Today, Prince Ping and his wife were hosting a lotus appreciation banquet at the Yu Xuan Tea Garden, inviting the talented young men and noble young ladies from the great families of the Capital City.
Ostensibly a lotus appreciation banquet, it was in fact an occasion for their daughter, Princess Anle, to find a suitable husband.
In addition to the scions of the Capital City's official families, some of the more gifted scholars who had come from various provinces and commanderies for the imperial examinations also received invitations.
This flower-viewing banquet had gathered nearly every unmarried young master and lady in the entire Capital City.
Pei Shuyao's mother, worried sick about her daughter's marriage prospects, could hardly let such an opportunity pass.
But given Pei Shuyao's status, the Prince Ping Mansion naturally wouldn't have sent her a personal invitation.
So today, she had come to the banquet with the young masters and ladies of the Duke Mansion.
This cousin of his had been behaving herself for some time, so Shen Tingyu had assumed his rejections had finally gotten through to her. For the sake of his gravely ill aunt, he raised no objections and tacitly allowed her to tag along.
And as a result, it had led to this very situation.
Pei Shuyao, an unmarried young woman, had actually dared to secretly procure an aphrodisiac—the extremely potent seductive powder, no less—in an attempt to make Shen Tingyu consume it and force an irreversible outcome.
Once the deed was done, he would have no way of refusing her.
But Shen Tingyu had been pestered by her for three years; how could he possibly have let his guard down around her?
In the end, by a strange twist of fate, the cup of wine laced with the seductive powder was drunk by Pei Shuyao herself.
And that was the long and short of how things had come to this.
As the memories that didn't belong to her began to sort themselves out in her mind, Cui Lingyao rubbed her temples, her head throbbing as if it would split.
'The system was right. The original owner truly brought this all on herself.'
'She just went and died, nice and clean.'
'And now I'm left to suffer the consequences.'
'Seductive powder...'
Cui Lingyao had been in Great Yue for ten years and had never even heard of the stuff.
Right now, she just felt limp and weak all over, so hot she wanted to strip off all her clothes.
And preferably...
An image appeared in her mind, almost uncontrollably.
Her only carnal experience was with that man.
'If I don't find an antidote for this poison, will I die?'
'If it has to be a man...'
Cui Lingyao forced herself to calm down and think of a solution.
Just then, a soft knock came from the door of the private room. She stiffened, instinctively using the tea table to pull herself to her feet as the door was pushed open from the outside.
The three men outside hadn't heard any sound from within for a long time. Fearing someone might have actually died, they finally decided to come in and check.
One glance was all it took for their expressions to freeze.
Having come to the banquet today, Pei Shuyao was, of course, dressed in her finest.
She wore a light pink, chest-high ruqun with a thin blouse draped over it, revealing a wide expanse of snowy skin from her collarbones down to her chest.
This was the most fashionable style among the noble ladies of the Capital, and normally wouldn't be remarkable. But under the influence of the drug, her face was flushed, her forehead was dotted with a fine sheen of sweat, and a seductive allure emanated from the corners of her eyes.
She was standing, but unsteadily. Her palm rested on the tea table beside the daybed, causing her body to lean to one side. Her outer blouse slid down her shoulder, revealing the better part of one arm.
Perhaps the drug was too potent, for even the skin of her neck and shoulders was tinged with pink.
Hearing the door open, she lifted her heavy eyelids to look their way.
Her misty, almond-shaped eyes were barely open, a wavering light of desire glowing within them.
The lustful blush at the corners of her eyes was all the more apparent.
The effect was exceptionally... sensuous.
'The face was the same, the person was the same, so how was it that after being drugged, she had lost that unrefined, petty air of hers?'
'It made a man...'
The other two men snapped back to their senses and hastily averted their eyes, not daring to look again for propriety's sake.
No matter how much she threw herself at men, she was still an unmarried young woman.
The legitimate maternal granddaughter of the Duke Mansion, no less.
To stare at her like this, knowing full well she was under the influence of an aphrodisiac, was a great breach of decorum.
Shen Tingyu also turned his face away, his brow furrowed slightly. "Are you still lucid?" he asked. "I'll have someone send you home."
This place is crowded, with prying eyes everywhere. There's no telling when someone might wander by.
If anyone were to see her in this state...
Even if the current social mores were liberal, for an unmarried young woman to be drugged with an aphrodisiac while attending a banquet...
...her reputation would be utterly ruined.
Cui Lingyao didn't recognize a single one of these three men.
If her mind were clear, she certainly wouldn't be having such thoughts.
But now, with the effects of the seductive powder surging through her, her mind was flooded with memories of her tumbles in bed with Xie Jinbai.
The sudden appearance of three men sent a wave of impulse through her, a carnal urge to simply pounce on them.
Fortunately, while her reason was crumbling, a sliver of it remained.
Cui Lingyao clenched her hands into fists. The pain of her nails digging into her palms helped her struggle to stay calm.
'An unfamiliar place, unfamiliar men, and an aphrodisiac coursing through her veins. She couldn't trust any of them.'