Volume 3, Chapter 314 – You Like Her, Don’t You?

A thin door panel. Like two worlds divided.

Outside the door was the dead of winter. Cold enough to cut to the bone.

Inside the door was blazing warmth, and rain that fell soft and endless.

Lu Zhuxin had no idea how long Chi Xiyan had been putting her through her paces.

Once this girl had crossed the line she never should have crossed, she had let herself go completely.

At the start, she had been nervous and clumsy.

Like a ferryman who had just arrived at an unfamiliar stretch of water, not yet acquainted with the current or the terrain.

When the bamboo pole first met the water, she didn’t dare push too hard.

She needed to feel her way slowly. First easing the pole into the water, stirring it gently, testing whether the current ran fast or slow.

Then applying steady pressure, letting the pole sink into the muddy riverbed below, and gauging the depth from the resistance she felt.

After that, one firm push, and the pole could reach all the way down to the deepest heart of the river.

Punting a boat was not a matter of brute force. It was a matter of finesse.

Push the pole in. Draw it out. Stir the water. Repeat in rhythm.

Chi Xiyan’s movements grew more and more practiced as time went on.

As the heaven-mandated heroine, she had a natural gift for this kind of thing too.

Once she had found her rhythm, she could fully command the force and direction of the pole. She steered the little boat wherever she pleased, freely charting her own course.

The soft sounds from her passenger were the finest praise her punting technique could have received.

After the thunder and the storm had passed, a soft, steady rain fell over the boat.

Chi Xiyan wiped the sweat from her brow.

She caught her breath and rested a while, then gently dried the rain from her fellow passenger.

Rеαԁ οո KаtReaⅾіոɡCаfе

Once she confirmed that Lu Zhuxin’s body temperature had gradually returned to normal and her breathing had steadied, Chi Xiyan let out a quiet breath of relief.

The aphrodisiac had been purged.

There had been an element of gambling to it, but the detoxification had succeeded.

Exhausted, Chi Xiyan lay down beside Lu Zhuxin, turning her face to stroke Lu Zhuxin’s cheek.

Perhaps for the girl in front of her, this was not a first. But for Chi Xiyan, it had been.

Having set aside the moral repulsion, Chi Xiyan found that she did not dislike the feeling.

In fact, she liked it. Just a little.

The girl beside her was like an adorable doll, soft and delicate, sweet and yielding.

She could arrange her into any position she desired.

The lightest pressure of her fingers could draw out the most charming little sounds from her throat.

If she eased off even slightly, the girl would rub against her in discontent, pressing for more tenderness.

She was really… Too adorable.

Chi Xiyan gently traced Lu Zhuxin’s lips with her fingertip.

That rosy color, like lips that had just been dabbed with rouge.

She wondered what they tasted like.

Staring at that faint blush, Chi Xiyan pressed her own lips together and slowly shifted closer across the bed.

She wanted to kiss her.

To kiss her adorable little sister.

Just a little closer, and she would be able to press her lips to that tempting mouth.

Reαԁ οn ΚatRеαԁinɡСαfе

But. No.

Chi Xiyan stopped herself. She lowered her gaze.

Tonight’s events had been a mistake in the first place.

Chi Muxue was her little sister. As the elder sister, how could she do something like this, something that defied every natural order, with her own sibling?

Just now had been to cure the poison. It had been unavoidable.

But now the poison was gone. How could she allow this mistake to go any further?

That thought made Chi Xiyan bite down lightly on her own lip.

The small sting of it drove away the thoughts that had no business being in her head.

The poison was gone. Remaining in this bed was itself already another mistake.

Chi Xiyan rose from the bed. She looked at Lu Zhuxin, sleeping sweetly, with a complicated gaze.

She gripped the bedsheet, as though steeling herself for some decision. The determination returned to her eyes.

She leaned down, and like a dragonfly barely grazing the surface of the water, pressed a fleeting kiss to Lu Zhuxin’s lips. Then she straightened up quickly.

She pulled the blanket over and laid it gently over Lu Zhuxin. Then she undid the ropes from her wrists.

Barefoot, she gathered the clothes that had been left scattered on the floor and put them back on.

Chi Xiyan walked to the mirror and looked at her reflection.

The face that looked back at her was once again that of the cold and composed First Young Miss of the Chi family.

This was the image she most commonly showed the world.

A brilliant, capable flower growing high on the cliff face. Untouched by worldly desires. Without a single blemish to speak of.

What had happened tonight, only she knew.

Rеαd οn ΚаtReaԁіոɡCafе

It was a secret that belonged to her alone.

…

Bu Lianshuang hugged her own head and curled up pitifully in the corner.

Those sounds she couldn’t bear to hear had stopped at some point, she wasn’t sure when.

But the stinging ache in Bu Lianshuang’s heart had never stopped for a moment.

Why am I still here? Why do I have to go through something like this?

Why does the person I love have to lie in someone else’s arms?

It hurts. My heart hurts so much. I want to cry!

I want to go home!

Creak. Bu Lianshuang noticed the small door beside her swing open.

She lifted her head and found herself looking at Chi Xiyan’s figure.

The moment she saw that face, pain and fury surged up together in Bu Lianshuang’s chest.

She wanted so badly, so badly, to tear that face apart.

To snap those filthy fingers, one by one.

But she knew she couldn’t.

The person in front of her was someone the fox young miss held in regard. If she actually hurt her, the fox young miss would be furious with her.

If the fox young miss’s plans were derailed because of her, she would never be forgiven.

So… She could not harm this woman.

But the hand hidden in Bu Lianshuang’s sleeve clenched silently into a fist.

Rеαⅾ οո KаtRеaԁіnɡСαfе

Her throat felt scorched and raw, as if flames had been dragged through it.

“First Young Miss… is there something you need?”

She had tried her hardest to suppress her emotions, but Bu Lianshuang still felt a deep, aching pain in her chest.

She really, truly wanted to throw everything aside and tear this woman in front of her to pieces.

Chi Xiyan could tell that the person in front of her was not all right.

She was doing her best to hide it, but Chi Xiyan was who she was. A trick this small was never going to fool her eyes.

“You like her, don’t you?”

Bu Lianshuang startled faintly at those words. Then fury erupted inside her.

What did this woman mean by that?

She had taken the fox young miss for herself, and now she had come to gloat in front of me?

What did this woman even think of the fox young miss?!

“First Young Miss…” Bu Lianshuang said through gritted teeth. “This servant doesn’t understand what you mean. This servant is simply the young miss’s personal maidservant.”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not reproaching you.” Chi Xiyan said. “You are a fifth-realm cultivator. That child is still just an ordinary person who has never trained in cultivation.”

“But the way you look at that child is nothing like the way you would look at an ordinary person.”

“Feelings like fondness are things that cannot be hidden.”

Chi Xiyan paused for a moment, then continued. “I understand that feeling now. I speak from experience.”

At those words, the veins on Bu Lianshuang’s beast-claws stood out sharply.

Rage tore through her chest.

Chi Xiyan.

Chi Xiyan.

Chi Xiyan!