"You did well, Ji'an," the General whispered into the quiet room, a fierce, protective tear finally escaping the corner of his eye. "You survived. Sleep now. Father has the watch."
Outside the estate, the storm had passed.
But as the General sat guarding his daughter, he knew that the true tempest, the princes, the demons, and the forces that had driven her to become so impossibly strong, was only just beginning.
***
For the first time since she had transmigrated into this chaotic, heavily contrived, and highly lethal web novel universe, Lin Ji'an slept with no defense mechanisms active.
She did not set a proximity ward, nor kept her Black Iron Spatula under her pillow.
And slept without the tight, suffocating, rib-crushing linen chest binder that had served as the constant reminder of her disguise.
The mattress in General Lin Tianzong's private sanctum was an engineering marvel of comfort.
