"Come on. What's so intimidating? She's just a woman. Can't I handle her?"
As Zhao Shuning rubbed her hands, ready to brace for a big showdown, Madam Haitang walked over.
However, she didn't even spare Zhao Shuning a glance. Instead, she simply walked past her.
"This isn't right. Things shouldn't be playing out like this. The look in her eyes on the stage earlier clearly showed she wanted to devour me!"
"Something's definitely off."
"Could it be that Mo Bai slipped her some knockout drops just now?"
Zhao Shuning thought for a long while but couldn't figure it out.
At this moment, Madam Haitang was already drenched in cold sweat.
That young lad just now was truly eerie. When she'd seen him before, he couldn't speak and had a vacant look in his eyes, looking no different from a fool.
But just now, not only could he talk, but he'd also threatened her.
The young lad clearly knew that she was the mistress of the Lin family and the first lady of the Lin clan, yet he'd still casually uttered those threatening words.
Madam Haitang had initially tried not to take it to heart, until she'd caught sight of the tiger on the young lad's forehead.
Only then did she understand why the young lad was so arrogant.
A person of his caliber could only be on equal footing with her husband in conversation. Madam Haitang had once met someone similar a long time ago, just before the fall of Empress Ye Ling.
She'd watched as the members of the four great families had all bowed and scraped in front of that person.
At that time, Madam Haitang had known that such people were out of their league.
Who would've thought that she'd run into another one just now.
"Madam Haitang."
"What is it?"
"Don't you have anything to say to me?"
"No."
After saying that, Madam Haitang didn't dare to linger any longer and quickly left the venue.
The onlookers at the venue also gradually dispersed as the main figures disappeared. However, this year's Qianyuan Tournament was bound to become the talk of the town in the Jiangchang area.
Zhao Shuning looked up, about to look for Mo Bai, but found that he'd already vanished from sight.
Her hand unconsciously went to the medallion hanging around her neck, and her heart was filled with mixed emotions.
She didn't know what to say, but for the time being, it seemed like she wouldn't be able to take this medallion off.
Putting the medallion down, Zhao Shuning slowly left the Lin family compound. To be honest, for the first time in a while, she felt a bit lost without Mo Bai by her side.
"Now, where can I go?"
"Should I go see Master?"
"But will he find me annoying? After all, Master is so busy."
"If I don't go see him, should I go back to Yanqing City and check on the Zhao family?"
As Zhao Shuning walked, she suddenly felt deflated.
She found a place and lay down to sleep.
In her dream, she saw the phoenix lying on a plain. Beside it was Master's white ze.
Yan Ruyu waved at Zhao Shuning, and she scurried over like a puppy.
Master was as handsome as ever. Just sitting there, he took Zhao Shuning's breath away, and she didn't know how to express her feelings.
She wanted to monopolize Master.
This thought was both dangerous and urgent.
But just as Zhao Shuning rushed over,
the phoenix let out a shrill cry, the white ze disappeared without a trace, and Master suddenly split into thousands of people. The scene under her feet also changed dramatically. This wasn't a plain anymore, but outside the palace of Empress Ye Ling in the Eastern Wilderness.
It was still on that high platform.
Zhao Shuning's lotus-colored dress was spattered with blood.
She watched as her former self, Ye Ling, fell in a pool of blood on the platform. She watched as blood gushed out of her mouth continuously. Zhao Shuning wanted to go over, but found that there was a natural barrier in front of her that she couldn't cross.
That pain hit Zhao Shuning's heart once again.
Zhao Shuning felt utterly miserable and then hugged her head and knelt down.
After that, it started to snow heavily.
Then, Master appeared. He gently picked up Ye Ling from the platform and held her in his arms, his face filled with pain.
Zhao Shuning saw clearly that Master's expression was indeed one of pain, and two lines of tears even trickled down his eternally frosty face.
How could Master cry?
Looking at his tears, Zhao Shuning felt her heart ache.
No one could hurt Master, not even herself.
Zhao Shuning slapped the light barrier and called out to Yan Ruyu, but Yan Ruyu didn't respond at all. She watched as Master slowly walked down the platform and picked up the broken flute.
Zhao Shuning remembered that when she'd died, the flute in her hand had fallen to the ground and shattered into pieces.
She saw Master examining the words inside.
Zhao Shuning tried hard to get closer to see what the words were, but her consciousness became clearer and clearer, and then she was abruptly pulled back to reality.
After waking up with a start, Zhao Shuning found that she was being supported by a red lotus.
Presumably, those memories just now must have been the memories of the Karma Fire Red Lotus. But were its memories reliable? And was what she'd seen in the dream real?
Had Master really cried for her?
Zhao Shuning shook her head and immediately banished this thought from her mind.
"Zhao Shuning, are you crazy?"
"You're really like a toad lusting after a swan's flesh. You don't even take a good look at yourself. How dare you have such beautiful dreams about Master?"
"Wake up, Zhao Shuning. You're really having a daydream in broad daylight."
A person as divine as Master would never shed tears, let alone fall in love.
Zhao Shuning rested her chin on her hand.
This time, there was no way she could fall back asleep.
But just then, a figure suddenly appeared among the red lotuses. The person's expression was filled with a hint of anxiety. Zhao Shuning took a look and then rubbed her eyes vigorously.
"Zhao Shuning, you're really sleep - addled. I've already told you to wake up. Why are you still in a dream?"
The person who appeared in front of Zhao Shuning was Yan Ruyu.
During the clan meeting, Yan Ruyu had suddenly sensed the strange movement of the Karma Fire Red Lotus and had quickly teleported himself here, thinking that something had happened to little Ning'er.
But when he'd appeared, all he'd seen was Zhao Shuning talking to herself.
"Forget it. If this is just a dream, it shouldn't be too much to take a little advantage, right?"
As soon as this thought popped into Zhao Shuning's head, she acted on it.
So, under Yan Ruyu's incredulous gaze,
Zhao Shuning clung to him like an octopus.
Then, as she climbed higher, Yan Ruyu simply scooped her up in his arms.
Zhao Shuning quickly wrapped her arms around Yan Ruyu and then pouted her lips, about to kiss him.