The resplendent red blaze of flames above the Eastern Residence gradually weakened, and the slanting column of smoke became thinner and thinner.

A servant came over. He bowed at Ming Lan's feet and lowered his head.

"Master, the blaze is under control."

After listening, Ming Lan raised his eyebrows slightly and showed a short smile. In an instant, he raised his eyes, which were full of sinister and sharp light.

Looking down at Qinger, who was still unconscious, he curled his thin lips to make a weird smile.

He slightly raised his head in proud and said with his hands clasped behind the back.

"Thanks for your hard work tonight. This woman on the ground now is your reward!"

Upon hearing his words, those guards immediately understood. They piled forward and surrounded Qinger at once.

Gu Yunxi felt a ringing in her ears and her thoughts all went in a muddle as if she had suffered a staggering blow.

Numb and motionless, she blankly stared at the group of wild beasts in white official uniforms piling together, with their expressions crazy and atrocious.

"Ming Lan! Don't make me hate you."

Gu Yunxi abruptly got up and slapped Ming Lan's face while shouting, with anger blazing in her eyes.

Ming Lan squinted his eyes and caught her palm with one hand. The next moment, he took her into his arms and tightly clasped her waist with the other hand.

He chuckled, looking into her eyes. His smile involved some loneliness and helplessness dimly-discernible like the light silk, unwilling to be easily caught by others.

"You have always been hating me, haven't you?"

Gu Yunxi suddenly became dumb.

In her ears, those guards' wanton laughter and filthy words continued recklessly.

In the meantime, it was accompanied by the Eastern Depot's secret guards' angry howls, as well as Yuan Qian's hard and vague curses.

Gu Yunxi shakily looked sideways and just saw the black belts and black shirts flying out of the crowd...

"Stop! Stop!"

The cruel reality completely shattered Gu Yunxi's fierceness and strength in an instant.

She fell on Ming Lan's chest, begging in tears.

"I beg you! Stop your men! I'll not escape anymore. I was wrong. Please let her go."

Ming Lan curled his lips in satisfaction and said carelessly.

"Stop!"

The guards were so well-disciplined that they immediately stopped their actions on the prey in the encirclement.

Turning his head, Ming Lan stared at Yuan Qian with a pair of frosty eyes.

"Sever all the men's tendons of limbs!"

"Don't."

Gu Yunxi gasped and struggled to rush to stop them.

Ming Lan clasped her waist tightly, preventing her from getting free.

"Please let them go! They simply wanted to save me! It was my fault."

She was crying and begging, and her twisted facial features looked as if being trampled and crumpled out of shape.

"Do you think who you are!"

Ming Lan squeezed and lifted Gu Yunxi 's chin fiercely. His gaze scorched her like a fire, and his narrowed eyes were flashing.

He stared into her eyes directly, saying in a cold tone word by word.

"What qualifications do you think you have to replace them five with yourself?! They even set fire to my Mansion while trying to abduct you. It is already forgiveness that I didn't kill them all!"

With wailing, one of the Eastern Depot's secret guards had already suffered the hurt.

In an instant, Gu Yunxi's heart violently thudded as if being tortured by a sharp blade.

"I beg you! I'll shoulder it for them. I'm willing to do whatever as long as you let them go..."

Gu Yunxi cried her heart out in front of Ming Lan's impassive eyes.

Qinger and Captain Yuan were her intimates, and the other four secret guards who worked for the Eastern Depot belonged to her brothers as well.

How could she abandon them when they were getting in trouble and suffering because of her?

One wail after another. Soon, the tragic fate was about to befall the tenth captain.

He was only sixteen years old and was the youngest captain in the Eastern Depot. If he were in an ordinary family, he should be a child loved by his parents...

"Ming Lan, I beg you! Let off the rest! I'm willing to accept punishment. I'm really willing to do anything!"

Forced to a dead end by him, Gu Yunxi almost went to pieces.

Howling and screaming, she desperately clutched Ming Lan's clothes with her hands as cold as jade wares wet with tears, as if grabbing the last straw.

Listening to her weeping and watching her getting overwhelmed, Ming Lan faced her straight expressionlessly.

Although showing a gloomy face, he kept suppressing his anger. This kind of emotion always made him feel inexplicable whenever he felt it.

Suddenly, he remembered that she was also like this on that rainy night, standing in the rain, crying and begging.

He then recalled the past, when she was dressed in a purple uniform and a hat of the guards, looking handsome and full of vigor.

She used to be the high-spirited little guard, witty and cunning. Once she showed up, she would surely attract his full attention. But now she became so humble and cowardly just because of that man.

A spurt of anger flashed through Ming Lan, and he clenched his.

"You are willing to do anything, are you? Well, I will satisfy you today."

His fingers, like cold, sharp hooks, firmly grasped the ingot-shaped bun on Gu Yunxi's head. He dragged her frail body and strode toward the Western Residence.

"Let me off."

The sharp pain of pulling the scalp was so unbearable that Gu Yunxi cried and screamed. She couldn't help but raise her hands to grab the end of the bun to relieve the pain. With her weak body stumbling on the bluestone brick ground, she was dragged along all the way.

"Qinger, captain..."

In her field of vision, those lights of the blade wrapped in red blood were becoming more and more blurred in the night.

Upon entering the wing-room, Gu Yunxi was pushed to the ground by Ming Lan.

The pain of her scalp slowly disappearing, Gu Yunxi bent over to catch her breath and then saw him kick to close the door like a wild beast, evil and dangerous.

She was so frightened that she looked pale and hurriedly moved backward on the ground, but finally, she was still caught by him.

Ming Lan clasped her shoulders firmly with both hands and threw her onto the bed, and then he covered her with himself in the dim lights of candles.

"Let me off…"

Gu Yunxi shouted, hoarsely and weakly.

The tenth captain didn't get spared in the end, and she naturally didn't want to be at the mercy of Ming Lan.

He sneered and fixed his eyes on her.

"You just said you were willing to do anything. How can I stop now? Gu Yunxi, you have always sacrificed for others. Have you ever done anything for yourself? "

Gu Yunxi opened her eyes wide with shock and no longer made any voice with her half-parted lips.

In the silence, she felt Ming Lan's smooth and cold fingertips get into her loose clothes, stroke her plump bosom, and then slide down inch by inch...

At this moment, her eyes dimmed like a night sky with no daylight, shrouded in boundless despair.

She shuddered. She couldn't stop shivering... Ming Lan suddenly stopped in the light.

Seeing her tears flooding, Ming Lan felt his heart softened, and the ice in his eyes gradually melted.

He pulled out a hand and touched her wet cheek with the tips of his slender fingers.

"Do you hate me so much?"

He asked softly, his soft voice overflowing with emotions.

Gu Yunxi under him did not speak. She turned her head stubbornly and kept crying silently.

A drop of tears on her long eyebrows shined brightly in the light of candles. It touched Ming Lan's heart.

"You accept Leng Qingtang, but why can you not accept me? Yunxi, you know I can spoil you, too."

He straightened her face and gazed at her, muttering in a low voice.

Ming Lan was worthy of the name of a eunuch with an unsympathetic character and vicious means.

At the last moment, he was still furious because of her resistance and dragged her here like carrying a dead dog by pulling her hair.

The next moment, he spoke softly to her with deep affection.

Facing his extreme performance, Gu Yunxi was full of fear and at a loss.

She sobbed helplessly and did not respond.

Her beautiful shoulders trembled in her scattered clothes. In the flickering light, the skin on her clear-cut collarbone was as white and delicate as ivory, with a faint luster of temptation.

Her beauty made Ming Lan drunken. He groaned and bowed his head to kiss her.

She was shocked and hurriedly fended off him with her hand.

"Yunxi, don't refuse me anymore. I can help you, and now only I can save you. Give me your hand. Be obedient!"

Ming Lan beheld her panic and hesitation and said in a fascinating but slightly shaky voice.

He gripped her slender wrist with his fingers and slowly moved her trembling but stubborn palm from his chest.

At the moment of eliminating the barrier, Ming Lan swooped down on Gu Yunxi and forcefully kissed her lips.

He felt a sharp pain in his lip when he was about to suck gently. Then he tasted some liquid, sticky and salty.

Suddenly, there was a gale outside, howling against the doors and windows and making them keep creaking.

The candlelight flickered and seemed to be going to go out.

Ming Lan got up silently. His slender shadow fell on the wall, tenuous and twisted.

The red blood on his lower lip looked like a very enchanting plum blossomed on his jade-white flawless face.

The air became frozen and stifling.

The sentimental tenderness, such as in the face of a storm, disappeared in his burning eyes.

Just now, he even thought about keeping her here. With her company, it would be worth fighting against the Imperial Noble Concubine's will.

But now, her indifference and callousness shred all his hopes.

His eyes were so glowing with killing intent that he seemed to want to riddle her on the bed with his gaze.

"Gu Yunxi, you did enrage me..."

Gu Yunxi took a deep breath.

"Kill me. I'd rather die. It's better than being insulted by you."

Ming Lan's expression changed. He curled his lips to make a wry smile. On his lips, that red plum blossom became more gorgeous.

"Do you think I am insulting you?"

He intently looked at her with a desolate expression.

Gu Yunxi sat up, with her hands clenching the columns at the head of the bed. Her red eyes seemed to be formed by coagulated blood.

"You have gotten into all sorts of evil, and Master Leng will never let you go!"

Ming Lan got in a trance.

At this time, she still insisted on mentioning Leng Qingtang, the name that he didn't want to hear and see most.

Suddenly he turned his face to the sky and laughed wantonly. His dark voice echoed in every corner of the room, bitter and bleak.

"Do you think your Master Leng will come to save you? Gu Yunxi... Stop dreaming."

The unreasoning fire of anger ignited from the bottom of Ming Lan's heart. He screamed ferociously with ferocious features.

"You trust him very much, right?! You never doubted the reason why he put you into the Royal Prison and then released you just before the poison took effect!

You treat him like this. I'm afraid that you would still help him count money when he sold you out."

Gu Yunxi glared at Ming Lan with a pair of chilly eyes full of disdain, saying solemnly.

"He will come! Master Leng will definitely come to rescue me."

Ming Lan was immediately exasperated to be out of breath, his hands shuddering and clenching into a fist.

He felt that his heart was being riddled with her steely and merciless words.

"You indeed refuse to give up until all hope is gone..."

Gazing at her firmness, he said weakly.

"Since you are so persistent, I will take you to see Leng Qingtang. This time, I will clearly show you that in his mind, you are, indeed, worthless!"

After speaking, Ming Lan took out something from his sleeve and shot out the other hand to seize Gu Yunxi by her throat.

Gu Yunxi felt extremely uncomfortable. Her face turned purple, and her body kept shaking.

Subconsciously, she opened her mouth to breathe. Ming Lan stuffed the thing into her mouth and then pressed her mouth tightly with his hand, forcing her to swallow it.

He suddenly let go of her, and then she limply collapsed on the bed, with her face covered by tears.

"What did you do…"

Suddenly, Gu Yunxi felt limp in her limbs, as if they had been filled with lead, preventing her from moving at will.

Her mind was in confusion, and her consciousness gradually got in a trance.

She struggled and tumbled directly from the bed to the floor. She looked up with difficulty and showed an expression of pain and weakness.

"What the hell did you feed me?"

Ming Lan chuckled casually and then replied in a faint voice.

"It's just a chronic sleeping drug. You have to endure some grievances if you want to see him."

Wiping the blood off his lips, Ming Lan turned around and ordered the servants outside the door.

"Prepare a carriage for entering the Palace."

Several eunuchs and maids opened the door and came in.

They tidied clothes for Gu Yunxi in a hurry.

Ming Lan put on the Commander-in-chief robe with the flying crane designs and wore a high hat of net-patterned black gauze and a pair of gorgeous black riding boots.

Backing in front of the bed, he lifted the limp Gu Yunxi with his long arms and walked out slowly.

"Ming Lan... put me down. Where do you... want to take me to..."

Gu Yunxi sensed the coming of sleepiness and lost her whole body's feeling. It scared her.

Ming Lan ignored her words. He carried her out of the Mansion and got into a carriage.

Gu Yunxi was nervous, not knowing where he would take her, let alone where Qinger and Yuan Qian were now.

She leaned against the wall of the carriage bumping forward and opened her eyes blankly.

Unaware of how long the carriage ran, she suddenly heard a loud and magnificent sound coming far away from outside.

The horses and men's footsteps sounded like a group of thousands of people on the march.

Gu Yunxi's heart raced, and she climbed to the window.

Just at that moment, she saw a corner of the blue robe flash by from the corner of the gauze curtain.

"!"

Gu Yunxi's pupils suddenly widened in surprise, with lights blazing inside.

At this moment, she felt an invisible force pulled her heart to a higher place, almost out of her throat.

She desperately stuck her head out of the carriage, regardless of the curtains fluttering in the wind and keeping rubbing her face.

Finally, she saw.

The familiar figure that made her yearn for was right at the other end of the official road, riding on a tall horse, with thousands of people and horses surrounding him.

"Master..."

Gu Yunxi felt so excited and shouted with difficulty.

"Master, I am here... Help! Help!"

Affected by the drug, her screams sounded minimal, and it turned into a vague and muddy voice after getting out of her throat, entirely suppressed by the Eastern Depot squad's footsteps.

And then, in her full of expectations, she watched the ginger horse galloping ahead, carrying the blue figure out of her sight...