Chapter 60 Dragging Someone Down with Me

Therefore, Lin Zhaozhao didn't say a second word, directly turned around and took two steps backward, then pricked up her ears.

Anxiously, she held her breath and concentrated.

She only heard the other person intermittently say, "The letter is in..."

No, wait, we were talking so nicely about silver, why on earth are you bringing up this letter again? If the silver is there, out with it!

What's wrong? Are you socially anxious? Can't you speak up?!

Lin Zhaozhao grew anxious as well; she lifted her skirt and, without a second word, leaned forward another two steps.

"The other side still has ten men... never seen before..."

With a cool breath, Lin Zhaozhao raised her hand and parted the lush green foliage right before her eyes.

In an instant, a man dressed in dark robes, with broad shoulders and long legs, came into view.

Night swept across the bustling street, outside the windows voices buzzed, and inside the room was luxurious and opulent.

That dark figure was thus abruptly reflected in the clamorous, mortal world of fireworks.

With just a single glance, Lin Zhaozhao could feel the oppressive, violent hostility radiating from him.

He was like a male lion dozing with closed eyes on the prairie, ready at any moment to bare its claws and fangs and deal a fatal blow to its opponent.

"Your Highness, I beg you, spare this servant's life! It was this servant's fault, I beg you! Whatever Your Highness wishes to ask, this servant will surely report it truthfully!"

The weeping and wailing voice sounded once more. Lin Zhaozhao's gaze swept past the man in black sitting in the primary seat, then to Zhou Heyu smiling beside him, and finally landed on the blood-soaked man in the center of the room.

He seemed to have suffered severe torture, with practically no patch of skin left intact on his entire body.

His whole gaze appeared extremely vacant, his pupils violently contracting as if he had suffered immense terror.

Seeing this scene, Lin Zhaozhao knew instantly that curiosity killed the cat!

Feeling she was getting a bit too close to the front lines of gossip, she hunched her body and turned to leave.

At that moment, Jun Wuhen, seated in the main seat, rubbed the bridge of his nose. With the room's lingering incense curling about, he only felt a surge of tyranny rushing straight to his heart. As his fingertips tapped the chair in a bored rhythm, his low, magnetic, and raspy voice slowly spilled forth,

"My rule: once disloyal, never used again."

The moment Jun Wuhen spoke, Lin Zhaozhao inexplicably felt a chill at the back of her neck.

What did she just say!

The colorful world is blindingly alluring, and to be a person, one mustn't be too stubborn just for the sake of a few liang of silver!

Don't you have any sense of what secrets are meant to be heard and what aren't?

Fortunately, however, she wasn't the heroine in the original book who was always caught by the male lead eavesdropping and then dragged off for intimate punishments!

She—Lin Zhaozhao!

As long as she carefully backed out, she could save her pathetic little life. Thinking this, her little legs scrambled quite fast, but who would have known that the next moment she would hear a loud slap!

Lin Zhaozhao: "!"

What the hell?!

Damn it!

"I forgot I'm just an early-dying cannon-fodder female supporting character!"

"Who is there?!" A vigilant demand came from inside the room.

Lin Zhaozhao: "..."

It was her, the little piece of bad luck!

Lin Zhaozhao sighed, figuring that things had come to this and more talk was useless; even if she ran outside now, she likely couldn't outrun them.

Especially since she only possessed parlor tricks in martial arts, while the other side probably leaped across roofs and vaulted over walls.

So she simply raised both hands in a gesture of surrender and walked out honestly.

As for Jun Wuhen over here, he was already having a headache. Halfway through the interrogation, he saw Lin Zhaozhao walking over with her little head drooping, wearing a flattering little expression.

Usually, the young lady's little cloth pouch was stuffed full of things, but right now it was completely deflated.

Taking a breath just then, hoping to calm her mind, she found instead that the air entering her nostrils was filled entirely with the scent of blood. Now that she was closer, she could clearly see that the flesh on the man collapsed on the ground seemed to have been scraped off with razor blades—it was evident he had suffered a cruel fate!

Jun Wuhen was rubbing the bridge of his nose; his initial impatient expression, upon seeing Lin Zhaozhao, surprisingly revealed a hint of amusement and anticipation.

The atmosphere inside the room was taut.

Lin Zhaozhao's brain worked at lightning speed. First, she waved a greeting, and then, under the man's expressionless gaze, she awkwardly said,

"Well, uh, good evening, Third Highness! Are you also out for a meal? This maiden is also out for a meal, what a coincidence! How about... I treat you to this meal... oh no, I'll treat you to a meal?"

She certainly knew how to make herself at home quickly.

"Mostly because at the hunting grounds last time, this maiden hasn't yet had the chance to repay Your Highness for speaking up on my behalf!"

"Help you?"

Jun Wuhen raised his eyes, coldly lifting his eyelids to appraise the young lady standing before him.

The young lady had gone out in a rush today, and coupled with the fact that this was the black market, her attire and styling were entirely masculine. Even so, she looked extremely petite, not even reaching his shoulder height, though her eyes were remarkably large.

Right now, as she raised her eyes to look at him with a clear, sparkling smile, she appeared both pretty and well-behaved:

"Yes, Your Highness is notoriously handsome and kind-hearted, famous for having a wonderful temper and absolutely never bullying the weak. If it weren't for Your Highness helping me..."

"I am notoriously good-tempered?"

Jun Wuhen raised an eyebrow, struggling to restrain the inherent violence in his bones.

He had originally thought this person was somewhat unique, but what was the result? Flattery and bootlicking, no different from those who had died beneath his hands. What she was saying now was merely to mask the fear of his tyrannical and bloodthirsty nature buried deep in her heart.

Even Zhou Heyu on the side couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

Oh, my dear young miss!

If you're going to compliment someone, just compliment them!

Why on earth are you spouting blind praise like this!

Do you have any idea that the last person who stumbled upon things they shouldn't know and then praised their Highness like this was long ago dragged away to serve as fertilizer for the flowers?

Yet Lin Zhaozhao knew nothing of these twists and turns. Driven by a desperate urge to survive, she blurted out,

"Well, isn't that a given? Does anyone in the world fail to say that Your Highness is jade-tree-like and handsome, dashing and debonair, a grand prince rich in talent, strikingly graceful and youthful to the gr—cough, cough!"

In short, here came the main point:

"This maiden was just passing by by chance, and truly didn't hear a single thing. It's just that your voices were a bit loud, and this maiden caught a word or two... something about silver, and also..."

"And that the one who hired assassins to murder His Highness is actually a strategist under the Ninth Prince!"

The man who was previously half-dead suddenly vomited a large mouthful of fresh blood and shouted at the top of his lungs, attempting to redeem himself through meritorious service.

Lin Zhaozhao: "..."

My good brother, you truly have zero regard for whether I live or die!

Even at death's door, you still have to drag me along with you!

"So now, Fifth Miss has heard it loud and clear?"

The young man's low, hoarse voice betrayed neither joy nor anger.

He knew better than anyone that everything Lin Zhaozhao had said was sheer nonsense; she had clearly been drawn over by the man's miserable screams.

After all, a ten-year-old girl was just at the age of innocence, romance, and a compassionate Bodhisattva heart.

And as for him, he had indeed had someone carve up the other man alive with blades; to say nothing of such a delicate young lady, even ordinary men would turn pale at the sound of it.

Jun Wuhen had always thought he was long used to the gazes of others, and that no one's evaluation of him could ever cause the slightest ripple in his heart. Yet sitting right here at this moment,

looking at the young lady before him, and imagining that in her heart she might think him cruel and merciless, an inexplicable wave of irritation surged within him, urging him to simply drag her off and behead her to rid himself of these tumultuous thoughts.