She just felt a sense of familiarity.

Besides that—she had an extremely vibrant red mole on her chest.

Feng Xingyuan stood there for a moment.  Only when the water droplets slid down his fair fingertips and fell into the water, making a “drip” sound, did he regain his composure.

He looked at his fingers, unable to understand why, in his dream, he had used his hands to dig things out, making a mess everywhere.

What he didn’t understand most was that in the dream, he had actually felt pleasure from this act of creating filth.

More pleasure than manipulating people, slaughtering, and taking revenge.

Feng Xingyuan didn’t want to think about it anymore. He took a nearby towel to wipe the water droplets from his hands and returned to the room to get his outerwear.

The little girl on the bed in the room, having lost her quilt and warmth, huddled into a ball, shivering and humming.

Feng Xingyuan took a new quilt from the cupboard and casually threw it over Lu Weimian.

Before leaving, he suddenly stopped by the bed for a moment, then looked at Lu Weimian’s nightgown collar.

She was restless in her sleep, her nightgown collar was half undone, and the quilt didn’t completely cover her.

Feng Xingyuan purposefully stepped forward, his clearly defined fingers reaching directly for the girl’s collar.

As if he wanted to check something.

Just then, Lu Weimian drowsily opened her eyes.

The air in the room seemed to freeze in an instant.

Before Lu Weimian could react, her hazy eyes looked blankly at the handsome face inches away.

He leaned down, his figure overshadowing her, extremely oppressive.

Lu Weimian looked into his bottomless eyes, her heart inexplicably skipped a beat, and the chill on her body intensified.

She saw Feng Xingyuan’s beautiful hands reaching in front of her, and naturally understood that the outstretched hand was to help her cover herself.  Her voice was soft, “Thank you… I’ll do it myself.”

Lu Weimian proactively wrapped herself up and turned over to sleep again.

Feng Xingyuan lost his chance to check, his interest waning, he withdrew his hand, but casually replied, “You’re welcome.”

Only after leaving the room did Feng Xingyuan realize that he seemed to be in a good mood because of that dream.

But people usually don’t dream about things they haven’t done.

It wasn’t until morning that Lu Weimian realized, “Why did he suddenly change the quilt?”

Muyu thought for a moment, “Maybe the young master thought the quilt was a little cold last night, so he changed it to a thicker one.”

Lu Weimian looked at it, muttering, “This isn’t thick either.”

Just as she was wondering, Muyun came in from outside, “Miss, we have news about the Ministry of Works’ Vice Minister Zhou Zhe, the one you wanted to investigate a few days ago.”

Hearing Zhou Zhe’s name, Lu Weimian’s attention was quickly diverted, “What is it?”

Muyu went to close the door and went out, leaving only the two of them in the room.

Muyun reported all of Zhou Zhe’s movements, “He has been going to court and the Ministry of Works as usual these days, which is normal. However, he has been frequently visiting pawn shops recently to exchange things for money.”

Muyun placed a secret letter in front of Lu Weimian, “And also, on the fifteenth night of the month, he disappeared for an hour at the foot of Di Tai Mountain.”

“Disappeared?” Lu Weimian frowned, “What do you mean?”

“He went into Di Tai Mountain that night, Junyi thought he had lost him, but an hour later, he came out again.”

Lu Weimian remembered that Di Tai Mountain was a barren mountain, said to be the imperial tomb of the previous dynasty. After the fall of the previous dynasty, it became a forbidden area, without even a village.

Why would he go to Di Tai Mountain?

“After that night, Zhou Zhe asked our master for an advance on his monthly salary, but was refused.”

“The next day, he went to the pawn shop three times, and Junyi went to check, and many of the pawned items were public property from the Ministry of Works.”

The more Lu Weimian listened, the more wrong it sounded, “Public property?”

That’s right, in the list of false accusations of her father’s embezzlement in her past life, there were many miscellaneous items. Although they were small items, vases, paintings, and rewarded jade articles added up to over a thousand taels.

Her father wouldn’t have taken those items, so it turned out that Zhou Zhe started this from now.

“The monthly salary of the Vice Minister of Works isn’t low.”

Why would he be so short of money?

Muyun nodded, “Junyi went to inquire, his wife divorced him last year and returned to her parents’ home with her child. He is now alone at home, and there is no news of any difficulties in his family recently.”

“If there really was, our master wouldn’t have refused his request for an advance.”

Muyun lowered her voice, “Then Junyi heard some things about Di Tai Mountain from the people in the city’s taverns.”

“It is said that there is an underground city at the foot of Di Tai Mountain, which opens once a month on the seventh day. It is said to be a luxurious, chaotic, and wealthy ghost city.”

Lu Weimian had lived in Chang’an City for more than ten years and had never heard of this, “What do they… do?”

Muyun didn’t know how to say it, “They do everything.”

“And it is said that half of the guests are high-ranking officials, imperial relatives.”

Lu Weimian was silent for a long time, and softly said, “I’ll go and see it next time it opens.”

Muyun was a little worried, “Madam, it sounds like it’s not a place ordinary people can go to.”

“Since it’s a place of business, they won’t refuse customers. Since they know that most of the people here are high-ranking officials, they won’t easily offend customers,” Lu Weimian calculated, “Besides, Zhou Zhe will most likely go there again next time. If I don’t go this time, I’ll have to wait seven days.”

But going to such a place unexpectedly, Lu Weimian was still afraid, “Junyi’s martial arts are good, if it doesn’t work, let Junyi follow me.”

“Okay.”

The night the mountain opened, it happened to be the first day of the month, midnight, without moonlight.

The autumn night in September was cold and desolate, with withered trees.

The Di Tai Mountain forbidden area was as large as tens of thousands of mu, and Lu Weimian had to get off the carriage outside the forbidden area.

She wore a black and gold embroidered long dress, moving in the night like a flowing dark night galaxy, quiet and brilliant.

The entrance to the underground city was hidden in the deep mountain mist, and every half hour, a boatman would appear on the Jiulong Creek to take guests into the city.

The mist completely covered the path. Just as Lu Weimian was about to take a closer look, she was made dizzy by the mist and briefly lost consciousness.

When she woke up again, Lu Weimian had already seen a majestic city gate.

It clearly read “Di Tai City”.

Lu Weimian followed the instructions and went down. Unlike the cramped and dark place she had imagined.

The underground city was grand and magnificent, brightly lit. The steps they descended were like a ladder connecting heaven and earth, leading directly to a prosperous secret realm, bustling and lively, not inferior to the bustling streets of Chang’an.

After descending the steps, there was an underground moat, and a plank bridge connected to the city.

Most of the people in the city wore masks and did not show their true faces.

Then there were foreigners, with various ethnic costumes, several burly Xiling people sitting by the moat, wearing grassland animal skin clothes, their chests exposed, with several terrifying scars on their faces, and a pair of sharp amber eyes sizing up the people entering the city.

Lu Weimian rarely saw such people and scenes, and gently clenched her fingers.

As soon as she crossed the plank bridge, one of the Xiling people stared at her and stepped forward, “Madam, new arrivals, do you want to take a look?”

Lu Weimian didn’t move, Junyi stepped aside to block Lu Weimian.

Junyi asked on Lu Weimian’s behalf, “What kind of new arrivals?”

The Xiling man chuckled and lifted the red silk on the wooden box.

Inside the wooden box lay a sixteen or seventeen-year-old beautiful boy with half-closed beautiful eyes.

His upper body was half-naked, still bearing the fragile whip marks from torture and coercion.

The strong man introduced, “From a good family, healthy body, still clean.”

Lu Weimian’s heart skipped a beat, but she forced herself to remain calm, imitating the way the traders here spoke, “He looks good, but unfortunately, I already have one at home, and he’s even more fun than this one.”

After Lu Weimian finished speaking, she walked straight inside with a slightly hurried and evasive manner.

She never expected that the “new arrivals” these people were talking about were actually people.

Seeing that she didn’t even take a look, the Xiling man reflected for a moment and asked his companion, “It seems that the women from the Central Plains don’t like the gentle and weak type anymore, should we change the type?”

Lu Weimian walked into the city wearing a veil and realized that this was not an exception.

The entire underground city was taboo and luxurious to the point of dizziness.

She seemed to be able to tell that those wearing masks were guests with status, their clothes were expensive.

Each went to different buildings for entertainment.

Junyi saw a familiar figure and quietly gestured to her.

Lu Weimian followed Junyi’s gesture and saw Zhou Zhe standing hesitantly in front of a building.

That building was a gambling house.

And it was much more luxurious than the gambling houses in Chang’an City.

Lu Weimian remembered that the previous dynasty had collapsed because gambling was rampant, and the court was seriously corrupt. Therefore, Taizu, the founding emperor, explicitly forbade court officials from entering gambling houses.

This also explained why the gambling house here could be so large.

This also explained why Zhou Zhe had been short of money lately.

He was addicted to gambling.

In all likelihood, Zhou Zhe tampered with the blueprints and impeached her father to take his place because of this.

Lu Weimian frowned and went straight to the gambling house opposite.

The shopkeepers and waiters here didn’t look like people from the Central Plains, many of them had deep, exotic features.

They were all respectful to the guests who came in, and they didn’t easily neglect Lu Weimian because she looked young and was a girl.

After all, the black and gold embroidered dress alone was worth several gold, not to mention her hairpins and ornaments.

Everyone here was discerning and good at judging people.

Shortly after Lu Weimian went in, Zhou Zhe also entered the gambling house.

She sat down in a private room on the second floor, and the waiter asked her, “Madam, what would you like to play?”

Lu Weimian looked at the booklet the waiter handed her.

She found that the front of this booklet wasn’t about how to gamble, but pictures of male entertainers who accompanied gamblers.

Just then, Zhou Zhe’s voice came from downstairs, “I won! Let’s play another round!”