. Her mind was a complete muddle.

A young guard who had only broken through to Early-stage Bright Force yesterday at noon had actually fought a hardened, body-tempering desperado at the middle stage of Ming Jin to the finish to defend her dignity-unarmed, relying on nothing but force-deflecting moves developed while hauling water in the stables?!

What terrifying combat instincts did that require? And what utterly sincere loyalty, ready to face death without flinching, valuing her, Xiao Ling'er, above his own life?!

"You bastard... have you lost your mind?!"

Without warning, Xiao Ling'er's eyes reddened. Seeing the smear of blood on Chen Xuan's right knuckles-which was actually blood Scarface had spat out-she assumed he had cracked the bones in his hand by desperately fighting above his level. Heartache and lingering fear instantly drowned her reason!

She did not even wait for Chen Xuan to come steady her stirrup. Releasing the reins, she hurriedly swung herself down from Treading Snow:

"Who told you to catch that huge cleaver with your bare hands?! Is your hand ruined? Lift your head and let me see!"

But Scarface had first numbed her right arm while she was on horseback, and then she had endured the terrifying plunge and rise between life and death. Now, as she hastily landed, her tall calfskin riding boots happened to come down squarely on a slippery flagstone beside the street, covered in muddy water and moss!

Skrrt-!

Her boot soles abruptly slipped. Her already somewhat weak legs instantly lost their balance, and with a startled cry, her petite, delicate body pitched uncontrollably straight toward the hard, filthy bluestone ground!

"Ah-!"

Just as that exquisitely pretty little face was about to make intimate contact with the muddy water, Chen Xuan's eyes suddenly lit up from where he knelt three paces away!

Well, damn! Heaven really is chasing me down to spoon-feed me, huh? This workplace injury compensation couldn't have come at a better time!

How could Chen Xuan pass up such a perfect chance to take liberties by imperial decree? Lightly pushing off the ground with his toes, he darted forward like an agile leopard. An instant before Xiao Ling'er's knees hit the ground, his right hand shot out like lightning and caught her slender waist with unerring precision, his arm closing like an iron hoop before he sharply swept her into his embrace!

Thump!

An extremely soft, muffled sound rang out.

Xiao Ling'er crashed squarely into Chen Xuan's broad, solid chest!

Hiss... so soft!

The instant his arm wrapped around her, Chen Xuan felt as though his palm cradled a piece of warm, soft jade fresh from the steamer.

The fabric of her fiery-red riding outfit was already thin and close-fitting. Now, through that thin layer of brocade, the astonishing suppleness of the girl's waist and her scorching body heat traveled without restraint along the lines of his palm, burrowing straight into his bones! This was no mere sensation of fabric, but the most direct response of the taut, delicate, snow-white skin beneath it, like the finest congealed mutton-fat jade!

Worse still, the momentum of the collision pressed Xiao Ling'er's cheek hard against Chen Xuan's heaving chest muscles.

The young body that had just erupted into desperate combat was now like a furnace glowing red-hot, radiating an intensely fierce, pure, domineering scent of masculine hormones. Mingled with a faint smell of sweat, it flooded Xiao Ling'er's nostrils. The marquis's third daughter, who had never had such intimate contact with a man, felt her mind buzz and froze on the spot!

And as Chen Xuan lowered his head, his gaze naturally landed on the breathtaking view right before him-

Her fiery-red outfit's collar had already been tugged slightly loose while Xiao Ling'er fought with her whip on horseback. Now, with his arm around her and her chest squeezed against him, the snow-white ravine partly hidden beneath her red lapels looked practically bottomless from above!

Two breathtakingly full curves were slightly distorted by the pressure, dazzlingly white and lustrously smooth. They trembled before his eyes with the girl's rapid, uneven breathing, and he could even smell the orchid-like fragrance drifting from the depths of that snowy expanse!

Chen Xuan's Adam's apple bobbed hard twice. He felt the Eight Desolations Prison-Suppressing Yang Gang in his dantian, which had only just settled down, nearly plunge straight into Qi deviation!

One breath, two breaths, three breaths.

The fabric shop's assistants were all busy gathering the scattered silks. Not one dared spare another glance in their direction, and time seemed to have stopped completely.

Only when Chen Xuan's slightly heavy breath washed over Xiao Ling'er's snow-white neck and earlobe did the girl in his arms shudder violently, as though stung by a fire scorpion!

"You... let go of me!!"

Xiao Ling'er's entire pretty face instantly reddened until it looked ready to drip blood. Overcome with shame and anger, she planted both hands against Chen Xuan's iron-hard chest and shoved, stumbling two large steps backward!

She clamped one hand over her open fiery-red collar while pressing the other over her wildly pounding heart, which felt ready to smash through her ribs. Her almond-shaped eyes widened as she growled at Chen Xuan in flustered embarrassment:

"Insolent servant! Who... who gave you the damned nerve to put your arm around my waist in the middle of the street?!"

Facing the tsundere young miss on the verge of erupting, Chen Xuan followed the force of her shove and stepped half a pace back. There was not a trace of guilt on his face. Instead, he dropped to one knee again with a thud, cupped his fists, and pleaded for punishment in a pained voice filled with trepidation and utter remorse:

"This subordinate deserves death! Ten thousand deaths would not atone for my crime! But those beasts from the Black Tiger Gang had splashed wine and filthy mud all over these bluestones. You slipped as you dismounted and were about to fall onto the stones! Your person is worth a thousand gold, Young Miss. Had you suffered the slightest scrape or dirtied your clothes, even ten thousand deaths could not absolve this subordinate! In my desperation, I had no choice but to act and take liberties with you. Please draw your whip and punish me severely, Third Young Miss. This subordinate will not utter a single word of complaint!"

His words humbled him into the dust, but when he raised his head to speak, those startlingly bright eyes did not evade her in the slightest. They remained fixed squarely on the gap between the slender, jade-like fingers covering Xiao Ling'er's collar-that snowy curve she had yet to conceal completely dazzled in the sunlight. The scorching heat and concealed aggression in his gaze were so obvious that even a blind man could have seen them!

"You... you..."

Under that burning gaze, like a vicious wolf eyeing a fat lamb, Xiao Ling'er felt hot all over, and her long legs inexplicably weakened again.

Biting her red lip so hard it nearly bled, she instinctively raised her red-tailed snakebone whip, intending to give this outrageously audacious fellow a vicious lash, just as she usually disciplined unruly servants!

But when her gaze fell on Chen Xuan's still-bloodstained fists, the scene flashed through her mind again: Scarface's blade chopping down, this youth unhesitatingly shielding her from its full edge with his back as he roared, "How dare you profane a fairy of the Nine Heavens!" Her raised wrist trembled three times in midair, but in the end, she simply could not harden her heart enough to bring it down!

This bastard had clearly been injured saving her. If he had not caught her so quickly just now, she would already have fallen like a mud-covered monkey before the whole street, losing every scrap of face. How could she repay kindness with enmity by whipping him?

"You... where are those damned eyes of yours looking now?!"

In the end, Xiao Ling'er was only a seventeen-year-old girl with no experience of affairs between men and women. Under Chen Xuan's scorching stare, she was utterly defeated. She stamped her riding boot hard, lowered her whip to her side, and scolded him in flustered anger, fierce on the outside but weak within:

"I'm standing steady now! Why are you still staring straight at my chest?! Believe me, I can have someone dig your eyes out with iron hooks and feed them to the dogs right now!"

Though she was still making vicious threats about gouging out his eyes, the tremor and embarrassment in her voice made it sound, however one listened, like empty bluster, rejecting him while inviting him closer!

Chen Xuan's heart blossomed with delight:

Tsk, tsk. You've put your whip away, and you're still talking tough to me? Little chili pepper, that tone hardly says you won't let me look. You're practically reminding me I haven't looked enough!

Despite his inward remarks, Chen Xuan obediently lowered his eyes. But as he bowed his head, he softly replied in a low, magnetic voice only the two of them could hear:

"Forgive me, Third Young Miss. Didn't this subordinate just say it? This western market is full of filthy, vulgar things. In this subordinate's eyes, there is no room for anything but your peerless splendor, unmatched in all the world."

Just as those utterly blunt words of love left Xiao Ling'er's ears blood-red and tangled her heartbeat into a complete mess, a hidden smile curved Chen Xuan's lips. Before he could rise, a sudden rumble of disorderly footsteps, like muffled thunder, came simultaneously from both ends of the distant street!