Meanwhile, inside the Grand General’s manor.
Lin Wan’er carried the red sandalwood brocade box back to her chambers as carefully as if it held her ancestors’ memorial tablets.
All along the way, the maids and matrons of the household poked their heads out curiously.
Lin Wan’er raised her chin high, like a proud peacock, thoroughly enjoying the awestruck and envious looks she received.
For this pearl that could preserve her youth forever, she had not only signed an enormous debt note for one hundred thousand taels of silver, but had also thrown in the deeds to three prosperous shops that the Grand General usually used to cultivate connections and rake in money day after day.
Yet Lin Wan’er didn’t feel the slightest bit of heartache.
As long as she could keep her beauty from fading and outshine every other woman, endless glory and riches would be waiting for her in the future!
“Everyone out. Without my orders, no one is to come in and disturb me while I absorb the immortal aura tonight!”
Lin Wan’er dismissed everyone, shut the door tightly, and eagerly washed up.
She reverently placed the Beauty-Preserving Pearl beside the jade pillow on her canopied bed.
Full of anticipation, Lin Wan’er closed her eyes. Her mind was filled with visions of the peerless beauty she would possess in the future.
She had already begun fantasizing about becoming empress one day, with Su Yaoyao kneeling at her feet, weeping and begging for mercy.
But a quarter of an hour passed.
Then half an hour.
Lin Wan’er rolled over and opened her eyes in irritation.
Bright!
It was simply too bright!
The glass ball that Su Yaoyao had loaded with double the amount of interstellar fluorescent powder and shards of broken glass glowed like a miniature sun in the dark bedchamber.
It was an extremely dazzling, intensely penetrating Barbie-pink!
Lin Wan’er felt as though the pink light was about to roast her eyes dry.
Whenever she closed her eyes, everything beyond her eyelids was a blazing red. Her nerves throbbed violently, and she couldn’t feel even the slightest hint of sleepiness.
“For the sake of eternal youth… I’ll endure it!”
Lin Wan’er gritted her teeth, pulled the quilt over her head, and tried to block out the blinding light.
The pink glow was astonishingly powerful. Even the entire bed, covered with an expensive Jiangnan silk quilt, was dyed an eerie shade of pink.
The moment she closed her eyes, her mind filled with an inescapable pink halo.
This was destined to be a torturous night that would leave her mentally unhinged and wishing for death.
Meanwhile, night had deepened over the imperial palace.
Inside the Zhaoyang Palace, Su Yaoyao changed into a sleek, close-fitting black outfit for night missions.
She tied her waterfall of long hair high on her head in a neat ponytail.
After carefully checking the specially made flying tiger claw at her waist, she strapped two fine-steel daggers coated with a powerful anesthetic to her calves.
Most importantly, she had brought along a whole pile of freshly prepared little toys from her portable space.
Hypnotic smoke, timed bombs, miniature lock-picks—she had everything.
【Everything is ready. All that’s missing is a strong laborer who can actually fight.】
Su Yaoyao patted her bulging waist pouch in satisfaction and swaggered out of the Zhaoyang Palace.
With a clear target in mind, she headed straight for the Eastern Palace, deep within the imperial compound.
The gates of the Eastern Palace were perpetually shut, exuding a grim and sinister aura of slaughter.
Rumor had it that the place was hung with lanterns made from human skin, while the dark-red stains on its flagstones could never be washed clean.
Even the imperial guards patrolling at night detoured around the place every time they passed, terrified of being tainted by the murderous aura of the Living Yama.
Yet tonight, the Eastern Palace looked rather… bizarre.
Bang!
With a tremendous crash, the heavy and imposing gates of the Eastern Palace were kicked open by Su Yaoyao without the slightest hesitation.
“Big Brother Crown Prince, get up and come do some work!”
Su Yaoyao’s crisp voice echoed brazenly through the vast, silent courtyard.
No hidden guards came out to stop her, and none of the deadly traps were triggered.
An eerie light that was impossible to look at directly shone from the main hall of the Eastern Palace.
Su Yaoyao pushed open the door to the sleeping quarters and strode inside.
The sight before her made her bite her lip hard. She nearly failed to suppress a loud, goose-like cackle right there on the spot.
The legendary Su Jin, Crown Prince of the Great Abyss, said to be the cold and ruthless Living Yama who killed without blinking, sat on the broad blackwood bed carved with ornate designs, utterly devoid of hope.
He had just finished bathing, and water was still dripping from his hair. At his feet sat more than a dozen wooden tubs used for bathing.
But all his effort had clearly been in vain.
The effects of the truth serum had seeped deeply into his flesh and muscles. No amount of washing could remove them.
His entire body still radiated a dazzling Barbie-pink glow in the darkness of the bedchamber.
The pink light was not only bright but also carried a faintly dreamlike quality.
His waterfall of black hair, which he had always been so proud of, looked like a cluster of pink neon tubes, glowing faintly in the air.
When Su Jin heard the door open, he turned his head stiffly, like a mechanical puppet.
Under the pink light, the face that should have struck terror into the hearts of all who saw it looked utterly ridiculous.
The cold, narrow eyes that normally inspired fear had lost all desire for worldly things.
All that remained was profound despair and a complete resignation to his fate.
“What are you here for this time?”
Su Jin’s voice was hoarse and dry, filled with the exhaustion of someone who had been thoroughly worn down.
“I am the Crown Prince of an entire nation, the Living Yama of the Great Abyss, and you’ve tormented me into this!”
“I took ten baths! Ten! I nearly scrubbed off a layer of skin, and this cursed light only got brighter!”
“Are you really going to keep pushing me until I hang myself before you’ll be satisfied?”
He didn’t even dare move now.
The moment his foot touched the ground, his muscle memory would instinctively try to make him perform that blasted moonwalk.
Looking at Su Jin’s utterly tragic state, Su Yaoyao showed not the slightest bit of sympathy. She grinned.
【Hahaha! A human-sized, self-propelled pink lightbulb. I laugh every time I see him!】
【If we tossed him into the night, he’d be the most dazzling guy for ten miles in every direction!】
Hearing her mocking thoughts, Su Jin shut his eyes in pain.
Let the world end.
Quickly.
He couldn’t stay in the Great Abyss for another day.
“Don’t look so miserable, good brother.”
Su Yaoyao walked over and tossed a set of black night clothes onto his face.
“Hurry up and put these on. Tonight, your little sister is taking you out to pull off something big!”
Su Jin yanked the night clothes off his face. He glanced at them by the light emanating from his own body and laughed bitterly.
“You want me to wear this?”
He pointed at his still-glowing chest, his voice breaking with outrage.
“Are you blind? Can’t you see this light? What good will night clothes do?”
“Night clothes are meant for stealth! If I wear this thing, I’ll be a walking searchlight in the dark!”
“Are you saying the enemy’s targets aren’t bright enough, so you have to send me out as a living target to guide their arrows?”
Faced with Su Jin’s furious outburst, Su Yaoyao calmly dug a finger into her ear.
“What are you panicking about? Since I called you here, naturally I have a foolproof solution.”
She reached back into her portable space and rummaged around.
After a rustling sound, she pulled out a large, thick black burlap sack that reeked of moldy sweet potatoes.
Su Jin stared at the familiar sack. His eyelids twitched violently, and the intense aftereffects of his trauma shot straight to the top of his head.
The pink glow enveloping his body flickered twice in fury.
“Su Yaoyao! Not again?!”
Su Jin pointed at the sack in despair. His voice cracked, and his face was filled with humiliation and resistance.
“Last time we went to Black Wind Stronghold, you put this wretched thing over my head. And today you’re doing it again?”
“It took me eight hundred baths to barely cover up that old moldy-sweet-potato smell!”
“I am the Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace! You want me to go out wearing a tattered sack again? Don’t I have any dignity?”
Su Jin was about to lose his mind!
The humiliating memory of being stuffed into a sack and forced to do the moonwalk came rushing back, attacking him relentlessly.
Su Yaoyao walked over to the bed and, being exceptionally considerate, snipped two round holes into the sack with a pair of scissors.
They were just large enough for a clear view through his eyes.
“Once you’ve done it once, the second time is easy. Don’t be such a stranger, Big Brother.”
Su Yaoyao casually shook the black sack in her hand and began drawing him a grand vision with great solemnity.
“Last time we went to Black Wind Stronghold, we came away with ten carts of gunpowder for free and recruited a whole bunch of assassin underlings.”
“But that was only a small portion of the Grand General’s stockpile, kept on the outskirts.”
A greedy glint flashed in Su Yaoyao’s eyes as she lowered her voice.
“According to my calculations, combined with the intel we just received…”
“For the rebellion he’s planning during the Mid-Autumn banquet, the Grand General must have brought another shipment of high-grade refined iron and heavy crossbows into the stronghold’s main warehouse these past few days!”
“If we go too late and he transfers them ahead of time, what am I supposed to use to build my Gatling gun?”
At the mention of the “main warehouse” and “heavy crossbows,” Su Jin’s struggles suddenly stopped.
Of course, he knew about Lin Zhenxiong’s ambitions.
If that old bastard really managed to transport the heavy crossbows into the capital, the Mid-Autumn banquet would end in rivers of blood.
That crazy girl was actually planning to strip Lin Zhenxiong of everything he had?!
“But…”
Su Jin looked down at the sack and made one last desperate attempt to resist.
“But what?”
Su Yaoyao didn’t give him a chance to finish. She grabbed the rough black sack and pulled it straight over his head!
Then she yanked it down hard, covering the dazzling pink glow from his upper body completely.
“Perfect!”
Su Yaoyao clapped her hands and admired her handiwork with immense satisfaction.
“Big Brother, wearing black clothes at night is pointless for you. You come with your own built-in lighting.”
“Put on the sack and come with your little sister to pull off something big tonight!”
Smothered inside the sack, with only two eyes full of humiliation showing through, Su Jin felt as though he was about to suffocate.
The familiar, musty smell of moldy dried sweet potatoes once again burrowed mercilessly into his nose.
“Come on, come on! Good Big Brother, stop dawdling. The real show is about to begin!”
Su Yaoyao dragged and hauled the utterly hopeless Su Jin out of the bedchamber.
The night was dark, the wind fierce, and the moon hidden behind heavy clouds.
On the rugged mountain path leading from the imperial city into the deep wilderness, the cold wind howled.
A nimble girl in black stealthily made her way toward the heavily guarded Black Wind Stronghold outside the city, accompanied by an unidentified glowing object wearing a sack and faintly radiating pink light.
However one looked at it, this infiltration was anything but reliable!
