At night, Xue Lan’s residence was particularly quieter than the rest since there were only 2 occupants inside. It was both the safest without any possible spies inside and the most vulnerable without any guards or servants watching over it.

The former was right but certainly not so for the latter.

3 shadows silently entered through the rooftop from different areas. When they met one another, they were surprised at first but then tacitly went to do their respective task.

One went to the bathroom. He found the bottle of soap and shampoo inside and promptly unplugged its cap. Smelling it, he confirmed that they were of the same fragrance as his target’s scent.

He put his hand into his robe only to find that the bottle containing the acid was gone. He couldn’t find it even after searching his whole body.

“Looking for this?”

“!?”

He quickly turned around to see that someone was unknowingly behind him. The person was holding the bottle of acid in his hand.

How could he not sense his presence?

Recognizing that it was his target’s attendant, he immediately moved to incapacitate him. But before his blow could reach the other, his eyes were blinded by a splash of liquid.

Not only his eyes, his whole face and neck immediately itched and burned.

It was the acid!

Mo Shen moved to the assassin’s back and chopped the back of his neck before he could scream from the pain. He caught the unconscious human and silently put him down.

The second one was in the kitchen. He found the cabinet for the plates and cups and took out the bottle of poison.

He was about to smear it on the first plate when a wide hand with prominent fingers grabbed his wrist from behind.

“It’s not very nice to dirty the plate I’ve washed,” a bone-chilling voice whispered in his ear.

He couldn’t react when another hand pried his jaw open. The hand on his wrist forcefully shoved the bottle into his mouth through his scarf mask.

Mo Shen watched as the assassin frothed in his mouth and limped lifelessly. He caught the plate with his hand and placed the assassin on the ground.

The last one was on the rooftop of Xue Lan’s chamber. He removed a tile which gave him a clear view of the bed. Seeing that there was nobody inside except for his target, he readied his poison thorn.

He went back to the ground to enter through the window when a pair of hands grabbed his head. His neck was cracked in one swift move.

Mo Shen dumped the body onto the courtyard and brought the other 2 along as well.

He sighed in annoyance.

What should he do with them?

Getting an idea, he promptly set out.

When morning came, screams were heard from a certain consort’s courtyard and the concubines’ residence.

The guards were soon called and they found in the consort’s courtyard, a bare naked man with a disfigured face hanging on the eaves of the consort’s chamber. He was hung upside down with words carved onto his torso.

The man’s complete profile was written on the front while the consort’s profile was written on the back. Despite the medium, the writing was very neat, straight, and precise.

It was horrifying in more than one way.

The concubines’ residence was separated into two buildings, one for females and one for males. Hung on both buildings, were two other men with a similar condition as the one in the consort’s residence.

One had froth in their mouth and the other had a broken neck. Their profile was written on the front and at the back was one of the concubines’ profiles in the respective building.

Once Xue Lan woke up, Mo Shen served breakfast and bathed him as usual.

Xue Lan was playing with the paper boat he made while Mo Shen washed his hair when he heard the latter chuckle.

He turned around in askance.

“It’s funny how you would’ve been dead three times over by now and yet here you are, playing with a paper boat in your bath,” Mo Shen took the paper boat into his hands.

Xue Lan processed his words and turned around, “Did we get a visitor last night?”

“Visitors, to be exact. 3 of them,” Mo Shen disassembled the folds. “I returned them to their employer free of charge. Aren’t I thoughtful?”

“I’ll be disappointed if you only do that,” Xue Lan put his arm onto the edge and rested his head on it.

Mo Shen recounted what he did.

The more Xue Lan listened the more he was amused by it. Those people were definitely traumatized and would be in paranoia for life.

By the end of the story, the paper in Mo Shen’s hands had turned into a floating paper lotus. Xue Lan nudged it around in interest.

Mo Shen had the strangest skills.

“Are you really going to accompany Tian Chen on the hunt, My Lord?” Mo Shen asked as he dressed Xue Lan.

He felt like choosing purple today, but red would also be nice.

“We’ll see,” Xue Lan looked at his robe changing its colour for the nth time. “Just choose already. You’re hurting my eyes.”

Mo Shen finally decided on a silk summer robe which changed its gradient between purple and red depending on the angle of the light with a black inner robe to highlight those colours.

He hugged Xue Lan in dissatisfaction, “I’m running out of ideas.”

“Our clothes have filled almost a whole room. They are not meant to only be worn once, you know?” Xue Lan felt like sighing. “I’m still wondering where you get all the fabrics.”

“Where else? You can’t find materials that good in the human world.”

“What can I say? They always appear out of thin air,” Xue Lan picked up the paper lotus. “Teach me how to make this.”

Mo Shen taught Xue Lan how to fold a lotus for a couple of hours. He then sensed someone was coming towards their place and informed Xue Lan.

Xue Lan stayed on the couch while Mo Shen went to see who it was.

When the maid was greeted by Mo Shen, she immediately flustered. She had heard that the Qi Ming Prince’s attendant was very attractive, but she wasn’t ready to encounter such an overwhelming visual.

Not to mention, she could see the noble beauty in the room who looked as cold as ice and as graceful as the moon.

She felt like she was about to have a heart attack.

“Do you have any business with my master?” Mo Shen asked with his usual smile.

The maid was mesmerized even more.

Not only he was handsome he was also very nice!

“Honorable Consort Qing sent me to tell Honorable Consort Xue that she invites him to the pavilion by the garden to appreciate the last day of spring,” the maid did her best not to stutter.

Mo Shen looked back at Xue Lan and the other gave a nod.

After getting their confirmation the maid left with her heart still racing.

“She’s the one who was supposed to be chosen, isn’t she?” Mo Shen returned inside.

“Yes. She made quite the effort I have to say,” Xue Lan got up.

“And yet the Emperor personally came to choose you,” Mo Shen chuckled. “She must be feeling rather green.”

“Quite so,” Xue Lan walked out. “She will try to either harm or humiliate me. I am more inclined to believe it’s the former.”

“Humiliation is not enough to guarantee that Tian Chen will change his mind after all.”

“Either way, I won’t just stand by and watch,” Xue Lan gave his orders.

In the garden, the pavilion Qing Meilin was waiting at was placed near the lotus pond.

It was a pretty spot where enough trees and flowers surrounded it along with a spacious empty area for activity. They could also watch the lotus pond from there.

When Xue Lan arrived, all eyes were on him.

He wasn’t surprised to see that there wasn’t only Qing Meilin. There was the Empress, the Imperial Consort, and 3 female consorts. He would be the only man there.

Despite that, rather than being at a disadvantage, it instead accentuated his handsomeness that got overlooked because of his current title.

He greeted everyone politely before taking his seat at the end of the table.

With his rank, he should be sitting either next to Nie Hui or Qing Meilin but his gender as a male made him lower than an unranked consort.

“Honorable Consort Xue, we invited you here today since we have not yet thanked you for your help retrieving our valuable gifts back from Consort Yu’s thievery,” Huang Xieli opened.

“It was merely a coincidence, Your Majesty. Guard Li is to be credited for it and Imperial Consort Nie’s splendid memory of the accounts helped the case come to a close,” Xie Lan humbly replied.