Nearing 9 PM, Xue Lan retreated from the banquet first due to his weak constitution. Tian Chen let him leave as he himself left the hall not long after.

“Did they find anything?” Xue Lan asked upon their return.

“Only the book. They didn’t seem to be satisfied with it though. There must be another thing they’re looking for,” Mo Shen answered.

“Did they say what?”

“Some kind of a device I believe. I don’t think they know what it looks like either,” Mo Shen undressed Xue Lan, leaving him with one last piece of a thin inner robe.

Xue Lan laid on his bed tiredly. Mo Shen wiped his body with a hot damp towel while massaging his aching legs. He softly sighed in comfort.

“Could it be that the painting and the book are the clues to finding the device?” Xue Lan speculated.

Mo Shen shifted down to Xue Lan’s calf, “It’s difficult to say since we couldn’t form a coherent clue just from combining those two.”

“True,” Xue Lan hummed in thought. “How big is the device they’re looking for?”

Mo Shen observed for a moment, “Small enough to fit into a vase apparently.”

“That’s not very helpful.”

“Don’t worry, My Lord. Even without it, I can still grant your wish,” Mo Shen raised Xue Lan’s exquisite legs and kissed his knee.

“How much destruction can one demon do? Not that much I believe,” Xue Lan closed his eyes. “I want them fallen, despaired, and enslaved.”

“Good grief, what a cruel master I have,” Mo Shen chuckled and continued wiping Xue Lan’s body.

After changing Xue Lan into his nightgown, Mo Shen extinguished all lights. He stood by the bed and continued monitoring Qi Ming’s movement.

In the middle of the night, he sensed someone entering the courtyard. It didn’t seem to be an assassin or a spy with how brashly the person entered. With Xiao Hu away, the intruder easily reached the main house.

The door was slammed open, waking Xue Lan from his sleep. He looked at Mo Shen in askance.

“It seems like a drunkard lost his way to our courtyard,” Mo Shen snapped his finger, lighting the candles back up.

Once the intruder reached the bed chamber, Xue Lan saw that it was actually Tian Chen.

His face was feverish and his eyes weren’t focused. Although his posture was as straight as ever, if one looked carefully, his steps weren’t as stable.

His robe was still proper but the crown on his head was slightly crooked. It wasn’t difficult to see that he wasn’t sober.

When he found Xue Lan through the sheers of the bed, his focus was fully on him. He dashed directly to the bed like a hungry beast.

Mo Shen moved and stopped Tian Chen’s advance, restraining him by pressing him to the bed with his knee. Tian Chen practised martial arts himself, but he couldn’t budge under the pressure of a higher dimensional being.

“My Lord, what should we do with him?”

Xue Lan uncovered his quilt and moved to get a closer look at Tian Chen’s state. He was drunk enough that he was basically driven by desire right now. The strong scent of alcohol permeated thickly on his body.

Mo Shen and Xue Lan looked at each other. Thinking the same thing, Mo Shen freed the beast.

***

Tian Chen woke up with an intense headache. He massaged his temple and slowly opened his eyes when he sobered enough.

He immediately noticed that he wasn’t in his room.

Slightly alarmed, he sat up on the bed to find that his upper body was bare. There were suspicious traces of dried fluid on the bed and the bedsheet itself was unnaturally messy.

Bits and pieces of memory returned in a vague and blurry manner, but it was enough for him to understand everything.

When he heard the door open, he thought it was his missing bed partner, but it was only the head eunuch and several servants bringing his change of clothes.

“Where is Honorable Prince Xue?” Tian Chen restlessly asked.

The head eunuch deeply bowed, “This eunuch does not know. The Honorable Prince had left before dawn arrived.”

“Search for him,” Tian Chen’s jaw clenched, “immediately!”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the head eunuch hurriedly scrambled away.

Meanwhile, the person in question was leisurely enjoying breakfast at a congee house in the city.

He wore a simple cotton robe unlike his usual lavish robes and the veiled straw hat he used to cover his face was currently set aside.

Sitting across him, Mo Shen focused on brewing Xue Lan’s tea. The scarf covering his face was lowered down since they were currently in a private booth on the second floor.

“Tian Chen’s awake,” Mo Shen notified and chuckled. “He’s quite shaken.”

“Let’s hope he’ll stop forcing his feelings onto me before showing any result at all,” Xue Lan ate a spoonful of his congee.

“That is rather unfair with how you keep seducing him in the first place,” Mo Shen poured the perfectly brewed tea into Xue Lan’s cup. “I like it.”

“It’s been a while since we went to the city. Not like we did anything other than going to the auction house before,” Xue Lan looked outside the window.

“The festival is still ongoing for common people. Today is the last day,” Mo Shen said.

During the mid-autumn festival, the stalls and vendors opened late in the evening so the street wasn’t as bustling as usual. Few shops opened for breakfast but most would open later at noon.

“Would you like to go to the festival with me, My Lord?” Mo Shen smiled charmingly.

Xue Lan ‘pondered’ about it, “If you won’t waste my time.”

“What reward will I get for entertaining you?” Mo Shen leaned closer.

“I believe you can’t impress me more than regaining my title back with a rare predator fish,” Xue Lan raised an eyebrow. “Except if you find that device first before Xue Nian’s spies do.”

“Fair enough,” Mo Shen shrugged, “but I’m not a fan of fairness.”

“You yourself are the embodiment of unfairness.”

“Nothing ever sounds truer.”

The two of them left the tea house and sightseeing around the city, ignoring the imperial guards and Tian Chen’s private spies looking for them in the palace. When they started searching the city, Mo Shen easily led Xue Lan to avoid them.

The more time passed, the more anxious Tian Chen became. The night of pleasure he went through became a nightmare in his memory.

The tearful face, the breathless cries. Not a single word of rejection was uttered.

The Prince silently bore and endured the pain and fear of being forced upon. The last word he whispered to him cut into his heart with every tremble.

“In the end, I am nothing but a consort to you, am I not?”

A minister hesitantly came forward, “Your Majesty, about this month’s–”

“Court dismissed. Everybody leave!” Tian Chen violently waved them away.

The eunuchs and ministers hurriedly bowed and briskly left. In a blink, Tian Chen was left alone in the hall.

He closed his eyes and massaged his throbbing temple. But he couldn’t close them for long because the debauched scene of his savagery would soon flash into his vision.

Where did Xue Lan run away to?

That Mo Shen must be hiding him somewhere. Not even his spies could find them.

It was a mistake to not kill Mo Shen until now. He should’ve cut off his head even if it meant getting Xue Lan to hate him for it. With enough persistence, Xue Lan would definitely understand and forgive him.

Xue Lan loved him as well after all.

But after what he did… It wouldn’t be strange for Xue Lan to fall out of love with him.

Nonetheless, he would get him back and recover his love.

Even if it meant he would need to be a villain.

The news spread like wildfire. Some said that Tian Chen and Xue Lan drank together privately after the banquet and Xue Lan took advantage of Tian Chen. Some said that Xue Lan failed to satisfy Tian Chen in bed and his honourable title would be stripped.

But what most people believed was that Xue Lan refused Tian Chen’s intention to sleep with him and Tian Chen was enraged from the humiliation.

After all, although Tian Chen’s feelings towards Xue Lan were clear, the latter’s heart was unreadable. They couldn’t get any information through the servants in his courtyard however they persuaded them.

Xue Nian and Jiang Wei of course heard of this situation as well. They sent out some of their spies to find Xue Lan before the imperial guards did.

This was the perfect opportunity to re-educate the Prince on where he truly stood. It was also a timely distraction for them to search the palace further for the device.

Unknown to them, their every move had always been monitored by two shadows.