Ning Wan gently laid the small figure in her arms onto the soft couch, pulling a corner of the blanket over him. She then turned to the mature, noble beauty beside her and asked meaningfully, “Madam, you wouldn’t be planning to stay guard all night, would you?”
“Tianyu is drunk. As his aunt, I will naturally stay close to look after him.” Qu Qirong’s expression was calm as her slender hand smoothed the wrinkles in the blanket. Then, fully clothed, she lay down.
Gazing at the serene, adorable look on their Tianyu’s sleeping face, maternal love and affection shimmered in her beautiful eyes, and a gentle smile bloomed on her face.
Ning Wan’s lips curved into an exceedingly charming arc. She said nothing more. With a flick of her finger, a stream of True Essence extinguished the candle, and she, fully clothed, lay down on Deng Tianyu’s other side.
Misty moonlight streamed in through the window, making the entire room appear hazy and dreamlike.
The tip of his nose filled with two distinctly different fragrances, the feigning-sleep Deng Tianyu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Based on the current situation, although the three of them were sharing a bed, the confrontation between Aunt Rong and Shizun seemed to have ended.
The worry in his heart subsided. Drowsiness washed over him, and he prepared to drift off to peaceful sleep.
But suddenly, the blanket on his left side stirred. Deng Tianyu’s body stiffened. He felt the shaft between his legs being grasped by a jade-like hand again, which then squeezed it a few times as if in demonstration.
Almost simultaneously, a soul-stirring, enchantingly seductive voice whispered into his ear. “Tianyu, deliberately pretending to be drunk and deceiving your master will warrant punishment, you know.”
“Shizun, how did you know I was faking it?”
Suppressing the restless agitation stirring his heart, Deng Tianyu responded via Sound Transmission.
He felt his act of feigned drunkenness and sleep had no flaws. His breathing, his heartbeat control—everything had been perfectly normal.
And yet, Shizun still discovered it?
“Although you drank quite a bit of Peach Blossom Wine, Tianyu, and didn’t use your True Essence to expel the intoxication, I know full well your alcohol tolerance is far more than this.”
“At the very least, this amount is far from enough to make you drunk.”
Lying sideways beside him, Ning Wan’s beautiful eyes shimmered with a layer of crystalline moisture, seductive and full of love. She blew a warm orchid-scented breath gently into his ear.
Her crane-like neck supported a slender, jade hand with crisp, bamboo-shoot-like fingers. She wrapped them around the shaft between his legs and slowly began to stroke up and down.
Deng Tianyu just felt an enormous headache coming on.
He had indeed overlooked this point.
It was normal for Aunt Rong not to know his alcohol tolerance—he rarely drank in front of her, and even when he did, it was just a cup or two.
But Shizun had been with him for sixteen years. She knew practically all his habits and preferences like the back of her hand, including his alcohol capacity, naturally.
To this, Deng Tianyu remained silent, silently accepting the punishment for his lie.
Aunt Rong was right beside him and hadn’t fallen asleep yet. If any movement on his part led to being discovered, he would literally die of social embarrassment on the spot.
His mood right now was extremely complex: three parts helplessness, three parts nervousness, three parts excitement—yet again, that pie chart configuration.
Just as expected, whenever Shizun and Aunt Rong were together, something unexpected was bound to happen.
At this moment, the smile on Ning Wan’s beautiful face grew ever more enchanting, a sly glint flashing in her beautiful eyes. “Why did Madam arrange Tianyu’s room right next to your boudoir? Could it have been intentional?”
Qu Qirong paused for a moment, then spoke softly. “It’s just that this guest room is rather spacious and quiet!”
She hadn’t had any ulterior motives when arranging the room for Deng Tianyu. She just felt it was close and convenient for talking.
“I see.” Ning Wan’s hand teased the tip of her precious disciple’s glans, while superficially she said, “I thought the Madam was trying to ‘get the moon first by being nearest to the water.'”
Qu Qirong’s pretty face flushed, but she retorted without backing down. “Sect Master Ning is talking about herself, isn’t she?”
“You are Tianyu’s Shizun, yet you took advantage of his drunkenness to do such a thing that crosses the master-disciple boundary.”
She was referring to earlier, when Deng Tianyu was thirsty, and Ning Wan had fed him water mouth-to-mouth from her own lips.
Ning Wan gave her own precious disciple a glance full of myriad charms. Her slender hand took the initiative to guide his hand onto her long, beautiful leg, wrapped in the skin-toned stockings. She slowly spoke, “That was not an act of crossing boundaries. It was merely a subconscious gesture born of deep emotional attachment.”
“I watched Tianyu grow up. When he was little, he was incredibly clingy. The moment he couldn’t see me, he would burst into loud wails.”
“Therefore, no matter where I went, I would bring Tianyu along, even when it was bath time.”
“The depth of this feeling is something the Madam cannot comprehend without having experienced it herself.”
Deng Tianyu’s mouth twitched. He didn’t even know how to complain.
Wasn’t Shizun just deliberately making things up?
Sure, he was young then, but he had never been the clingy, wailing child Ning Wan described.
On the other hand, Qu Qirong, upon hearing these words, fell silent.
According to Ning Wan, was it really all just her overthinking it?
No!
No matter how deep the emotional bond, shouldn’t the natural barriers between male and female still be respected?
Inexplicably, Qu Qirong recalled the bits and pieces of her own time with Deng Tianyu.
Initially, it was purely familial affection. But after experiencing some deeply memorable events, a different, foreign emotion began to sprout, take root, and unknowingly, imperceptibly, it had… changed in nature.
Deng Tianyu, of course, had no idea what Aunt Rong was thinking.
With his shaft in Shizun’s grasp, he was completely unable to resist, silently enduring the waves of pleasure brought by her jade hand’s stroking, rubbing, and gentle squeezing.
In the pitch-black darkness, further obscured by the blanket, Qu Qirong naturally didn’t notice the commotion beside her. She just voiced a long-held suspicion.
“Actually, I have a question. Back when the Princess Consort was fleeing to Youzhou, what exactly happened? Why didn’t she come to the Spirit Treasure Pavilion, but was instead somehow teleported into the Hundred Flowers Valley?”
She had once given the Princess Consort half a jade pendant—the very same pendant she and Deng Tianyu used to recognize each other.
An imprint of a Teleportation Array was etched within the pendant. Once True Essence was infused, it would connect to a large Teleportation Array within the Spirit Treasure Pavilion, allowing instantaneous travel.
But in reality, the Princess Consort never made it to the Spirit Treasure Pavilion; she was sent into the Spirit Treasure Pavilion instead.
Qu Qirong speculated: during this teleportation, had the Princess Consort and Tianyu been ambushed, leading to that accident?
And Ning Wan, originally a powerhouse from Yin-Yang Law Heaven, not only possessed profound cultivation but also mysterious divination skills. Perhaps she would know some secrets that Qu Qirong did not.
“I do not know what happened back then.”
“However, there is one thing I can tell the Madam.”
“The one teleported into the Hundred Flowers Valley all those years ago was, from beginning to end, only Tianyu. Nobody else.”
Ning Wan paused for a moment, then spoke slowly.
Qu Qirong furrowed her brows. “Only Tianyu?”
“If that’s the case, why can you be certain that the Princess Consort has passed away?”
She’d never asked Tianyu about this, so naturally, she didn’t know.
Regarding this question, after seeking Deng Tianyu’s consent, Ning Wan explained, “The Princess Consort had previously left a wisp of Soul Mark within that jade pendant. But that Soul Mark… subsequently shattered!”
