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Perhaps because the cave is deep, these things haven't accumulated much dust yet.

What surprised me even more was that there was a white marble bathtub on the inner side of the cave wall, partially obscured by red silk curtains, with several steps leading down to the tub. I went over to take a look, and the water was surprisingly clear. I took a couple of steps down and splashed some water, and it was warm.

"It's a natural hot spring, Yige."

Yi Ge walked over and reached out to feel it as well: "This spring has running water."

We both look a bit disheveled now, covered in dust and dirt from the sudden explosion. Perfect, it's time to clean ourselves up.

There were cloths placed by the pool. I took them and wiped the tables, chairs, and stone bed. Together with Yi Ge, we lifted the quilt and shook off the dust. The mattress underneath was still clean.

I put down the package, took out a strip of cloth, soaked it in the pool, wrung it out until it was half dry, and used it to clean Yi Ge's face. Only then did I notice a wound on his forehead, the blood dried, like an earthworm crawling from his temple to behind his ear, looking somewhat ferocious.

He stood there obediently, motionless, with only a faint smile in his eyes.

His face, neck, and hands were all cleaned, but I shook my head at his clothes. They were tattered, which was bad enough, but they were also stained with blood, clumped together, and smelled strongly of blood. It was really unpleasant to look at.

No one knows who lived here before, but no one has lived here for twenty years.

I walked to the wardrobe in the corner and opened the door.

There were both women's and men's clothes inside, all gorgeous and neatly folded. I took out a blue gauze robe, shook it, and surprisingly found no dust. I handed it to Yi Ge and said, "Change your outer garment; it's too dirty."

He obediently took off his clothes and changed. The robe fit him perfectly, neither too loose nor too tight, neither too long nor too short. I joked, "Could it be that the person from before knew we would be trapped here sooner or later and made arrangements for us?"

He smiled and took my hand: "Are you not worried anymore? That's good. I think we should rest here and recharge."

I had no idea what time it was inside the cave. When I entered the underground palace, it was just past noon. Now that I've been wandering around for so long, I have no idea what time it is.

He said, "I think the sun should be setting."

There were lampstands and candlesticks in the four corners of the room, but hanging down in the middle was a ball made of four or five luminous pearls. A string was strung along the side of the stone bed. When pulled, the black cloth above would fall down and cover the luminous ball, which would turn off the lights.

Yi Ge suddenly smiled and said, "That's fine too."

I looked at him, puzzled, not understanding what he was saying. He suddenly leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear, "This place is beautiful. I once wished to spend three days and three nights with you. Now that it's just the two of us, isn't it perfect to do it?"

My face flushed, but I shamelessly replied, "So, does this count as living for the moment?"

He said, "No, since we're here, we might as well make the best of it."

Aren't you tired? And you're injured again?

He smiled and said, "It's just a superficial wound, not deep. The cuts I made when I was a street performer were much deeper than this."

I opened the package and laughed, "Did I have some foresight? I bought so much food, wine, meat and chicken."

As he watched me lay the items out on the table one by one, he smiled faintly and said, "Wu Bao, this reminds me of all the things you brought when you came to Duwang Village that day. They were just like today, except we didn't have any cups."

I laughed and said, "I bought two jars of agarwood and filled them all into the leather bag." Then I pointed to the oil paper wrapped with chicken and said, "I haven't tried this in town, but when I passed by this morning, it smelled so good that I couldn't resist buying it. It was still hot when I put it in the bag, but it's cooled down now. I wonder how it tastes."

He took the leather bag and said, "The chicken smells delicious. I smelled it when I was carrying this bag." He then uncorked the bag, and the aroma of wine wafted through the stone chamber. He took a deep breath and said, "Is this rice wine? It smells sweet. Actually, I can make rice wine too. I'll make some for you to try when I have some free time."

A wine flask was passed between us, one sip for each of us. Looking at the way he looked at me, my heart warmed. I hadn't felt anything when we drank the nuptial wine on our wedding day, but today, drinking this wine, I felt my heart race.

Although Yi Ge only said it was a superficial injury, I still didn't dare give him much to drink. After he drank a few sips, I tightened the stopper.

He stood up, pulled me onto his lap, tore off a chicken leg, and handed it to me: "You've been hungry all day, eat up."

When he said that, I really did feel hungry. Even though I was so tense earlier, and he said he was exhausted from fighting and not eating, I hadn't felt hungry when I got him food. But now I could hear the rumbling of my stomach. He watched me tear the chicken leg into strips without blinking, and slowly swallowed it. I gently scolded, "Why aren't you eating? What are you looking at me for?" He said, "We've never eaten alone together except in the village. But in the village, it felt like a dream; I was too shy to look at you. Everything you do is beautiful; I can't get enough of looking at you."

I almost choked on a chicken bone and opened my mouth in surprise, "Yi Ge, what's wrong with you? Are you possessed by something?" He hugged me and said he loved me as soon as he saw me. I thought he was just too excited, but he should be calm now. This action was really unexpected.

He would never have said such sweet words before.

He reached out and wiped the bits of chicken off my lips, then kissed me despite the greasiness. After a long while, he said, "No, I'm perfectly sober now. I just figured some things out in this cave."

He said that when he first heard I had fallen into the hands of the Ouyang family, he deeply regretted it. He wished he had known then that the sapphire was the key, so they could have entered together, even facing unknown dangers together, rather than being unable to see each other and constantly worrying. Later, he calmed down and realized I might not be in their hands, but he worried that I might run away in anger and cause trouble. The Ouyang family also knew that the deception might not last long, which is why they poisoned me after I entered. He hadn't originally intended to exterminate the Ouyang family, but after being poisoned, he only wanted to kill the two of them to get the antidote.

"I think they were so cruel as to not even give me a chance to see you. My heart is filled with boundless hatred. Although they said they would give me the antidote if I led them to the other treasures, the others showed no intention of giving me the antidote at all. I can also imagine that when they find the other treasures, it will be the time of my death. And I still have so much to explain to you. You've already been hurt once by love; I can't let you spend the rest of your life with misunderstanding and hatred. I promised Mother I would never leave you."

But after finally obtaining the antidote, seeing the remaining people fighting desperately for it, and remembering that I also had family waiting for them to return, and that as long as we left the underground palace, there was always a glimmer of hope, I divided the two antidotes in half and ate them. "Misty Darling, as I saw fewer and fewer people around me, my longing to see you grew stronger and stronger. So when I heard you calling me later, I thought I was hallucinating from the poison, or that I was going crazy from missing you. But even if it was a hallucination, I wanted to get closer to you, and I ran there without even lighting a tinderbox. We were near that small storage room then, not far from the crystal cave. Misty Darling, I smelled the scent of those fragrant pills on you then, so striking amidst the stench of blood, but it still felt unreal. It wouldn't be real unless I touched you. Did I frighten you?"

My tears welled up in my eyes and finally rolled down my cheeks. I hugged his neck tightly and said, "If you had always been this talkative before, I wouldn't have wanted to leave."

He said softly, "Wu Bao, please forgive me for being a man of few words and for keeping my feelings bottled up inside. When I was little, my mother didn't talk to me much. When she taught me martial arts, she only explained the key points and then let me practice on my own. She would either practice with me or give me pointers. Only when I couldn't do it myself would she give me some guidance. After my mother passed away, I had no one to talk to. After becoming a shadow guard, I remained silent for even longer periods of time, so I've gotten used to not speaking."

My nose was stuffy, and my voice was muffled: "I know I shouldn't have been so harsh on you. But I hope you won't keep things bottled up inside anymore. I'm willing to listen to you."

I don't know the time inside the cave, but I think it must have been a night.

We still didn't finish that chicken last night.

Although his sweet words were devoid of any fancy rhetoric, they made me blush and my heart race. I, who am usually so talkative, couldn't say anything else and just couldn't help but kiss his cheek and lips.

This was the second time I had kissed him that day. Sitting on him, I gradually felt the changes in his body. His body grew hotter and hotter, and the arms around me went from soft to hard, pressing my body tightly against his. Even through the thin clothes, I could feel the throbbing of something within his body.

He picked me up, his already hoarse voice becoming even rougher: "Wu Bao, I don't want to eat anymore, I want more."

I wanted to remind him of his injuries, but I was so startled by the loud pounding of my own heart that I choked on my words and blurted out, "I want to too."

Author's note: The next update will be on Sunday.

Chapter Forty-Nine: Secret

He carried me to the bed, kissing me as he began to undress. His blue gauze robe fluttered down, and his undergarment was thrown aside, revealing his strong, slender body naked before me. His pale golden skin shimmered alluringly under the light of the luminous ball. My throat was dry, making it difficult to speak. Although, because of my father, I knew that the word "beauty" wasn't just used for women, I was now deriving it not from Yi Ge's face, but from his body. I truly was a lustful woman raised by my father. Only now did I realize that although we had been intimate quite a few times, we had never truly looked at each other's bodies.

My eyes were fixed on him, and one hand unconsciously reached for his chest. The skin beneath my fingers was firm, yet incredibly elastic. However, there were many scars on his body and arms; as my fingertips lightly traced them, I felt a dense rash of goosebumps rise on his skin. He chuckled softly, "Misty Darling, are you satisfied? You're setting me ablaze, and I'm afraid it won't be easy to extinguish."

I chuckled and said, "I can be a bit too straightforward when I look at people, but Yi Ge, your father is right, you really are good-looking, and not just in the face. But your skin isn't smooth enough, and you have way too many scars on your body."

He reached out and gently hooked his finger around my sash, slowly tugging at it: "How can you talk to a man like that? This injury is nothing, I just cut myself when I was selling liniments and wound medicine. Didn't a young girl once remind me that if I didn't apply medicine soon, the blood wouldn't be able to heal?"

I said stupidly, "Huh? Could it be me? Well, of course, none of that matters. What matters isn't your skin, but your body, well, no, it's your skill. Have you seen those erotic films that my father gave me? They seem to have higher requirements for men?" What was I even saying? But it seemed to fit the mood.

He tossed aside my belt, both amused and annoyed, and said, "Wu Bao, you really are a character. The prince used to say you were prone to going astray, and it's true."

Just as I was about to say something, something fell with the belt and landed on his foot. He bent down to pick it up, paused for a moment, then became even more excited. Holding the object in one hand and wrapping his other arm around my waist, he asked excitedly, "Is this for me? You finished embroidering it a long time ago?"

Upon closer inspection, I realized it was the black purse embroidered with twin pomegranate flowers.

I nodded: "I finished embroidering it before your birthday. That day I brought it to see you, wanting to invite you to celebrate your birthday in Laichun Town, just the two of us. But first I heard Fang Lan'er say that I forced you not to take a concubine, and then she said she would retrieve the token or something. Later, you actually came to retrieve the token, and I..."

Before I could finish speaking, his lips pressed against mine. One hand swiftly removed my outer garment, then roughly tore open my undergarment, leaving my half-naked chest pressed against his burning body. His kiss was fierce and intense, his hand on my back slipping inside my half-undone undergarment, roaming as he pulled it down to my waist. His other hand lifted my bodice, caressing my breasts. His rough fingertips repeatedly rubbed against my rosy nipples, and I let out a soft cry, almost unable to sit still.

His movements became gentle again, slowly removing my defenses, and he held my smooth shoulders, saying, "Let me take a good look at you. I haven't really seen your body properly yet, my little princess."

That day was probably the slowest we've ever gotten to the point. We stared at each other blankly for a long time before gently caressing and kissing.

I don't know how much time has passed, but time doesn't seem to matter much to us now.

The important thing is flesh and desire, that primal rhythm that Granny Lan despised to the extreme.

He entered me so gently, slowly pushing in and out, sometimes deep, sometimes shallow. I kept looking into his eyes, watching the overflowing love within them, like water slowly seeping into me, feeling him fill me little by little, more passionately than the last time he'd done so. Each slow, powerful thrust was almost unbearable. I couldn't help but let out a soft moan. He paused, then asked, "My dear, am I hurting you?"

I shook my head. It turns out that the girls in brothels didn't just use it as a tactic; they actually wanted to scream, not just moan.

As if knowing what I was thinking, he shifted his position, pulling me onto his lap, and whispered in my ear, "Wu Bao, make a sound. I want to hear you make a sound." A rush of heat to my head, and I shook my head slightly. Perhaps making a sound would be too wanton?

He stopped talking, but pressed me down hard. I felt his movements inside me, the intense stimulation made me scream, lunge forward, and bite his shoulder. He moved rhythmically, pressing me hard into his arms with one hand, saying, "Wu Bao, it's just the two of us. Scream. I want to hear you say you love me."

I was defeated. I felt empty whenever he withdrew even slightly, and I tried my best to reach out to him. With his advances, I unconsciously tightened my grip on his strong waist, and buried my face in his arms, crying out with tears streaming down my face, "Yi Ge, Yi Ge, I love you."

The moment my voice left my lips, I felt him increase his intensity; his breath burned my cheek. He responded, "My dear Wubao, my darling Wu'er, I love you too, I'll always love you." His voice, already hoarse, now sounded almost like a beast's roar, yet I found it incredibly beautiful, a surge of intense love washing over me. Finally, I felt as soft and light as a feather, ready to float and dance. It was he who had transported me to paradise.

I think we've gone a little crazy, from the bed to the table, and then to that hot spring pool—the time spent calm is far less than the time spent in madness. It's really like he said before: when you love, you do it; when you're tired, you rest; and after you've rested, you want it again.

He had a back injury and shouldn't have been soaking in the hot spring, but he would sit cross-legged on the steps to clean me, yet he couldn't resist and always ended up sticking together.

After going crazy, you sleep especially soundly.

There is no day or night in the cave. After waking up, the two ate something and then explored the surrounding paths, using the stone chamber as the center.

This stone chamber wasn't the innermost one, but we all noticed it had ventilation openings. Compared to the passageways and other stone chambers, although there was a spring inside, it was drier than other places. This is probably why the mattress and blankets on the bed weren't very dusty, and the clothes in the closet were still clean.

If there's wind, we should be close to the exit, but no matter how hard we look, we can't find it.

If we don't get out soon, we won't suffocate, but we will starve.

We've already explored everything in the stone chamber. That day, while rummaging through those bottles and jars, Yi Ge suddenly said, "This seems to be where Mother stayed. This bottle contains the raw materials for incense pills; smell it."

I smelled it long ago, but it wasn't the same kind that Yi Ge made for me. Yi Ge's mother is good at making incense balls, and I've even changed into her women's clothing before; it's just the right length and fits perfectly, just like the blue cloth clothes I wore in Duwang Village. If it's Yi Ge's mother's residence, then whose is the men's robe? It certainly isn't Han Yu Gongzi's.

Once, after returning from a scouting expedition, I took a bath in the hot springs. After Yi Ge dried my hair, I went to the drawer under the dressing table to get a comb. There were several combs there: jade combs, horn combs, and peach wood combs. I especially loved the jade comb; it was lustrous and smooth, and very comfortable to use. When I was putting the comb back after combing my hair, I accidentally pushed it too far out of the drawer and it slipped out. But I didn't hear the sound of the jade comb hitting the stone.

Curiosity got the better of me, so I pulled the wooden drawer out completely. I reached into the dressing table and touched something soft and papery. Upon closer inspection, I found a thick stack of paper. I pulled them out and saw that they were about the size of a book, filled with about twenty or thirty sheets of Xuan paper. They were not very neatly arranged and seemed to have been stuffed in one by one. Because of the limited space, the stack of paper was naturally piled up together.

Some of the papers were covered with dense writing, while others had only a few lines. The handwriting was somewhat messy, as if it had been written when the writer was in a bad mood or in a hurry. Therefore, I couldn't make out the details at first. But when I turned to the last two pages, it was crystal clear, because all that was written was the word "madman madman".

He showed it to Yi Ge, who frowned after looking at it for a while and said, "It looks a bit like my mother's handwriting, but it's too cursive and I can't really recognize it. Let's put it in the package and learn how to recognize it slowly when we go out."

After they ate a little something, Yi Ge started pestering them again, seemingly wanting to make up for everything they couldn't do in Songxi Village. We've been living like gods these past two days, eating whenever we're hungry, but not much at all. My bag, on the other hand, seems like a treasure trove, still not empty.

After the clouds cleared and the rain stopped, Yi Ge held me and kissed me gently before falling asleep. But I couldn't fall asleep.

I took a piece of paper, lay on the bed, and used a luminous pearl to illuminate it, slowly recognizing each word. I actually recognized quite a few words. After reading them together, I was somewhat surprised, and my back involuntarily became slightly damp.

That seems to be Yige Niang's diary.

This entry, in essence, is about how Di finally allowed me to see my father today. I went to the underground palace of Prince Chi Mei, and my father was still locked in those iron bars. They had started raising Gu worms; tiny veins were entering his arm, and the Gu king in his chest was throbbing, seemingly not yet having entered his heart. Di said that if I left, he would stop supplying blood to my father. He was so cruel; Gu worms need food, so they feed on their hosts, and my father would surely die.

It turned out that the skeleton was indeed the old palace master. With the Ghost Palace destroyed, there was naturally no one to feed it blood, so the Gu King turned on its host. When the host died, the Gu King could not survive either. The shriveled black mass on the skeleton's chest was actually a Gu corpse.

But who is that person named Di? Is he the Palace Master?

Wasn't that old palace master his father? How much must he hate his father to do such a thing?

I accepted the paper but didn't tell Yi Ge.

*******

Yi Ge's ancestral wound medicine is very effective. In the past two days, the wound on his back has scabbed over. The wound was actually caused by the iron fan of the Second Young Master Ouyang. Fortunately, he did not sprinkle poison on the edge of the fan.

Once again, after searching four times without finding a way out, we returned to Shizhi. Yige suddenly said, "There's a draft in this room. I have a feeling there should be a passage at the back of this room. Maybe we can find our way back here in this stone room."

I spun around in the stone chamber, arms crossed, until I bumped into the stone table. I hit my hip, making a hissing sound in pain. Yi Ge came over and rubbed it for me, but as he rubbed, my hip tilted to one side. I scolded, "Where are you touching?" He chuckled but didn't answer, only holding me tighter with one arm and starting to untie my belt with the other. I was already somewhat used to his casual caresses, and his rubbing was getting a little arousing, so I let him do as he pleased.

This time he was in a hurry, pressing me against the stone table and kissing me as he entered. My lower back hurt from the edge of the table, so I unconsciously lifted myself up and twisted from side to side. This twisting only made him thrust harder; I felt the force of his pressure even move the stone table. Soon I felt my soul leaving my body, almost fainting from his thrusts. He kissed my sweaty temples, calling out, "My darling, my little princess," as he thrust with all his might. Suddenly, he stopped moving and said nothing. I felt his release deep inside me and, thinking he was exhausted, opened my eyes and said, "Hmm, let me up, shall we go to bed and rest for a while?"

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that his eyes weren't on me, but rather fixed on the direction of the bathtub behind me, his eyes filled with astonishment.

I was startled and turned my head to look, only to find that a hole had been opened in the stone wall behind the bath.

Chapter Fifty: Vitality

My mind went blank for a moment, so I asked Yi Ge blankly, "Is it because I screamed so loudly that the sky collapsed?" I had heard that there was a kind of door whose mechanism was controlled by sound.

He lifted me away from the table, both amused and exasperated, saying, "Look at this stone table."