After being married and in love for five years, everyone praised the Third Imperial Concubine as both virtuous and magnanimous for her willingness to accept all of her husband’s beautiful concubines. However, behind her back, they mocked her for being a useless woman who hadn’t borne any children for her husband yet.

After reincarnating and returning to the harem, Xiao Yuan decided to be ruthlessly tyrannical and not be lenient to those who offended her. She would stay on her guard and find a new husband.

However, can someone tell her who this shameless man was? He was formerly the most honorable yixing1 prince in Dong Ming. However, he tossed aside his kingship to become a merchant and quickly became the wealthiest person in Dong Ming.

1 Prince who has a different last name from the Emperor. He is not a prince belonging to the Emperor’s clan

Xiao Yuan was half-awake when she felt her body hit by a cold wave. The servant girl spoke as she raised the back of her head.

“How is this good? The ninth young miss has fainted. There’s nobody nearby, what should we do?”

Hong Xiu was so anxious she nearly broke down in tears. Feeling that she was the one at fault, she regretfully wiped her tears.

Hong Luan bit her lips, “How about I go down the mountain and find someone? Just staying here isn’t going to help. You’ll stay here to keep an eye on the ninth young miss. I’ll come back after I find somebody.”

Hong Xiu quickly nodded, “Come back soon!”

Xiao Yuan knitted her brows while listening to them talk. The voices sounded a little familiar. Her hands felt ice cold, to the point where she couldn’t even move her fingers.

After a while, Xiao Yuan finally came to. She felt herself having a splitting headache as she slowly opened her eyes. When she looked around, she saw nothing but white fog, making it impossible to see anything else.

“Young Miss? You’re awake?” Hong Xiu said, pleasantly surprised.

Xiao Yuan took a great deal of effort to rub her forehead as she let out a sigh of relief.

“What happened to me?”

Xiao Yuan suddenly froze. She noticed that her voice had changed into a young and inexperienced one. She clearly remembered that she had been poisoned by Xiao Ruo. The poison damaged her throat, making it so she couldn’t utter a single word. She turned to look at Hong Xiu, her innocent eyes, full of concern, opened wide on her pretty face.

What happened here?

“Oh no, Young Miss, you didn’t damage your brain, right? What should we do?”

Xiao Yuan remembered when she was ten years old she went to light incense at Dazhao Temple with her sisters from the

royal holding. Afterwards, she got lost in the back mountains of the Dazhao Temple only to miss her step and roll down the mountain. Xiao Yuan ended up losing her memories.

“Little miss, don’t scare your servant. This servant will protect you. Hong Luan already went to find someone to rescue us.”

Hong Xiu cried anxiously, the little miss couldn’t have become stupid, right?

When Xiao Yuan heard this, she quickly stood up. She thought that they couldn’t stay here any longer.

“Hurry, we cannot stay here for much longer. We must quickly leave this place.”

“Young miss, what about Hong Luan?”

Xiao Yuan’s expression turned cold at the mention of Hong Luan, her once close maidservant, who had long joined with Xiao Ruo. Xiao Ruo had convinced Hong Luan to do all sorts of terrible things to Xiao Yuan.

“Don’t mind her. She’ll be fine.” Xiao Yuan patted off the snow on her body, and without any hesitation, ran with all her might while pulling Hong Xiu along.

Hong Xiu was puzzled when Xiao Yuan turned around and said, “She had already colluded with Fifth Elder Sister a long time ago and deliberately found people to harm me.”

Xiao Yuan thought for a bit and added one more sentence at the end.

Hong Xiu exclaimed–naturally she wouldn’t doubt Xiao Yuan’s words, “Young Miss, Hong Luan… she’s gone too far! She lost my trust in her!”

Xiao Yuan nodded and said, “Hurry, Hong Luan will bring company soon!”

The two people ran in the thick snow. Quite soon, Xiao Yuan got tired and started gasping for breath, sweating profusely.

“Young miss, this servant can’t walk any more.” Hong Xiu waved her hands. She truly couldn’t walk any more.

Xiao Yuan looked back only to see that their footprints were clearly showing from which way they came from. She shook her head and said, “No, we must hurry up. Our footprints are too obvious! They’ll catch up to us soon! I recall that the main road is just ahead.”

When Hong Xiu heard this, she nodded and gritted her teeth while closely following Xiao Yuan.  

After walking for about an hour, they reached a cliffside with no way forward. Hong Xiu looked down and couldn’t help but go soft in her knees. It was such a steep slope; she had to wonder if they wouldn’t fall to their death. She couldn’t help but take a few steps back.

“Young miss, I’m so scared.” Hong Xiu sorrowfully said.

Xiao Yuan also froze as she turned around and saw a group of people slowly approaching them. Among their figures was Hong Luan’s silhouette.

“No matter. The snow below the cliff is thick, so there shouldn’t be any problems with jumping. In the worst case scenario, we would just be slightly crippled; it would be better to lose a few limbs than to be killed like this.”

Hong Xiu’s body’s started to shake with fear as she heard this.

Xiao Yuan turned around and pointed to the group of people behind her and said, “See that? If your family’s young miss were to be caught, she would only spend her days inside the monastery. The monastery sure won’t have any chicken legs.”

“Huh?” After hearing this, Hong Xiu immediately shook her head. She could handle death but a life without chicken drumsticks? Hong Xiu inhaled deeply before putting on a brave expression–as if she was about to lay down her life. “My lady, this servant is not scared.”

Hong Xiu closed her eyes as her legs were shaking audibly.

Xiao Yuan clenched her teeth and took a leap of faith as she curled her body to protect her head. She closed her eyes and rolled down the mountainside like a huge snowball, getting bigger and bigger as more of the icy snow stuck to her. It was so cold; it made her shudder.

Unable to look outside, she felt a little apprehensive as she descended faster and faster down the steep slope. She was thrown high up then brought down hard repeatedly. Snow filled her mouth and her head was spinning

Xiao Yuan felt that all of her internal organs had been shifted. Her hands hugged her face tightly and her entire body felt as if a steamroller was crushing it. From time to time, she would press into a rock and the aching pain was hard to endure. Her entire body was already frozen stiff and had lost sensation.

Only her brain continued to function. She would much rather take a risk instead of being caught.

Not far from there, a horse-drawn carriage dashed forward. The horse-drawn carriage was furnished to the peak of luxury. The pair of horses pulling the carriage were snow white Lion Buckskin horses. The horses’ hair shone beautifully under the rays of the sun. A slightly brown colored tassel dangled from each of the eight corners of the carriage. In the middle of the carriage, there was a piece of high quality jadeite, making people smack their lips in envy as they stared at the grandeur of it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Zhao Qi surprisingly noticed the two huge snowballs flying down. Although he was stunned from the sight of it, he nimbly grabbed his sword and dashed out the carriage, shouting.

“Quickly, protect the lord! Incoming assassins!”

When the person in the carriage heard the voices, he used his slender fingers to raise the curtains and directed his line of sight at the two rolling snowballs growing in size.  

The man was dressed in a moon-white gown adorned with complex embroidery made from silver threads of silk. His entire body radiated an aura of grandeur and nobility. His shallow phoenix eyes were slightly narrowed, just as brilliant as the fireworks of March. His sharp eyebrows were slightly raised.  He was the picture of elegance; his body tall and straight yet leaning just the slightest bit. His posture was relaxed and languid, but his body still radiated a natural incredibly domineering aura.

His eyes narrowed slightly in coldness and he faintly shot a stare at what he could clearly tell was a girl.

“Zhao Qi, that’s not an assassin.”

Immediately, the man went onto his toes and quickly vaulted upwards to grab onto one of them.

Xiao Yuan’s stomach was turned inside out after rolling like that. Her whole body had become sore all over. She clenched her teeth in pain, not able to loosen up.

The man gently held onto the snowball. While standing on his tiptoes, he gently fell to the ground and used his slender fingers to gently dust off the snow from the snowball.

Her tragic face was gradually exposed as the man cleared up the snow little by little. A peerlessly beautiful face which had turned red from the cold. A pair of watery eyes like a pair of shining black gems. Like two stars, clear and transparent, which were shockingly beautiful. It made the man in front of her become extremely stunned for a split second.

Xiao Yuan’s head was dizzy. She just saw several figures shaking in front of her eyes, before they gradually solidified into a figure of an extremely charmingly handsome person. His figure radiated with coldness.

“Zhao Zun?” Xiao Yuan blurted out. In the moment of shock, her consciousness went black and fainted.

Zhao Zun was surprised. The girl appeared to be only around a ten or so years old, yet how did she know him? A touch of fear had appeared for a fleeting moment in her eyes as if she was scared of him.

“What now, my lord?”

Zhao Qi held another girl. This girl clearly didn’t know martial arts, yet nothing had happened to her even after falling from such a high place. It was truly peculiar.

The man thought, “Let’s bring them back first.”

He normally didn’t want to interfere with other people’s business, but he could not help but be curious about Xiao Yuan.

He turned to the guards and ordered, “Verify the identities of these two people. ”

The guards nodded and replied, “Yes.”

In the carriage, the man’s half-squinting eyes never left Xiao Yuan. His face carried an indiscernible smile, which disappeared soon after.

Hong Luan followed the footsteps left by the two people the entire way,only to stand on the hillside, frozen with shock.

A man behind her was shaken as well. “The ninth miss couldn’t have jumped, could she?”

Hong Luan’s body could not help but shake when she glanced down the white snow that bore no traces whatsoever. The footprints of the two people stopped here. They couldn’t have grown wings and flew off, could they?

Hong Luan shook her head, “Search for them down below. Perhaps they fell down due to bad footing.”

The man nodded in response, as that was the only logical explanation there was. He turned back to the people behind him and said, “Follow me down and search with me.”

In the brightly illuminated Ministry of Right, the old madam insisted in sitting inside the ministry hall, clutching a garland of Buddhist prayer beads while chanting “Amituofo” non-stop.

As First Madam Fan slowly approached, she took a few steps back after hearing the chant. Her eyes concealed ridicule in them.

Hearing movement, the old madam raised her eyes and asked, “Any news?”

Madam Fan shook her head in disappointment.

“I have already sent several guards to Dazhao Temple over and over again. There’s just no trace of Little Ninth.”

The old madam heavily sat back and waved her hand. “You are dismissed if there’s nothing else. Send more people. We must find Little Ninth safe and sound.”

“Yes!”

Madam Fan nodded her head and quickly retreated.

At Zhao Manor

“My lord, the girl’s refusing to take medicine and her fever hasn’t gone down still, also, she’s starting to spew gibberish. What should we do?”

Zhao Qi was unwilling to make a move. He was simply troubled. Forcing medicine down the mouth of such a delicate little girl was something he could not bear to do.

When Zhao Zun heard him, he put down the book in his hand, stood up, and strode his way into the room Xiao Yuan was in.

Xiao Yuan was burning up to the point that her face was steaming red, like a hazy mountain. Her small scarlet lips curled up and her skin was like coagulated fat, so tender to the touch that there would be moisture leaking out. Droplets of sweat were on her forehead, and her eyebrows were knitted, as if she was having a nightmare.

“My Lord, she is the ninth young miss belonging to the Right Ministry. Two days ago, this miss went to Dazhao Temple to light incense, but accidentally got lost, and fell down due to bad footing.”

Because he thought she was an assassin, Zhao Qi had almost executed Xiao Yuan. It was really by coincidence, since Xiao Yuan wouldn’t have had a positive outcome if she were to land in Zhao Zun’s hands.

His lord and the Minister of Right had a very infamous relationship. The minister was loathed by many in his time under royal employ, for he had committed various misdeeds. And now, his daughter had now landed right into their hands. Before Zhao Qi could react, his gaze went wide.

One of Xiao Yuan’s arms was exposed, which had just had medicine applied. Her white, porcelain skin had purple interlacing through it, most likely caused by the tree branches cutting her skin. How could such a fine arm have this bruise? It was so out of line; it was truly irksome.

“Bring a box of the scar cream.”

Zhao Zun ordered as he approached the bed, holding the bottom of the small bowl of medicine. He fed the medicine one spoon at a time in an extremely gentle fashion. Zhao Qi thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him just as he was leaving. He hurriedly rubbed his eyes but saw the same scene.

Xiao Yuan closed her lips as tightly as she opened her eyes. When the spoon went to the left of her mouth, she turned right. When the spoon went the other way, she immediately turned right. She just wouldn’t take the medicine. It dripped along her cheeks slowly, the brown concoction sliding down her snowy white skin. This looked strange to Zhao Zun. He even wiped the corners of the Xiao Yuan’s mouth again and again, but he was starting to become bothered by this.

Zhao Zun grabbed Xiao Yuan’s jaw, forcing her mouth open before shoving the medicine down her throat.

The result was Xiao Yuan spitting more than half of it out of her mouth, making her face redder while pulling Zhao Zun’s sleeve like a crying child throwing a tantrum…

“Cough Cough …”

That's all For now!

Bye bye

Helplessly, Zhao Zun held his own forehead with one hand in. Xiao Yuan’s clothes had already soaked with sweat as she knitted her eyebrows tightly and coughed.

Zhao Qi couldn’t help but almost burst out in laughter but, whatever, it was better that he didn’t feed her. He couldn’t empathize with the girl, so he paced around and didn’t even give the girl a single look.

“Brew more portions of medicine. Making a few more bowls might make them drinkable,” Zhao Zun said suddenly.

Zhao Qi hurriedly nodded his head and replied, “Yes, that’s what this subordinate will do.”

Three bowls of medicine in a row were brought forward. Zhao Zun, with a stoic face, poured one bowl of medicine into the girl’s mouth and more than half of which was spatout. Xiao Yuan struggled so much, a lot  of the medicine was spat onto Zhao Zun’s sleeves, making him frown.

The result for the second bowl was the same. However, the movements while feeding were a little more gentle. They were no longer barbaric and he unconsciously became more tender.

For the third bowl, Xiao Yuan had started to swallow properly. Zhao Qi gave a thumbs up in his heart for his lord in secret. As expected, the lord would have a solution.

“Learned enough?” Zhao Zun lifted his eyes to look at Zhao Qi. Zhao Qi had a sudden thought. If the Right Minister were to know of this, he would come after Zhao Zun with a blade in hand. Zhao Qi’s guts shrank at the thought.

“Lord, this subordinate is not so skillful. How about I notify you when it’s time to switch another batch of medicine?”

Zhou Qi asked careful and cautiously, sensing that this young girl was not an ordinary person.

Zhao Zun slightly narrowed his eyes, and right away, Zhao Qi was ready to admit his mistake by opening his mouth.

“En.”

A faint “En”? Zhao Qi thought that his ears were playing tricks on him and did not react accordingly. After Zhao Zun left, Zhao Qi almost jumped. The Lord actually agreed.

That’s totally unbelievable.

By the time Xiao Yuan woke up, it was already the evening of the next day. It took a lot of effort to open her eyes and her head was still dizzy like the world around her was spinning.

“Young miss, you are awake.”

Xiao Yuan only saw a beautiful, young handmaiden in high spirits smiling in a way that a pair of small dimples were shown. It was a pleasing sight.

Jin Hua placed her hand on Xiao Yuan’s forehead and suddenly smiled, “This servant is called Jin Hua. Your fever has finally gone down.”

Xiao Yuan squeezed out a weak smile  and looked around the unfamiliar surroundings, which were a little hard to get used to. With a hoarse throat she asked, “Where is this?”

Jin Hua smiled and replied, “This is Zhao Manor.”

“Zhao Manor?” Xiao Yuan hadn’t remembered getting rescued after rolling down the mountain. Struggling to get up, she asked, “What of Hong Xiu? What happened to Hong Xiu?”

Jin Hua thought for a moment, “I presume you are referring to the young servant girl. She is fine. She hasn’t awoken yet.”

Xiao Yuan moved the blanket to get out of the bed, which made Jin Hua stop Xiao Yuan in a hurry. “What are you doing, young miss? You have yet to recover. You can’t get out of the bed.”

“Call for your masters. Anyone will do. Best if she is a madam.”   

As soon as Xiao Yuan stopped speaking, Jin Hua knelt down halfway after a shock. “My Lord.”

Xiao Yuan lifted her eyes to see Zhao Zun, who was wearing black clothes.  His long,ink-black hair was held together by a long hairpin, and one of his hands rested on his back. Although his attire was simple, it gave off a sort of inviolable presence. His placid black eyes seemed like a starry night sky,  which unconsciously attracted people.

It was Zhao Zun!

Xiao Yuan shrunk her neck. She couldn’t help but recoil from him.

Zhao Zun, Dong Ming’s richest merchant possessing uncountable riches, was one of the people all the princes wanted to make connections with. He also had several ships with all sorts of inward and outward trades. He owned everything there was own.

Xiao Yuan had seen Zhao Zun before in her previous life. She had heard that he had a brutal personality and liked slaughter. His personality was extremely weird, and he liked neither soft nor hard approaches when dealing with people. The Right Minister also had his share of being played into his schemes.

Xiao Yuan also heard of him, considering how renowned he was. She instantly frowned and contemplated many curses in her mind. How was it possible for her to be so unlucky that she had to cross paths with this demon killer?

Xiao Yuan’s inner thoughts didn’t escape Zhao Zun’s eyes. He narrowed his eyes and lifted his hands. Seeing this, Jin Hua glanced at Xiao Yuan before lowering her head and leaving the room.

For every step Zhao Zun took, Xiao Yuan retreated another. If it weren’t for yesterday’s report, he would’ve assumed that Xiao Yuan was familiar with him.

And so he became more curious.

“Are you afraid of me?” Zhao Zun barely lifted his lips to say out those words.

He stopped walking sat down after fetching a nearby chair. Xiao Yuan should’ve jumped onto the bed after he walked a bit more. However, she had a lot of nerve contrary to what one might expect. She rolled down from such a high slope without blinking an eye. If he were a normal man, he wouldn’t necessarily have the guts to do that.

But why was she afraid of him? Zhao Zun wanted to be sure if Xiao Yuan was really afraid of him.

Xiao Yuan exhaled softly and shook her head in hesitation. Before this, she had only heard of the rumours and never seen Zhao Zun for real. She  repeatedly told herself not to believe rumours easily.

Xiao Yuan thought for a moment, “it’d be better to pretend you don’t know him”, and firmly shook her head.

Zhao Zun calmly poured a cup of tea and gently took few sips. From time to time, he would look at her from the corner of his eyes. His movement while blowing the tea gently seemed extremely graceful. Not pausing just like moving clouds and flowing water, he gave off an image of grace. In Xiao Yuan’s eyes, Zhao Zun drinking tea was one of a kind and was to be appreciated.

Xiao Yuan was once again in doubt. How was it possible for a person like this to have such a bad reputation?

“Young girl, why do you know my name?” Zhao Zun asked while putting down his cup, feeling a bit curious.

Xiao Yuan choked up at that. She suddenly remembered that she had called him “Zhao Zun” before she passed out. She wished to bite her own tongue off right there. Since she couldn’t think of a good excuse no matter what, she could only brace herself in her answer.

“I learned fortune telling at birth. I know astronomy to geography; therefore, it isn’t hard to try and find out one’s name.”

Xiao Yuan thought that there was no better explanation than this. After all, she did know a lot of things. She straightened up her waist and back.

Zhao Zun stared a little. The intrigue in his eyes made Xiao Yuan’s face go red.

“Even if you know fortune telling, how did the young lady show up here?”

Xiao Yuan spoke adamantly as if she was on the top of things, “Don’t tell me that you, lord Zhao, don’t know the saying ‘doctors do not treat themselves’.”

Zhao Zun nodded his head in comprehension, “Hmm, I see. Then in that case, how about telling me what’s going on outside?”

Xiao Yuan was stunned. She took a look at the sky, which had gradually darkened. She thought “oh shit” in her mind.

“Lord Zhao, I am the Right Minister’s ninth daughter. The gratitude for saving my life will surely be repaid in some other day. I must first bid my leave.”

As Xiao Yuan hadn’t returned, she figured the whole manor would’ve been turned upside down by now. She moved her lips in frustration.

“Miss Xiao Ninth.”

Zhao Zun suddenly felt interested. There was no way she seriously fashioned herself to be a martial champion, right? How could she have recovered fully in a few hours after rolling down a mountain?

Xiao Yuan halted her steps and looked at Zhao Zun. This man did not lack anything at all, so he most likely wouldn’t bother pitting himself against the Right Ministry.

“When you had been saved yesterday, I had already sent my men to inform the minister,” Zhao Zun spoke neutrally.

Xiao Yuan did a double take–Yesterday? Informed? She almost jumped on an urge. She looked at Zhao Zun unpleasantly and asked, “No way. If so, then how come my father hasn’t come yet?”

Zhao Zun narrowed his eyes with a faint smile. He assumed that the Minister of the Right was stomping his feet right now.