Volume 3, Chapter 399 – What Are You Afraid to Look At?

“Sister…” Lu Zhuxin stared blankly at Chi Xiyan.

Chi Xiyan let out a heavy sigh, “I do not need you to take risks… You are my sister, I can protect you forever…”

“I do not want you to continue with the consort selection… I am also afraid you will run into danger like today’s again…”

Lu Zhuxin’s expression paused slightly, “But, sister… Cheng Yinyin has already been caught. She cannot threaten us anymore…”

“Even if the Qian family finds out later and wants revenge, by then we will have already left Shuyuan Commandery…”

“No…” Chi Xiyan shook her head, “The Qian family could never pose any real threat to us to begin with.”

“But… if we continue with the consort selection… the dangerous people we run into will not be limited to just Cheng Yinyin…”

“For instance…” Chi Xiyan looked at Lu Zhuxin with a solemn expression, “Wei Ziqing, the Noble Consort Wei, he is a very dangerous person…”

Lu Zhuxin asked in confusion, “Wei Ziqing? What about him?”

“Little Xue’er…” Chi Xiyan looked at the girl before her, whose face wore such an innocent, naive expression. “You trust people far too easily.”

“Do not think that just because Wei Ziqing let you pass the selection, he is a good person.”

Chi Xiyan paused for a moment, then continued, “He is the chief judge of the consort selection, and at the same time, the Empress’s Noble Consort.”

“Within the harem, all sorts of factions vie for power, fighting each other openly and in secret, more times than can be counted… For him to rise above a group of the most exceptional talents and become Noble Consort, it cannot possibly be just because of his looks.”

The corner of Lu Zhuxin’s eye twitched.

Exceptional looks? That little bastard?

Well, fine, he was decent looking, she supposed.

Not knowing what Lu Zhuxin was thinking, Chi Xiyan continued, “A person like that would not show us goodwill for no reason at all.”

“Him acting this way, he must have some other agenda.”

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“Muxue… we have hidden our identities to take part in this selection…”

“Before we see the Empress, we cannot let anyone find out who we truly are.”

“The forces behind Wei Ziqing are far too tangled and complex. He is too dangerous… If he were to find out who we really are…”

“Muxue…” Chi Xiyan gripped Lu Zhuxin’s shoulders tightly, “I cannot be certain I could still protect you in front of him…”

There was one thing Chi Xiyan did not say.

When she had fully released her cultivation as a fourth realm sword cultivator, she had glanced at Wei Ziqing’s reaction.

Wei Ziqing had been surprised by her cultivation level, yet there had not been a trace of panic in him.

In his eyes, a fourth realm sword cultivator might surprise him, but it was not enough to pose a real threat to him.

“Sister…” Lu Zhuxin gently pressed her hand against Chi Xiyan’s wrist.

No one understood Wei Ziqing’s true nature better than she did.

But right now, Wei Ziqing did not matter at all.

She lowered her eyes slightly and said in a soft voice, “Does sister always think of me as a little child?”

“What?” Chi Xiyan was startled.

“Sister…” Lu Zhuxin said, “You always forget, my age is about the same as yours. In terms of age, Cheng Yinyin is even younger than I am…”

“But sister always treats me like a little child…”

“Sister takes care of me so thoroughly, protects me so completely, as if I were a porcelain doll that would shatter the moment a breeze blew past…”

“Sister, I am not that fragile, and I am not that foolish!”

Lu Zhuxin lifted her chin and looked at Chi Xiyan.

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“I deceived my way close to Cheng Yinyin, not only to deal with the trouble she posed…”

“But also to prove to sister that I am not some pet who cannot survive without her sister’s protection!”

Chi Xiyan’s lips moved. “But, you were nearly caught just now…”

She had been about to refute Lu Zhuxin’s words, to point out that this girl had almost fallen for Cheng Yinyin’s trap just moments ago.

Lu Zhuxin’s expression darkened. She said nothing. Instead, she reached her hand straight toward her own collar.

“Wait! What are you doing! Do not take it off!” Chi Xiyan grabbed at Lu Zhuxin’s hand in a panic.

The Northern Snow Serpent Silk on her body had long since dissolved, all its color faded away.

That dress was already as thin and transparent as a cicada’s wing.

However, Chi Xiyan was still a step too late.

Lu Zhuxin had already undone the cloak Chi Xiyan had draped over her.

“Sister, look!”

“No… you cannot…” Chi Xiyan stumbled back two steps in a panic.

She raised her gaze, not daring to look down.

Even calling themselves sisters, Chi Xiyan did not dare look at her sister’s body now.

That was a desire she kept pressed down in the depths of her heart, a red line she could never cross.

To look would be a sin.

Lu Zhuxin had already guessed what Chi Xiyan was thinking.

She stepped forward twice, closing the distance, and caught hold of Chi Xiyan, who kept retreating.

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“Sister! Look at me!”

Lu Zhuxin cupped Chi Xiyan’s face in her hands, forcefully turning her gaze back.

She said seriously, “Sister, why can you not even bring yourself to glance down for a moment?”

“What exactly… are you so afraid of?”

Chi Xiyan felt as though she could barely breathe.

Lu Zhuxin was so close to her, a warm, sweet fragrance lingering at the tip of her nose.

As long as she kept breathing, there was no escaping that alluring scent that filled her with fear and panic.

She was afraid.

She truly did not dare.

The girl telling her to look down felt like being subjected to torture.

A blade called morality kept pressing down relentlessly on her reason.

“Muxue, do not do this…” Chi Xiyan said hoarsely, a faint, barely concealed note of pleading in her voice.

Why did this woman have to be so difficult whenever she got stubborn like this!

Lu Zhuxin cursed silently in her heart.

She bit her lip lightly and reached out to hook her hand behind Chi Xiyan’s head.

“Sister! Look!”

Under Lu Zhuxin’s forceful insistence, Chi Xiyan’s gaze drifted uncontrollably toward the girl’s fair, delicate body.

Beneath that dress, transparent as a cicada’s wing, was a healthy tint of pink.

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Chi Xiyan felt as if her heart had been scalded.

But very soon, she noticed something was off.

All she could truly see was that faint pink hue, nothing else at all.

Chi Xiyan felt puzzled. “This is…”

“Sister…” Lu Zhuxin let out a soft, wistful sigh, “Since I already knew Cheng Yinyin harbored ill intentions, how could I possibly not have prepared for it?”

As she spoke, Lu Zhuxin reached up again and undid her own collar.

This time, Chi Xiyan saw it clearly.

Beneath the translucent dress, the girl before her had another layer of pink gauze padded underneath.

The gauze was very thin, yet thin enough to conceal the girl’s delicate body.

Lu Zhuxin continued, “I was not certain exactly what Cheng Yinyin had done to the dress, nor was I certain what method she might use to harm me.”

“To earn her trust, I could not change into a different set of clothes.”

“So, to prevent her from poisoning the dress, I wore this thin gauze underneath. With this layer of gauze covering me, even if she truly had poisoned the dress, it would not have affected me at all.”

Having said this, Lu Zhuxin gave a wry laugh, “I just never expected that Cheng Yinyin’s plan would be to make my dress dissolve and fade instead.”

“So that is how it was…” Chi Xiyan looked at the dress on Lu Zhuxin’s body, at a loss for words.

She truly had not expected that her own sister had already prepared a countermeasure ahead of time.

“Then, sister…” Lu Zhuxin suddenly lifted her head, her gaze burning as she looked at Chi Xiyan, “Why were you so afraid to look down at me just now?”

“Did you think… I was going to let you see?”