"Shh!"

Jin Wan quickly pressed an index finger to her lips, telling Jiang Zheyu to be quiet.

Jiang Zheyu was speechless.

Jin Wan hurriedly pulled Jiang Zheyu behind a pillar to whisper.

"Let me hide in your palace tonight." Jin Wan looked at her gently. "The Lonely Wanderer Star Thief Group has five members in total. Gu Yao has already captured that bitch Yan Luo, and the twenty-four hours are almost up. The other members of the Lonely Wanderer Star Thief Group will definitely come to grab someone else tonight."

Jiang Zheyu: ?

"So you were just faking being crazy all morning?" Jiang Zheyu’s lip twitched.

"Otherwise, with them watching me all the time, I’d never get a chance to be taken by the Lonely Wanderer Star Thief Group. Originally, when Gu Yao came last night, I could have left with him if Wu Yu hadn’t been holding onto me." Jin Wan seemed extremely frustrated. "It’s all that Wu Yu’s fault!"

Jiang Zheyu recalled the gentle, handsome young man in a white shirt who was always by Jin Wan’s side. ’That must be Commander Wu,’ she thought.

Every night, when Princess Jin Wan had her "episodes," that young man would kneel by her side. Now that he’d found Jin Wan had run off, he had also rushed out to look for her.

"Commander Wu seems like a nice person," Jiang Zheyu said, her lip twitching.

"We’re just Beast Mates bound together by my Healing Purification Ability, not by love. Gu Sui and I are together because of love," Jin Wan said, as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world.

Jiang Zheyu was speechless.

"Gu Sui is a Star Thief! If you go with him, not only will you live a life on the run, but you’ll also face constant danger. A Star Thief’s friends are also Star Thieves. Even if you say Gu Sui is a good person, will his friends be good people? They’re all desperate outlaws who live by the sword. Wake up!" Jiang Zheyu really couldn’t listen to Jin Wan’s nonsense anymore.

"A sui will protect me!" Jin Wan frowned. "Why are you acting just like my brothers? Weren’t you taken away by a Star Thief before, too? I heard you got along really well with him!"

"Who told you that?" Jiang Zheyu asked after a pause.

"From the Star Thieves, of course," Jin Wan said faintly. "I heard it when I left with Gu Sui before."

Jiang Zheyu paused. ’Looks like news travels fast among the Star Thieves,’ she thought.

"Didn’t you fall for that Star Thief, too?" Jin Wan looked at Jiang Zheyu. "You’re the same way, so how can you tell me not to be?"

Jiang Zheyu was speechless.

’No wonder Jin Wan’s attitude toward me has been so good. She’s lumped me into the same category as her.’

"I was just pretending to go along with it to save my own skin!" Jiang Zheyu said helplessly, feeling she had no choice but to spell it out. "I get to live in the Imperial Palace and have so many normal, handsome men around. Who would want to live a life on the run with those lunatics? I’m not a masochist. I’d have to be crazy to get all worked up over them!"

Jin Wan got angry too, and started accusing Jiang Zheyu. "How could you! That Star Thief loves you so much! I heard he only wants you, a single female, and treats you so well, yet you were just faking it and toying with his feelings!"

Jiang Zheyu was speechless.

"My current Beast Husbands treat me very well, too," Jiang Zheyu said with a faint smile. "And they give me surprises and provide me with emotional support. It’s not like with those Star Thieves, where I have to constantly guess his moody, unpredictable feelings and constantly provide *him* with emotional support!"

"You, you, you..." Jin Wan was furious. "He’s moody because he’s wounded inside and needs me to give him warmth! Only I can give him that warmth, which proves I’m the most important person in his heart! Lovers are supposed to understand each other. You’re not even willing to do that much. You don’t understand love—you’re a selfish person!"

Jiang Zheyu was speechless.

Their views were so contradictory that continuing the conversation would likely make things spiral out of control.

"I’m done with you. Do whatever you want," Jiang Zheyu said, turning and walking back into her palace. "In any case, I’m not letting you stay in my palace."

Jin Wan was also a person of temper. If Jiang Zheyu wouldn’t let her hide in her palace, she could just hide in her own.

After all, the most dangerous place was the safest place.

Jin Wan stomped back to her own palace in a huff.

After returning to her palace, Jiang Zheyu thought about Jin Wan’s words again. Amidst all the nonsense about men, there was one thing Jin Wan had said that was right.

The members of the Lonely Wanderer Star Thief Group would definitely send another Star Thief to capture someone tonight. ’I wonder which of the five it will be?’

’Seriously,’ she thought. ’It feels like another sleepless night is ahead.’

Yan Luo was finally found and brought back a little after midnight.

Hearing the commotion outside, Jiang Zheyu walked out of her palace and stood at the entrance, where she saw the female lead covered head to toe in red dye.

The female lead’s expression was grim to the extreme.

As the female lead walked back, she seemed to notice Jiang Zheyu’s gaze. She looked up and shot Jiang Zheyu a vicious glare.

Jiang Zheyu acted as if she hadn’t seen a thing. Only after the female lead had returned to her palace under Hui’s protection did she walk over to the Guard Captain.

"Princess Zheyu, do you have any orders for us?" the Guard Captain asked, looking at Jiang Zheyu.

"Where did you find Yan Luo?" Jiang Zheyu asked curiously. "You didn’t catch the Star Thief?"

A look of shame crossed the Guard Captain’s face. "We found Special-level Researcher Yan Luo at the Paper Rose Factory. At the time, she was about to be drowned in rose dye, just like the paper. Thankfully, we arrived just in time."

He remembered that the other members of the Lonely Wanderer Star Thief Group would be playing this game again tonight, and he had no idea which female they would choose next. A headache was already setting in.

"We couldn’t catch the Star Thief," the Guard Captain said, lowering his head. "They’re just too cunning."

They would stand guard here all night. They absolutely had to catch those Star Thieves.

"So, the Lonely Wanderer Star Thief Group will be coming to grab someone again tonight, won’t they?" Jiang Zheyu asked quietly.

"We will be even more vigilant this time!" was all the Guard Captain could say.

Although Jiang Zheyu didn’t want to crush their confidence, she couldn’t help but ask, "Why doesn’t the Empire send someone more capable to protect us?"

The Guard Captain’s face turned red.

"Those Star Thieves clearly chose a time when Captain Feng isn’t here," the Guard Captain said with a frown. "And the reason they haven’t sent anyone else is because the females’ Beast Husbands are already very powerful. The Little Princess of the Empire’s Beast Husband, Commander Wu, is formidable, and Special-level Researcher Yan Luo’s companion, Hui, is also extremely capable."

Jiang Zheyu was speechless.

She couldn’t really argue with that.

’Still, the Empire’s forces seem a bit too weak.’