Chapter 11: If Anyone Who Kisses Me Is Caught by Me...

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Xia Nianchu broke into a cold sweat. How could she still dare lust after the Heir Apparent’s body?

She retreated several steps, stammering incoherently, “I—I won’t disturb you any longer, Cousin. I’ll take my leave.”

She withdrew from the monk’s quarters and closed the door behind her. Silence once again settled over the room.

Pei Dongzhou’s barely supported body collapsed back onto the bed. His body was still beyond his control; the drug’s effects had not yet fully faded.

It was only after Qingzhu returned to the room that he realized something was wrong with his master. He hurried forward to help him up. “What happened, Your Highness?”

As the effects of the drug gradually wore off, Pei Dongzhou sat on the bed and calmly ordered, “Bring me the novice monk who delivered the tea. I’ll interrogate him myself.”

When Qingzhu found the novice monk, it was obvious that the boy was nervous with guilt.

He tried to run, but Qingzhu had been prepared. In the end, he forcibly dragged the novice monk back to Pei Dongzhou’s quarters.

By then, Pei Dongzhou had completely recovered.

This time, he had been careless. He had never expected a mere novice monk to be so bold as to drug his tea. Fortunately, it had not been poison. Otherwise, he might well have met his end at Great Enlightenment Temple that day.

The novice monk did not dare look at Pei Dongzhou. Before Pei Dongzhou could even speak, he began to protest guiltily, “I—I don’t know anything…”

In the next instant, excruciating pain shot through his Kunlun, Taixi, and Zhaohai points. He collapsed to his knees, his legs feeling as though they had been severed.

Terrified, he tried to stand, only to find that his ankles felt as if someone had hacked through them with a single stroke.

The inhuman agony drove him to scream again and again, but Qingzhu had clamped a hand over his mouth, preventing him from making a sound.

Only then did the novice monk realize what sort of person he had provoked.

Everyone said that the Heir Apparent was mild-tempered and as gracious as a gentleman. This was no secret in the capital. Yet no one had told him that the Heir Apparent was so ruthless. Had he known, he would never have dared offend him.

“You have only lost the use of your legs for now. If you refuse to tell the truth, I can make your hands—and your head—move house as well.” Pei Dongzhou looked down at the novice monk from his lofty position.

How could the novice monk still dare conceal anything? He confessed everything he knew.

But the moment his voice fell silent, terrible pain seized both his hands. They, too, seemed to have been broken.

His eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. He had never imagined that even after telling the truth, he still would not be able to keep his hands.

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“You should be grateful that you are a monk. Otherwise, you would already be lying here headless.” After saying this, Pei Dongzhou turned to Qingzhu. “Hand him over to the abbot for punishment.”

Qingzhu hauled the novice monk, all four limbs crippled, out of the quarters.

Pei Dongzhou composed himself, then left the room and headed toward the Mahavira Hall.

He secretly wondered whether the woman who had kissed him first had been Xia Nianchu. Though the drug had not robbed him of his senses, it had dulled them considerably. He could not distinguish any difference between the footsteps of the first woman and those of the second, but he remembered that the first woman who kissed him had carried a faint fragrance.

The scent of Xia Nianchu’s cosmetics was clearly different from that of the woman who had kissed him…

Shen Shuyi waited outside the Mahavira Hall, her thoughts drifting far away. She had no spare energy to concern herself with Xia Nianchu.

When Xia Nianchu finally arrived outside the hall looking flustered, Shen Shuyi guessed that she had failed.

It was an outcome she had expected.

Pei Dongzhou was the most troublesome male lead of them all. Even with the heroine’s halo, Xia Nianchu could not possibly win him over so easily.

There was still a difficult battle ahead. When the time came, Xia Nianchu would expose her, and Shen Shuyi might still need to make use of her. It would not do to turn against Xia Nianchu just yet.

But Shen Shuyi absolutely refused to take the blame. This concerned her very life.

Xia Nianchu was no less anxious than she was.

She had been caught red-handed by her cousin, the Heir Apparent. How could someone like him fail to see through her intentions? Had she succeeded, it would have been a different matter. She could have become the Heir Apparent’s wife and then pushed Shen Shuyi forward to take the blow. Even if she could not escape completely unscathed, the plan would still have been perfect.

But she had failed. If her cousin pursued the matter to the end, would the Marchioness take out her anger on her and drive her from the侯府?

In the end, it was all Shen Shuyi’s fault. What kind of drug had she bought? Why had the Heir Apparent awakened so quickly after taking it?

Just as Shen Shuyi and Xia Nianchu were both in a state of panic, Pei Dongzhou arrived at the Mahavira Hall.

Out of the corner of her eye, Shen Shuyi saw Pei Dongzhou stop beside Xia Nianchu. She had no idea what he said, but Xia Nianchu’s smile looked somewhat strained.

Shen Shuyi told herself not to panic. In any case, she had left behind no evidence. And when she had secretly kissed Pei Dongzhou, he had clearly still been unconscious. There was no way he could know that she had committed such an outrageous offense against him.

She had just managed to convince herself of this when Pei Dongzhou began walking toward her.

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Surely not. Had Xia Nianchu already betrayed her?

Before she had transmigrated, Shen Shuyi had been a respectable, law-abiding young woman. She had never done anything illegal or improper, much less laid hands on a man. This was the first time in her life she had ever harassed one.

Was she really going to suffer retribution so soon after doing it for the first time?

“Where did Cousin go just now?” Pei Dongzhou’s gentle voice sounded beside her.

“I was waiting here for Grandmother. Did you need something, Cousin?” Shen Shuyi turned her head to look at him.

Pei Dongzhou met her clear, luminous eyes. She did not look guilty in the slightest. Because they were standing so close, he could smell the faint fragrance of osmanthus wafting from her.

The woman who had kissed him earlier had also carried a barely perceptible fragrance, but it had definitely not been the scent of osmanthus.

Yet he remembered that two days earlier, at the Fusang Courtyard, she had hidden a packet of medicine. Moreover, this woman had a history of trying to seduce him. Though she had been driven out of the Eastern Garden before she could even approach him, the incident had left a deep impression on him.

Under Pei Dongzhou’s scrutiny, Shen Shuyi remained relatively calm. After all, he had no evidence that she had secretly kissed him. So long as he could not prove that she had harassed him, he had no grounds to punish her.

Pei Dongzhou looked at Shen Shuyi with a mild expression. “Just now, I was drugged by a novice monk in my quarters. I was also kissed by a woman.”

Fortunately, Shen Shuyi had a strong enough composure to immediately put on a look of astonishment. “Who could be so bold as to commit such an outrage against you, Cousin?”

Pei Dongzhou carefully observed every subtle change in her expression, but no matter how he looked, he could not detect the slightest trace of guilt on Cousin Shen’s face.

He remembered that although Cousin Shen was shamelessly lustful, she was not particularly calculating. Whenever she did something guilty, it could be seen at a glance. The young woman before him had innocent eyes and a harmless expression. She did not seem to be pretending.

Could he have suspected the wrong person?

If it had not been Cousin Shen who kissed him, could it have been Xia Nianchu?

But the cosmetic fragrance on Xia Nianchu was completely different from the scent of the woman who had kissed him. His instincts told him that Cousin Shen was the more likely culprit.

“I would also like to know who was bold enough to commit such an outrage against me. Cousin should know that I am a man who always repays a grudge. The novice monk who drugged me has already had his limbs crippled. As for the one who kissed me, if I catch her…”

Pei Dongzhou’s eyes were as deep as ink. His thin lips curved into a faint smile.

“What do you think would be the proper punishment, Cousin?”

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