Cuizhu and the others knew their young mistress had a willful temper and dared not disobey, so they could only trail far behind.
Chu Mingzhao wandered aimlessly along the covered walkway, her mind racing with frantic schemes on how to feign illness and escape the upcoming Lantern Festival banquet. Just as she turned past a moon-shaped gate and reached a spot behind a rockery, her steps suddenly halted.
In the sheltered area beside the walkway stood a slender, upright figure.
The person wore a thin, drafty coarse linen garment and held a broom. Wind and snow covered his crow-black hair and thin shoulders, yet he seemed oblivious, standing still as a clay or wooden statue, slightly tilting his head.
And that direction was directly facing the half-open carved window lattice of the front hall.
Pei Yan.
Chu Mingzhao's breath caught.
How could he be here? Were the servants of the Prime Minister’s mansion blind, letting a stable boy come to the main courtyard to sweep snow?
There was no need to guess—the conversation inside about the Lantern Festival banquet, about the Third Prince and the Seventh Prince, must have fallen entirely into his ears.
The former Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace, now not only struggling in the mud but also forced to hear how the daughter of his enemy, his nominal wife, would dress up finely to curry favor with the political rival who had climbed to power over his blood and bones.
This kind of piercing pain was no different from tearing open his wounds and rubbing salt into them.
Chu Mingzhao’s heart thumped. She was about to silently turn and leave when a system sound suddenly rang in her mind.
[Ding——]
[Detected key plot point: Eavesdropping and punishment.]
[Extracting original text segment……]
[Chu Mingzhao sneered, pointed at the eavesdropping Pei Yan, and shouted sternly: “What kind of lowly thing do you think you are, daring to eavesdrop on your master’s words? Roll into the snow and kneel, slap yourself a hundred times! Miss even once, and I’ll skin you alive!” Pei Yan knelt in the snow and ice before everyone, the hatred in his eyes almost wanting to devour Chu Mingzhao whole.]
[Please complete a reasonable modification within ten seconds. If not modified, the original plot will be enforced.]
[Current authority: LV1 (modify one character). Countdown begins: 10, 9, 8……]
Chu Mingzhao let out a miserable internal scream like a prairie dog.
Slap herself a hundred times?!
A hundred slaps to the face—wouldn’t this originally cold and noble dragon-pride male lead turn into a swollen pig head?
In a flash, Chu Mingzhao’s fingers moved faster than her mind.
A swipe of the fingertip, a hook, a pause.
[3, 2, 1——Modification successful!]
The characters twisted and reassembled in midair, finally stabilizing into a line of text radiating an eerie glow:
[……“What kind of lowly thing do you think you are, daring to eavesdrop on your master’s words? Roll into the snow and kneel, pleasure yourself a hundred times! Miss even once, and I’ll skin you alive!” Pei Yan knelt in the snow and ice before everyone……]
Chu Mingzhao’s breath stopped.
Holy shit.
A kind of plant.
Pleasure… yourself?!
A hundred times?!
Had she been possessed by some lecherous demon just now?!
Yes, it didn’t hurt his face, but this was grinding the male lead’s dignity directly into the ground!
A hundred times! Even an iron rod would wear down to a needle!
However, the System gave her no chance to regret, directly cheering in her mind:
[Ding——Detected extremely high-intensity emotional conflict and off-the-charts ambiguous tension!!!]
[Po Value Judgment Level: SS Level (Heinous)!!!]
[Congratulations, Host! Earned experience points +40! Current experience: 100/100. Host authority upgraded!]
[Current level: LV2 (can modify a two-character word), effective from the next plot trigger. Keep up this heinous villainous style—I’m rooting for you!]
Rooting for you, my ass!
Chu Mingzhao felt like crying but had no tears, yet her body control was forcibly taken over the moment the plot took effect.
She abruptly turned out from behind the rockery, the sheepskin boots on her feet crunching slightly in the snow.
Pei Yan turned his head at the sound.
In the swirling snow, his face was pale as paper, except for the red mole at the corner of his eye, like a drop of blood splattered in the snow, exuding a breathtaking cold allure and gloom.
He had heard the conversation in the front hall clearly.
Third Prince, Seventh Prince.
Lantern viewing banquet, entering the palace for shared joy.
This was the Chu family, this was his nominal fiancée. Trampling on his dignity, eagerly seeking to cling to new heights.
Old grievances and new hatreds, combined with that dream in the stable last night that made him nauseous yet impossible to shake, made Pei Yan’s gaze at Chu Mingzhao now as if he were looking at a corpse.
Their eyes met.
Chu Mingzhao felt a chill down her spine from his venomous stare.
But to cling to life, she had to forcibly put on that arrogant air of a spoiled noblewoman.
She slightly raised her chin, her gaze flowing with condescending contempt, and her bright red lips parted to speak the line:
“What kind of lowly thing do you think you are, daring to eavesdrop on your master’s words here?”
Chu Mingzhao gathered her snow-white fox-fur cloak, stepping step by step in front of him, looking down at him from above.
“Roll into the snow and kneel, pleasure yourself a hundred times! Miss even once, and I’ll skin you alive!”
As soon as these words were spoken, the whole world seemed to fall into a dead silence.
Only the cold wind howled bleakly, sweeping up the leftover snow on the ground.
“Thud.”
The worn-out broom in Pei Yan’s hand fell straight into the snow.
He stood frozen, as if struck by lightning.
In his mind, he had imagined a thousand ways Chu Mingzhao might humiliate him. He had even prepared for a beating or a hundred slaps after being discovered.
Go ahead.
This body was already ruined anyway. As long as he didn’t die, every whip and every slap today would be repaid a thousandfold in the future.
But he never expected that from the mouth of this Prime Minister’s legitimate daughter, this lady of a noble house, such vulgar, shameless, utterly disgraceful words could so lightly spill out.
Pleasure… what?
A hundred times?
A flash of profound absurdity and shock crossed Pei Yan’s eyes.
He stared intently at Chu Mingzhao’s bright, willful face, trying to find any trace that she was joking.
However, beneath Chu Mingzhao’s peerless face, there was nothing but lofty contempt and impatience, without a shred of other emotion.
Because of the cold, she even irritably tucked her chin into the white fox-fur collar, leaving only a pair of flirtatious fox eyes, coldly glaring at him.
The snow fell heavier and heavier.
Goose-feather snowflakes landed on Pei Yan’s eyelashes, turning into icy droplets that slid down his pale cheek.
“What? Deaf?”
Chu Mingzhao’s voice was exceptionally crisp in the cold wind, and also exceptionally cruel.
“Or have these hands of yours, which only know how to sweep floors and lead horses, forgotten even how to serve yourself?”
