Chapter 106 Fighting is too embarrassing
The imperial palace recruited skilled craftsmen to forge chains, offering generous rewards. As a result, many artisans in the capital answered the call and entered the palace to forge steel shirtless in the blacksmith's hall.
Dozens of craftsmen worked tirelessly day and night, finally completing the chains in the twentieth hour after the emperor's summons. The steel chains, as thick as an adult man's arm, coiled around the iron pillars surrounding the bed, while the long, snake-like chains encircled the dragon-carved golden pillars. They seemed endless, ending with four neatly arranged iron rings on the dragon bed, only to be kicked off with a clanging sound.
The palace maids who were trying to restrain Feng Tan trembled in shock at her kick. The Rakshasa Army, who were constantly watching Feng Tan in the outer palace, also lined up and entered upon hearing the sound. They saw that the palace maids who wanted to restrain Feng Tan were too frightened to approach because of the sniper rifle in her hand. The two sides were locked in a stalemate in the bedchamber. The leader gave a signal, and the last one turned and left after receiving the message.
Feng Tan's vigorous, upward-striving vitality inherently possessed an element of aggression; her gentle exterior was abruptly shattered upon seeing the chains binding the bed. How was Xiao Yinshi's act of locking her to the bed any different from chaining up a guard dog?
This behavior even stripped Feng Tan of all self-respect and backbone. No one could help her; she had to defend herself.
Feng Tan's knuckles turned white as she gripped the sniper rifle. Anger surged within her. Just when she thought Xiao Yinshi's wickedness had reached its limit, he was about to redefine her tolerance.
A pair of black satin shoes embroidered with gold patterns stopped in front of the steel chains that had been kicked down. The man picked up four iron rings with his long fingers and held them in his palm. His voice was authoritative without being angry, "Get down."
The palace maids all retreated in response. Arslan glanced at Feng Tan discreetly, then led the Rakshasa Army out of the main hall.
The palace doors slammed shut, and Feng Tan stood on the bed, her posture as straight as a pine tree, gripping her sniper rifle. She watched Xiao Yinshi approach step by step, the flickering light casting shadows on him, creating an eerie atmosphere.
Xiao Yinshi's dark pupils clearly reflected Feng Tan's defiant and rebellious appearance. He stood by the bed, letting Feng Tan look down at him, his voice low and slightly hoarse, "Feng Tan, after a month apart, you're still so energetic."
Xiao Yinshi and Feng Tan were in stark contrast. Xiao Yinshi's face was pale, as if he had just recovered from a serious illness, while Feng Tan's cheeks were flushed, perhaps because she had been upset, and she looked full of energy and vitality.
Seeing that she was only scrutinizing him without saying a word, Xiao Yinshi raised his eyes and looked at her quietly, saying, "Aren't you going to ask me why I did this?"
Throughout Feng Tan's rebellion, she never once asked, "Why are you doing this to me?" but simply resisted in her own way. Feng Tan would never again ask, "Why are you doing this to me?" Such a question would put her in a powerless position. She placed herself on equal footing with Xiao Yinshi, resisting and fighting, meeting every challenge head-on, defending her rights even in a weaker position.
Feng Tan said, "It's not surprising that a beast can do anything beastly."
Zhu Qi was truly a good subordinate. When Xiao Yinshi woke up, he embellished Feng Tan's rant about the two of them: one was a chicken in a coat and a dog in a hat, a real beast in human clothing; the other was an old sow fighting, all talk and no action. The two of them were truly beasts.
Based on Feng Tan's words, Xiao Yinshi narrowed his eyes, the temperature in his eyes silently dropping. "Wouldn't it be better to just wear it obediently?"
With a sniper rifle pressed against his chest, Xiao Yinshi glanced down at it, his voice calm yet dangerous, "The envoys from the Huang Dynasty will arrive in the capital soon, accompanied by Yu Ruxi and Jin An. If you want them to never return, you may fire."
The intimidation was perfectly positioned on Feng Tan's death spot. When she looked at Xiao Yin, who was backlit, his brow bone was hidden in the shadows, and the slightly brighter light only clung to the area between his nose and thin lips, making him look like a demon who had just broken into the human world from hell.
The man toyed with the steel chain between his fingers. Feng Tan's eyes suddenly turned fierce. He forcefully thrust the sniper rifle at Feng Tan's chest, precisely pressing it against the wound caused by the short-barreled pistol.
Xiao Yinshi reacted quickly and grabbed Feng Tan's wrist. His strength was so great that she could not exert any force. Seeing her face covered in cold sweat from the pain, he loosened his grip slightly, pushed her into the brocade bed, and pressed down on her, commenting: "She won't listen to soft words or hard words. She has a lot of backbone and temper, but her weakness is so easy to exploit."
Feng Tan was so enraged by his argument that her chest heaved, and for the first time, she didn't know what to say. "You..."
In fact, Feng Tan had said almost everything she could to him, but Xiao Yinshi always had a way of provoking her to anger.
“You know I’m still injured and can’t be with you, so you’re stubbornly refusing to wear it.” Xiao Yinshi’s pale lips curled slightly, revealing a disdainful smile. He placed one hand on Feng Tan’s wrist, firmly controlling it in his palm. “How many times do I have to teach you the law of the jungle before you listen?”
His tone was indulgent, but a closer listen revealed a chilling undertone. Under the oppressive shadows of twilight, Feng Tan fell into a nightmare from which she could not awaken. Her wrists were tightly bound by the man, and the skin of one wrist was gently caressed by a cold chain.
Anger fueled his power, and Feng Tan freed his other wrist from Xiao Yinshi's grasp, clenching it into a fist and swinging it towards Xiao Yinshi's face. Xiao Yinshi turned his head to dodge, his eyes darkening, "You're courting death again."
He didn't use his internal energy, but relied purely on absolute strength to suppress Feng Tan's attacking fist. He picked up the steel chain scattered on the bed and locked it onto one of Feng Tan's wrists with a flick of his finger.
Feng Tan's good manners were shattered at this moment by Xiao Yinshi, and the hand-to-hand combat between them began to use any means necessary. Her other hand, which was still free, reached back and attacked the back of Xiao Yinshi's head, firmly pulling the hair on the back of his head in the opposite direction, forcing him to tilt his head back slightly, making his face even paler.
"You fucking untie me." Feng Tan didn't see a change in emotion on Xiao Yinshi's face. Her hair-pulling action was extremely insulting, but it was far less brutal than his locking her limbs.
The veins on Xiao Yinshi's forehead were bulging, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and there was a cold, sarcastic tone in his lowered dark eyes.
Meeting that gaze, Feng Tan's heart skipped a beat. Xiao Yinshi, taking advantage of the fact that one of the person beneath him was chained and the other hand was holding the back of his head, lifted him slightly off the bed and turned his head to bite her neck.
Her cool, woody breath brushed against his neck, sending shivers down Feng Tan's spine. He gritted his teeth, and she gripped his hair even tighter. In the bloody, ambiguous atmosphere, they engaged in a silent battle of wits, neither willing to give an inch.
A thin line of blood slid down her neck. Feng Tan felt the man's thin lips follow the path of the blood as he gently parted the clothes that were in her way and kissed the hollow between her collarbones.
The blood beads were licked into his stomach, but his lips did not leave. His teeth gently bit the thin skin in front of Feng Tan's collarbone, as if he would not stop until blood beads seeped out from that skin.
Feng Tan grabbed the man's dark hair and pulled him forcefully, forcing him to look up from in front of her. His pale lips were tinged with a slight blush, making him look like a vicious monster who practiced yin-yang cultivation. Yet, he was handsome like a god, creating a dissonance that inexplicably made people feel uneasy.
The dark undercurrents in Xiao Yinshi's eyes surged up at this moment. The bloodlust in his bloodline was awakened by Feng Tan, and every inch of his skin contained the power that wanted to be unleashed on her. His gaze was intense and burning. "Feng Tan, I really want to play you to death."
Having said that, he gave Feng Tan no more chance to resist. He grabbed her wrist, which was tightly gripping his hair, with such force that Feng Tan lost control and cried out in pain as she released his hair.
With a "click," Feng Tan's other wrist was also firmly locked. She was like a fish struggling on a chopping board, struggling desperately but unable to leave the dragon bed.
Xiao Yinshi pressed down on Feng Tan's bent legs, which were about to kick her. He picked up the third lock ring that was scattered on the bed and was about to fasten it to Feng Tan's ankle when he heard her speak in a desperate, tearful voice, "It wasn't me."
"Hmm?" Xiao Yinshi looked at Feng Tan, whose eyes were filled with tears. She turned away, feeling humiliated, and tears slid down her cheeks.
Xiao Yinshi had seen Feng Tan shed tears before—when Wan Niang died, when she was in unbearable pain from her injuries… But today’s tears were different. Perhaps it was because he had bullied her too much. Feeling wronged, ashamed, angry, and afraid… all sorts of complex emotions piled up together. When she saw that she was really going to be imprisoned on the bed like a plaything, she couldn’t help but reveal the cowardice that should belong to an eighteen-year-old girl.
She cried so beautifully that Xiao Yinshi's cold heart seemed to be lightly bumped. He reached out his palm to touch the falling teardrops, and this movement caused the chains in his hand to move slightly, making a crisp sound.
Perhaps thinking that Xiao Yinshi was determined to put chains on her ankles, Feng Tan turned her head back, her eyes still wet with tears, which seemed to be welling up even more. She spoke in a hoarse voice, "I didn't kill Ban Huayun."
Looking at Feng Tan's tearful eyes, Xiao Yinshi's gaze turned unreadable. The once-glorious young official, driven to the brink of despair by his own sins, stirred a complex mix of affection and a desire to torment Feng Tan within him, and the dark emotion welled up in his eyes slowly but surely reached its peak.
"Alright, stop crying," Xiao Yinshi said, suppressing the conflicting emotions in his eyes. He put on a good-natured tone and comforted Feng Tan, slowly lowering the iron ring that was about to lock her ankle. "But you are a suspect. Until the matter is investigated, you will stay here obediently for the next few days."
The forcefulness in his words left no room for argument. Xiao Yinshi would never tell Feng Tan that he acted this way because of the arrival of Emperor Chongming, because that would only make Feng Tan laugh at his despicable behavior even more. Ban Huayun's death gave him a good reason to imprison Feng Tan.
Xiao Yinshi straightened up and looked at Feng Tan, whose wrists were firmly locked on the bed. He moved his palm up her ankle and grasped her knee. He used a little internal force to make her clothes burst open. Seeing her bruised knees, he picked up some medicated oil and applied it while saying, "You've been so naughty, you have to be punished."
The cooling ointment soothed the burning pain in her knees. Feng Tan's wrists were bound above her head with iron rings. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the prison chains wrapped around the golden pillar, with the carved dragon on them glaring angrily at her.
Feng Tan clenched her fists and silently closed her eyes.
...That's so embarrassing.
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