The mad princess forces love upon him, and the aloof imperial advisor trembles every night.

"I'm going to kill the Empress's last son—the Sixth Prince, Chu Xuanlang." Her voice was so soft it was as if she were saying the moonlight was beautiful tonight.

"I want to make her...lose everything."

After saying that, he turned to leave.

But someone grabbed her sleeve from behind.

The force was not great, but it was firm.

Chu Qingyue turned around and met Si Chen's deep, cold eyes.

The candlelight danced in his eyes, yet it couldn't penetrate the depths of the pool—where there was only eternal ice and snow, and a complex emotion she couldn't decipher.

"Qingyue," he called her, his voice calm and even.

Chu Qingyue raised an eyebrow: "Are you going to stop me?"

"In this heaven and on earth, only I can hurt you." Each word she uttered was laced with obsessive fervor.

"The others must die. Be good... wait for me to come back."

She tried to brush his hand away, but he gripped it even tighter.

Those hands that used to play the zither and perform divination, though now devoid of spiritual power, are still long, strong, and with distinct knuckles.

"Husband and wife bow to each other—!!!"

Si Chen suddenly raised his voice, drowning out all the noise.

Chu Qingyue was stunned.

Si Chen had already loosened her sleeve, picked up the other end of the red silk, and returned to his position.

The night breeze lifted his long, silvery-white hair and bright red robes, while moonlight bathed him, making him appear like a celestial being descended to earth, aloof and untouched by worldly dust.

His voice was calm yet powerful, piercing through the blood-soaked air: "If you don't go, I will accompany you to complete the final ceremony."

Chu Qingyue narrowed her eyes, a dangerous glint in them: "You're protecting them? Even if they want to kill me."

"If they are to die, they should die under the law, not through vigilante justice." Si Chen stared at her, his gaze as deep as an ancient well.

"Besides, the Sixth Prince is innocent. Chu Qingyue, you must not kill your brother again."

"So you're making a deal with me?" She laughed, a laugh that was both breathtakingly beautiful and utterly insane. "You'll marry me in exchange for their safety tonight?"

She approached step by step, her blood-stained red shoes making a faint sound as they stepped into the pool of blood: "What if I... don't agree?"

Si Chen remained silent for a moment, his long eyelashes drooping slightly, casting a shadow under his eyes.

After a long silence, he said softly, "You will."

The voice was so soft, as soft as a sigh, yet it struck Chu Qingyue's heart with a heavy blow.

A storm raged in her eyes, a fierce clash between murderous intent and a deeper emotion. Cangming urgently urged, "Your Highness, this is an opportunity not to be missed! With the Prime Minister's family wiped out and the Sixth Prince dead, the Empress will surely fall—"

"Shut up." Chu Qingyue raised her hand to stop her.

Her gaze was fixed on Si Chen's face, as if trying to pierce through his indifferent mask and see into the depths of his soul.

For a long, long time.

She suddenly smiled.

The madness had faded from that smile, leaving only a kind of desolate tenderness.

"Okay," she said, her voice barely audible. "I promise you."

"Chixiao," she called out, "go report to the authorities. I was attacked today, and not a single person from the Prime Minister's residence can die."

After saying that, she quietly conveyed another instruction to Cangming using extremely fast sign language—a code that only they understood.

Cangming's eyes narrowed beneath the mask, then he nodded slightly.

Chu Qingyue turned around and picked up the other end of the red silk.

Chi Xiao took a deep breath and shouted, "Husband and wife bow to each other—"

The two bowed slowly.

Red robes overlapped, and black and silver hair intertwined and tangled in the candlelight, as if the entanglement was written by fate long ago.

At this moment, the wedding hall was as silent as a grave, with only the night wind passing through, stirring the blood and candle wax that filled the room, and fluttering the thin yet resilient red silk between them.

"The ceremony is complete—offering them to the bridal chamber!"

Chu Qingyue grabbed a handful of golden beans and scattered them into the air. The golden light fell like rain, landing on the pool of blood, on the corpses, and between her and him.

She swept Si Chen up in her arms—with an absolutely forceful posture—and carried him through the corridor into the secret room behind the master bedroom.

The door to the secret room slammed shut behind them.

Si Chen spotted the golden cage at a glance—it was as big as a canopy bed, with warm jade as the base of the cage pillars, engraved with intricate nebula patterns. Each pattern was inlaid with tiny pearls and various gemstones, shimmering with a dreamlike luster under the soft light of the luminous pearl.

The floor was covered with the finest ice silk brocade quilt, embroidered with mandarin ducks with their necks intertwined.

The entire room was illuminated by a hundred luminous pearl lanterns, the soft light creating an atmosphere of extreme luxury, yet also conveying a strong sense of confinement.

All of this tells the same story: she had been planning this imprisonment for far too long.

Chu Qingyue placed him in the cage with a surprisingly careful movement. She turned to fetch the nuptial wine, the golden wine pot gleaming warmly under the lamplight.

The wine wasn't filled to the brim.

Although Si Chen had no spiritual power, his inner strength remained. He suddenly exerted his strength, shaking off the seemingly gorgeous but actually fragile gold ornament on his wrist. His figure was like a crane as he rushed towards the door!

He hadn't even taken three steps yet.

A cold gold chain had coiled around his neck like a venomous snake.

Chu Qingyue pulled hard—not with brute force, but with skill.

Si Chen fell onto the brocade quilt inside the cage. The silk quilt was soft, but it made his heart sink.

She rolled over and straddled his waist, leaning close, their breaths mingling, her red lips almost touching his.

"What?" She chuckled, her fingertips tracing the gold chain, the cool touch sliding down his neck. "So, Ah Chen likes this?"

She leaned closer, her warm breath brushing against his ear: "You only behave when you're tied around my neck? Fine... from now on, you'll be tied here."

The gold chain tightened slightly, not too tightly, but enough to make him feel restrained.

"Who told me..." Her voice suddenly softened, carrying a morbidly indulgent tone, "that I love you the most?"

She held one cup of nuptial wine in one hand, shoved the other into his hand, forcefully controlling his wrist and intertwining their arms.

The wine swayed, reflecting the overlapping images of the two people.

"Drink," she said, not as a request, but as an order.

Si Chen looked up at her, his eyes still icy: "Chu Qingyue, you knew—"

"I know nothing."

She interrupted him, her eyes glistening with tears, whether from intoxication or from lack of clarity.

"All I know is that after we bowed to heaven and earth and drank the nuptial wine, we became husband and wife, sharing the same bed in life and the same grave in death, our bones and blood intertwined, our souls entwined—this is what you owe me."

She tilted her head back and drank the wine in her glass in one gulp.

Then she bent down and fed him half with her lips.

The liquor burned her throat, carrying her warmth and a certain resolute madness.

Si Chen was forced to swallow the wine, which burned like fire all the way into his heart.

"Chu Qingyue." His voice was hoarse.

"Call me Madam," she corrected, her fingertips tracing his brows and eyes, outlining those familiar features. "Or...Wife."

Si Chen closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, all that remained in his eyes was a desolate, indifferent wasteland:

"It's just a ceremony. I have been detached from emotions for four hundred years, and in this life... it is impossible for me to have any emotions or desires."

"Supreme detachment from emotions?" Chu Qingyue lowered her head, her nose touching his, their breaths mingling and their emotions intertwining.

"I will make you remember this—the word 'love,' when etched into the very marrow, is more unforgettable than any divine law."