The delicate incense burner quietly released aphrodisiac incense. Mixed with the scent of agarwood, it was nearly imperceptible. Xie Yu poured herself a cup of tea and extinguished the burner.
As the capital's largest den of excess, Xie Yu was not surprised to find aphrodisiac incense in the Golden Pavilion.
The attendant who had brought her upstairs was calling her. Xie Yu followed her out.
They cleaned two or three more private rooms together. Xie Yu deliberately made herself familiar to the staircase guards, then found an excuse to separate. From some unknown storeroom, she dug out a fresh set of blue-and-white attendant clothing and put it on.
She then began boldly investigating the Golden Pavilion's operations.
She had not expected to spot Old Jin in the crowd.
Why was she here?
Xie Yu reached out and stopped the hurried Old Jin. Old Jin reflexively raised a fist, but relaxed upon seeing who it was. "Third Highness, what are you doing here?"
She glanced at Xie Yu's blue-and-white uniform. "You still haven't given up on disguising yourself for investigations?"
"It's more convenient this way," Xie Yu said, looking upstairs. "Why are you here?"
Old Jin shrugged. "Some officials with guilty consciences are trying to bribe our General Shen."
Xie Yu's expression changed. "Shen Changyin is here too?"
"Yes. In the most expensive suite on the top floor. Those people really went all out—money, singers, dancers, all to seduce our General Shen."
Old Jin made sure Xie Yu knew Shen Changyin's reaction. "How could our General Shen be that kind of person? She dismissed them without hesitation and told me to check the food to prevent tampering."
Xie Yu had a terrible suspicion. "Is there an incense burner in your suite?"
Old Jin nodded. "Yes."
Xie Yu panicked and immediately ran toward the seventh floor, Old Jin following closely.
"The Golden Pavilion's aphrodisiac is burned mixed with agarwood in incense burners—not added to food or drink."
As she spoke, Old Jin's face also changed.
They hurried across the expensive Persian carpets, footsteps thudding loudly.
After racing up several floors, Xie Yu shoved open the suite door.
Shen Changyin sat on the couch, while several officials sat on low stools. All of them looked toward the entrance.
The officials' faces drained of color when they saw Xie Yu. "Third Highness…"
Xie Yu looked first at Shen Changyin.
The woman in white gauze robes appeared cold and composed, her dark pupils seemingly clear—but Xie Yu saw the skin at her neck, hidden beneath her collar, slowly flushing red.
Xie Yu glanced at the incense burner quietly burning on the low table and calmly ordered the officials, "Kneel."
The officials had no idea their scheme was fully exposed. Thinking only that the Third Highness disliked them forming alliances with Shen Changyin, they instinctively looked to Shen Changyin for protection.
Shen Changyin slowly blinked. To outsiders, she merely seemed thoughtful. Xie Yu, however, knew the drug had taken effect.
Old Jin roared fiercely, "I told you to kneel! Did you not hear?"
The officials froze. Why was Shen Changyin's subordinate siding with the Third Highness? Was this Shen Changyin's subordinate?
They exchanged glances and slowly knelt.
Xie Yu gave Old Jin and Zhu Ting a look. The two immediately stepped forward, tore strips of cloth, bound the officials' hands and feet, and gagged their mouths.
Throughout it all, Shen Changyin merely watched, showing little reaction.
Old Jin sensed something wrong and anxiously asked Xie Yu, "Third Highness, what should we do now?"
Her voice turned vicious. "I'll lead people to raid the Golden Pavilion! I have a squad outside—I'll act immediately!"
"No," Xie Yu said, glancing at Shen Changyin and shaking her head. "Handle this quietly. Find an empty room, throw them in, and guard them."
"Keep the people outside on standby. Act discreetly. No leaks."
Old Jin nodded, and she and Zhu Ting carried the officials out.
Once they were gone, the room fell silent. Only then did Xie Yu approach the couch.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
Shen Changyin had been looking down. She raised her eyes, and Xie Yu saw that a faint red had spread beneath them as well.
Only at close range did Xie Yu realize Shen Changyin's gaze had lost focus, becoming unfocused and hazy.
Recognizing Xie Yu, Shen Changyin slowly came back to herself. Her first words were, "This cannot be known."
Xie Yu nodded. "I know."
With Shen Changyin's pride, how could she tolerate such a thing spreading through the capital?
This had to be handled quietly.
"How do you feel now?" Xie Yu asked gently. "Can you pretend nothing is wrong and walk out?"
Shen Changyin looked up at her. Her voice carried an indescribable weakness.
"Yes."
She grabbed Xie Yu's arm, trying to stand up, but swayed several times and nearly collapsed completely against Xie Yu.
Xie Yu: "..."
Able to what, exactly?
She was about to say something, but Shen Changyin seemed no longer able to stay upright. Facing her, she fell into Xie Yu's arms, burying her head at Xie Yu's shoulder. Her scorching breath spilled onto Xie Yu's neck.
She let out a few extremely faint, aggrieved breaths—sounds that seemed like she was enduring pain, yet not quite pain; like crying, yet also like a soft, suppressed moan.
Xie Yu's face flushed crimson in an instant.
It was as though she only now truly realized the real effect of the aphrodisiac.
Flustered, she saw Shen Changyin's eyes closed, her body sliding down from her shoulder. Xie Yu quickly caught her and carried her into the bedroom behind the screen.
She first laid Shen Changyin down on the bed and touched her forehead, only to find it alarmingly hot. She turned to look for something to cool her down—
—but her sleeve was grabbed.
Shen Changyin looked extremely uncomfortable. Her eyes were shut, strands of hair on her forehead damp with sweat. She would not let Xie Yu leave. The thin flush beneath her eyes grew even more distinct, layered like rouge applied again and again.
Xie Yu could only coax her gently. "I'm not leaving. I'll be right back."
She searched the room but found no bucket or towels. Instead, she discovered a small door.
Behind it was a bathing room. A brand-new bathtub waited quietly inside, with a water pipe installed in the wall.
Xie Yu made a decision. She hurried to the door, waved over an attendant, and said, "Have them run some lukewarm water for this room. Not too hot, not too cold."
After sending the attendant away, she shut the door tightly, returned to the bathing room, opened the pipe, and filled the tub with lukewarm water.
Then she quickly helped Shen Changyin over, trying to lower her into the water to cool her down.
But Shen Changyin did not cooperate, murmuring over and over about how hot it was.
For some reason, Xie Yu's hands trembled as she supported her. With one misstep, the two of them nearly toppled into the tub together.
After much difficulty, they finally managed it. Shen Changyin sat in the water fully clothed, the plain white fabric drifting and swaying in the water.
She closed her eyes for a moment, then slowly opened them. Her gaze was dark, fixed straight on Xie Yu.
She seemed a little clearer.
Xie Yu hurriedly asked, "Does it help?"
On Shen Changyin's fair skin bloomed red like clouds at the edge of the sky. Her voice was light and weak. "Treating boiling water by pouring more water over it."
The woman whose beauty was at its peak yet who had always been emotionally cold gave a bitter smile. "Third Highness, an aphrodisiac cannot be resolved by cooling down."
Her gaze was like a tiny hook, piercing straight into Xie Yu's heart. "With the Third Highness's constitution back then, even after being drugged at the Fragrant Smoke Pavilion, you still needed to be with me, to ease it."
"And I am weak and chronically ill. The aphrodisiac is extremely effective on me. It must be resolved according to its proper method."
Its method?
The method for resolving an aphrodisiac?
Xie Yu subconsciously glanced toward Shen Changyin's lower abdomen and below, then snapped her gaze back as if electrocuted. She rubbed her fingers together twice. "Do… do we really have to go that far?"
Shen Changyin did not answer. She only closed her eyes and leaned against the tub, her chest rising and falling sharply, as though enduring some indescribable torment.
Xie Yu swallowed several times. "You… then you do it yourself."
This was her first time ever discussing something like this with another person. She had intended to leave immediately and give Shen Changyin space to handle it herself.
But thinking of Shen Changyin's youth—of how no one had cared for her, no one had taught her what to do—Xie Yu clenched her teeth. An itch rose in her own throat. "Do you know how to do it?"
She said quickly, "Your hand. Use your hand."
Shen Changyin opened her eyes, stared at her, breathing heavily, then shook her head.
Xie Yu had no choice. Her fingertips felt as though they were igniting, heat surging through her entire body, all her blood rushing to her fingers.
She bent down, reached into the water, and took Shen Changyin's hand. The heat of it startled her. She gently placed that hand below Shen Changyin's abdomen.
The pale gauze fabric rippled in the water. Once soaked, it became faintly translucent, revealing the color of the skin beneath. Xie Yu almost did not dare look.
After placing the hand, she immediately stood up and backed away several steps. "It's there. You… you can take off your clothes, or not."
"I'll guard the door." She hurriedly left the bathing room, now slowly filling with steam.
Left alone, Shen Changyin's eyes were still moist. Her dark pupils slowly refocused.
The blood in her body seemed to turn into countless tiny flames, awakening every inch of her. Her waist and abdomen trembled unconsciously.
Yet at the very moment Xie Yu left, her mind became astonishingly clear. Her gaze cooled little by little.
The cold lasted only an instant before being drowned again by warmth and dampness. She bit down on her lower lip, abusing it between her teeth.
—
Xie Yu hurried to the door of the private room, closed it, and leaned back against it, like the most loyal guard—allowing no one to disturb them, and no one to know what was happening inside.
She had thought that once she left that environment, she would calm down quickly. But the heat in her fingertips refused to fade.
Her heart pounded rapidly, pumping all her blood to her fingers.
Her palms felt empty, as though they should be holding something, touching something, kneading something—instead of hanging uselessly in the air.
She pressed a hand to her chest. The warmth of her skin passed through the fabric into her palm, giving her a trace of comfort. Yet an even greater dissatisfaction followed, as if this was not the kind of warmth she truly sought.
Her back rested against the door, her head leaned there as well. Like an ancient, unmoving statue, she stood guard in silence, forcibly suppressing all her tangled thoughts, emptying her mind of everything.
She did not think about what Shen Changyin was doing inside. She only wondered when she would come out.
After an unknown amount of time—surely quite a while—the door behind her was suddenly knocked.
Knock, knock.
Two soft knocks struck straight at her heart, jolting her upright.
She did not dare turn around, still leaning back against the door.
A low voice came from behind it. "Third Highness."
Xie Yu swallowed. "Mm. Are you done?"
The voice behind the door sounded like a ghost from a dream—soft, restrained, carrying a faint sob that unsettled the soul. "I can't."
The itch in Xie Yu's throat grew worse. She did not know whether she felt fear or anticipation.
The ghost from her dreams whispered behind her:
"Can you come in and help me?"
—
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