An imperial banquet ended in a bloody way with fear.

Emperor Jingxiao went to the elixir chamber, while Leng Qingtang and Gu Yunxi were dragged out of the palace by Ming Lan's subordinates for flogging.

The rest officials in Baohe Palace knelt there, all at sea.

It was quiet and awkward.

Empress Qian sighed. Dim-faced, she looked at the kneeling officials and said in a tired tone,

"The Spring Banquet this year is over. What has happened needs further investigation. You can go back now."

Commander-in-chief of the Eastern Depot was a rank-second official of the government. It would have hurt his face if other officials had watched him being flogged.

Empress Qian felt pity for Leng Qingtang. She had just drawn him over to her alliance when this accident occurred.

What she could do for him now was to simply protect his last dignity.

Empress Qian's order came as a timely rain that the hearts of the officials were down to earth.

"As your command, Your Grace. Excuse us."

The officials knelt to salute again and then went out of the palace in lines.

Wan Li the Shenle Marquis watched the officials leave and pouted querulously. He lifted his chin and said with arrogant,

"Commander-in-chief of the Eastern Depot will be beheaded, so who will take the ten squads in charge? And who will be the new Commander-in-chief of Imperial Guards? Brother-in-law just left before he arranged it."

Empress Qian stared at Wan Li angrily, but she was too tired to argue with him. She asked the general of the Honour Guards,

"Tingyu, send a troop to surround the Eastern Depot. No one inside can have any contact with the outside. Report it to His Majesty and me if there is anything wrong."

"As your command, Your Grace." General of Honour Guards got the order and left.

On the dragon platform, Wan Yuyao stood straight. With her sleeves and hems fluttered in the wind, she fixed her gruesome eyes on Empress Qian's righteous face,

"Sister, as the Empress, you should know that women in imperial harem shouldn't interference in politics. Are you sure it's right to make decisions instead of His Majesty?"

Empress Qian sleeved her hands and sneered a "humph". She looked up into Wan Yuyao's eyes and replied in an aloof voice,

"You are right. As the Empress, the master of the Eastern Palace, as well as His Majesty's wife, to interference in the politics is to share my husband's burden. It is much better than those mean creatures to plot in secret and use those who they should not use."

Wan Yuyao's pupil shrank at these words. Blood rushed to her head, and her plump chest heaved up and down as her breathing accelerated.

Realized that she brought disgrace on her own head, Wan Yuyao shook her sleeve with a stamp of anger and went off the platform. Followed by a line of maids, she passed by Empress Qian, leaving a trail of fragrance.

Empress Qian was the last one to exit Baohe Palace. When she saw Ming Lan, Commander-in-chief of the Western Depot, was ready to conduct flogging on the square, she went over to warn him seriously,

“Master Ming, His Majesty has entrusted you with the flogging, so I believe you will implement the Palace rules impartially."

Ming Lan saluted, "Please don't worry, Your Grace. I will live up to His Majesty's trust."

Ming Lan straightened his back after Empress Qian and her maids and servants went far away. He watched them went away with disrespectful eyes. A trace of unpleasant revealed on his heavy-powdered face, and he let out a stiff humph.

Two eunuchs of the Western Depot put off Leng Qingtang's robe as well as his hat of Commander-in-chief. They pushed him lying prone on two combined benches, in front of which Gu Yunxi was pressed by a eunuch to kneel.

Ming Lan wanted her to kneel at the best place to watch the punishment and watch her Master, the Eastern Depot's pillar, to be flogged.

The mental torments of watching her lover be flogged and experiencing his lover being humiliated with her would be much more painful than any other physical hurts.

Ming Lan squatted and lowered his pale and awl-chin face to the same height as Leng Qingtang's emotionless face. He stared at the sinner, moving his red lips to spoke with a shrill voice,

"Leng Qingtang, do you have anything to say under this circumstance?"

Leng Qingtang disdained to look at Ming Lan. He ignored him and rested his eyes on a pool, smiling,

"Just a flunky. You can start it. Cut the crackle."

"Fine. You are very good!" Ming Lan nodded, showing a sinister smile,

"I know you are good at martial art and can't be hurt by simply flogging. To tell you the truth, I have let them lock some of your acupoints. You can't use internal strength to defend the flogging. Don't blame me for being cruel. Do you remember what had happened in the Qingfeng Temple? This is my revenge!"

He poured out all those words as well as the resentment he had been kept long in stock. Ming Lan lifted the hem of his official robe and sat on the fauteuil next to Gu Yunxi, leaning his back on the chair's pat.

He crossed his legs, poked his long fingers into his sleeve pocket, and pulled out a shiny nail file.

In the dull sounds of heavy, rickey stick hitting on the human body, he shaped his nails in a leisure manner.

The thumps filled Gu Yunxi's ears and left iron marks on her heart.

The hitting one after another attracted her full attention. Following the rhythm of the endless flogging, her heart repeated the process of going up and down.

She didn't know how long could Leng Qingtang hold on, nor did she know how long could her tortured heart bear.

She saw Leng Qingtang pressing his lips together, staring at a point on the ground with wide-opened eyes.

Soon, blood oozed from his trousers. A smell of blood pervaded the air.

With his face pale and taut, he silently suffered the punishment. His body twitched only when the stick hit him.

Gu Yunxi knelt opposite to Leng Qingtang. Her lowered face was clam. She looked at the point that Leng Qingtang was staring. No cry, no struggle. Although in her deep mind she was sad and angry, she held the cries back with all her energies. She knew that her crying would only satisfy Ming Lan and disgrace Leng Qingtang.

After dozens of flogging, Ming Lan suddenly raised his hand to show them stop.

He turned to Gu Yunxi, looking at her delicate face under jet-black hair.

"Yun Guaner, your master is fallen. He would never have the chance to counterattack. Do you feel like to find yourself a better backer?"

She didn't answer. Ming Lan walked over to grasp her chin rudely without the compassion for a tender girl.

Her beautiful face was covered with tears, but the complexion was angry, which formed an attractive contradiction.

Ming Lan curled his lips. He smoothed her hair to behind the ears and teased in a low voice,

"There are forty times of floggings. He can't make it. If you show me a smile, every time you call me brother and kiss me, I'll reduce ten times of flogging. What do you think?"

He received a hostile stare. The white of her eyes made him somehow scared.

He leaned aside to broaden her sight. To let this stubborn girl have an overall and clear look of her lover's bloody body.

Gu Yunxi slowly rolled her eyes. Hot tears in her eyes flew again and dropped into Ming Lan's palm.

Slightly touched, Ming Lan curled his lips with satisfaction,

"What do you think?"

Gu Yunxi watched Leng Qingtang lying feebly on the bench with his lower body stained by blood. Streams of blood gushed from the wound and flew straight down the bench's legs to the ground.

His eyes were half-closed. The aura around him seemed to have disappeared for his dim eyes wandered.

Gu Yunxi shook and clenched her fists. Tears overflowed and wet Ming Lan's hand.

Ming Lan got impatient for her silence,

"Yun Guaner, I have given you chances! Now, whether I can spare your master or not depends on you!"

He wanted to win! He aimed to take this chance to see his enemy fall, be physically tortured, and be taken away with his lover.

He wanted to revenge for what had happened in Qingfeng Temple and to take away all his enemy had.

Tears misted her eyes. Gu Yunxi saw Leng Qingtang lifted his face. He pressed his lips hard. His wandering eyes turned fierce and sharp, focusing on her in silence.

Then in a trance, she understood. Leng Qingtang was telling her,

"My girl, don't you dare."

Gu Yunxi curled her lips. Tears flew down her cheeks.

Even Leng Qingtang didn't remind her, she would not satisfy Ming Lan easily.

Ming Lan was actually insulting Leng Qingtang with her.

Gu Yunxi suddenly tossed her head to shake off Ming Lan's hand. She then spat on Ming Lan's face.

Ming Lan stepped backward and cleaned his face with a handkerchief, utterly discomfited. A eunuch dashed over and slapped her in the swollen face.

Gu Yunxi raised herself on the ground and grappled with the eunuch madly. She bit and scratched and was finally controlled by some eunuchs. They pinned her arms behind her and pressed her onto the ground.

Ming Lan put away his handkerchief and went near.

In a short distance, with his eyes curved with a smile, he watched her struggling under several eunuchs' control like a trapped beast. Her eyes burning with flames of rage, which showed a dangerous provocation, was a kind of invitation in Ming Lan's view.

To tame such a rare beauty needed much patience. He would extract her baby teeth one by one, and after that, he could enjoy her in the bed.

Ming Lan ceased smiling and backed his hands behind,

"Oops, I didn't count it right! Start the flogging again."

As he finished speaking, the executioners raised the sticks high.

"Lord Ming."

Gu Yunxi didn't expect that Ming Lan could be so vicious. She struggled with all her might and roared,

"You are abusing public power for your private revenge."

"Watch your words!"

Ming Lan wouldn't let down his guard to come closer to Gu Yunxi. A trace of scheming flashed in his eyes. He seized her with his eyes and said unhurriedly,

"Even if I am abusing my power, what can you do to me? Yell, yell again! After all, I can increase the times of the flogging on your master. Instead of going on fighting against me, you'd better think carefully about how to make your master suffer less."

Gu Yunxi sneered at him in sorrow. She turned her teary eyes to Leng Qingtang and gasped deeply. She spoke with firm determination,

"Master, please forgive my disobedience! I can't save you out of this punishment. If you can't survive the flogging, I will follow you to the way to hell!"

"Hahaha..."

Leng Qingtang suddenly laughed. His voice was so loud that everyone could understand that he was despising and scorning Ming Lan.

Looking at the loving couple, for a moment, Ming Lan couldn't say a word.

He had the feeling that, although this couple, the prone one and the kneeling one, were very feeble, their bodies contained something strong that he, the one who was standing, had never had.

Enlightenment appeared on his face, then panic, and then anger with shame.

Ming Lan's complexion changed greatly that his coquettish features distorted like a ghost. He raised his arm and shouted in a shrill voice,

"Start the flogging! Flog him hard."