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"You're called Ying Yi or whatever, right? I'm telling you, if you don't let me out now, once I become your master's husband, you'll have a bitter pill to swallow!" With the person he wanted gone, Bu'er could only threaten Ying Yi to vent his anger.

To his surprise, Ying Yi refused to indulge him either, exposing him outright. "Really? Then why, Young Master Bu'er, are you still being left here by my master to clean the room, even dressed like that?"

Ying Yi's voice rose at the end, and he even bent down, thrusting his face before the youth's in provocation.

He had long been fed up with this foul-mouthed youth. His master had finally found someone who understood her, only for this little bastard to show up and start making trouble! The time his master spent with the Imperial Preceptor had noticeably decreased lately.

"Ying Yi!" Furious, Bu'er grabbed the hidden guard's collar and pulled him close. He had intended to curse him some more, but after glancing in the direction Lou Yun had left, he seemed to remember something and resentfully let go. He glared at Ying Yi, lowered himself from his tiptoes, and straightened his robes. "Sooner or later, I'll make you suffer!"

Ying Yi shrugged indifferently. A blade flashed, striking beside his feet, and a centipede that had nearly crawled onto the toe of his boot was sliced in half.

"My gu insect!" Bu'er cried. He pointed at Ying Yi's nose, about to curse, but Ying Yi knocked his hand aside with his dagger. "If you weren't still useful to my master, I could slit your throat with this dagger right now. Do you believe me?"

Ying Yi's eyes curved. He looked as though he were smiling and joking, but he made no effort to conceal the icy menace in his voice.

"Tch!" Unable to beat the man before him, Bu'er could only slam the door shut in a temper and obediently clean up everything he had painstakingly prepared.

"Anyway, before long, you'll be begging me to go see Lou Yun."

Meanwhile, after leaving the room, Lou Yun had intended to sit in the study for a while since she had no room available for the moment. Instead, the longer she sat inside, the hotter she grew.

Looking at the cold air seeping through the window, even someone as slow on the uptake as Lou Yun would have realized she had been drugged, let alone someone who had encountered this sort of thing quite a few times.

I really can't keep Bu'er around, Lou Yun cursed inwardly.

She waved a hand and ordered into the empty air, "Bring Ying Liu here."

"Yes." The hidden guard who dropped down saw Lou Yun's condition and brought Ying Liu over by the scruff of her neck.

"Hey! Hey! What's the rush? Little Wuzi!" A girl's clear voice echoed all the way from the southern side of the crown prince's residence to the right.

Lou Yun struggled to suppress the anger surging inside her and thought hazily, So that taciturn Ying Wu is on duty today. He must have simply grabbed Ying Liu and brought her over. She'll be making enough noise all the way here to give anyone a headache.

Everything went just as Lou Yun expected. Even when Ying Liu was dumped onto the floor before her, her mouth had not stopped for a moment. "Damn you, Little Wu! What did you bring me here for? Believe me, I'll poison you to death with one bottle..." The girl's voice abruptly stopped. She turned awkwardly and waved at Lou Yun, who sat behind the desk. "Master... hehe... you're here too?"

"Enough nonsense. Come here and examine me." Holding her forehead, Lou Yun extended her other arm and urged her over.

Ying Liu was quite capable. Whenever Lou Yun was away from the capital, she was also the one who disguised herself as her and stayed there in her place. Aside from her overly flighty temperament, Ying Liu could be considered a competent subordinate in every respect.

"Ah." Lou Yun sighed. Ying Yi was still the least troublesome. She had no idea where things had gone wrong. Every member of this group she had chosen was first-rate in ability, but perhaps all their talent had gone into their skills. Each had some little flaw or other. Normally, when she wore a cold expression, they all acted meek as lambs before her. Whenever she was in a good mood, their true colors emerged, each noisier than the next, giving her a headache.

I might as well sell the whole lot of them.

The girl placed her fingers on Lou Yun's pulse. Her cheerful expression grew serious, then finally turned into outright excitement.

"Master, someone drugged you~"

The girl spoke gleefully. Lou Yun could almost see a tail wagging furiously behind her.

"I know," Lou Yun replied in despair.

"Who? Who was it? Who dared drug you, Mas-

"-ter? Did you drug yourself? Oh~ I get it! You want me to fetch the Imperial Preceptor now, right? Master, you're using the self-injury stratagem!"

The excitement on Ying Liu's face grew, and her train of thought veered further and further off course. Without waiting for Lou Yun's answer, she sprang up and made to run outside.

Quick-eyed and quick-handed, Lou Yun caught the girl by the collar again and flung her to the floor. "Listen to me!"

"Ow!" The girl fell flat on her back, tears welling at the corners of her eyes from the pain. Hearing Lou Yun's angry voice, she fearfully rubbed her backside and said aggrievedly, "All right, go ahead. That hurt so much."

Lou Yun was speechless for a moment. Did she think she had missed the foot that had stretched out beside her at just the right moment as she fell? With Ying Wu cushioning her landing, where had that pain come from?

She glanced at Ying Wu, the one who really ought to be crying out in pain. His expression had not even changed.

"Neutralize the drug right now."

"Huh?" Ying Liu tilted her head in confusion. "But the antidote takes four hours to brew. Even if I really made it, you'd have already burst apart and died by then, Master. You'd be better off venting it."

Almost the very next second, Ying Wu and Ying Liu felt an oppressive force crash down on them like Mount Tai.

Ying Liu instantly dropped her irreverent attitude and said timidly, "Or, Master, you could find whoever drugged you. They must have the antidote."

Lou Yun closed her eyes briefly. Remembering that choking room, she supposed it had been intended to cover up the smell of the drug.

What a... fine scheme. It had been a long time since anyone had successfully plotted against Lou Yun, and her anger deepened. She ordered coldly, "Tell Ying Yi to bring Bu'er here."

"Yes," the two answered in unison.

Before long, Bu'er stood before Lou Yun with an exceedingly arrogant air. "A Xie~ You came looking for me after all~"

Looking smug, the youth spread his arms and lunged toward Lou Yun.

Lou Yun took two steps aside to avoid him. "The antidote."

"A Xie~" The youth was not annoyed at being dodged. He moved close to Lou Yun again. "Don't be like this. Why neutralize it? I'm right here~ I can help you, A Xie~"

The youth's cloying voice and the heat coming off his body-every bit of it disgusted Lou Yun intensely. She seized him by the throat and said viciously, "If you don't hand it over, I'll end your life right here."

Experiencing suffocation once more, Bu'er kept pounding the hand clamped around his throat. "Cough, cough! Let go of me. I'll neutralize it. I'll neutralize it, all right?"

Lou Yun released him. The youth slid to the floor, took a porcelain bottle from his clothes, and offered it to her.

Just as the medicine bottle passed fully into Ying Liu's hand, Bu'er suddenly looked at Lou Yun, smiled, and asked, "Since you've been drugged, A Xie, why didn't you find that Pei Qing or whatever to relieve it? Why spend all this time arguing with me here for the antidote?"

"What's it to you?" So ruthlessly dismissed, Bu'er smiled in self-mockery.

"It is the antidote." Ying Liu handed the porcelain bottle to Lou Yun.

Bu'er said nothing more, merely staring unblinkingly as Lou Yun took the antidote.

The instant she swallowed it, the smile at the corners of Bu'er's mouth widened. When he saw Lou Yun's steps falter, he burst into unbridled laughter.

"Hahahaha! A Xie, let me see what you desire!"

"Master!"

"Master!"

Ying Wu and Ying Liu pinned Bu'er to the floor, pressing a blade tip to the youth's neck as they threatened, "What did you do to our master? Speak!"

Bu'er twisted his neck disdainfully and said calmly, "I'm just helping A Xie find the trigger~ After all, there are far too many possible triggers, and the range is far too broad. There are so many things in this world. If we tried them one by one, never mind whether it's even among the things we've thought of-even if it is, how many years would testing them take? I only wanted to use another curse to activate the curse already on A Xie~"

The youth licked his lips, his smile wild and arrogant. "Although my research into curses isn't extensive, and I can only induce them with drugs, I clearly succeeded, didn't I?"

"As long as I help A Xie break the curse and come through it, she'll definitely accept me. Then A Xie will be my wife, hahahahaha." Bu'er began to laugh under his breath.

Knowing what Bu'er had done, Ying Liu could not laugh at all. Didn't this mean her master was having another episode?!

She had only had an episode not long ago, and now another had come so suddenly, in the study, without any preparations whatsoever! Hey!

They were doomed!

Ying Liu took out her signal whistle and summoned all the hidden guards. No, they had to at least get their master into the bedroom.

There were things in the bedroom that could restrain Lou Yun temporarily.

The hidden guards who rushed over were alarmed at the sight of Lou Yun's blood-red eyes. At least, at least she must not have an episode in the study. There were far too many important things in there.

Ying Yi charged forward first, but before he could get close to Lou Yun, she sent him flying with another palm strike. The injuries from last time haven't even healed, and now I'm injured again, Ying Yi thought as he lay embedded in the dented wall, with nothing left to live for.

Bu'er, who had kept clamoring about helping Lou Yun, now hid himself extremely well. Huddled in a corner of the study, he watched coldly as hidden guards were repeatedly sent flying, waiting for a chance to slip out through an opening so he could become the savior who rescued Lou Yun.

Bu'er entertained this thought happily, waiting for the moment the hidden guards subdued Lou Yun, but the longer he watched, the more wrong the situation seemed.

Why were the hidden guards being beaten back wave after wave, until he was actually the only person left in the room who had not vomited blood...

Watching Lou Yun draw ever closer, Bu'er crawled backward in terror. But he had already hidden himself in a corner. Where else could he retreat?

"Y-you, don't come any closer! A Xie, A Xie, I was wrong! I'll never dare do it again! Wuwuwu, don't kill me! Don't come any closer!" Bu'er's voice shook with frightened sobs. In his fear, he threw out every lifesaving item he had on him.

Clearly, none of it did any good.

Ying Yi struggled to pull himself out of the wall and saw Bu'er cornered by Lou Yun:

"You're no good at accomplishing anything, only ruining everything!"