The surroundings were deathly silent, and the palace servant leading Wen Yuesheng fainted at the sight of the beast about to kill someone.

“Is the Princess joking with me?” Liang Can turned around, narrowing his eyes.

He had brought his beloved pet to the royal hunting grounds today because he had heard that his master was in a foul mood.

To curry favor, he had planned to entertain his master with a prepared spectacle.

Liang Can was not favored at home.

His rise in status depended entirely on his exceptional beast-taming skills, which he used to please his master with ferocious yet entertaining pets.

He had prepared everything: his pet, the pet’s “toy,” and even a wolf that he had trained for a long time—a wolf his master had praised several times as “adorable.”

He had planned a fight between the tiger and the wolf and had even cleared the area beforehand.

Guards originally stationed in this part of the forest had been sent into the woods to search for a runaway servant woman.

Liang Can feared word of her escape might get out, so he ordered everyone to search the mountains.

This lapse in security allowed Wen Yuesheng and her party to enter the area.

This section of the forest wasn’t on the main road to the palace; it was merely a shortcut that made the journey faster.

Liang Can hadn’t expected anyone to stumble upon the scene at this time, nor had he imagined that his pet would die before the performance even began.

His eyes darkened.

He had boasted grandly to his master that this spectacle of the two beasts would surely bring satisfaction.

But now, with one of his pets dead…

If his master was displeased, Liang Can knew he wouldn’t escape punishment today.

He treated servant girls as toys for his pets, just as his master saw him as nothing more than a usable plaything.

Thinking of this, Liang Can’s expression turned even uglier.

When he first saw Wen Yuesheng, even though she held a bow, he instinctively believed she had nothing to do with the death of his pet.

But someone had killed his beloved beast, and he intended to find the culprit and make them pay.

He couldn’t do much himself, but his master was not someone to be trifled with.

If he found the killer, he would ensure they paid for his pet’s life.

Hearing Wen Yuesheng’s words, Liang Can found them absurd but also intriguing.

His sinister gaze swept over Wen Yuesheng before pausing on the fainted palace servant and then settling on Guyu, the maid behind Wen Yuesheng.

Liang Can chuckled softly. “I don’t know who the Princess is trying to cover for, but since you claim responsibility for my pet’s death…”

“Shouldn’t you offer me some form of compensation?”

He never believed that a frail woman like Wen Yuesheng had the ability to kill a ferocious tiger.

Nor did he take her bow and arrows seriously.

Everyone knew Princess Sining was no hunter.

Noblewomen who visited the hunting grounds rarely dared to kill a rabbit, let alone a tiger.

Ridiculous.

Seeing his attitude, Wen Yuesheng calmly raised her hand and tossed aside the bow she held.

She lightly caressed the honey-wax prayer beads on her wrist and said coldly, “What do you want?”

Liang Can sensed nothing unusual.

He didn’t bother wondering why Wen Yuesheng would cover for someone or what role she might have played in all this.

What mattered to him was that if the tiger-wolf fight was no longer possible, showing his master something even more “entertaining” would be a better alternative.

Especially…

Now that Wen Yuesheng had seen the beasts he raised, she had to pay some price for this knowledge.

She was a princess, someone he dared not offend directly.

But asking for a new “toy” seemed reasonable enough.

His gaze lingered on Guyu, his expression dark and calculating, with a twisted smile that sent chills through the maid.

“This tiger was brought in all the way from Guandong. It took a great deal of effort and expense to transport it here. It was precious to me, my dearest treasure, and now it has died unjustly. It’s heartbreaking.”

“But fortunately, I brought along another beloved pet today. The toy I had prepared for my pet, however, has been ruined.”

As he spoke, he glanced at the woman curled up on the ground.

The meaning in his words made Guyu shiver with fear.

This Liang Can—he used living people as toys for his beasts!

Before she could react, Liang Can’s next words filled her with dread.

“In that case, Princess, why don’t you give me this maid of yours as compensation?”

Liang Can smiled as he spoke.

His sinister gaze flickered with a faint excitement as he stared at Gu Yu.

Judging by the maid’s attire and bearing, she was clearly someone trusted by Wen Yuesheng.

Letting the princess’s maid serve as a toy for his beloved beast—Liang Can thought this was no less entertaining than a tiger-wolf fight.

Hearing this, Gu Yu’s legs went weak, and cold sweat broke out on her back.

She knew the princess would never hand her over to this man, but the things Liang Can had done were simply monstrous.

She could even imagine the horrors that blood-drenched woman on the ground must have endured.

How could the dignified young master of the Liang family do something so heinous?

“What does the Princess think?” Liang Can asked as he stepped closer to Wen Yuesheng.

The closer he got, the more satisfied he felt.

The maid’s delicate, unblemished appearance was far superior to the damaged goods he kept at his estate.

He even thought his proposal was generous—after all, the value of a tiger was unimaginable, and to trade it for a maid was already a loss on his part.

When he got close enough, he noticed that although Gu Yu was afraid, she didn’t collapse in terror like the women from his estate usually did.

This piqued his interest even more.

The maid he had prepared for the tiger had caught his eye because of her strong will to survive.

Ordinary people, when chased by a beast, would faint after a few bites or strikes—offering neither resistance nor the will to escape, which was dull and meaningless.

But those who fought desperately to survive, struggling to their very last breath, were far more “entertaining” in his eyes.

Such displays of survival instinct during the chase fascinated him, and he was certain his master would enjoy it as well.

Perhaps his master would even spare the maid for a few more days, allowing her to recover her wounds before becoming a plaything again.

The thought made Liang Can’s smile grow even wider.

He failed to notice that while Guyu’s calm was born of fear, Wen Yuesheng had displayed no emotion whatsoever from the beginning.

After hearing Liang Can’s words, Wen Yuesheng lifted her gaze and swept him a look.

That glance was as cold as a blade, chilling to the bone.

She said, “Fine.”

Liang Can was overjoyed and immediately reached out to grab Gu Yu and pull her toward him.

However, before his hand could even touch her, it was intercepted mid-air.

Liang Can froze, startled, and turned to look at Wen Yuesheng.

What greeted him was a pair of ink-black eyes, deep and emotionless.

Before he could think further, a sharp crack echoed in the air.

“Ahhh—”

His hand was broken.

Through the fabric of his sleeve, Wen Yuesheng had snapped it with brutal precision.

The excruciating pain nearly caused him to faint, and darkness crept into his vision as he collapsed uncontrollably.

“You—you…” He gasped, cold sweat dripping down his face as he trembled violently.

It was only now, far too late, that he realized Wen Yuesheng had never been joking.

He writhed in agony, trying to pry her hand off him, but Wen Yuesheng had already let him go.

Before he could sigh in relief, her foot struck out mercilessly, kicking his right leg with a sickening crack.

Another bone-breaking sound echoed.

“Ugh!” Liang Can’s eyes widened in shock, unable even to cry out this time.

He lay on the ground, convulsing and shaking uncontrollably. Cold sweat and tears blurred his vision, but through the haze, he saw the woman lying on the ground nearby.

…She was curled up in the exact same position as he was, her body twisted in agony.

Above him, that icy voice sounded again.

Wen Yuesheng looked down at him, expressionless. “Do you enjoy turning people into toys for your beasts?”

A frantic sense of self-preservation seized Liang Can, overwhelming him with terror.

He finally understood what those maids had felt when chased by his beasts.

Shaking his head desperately, he mumbled through his tears, “No… no… I didn’t…”

Wen Yuesheng raised her hand toward Guyu.

“Meat-scent powder.”

Gu Yu was stunned for a moment before understanding.

She quickly took out a pink porcelain vial from her pouch and handed it to Wen Yuesheng.

After arriving at the Princess’s manor, Zhou Manniang had prepared various medicines, ointments, and incense blends for Wen Yuesheng to carry for convenience.

But this meat-scent powder…

It wasn’t medicine or ointment at all.

A few days ago, after Lu Qinghuai had recovered from his injuries, he had insisted on eating meat.

Zhou Manniang refused but couldn’t endure his pestering, so she concocted this special “meat-scent powder.”

As the name suggested, when added to any dish, the powder would emit an overwhelmingly rich aroma of meat.

According to Lu Qinghuai, the scent alone could make dogs from miles away drool with hunger.

Since Lu Qinghuai often had this powder in his food, Gu Yu carried a vial with her as well.

The small porcelain vial contained enough powder to season ten meals.

Wen Yuesheng took the pink vial, opened the stopper, and coldly looked at Liang Can writhing in pain, begging for mercy.

Without hesitation, she emptied the entire vial of meat-scent powder onto him.

The fine pink powder dispersed into the air, catching the sunlight and shimmering like a dreamlike mist.

As the meat scent wafted through the forest, distant howls echoed from deep within the woods.

“Awooo! Awooo—”

The wolves’ cries grew sharper and more frantic, their intensity rising with each second.

Liang Can’s body froze in horror as the chilling voice above him spoke again.

Wen Yuesheng said coldly, “Then open your eyes wide and watch closely.”

“See if your beloved beasts can still recognize you.”