Volume 1, Chapter 1: Qingwu, This Is My Person

"Eldest Young Master, stop running! If you go to the Eldest Princess's mansion to be a kept man, you will enjoy endless glory and wealth. If you run away now and Her Highness holds us accountable, none of us can bear the consequences!"

Behind her, the clinking of swords and jade pendants worn by the festive-dressed guards sounded like the tolling of the Grim Reaper.

Ye Fusang, dressed in a groom's red wedding robes, kept her eyes tightly shut, leaning her back against a corner of the stone-stacked wall. Whether from exhaustion or terror, her sideburns were dampened by cold sweat, and her slender hands supported her weakly against the bricks.

"Eldest Young Master! Eldest Young Master! If Her Highness blames us, how could your Ye family possibly withstand it!" The guard's voice echoed through the night.

Being a kept man was not an honorable path. This evening, she was supposed to be carried into the Eldest Princess's mansion in a sedan chair, but no one expected that she, the groom, would have the audacity to flee.

A few drops of cold sweat slid down Ye Fusang's pale forehead. She suddenly opened her eyes, gazing at the familiar red walls and white tiles around her. A flicker of struggle and weariness flashed through her icy phoenix eyes.

She had returned... after an entire lifetime, she had actually come back!

In her previous life, she had been betrayed by a trusted aide and died with a sword through her heart. Never did she imagine that after a life spent mastering ancient martial arts, she would return to this world.

Before she could even curse the heavens, a flush of heat spread across her pale face, and her entire body began to burn with an unbearable intensity.

As it happened, she had been reborn into this kept man who had been drugged.

Disguised as a man, she was a fake illegitimate son sent to marry the Eldest Princess in place of her legitimate brother. She certainly couldn't be brought to the Princess's mansion; if the crime of deceiving the Emperor were discovered, death would be inevitable.

"Check over there!"

Ye Fusang raised her hand, sealing several of her own acupoints with two fingers, and her lean figure leapt upward.

The wall was too high. After clearing the wall and landing, Ye Fusang found it difficult to take a single step. She didn't know how much aphrodisiac she had been fed; she frowned slightly and headed inward.

The courtyard was deathly quiet, not even a dog barked.

Just as Ye Fusang spotted a clear spring, her reason was almost entirely consumed. She leaped into the icy water, which felt bone-chilling in the autumn air.

Yet she still felt hot; her mind was groggy, on the verge of being boiled into a bubbling pot of porridge.

Instinctively, Ye Fusang tore at her groom's robes. Soon, she was left with only her undergarments.

Suddenly, a bone-deep chill surged through the water. This was... She sobered instantly. Looking back, she saw a man in purple official robes, so beautiful that his gender was indistinguishable.

Under the moonlight, his thin lips and jade face were sculpted by a master, his side profile standing apart from the world, as if one could see the snow on the spring mountains by lowering his gaze, or the moonlight over a thousand mountains by glancing to the side.

The moment he entered the water, the surrounding surface instantly turned into shards of ice.

This was... the Fourteenth Frost!

A flash of shock crossed Ye Fusang's phoenix eyes, the lust now receding.

The Fourteenth Frost was a legendary, long-extinct poison. It was not concocted from toxic materials but was a symptom caused by being critically wounded by someone who had mastered the internal energy of the Fourteenth Frost.

The Fourteenth Frost was incredibly difficult to cultivate, requiring years in high, snowy mountains. Only one person in the world had mastered it, but that man... should have vanished long ago.

Still, it was fortunate; there was no aphrodisiac that the Fourteenth Frost could not neutralize.

In an instant, the man in the water grabbed her neck as if she were a chick. His bony fingers felt like a thousand-mile-deep abyss. The man's cold, indifferent peach-blossom eyes stared fixedly at Ye Fusang, though his gaze was hollow and lifeless.

In this state, it was clear he was near death.

***

This person was truly something, running around when he was sick.

Just as her slender neck was about to be snapped, the man suddenly released her. He lowered his head and pulled at her collar, revealing her lean, pale shoulder and neck. A flash of icy blue appeared in his eyes, and he bit down on her shoulder, drawing her blood.

Pinned under the man's tall frame in the water, she gasped for breath, her expression turning icy as she hesitated over whether to take this opportunity to kill him.

But then she noticed a red mole under his left eye, like a drop of cinnabar blood, exquisitely beautiful.

Ye Fusang felt the mole was somewhat familiar, though she couldn't recall where she had seen it. Having lived three lifetimes, it was normal for her memory to be poor.

The man suddenly let go, seemingly unsatisfied. He reached up to grip her chin and bit down on her lips.

He pulled her thin frame deeper into the water.

Blood from her lips merged into their teeth, and the bone-chilling water flooded Ye Fusang's nose.

This lunatic!

He was dragging her down to the bottom of the water!

Ye Fusang choked on several mouthfuls of water, her body trembling with cold. Summoning her internal energy, she broke free and swam toward the surface.

The technique she once practiced—"Beauty's Loathing"—did not affect the body, but the soul. But "Beauty's Loathing" was unique and highly recognizable. In all the world, the only one who had mastered it was the world-renowned Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Secret Pavilion, Yan Jiangli.

The man's icy-blue peach-blossom eyes were like an abyss, filled with mystery yet signaling death.

He suddenly reached out and grabbed her ankle. She kicked him several times to no avail, and could only drag him up with her.

As soon as they surfaced, he collapsed on the bank.

"Who goes there!" Just as Ye Fusang stood up to slip away, a long sword was suddenly pressed against her neck.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Even she had to admit, this sword was fast—too fast.

Feeling the cold blade against her neck, Ye Fusang pursed her lips slightly. See, this was the consequence of being soft-hearted; she got caught and was now being threatened with death!

No, if she weren't soft-hearted, she would have died even more miserably.

Thinking this, Ye Fusang's face darkened.

"You, a man, actually dared to take liberties with our Prince! I'll have your head!" Jingzhi looked at their lips, now stained with blood that had congealed and still radiated a chill. Just as he was about to slit Ye Fusang's throat, a pebble struck him instantly.

"Zangqing, are you stopping me again? If it weren't for your womanly kindness, would so many pieces of trash dare to harm the Prince? —And this one is even more audacious, actually taking liberties with our Prince. If he were a woman, it might be one thing..."

"What’s the rush? You’re so impatient. The Prince actually drank his blood just now; I don't know the reason, but we must keep him to figure it out." Zangqing, dressed in dark green warrior attire, jumped down from the wall, his expression calm. "They are catching up. You go handle the tails behind us; I will take the Prince and him back first."

"He's a man! If the Prince wakes up and finds out he kissed a man, he'll either split him in two or split both of us in two!" Jingzhi pouted and chopped the back of Ye Fusang's neck, knocking her unconscious.

When Ye Fusang woke up, she was already chained to a foul-smelling cross.

The humidity in the cell was too heavy. Were it not for the aphrodisiac, she should not have been exposed to such cold. Ye Fusang curled her lips and looked at the man in white as pure as jade in front of her. His enchanting appearance, under those lazy peach-blossom eyes, flashed with dangerous, cold light.

Ye Fusang drooped her head, a ripple passing under her eyelids as she said aggrievedly, "Your Highness, what are you doing? I did save your life, didn't I?"

***

"You took liberties with the Prince last night; we haven't even settled that account yet." Jingzhi sneered at Ye Fusang from the side. "Hmph, that was the Prince's first kiss—enough to buy your life a hundred times over!"

After a moment of silence, Ye Fusang smiled slightly. "True, my fault. I shouldn't have dragged the Prince into the water to take liberties with him."

Chu Yi’s icy peach-blossom eyes sank; he glanced sideways at Jingzhi. "Get out."

"But... Your Highness, I..." Before Jingzhi could finish, Zangqing kicked him out of the cell. "My backside!"

"Where is the Star Flower?" Chu Yi stared calmly at Ye Fusang, rubbing a string of white jade Bodhi beads in his hand, looking like a cold, detached Buddha untouched by worldly noise.

Ye Fusang thought of how that azure flower had flowed directly into her wrist when she sank into the water last night. Her long eyelashes cast a shadow on her eyelids. She raised her eyebrows and smiled slightly. "What Star Flower? Your Highness, you can't extort someone as penniless as me. If you don't let me out, the Eldest Princess will get anxious."

Zangqing reminded from the side, "Your Highness, he is the kept man the Eldest Princess just accepted yesterday, but he ran away halfway. However, he is not the eldest son, Ye Yun, but the illegitimate son, Ye Fusang."

"Sword."

As Chu Yi spoke, Zangqing picked up a sword as thin as a cicada's wing and pressed it against Ye Fusang's shoulder blade.

He stared at the person on the cross who was silently swallowing her saliva, a trace of amusement in his cold, enchanting peach-blossom eyes. "Tell me. You don't want to be a kept man? Being a Prince Consort will do."

"..." This damn man.

Ye Fusang had never seen such ingratitude. She would have liked to hand it over, but the Star Flower had already entered her body; could it be dug out?

Ye Fusang felt the tip of the sword sink two more inches into her shoulder blade. She smiled sheepishly. "Your Highness, that Star Flower was shoved into my mouth by you yesterday. Have you forgotten?"

Seeing this, Zangqing slashed Ye Fusang's palm, caught half a bowl of blood, and presented it to Chu Yi.

Chu Yi glanced at it, and memories of him losing his mind and madly biting the person before him last night flooded his mind. His expression grew colder, but a smile touched the corners of his eyes. "Since you have eaten it, I will drink your blood."

"No... Your Highness..." Upon hearing this, Ye Fusang took a deep breath; she had already cursed Chu Yi's ancestors to the eighteenth generation in her mind. "I've thought about it—"

"I would rather be a kept man."

Not only had she failed to escape, but she also had to be both a kept man and a blood bag—it was truly a great humiliation! Ye Fusang thought, her teeth nearly grinding to dust... <i>A temporary measure, it's just a temporary measure.</i>

"Eldest Princess." Zangqing bowed as a woman walked into the cell.

Hearing this, Ye Fusang’s heart went cold again.

The woman was dressed in a pink silk gown embroidered with golden lotus patterns, her hair adorned with a golden-threaded blue peony. Her fox-like eyes, initially carrying a hint of mockery, turned cold the moment she saw Ye Fusang's face. "What kind of kept man is this that the Imperial Uncle speaks of? My newly accepted kept man is not this sallow, gaunt creature."

"How dare you deceive this Palace? Is your Ye family tired of living?"

As she spoke, the woman drew a whip from her waist, ready to lash it across Ye Fusang's face. Chu Yi flicked a white jade bead toward her, then caught it back in his hand. His voice, deep and clear like jade covered in dust, carried a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Qingwu, this is my person."

Chu Yang looked at Chu Yi's expression, then smiled instantly. "Since it is a gift from the Imperial Uncle, I shall accept it."