Volume 3, Chapter 274 – Are You Taking It Out on Her?

“ Tch …”

“That little wolf hits hard…”

Lu Zhuxin raised her hand and wiped the sweet, metallic taste from the corner of her mouth.

She wasn’t sure whether to marvel at how fragile a fox demon’s body was, or how powerful the wolf clan’s grip could be.

“Though it’s a good thing she ran when she did. Any longer and things would have gotten troublesome.” Lu Zhuxin raised her hand and touched the side of her neck.

Where her fingers landed, it was ice cold. Like a layer of frost had crystallized over the skin.

If she hadn’t stopped when she did, Lu Zhuxin felt she might have been frozen solid.

Bu Lianshuang had grabbed her clothes, thrown them over herself, and bolted.

She didn’t leave the courtyard, though. She ran straight to her own room.

As a personal maid, her room was right next door to Lu Zhuxin’s.

So after bursting out of Lu Zhuxin’s room, Bu Lianshuang turned a single corner and was inside.

What she likely didn’t know, however, was this.

Between a personal maid’s room and the mistress’s room, there was a small connecting door.

With a door like that, the mistress could enter the maid’s room at any time, and the maid could more easily attend to the mistress at all hours.

That was the nature of a live-in maid’s quarters.

Bu Lianshuang didn’t seem to have realized this.

And so she also didn’t know that Lu Zhuxin, on the other side of that small door, could hear every one of her sobs with perfect clarity.

Just as her low, furious muttering carried cleanly into Lu Zhuxin’s ears.

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“The eighteenth concubine! Who does she think I am?! Some woman who just throws herself at anyone?!”

“ Wuu …”

“Why would she treat me like that…”

“Why does she have to single me out to bully…”

“ Wuu …”

Lu Zhuxin listened to the muffled crying seeping through from next door and gave a soft click of her tongue.

“My, my… crying that hard, is she…”

Lu Zhuxin thought back to the moment that girl had shoved her away. The tear track on her cheek. And those deep blue eyes, full of fury and heartache.

That heartache had come from love turned to rage.

Bu Lianshuang was the second girl Lu Zhuxin had made cry.

But this time was different from the last.

[Host, is what you’re doing a way of taking your anger out on Bu Lianshuang?]

[Are you using her to vent?]

This System 03, coming out at a time like this.

“Wrong assessment.” Lu Zhuxin said with a light laugh. “What I wanted was to use her to satisfy a craving. Once you’ve done something like that once, it’s hard to say no to a second time.”

“I’ve been holding it in for a long time. It’s been uncomfortable.”

“But unfortunately…” Lu Zhuxin tapped a finger against the side of her neck where the sword cultivator’s mark was buried. “Someone doesn’t want me doing that…”

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[The System can help Host remove the sword cultivator’s mark. It would only require a small price on your part.]

“In exchange for Song Shiyuan’s life, right?” Lu Zhuxin said. “I don’t understand what makes that worth bringing up over and over again. What kind of price is that supposed to be?”

[Host, a female lead who has been conquered will have her heavenly fortune stripped away. She holds no further use for you.]

[But a female lead in that state carries something the System needs.]

[Trading something that holds no value to you anymore for something you need. The System believes this is a transaction with no losses.]

“Ha. No thank you.” Lu Zhuxin cut her off. “I said it before. I have no need to make that kind of deal.”

[Host, why not?]

[Is it because the one being traded is Song Shiyuan?]

There was something odd in the System’s voice.

[Is Song Shiyuan someone special to you?]

“Special? There’s nothing special about her.” Lu Zhuxin said. “She’s just one of the female leads I need to conquer. And she won’t be the last.”

“That’s all there is to it.”

[Oh…]

The System made a sound that was hard to read, then fell back into silence.

Lu Zhuxin noticed that this System 03 was far quieter than Ming Zhaoxi.

Ming Zhaoxi was always loud and pestering, always showing up to cause trouble for her. Endlessly annoying.

System 03, while she had nudged Lu Zhuxin toward conquering Bu Lianshuang, hadn’t made her preferences nearly so obvious.

Still, there was one thing System 03 had gotten right.

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Lu Zhuxin was indeed venting.

Bu Lianshuang’s on-and-off crying stretched on through the entire night.

Listening to it, Lu Zhuxin didn’t sleep either.

By the time the sky began to lighten the next morning, Lu Zhuxin sensed someone approaching.

She opened her eyes where she lay on the bed.

Her clothes were still the same as the night before. Even during the whole affair with Bu Lianshuang, she hadn’t taken them off.

She climbed out of bed and got to the courtyard gate one step ahead of the visitor.

Standing outside was Chi Xiyan.

Chi Xiyan looked at Lu Zhuxin, a flicker of surprise crossing her eyes.

She fixed her gaze on Lu Zhuxin and looked her over from head to toe. Those narrowed eyes looked as though they wanted to see straight through her.

Having looked after this girl for so many days, Chi Xiyan was well acquainted with her lazy, good-for-nothing habits. She hadn’t expected her to be up this early.

“It seems having a personal maid really has changed you.” Chi Xiyan said, studying Lu Zhuxin with a measured look. “This is the first time I’ve seen you up this early, fully dressed.”

“Sister is teasing me.” Lu Zhuxin said. “It was Sister who mentioned yesterday that she’d take me to start cultivating.”

“The thought of becoming a cultivator like Sister kept me too excited to sleep.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Chi Xiyan replied. “You’ve already missed the ideal age to begin cultivating. Even gathering spiritual energy will be a challenge for you. Don’t aim too high.”

Lu Zhuxin nodded obediently. “I understand, Sister.”

“You really are something…” Chi Xiyan reached out quite naturally and smoothed the stray strands of hair on top of Lu Zhuxin’s head. “Even your hairpiece is crooked. Don’t tell me you slept with your accessories on?”

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In the room next door, Bu Lianshuang, who had been crying all night, had already heard them the moment they began speaking.

She had been about to push the door open, but stopped when she saw it was Chi Xiyan outside.

Now, through the thin paper of the window, Bu Lianshuang had a clear view of the scene outside.

Her pale fists clenched again.

She could see it. Chi Xiyan was straightening Lu Zhuxin’s rumpled clothes and hair with easy familiarity.

And her little fox was smiling up at her with the sweetest smile Bu Lianshuang had ever seen from her.

That smile. That natural, effortless closeness. The little fox had never once given her anything like it.

Bu Lianshuang’s fists tightened again. Her sharp nails bit into her palms, sending sharp stabs of pain through her hands.

But a physical sting like that wasn’t even a fraction of the ache festering inside her chest.

What the little fox gave that human girl was sweetness and warmth.

What she gave Bu Lianshuang was only humiliation and cruelty.

Why? Just because she came first?

In the courtyard, Chi Xiyan let her gaze sweep, without any obvious movement, across Bu Lianshuang’s firmly closed door.

Then she asked, quite casually, “By the way, where is Lan Shuang’er? I don’t see her.”

“She’s your personal maid. You’re already up, and she still isn’t?”

“What kind of maid lets her mistress rise before her?”

“Do the maids from Five Immortals House really have no sense of propriety at all?”