The Princess Consort on the Bed

The princess consort looked at the maid who had once been inseparable from her and felt cold all over.

She knew resistance was futile. From the moment this woman revealed her true colors, she had become a plaything in her palm.

Li Rong'er slowly closed her eyes, and two streams of clear tears slipped down her cheeks.

Su Xin was very pleased with her reaction, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

"Princess Consort, that's right. A wise person knows which way the wind blows. You only need to cooperate obediently, and I promise that once it's done, you'll still be the Princess Consort of Xiushan, high above everyone else."

As for whether the princess consort would have lost her chastity, that was none of her concern.

Li Rong'er did not answer, but her body trembled slightly.

Su Xin did not mind. She stood, walked to the window, and pushed it open a crack to look at the sky outside.

The night was already deep.

"Stay here and get some rest," Su Xin ordered without turning her head. "Don't think of playing any tricks before I return."

As her words fell, her figure flashed. Like a weightless feather, she floated out through the half-open window and silently melted into the night.

Only Li Rong'er remained in the private room, along with a solitary lamp flickering in the wind.

Under the same night sky, on Black Wind Mountain.

The mountain wind howled, rustling the trees.

A white figure sped through the shadows of the forest, swift as a ghost.

Su Xin had changed into a neat set of night clothes, and a black cloth covered her face, leaving only a pair of cold eyes exposed.

She looked up at the indistinct firelight on the mountain, a trace of disdain curling her lips.

Mere mountain bandits, a mob of rabble.

The hidden sentries on the mountain path might as well not have been there before a Seventh Rank martial artist like her. She did not even make a point of avoiding them, simply flashing past under their noses with speed and movement far beyond ordinary people.

The drowsy bandits saw only a blur, as though the mountain wind had gotten in their eyes. They rubbed them and went right back to dozing.

Su Xin slipped easily into the heart of the stronghold.

Faint sounds of a drinking game and the stench of wine still came from the gathering hall.

She paid them no heed, circling straight around the gathering hall and, following the intelligence the scout had sent back during the day, making her way to the secluded stone chambers reserved for the bandit chief on the back mountain.

A heavy stone door was tightly shut.

But bright lamplight shone through the crack, accompanied by bouts of lewd laughter and a woman's breathy moans.

Su Xin stopped and listened.

"Chief, be gentle..."

"Hahaha! You little sluts, I'll show you what I'm made of today!"

"Oh, Chief, you're so naughty..."

Su Xin's delicate brows knitted slightly, and undisguised disgust flashed in her cold eyes.

He was indeed a debauched bandit.

He had probably let the princess consort go last time on a whim, or perhaps he had some other scheme. People like him were all jackals of the same pack to the bone.

She tapped the stone wall lightly with the tip of her foot and climbed silently to the top of the stone chamber like a gecko, then peered inside through a ventilation window.

Inside the stone chamber was a scene of wanton debauchery.

The bandit chief, his face covered in a bushy beard, was bare-chested, pinning a disheveled woman to a broad stone bed and fondling her at will.

They coupled like phoenixes and mythical birds, a sight too indecent to behold.

Su Xin snorted and silently cursed him as a lecher.

Still, she had accomplished her purpose in coming.

She had confirmed where the bandit chief lived, and that he was here alone with two ordinary bandit wives, with no other experts present.

The plan could be put into action.

She did not linger. Turning, she disappeared silently into the night, just as she had come.

Over the next few days, Chen Fan continued living his decadent life as the chief.

By day, he practiced with his saber and familiarized himself with the internal force of an Eighth Rank martial artist within him.

At night, he frolicked and played with his two wives.

That night, the feast in the gathering hall broke up especially early.

The mountain's stores of grain and good wine were nearly exhausted again. Iron-Armed Monkey was rubbing his fists, ready to head down the mountain for another big job the next day.

Half drunk, Chen Fan staggered back to the stone chamber in the rear quarters, his ghost-head saber slung over his shoulder.

He pushed open the heavy stone door.

A faint, unusual fragrance greeted him.

It was not the familiar scent of rouge and powder from the usual days, but a strange, slightly cloying fragrance... one he had never smelled before.

The stone chamber was also unusually quiet.

Usually, whenever he came back, those two little vixens Hong'e and Cuiqiao would have rushed at him, chattering away.

Why was there no sound today?

Chen Fan frowned, more than half his drunkenness gone.

He propped the ghost-head saber against a corner and strode inside.

By the light of the torches on the walls, he saw the scene inside.

In a corner, Hong'e and Cuiqiao lay slumped on the ground, one on each side, unconscious.

Chen Fan's heart sank sharply.

Something had happened!

He hurried over and checked their breathing.

Fortunately, they had only fainted.

He had just breathed a sigh of relief when he caught sight of the broad stone bed out of the corner of his eye.

There seemed to be... someone on the bed.

Chen Fan slowly straightened up and turned his head.

A woman was lying there on the stone bed, which was covered with a tiger skin.

Her clothes were disheveled, her hands and feet bound with coarse hemp rope and a wad of cloth stuffed in her mouth. Her long black hair lay in disarray across the pillow.

Her familiar yet unfamiliar face was filled with terror and despair, and two streams of clear tears silently slipped from the corners of her eyes.

It was her!

The woman who had claimed to be a fleeing merchant's family member!

The Princess Consort of Xiushan!

Chen Fan's mind was a tangled mess. Why was the princess consort here?

He looked at the utterly despairing woman on the bed, her eyes blurred with tears, then at the two unconscious bandit wives on the ground. His brows furrowed, and he understood something.

This was a trap.

A death trap set specifically for him, Black Wind Baleful Intent, one he could not wash clean of even if he jumped into the Yellow River!

Now, the only people in the stone chamber were him, two unconscious bandit wives, and a princess consort whose clothes were disheveled and who was bound hand and foot.

Chen Fan looked at the absurd, bizarre scene before him and was left speechless.