With a crisp crack, another chunk of sturdy pinewood split cleanly in two.
Pei Yan didn"t turn around. He merely planted the wooden handle of his axe heavily onto the chopping block.
“If the Eldest Miss has graced this foul place at such an early hour just to see me in this sorry state, you’ve had your look. Now you can get the hell out.”
Chu Mingzhao withdrew her gaze and stepped slowly through the accumulated snow, unhurried and deliberate.
“This is the Chancellor’s estate. I go wherever I please. Who are you, a mere servant, to dictate where I can or cannot go?”
She took two more steps forward as she spoke.
Pei Yan’s gaze trailed down her striking face and came to rest on her chin, nestled in rabbit fur. It was artfully covered, yet the hidden marks of last night’s indulgence were glaringly obvious.
The sweet, cloying scent of roses seemed to flood his mouth again. His fingers tightened around the axe handle until his knuckles turned white.
It felt filthy.
Not that she was filthy—but that he had lost control last night. That man was filthy beyond redemption.
Chu Mingzhao’s skin crawled under his stare. Her heart hammered in her chest. Was this Living Hell King going to lose it again at dawn and cleave her in two with that axe?
Right as the standoff stretched to the breaking point, a familiar blue light flickered in her field of vision.
[Ding—Side plotline auto-trigger detected. Original text extract in progress...]
[Chu Mingzhao watches Pei Yan, drenched in sweat, and wrinkles her nose in disgust. She orders a basin of ice water brought over, sneers that a horse groom should clean himself properly after working up a sweat, and pours it over Pei Yan’s head. Pei Yan endures the agony in silence, seething with murderous intent.]
[Host is required to complete a reasonable modification within ten seconds. Current clearance level: LV2 (modification of one to two words only).]
Here it comes.
Chu Mingzhao ground her teeth in frustration.
The original owner of this body was genuinely unhinged—pouring ice water on someone in the dead of winter? That was just inviting disaster. No wonder she ended up being turned into a human-skin lantern in the original story.
She swept her eyes across the surroundings. Beside the stables, the horse trough had a thick layer of ice on top. Next to it sat a battered wooden bucket.
[Countdown: 8, 7...]
Chu Mingzhao’s fingertips flew across the virtual light screen, swiping away the words “ice water” and replacing them with “hot water.”
At least a hot bath in winter seemed like an act of consideration, didn’t it?
The system’s flat, mechanical voice rang out:
[Warning! Po rating = zero. Lacks suggestive content. Modification rejected.]
Chu Mingzhao nearly bit through her teeth.
This damn system was stricter than a morality police raid!
Fine, hot water didn’t work. What about the same trick as before? She’d put “essential oils.”
She frantically typed in “essential oils” again.
[Warning! Detected repeated modification of same segment. Modification rejected again.]
[Countdown: 4, 3...]
The numbers ticked down, suffocatingly urgent.
Chu Mingzhao’s gaze scrambled across the stable corner. There, piled up, were a few nondescript kraft-paper pouches. They were the veterinary aphrodisiacs the manor’s horse doctor had prepared just yesterday for breeding the western stallions in the back courtyard.
[Countdown: 2, 1...]
Screw it. Desperate times.
Chu Mingzhao gritted her teeth and changed “ice water” to “aphrodisiac.”
[Ding—Modification successful. Current storyline updated.]
[...She orders a basin of aphrodisiac brought over. With a sugary smile, she sneers that the horse groom should clean himself properly after working up a sweat, and pours it over Pei Yan’s head. Pei Yan endures the agony...]
Chu Mingzhao’s body moved against her will. She turned, lifted her chin, and spoke in that lilting yet venomous tone—the voice of a pampered, cruel princess.
“Cuizhu, go fetch that pouch of horse-breeding powder from the corner. Mix the whole thing into a bucket of water.”
Cuizhu, standing nearby, was so startled her eyes went wide. She glanced from the pouch to her mistress, frozen in place.
That was a potent medicine meant for beasts. One whole pouch would drive a stallion mad. Used on a person... it might kill him.
“Why are you still standing there? Are my words worthless now?”
Chu Mingzhao laughed coldly, her tone dripping with a cruelty that brooked no resistance.
Cuizhu shuddered, scrambled over, and dumped the entire pouch of powder into the wooden bucket by the trough. She stirred it sloppily with a stick.
The murky powder dissolved into the icy water, releasing a sharp, bitter, animalistic stench.
Chu Mingzhao forced herself not to cover her nose. She nodded her chin toward Pei Yan.
“This horse groom is soaked in sweat. He needs a proper wash. Pour it on him.”
Two burly maids nearby, eager to curry favor with their mistress, rushed forward to grab the bucket. They hoisted it together and drenched Pei Yan’s broad back with the contents.
Having ice water thrown on him in the dead of winter was a humiliation Pei Yan had long since grown used to.
He didn’t even dodge. He let the bone-chilling liquid hit his back without flinching.
In the coldest days of winter, dumping ice water on a person was nothing short of torture.
The veins on Pei Yan’s hand, gripping the axe handle, bulged sharply. His knuckles turned an ugly, bloodless white. He clenched his jaw tight, not letting out so much as a grunt.
Chu Mingzhao watched his state, growing more uneasy by the second.
This was pure-bred stallion aphrodisiac. Even if it hadn’t been swallowed, just soaking through the skin and into the bloodstream, the potency was certainly enough to wreck a man.
Pei Yan slowly turned around. His dark, pitch-black gaze landed squarely on Chu Mingzhao’s face.
Chu Mingzhao’s heart lurched at the look in his eyes. She was about to flee with her maids when she noticed something wrong.
Pei Yan’s skin, which had been deathly pale from the cold, was now flushing an unnatural red at a visible rate.
The flush spread from his wet collarbone, climbed over his prominent Adam’s apple, burned up to the tips of his ears, and finally gathered around the cold teardrop mole at the corner of his eye—strangely, eerily gorgeous.
A winter wind swept past him, but he wasn’t shivering. Instead, a faint wisp of steam rose from his body.
Chu Mingzhao sucked in a sharp breath.
This stuff was strong.
“Chu Mingzhao.”
Pei Yan’s voice came out hoarse, trembling with barely contained rage.
“What did you put in the water?”
Chu Mingzhao swallowed hard and forced herself to hold onto her crumbling villain persona. She let out a cold sneer.
“What I rewarded you with is the finest stuff. Made by the best veterinarian in the capital—specially for horses. It was meant for those top-grade western stallions. You ought to be grateful a lowly horse groom gets to enjoy it.”
Pei Yan’s pupils contracted.
An inferno roared to life in his chest, rampaging through his meridians, clawing straight for his skull. His blood vessels throbbed wildly. The frayed threads of his sanity were stretched to the breaking point.
No wonder he wasn’t cold despite the drenching. He was burning instead.
His hands, hanging at his sides, clenched slowly until his knuckles cracked with an audible sound.
He wanted to tear something apart.
To tear apart that reckless woman in front of him—to shred that garish silver-red jacket off her body—to make her taste the same unbearable humiliation.
