As Xue Lan and Mo Shen walked towards the palace gate, people they passed by couldn’t help but stare at them.

Xue Lan was indeed more befitting as a prince.

All his clothes were finely made and his aura was nothing short of noble. Now, with a crown on his head, he was finally perfect.

Despite him no longer being a member of the Emperor’s harem, nobody put him off of their ‘kill list’. He was still the target of jealousy by many.

Before, he was envied for the Emperor’s favour towards him. Now, the male consorts envied him even more for the status he was granted.

They knew he was initially a prince, but he was previously a consort like them as well. It seemed like an impossible fairytale.

All thanks to the attendant by his side.

Arriving at the gate, a carriage was already prepared for them to ride. Mo Shen assisted Xue Lan in before entering himself. The coachman whipped the horses and headed out to their destination.

“It won’t be strange if some people start trying to buy you off from me,” Xue Lan mused.

“Why? Afraid that I will find someone cuter than you, My Lord?” Mo Shen smirked.

“No, not really,” Xue Lan fanned himself lightly. “I’m sure you’ll rob their money for me.”

“Why should I?” Mo Shen flipped his palm and a gold tael appeared. “I can make money anytime.”

“Is it even human gold?” Xue Lan doubted.

“Well, it visually is,” Mo Shen shrugged.

“You say that creating these things is like painting,” Xue Lan picked up the gold and assessed it. “Will you run out of paint someday?”

“It would be equal to humans running out of blood,” Mo Shen explained, “but my ‘blood’ replenishes every midnight.”

“I see…” Xue Lan hummed. “Demons are truly interesting.”

It would take them 20 minutes to reach their destination. Xue Lan decided to rest his eyes.

Meanwhile, a certain Emperor came to find him today as well.

He never mentioned Xue Lan’s name or voiced out his particular fondness for the prince, but everyone knew that he was currently the one occupying his heart. There was even a rumour spreading around that the Emperor couldn’t concentrate on his work if he didn’t see the prince at least once.

The audiences were well aware of everything but the actors themselves weren’t.

The Emperor was one thing but the eunuchs were getting itchy from Xue Lan’s ‘obliviousness’. If he just quenched the Emperor’s longing, they wouldn’t need to worry about the Emperor getting absentminded in court.

Tian Chen’s face gloomed after hearing the servants in Xue Lan’s courtyard inform him that Xue Lan headed to the city.

The eunuchs were restless, hoping the Emperor would still finish his work for the day.

In the city, Xue Lan and Mo Shen reached their destination.

The carriage stopped in front of a 3 story building in the city’s shopping district. On top of the entrance door was a sign board displaying the name of the place.

‘Flowing Cloud Auction House’

A staff welcomed them at the front door and promptly led them in. With Mo Shen’s prior arrangement, they were shown to their VIP booth on the third floor.

There, their privacy was protected and they could get a clear view of the products.

Other than them, there were other 2 guests in their own private booths.

The auction house promptly brought out their first item. One by one, rare and exquisite items were sold but Xue Lan didn’t make any move.

Until they reached the last item.

It was a landscape painting of 100 mountain peaks.

The first to bid was the people in the first booth. The starting price was 50 gold and they bid for it.

Without needing any signal, Mo Shen promptly rang the small bell attached to the wall and doubled the bid.

The first booth raised it by 50% and Xue Lan doubled it again.

The other guests couldn’t help but wonder which arrogant young master was in the third booth. How could he directly double the bid like that? One usually approached it by adding 10 or 5 gold from the previous price.

He must have come today especially for this painting.

The people in the first booth felt that they were being provoked and didn’t want to back down. He also wanted the painting knowing its true nature and finally became impatient.

A staff knocked on their booth, bringing an offer from the first booth.

If Xue Lan gave up the painting, the young master in the first booth was willing to exchange it with another painting of the same value.

Xue Lan directly refused.

In the end, he won the painting with the price of 1,500 gold.

Mo Shen paid for it and accepted the painting into their possessions.

As expected, their ride back to the palace was sabotaged. The young master in the first booth must have been keeping an eye out on the guests coming in and out of the auction house.

“Good grief, our carriage has suffered injustice,” Mo Shen chuckled. “Our poor coachman is in quite a peril.”

Xue Lan hid his mouth behind his fan, “Let us buy a horse then.”

He pretended he didn’t see the people hidden among crowds who were staring at them and walked away with Mo Shen. Their tails silently followed them.

Because of the summer hunt, most people knew about the handsome attendant who freed the Qi Ming Prince from the Emperor’s harem. It was difficult for anyone to forget such a face when they encountered one in their life.

They still didn’t know what Xue Lan exactly looked like because they couldn’t see his face from the distance, but they could tell from his garments that he was someone incredibly important.

The common people consciously moved aside to give way to the noble. Some finally recognized who Mo Shen was and they excitedly whispered among themselves.

Did this mean that the man next to him was the Qi Ming Prince?

Before they could see long enough, the pair walked into an alley when a carriage passed by the street. The crowds inwardly sighed in regret.

It wasn’t every day that they got to see a pair of handsome beauties side by side.

Though the crowd was in regret, the spies took their chance. They entered the alley from every side, intending to trap the pair inside.

But the result was all of them meeting each other in the middle with the pair nowhere to be found. Then one of them realized they were missing one person.

They went in the missing person's section of the alley and found their colleague unconscious on the street. They swiftly spread out to find the target.

Mo Shen peeked at them leaving from the second-floor window of a brothel right next to where the unconscious spy was. Fortunately for them, the brothel wasn’t opened yet for the day and the room was empty.

From the corner behind him, Xue Lan looked at him in askance.

He gave a nod.

“Can’t you make a horse?” Xue Lan asked.

“No. All my puppets are birds,” Mo Shen shrugged.

Xue Lan thought for a moment, “Aren’t you faster than a horse?”

Mo Shen raised an eyebrow.

The spies roamed around the city, trying to find the pair they lost. They were about to give up and report back when one of them saw 2 cloaked figures, one carrying the other, walking past them.

For a split second, he saw the sneer under the hood.

“It’s them!” he called out the rest, pointing at Mo Shen.

Mo Shen promptly bolted away.

“Why did you have to provoke them?” Xue Lan was tired.

“It’s not fun if the chasers not chasing, no?” Mo Shen grinned.

He let the spies all catch up to him before increasing his speed. He deliberately chose crowded streets and manoeuvred nimbly as he crossed through the crowds.

He dodged the people before barely hitting them, surprising the spies behind him which resulted in collisions.

Realizing they were being played with, they jumped up to the rooftop to chase from above clear of any obstacles. Their martial arts were quite decent.

But decent martial art wasn’t enough to go against a demon.

Even without any obstacles, they couldn’t decrease the distance between them and their target.

Mo Shen suddenly threw Xue Lan high up into the air.

Xue Lan, “???”

Passing by an accessory street vendor, Mo Shen grabbed all the hairpins on the table, not forgetting to leave the money to pay for them.

He leapt up, gracefully twisted his body, and threw the hairpins from the gap of his fingers as he spun a full circle.

The hairpins flew like a bullet and cleanly pierced the chest of their chasers.

Mo Shen caught Xue Lan as they landed back on the ground and continued their way back to the palace with laughter.