After being reborn, the aloof prime minister was once again forced by a tyrant.

Xie Qinglan's face flushed instantly, and even her neck turned crimson.

He jerked his hand back, gritting his teeth and cursing, "Xiao Jingyuan! You bastard—"

Before he could finish cursing, Xiao Jingyuan suddenly grabbed him by the waist and pulled him toward the zither table.

"What are you doing!" Xie Qinglan's lower back slammed against the edge of the zither table with a dull thud, and she quickly braced herself against the edge with both hands.

Xiao Jingyuan bent down, placing his hands on either side of the zither table, firmly locking the person between him and the table.

"Qinglan, the reward I want, I'll ask for myself." Xiao Jingyuan's voice was low and husky, with hot breaths, his lips close to Qinglan's earlobe, "I want it now."

"No—uh!"

Before she could finish her refusal, Xiao Jingyuan silenced her with a kiss.

Xie Qinglan turned her head to try to dodge, but he held the back of her neck and she couldn't move. With nowhere to escape, her breathing had already become disordered.

His other hand wasn't idle either...

As their lips parted, Xie Qinglan finally collapsed, leaning against the zither, her breath ragged.

"Xiao Jingyuan! How dare you!" He was both angry and anxious, his voice trembling. "This is the zither table—"

Xiao Jingyuan ignored him and raised his hand to press on his waist.

Xie Qinglan struggled to break free, causing the guqin beneath her to emit a clear, abrupt, and bright "zheng" sound, which was particularly jarring in the quiet hall.

He suddenly stopped.

This guqin was an old possession he had carried with him since his youth, something he cherished and would never dare to touch again. And now, he was going to use it…

Xie Qinglan bit her lip, her voice squeezed out between her teeth, tinged with shame and indignation, almost like a sob: "You...you get up...go to the bed..."

But Xiao Jingyuan seemed to have been aroused by the sound of the zither. Instead of getting up, he pressed himself closer to Xiao Jingyuan.

Xie Qinglan bit her lip tightly, so much so that she couldn't even hold her breath. She turned her head away and cursed under her breath, repeating the same few words over and over: "bastard" and "brute".

Xiao Jingyuan felt a surge of warmth in his heart upon hearing this, and he lowered his head to unbutton the buttons on Xiao Jingyuan's clothes.

He clumsily tugged at it a couple of times without success, then simply bit the edge of the moon-white collar with his teeth and pulled it to the side. Several buttons popped off and rolled onto the table with a soft clatter.

Her clothes were wide open, revealing a section of pale collarbone and a large expanse of delicate skin on her chest.

The pale red mole below her collarbone was particularly noticeable in the sunlight, like cinnabar dripping onto snow.

Xiao Jingyuan leaned closer, his lips landing on the red mole.

Xie Qinglan sobbed, gripping the edge of the zither table tightly, her shoulders and back involuntarily tensing and curling up.

"...Xiao Jingyuan...no..."

Xiao Jingyuan finally stood up and looked at his face.

He looked at Xie Qinglan's reddened eyes and bitten lower lip, and at the blush and passion gradually rising on that cold face. He chuckled softly, leaned close to his ear, and said with a hot breath, "Qinglan, your body is much more honest than your mouth."

"**It's over."

Xie Qinglan's mind went blank for a moment, and he instantly lost his composure. He abruptly raised his hand to cover Xiao Jingyuan's mouth, his voice urgent, embarrassed, and trembling with anger: "I beg you to shut up—"

Before the words were even finished, Xiao Jingyuan suddenly interrupted them.

He bit back his own words as soon as he uttered the exclamation, but the last syllable still drifted uncontrollably into the air, soft and fragmented.

Xie Qinglan's back was pressed tightly against the cool surface of the zither, the strings tinkling and producing a jumbled melody.

At first, it was intermittent, like someone randomly plucking the strings of a musical instrument.

The piano music grew increasingly urgent, intertwining with other sounds at varying heights, seemingly forming a unique musical movement.

Xiao Jingyuan looked down at him, seeing that face, which was usually cold and aloof, now flushed with passion, seeing those misty eyes, seeing him biting his lip but still letting out soft sounds, and suddenly a jumble of images flashed through his mind.

He saw overlapping shadows reflected on the window paper, memorials scattered on the desk, and a hunched back on the soft couch—every person in the scene overlapped with the figure beneath him, biting their lips, their eyes reddening, and their whole body trembling.

The images were both chaotic and clear, like countless fragments surging up from the depths of memory.

It turns out they had been this close countless times before; it turns out this person's restrained yet alluring appearance was already etched into his very bones.

The heat in his heart grew stronger, and Xiao Jingyuan leaned down, burying his face in the crook of his neck, whispering again and again, "Qinglan... Qinglan..."

Xie Qinglan's ears burned from his call, and she turned her head to avoid him, but he grabbed her chin and turned her back.

Xie Qinglan was already exhausted from the journey back to the capital, and this treatment made her gradually lose consciousness. In the end, she had only one thought left—once this person regained his memory, she would definitely settle accounts with him properly.

The next moment, he completely lost his strength and fainted.

After a long while, Xiao Jingyuan finally came to his senses from the surging tide of emotion. He looked down and saw that the person in his arms was no longer moving.

The music stopped abruptly.

A few broken buttons lay scattered on the table. Xie Qinglan lay softly on the zither, her moon-white robe half-open, revealing the fine red marks on her fair chest. Her breathing was light and shallow; she had already fallen into a deep sleep.

Xiao Jingyuan assumed that he had simply fallen asleep from exhaustion after the long journey.

He picked her up and placed her on the couch in the inner room. He looked down at Xie Qinglan's moist eyes and slightly swollen lips, and at the fine marks on her collarbone exposed outside her clothes. A warm and tender sense of satisfaction welled up in his heart.

He bent down and gently kissed the man's still flushed forehead. He helped the man remove his outer robe, then took off his own outer garment and crawled into bed, holding the man tightly in his arms before closing his eyes to catch up on sleep.