Mo fell to one knee, practically weeping with gratitude. "Martial Uncle Lin, your sacrifice will be recorded in the annals of the shadow guard! You are truly a hero of the realm!"

"However," Ji’an raised a finger, halting his praise. Her grin widened into a predatory, shark-like crescent. "A single young master wandering the woods is suspicious. It lacks the... dramatic tragedy required to truly pique a predator’s interest. A high-value target requires a matching set."

Ji’an slowly pointed her spatula directly at Xiao Yichen.

"I have a condition," Ji’an declared, her voice echoing through the muddy clearing. "I will wear the cuffs. I will play the bait. But I am taking my ’sister’ with me."

The clearing went dead silent.

Commander Mo blinked. He looked at Ji’an’s spatula. He followed the trajectory of the weapon, his eyes landing on the. at first. it came as a shock. Imperial Second Prince.

"S-Sister?" Mo stammered, his brain failing to compute the sheer, astronomical level of high treason Ji’an was currently suggesting.

"Yes, Commander. My beautiful, fragile, tragic older sister," Ji’an proclaimed, her voice dripping with venomous, sarcastic delight. She took a step toward Yichen. "Look at him. The cheekbones, the flawless skin, the elegant posture. With a bit of rouge and a proper silk dress, he would be the most breathtaking maiden this backwater syndicate has ever laid eyes on."

The shadow guards inhaled sharply, their hands flying to their weapons, unsure whether they were supposed to execute Ji’an right then and there for insulting the royal bloodline or pretend they hadn’t heard her.

However, they also had some doubts, since Ji’an was considered half a royalty herself.

Xiao Yichen’s smile vanished.

For the first time since he had met Lin Ji’an, the sociopathic, calculating mastermind was genuinely, profoundly thrown off balance.

"You jest, Royal Uncle," Yichen whispered, his voice dropping into a dangerous, warning octave. His dark eyes narrowed, flashing with royal indignation. "I am a Prince of the Azure Empire. You are asking me to don women’s clothing and parade myself as bait for a grimy, subterranean bandit?"

"I am not asking, Your Highness. Right now, I am ordering you to do it, and negotiating is off the table," Ji’an shot back, completely immune to his royal aura, marching right up into his personal space.

’Well, so what if he is a royal? I’m a royal too, don’t I have any pride? If I have to moan like a slut in front of those ugly, bulky men and beg, you should come along to get humiliated too. It will become our little secret in the future!’ Lin Ji’an smirked, thinking of the humiliation she was about to make Xiao Yichen endure, unwilling to jump into the river by herself!

She didn’t back down.

She tilted her chin up, glaring directly into his dark, threatening eyes.

"You are the one who started this mess first," Ji’an snarled, poking him hard in the chest with her index finger. "You wanted to play chess with my family. You threw my little brother into a perverted dual-cultivator’s den to clear a spot on your little sect leaderboard. If I have to swallow my pride, shed my dignity, and act like a weeping, pathetic little boy to fix your mistake... then you are coming down into the mud with me."

She leaned in closer, her voice dropping into a furious, intimate whisper.

"You want to know what I am running from, Yichen? I am running from people who think they can use my life as a game. So, put on the dress and play the weak maiden. Or I swear to the Heavens, I will walk away right now, take my brother back myself, and leave you to figure out this maze on your own."

If he thought he could be insolent just because they were outside the sect, then Xiao Yichen was too naive. Ji’an was a chef who prided in her cooking, and she would never back down from a challange thrown to her way, because chefs has great pride and a broad mind, or at least, that’s how they should be!

The tension in the air was absolute.

The standoff between the grey-aproned cook and the sapphire-robed Prince was electric, thick with unsaid threats and simmering, volatile hostility.

Yichen stared down at her. He felt the sharp, angry poke of her finger against his chest. He saw the sheer, unyielding defiance in her silver-flecked eyes.

She wasn’t intimidated by him. She wasn’t charmed by him. She was actively, aggressively dragging him off his royal pedestal and forcing him to crawl through the dirt beside her.

And Xiao Yichen, the broken, twisted sociopath who had spent his entire life desperately craving someone who would look at him as an equal rather than an idol, felt a massive, overwhelming wave of dark, intoxicating euphoria wash over his soul.

’My Royal Uncle is so flawless,’ Yichen thought, his heart hammering wildly, his earlier resentment completely vaporising under the sheer heat of her audacity. ’He does not bow, but commands others.’

The dangerous, royal indignation melted from Yichen’s face, replaced by a slow, breathless, terrifyingly beautiful smile.

He didn’t draw a weapon or order her execution.

Instead, Yichen slowly raised his hands in a gesture of elegant, mocking surrender.

He leaned down, his face hovering mere inches from hers, his dark eyes sparkling with a heavy, predatory amusement that made Ji’an’s stomach do a nervous flip.

"Very well, Royal Uncle," Yichen purred, his voice a smooth, silken caress that completely ignored the furious audience of shadow guards surrounding them. "If my humiliation is the price of your cooperation, I shall gladly pay it."

He reached out, his long, pale fingers gently tracing the collar of her white tunic, adjusting the fabric with agonisingly slow precision.

"But be warned, Royal Uncle," Yichen whispered, leaning in so close his lips brushed against her ear. "If I am to play the fragile, weeping maiden... You must swear to protect my virtue from the big, bad bandits."