She pressed her lips together and smiled, saying nothing, her bright eyes meeting his dark, blazing ones.

  He was suddenly jolted, and got the hint—could it be? He snapped his harsh gaze toward that heavy wooden door and the iron chain wrapped around it.

  “You put them…” His voice shook with rage. “Open it.”

  Sigh. He’d come too fast, and she had no idea where he’d heard the rumor from.

  Her heart raced, beating faster and faster, and Hua Duomei asked with a slow smile: “Lord Leisalong, do you really have to ruin their fun?”

  “Bastard!” He ground the words out between his teeth, aching to break her bones and devour her flesh.

  “Leisalong, wait—”

  He shoved her away, his broad, strong palm closing around the chain, and roared. The chain, along with the doorknob and a small chunk of stone, was ripped clean off, leaving a head-sized hole in the wooden door.

  When the door swung open, a strange, lingering scent still clung to the room, and a flood of purplish sunset poured in.

  Hua Duomei chased after the man’s furious back, running into the room after him, and when she saw the man and woman on the bed, she froze in shock.

  Baron wore nothing but a pair of undergarments, his face covered in blood—blood still trickled steadily down from between his brows, and his arms were locked tightly around Lu Danhua, who was wrapped in a thin quilt.

  The young woman lay unconscious, utterly limp, in the arms of the blood-soaked man… just what had happened in that stone house, had it gone through or not?

  By nightfall, the "Feixia Tower" perched on the cliff of the great island was nothing like it was on any other night.

  Tonight, no one played the zither or sang, no one drank and danced, and no one gathered around their tower master to practice that indescribable, soul-unbinding "Secret Art of the Jade Chamber".

  The Lord spoke in a low, heavy voice: "Draw the veils."

  When the twelve handmaids heard the order, several small figures moved swiftly back and forth. None dared utter a word, not even breathing carelessly, and in no time at all they pulled up and tied away all the layers of purple gauze hanging on the first floor.

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  This night, the twelve young maids, nominally the tower master’s servants, were so frightened that they only obeyed the Lord’s every order. When the Lord waved his hand, all the maids retreated outside the building. Though they worried for their tower master, they feared the Lord’s head was full of rage, that he would kill anyone who crossed him, Buddha or god. If they blocked his way, their own lives would surely be forfeit.

  All irrelevant people were gone, and a suffocating heavy silence hung between the man and woman inside the tower.

  Without the purple gauze curtains swaying in the wind, the hall suddenly opened up. Porcelain drum lanterns in all four corners were lit, and outside the window with the bamboo blinds drawn high, besides the island breeze blowing in, one could see the sky and the scattered stars.

  In the cool, mild, strong sea breeze, carried the scent of sacred sandalwood that local islanders burned at night for blessings. She knew that scent well; ever since she came to this great South Sea island, she had smelled this blessing incense every night… Tonight, though! Did she really need to pray to heaven for good luck?

  Hua Duomei scratched her ear and smiled, unable to bear the harsh aura radiating off the man. She pretended to be unhurried as she stood up and walked behind the white jade screen.

  She patted her cool cheeks, let out a quiet sigh, took off her outer robe, then loosened her hair bun, letting her glossy black hair fall like a waterfall over her shoulders.

  She combed her hair with her fingers, her empty mind working hard, straining to think how she could defuse the stalemate and fix this mess, when just then, the white jade screen the man had shipped all the way from the Jiangnan region of Central China just to please her, was suddenly swept to the ground by a burst of force. A loud "bang" shook her, her back going stiff, and she quickly turned around.

  Leisalong stared at her, his sharp eyes so furious with rage that his pupils actually trembled.

  First he couldn’t find Baron, then he noticed that she and Lu Danhua were both not in the tower, and several of the young maids had intentionally avoided his gaze. Luckily the twelve young maids were still young, they hadn’t been trained by her for long, and they told the truth easily, far from the shrewd, experienced sophistication of the already worldly Twelve Golden Hairpin Guests.

  He was truly… too angry to find words to describe it!

  Even back when she’d been wholeheartedly partial to Lierzhen, when Yunlan Qi'er eloped with Lierzhen, even though he’d been bitter and angry, he’d barely managed to keep hold of his reason, but this time… this time, he didn’t know how to vent the raging fire in his chest.

  He could no longer keep his bottomless calm in the depths of his eyes. Standing face to face with him at close range, Hua Duomei could feel the fire in his man’s eyes burning all the way into her heart.

  Look what she’d done, she’d gotten herself into such a terrible mess. Even she could not bring herself to love this hateful temper of hers!

  She’d dared to do it, she would dare take the consequences. She blamed no one but herself.

  If he wanted to be angry, she would take it willingly.

  “Yell at me if you want, I’ll listen.” She didn’t argue further, holding her black hair, her dark eyes glinting faintly.

  “You deliberately…” His throat was too rough, rough as if something was about to come up. Leisalong pressed his stiff lips, and gathered his words again. “You deliberately infuriate me, don’t you?”

  “A little bit.”

  His breath suddenly turned heavy, he did not blink once.

  “Why?”