With a warehouse full of supplies, I stood alone as king in this chaotic world, gun in hand.

Xiao Lin picked up his brush and began to write on the finest Xuan paper.

With just a few strokes and light ink wash, a vague outline is drawn, along with the features of a child's face.

Nangong Wu carried Nangong Xi over and stood beside her, watching.

Xiao Lin glanced at her. "If it's not well drawn, Your Highness, please don't be too critical!"

"Don't be modest. You always manage to surprise people. It seems that it's a waste of your talents to make you a guard." Nangong Wu could tell from his powerful brushstrokes and smooth, natural lines that he was a master painter.

Xiao Lin blinked at her a few times, but perhaps because of the presence of Granny Feng and the three wet nurses, he didn't say anything he wanted to say.

As his brushstrokes became more detailed and refined, a lifelike Nangong Yu emerged from his painting, reflected in a mirror.

With a chubby, fair face, delicate features, and wearing a small red bib, her plump little limbs, resembling lotus root segments, were incredibly endearing, like a beautiful porcelain doll.

"They look so alike, even their spirit is so similar."

Nangong Wu praised that not only were the figures vivid and lifelike, full of texture and three-dimensionality, but even the fish leaping over the dragon gate embroidered on the bellyband was painted with exquisite detail.

"It seems alright." Xiao Lin put the finished portrait aside and moved on to Nangong Jue.

He painted a total of four portraits, the last of which was of Nangong Wu, and the image was so vivid and lifelike that it seemed to leap off the paper.

She stood there holding the child, her long, ink-black hair styled in a high bun, but the scar on her face wasn't painted on. Her features were exquisitely beautiful, her expression dignified and graceful, yet she possessed an air of quiet authority.

"I'm amazed by how beautifully you drew me." Nangong Wu was almost mesmerized by her own portrait. "It's so lifelike."

"This is how you've always looked." Xiao Lin put down his pen.

Nangong Wu looked at him with a glint in her eyes.

This man has amazing genes. If I didn't already have three children, I would really like to drug him, steal his seed, and have a child as outstanding as him.

Suddenly realizing I was overthinking things, I shook off the jumbled thoughts in my head.

"Granny Feng, ask Fang Cheng to help you hang these portraits in the study."

Steward Fang is getting old, so he's taking Fang Cheng under his wing and teaching him. Once Fang Cheng is familiar with everything in the Prince's Mansion, he'll become the next steward of the manor.

"Yes?" Granny Feng carefully took the painting away.

"Alright, we can go practice martial arts now. I promised to teach you lightness skill." Xiao Lin said and went out first.

Nangong Wu handed the children over to the wet nurse, changed into a training outfit, and took Xiao Lin to the training room.

"To master lightness skill, you also need to master internal energy." Xiao Lin took out a martial arts manual and gave it to her. "Practice for one hour every night."

"Is this qigong? Does it really work?" Nangong Wu had practiced qigong in her previous life, and the original owner of this body had also practiced it, but she gave up halfway through.

"It works. As long as you're willing to learn diligently and don't slack off, I guarantee you can be as agile as me, scaling walls and leaping across rooftops." Xiao Lin looked her up and down and said with a sarcastic tone:

"You have good potential, but you're a bit lazy and have poor eyesight, which is why you've set your sights on that scumbag Zhou Shaorong. But luckily, you're not that old yet, so with a little effort, you can still succeed."

The training room actually has tools for practicing light body skills, such as sandbags for leg bindings, plum blossom stakes, baskets, etc.

"Running around the basket is a basic skill for practicing lightness kung fu. You should run a hundred laps today." Xiao Lin pointed to the large basket in the middle.

"Okay." Nangong Wu did not hesitate and jumped onto the five-foot-high wicker basket, practicing walking along the edge of the basket.

At noon, Li Shuang returned and reported the situation: "Your Highness, Prince Li has found the traitor, who is the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice. He is the one who took Xu Zhiyuan out."

The Prince of Li subjected the Vice Minister of Justice to severe torture, and he confessed that it was Nangong Xun's plan. They had taken Xu Zhiyuan out, intending to lure you to Black Chicken Mountain to kill you, and then silently return you to death row, believing that without you, they could regain control of the court.

"Tell King Li to close these cases as soon as possible. Kill those who should be killed, exile those who should be exiled, and execute those who should be killed immediately, so as not to occupy prison cells," Nangong Wu did not want things to drag on for too long.

After all, the people sent to arrest local officials haven't returned yet, and by the time they are brought back, there will be nowhere to detain them.

"Yes." Li Shuang suddenly remembered something else, "Zhou Shaorong is dead."

"He died so quickly?" Nangong Wu was somewhat regretful; she hadn't even sent him to the guillotine yet!

Li Shuang added, "Because of Zhou Shaorong's death, Madam Zhou also went mad, calling out Zhou Shaorong's name all day long."

"Has any news come out of the palace?" Nangong Wu still wanted to hear how Emperor Mingde would deal with Nangong Xun.

Nangong Xun was, after all, a prince, and it was impossible for him to be beheaded. At most, he would be stripped of his title and placed under house arrest.

"His Majesty has not yet issued any decree, but has only entrusted Prince Li with the full authority to handle this matter. It may not be so quick," Li Shuang replied.

Nangong Wu got up, wrote a letter, and handed it to Li Shuang.

Jishun Inn.

Xiao Lin opened the door to the private room and saw Qi Ziyang having lunch inside.

"Bei Chenyan? Why are you back at this time? Didn't the Prince's Mansion provide you with meals?"

Xiao Lin (real name Bei Chenyan) did not answer him. He strode straight to a table, picked up a brush, and began to draw on a piece of Xuan paper.

"What are you doing?" Qi Ziyang asked suspiciously, putting down his chopsticks and walking over.

A moment later, a portrait of Nangong Yu was completed.

"This..." Qi Ziyang looked at the child's face and couldn't help but wonder, "Is this you when you were a child?"

Why did you draw yourself as a child?

"You also think this child looks a lot like me?" Bei Chenyan looked down at the child in the portrait, his hand reaching behind his ear, slowly peeling off a layer of disguise mask as thin as a cicada's wing.

When he looked up again, his face had changed completely.

That face was like a celestial being stepping out of a painting, handsome as a demon, with two slanted, sword-like eyebrows, phoenix eyes, and eyes as black as lacquer, as deep and unfathomable as a cold pool, a high and straight nose, and a profile that was sharp and beautiful, with an indescribable eerie beauty.

At first glance, Nangong Yu and Nangong Jue are practically carbon copies of him.

"What do you mean by that?" Qi Ziyang looked at his face, then at the child in the painting, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Could this child be Nangong Wu's son?"

"Hmm." Bei Chenyan hummed in response.

"So, you suspect this is your child?" Qi Ziyang's eyes widened in horror.

Bei Chenyan frowned. "Didn't you say the child looks a lot like me?"

"Just because they look alike doesn't mean it's your child." Qi Ziyang looked at his face and asked, "Have you slept with the child's mother?"