As Pei Shiyi, word by word, recounted the historical truths that had been buried for ages, Yu Lan was utterly stunned.

Her eyes widened, twinkling with starlight.

Though Pei Shiyi had only mentioned it in passing, Yu Lan knew it must have been an incredibly difficult and painful time.

’No wonder. No wonder records of Deep Sea Star are so scarce on Central Star.’

’If Jun Lin Yuan hadn’t brought it up, Huo Zhanting and the others probably would have never even thought of Deep Sea Star.’

The abuser never remembers the victim.

Even though it happened who-knows-how-many years ago.

But the pain would be passed down from generation to generation among all the inhabitants of Deep Sea Star.

Warm tears streamed down, one after another, splashing onto Pei Shiyi’s hand.

Yu Lan’s voice, choked with sobs, rose in apology.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t know."

"When I get back, I’ll..."

Before Yu Lan could finish her offer to make amends...

"That’s enough."

Pei Shiyi cut her off bluntly.

The atmosphere between them, which had just begun to thaw, instantly froze solid.

Pei Shiyi raised a hand, pointing to a massive, empty container nearby. A smirk touched his thin lips.

"You want the medicinal herbs, don’t you?"

"I can give them to you."

"But one light, airy kiss isn’t enough."

Meeting Yu Lan’s somewhat bewildered gaze, Pei Shiyi continued, the handsome man once again adopting the malicious, cold demeanor from their first encounter.

"If you clean up all the trash here, I’ll give you the herbs. How about it?"

"The sins committed by you Imperial People should naturally be atoned for by you Imperial People."

"How about this: whenever you finish cleaning this up, I’ll give you the herbs?"

"That’s not asking too much, is it?"

Pei Shiyi’s deep blue eyes held a cold light as he watched Yu Lan intently, not missing a single flicker of emotion on her face.

’Will she fly into a rage, point at my nose and scream at me, or... what?’

After Pei Shiyi spoke, Yu Lan quickly scanned her surroundings. She realized that while he was verbally merciless and his words were ice-cold...

...the task he’d set wasn’t impossible.

The area he’d assigned her didn’t have an overwhelming amount of trash.

’All told,’ she calculated, ’if I work quickly, I can finish in two or three days.’

’If I don’t sleep at night, I could probably finish it all in one day.’

’And then I can quickly take the herbs and go home.’

"Okay."

Yu Lan nodded without the slightest hesitation.

"I accept."

"This time, you will keep your promise, won’t you?"

The beautiful female tilted her head up, looking at Pei Shiyi quietly as she awaited his answer.

’He’s the Lord of the Deep Sea, after all.’

’A man of his station... his word should be his bond. Surely he wouldn’t lie to me again.’

Of all the possibilities, Pei Shiyi had never imagined that Yu Lan would simply nod and accept. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

He had even imagined her storming off in a fit of anger, demanding to leave, and never setting foot on Deep Sea Star again.

He even imagined that, years later, the mere mention of this place would still bring a look of undisguised disgust to her face.

He never expected her to agree.

’How could she possibly agree?’

A tremor ran through Pei Shiyi’s eyes, and the hand hanging at his side curled up awkwardly.

Her gaze, so pure and sincere, made his entire body grow rigid.

He struggled to maintain his cold demeanor, his voice sounding a little unnatural as he spoke.

"Did you think I was like you Imperial People—hypocritical, cunning, and unable to keep my word?"

"Hmph. Just focus on cleaning this place up first."

With that, Pei Shiyi spun around and left, his retreating figure looking for all the world like he was fleeing in disarray.

Yu Lan shook her head. ’I must be imagining things.’

Once Pei Shiyi’s figure had completely disappeared...

Yu Lan turned to the pile of trash, picked up a bag from the ground, and began meticulously cleaning, piece by piece.

*

「The next day.」

「Ten in the morning.」

The sun hung high in the azure sky. The sea was calm, the air was clear, and the day was bright.

Sunlight pierced the surface of the sea, rippling through the water below and scattering into shimmering, starlike motes.

Gazing up from the palace in the deep sea, the view was breathtakingly dreamlike.

Pei Shiyi, however, stood in the grand hall with no mind to appreciate the beautiful scene.

With his arms crossed and lips pursed, he tapped his fingers against his bicep and asked with feigned indifference:

"Has she started cleaning yet?"

’Of course not.’

’Such a delicate, fragile, beautiful female... even with a kind heart, she’s never done rough work before. She probably can’t handle it.’

’Faced with all that trash, she probably doesn’t even know where to start.’

’Whatever.’

Pei Shiyi thought to himself. ’As long as she at least makes a show of it, as long as she just pretends to try cleaning... if she wants the herbs that badly, I’ll just give them to her.’

Upon hearing the question, the guard behind him immediately glanced at the Communication Device on his wrist.

The guard’s expression changed instantly. He replied, his voice sounding a little strange.

"Reporting to the Patriarch... Princess Yu Lan stayed up all night and has already cleaned up all the trash."

"What?"

Pei Shiyi whipped his head around to look at the guard.

"Are you telling the truth?"

’Even people on Deep Sea Star these days wouldn’t stay up all night cleaning trash.’

’After all, with years of restoration efforts, the environment on Deep Sea Star was actually quite good now.’

"It’s... it’s the absolute truth, Patriarch."

Feeling wronged under Pei Shiyi’s cold, questioning gaze, the guard hastily presented the Communication Device to him.

"See for yourself, Patriarch. This is a photo that just came in from the monitoring team."

"Princess Yu Lan really did clean up all the trash overnight."

"They also said she borrowed some tools and was about to go into the forest to dig up some flowers to plant nearby."

Pei Shiyi’s eyes trembled violently.

He couldn’t hold back any longer.

He spun around, and with a powerful stroke of his tail fin, shot forward, covering a vast distance in an instant.

Then, as if remembering something, he abruptly changed course again, rushing back into the palace and tearing it apart as he searched for something.

At last, he found it.

With another powerful swish of his tail fin, he sped off toward Yu Lan’s location.

In that moment, Pei Shiyi was the very picture of a flustered seventeen-year-old boy, nervously facing his crush for the first time.

He was a mess of frantic urgency.

SPLASH!

A loud splash echoed as he broke through the surface of the water.

Pei Shiyi burst out from beneath the waves.

At that moment, Yu Lan was on the shore planting flowers.

The water he kicked up splashed right onto her face, the droplets rolling down the beautiful female’s cheeks like shimmering jewels.

The sunlight fell upon the flowers, and behind them stood Yu Lan, a vision more beautiful than any bloom.

Pei Shiyi was momentarily lost in a daze.

Not until Yu Lan’s delighted voice rang out did he snap out of it.

"Pei Shiyi, you’re here!"

"I... I’ve finished cleaning up, just like you told me to."

"Look..."

Yu Lan didn’t want to appear too eager, but the matter of the medicinal herbs was too important for her not to be anxious.

The beautiful female held her breath, her amber eyes fixed on Pei Shiyi as she awaited his answer.