After the ghost-hunting master descended the mountain, his fame spread throughout the capital.

Emperor Cangqi dragged Zhou Wanning through the dark corridor connected to the side door of the imperial study, roughly pulling her into the side hall where he occasionally rested.

He flung Zhou Wanning hard, slamming her to the ground.

Zhou Wanning groaned, her wrists and knees throbbing with pain, but she gritted her teeth and remained silent.

She slowly propped herself up, lowered her eyes, and rubbed her wrist, which had quickly become red and swollen.

"explain!"

Emperor Cangqi, like a caged beast utterly enraged, paced back and forth in front of Zhou Wanning a couple of times, then abruptly stopped, looking down at her with a fierce gaze that seemed ready to devour her:

"Who was that person who met you in the palace and gave you those insidious drugs and sorcery concoctions?! Who ordered you to do this?! Was it that old scoundrel Xie Dai?! Speak!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Wanning slowly raised her head. Her face showed no tears, no fear, only indifference and mockery.

She even twitched the corners of her mouth, revealing a smile that could only be described as provocative:

"Nobody helped me." Her voice was clear and calm. "I learned all those things myself."

She paused, her gaze falling on Emperor Cangqi's face, contorted with rage. Her smile deepened, yet it grew icy cold.

"What? Didn't Your Majesty want to investigate? Didn't you want to exterminate my entire family? If you have the guts, kill me now."

Zhou Wanning tilted her head slightly and, in the most innocent tone, slowly delivered the most fatal blow:

"Or is it that...His Majesty is actually reluctant to part with me? Reluctant to part with my face... this face that is almost exactly the same as hers?"

These words, like the sharpest needle, pierced the most festering and untouchable sore in Emperor Cangqi's heart.

His pupils contracted sharply, and his gaze involuntarily fell on Zhou Wanning's face again.

In a daze, the face in front of me with a mocking sneer instantly overlapped with another face deep in my memory, a cold and beautiful face with a hint of disgust.

The same cold gaze, the same mocking smile, the same... treating him as nothing, as dust, as nauseating filth.

"Achu..." He murmured, then was consumed by a fierce rage.

"Why would you betray me too! Why do you look at me like that?!"

Emperor Cangqi suddenly squatted down, losing all imperial demeanor.

He roughly pinched Zhou Wanning's face with one hand, his fingers digging so hard they almost embedded themselves into her flesh.

He stared intently into Zhou Wanning's eyes, as if trying to find the shadow of another person within them.

"I have treated you well! I have given you fine clothes and sumptuous food, and a place to live in peace, so why do you have to leave me like she did! Why?!"

Zhou Wanning's cheek stung from his pinch, but she stubbornly turned her head away, breaking free from his grip, and let out a short, cold laugh:

"You've treated me well?" She repeated those four words as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world. "My father, Zhou Xian, was corrupt and lawless, and he treated human life like dirt. You executed him, and he deserved it. I may resent you, but I have never hated you."

"I originally thought I would be banished to the cold palace, or even executed... It was you who took me out of the Ministry of Justice prison and brought me into that secret room that was more terrifying than a cage."

For a moment, her eyes were dazed, as if she had returned to that desperate night.

At that time, her family was destroyed, her future was ruined, and she was like a frightened bird. Emperor Cangqi was the only person who could decide her life or death and give her a glimmer of hope.

"Back then... I even felt a sliver of gratitude and attraction towards you. I thought I was special to you."

As Zhou Wanning said this, the coldness in her eyes was replaced by hatred: "But you shouldn't have... treated me as a substitute for her!"

"When you look at me, you call her name! When you touch me, you think of her face! You keep me around just to have a face that resembles hers, a doll you can manipulate to fill your insane fantasies!"

Upon hearing this, Emperor Cangqi roared like a wild beast whose tail had been stepped on, "To be her substitute is your honor! It's a favor I bestow upon you! A favor that many would beg for! You should be grateful!"

"Grace? Honor? Hahaha..." Zhou Wanning seemed to have heard the funniest joke. She threw her head back and laughed loudly. Her laughter echoed in the empty side hall, mournful and tragic.

"Hahahaha!" She stopped laughing. "All I know is that, like Ah Chu, every moment I'm by your side, I see your self-deceiving face and feel your touch..."

Zhou Wanning spoke slowly and deliberately, using all her strength to utter that final, piercing sentence:

"It all makes me feel incredibly disgusted! It's utterly repulsive!"

"Snapped!"

A loud slap landed hard on Zhou Wanning's face.

The force was so great that it turned her head to the side, her hair became disheveled, and clear red marks from five fingers instantly appeared on her fair cheek, with a trace of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.

Zhou Wanning braced herself against the cold ground with her elbows to steady herself.

He then slowly turned his head, raised the back of his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. Instead of crying or begging for mercy, he laughed even more heartily and unrestrainedly, his eyes filled with icy coldness.

"Haha... Well done! That's all you've got!" She stared at Emperor Cangqi, each word like a poisoned dagger, stabbing him viciously.

"Do you really think I know nothing? You keep this face of mine, this body... for whom? For that Ah Chu you can't have, that you won't let go of even in death, isn't it?"

She gasped for breath, her chest heaving, and continued, "What a pity... what a pity. This body you see now, this skin you touch, isn't mine at all! I'm just a cuckoo in a cage, occupying the body of a woman named Ke Chunhua!"

"Only this face... this face that you both love and hate, truly belongs to me, Zhou Wanning!"

Emperor Cangqi's furious expression froze for a moment. He stared at Zhou Wanning, then suddenly laughed, a low, twisted laugh carrying a chilling coldness that sent shivers down one's spine.

"Of course I know..." He spoke slowly, taking a step forward, his shadow completely enveloping Zhou Wanning, who had fallen to the ground. "This body... is not yours."

Emperor Cangqi reached out, his cool fingertips gently brushing against Zhou Wanning's swollen cheek, but his eyes were greedy and burning, as if he were examining a treasure that was about to be obtained.

"However, this body has already had its soul replaced once..."

His voice was extremely low, carrying an icy chill:

"Then you can change it a second time."