Hearing his words, Pei Lianyi’s anxious, unsettled heart froze several degrees further.
This person before him had not only lurked at the auction banquet, knowing what transpired that night, but was also thoroughly aware of Jingzhao’s whereabouts.
He realized that compared to the fear and shame of being tormented by this madman, what terrified him the most was that the Ghost-Faced Man was right beside him!
Beneath that strange, wicked mask was a pair of eyes, as terrifying as deep abysses, ready to seize his flesh and cruelly peck at his heart.
“Who exactly are you… no, how do you know Jingzhao isn’t here?!” Thinking of the young man who had gone to find the Snow Deer and was long overdue in returning, Pei Lianyi’s heart clenched tightly, fearing that Huo Jingzhao might be in danger. He questioned in a deep, angry voice.
“Ha…” The Ghost-Faced Man lowered his head and chuckled softly. His muscular chest fluctuated slightly, as if expelling a wisp of cold air.
“It seems Master Pei still doesn’t understand the situation.” As he spoke, the Ghost-Faced Man turned around and shut the door behind him. “Tonight, it’s me who’s going to interrogate you, not the other way around.”
Looking at his palm pressed against the door crack, Pei Lianyi, his body permeated with cold sweat, clutched his sleeves tightly. The madman’s wildly disrespectful words left his mind blank. It took him a long while to find his own voice. “What nonsense are you spouting? What… interrogation?”
He was born noble and proud. Since childhood, he had been taught the principles of hierarchy and ancestral rules, thus maintaining an orthodox and dignified temperament. No one had ever dared to be violent towards him.
Only this damned, abominable fiend, this madman who came and went without a trace, again and again relentlessly tore through his defenses, shattering the perfection and purity he had so carefully constructed.
The Ghost-Faced Man stood with his back to him, not turning around for a long time. But judging by the slight tremor in his broad shoulders, he was suppressing a bizarre laugh.
Soon, his wicked voice reached Pei Lianyi’s ear. “Forgotten how it felt to be beaten by the Ferule that day?”
“If Master Pei can’t remember, I can help refresh your memory. Only tonight, without a Ferule, how should I…”
“No— Shut up! Stop it… Stop!” Noticing the Ghost-Faced Man’s head turning to target the red candle on the table, Pei Lianyi shook his head in terror and stepped back quickly, trying to distance himself.
But his instinctive retreat instantly enraged the other. The Ghost-Faced Man lunged forward, grabbing Pei Lianyi’s hand with one hand and seizing his shoulder with the other, nailing him firmly in place as if hammering a wooden wedge.
“Pei Lianyi, what airs are you putting on now? Flaunting yourself like a slut at the auction banquet, and now putting on a show of chastity and heartlessness before me?!”
Pei Lianyi’s ears buzzed at his insulting words. His hand and shoulder ached almost numb from the fury and raging desire radiating from the Ghost-Faced Man. What rose simultaneously in his heart was an unprecedented shame and pain.
Ever since taking over the family business and giving birth to Ziying, he had lived a life of few desires and strict rules. How was it that in this madman’s mouth, he became so debauched and corrupt?
Pei Lianyi forcibly suppressed his disgust and the chest-stifling resentment, his face pale, refusing to speak.
Seeing his silence, Huo Jingzhao panicked for no apparent reason and immediately asked coldly, “What is your relationship with that Lord Yan and those other old, undying things?!”
The moment this question was asked, Pei Lianyi’s expression shifted slightly. Suppressing his panic, he retorted, “What relationship do you think there could be?”
Without waiting for the Ghost-Faced Man to erupt, his noble eyelids again held that hint of provocation familiar from that night. “I am a profit-driven businessman. What I seek, others will naturally try to obtain from me. An equal exchange, that’s all. What’s strange about that?”
Finished speaking, Pei Lianyi closed his eyes, unwilling to face the man’s gaze.
His heart was filled entirely with hatred for the Ghost-Faced Man. He deliberately made his words ambiguous, with a touch of reckless abandonment.
“What did you say—! What did you say!” Huo Jingzhao squeezed Pei Lianyi’s shoulder socket, almost twisting the beautiful line connecting it to his neck out of shape.
“Ah— Argh!” Pei Lianyi furrowed his brows in pain. His taut fingers dug into the door panel, clawing several ferocious scratch marks into the thick wood.
Just as he thought his shoulder blade would be broken, the Ghost-Faced Man abruptly stopped.
“If Master Pei wants to keep secrets, you must answer my questions honestly.” The strange mask drew closer. The Ghost-Faced Man gently stroked his raven-black sideburns and whispered.
Pei Lianyi’s back shuddered, his pupils constricting sharply.
“Shall I drag you out into public and show everyone myself?”
No, no. Pei Lianyi pleaded with his eyes.
Huo Jingzhao was immediately overjoyed. Tilting his head, his tone brimmed with mockery. “I’ll ask one last time. You and them, what is your re-la-tion-ship?”
Pei Lianyi’s face was flushed red, his expression lost, his voice a murmur. “Nothing, nothing at all.”
His entire body stiffened when nervous, the wings of his nose fluttering. That dazed, bewildered look made Huo Jingzhao’s throat dry.
He deliberately rubbed his cold, strange mask against Pei Lianyi’s ear.
“Master Pei, no rush. We have the whole night to pry the answers from your mouth.”
The image of Huo Jingzhao’s gentle, warm presence flashed through his mind, and Pei Lianyi instinctively avoided him.
“Doing this kind of thing, what difference is there between you and them?” he spoke coldly, involuntarily touching the pearl on his chest.
Recalling the night of the auction banquet, how Huo Jingzhao had placed it on him, the gentle manner, Pei Lianyi halted his trembling, pursed his lips, his face softening.
Staring at him clutching that pearl, holding it as a priceless treasure, Huo Jingzhao’s dark eyes sank. The flames of jealousy in his heart raged wildly, instantly birthing an impulse to destroy everything.
The stark white teeth beneath his mask ground audibly as he sneered coldly. “He only gave you some little trinket, and you cherish it this much?”
“It’s none of your business. He’s different… Argh! What are you doing, ghh—!”
Pei Lianyi was about to retort when Huo Jingzhao suddenly twisted him around and tore open his robes with his bare hands, sneering as he interrogated:
“Did you give yourself to Huo Jingzhao? He’s so attentive to you, are you about to crawl into his bed?!”
The sound of tearing silk and buttons snapping off was piercing. Pei Lianyi’s outer robe hung messily from his arms, even his snow-white inner garment was on the verge of being ruined. His long, slender neck convulsed violently. His cool, noble face flushed crimson as he continuously cursed at the Ghost-Faced Man to get lost.
“Get lost… get lost! He’s not as shameless as you!”
The Ghost-Faced Man scoffed lightly, then roughly twisted Pei Lianyi’s hand, forcing him to face away.
Under the dim candlelight, the teardrop pearl hung in mid-air, dazzling the eyes.
“Does Master Pei know how pearls are born? Hm?” Examining Pei Lianyi’s mature, well-proportioned back, Huo Jingzhao suddenly asked.
“…” Every sinew and bone in Pei Lianyi’s body was convulsing.
The man behind him spoke lightly: “The scriptures say, by the sea lives a creature called a mussel. It’s born with a hard shell, but inside, it’s unbelievably soft. Pearls come from the flesh of the mussel… Whenever a foreign object enters the mussel’s outer membrane, the tender mussel flesh is attacked. Unable to expel it, it secretes nacre to wrap it up.”
Huo Jingzhao’s tone slightly intensified. “Secreting three times a day… four times, countless times, over thousands of years, to produce a pearl.”
Pei Lianyi’s face alternated between red and white as he listened, both shocked and furious. “You are truly despicable.”
Huo Jingzhao held him firmly, then tilted his head up to look at the roof beam. His solid neck undulated as he laughed strangely and sighed. “But you like it just like this, don’t you? You clearly react to it.”
“What Huo Jingzhao can’t give you, I can give you all.”
He had become an insatiably greedy beast, swallowing jealousy he couldn’t expel, wanting only to tear apart that outer shell.
“No, don’t touch me… Don’t touch me!” Sensing danger, Pei Lianyi struggled desperately, pushing him away with a stern face.
“…” Unexpectedly, the Ghost-Faced Man actually released him and stood still.
Just then, Pei Lianyi felt something sticky in his hand. Catching the faint scent of blood in the air, he looked down.
“You’re injured?” Seeing the blood on his hand, Pei Lianyi was first astonished, then said coldly, “To think someone could actually wound you.”
The Ghost-Faced Man stood with his hands behind his back, the smell of rust lingering around him.
Only now did Pei Lianyi understand why he had used his hand to close the door earlier.
The man seemed to be enduring pain and recuperating. Pei Lianyi felt the temperature in the bedchamber rise a few degrees.
Seizing this moment, he retreated step by step until his back hit the edge of the desk, fumbling for something on its surface.
“Leave. Don’t come back. I don’t ever want to see you again,” Pei Lianyi said hoarsely.
“Pei Lianyi, it seems you still don’t understand the kind of man I am.” The Ghost-Faced Man suddenly rasped fiercely. “As long as you give me even a sliver of a chance to catch my breath, I will ruin you!”
This time, he was filled with ruthless intent. Before Pei Lianyi could steady himself, he was pinned down on the desk.
“Ahhg— Ah…!” The large desk groaned under the weight of two grown men. Pei Lianyi’s heart lurched in alarm.
If this goes on, it’ll definitely alert the servants.
Above him, the Ghost-Faced Man continued his interrogation: “Speak! Did you give yourself to Huo Jingzhao?!”
Pei Lianyi fought to suppress the startled cries in his throat and shook his head, as if resigned to fate.
The candlelight beside the desk dimmed slightly. In the haze, he clutched the object in his hand tightly.
“Looking for your little knife or vase to use against me again?” Unable to see what he was holding, Huo Jingzhao bent down, pressing his cold, hard mask against his body. “Those toys are useless against me.”
His chest collided with the rough, cold mask. Sensing a strange sensation, Pei Lianyi turned his head away in humiliation, refusing to look at him.
The Ghost-Faced Man rasped, “Don’t give yourself to Huo Jingzhao. Did you hear me?”
Pei Lianyi was so furious his whole body went cold, his lips and teeth trembling. “What right do you have… what right?”
“By virtue of you stripping naked before me that day. By virtue of you being my possession,” Huo Jingzhao squeezed his waist tightly, his eyes glowing red. “Pei Lianyi, only I can torment you!”
Pei Lianyi was utterly stunned. A sickly flush rose on his pale face, his heart pounding wildly.
“Master, Master, have you retired?”
Eye to eye, the hesitant voice of a Maid suddenly came from outside the door. “This servant wouldn’t dare disturb your sleep, but the Little Young Master… the Little Young Master’s leg is hurting again…”
Ever since his fall, Pei Ziying had been in low spirits. After Huo Jingzhao left, he spent his days in tears. Even though the doctor had left pain medicine and there were over a dozen servants attending him, he still woke from nightmares at night.
Hearing that his son needed him, Pei Lianyi ignored his own disheveled state and scolded, “Let go of me… let me go! I need to go to Ziying.”
The Ghost-Faced Man abruptly seized his throat. His powerful back was strung tight, his knuckles as if infused with fierce fire, his tone ominous.
“Don’t give yourself to Huo Jingzhao. If you dare, I will kill him, and then destroy you.”
The scent of blood in the air faded, but his chilling, rough, audacious words seemed to travel up his legs, through his spine, and into his mind.
“Ah— Argh… cough!” Unable to bear it, Pei Lianyi clutched his sleeve tightly.
“Master…?” The maid outside hadn’t left yet.
“Don’t do this… Ngh, hah—” Seeing the Ghost-Faced Man had no intention of releasing him, Pei Lianyi lowered his voice. “We’ll be discovered… We’ll be discovered.”
“…” Staring at his despairing, shame-flushed face, Huo Jingzhao’s breathing hitched, and he finally let go.
Gaining a moment’s breath, Pei Lianyi hurriedly steadied his tone and commanded the maidservant outside to leave first.
“Tell Ziying I… will be there soon.”
“Yes, Master.”
Straining his ears and hearing the maid leave, Huo Jingzhao braced his hands on the desk. Bending over Pei Lianyi, he said darkly:
“I will come back to check.” He suppressed his towering rage, then turned to leave after speaking.
If I find out… you know what the consequences will be.
“…” Pei Lianyi closed his eyes in humiliation. Only after confirming the man had truly left did he open his clammy palm.
In his hand was neither a knife nor a vase, but a small, exquisitely made medicine bottle.
The night moon turned dark. The candlelight in the bedchamber had gone out at some point. On the dimly lit desk, someone curled up, only faint, suppressed sobs audible.
Just like that, three days passed. At noon that day, the guard outside the manor was dozing when the sound of hoofbeats—sometimes fast, sometimes slow—reached his ears.
“Young Master Huo…, ah—!”
The guard jolted awake and was about to call out, but the man dismounting put a finger to his lips, signaling silence.
“Shh.”
“Young Master…” Finding himself before a man with snow-white robes and clear, bright features, the guard immediately whispered.
Huo Jingzhao asked in a low voice, “Is Master Pei in the manor? Has he gone out these past few days?”
Though very curious why the man was so concerned about the Master’s whereabouts, the guard truthfully replied, “The Master has been locked in his courtyard the entire time, worried about the Little Young Master’s injury. He hasn’t gone anywhere.”
“…” Huo Jingzhao’s expression relaxed slightly.
“Oh my! Did Young Master Huo really find a Snow Deer?” At that moment, the guard noticed the deer on the back of his horse and couldn’t help exclaiming.
Huo Jingzhao raised an eyebrow in a smile, unloaded the Snow Deer, and tossed it to him, slapping his horse’s back. “Just good luck.”
“Trouble you to take this little guy to the Kitchen to care for him.”
That was what he said, but seeing the Snow Deer, larger than even two strong men, one knew the strength and skill of this young man.
The guard immediately cupped his fists. “Rest assured, Young Master Huo, I’ll go right away. Oh my, if the Master and Little Young Master see this deer, who knows how happy they’ll be…!”
“Wait.” Huo Jingzhao called him back. “Why are there so many carriages parked outside?”
Following his gaze and seeing the cluster of carriages outside the manor, the guard smiled mysteriously. “This? Young Master Huo will know once he goes inside.”
Huo Jingzhao raised an eyebrow, then remounted his horse and rode it straight through the gates of Pei Manor.
“Giddy-up— Whoa, whoa…!”
His heart still burned with last night’s fiery rage. He had intended that no matter whose master he ran into now, he’d pretend his horse panicked and knock them unconscious. He never imagined he’d collide with two familiar figures.
“Master Pei, look, you need to mix the peach blossoms with flour and water together…”
In the grand main hall, the dining table was overflowing with fragrant peach blossoms. About a dozen maids stood around, holding baskets obediently, yet couldn’t help but glance with curiosity at the woman by the table.
This woman had her hair styled in a high bun, dressed with elegant propriety. Even though her face still bore the pallor of recent illness, it couldn’t hide her clear, radiant features and gentle, refined bearing.
Just looking at Madam Huo’s appearance, no wonder Young Master Huo is so handsome! the maids thought shyly.
“Father, look! The little dough ball I kneaded! Haha…!” Under Madam Huo’s guidance, Pei Ziying had rolled out a pink dough ball.
Seeing his son so happy, Pei Lianyi breathed a sigh of relief.
For the past three days, with no news from Huo Jingzhao, both father and son had been physically and mentally unwell.
Pei Lianyi felt miserable, so he ordered the Huo couple brought to the manor to do his duty as the future father-in-law and Jingzhao’s future family.
Today also happened to coincide with the “Peach Blossom Dough” festival. So everyone sat down at the table to knead dough and pass the time.
“Peach Blossom Dough,” also known as “Dough Rice,” was one of the customs of the common folk in Rongchu City.
On this day, the whole family would sit together, knead dough balls, drink peach blossom soup, and make peach-blossom-related foods.
The most famous treat among them was the Coin Peach Blossom Custard.
First, stir peach blossoms with tea, then mix in flour and cheese, steam until done, and finally stuff a Copper Coin inside.
Whoever could bite into a coin amidst the smooth, creamy peach custard would receive the best of fortunes!
“The Little Young Master’s hands are very skillful,” Madam Huo praised.
“Really?” Pei Ziying was a bit shy but couldn’t stop his worry. “Mm, why hasn’t Jingzhao come back yet?”
Madam Huo looked at her husband. Huo’s father quickly stepped in to comfort him. “Little Young Master, don’t worry. That kid might not have much skill elsewhere, but hunting is something he’s good at! He’s been practicing since he was little…”
Before Huo’s father could finish, a shout rang out from the courtyard.
“Father…?! Mother!”
The first to stand was Pei Lianyi. Seeing Huo Jingzhao return on horseback, his expression was dazed, a flush of heat rising on his face.
“Jingzhao…!” Pei Ziying cried out in excitement. If not for his leg injury, he would have dashed straight over.
“Our son is back.” Though overjoyed, this was, after all, Pei Manor. Mindful of propriety, Madam Huo didn’t rush over rashly.
Seeing this, Pei Lianyi stepped forward. “You’re back.”
“I’m back.” Huo Jingzhao naturally drew close to him, his eyes flashing with surprise. “How come Father and Mother are here?”
Pei Lianyi looked behind him and asked, “Where’s the Snow Deer?”
Huo Jingzhao blinked. “Didn’t catch one.”
Catching the complexity in Pei Lianyi’s expression, he was struck by the urge to tease him further and looked up with a “Tsk.” “No, wait, maybe I did catch one, but it got away again.”
“You, properly…”
“Master, look!”
Just as Pei Lianyi was getting flustered and annoyed that he wasn’t giving a straight answer, the guard led the lively, kicking Snow Deer up and explained, “Young Master Huo said he wanted to give you a surprise.”
Pei Lianyi had no mind left to look at the deer. He averted his eyes and merely said, “You’ve worked hard.”
The fury from that night transformed back into excitement. Huo Jingzhao asked, “How will Master Pei reward me?”
“Hurry inside.” Pei Lianyi ignored him, turned, and walked quickly back into the main hall.
Huo Jingzhao tossed aside his horsewhip, lightly brushed off his robe, and followed him into the now “overcrowded” hall.
