In the end, it was Jing Sanchai who got dead drunk.

Before passing out, Jing Sanchai grabbed Feng Rugu's hand and placed his left hand on top of it: "...The key to the Thousand Mechanism Court... keep it for me..."

Feng Rugu looked at his palm and saw a green jade peony imprint, right in the center of his palm.

The peony was the emblem of the Jing family, world-renowned for their mechanical arts. The green jade peony was Jing Sanchai's personal symbol.

Even though Young Master Jing had a falling out with his father and left the Jing family, vowing not to return and inherit the family fortune until he made a name for himself, he still had to stamp this imprint on the mechanisms he created.

This was an inviolable rule passed down through generations of the Jing family.

Feng Rugu examined the peony imprint in his palm under the moonlight as he carried Jing Sanchai back to his room on his back.

Jing Sanchai slapped Feng Rugu's palm from behind, slurring: "What are you looking at? Be careful or it will get stuck in your eyes."

Feng Rugu teased him: "If you don't want me to look, why give it to me?"

Jing Sanchai put his arm around Feng Rugu's neck: "In case it's accidentally triggered, there will be dead bodies all over the place tomorrow morning, hard to clean up."

Feng Rugu nodded slightly, no longer looking at the key. Instead, he started examining the entire courtyard: "Now that you've given me the key... I wonder how much this courtyard can sell for."

Jing Sanchai mumbled: "You wouldn't dare."

"I would."

"Damn you, when I pin you down and beat you, you'll..."

At this point, Jing Sanchai paused for a moment, as if suddenly remembering something important. He punched Feng Rugu's shoulder angrily: "Damn, I forgot, I can't beat you."

Feng Rugu nearly fell to the ground from this punch, staggering two or three steps forward.

But he quickly straightened his back, as if the misstep just now was merely due to being drunk and unsteady on his feet.

The moonlight reflected off the fine beads of sweat on his forehead, making them glimmer.

After finally getting Jing Sanchai to the main house with great difficulty, Feng Rugu saw that he was sound asleep. He leaned against a weeping willow on one side, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and panted for a while.

After helping Jing Sanchai into bed, simply changing his clothes, cooling some strong tea and placing it by the bedside, Feng Rugu looked at him enviously before closing the door and leaving.

Feng Rugu envied Jing Sanchai because it wasn't that he didn't want to get drunk, but that he couldn't.

Under the silver moonlight, Feng Rugu pulled open the front of his robe and looked down at the budding green lotus extending to his left chest.

This was personally drawn by his senior brother, connecting all the meridians in his body, infusing the purifying spirit of plants, able to neutralize poisons and sober him up from alcohol. Ordinary poisons couldn't affect him, and if he did get dead drunk, he would quickly regain consciousness.

For the past ten years, he had been this clear-headed.

In the end, he could only resort to drugs to obtain a rare moment of muddled intoxication.

He sat down in the corridor, took out his pipe, and exhaled a thin mist towards the moon.

That night, Feng Rugu had another dream.

Perhaps it was because seeing his old friend today stirred up memories, but this time his dream was very peaceful.

He dreamed of his fourteen-year-old self.

The fourteen-year-old Feng Rugu had his feet tied with a vine and was hanging upside down from a willow tree.

He had a slender waist but was strong. He swung himself back and forth like a swing, making the whole tree creak and groan.

A brown-furred squirrel took advantage of his busyness to slide down his calf, landing between his legs, then swiftly slid all the way to the bottom, grabbed his hanging long hair, and imitating him, swung back and forth like a swing.

Feng Rugu thrust his body again: "Junior Sister Yan, I gave you the squirrel, not for you to let it bite my hair."

Yan Jiangnan, dressed in white, walked up to him with interest, observing him.

Yan Jiangnan's clothes were plain and her name elegant, but they couldn't suppress the rare vivid beauty of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl, full of the plump vitality of a fresh apple. Aware of her own beauty, she carried an unaffected charm.

She laughed loudly: "Little Senior Brother, why are you up in the tree again?"

Feng Rugu: "A senior brother is a senior brother. I'm just two months younger than you, yet you keep calling me Little Senior Brother, how rude."

With that, he swung again.

This time it was effective. He finally managed to grab the tree branch, sit up on it, and tried to untie the bindings at his ankles.

Who would have thought that the vine seemed to have a life of its own? As soon as Feng Rugu lightly touched it, it fiercely coiled and flung—

Feng Rugu let out a yell and tumbled down again, once more hanging upside down.

Seeing the vine, Yan Jiangnan became even more certain: "How did you offend Master's wife this time?"

"It was just a joke," Feng Rugu gave up, spreading his arms and swaying in the breeze, aggrieved. "Master's wife is too petty."

Yan Jiangnan: "What did you say?"

Feng Rugu: "I merely said while drinking with Master that Master indeed favors me the most, and Master's wife overheard it, that's all."

Yan Jiangnan: "..."

Feng Rugu turned his face to the side: "...After getting drunk, I had a sword match with Master... It was Master who told me to use the newly forged 'Yesterday' and 'Today' to duel him. As a result, I accidentally chipped the jeweled dagger Master's wife gave to Master."

Yan Jiangnan was stunned for a moment.

Although their Master's wife Meng Chongguang had exceptional spiritual power, her foundation in immortal cultivation was oddly poor, especially unskilled in weapon forging. That jeweled dagger was a gift she gave to their Master for his birthday this year. It was said she spent five years painstakingly making it, wasting rooms full of precious ores she gathered herself, and finally managed to forge a dagger that somewhat resembled a dagger.

...To put it bluntly, it was just a decorative item.

Yan Jiangnan said mercilessly: "Serves you right. Wait for your punishment."