867 Hair (1/2)

King An was around forty years old, but he looked like an old man in his sixties or seventies. Lying in bed, he was unable to sleep. Every time he was about to fall asleep, he would see visions of an army breaking into the royal palace of the An Kingdom, and soldiers with sabers and swords were coming after him, who was the real king.

He was concerned because there was an increasing number of people who didn't regard him as the true King An.

His mother, a Central-Plains princess whose parentage was ambiguous, had selected someone else to be the new king with the support of the Dragon King. He had thought that this was just a temporary setback, but things didn't go the way he wanted. The Dragon King's armies grew stronger with each passing day, and it seemed as if his exile would never end.

King An once again dreamed of being killed and he abruptly woke up in a cold sweat. Even as he tried to console himself, he suddenly discovered that someone was crouching down beside the window. He rubbed his eyes and confirmed that it was indeed a living person who was peeping outside, their back to him.

King An felt his heart stop beating and even his blood felt like it had coagulated.

”Don't… Don't kill me. I surrender… ” These few words cost King An all his strength.

”Shh.” The figure below the window turned their head back and signaled him to be quiet.

King An immediately recognized her. She was that eccentric woman who had recently taken up residence in his mansion. ”Han… Han Xuan? Is that you?”

”I told you to be quiet. Why aren't you listening?” Han Xuan said impatiently, as if she were rebuking a disobedient child.

King An was a little afraid of her. Whenever he saw someone who dared to look him in the eye, he would think of the lost throne: when he had been powerful, nobody dared to look at him in this way.

But now, people wouldn't respect him even in his own bedroom.

Han Xuan kept peeping outside. King An lay quietly in bed, attentively opening his ears. It was totally quiet outside. He couldn't help but ask in an extremely low voice, ”What're you doing here?”

A thought flashed across his mind. 'Is this a sexual encounter?' But he soon discarded this speculation. He was in exile and held little appeal for women. Han Xuan was also not his type. 'If she were the other woman who's staying here… ” King An thought for a moment before he hurriedly restrained his wild thoughts.

Han Xuan sighed in annoyance. She turned around, slowly walked to the side of the bed, and whispered, ”I'm trying to hide from someone.”

King An's heart lurched. He instantly forgot about his former two reservations: Han Xuan was not pretty, but neither was she too ugly. If he ignored the impolite look in her eyes, she would become even prettier. As for his exile – if King An was not in exile, then a common woman wouldn't even have had a chance to seduce him.

'I still have a chance to take back what used to belong to me.' King An, who had been shivering in fear all this time, suddenly became highly confident. 'Hasn't Waning Moon Hall promised this to me? Han Xuan doesn't even count as a visionary woman. She must've have heard something in advance.'

King An stretched out his arm. He had already thought of an excuse to give afterwards: he was the king, and she was a maidservant. He would miss her and take care of her, but he couldn't bring her into the palace.

Too many thoughts were flying through his head so his reflexes became slower. It was not until King An grasped out for the third times that he discovered that his wrist had been firmly grabbed by Han Xuan. His hand was only several inches away from the target, but it couldn't move any closer.

”What are you doing?” Han Xuan asked, feeling that King An was acting very strangely tonight.

”Don't be shy. I'll make a princess of you.” King An instantly forgot the excuse he had just come up with. Even as his wrist was tightly under her control, he suddenly felt that Han Xuan was very charming.

”I'm not shy,” Han Xuan said. After thinking for a while, she had finally understood what ”make a princess of you” meant.

Han Xuan was indeed not shy. King An believed that he was about to succeed, but then he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist and his genital area. A piecing shrill shriek had just crawled out of his throat when it was blocked by Han Xuan's other hand.

King An's mouth was firmly covered, and he felt that his right wrist being bound by an iron hoop. His other free hand clutched his crotch as his body curled into the fetal position. He burst into tears, as this was the only way he could vent the great pain.

King An stopped twisting. Han Xuan loosened her grip and asked, ”Do you still want me to be your princess?”

As if waking up from another ”dream”, King An shook his head. ”I don't.”

”Um. Just lie here quietly. Someone's out there.”

King An instantly sat up but Han Xuan pressed him down at once.

”Wh–Who?”

”Someone tough.”

Han Xuan felt this King An was very troublesome, so she took the folded clothes at the end of the bed and used them to gag his mouth and restrain his hands and legs.

King An was totally powerless to resist and he started crying again, but this time it was because he felt humiliated. He missed the small An Kingdom on the southern shore of Xiaoyao Lake even more.

Han Xuan returned to the window, but that strange feeling was gone.

She had an inexplicable intuition towards sensing Waning Moon Hall disciples, and this intuition had always enabled her to detect their existence before she saw them. A hour ago, she had felt this familiar feeling, so she sneaked out of her room to take a look. After sneaking around the mansion, she found that King An's bedroom gave the best signal.

'It is all King An's fault,' she thought. 'This brainless old man ruined my premonition.'

But she still fixed her eyes on the courtyard, especially the room opposite this one. That was Shangguan Shaomin's room, and Shangguan Shaomin was the one she was protecting with all her strength.

Her own lady was not around, so Han Xuan had shifted her desire of protecting someone onto Shangguan Shaomin.

Her intuition of a close by disciple of Waning Moon Hall never came back. Eventually, Han Xuan gave up. She was not as patient as a killer. Ignoring King An's begging, she pushed open the window and went straight outside.

The courtyard was not big, and if Han Xuan used her lightness skills, she could make it to the opposite side in just a couple of leaps, and that was what she did. But when she took the second leap, her intuition resonated again, and it was very intense, as if the courtyard was full of Waning Moon Hall disciples.