What are you doing, Mr. President? I'm just an extra!

The air froze for three seconds.

Lu Li's gaze darted back and forth between Su Feiyan's face and their tightly clasped hands, while the radar in his mind frantically sounded the highest level alarm.

【Oh no! The water in Jianghai's moat is going to be freezing cold tonight!】

Even if I told her I was performing CPR, she would never believe me! Who needs to interlock their fingers to save a life?! It wasn't me who interlocked them; she was gripping me so tightly! My hand feels like it's welded into a steel bar, I can't pull it out at all!

Su Feiyan heard this heart-wrenching cry.

She didn't roar, smash things, or scream uncontrollably.

She stood at the doorway, the magma in her phoenix eyes rapidly cooling and solidifying into a suffocating layer of thin ice.

Wearing seven-centimeter high heels, she walked step by step to the wooden bed, looking down at the sleeping Ji Hanyue.

It was a calm more terrifying than an outburst.

Su Feiyan reached out her hand.

The hand that had signed contracts worth billions and wore a Van Cleef & Arpels watch rested very lightly and slowly on the back of Ji Hanyue's hand.

Then, one by one, like defusing a time bomb, they forcefully pried open Ji Hanyue's fingers that were gripping Lu Li.

Temperature loss.

Ji Hanyue frowned slightly in her sleep. Her instinct as the sect leader of the Supreme Forgetfulness Palace made her subconsciously tighten her fingers again.

Su Feiyan sneered and suddenly increased the force of her blows.

Ji Hanyue woke up.

Those pale purple eyes snapped open, meeting Su Feiyan's phoenix eyes, which were inches away.

Two completely different chills—one the physical low temperature of extreme cold true qi, and the other the decisive aura of a superior—collided violently in the air less than half a meter apart.

As soon as the restraints were loosened, Lu Li rolled and scrambled to the other side of the wooden bed, as if he were on a spring.

He pressed himself against the corner of the wall, wishing he could embed himself into the gap in the wooden floor right then and there.

"Master..." Bai Xiaolu was about to peek out from the doorway.

Lu Li frantically gave him meaningful glances.

Although Bai Xiaolu's mind is only focused on eating, her instinct for danger is comparable to that of a wild beast.

She decisively picked up the still trembling Persian cat, Snowball, and tiptoed outside, closing the solid wood door tightly behind her.

Outside.

Shen Weilan was pressed against the wall without any regard for her image, her ear pressed tightly against the door.

Bai Xiaolu leaned closer and whispered, "Did they start fighting? Won't my meal ticket get beaten to death? If it does, who's going to make me chicken legs?!"

"Shh!"

Shen Weilan raised her index finger, her eyes gleaming with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Holding her phone up to the crack in the door, she muttered softly, "Don't make a sound, the Empress is interrogating the Fairy. My cousin is really going to get serious this time..."

She quickly typed in her phone's notes app: [Ji Hanyue actually dared to admit it to my face, she's going to go head-to-head with my cousin... My brother-in-law is doomed this time, I need to quickly find a way to take advantage of the chaos...]

inside the house.

Su Feiyan didn't even spare a glance for Lu Li, who was huddled in the corner of the wall.

She stared intently at Ji Hanyue: "Sect Leader Ji, I have a question."

Ji Hanyue sat up straight.

She showed no embarrassment despite her half-wet clothes; she simply raised her hand to gather the silver hair that had fallen over her shoulders behind her head, straightened her back, and resumed the aloof demeanor befitting a sect leader.

"Go ahead and ask."

Su Feiyan looked down at her.

"That day in the neighboring city, you forcibly released the extreme cold suppression in order to save him."

Su Feiyan's voice was flat, "This is a life-saving grace. My Su family acknowledges this kindness, and I, Su Feiyan, also acknowledge it."

She paused for half a second, her gaze falling on Ji Hanyue's fingers that had just been pried open, and her voice suddenly dropped a half tone.

"But today, you're lying in his arms, gripping his hand tightly—Sect Leader Ji, are you trying to save a life, or are you...?"

Su Feiyan didn't finish her sentence.

But the meaning in those phoenix eyes was crystal clear.

A deathly silence fell over the air for five seconds.

Lu Li pressed himself against the wall, his mind racing with thoughts that were practically exploding in his head.

[Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! Please, ladies, don't lay a hand on me!]

[If you two really start fighting, this building will either be frozen into an ice sculpture or burned to ashes today! One has extremely cold internal energy, the other has a fiery temper, am I stuck in the middle to be the broth for your hot pot?!]

Su Feiyan's brow twitched.

Ji Hanyue's long eyelashes trembled slightly.

Both women heard his witty and sarcastic remark at the same time, but neither of them turned to look at him.

Five seconds later.

Ji Hanyue slowly stood up.

The hem of her moon-white long dress brushed against the edge of the wooden couch.

Even without shoes, and even though she was half an inch shorter than Su Feiyan who was wearing high heels, her aura was not diminished in the slightest.

Those pale purple eyes were as calm as an ancient well, staring directly at Su Feiyan.

"I have cultivated the Supreme Cultivation of Emotionlessness for thirty years and have never had any thoughts about anyone."

She paused for half a second, her voice still cold, but each word seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth:

"But today, my heart is torn by this person."

"Su Feiyan, I do not understand your mortal rules."

Ji Hanyue's tone was uninterrupted and unadorned, "But Ji Hanyue never runs away from things, nor does she pretend that nothing happened."

Su Feiyan's hands, hanging by her sides, clenched tightly.

Long, sharp nails dug deep into the palm, instantly leaving four crescent-shaped bloodstains on the fair skin.

He was so angry that he laughed instead.

Su Feiyan curled her lips into a smile, her voice as cold as a blade dipped in ice water: "Very good. You've made things clear, which puts me at ease more than you two secretly plotting against each other."

She turned her head sharply, her phoenix eyes piercing Lu Li, who was cowering in the corner.

"And you?"

Su Feiyan took a step forward, her high heels clicking crisply on the wooden floor. "I listened to your innermost thoughts the whole time. 'Saving someone doesn't require interlocking fingers,' 'It was Ji Hanyue who interlocked her fingers, not me'—Assistant Lu, you've managed to absolve yourself of all responsibility."

Lu Li felt a chill run down his spine, and the radar in his head screamed wildly.

[A dead end! This is an absolute dead end!]

I know that whatever I say now will be wrong! Admitting it means death, not admitting it also means death! Remaining silent also means death! The only thing I can do now is—

boom!

Lu Li's knees buckled, and he slid off the corner of the wall.

With a perfectly executed sliding tackle, he stopped precisely in front of Su Feiyan, tightly embracing her slender waist with both hands, and burying his face deep into her abdomen.

"Feiyan, you are my life."

Lu Li's voice came out in a muffled tone, with an undeniable determination, "Everything else is an accident of fate, but you are the one I chose myself."

Su Feiyan's body stiffened.

She looked down at the man kneeling in front of her, clinging to her like an octopus.

The magma, powerful enough to destroy the world, churned several times before finally being sealed back by a thin layer of ice.

She took a deep breath and reached out her hand.

He grabbed Lu Li's ear.

"……stand up."