Black Belly Wife

byきつね-January 16, 2022

Continued from the previous chapter-->

In response, Murong Yunshu was horrified and ran over to hug him, "What happened to you?"

"I'm fine." Chu Changge pushed her away, rubbed his head and got up. "I'll take the chicken thigh."

Murong Yunshu flinched for a moment before realising that he was answering her question and looked at him worriedly a few more times to make sure he was alright before turning back to take the pheasant off the rack. Then, she tore off the thigh and gave it to him.

Chu Changge took the thigh, a little surprised. "Are you really giving it to me to eat?"

"If you want to eat the head of the chicken, I have no problem with that." Murong Yunshu said.

"It's better to give it to you." Chu Changge returned the thigh to her, grabbed the whole chicken in her hand by the way, and tore off the other chicken leg and handed it to her as well.

Murong Yunshu was puzzled. "Don't you want to eat the leg?"

"You walk too slow. So the legs are for you." Chu Changge said with unparalleled frankness.

However, Murong Yunshu could see the guilty conscience in his eyes, the kind that was afraid of being seen through. So he was still pure in nature. Years were doubtlessly like a butcher's knife to butcher a swine, forcing a youthful boy to become a scoundrel. Thinking of Chu Changge's previous deadpan appearance and then looking at the squirming look in front of her, Murong Yunshu curled her lips in a pleasant smile, took the other pheasant leg and said, "Then I won't grab the pheasant head with you."

"......" Was she trying to say that he needed to supplement his brain? Chu Changge did not know whether to laugh or cry. This situation was really like lifting a rock only to drop it on his own feet.

After filling her stomach, Murong Yunshu returned to the carriage to rest while Chu Changge napped outside. The night went on without incident. The following day, when Murong Yunshu woke up and was ready to go out for some air, she was dumbfounded when she lifted the carriage curtain. The woods from last night had disappeared and were replaced by beautiful purples and brilliant reds landscape. After a moment of bewilderment, Murong Yunshu looked at the spring colours that usually filled a garden and sighed, "What a nice place." Even at summer's end and autumn's beginning, the flowers were still blooming like a brilliant brocade. The flowers of the fourth lunar month were beginning to wither in the human realm, but on this mountain, the temple's peach blossoms were just starting to bloom.

"You're still in the mood to enjoy the scenery?" Chu Changge said with his hands crossed on his chest and raised his eyebrows.

"Why aren't you in the mood?" Murong Yunshu asked in return.

Chu Changge: "Do you know what kind of place this is?"

"A good place."

"......" Chu Changge held his forehead. Could she not be so calm all the time? "This is the Lihen Palace."

"Lihen Palace?" Murong Yunshu murmured to herself and said with infinite regret, "What a gloomy name. It fails to live up to the beauty of this place."

"......" Miss, can we stop clinging to the beautiful scenery? Chu Changge wanted to yell, the point is that this is the Lihen Palace, not whether the name is good or not, or whether the scenery is beautiful or not! But once he saw her breezy expression, he couldn't yell anything. As the saying went, it was better to lose a man than lose a battle. If she, a small woman, could be so calm, he, a big man, could not be defeated in this situation. If she was not afraid, what was he afraid of?

As he was thinking, he suddenly heard her ask, "What did you bring me here for?" Chu Changge frowned, "I brought you here? Do you think I'm sleepwalking?"

When Murong Yunshu heard what he said, she thought for a moment and then solemnly said, "It's not impossible."

"......" Chu Changge took a deep breath and said as calmly as possible, "I don't have the habit of rushing without sleep in the middle of the night. Like you, I only found out that I had changed places after I woke up."

"So that's how it was. I thought you'd brought me here while I was asleep so you could surprise me."

"......do I look like such a senseless person?" Chu Changge's face was filled with black lines.

"No, you don't look like one. You are originally awfully senseless." Murong Yunshu said breezily, and her tone was especially sure.

Chu Changge was speechless and asked while looking up at heavens, "Can't you speak a couple of human words once in a while?"

"Human words are for humans to hear."

"......" As it turned out, he was not even a human being in her eyes? Chu Changge took a deep breath once more and said, "A gentleman doesn't fight with women. I'm not going to bicker with you. The most urgent task is to find a way to leave this hellish place."

Murong Yunshu pondered for a moment and suggested, "If this doesn't work for you, then just return the same way."

"......you still insist that this is a surprise I gave you, right?" Chu Changge asked feebly.

"Hmm."

"......"

"In any case, I came here because I followed you." Murong Yunshu added.

Chu Changge was flabbergasted, then nodded as if he had some understanding and said, "You are right to say so. But it truly wasn't me who brought you here this time."

"I know." Murong Yunshu answered indifferently.

Chu Changge laughed in spite of himself as he said, "Even after knowing that, you still say something about returning the same way?"

"What does whether or not you brought me here have to do with returning the same way?"

"It doesn't matter?"

"No." Murong Yunshu shook her head and explained, "Not to mention that the old horse knows the way; the carriage will naturally leave ruts behind. If the worst comes to the worst, we could just follow the ruts to find our way back."

Chu Changge was overjoyed, clapping his hands and exclaiming, "That's a good point! Why didn't I think of that?"

"There are differences between people's intelligence. It's normal if you can not think of it." Murong Yunshu glanced at him and said indifferently.

Chu Changge had an internal injury again and sighed in his heart: not having a high enough IQ is indeed a flaw! Even a martial arts expert could not hurt him even the slightest, but this merchant woman could easily knock him to the ground until he could not stand up again with just one sentence. She honestly had a great skill in murdering people invisibly.

The old horse indeed knew its way back. Chu Changge allowed the horse to walk on its own, and after about a quarter of an hour, they came to a stone house. The horse stopped in front of the stone house and whined back at them.

It seemed that this was the end of the road. Chu Changge and Murong Yunshu both got off the carriage and checked the ruts in the ground. As expected, the trail had broken off at this point.

After looking around a bit more, Chu Changge said thoughtfully, "This is Lihen Palace."

"How do you know?"

"I've been here before......" As soon as the words left his mouth, Chu Changge froze. He clearly didn't even remember his last name, so how could he remember coming here before? But the scenery around him did give him a feeling of déjà vu. Especially when he opened his eyes this morning and found that the sight in front of him had changed, the words 'Lihen Palace' quickly came to his mind, and he knew that Lihen Palace was more mysterious than Wuhua Valley.

Murong Yunshu also saw some clues from Chu Changge's words. Initially, she was surprised when she thought he had recovered his memory, but seeing his confused face, she knew that this was not the case. It must have been the same environment that had stimulated his brain. Perhaps taking him to Jinling could help him recall. Murong Yunshu thought so in her mind.

"This path is impassable. Let's return to the place we were just at and discuss it in detail." Chu Changge said as he prepared to turn the carriage around but stopped by Murong Yunshu. "Since we are at the entrance, let's go in and ask for a cup of tea to drink."

Chu Changge frowned disapprovingly. "This place is not like the outside, let alone whether they know your name, even if they do, from what I know about them, they won't give you any face. They would already be polite if they didn't eat you alive. We shouldn't mess with them."

Murong Yunshu did not think so and smiled faintly. "Since they have invited us here as guests, I think the owner of this palace is presumably a hospitable person. A cup of tea should not be a problem. What's more, it's impolite to come without even going in. Since they have already provoked me, I believe that proper behaviour should be based on reciprocity by provoking them back. If I don't, it will tarnish the reputation of my Murong Mansion as a literary family and house of etiquette."

Chu Changge became speechless as if something had choked him. It is just a literary family. If you don't have some ink in your belly, you won't be able to swear with such artistry. But a house of etiquette? If 'those who obeyed me would prosper and those who disobeyed me would die' was considered etiquette, he would admit that Murong Mansion was a house of etiquette. Wait, how did he know about the Murong Mansion? Had he made any dealings with that place before? But if that was the case, she should have known him. But judging from the way she had treated him in recent days, she did not look like an old friend at all. If they had dealt with each other for real, they must have been bad friends.

Perhaps it was because the Murong Mansion had a reputation, and he had heard a lot about it before. Chu Changge thought so. But in his heart, he felt that something was wrong, but he didn't know what was wrong. Looking at her, Chu Changge sighed. "So you already knew that we had been captured."

Murong Yunshu declined to comment as she joked, "Do you think the horse was bored and broke in by mistake?"

"I know it was them who did it. I didn't say anything at first, just to see if you were as clever as the rumours said you were." Chu Changge said.

"And the result?" Murong Yunshu asked with a slight hook at the corner of her mouth in a somewhat interesting manner.

Chu Changge: "You did not disappoint me. You do have wisdom that ordinary people do not have. The words 'extremely clever one' are well-deserved by you."

"You are overthinking. Our current situation has nothing to do with wisdom." Murong Yunshu continued without changing her expression, "This is the kind of judgment that normal people should have."

"......" [T/C]

"You should know how to 'knock on the door', right?" Murong Yunshu said as she looked at the stone door in front of him.

"Knock on the door? I don't know." Chu Changge shook his head. There were two spinning discs on the stone door, which looked like a mechanism, but he didn't know how to open it.

Murong Yunshu: "Haven't you been here before?"

"I've been here, but it's just that it's been too long, and I've forgotten many details." Chu Changge was telling the truth. He could not remember anything besides knowing that he had been to this Lihen Palace before.

Murong Yunshu sighed at his words and said, "Never mind. Just split the door open straight away."

You're bossing me around again. Chu Changge stared at her speechlessly and said, "I can't split it without an axe."

Murong Yunshu wrinkled her brows. "Isn't your martial arts skill very high?"

"It is very high. But my martial arts skill is not used for such meaningless things as chopping stones." Chu Changge deliberately argued with her.

"Haven't you done more than your fair share of meaningless things?"

"......"

"Adding up one more is not much. Hurry up."

"......" Chu Changge sighed feebly and said, "Have you always asked for help like this?"

"I have never asked for help."

"......"

"If interpreting this matter as me asking for your help will make you feel better, please help yourself."

"......" Chu Changge deeply felt that it was chronic suicide to carry on bickering with her and that it was more meaningful to split stones in comparison. As the saying went, life lay in movement. If you chopped a few more stones, you might even be able to prolong your life.

Chu Changge struck the stone door with his palm, but the door did not move like a mountain after three consecutive strikes. He was about to give it a fourth strike when he heard Murong Yunshu asking him, "Why don't you just use Qinglong?". Chu Changge was startled and questioned, "Did we know each other before? I mean before I took you away this time." Other than that, he could not think of a better explanation. He never easily used the Qinglong in front of other people. Since she knew he had Qinglong in his hand, she must be an old acquaintance. Please read this chapter at xinshou blogspot com.

Murong Yunshu answered without thinking, "I don't know you, but I have heard of your name."

"Really?" Chu Changge raised his eyebrows in suspicion and stared at her for a moment before asking, "You've only heard of my name, but how do you know I have Qinglong in my hand?"

Murong Yunshu: "I heard about it."

"You are well-informed. You can even hear about everything." There was ridicule in Chu Changge's tone, clearly not believing her words.

Murong Yunshu, however, remained incomparably frank as she said indifferently. "Otherwise, do you think my Jiugua House is open for fun?"

Hearing her mention the Jiugua House, Chu Changge believed her words again. After all, there were all kinds of people in the Jiugua House. Thus, it was not wrong for her to be this well-informed. What was more, the Gossip House opposite the Jiugua House had initially made a living from trading information before it closed down. Thinking that the Gossip House was not what it used to be, Chu Changge could not help but sigh, "You could force even the Gossip House to close down, so I can see that your methods are indeed extraordinary."

"It's good to have more money, and there is no need to use any other tactics." Murong Yunshu spoke breezily.

"......" I'm afraid it's a little more than that, right? Chu Changge suddenly understood why the inn boss had bowed and bent his knee while responding to every one of her pleas as soon as he knew she was the young mistress of the Murong Mansion. If he did not treat her well and make her unhappy, she would open an identical building across the street, promising free food and drink and free accommodation, and the old inn would indeed close down within a month. A rich person was not that scary. What was scary was when a rich person did not treat money as money. "Do you often do whatever you want because you have more money?" Chu Changge asked.

"Not often. Always."

"......" That was quite frank. "Don't you think that's bad?" Chu Changge originally wanted to say 'outrageous', but considering that Murong Yunshu was not a good kind of person, it was better not to provoke her. Thus, he changed to a more subtle word.

"What's wrong with that? If I can't do whatever I want, what am I making so much money for?" Murong Yunshu asked quite rightfully. [+]

"......" That seemed to make some sense.

Murong Yunshu faintly glanced at him and said, "Do you often drag your feet in doing things because you are brainless?"

"Of course not. What's there to be proud of about being brainless......" When the words finally came out, Chu Changge suddenly slapped his head and confessed, "I was indeed a bit brainless."

Murong Yunshu became speechless for a while. "I'm glad you have self-awareness."

"......" Chu Changge decided to talk to her less in the future. Otherwise, under the influence of her words, he would sooner or later become brainless himself. After giving her a somewhat resentful look, Chu Changge immediately summoned Qinglong.

After a while, the stone door was still unscathed. Chu Changge's collar was slightly open, dripping with sweat and panting as he stood up against the wall, saying, "If we keep cutting, Qinglong will become blunt."

Murong Yunshu seemed not to have heard his words, mouthing the words, "Why no one come out yet?"

"Who hasn't come out yet?" Chu Changge looked left and right, not noticing anything different around him. "You're not doing some kind of witchcraft, are you?" He asked with a spooky look on his face.

Murong Yunshu gave him a blank look and said grumpily, "I'll use the witchcraft on you first."

"Use it on me for what?"

"To cure your brainlessness."

"......I'm not brainless."

"Then become brainless first, and then I'll cure it."

"......" Sure enough, he couldn't stop himself from talking with her even when he had already decided not to. But some things had to be said. Chu Changge sighed and returned to the topic in hand, "This stone door is indestructible. I can't open it. We have to think of another way."

Murong Yunshu sighed with infinite regret after hearing his words, "Then we can only crack the mechanism."

"You know how to break the mechanism?" Chu Changge exclaimed strangely.

"Hmm." Murong Yunshu nodded her head. While he was working hard chopping, she had already studied the door in detail, and the mechanism was right in front of her eyes.

Chu Changge was dumbfounded. "Why didn't you tell me earlier that you could break the mechanism? And you still let me chop it down recklessly?!"

Murong Yunshu stated, "I wanted to see if your martial arts skills were as unfathomable as the rumours."

"......I have let you down."

"Not a total disappointment. At least I know you have unfathomable physical strength. You have the most to say on the matter of having four limbs well developed, but the brain less so."

"......" Chu Changge could no longer find the words to describe how he felt at this moment. If he had to explain it, he could only think of these words⸺kill the witness to silence them.

As if she was trying to comfort Chu Changge, Murong Yunshu added, "Actually, I let you chop the door, not exactly to test your martial arts skill."

However, Chu Changge did not hold any hope for her consolation and feebly asked symbolically, "There are other intentions?"

Murong Yunshu nodded and said, "After waking up and changing places, I was in a bad mood and needed to let off some steam. I would have just let you chop that person up if that person was there. Unfortunately, there isn't."

"I would have preferred to chop someone." Chopping people was much easier than chopping stones. Chu Changge grunted, handed Qinglong to her and said, "Try it, maybe you'll find yourself born with divine strength and can smash the stone door in one swoop."

"If I were born with divine strength, I would have crushed you to death a long time ago." When she spent her time with him every day, there were always those three to four shichen where she had the urge to take his life.

"...... aren't you afraid I'll squeeze you to death in a fit of anger?" It would be as easy as turning his palm over.

"Not afraid."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Because you love me."

"......have you always been so confident?"

"Only in the fact that you love me."

"......" Chu Changge found that since he had become entangled with her, his vocabulary was getting poorer and poorer, and he could only describe most of his emotions as indescribable. This situation was a case of when you were using what you had learned from books that you wished you had read more than you currently had! "Tell the truth, did we know each other before?" Chu Changge asked once more, undeterred. He always felt as if she knew him very well and had the look of being so sure of him all day long.

This time Murong Yunshu thought seriously for a few seconds before saying, "Our relationship cannot be described as 'knowing' only."

Chu Changge was shocked when he heard her words as he asked, "Could it be that......we are in love with each other?" When he said 'love each other', he could feel his breath tremble.

"If I say yes, will you believe it?" Murong Yunshu asked rhetorically, her expression serious.

Chu Changge: "I do." Almost offhandedly, without a second thought.

"Why?"

"I trust you." Moreover, he found that he seemed to enjoy being abused by her. He couldn't find any other explanation than love. Of course, masochistic tendencies were excluded. He didn't think he had that kind of fetish.

Chu Changge's reply made Murong Yunshu so excited that she almost jumped into his arms. Although she was confident that their relationship did not need memories to sustain, and it could continue even if the memories were no longer there, she was still overjoyed to hear such words and have her certainty become a fact.

The corners of her mouth inadvertently curled up slightly as Murong Yunshu smiled, "Thank you for your trust. But that is not the case."

Despair. A strong sense of despair struck his heart as Chu Changge hung his head. His emotions hit rock bottom all of a sudden.

"It was you who had a crush on me." Murong Yunshu said again.

Ugh. Chu Changge was dumbfounded, going from emotionally drained to emotionless all of a sudden, and it took a while before he asked weakly, "Was I bad to you before?"

Murong Yunshu raised her eyebrows. "Not bad."

Chu Changge had a sad face on. "Then why did you say I had a crush on you?"

"That's the truth."

"I don't believe it."

Murong Yunshu's face did not change as she said, "Believe it or not, it's up to you."

Seeing this, Chu Changge was silent for a short while and suddenly said with a smug face, "Actually, it's you who has a crush on me, right?"

"......" Sure enough, the skin of this person's face had been honed with endurance. If you kept on rubbing the callus, it would become thicker. This person was the best proof of that.

"No wonder you keep picking on me, so you have a crush on me."

"......" Was she that sick?

"If you're nice to me in the future, I'll grant your wish by marrying you."

"......" This was supposed to be her line, okay?

"Don't be embarrassed. It's normal for you to like a man as sophisticated and elegant as me......"

Chu Changge was still talking to himself and filling his head with nonsense without limits, while Murong Yunshu was already in a state of confusion. If she could make him hover between life and death, she would have strangled him first and then choked him back alive.

Murong Yunshu took a deep breath and decided to solve the problem in front of her first. As for the question of who had a crush on whom, she could solve it later. There were still days to go anyway. With her mind made up, Murong Yunshu began to crack the mechanism, staring at the two spinning discs on the stone door for a long time. She held the two discs in both hands, rotating them three times left and two times to the right, and finally pressing them inwards simultaneously until she heard a heavy click. Murong Yunshu immediately let go of her hands, only to listen to a rumble as the stone door slowly rose upwards. The hem of a woman's skirt could be seen through the rising space.

Seeing this situation, Chu Changge stopped filling his head with nonsense and subconsciously pulled Murong Yunshu behind him with a cold face.

When the one-person-high stone door rose ultimately, five women with beautiful appearance and superior temperament walked out slowly. The one in the lead was dressed in purple, while the other four were in yellow.

"The Lihen Palace is full of women." Chu Changge explained in a low voice to Murong Yunshu.

Murong Yunshu frowned at his words and murmured, "Did you have love debts with them?"

"Er. It might be because these women wanted to kidnap you to extort money from you?" Chu Changge said with a sheepish expression.

"If it's for money, don't you think it would be easier just to rob my private banks?"

"......that's true."

"So it must be that you had love debts with them."

"......" Couldn't she think of anything else other than love debts, like a life debt or something like that?

As Murong Yunshu and Chu Changge were communicating in a low voice, the woman in purple had already walked up to the two of them and smiled, "There is no need to be alarmed, Miss Murong. Our Palace Master just wants to ask you to borrow some silver."

Murong Yunshu smiled at her words. "That's enough to alarm me." Surprisingly, it was really about money. She wasn't afraid of borrowing her life, but borrowing money would be deadly. It wasn't that she valued money like her life, but really, she was very short of cash recently. If she hadn't seen a soul on their way, she would have switched to being a bandit.

The woman in purple asked, "The Murong Mansion has wealth equivalent to that of an entire nation. How could you be alarmed because of money?"

Murong Yunshu: "Miss doesn't know that there are too many people asking me to borrow money recently. Even if I have wealth equivalent to that of an entire nation, I can't stand people borrowing from me like this."

"That being the case. Then I would like to ask Miss Murong to be a guest in the Lihen Palace for the time being." The woman in purple spoke politely but with a forcefulness that brooked no argument.

Murong Yunshu's face did not change as she replied, "Then I'm sorry to bother you."

The woman in purple looked surprised. She gave her a strange look before instructing the woman in yellow to take her to the guest room.

Seeing that the crowd was about to leave, Chu Changge, who had been ignored, finally couldn't help but ask, "She's here as a guest, what about me?"

"You're staying too." The tone of the woman in purple was cold, not even polite.

"Then I'm sorry for the inconvenience." Chu Changge said in a breezy manner like Murong Yunshu, lifting his leg to walk through the stone door, but stopped by the woman in purple.

The woman in purple: "You stay outside." After saying that, she raised her hand and pressed the mechanism, and the stone door closed with a whoosh.

Chu Changge stared dumbfounded at the stone door in front of him and stared at it for a long time before saying to himself, "Could I have done something wrong to her......or matters related to them?" Otherwise, why was the woman in purple looking at him like he was a heartless man?

At the same time, Murong Yunshu asked the woman in purple with interest, "Does your Palace Master find Chu Changge unpleasant to the eyes or men as a whole?"

"Neither." The woman in purple said, "The Palace Master has ordered that you must be separated from him."

Murong Yunshu: "Why?"

The woman in purple gave her a curious look and asked, "Do you genuinely not know, or are you pretending not to know?"

"I really don't know." Murong Yunshu said truthfully.

The woman in purple: "In fact, we invited you here last night, and the reason why we left you outside was to test your strength. Our Palace Master saw what you did outside just now. You are overly wise, and he is highly skilled in martial arts. If the two of you were together, your combination would bring trouble."

"Your Palace Master is overly concerned. Even if I am not with him, something will still happen when it should." Murong Yunshu smiled smugly.

The woman in purple frowned, "You mean you're ready to cause trouble?"

Murong Yunshu: "No. I never make preparations before I cause trouble."

The woman in purple's face sank as she mocked, "You are quite frank."

"Being honest is one of my virtues." Murong Yunshu gladly accepted her 'compliment'.

The woman in purple gave her another strange look and stopped talking, thinking, I have seen many weirdos, but I have never seen such a strange one.

Since being forced to stay as a guest in the Lihen Palace, Murong Yunshu has been living the same routine of eating, drinking tea, walking and sleeping every day while feeling extremely comfortable. It was as if this house arrest was her way of spending her vacation. This situation made the palace maids feel very strange and could not help but speculate whether she had gone crazy privately.

Compared to Murong Yunshu, Chu Changge's days were much more difficult. He had been left alone outside, not to mention a bird or a beast; there was not even a fly to accompany him. He felt as lonely as snow. Chu Changge, who was sitting on the branch for a nap, missed Murong Yunshu very much at this time. Even if she was constantly being sarcastic with him, it was better than being bored for a day long. He had tried to open the mechanism on the stone door, but none of them had succeeded after countless attempts. Alas, if he had known this would have happened, he would have asked her how she opened it at that time.

"Grumble......"

So hungry. Chu Changge swallowed a mouthful of saliva while thinking that she must be having dishes with generous amounts of meat and fish inside. The more he thought about it, the hungrier he became. Chu Changge touched his empty stomach and couldn't help but feel indignant. She didn't even bother to send him some food. How unkind of her!

Suddenly, a gust of wind rose and the sound of leaves rustling next to his ears. Chu Changge snapped open his eyes, lifted his hand and plucked a leaf and looked at it carefully for a while, then closed his eyes again, rubbing his hand on the leaf slowly. A moment later, he opened his eyes, and light immediately flashed in his dark, bottomless eyes as he murmured, "So that's how it is!" Then he jumped off the tree.

The next day, Murong Yunshu was drinking tea leisurely in the sun when the woman in purple came to deliver a message. "Our Palace Master said that as long as you are willing to draw a map of the silver warehouse's mechanism distribution, we will let you go."

Finally willing to speak to me about your true intentions, aren't you? The corner of Murong Yunshu's mouth curled up as she said, "There is no map for the mechanism, but if your Palace Master is legitimately short of money, I can draw a few silver tickets for her."

The corner of the woman in purple's mouth trembled as she said coldly, "Even if you are not afraid of death, aren't you afraid that Chu Changge will starve to death outside?"

Murong Yunshu replied with incomparable calmness, "There are so many flowers and grasses outside, enough for him to eat for a while. Even if he finished eating those flowers and plants, there are still bark and roots, so he can't die for another three to five years."

"......" The woman in purple turned speechless. Were they a husband and wife in reality? Or was it true that she no longer had feelings for Chu Changge, as the rumours outside said? But from the way they acted outside that day, it was clear that she still had feelings for Chu Changge, and they were not shallow. "Even if we can't starve him to death, we still can kill him as easy as turning our palms over."

As if she had heard a big joke, Murong Yunshu answered indifferently, "Then you might as well try."

"You don't believe we can kill him?"

"Mhmm. I don't believe it."

The woman in purple was slightly angry. "Then we'll show you." With that, she left with a flick of her sleeve.

After a shichen later, the woman in purple once again made her grand entrance. Murong Yunshu smiled incomparably warmly, "Are you here to mourn me?"

"He has already gone." The woman in purple's tone had a touch of gloating in it.

"He's gone?" Murong Yunshu raised her eyebrows and asked in confusion, "Since he's already gone, why aren't you all leaving yet?"

The woman in purple had a puzzled look on her face. "Why should we leave?"

"To escape."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Do you think that with the strength of the Lihen Palace, it can compete with the Mojiao Sect?"

"You think he's gone back to get help?"

"I don't think he would do that. But since you said he left, then I can't think of any other reason other than to move his reinforcement." Murong Yunshu said indifferently.

"Perhaps it was to flee for his life."

"Impossible."

"Why?"

"You have starved him for a few days. If he doesn't get his revenge, he will not be able to rest or eat in peace."

The woman in purple changed colour as she said, "You're arrogant."

"This is called confidence." Murong Yunshu raised her eyes and smiled at her before dropping her head and continuing to paint. It had been so long since she had painted that she almost didn't know how to execute her brush.

The woman in purple was silent for a while before saying, "Our Palace Master has said that you will be given three days. If you insist on refusing to draw the map mechanism distribution, then don't blame us for being ruthless."

Murong Yunshu stopped painting and looked up. "Are you threatening me?"

The woman in purple gave a cold snort as a tacit acknowledgement.

"Then just keep threatening me." She then lowered her head and continued to paint.

The woman in purple was stunned and floundered for a few seconds before asking, "Are you really not afraid of death?"

"Naturally, I am afraid of death. I just don't believe that you can kill me." Murong Yunshu said as she drew.

The woman in purple frowned and asked somewhat feebly, "Where exactly does your confidence come from?"

"I have had my fortune told, and I have at least forty more years to live."

"......" Had she gone crazy, or had she never been sane? She must never have been sane. Otherwise, how could that inhuman aura emanating from within her be so strong?

After leaving the place where Murong Yunshu was put under house arrest, the woman in purple came to a dark divine altar and bent down. "In reply to the Palace Master, that Murong Yunshu is unwilling to cooperate."

On top of the divine altar stood a shapely woman with a butterfly mask on her face. Her soft breasts were half exposed, and her long golden dress looked charming. Hearing the report from the woman in purple, she waved her long sleeves and said, "Use the medicine."

The woman in purple hesitated for a moment and said, "Yes."

It was night. Murong Yunshu lay in bed, suddenly feeling uncomfortable as if an inexplicable fire was burning in her body. She got up to pour a cup of herbal tea and drank it, but unexpectedly the fire grew even more potent. Murong Yunshu cried out in disbelief and picked up the teapot to smell it but found nothing different with it. Murong Yunshu frowned in confusion and thought, could it be that she was being paranoid?

Suddenly, with a creak, the door was pushed open, and in came the woman in purple, followed by a handsome young man with rosy lips and white teeth, who looked like he was just approaching adulthood.

Murong Yunshu put down the teapot and quietly watched them walk in, with a bad feeling in his heart.

Just as she had expected, the woman in purple went straight to the point by saying, "You have been poisoned by Lihen Palace's unique charm. If you still want to be stubborn, then we will have to use torture." With that, she gestured for the young man behind her to come forward.

Murong Yunshu tried her best to restrain the fire of desire in her chest, the murderous light in her calm eyes was hidden, but her face was relaxed. She looked at the young man and said, "I suggest you pick a man who is a bit ugly so that you can achieve the effect of torture. I can't thank you enough for giving me such a beautiful man."

The woman in purple laughed coldly, "To think that the world-famous young mistress of the Murong Mansion is also wanton at heart."

Murong Yunshu also laughed coldly. "If this level is considered wanton, then you who used this method to force a confession is loose in morals."

"You!" The woman in purple was furious and immediately ordered the young man, "Torture her."

Hearing the order, the young man pounced on Murong Yunshu like a vicious wolf. Murong Yunshu was about to break free when her eyes suddenly met those lustful black eyes, so she could not exert any strength and watched herself being pounced on the bed.

The woman in purple snorted coldly and said coolly, "I'll give you one last chance to hand over the mechanism diagram, and then I'll set you free."

Murong Yunshu, pinned to the bed, did not reply but turned her head and gave her a faint smile, an incredibly charming smile.

The woman in purple was stunned, not understanding why she could still be so calm at this point. The woman in purple was puzzled, but she still retreated.