examine

The teeth cut the tip of my tongue, and the taste of blood spread in my mouth.

Li Wan closed her eyes tightly, the shameful feeling of the foreign object causing tears to flow freely.

She raised her slender neck even higher, desperately trying to avoid the man's sudden, heavy, hot breath.

However, in an instant, the man's breath seemed to freeze.

Even with her eyes closed, Li Wan could feel the shock and murderous intent in his gaze.

"Mmm, mmm."

Those long fingers seemed to carry a murderous intent as they suddenly probed deep into the warm alley, and then, unwilling to give up, circled around a few times.

"Waaah."

The sobbing turned into crying as she finally broke free of her belt. Then she opened her mouth and bit the man's neck tightly.

The teeth pierced the man's skin, and blood flowed into her mouth.

The man groaned and finally withdrew his long finger.

Just when Li Wan thought the torture was over, the man's hand gripped her neck tightly.

His hands were hot and large; with just a little force, he could snap her slender neck.

Li Wan's face flushed red. She couldn't understand why the crazy man wanted to kill her. She was speechless and could only stare at him with anger and shock.

The man wiped the blood from the side of his neck, tightened his grip, and coldly watched as the woman beneath him struggled to breathe.

He only released her when the veins on her forehead were bulging.

"A lady from a prominent family? The legitimate daughter of a high-ranking official? Ha!"

He scoffed dismissively, then leaned close to Li Wan's ear and whispered two words.

He then got up from the woman, casually grabbed her silk handkerchief, and wiped his fingers.

A moment later, Li Wan regained her breathing and weakly sat up from the daybed.

Her underpants beneath her skirt were torn to shreds, so she could only pull her cloak over herself and tightly wrap it around her body. She looked up at the man with eyes full of hatred.

The man sat on a round stool by the table, giving her a disdainful smile as he met her gaze.

"Alright, stop putting on this act of a chaste and virtuous woman. Since someone is willing to offer his woman to me, I will accept her."

He looked at Li Wan, his tone provocative: "I want to see what exactly you want from me, and whether you have the ability to get it."

Li Wan was utterly fed up with him saying things she couldn't understand, and said fiercely, "Xie Qi, I used to think you were a good person, a... brave general, but now I see you're nothing but a treacherous minister, a scoundrel, and a lecher."

"You think I really want to be your wife or concubine? Ha, how ridiculous. If I hadn't been forced into this situation, I would have bitten your neck off."

Xie Qi glanced at her and said, "Likewise."

Li Wan wiped away her tears. "Fine, since you have your plans and I have my helplessness, let's make a deal: if you can save my father, I will immediately become your concubine."

"As for what happens after I enter your Ningyuan Marquis's mansion, whether you're willing to let me live in the woodshed, eat only steamed buns and cold rice every day, or you take in ten or eight more women, I won't say a word, okay?"

Xie Qi raised an eyebrow. "I remember when you first arrived, you only said you wanted to know about your father's condition. Why are you asking me to save him now?"

His gaze shifted downwards, landing on Li Wan curled up in a ball. "Do you think that just because I touched you a little, you have the power to blackmail me?"

“You…” Li Wan gripped her cloak tightly in hatred, trying her best to remain calm and deal with this bastard.

"If my father can keep his official position, then Lord Xie's acceptance of me will have value, won't it?"

Xie Qi disagreed, saying, "Compared to your father, the person who is most useful to me is actually someone else."

Li Wan was taken aback and blurted out, "Who?"

Xie Qi curled his lips, but his eyes darkened further, and he said coldly, "A wild man."

Seeing that Li Wan was about to speak, Xie Qi raised his hand to stop her. "Shut up. I don't want to waste any more time with you. I will handle your father's matter myself. As for you..."

He glanced at her with disgust. "Go back and prepare. Enter the Ningyuan Marquis's residence in half a month."

Without waiting for Li Wan's reaction, he slammed the door and left.

The room fell silent.

Li Wan couldn't help but shed tears again. Although this body belonged to Jiang Feiwan, all the feelings and emotions were experienced by her personally.

When a woman is treated like this by a man, who could bear the shame without breaking down?

Xie Qi may look respectable, but he's actually incredibly shameless. Yet, she still has to become his concubine.

Li Wan pounded her legs hard a few times, her heart heavy with grief, and secretly vowed: before she returned to Niutian Village, she would make Xie Qi taste twice as much humiliation she had suffered today!

"girl."

Xiuhe pushed open the door and saw Liwan on the bed, and was so frightened that she froze on the spot.

"What's going on? Who...?"

Xiuhe helped Liwan up with trembling hands. When she saw the girl's clothes, she panicked completely: "I deserve to die. How could I let you come to a place like this alone? What are we going to do now?"

Li Wan squeezed her hand. "Calm down, let's go back to the manor and talk about it."

Xiuhe nodded vigorously, wrapped Li Wan in the cloak, put a veil on her, and finally, fearing that she would be discovered, carefully hid the belt and fabric scraps on the couch in her bosom and took them away.

Back at the Jiang residence, Madam Zou paid no attention to Li Wan's appearance, only asking Xie Qi whether he had informed the master of the situation.

Li Wan was too tired, so she told her directly that Xie Qi had promised to help her father.

Upon hearing this, Madam Zou was greatly relieved and said, "It seems that Lord Xie truly has feelings for you."

She glanced at Li Wan furtively, "Actually, for a man as outstanding as Lord Xie, becoming his concubine isn't so bad..."

“Mother.” Li Wan looked at Zou Shi expressionlessly, “I agree to go to the Ningyuan Marquis’s mansion as a concubine. Lord Xie said that I will be welcomed into the mansion in half a month.”

Zou's eyes widened instantly. "But your father doesn't know about this yet, and as the legitimate daughter of the Jiang family, we will also be ridiculed."

Li Wan didn't want to listen to her insincere words anymore, so she said she was tired and returned to Changfu Garden.

After Xiuhe finished helping Li Wan bathe and change, she asked cautiously, "Miss, was that man Lord Xie?"

Seeing Li Wan nod, Xiuhe was filled with grief and indignation. "Did he force himself on you, and then use that to blackmail you into becoming his concubine?"

Li Wan leaned against the bed and said, "No, it's about Father and other things."

Upon hearing this, Xiuhe felt even more sorry for the girl, but then she remembered something extremely important.

She whispered to Li Wan, "I'll sneak out of the manor in a bit and find a doctor far away to get you your medicine. Don't sleep yet. I've heard that the sooner you take the medicine, the better."

Li Wan looked up, puzzled: "What medicine?"

Xiuhe's voice was even lower, "Contraceptive."

Li Wan knew she had misunderstood, and patiently explained, "No need, he didn't do that."

Upon hearing this, Xiuhe immediately turned from sorrow to joy, "That's wonderful! I heard from the old women in the courtyard that if a woman is not a virgin before marriage, even if it was caused by her husband, she will have a difficult time in her husband's family."

Xiuzhu entered the room and happened to hear the last word, so she asked, "What difficulties?"

Xiuhe glared at her, pulled her out of the room, and told the girl to rest well.

Li Wan didn't sleep, partly because she was worried about her father and younger brother, and partly because she was thinking about Xie Qi's actions today.

Why did he treat her like that today?

Indecent assault? Satisfying personal desires? But he didn't do anything else.

Moreover, when he grabbed her neck, she clearly felt his murderous intent.

And those two words he whispered in her ear: "Bitch."

He molested her, insulted her, and then immediately tried to kill her.

He keeps referring to himself as a "wild man," but what does that even mean?

The more Li Wan thought about it, the more confused she became. In the end, she could only sigh, "Men are so hard to fathom."

At the same moment, the dog man that Li Wan had mentioned was sitting expressionlessly in the Pillow Cloud Hall.

Shen Jie stood to one side, holding a long sword, while Jiang Huaishan, the Second Grand Secretary, sat to the left of the man.

The room was silent, yet inexplicably filled one with a tremendous sense of oppression.

Shen Jie glanced at the wound on his master's neck out of the corner of his eye; it was clearly a bite mark.

He didn't know what had happened, but Zizi had been frowning ever since he came out of Qingzhu Residence, so even he had to be on high alert and ready to act.

However, the Lord Jiang in front of us is still recklessly courting death.

“It’s not that I don’t want to give Minister Xie a word, but last year the court allocated 150,000 taels of silver for the construction of dikes in Hebei. However, last month, the new dikes collapsed suddenly. The people discovered that the dikes, which should have been built with bluestone, had been replaced with sand and gravel.”

"The people were full of complaints, and His Majesty was so angry that he almost fainted in the Imperial Study."

According to the Ministry of Works' calculations, less than 50,000 taels of the 150,000 taels of silver were actually used for the dikes.

Jiang Huaishan stroked his beard and continued, "An official from the Ministry of Revenue testified that the Minister of Revenue colluded with local officials to embezzle funds. One of them falsified accounts to deceive the court, while the other used waste materials to build the dam."

Xie Qi listened to his nonsense with indifference and casually asked, "I wonder which official from the Ministry of Revenue testified against Lord Jiang?"

Jiang Huaishan paused, then gave a perfunctory smile: "Lord Xie is the Minister of War, and the embezzlement case has nothing to do with you. May I ask why Lord Xie is inquiring about this matter?"

The old fox knows how to steer the conversation away.

Xie Qi was thoroughly impatient with this man, but he remained outwardly calm. "It is the duty of a subject to share His Majesty's burdens. Since Vice Minister Jiang is unwilling to disclose this information, I will not insist."

He glanced at Shen Jie and said, "Show the guest out."

"Farewell." Jiang Huaishan bowed.

Once inside the carriage at the Jiang residence, Jiang Huaishan lifted the curtain and cautiously looked around before instructing the driver to return to the residence.

The person traveling in the same car was Xu Mi, a cabinet clerk. He asked in bewilderment, "Why is Lord Jiang being so cautious?"

Jiang Huaishan breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you know why all the officials in the court are afraid of Xie Qi?"

Xu Mi thought for a moment, "Lord Xie is exceptionally capable, having risen to the position of Minister at a young age. Moreover, he has the Empress as his aunt and the Jinlin Army as his backing. Officials will surely be somewhat wary of him."

Jiang Huaishan shook his head with a wry smile, "You're only right about part of it. First of all, Xie Qi's biggest backer is not the Empress or General Lin, but His Majesty. Otherwise, how could His Majesty allow the Minister of War to concurrently hold the extremely important position of Commander of the Imperial Guards? Secondly..."

Jiang Huaishan lowered his voice, "Besides the Imperial Guards, Xie Qi also privately maintains an extremely powerful secret guard organization. They are ruthless and vicious, and if any official gets in their way, those secret guards can make them disappear in an instant."

Xu Mi felt a chill run down his spine. "Doesn't the Dali Temple care?"

Jiang Huaishan sneered, "Yan Xu, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, doesn't dare to utter a single word in front of him."

Xu Mi rolled his eyes. "Lord Xie came to you about the embezzlement case. Could you tell me which official accused Jiangnan Yue of it?"

Jiang Huaishan glared at Xu Mi, "I'm not senile yet. How could I tell him such a secret? You, on the other hand, should also be careful these days. You must not let anyone trick you into revealing the identity of Zhang, the head of the Ministry of Revenue."

Xu Mi frowned, looking troubled.

"I am just a lowly clerk. I have neither guards nor bodyguards. If I encounter danger, I am afraid I cannot even protect myself."

“This is simple.” Jiang Huaishan waved his hand. “I will send my personal guards to your residence shortly, and they will protect you closely for the next few days.”

Xu Mi hurriedly cupped his hands in gratitude, saying, "Thank you very much, Lord Jiang."