Shen Siyi tried to pull her hand back, but Marquis Tongping held it fast, his thumb gently scraping the back of her hand.

‘This is unbearable.’

“You want to know?” she asked, her eyes crinkling into a smile.

Seeing such a great beauty smiling so dazzlingly at him, Marquis Tongping was instantly captivated.

“Yes, why don’t you tell me,” Marquis Tongping said with a suggestive smile, opening his arms as if to embrace Shen Siyi, dying to steal a kiss.

But to his surprise, Shen Siyi tipped her wine cup over and splashed its entire contents onto Marquis Tongping.

The Marquis flew into a rage. “How dare you—!”

The surrounding crowd, which had been drinking and making merry, immediately fell silent and turned to look at them.

Several of the young ladies present couldn’t help but let out sneers of schadenfreude.

‘Everyone knows Marquis Tongping is the most vindictive man around. If you cross him, you can forget about surviving in the Capital City. This adopted daughter of the Qi Mansion really doesn’t know her place!’

The man who had met Shen Siyi before also watched her, his expression unreadable.

Everyone waited to see her fate, but Shen Siyi was completely unruffled. In front of everyone, she lifted Marquis Tongping’s chin with her fingertips, her voice tinged with a light laugh.

“Marquis, why are you so angry? Weren’t your clothes already wet with wine? You just said you wanted me to help you to a private room to change.”

Seeing the deeply suggestive and ambiguous look on her face, Marquis Tongping instantly understood!

‘Oh, she splashed me on purpose! She’s bold enough to want to go to a room with me and tumble in the sheets!’

‘This adopted daughter is indeed far more wanton than your average young lady from a noble family.’

Marquis Tongping’s expression changed in a flash. Just a moment ago, his eyes had been spitting furious flames, but now he wore a knowing, wicked grin. “I understand now. Ah, my memory isn’t what it used to be. I didn’t frighten you just now, did I, Miss Shen?”

“Of course not, Marquis. Shall we go now? Let them have their fun here.” Shen Siyi took the initiative to help Marquis Tongping to his feet.

As the two of them reached the door of the cabin, the officials Marquis Tongping had brought with him jeered with wicked smiles.

“I’m afraid once the Marquis goes, he won’t be coming back! We won’t wait for you after dark, we’ll just head back on our own.”

Marquis Tongping looked back and cursed them playfully, “Drink your fill before you leave! As for anything else, I couldn’t care less!”

He was in a hurry to enjoy the beauty’s favors.

Their figures disappeared through the doorway. Mr. Xie retracted his frigid gaze and lowered his head to take a sip of wine.

The crowd’s lively chatter resumed, perhaps even more unrestrained now that Marquis Tongping was gone.

The men started getting handsy, and the young ladies from less prominent families didn’t dare protest, instead doing their best to please them with placating smiles.

The round-faced girl next to Mr. Xie picked up her wine cup and tried every trick in the book to please the block of ice beside her.

“Mr. Xie, I know a drinking game called ‘crossing cups.’ Would you like to play?” she asked, batting her eyes.

However, this Mr. Xie didn’t even glance at her, offering only a cold warning: “I don’t like living people within half a meter of me.”

The round-faced girl’s face turned pale. Recalling his ruthless reputation at court, she quickly gave up. She scurried away with her wine cup to a nearby table to join another young lady in fawning over an official from the Ministry of Revenue.

That official, with a woman on each arm, was grinning from ear to ear. He called out, “Mr. Xie, you came all this way, you should enjoy yourself! You don’t even have concubines at home, why be so prim and proper?”

Mr. Xie replied flatly, “Not my taste.”

With that, he set down his wine cup. “I can’t hold my liquor. I’m going to step out for some air. Please, carry on.”

Several officials laughed in unison. “Drunk already? Fine, fine, go clear your head.”

As Mr. Xie reached the doorway, he overheard them discussing Shen Siyi.

“That Miss Shen thinks she can capture Marquis Tongping’s heart by offering her body, but she has no idea the Marquis has no intention of remarrying. It’s all just for sport!”

“She’s so stupid, throwing away her reputation like that. What a vixen. But her little scheme is going to fail.”

Mr. Xie walked to the bow of the boat, his face impassive. He leaned on the railing, gazing at the beautiful autumn scenery approaching.

Two figures approached from behind. They were his Hidden Guards.

“Sir, our men are ready. They can board at any time, awaiting your command.”

The tall, grim man lowered his eyes. “Wait a little longer.”

‘Give Shen Siyi some time. If she’s so determined to find someone to ruin her innocence, I’ll let her have her way this once.’

‘It’s just—’

He let out a low, cold sneer. “Her taste is truly awful.”

He was talking about Shen Siyi, but his words made the two Hidden Guards exchange a confused glance.

「…」

In a cabin some distance from the banquet, Shen Siyi had already taken down Marquis Tongping.

She grabbed one of the Marquis’s legs and tried to drag him behind a screen, but to her surprise, she wasn’t strong enough.

“You’re a fat, disgusting pig, full of wicked schemes, always dreaming of ruining young women. Just beating you until you’re half-paralyzed would be letting you off too easy. I should castrate you.”

Shen Siyi stepped on his stomach, mulling it over as she selected a sharp dagger from her inventory space.

‘Castrate him, just like that!’

‘I’ll just say an assassin did it.’

Shen Siyi rolled up her sleeves. Just as she was about to act, the door was suddenly kicked open from the outside.

Startled, she looked up. Amidst flying splinters of wood, two men who looked like swift and efficient Hidden Guards burst into the room.

And behind them, a man walked in at a leisurely pace.

“You again?” Shen Siyi frowned. “Weren’t you out front drinking? Why are you here ruining my fun?”

Mr. Xie’s face was cold as he looked at the sharp weapon in her hand and at Marquis Tongping, who was lying on the floor as if dead.

“Assassinating a man with the rank of Marquis is a crime punished by the execution of nine generations of your family. Did you not know that?”

As he spoke, the two Hidden Guards had already checked Marquis Tongping’s pulse. They reported to him, “Sir, he’s still breathing. Just unconscious.”

A look of disdain crossed Shen Siyi’s beautiful face. “Who said I was going to kill him? I’d rather not dirty my hands. I was just going to castrate him so that no more poor girls will be victimized by him.”

Xie Suzhi’s brow furrowed slightly.

He had thought Shen Siyi was truly going to sleep with Marquis Tongping, using the Marquis to ruin her own innocence and thus prevent the Qi Mansion from pushing her onto any other powerful noble.

But now, it seemed he had underestimated her. This woman acted without any plan, entirely on a whim.

He took two steps forward and, before Shen Siyi could react, snatched the blade from her hand.

Shen Siyi snapped back to her senses and said urgently, “What are you doing? Are you protecting a man like him?”

She suddenly remembered: everyone Marquis Tongping brought onto this boat today must be just as bad as he is—birds of a feather.

“Are you all corrupt officials?”

A cold smirk played on the lips of the man before her.

“He is. I’m not entirely.” With that, he flicked his sleeve, and a sharp glint of light flew from his hand.

The dagger plunged into Marquis Tongping’s chest.

Shen Siyi’s eyes went wide as she stared at the man.

“Hey! You in black! You… you actually killed him?”

“I came here to kill him.” The man’s gaze was as cold as moonlight, but it was fixed only on her. “Also, my name is Xie Suzhi, not ‘You in black.'”

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