Chapter 41

If there was one most beautiful sight in this autumn, it had to be Xie Tinglan.

At least, Ye Rui thought so.

Braving the autumn wind, Ye Rui walked step by step toward the figure as white and pure as snow. It wasn’t until she stopped in front of her that she opened her mouth, only to realize she had forgotten what she meant to say. At that moment, even language seemed to pale. She had never understood why people always said that a brief separation was better than a new marriage; now, Ye Rui understood.

Longing was like a seed. The moment they met again, it took root and began to grow wildly.

“You... what are you doing standing out here?”

In weather this cold, wasn’t this woman afraid of falling ill?

Xie Tinglan could only smile helplessly. Glancing at the luxurious carriage gradually driving past outside, she said softly, “Since when did you become so unromantic?”

Xie Tinglan reached out and took Ye Rui’s hand. That warmth, hot as fire, seared across her palm, and the stiffness in her fingers instantly eased. Feeling the chill in Xie Tinglan’s hand, Ye Rui clasped it back without hesitation and said, “Let’s go inside first. Your fingers are this cold, and you still have the nerve to talk about romance.”

Ye Rui led Xie Tinglan toward Tinglan Pavilion. Ri Xi, who had just come out of the side hall, couldn’t help smiling; she was still holding the hand warmer Xie Tinglan had used earlier.

Knowing Ye Rui would return today, Xie Tinglan had long ago ordered people to keep watch in the city, and the moment Ye Rui entered, someone came to report it. Not long before they reached the Xie residence, Xie Tinglan had come out of the main hall, where six braziers had been burning, handed the hand warmer to Ri Xi, and stood alone beneath the tree to wait.

When had Ri Xi ever seen Xie Tinglan like this?

But this was certainly not a bad thing. Perhaps Ye Rui’s arrival could give Xie Tinglan a little more hope of living, even if only a little. A little, or even half a little, would all be good.

She had just stepped out of the side hall when Gong Yinzhi emerged from somewhere, saying, “I don’t understand. Why didn’t my lady tell Ye Rui about her origins earlier?”

“What happened when Wangshu Sect pursued Yu Luoying back then—who knows whether that will become Ye Rui’s burden. I’m also afraid Ye Rui will think my lady is using her.”

Ri Xi’s thoughts were sharp. Xie Tinglan might not say it, but as long as she thought a little harder, she could understand Xie Tinglan’s mind. In the end, it was just that she cared too much.

The Xie Tinglan of the past had no weakness; everything she did left no room for retreat, as if she had no more concerns and could die with composure at any moment. But after Ye Rui appeared, Ri Xi realized Xie Tinglan had changed. She had become soft. Whether the appearance of that weakness was a blessing or a curse, even she did not know.

On this stormy and unpredictable court, wolves waited in front and tigers behind; everyone wanted Xie Tinglan dead. One small mistake would mean utter ruin.

“Ye Rui doesn’t seem to remember Yu Luoying at all, so maybe she doesn’t care much about those old matters either. My lady is worrying too much.”

After hearing Gong Yinzhi, Ri Xi sighed. “When you care, you get confused.”

Gong Yinzhi pressed her lips together. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand; it was only that, as something of an outsider, she still wasn’t as meticulous and clear as Ri Xi.

“Right. Why are you here?”

Ri Xi remembered Gong Yinzhi had gone out early this morning to handle business. She didn’t know when she’d returned to the residence. If she hadn’t sensed Gong Yinzhi’s aura when she came close just now, the hidden weapon in her sleeve would already have drawn blood.

“I... bought you something.”

Ri Xi was stunned. She watched as the hand hidden behind Gong Yinzhi’s back reached out to her, revealing a paper-wrapped parcel. Even before it was opened, a faint osmanthus fragrance could already be smelled.

“Osmanthus wine cake?”

“Mm.”

Gong Yinzhi handed over the parcel. Beneath her mask, it was impossible to tell what expression she wore, but Ri Xi still noticed the slight inward draw of her shoulders.

“I remembered... you like this. Last time at Baihe Tower, you ate the most of it.”

Gong Yinzhi took the parcel back. There was a smile in her brows and eyes, and the tip of her foot unconsciously moved closer, though her emotions remained restrained.

“Yinzhi.”

“Mm?”

“I haven’t seen your face in a long time.”

After Ri Xi said this, Gong Yinzhi raised a hand, hooked her fingers beneath the edge of the mask, and slowly took it off. A face as pure as a clear moon and fresh wind appeared before Ri Xi. Her bearing was elegant as a chrysanthemum, bright as a clear sky, her eyes cold and distant; the slight upward curve of her lips always seemed to carry a smile. Who could possibly imagine that such a refined and gentle beauty was the ruthless demon who killed without blinking?

Gong Yinzhi was already thirty-five, yet time seemed never to leave a trace on her face.

Ri Xi stared blankly at Gong Yinzhi’s face. In the midday sunlight, her beautiful eyes shimmered with reflected light, mirroring that refined and elegant countenance.

“It suddenly reminded me of the day you brought me back to Wuming.”

As Ri Xi spoke, Gong Yinzhi lifted a hand and put her mask back on. Back then, Gong Yinzhi had also been wearing a mask, only half of one, and Ri Xi had asked why she wore it.

Gong Yinzhi had said that her face looked too kind and should not be a face stained with blood.

Back then, Ri Xi had laughed and said, perhaps you’re kind by nature.

Gong Yinzhi had not responded at the time, her expression half-smiling and half-not, neither agreeing nor denying. She had only said that Ri Xi was just a young girl who had never seen the wider world and did not know her true nature; she didn’t know how much blood had stained the ancient qin Frost-Flower Will on her back.

Sunlight spilled over the fox-shaped mask Gong Yinzhi wore. Ri Xi couldn’t see her expression, but felt she must be smiling at that moment.

“Do you still think I’m kind now?” Gong Yinzhi asked, her gaze burning as she looked at Ri Xi. The girl who had once crossed the gates of death in confusion had now become the steadiest person by Xie Tinglan’s side.

“Kind.”

Ri Xi came back to herself and walked with Gong Yinzhi toward the Smoky Cloud Courtyard. “The world only knows Xie the wolf, but not those fiends and monsters. How many innocent lives have we both taken?”

“In my eyes, you’re still the same person who once spared no effort to save a girl and a boy, who kept playing until her fingers split open, and still dared to contend with power and with heaven.”

After Ri Xi said this, a warm hand took hers. The touch made Ri Xi shiver all over. She didn’t pull away, but her breathing fell out of rhythm in helpless confusion.

“My hands... aren’t only for playing the qin.”

Gong Yinzhi said this a little awkwardly. Ri Xi said nothing, only lifting her gaze toward the sky without realizing it.

Today’s autumn colors were beautiful beyond measure; so beautiful they made the heart tremble and the eyes blur.

**

In the study, Ye Rui lowered her head and wrapped her hands around Xie Tinglan’s cold fingers. She could feel Xie Tinglan’s gaze resting on her the entire time, and because of that, she didn’t dare look up.

They had only been apart for about ten days, yet Ye Rui hadn’t expected that even a single glance would be enough to make her heart flutter. If she showed even the slightest embarrassment, Xie Tinglan would surely find some elegant new way to tease her again.

“You’re planning to stay silent forever?”

Xie Tinglan withdrew her hand. Her cold index finger rested under Ye Rui’s chin, forcing her to raise her head and meet those moist eyes.

Ye Rui didn’t know why tears had suddenly welled up. Her chest just tightened, and when she met Xie Tinglan’s gaze, the tears came on their own.

“I...”

Her voice was hoarse. The words “I miss you” just wouldn’t come out; some inexplicable embarrassment kept her from saying anything affectionate.

“Spacing out like that. Don’t tell me Mu Xue stole your soul?”

Xie Tinglan raised an eyebrow. Ye Rui’s earlier heart-pounding instantly vanished, and she glared at Xie Tinglan. “If you’re jealous, just say so. You have to say I lost my soul.”

Ye Rui turned around and sat in her usual seat. After huffing once, she pulled over the bundle she had brought back. Taking out the tea and wine she had specially bought for Xie Tinglan, she said, “For you.”

Xie Tinglan drew the tea and wine Ye Rui had placed on the table toward her and looked them over carefully before smiling. “You spent quite a bit of silver.”

Xie Tinglan knew tea and wine well, so she could tell at a glance whether they were good or not. Hearing that they weren’t cheap, Ye Rui knew she had bought the right thing.

At the very least, they were genuine—and very expensive!

“Then do you want to give me more allowance? Top up my poor little treasury?”

Ye Rui said it with complete confidence, and Xie Tinglan was amused. Smiling, she said, “Rules still have to be followed. If you want a bigger allowance, then fight your way up to first-rank guard.”

Ye Rui pouted in mock dissatisfaction, then laughed again. “Since you deliberately waited for me in the courtyard, I won’t argue with you.”

Hearing this, Xie Tinglan’s ear twitched, and a faint blush crept behind it, warm as if someone had flicked it.

“I have something to tell you.”

As she spoke, a trace of mist-white breath escaped Xie Tinglan’s lips. The weather was getting colder and colder; Ye Rui’s good mood suddenly sank with that breath of stale air. Xie Tinglan’s cold poison could no longer be delayed.

She absolutely couldn’t tell Xie Tinglan about it. If Mu Xue found out and, in a fit of anger, destroyed the medicinal ingredients, it wouldn’t be worth the loss.

She didn’t know how many Longevity Grasses and Yama Flowers existed in this world, but Xie Tinglan was the only one she had; she could not make even one wrong decision.

“Go on.”

Ye Rui pulled the teapot over as well and poured herself a cup of hot tea. Rising steam curled upward, hiding the flash of melancholy in her eyes.

“I want to tell you about something from the past.”

Xie Tinglan slowly set her teacup back on the table, then began in her clear, cool voice: “Twenty years ago, there was an unparalleled martial art in the jianghu called Burning Heart Art. It was passed down to a genius named Yu Luoying by an old senior.”

“He had no sect or school. He was a free and wandering man of the jianghu, but an innocent man is guilty of possessing treasure; as a result, he was targeted by all manner of people in the jianghu.”

A flicker of surprise flashed in Ye Rui’s eyes. Before getting off the carriage, she had just learned this from Mu Xue. Now Xie Tinglan was bringing it up again for no reason. How could that be such a coincidence?

“But no matter what came at him, he met it with water or fire, with blades or fists, relying on his formidable martial arts to make all the various factions in the jianghu come away empty-handed. No matter what, they could not get their hands on the Burning Heart Art.”

When Xie Tinglan told stories, she had a unique charm. Every syllable was captivating, every word piecing together the scenery of the tale and drawing the listener in.

The jianghu was rife with fear and unrest; yet amid all that, there was still love between men and women. Later, Yu Luoying met the love of his life and went into seclusion with her, intending to spend the rest of his days with her. However...

“Once a person has a weakness, they have a vulnerability. Those people from the jianghu used his wife and their infant child to threaten him. Yu Luoying carved a path through a hundred people by force alone and saved his wife and daughter.”

Ye Rui listened with bated breath, shaken to the core as Xie Tinglan spoke of how Yu Luoying, facing overwhelming odds, still pressed forward, fighting bloody battles amid countless jianghu experts, only to ensure his wife and daughter could leave safely.

“Later, Yu Luoying escaped from among those many experts, but everyone said he was gravely wounded and wouldn’t live long. The jianghu experts also suffered heavy casualties in that battle.”

At this point, Xie Tinglan lowered her eyes with some melancholy and said, “Although I was only eight years old back then, so naturally I didn’t take part, Wangshu Sect was involved. Now that I share honor and disgrace with Wangshu Sect, I think I should bear part of this sin as well.”

After hearing this, Ye Rui frowned. “That doesn’t sound like you. Besides, this was the sin of people long dead. What does it have to do with you?”

“If Yu Luoying were your father, would you still say that?”

“I don’t care who he is... wait, what did you just say?!”

Ye Rui was stunned. By the end, her voice had nearly gone out of control. After speaking, she hurriedly covered her mouth and shrank her neck, whispering, “You’re not teasing me again, are you?”

Xie Tinglan did not answer Ye Rui directly. Instead, she continued, “Later, no one knew where Yu Luoying and his wife and daughter went, but Yu Luoying’s corpse was found inside the mountain gate of the Chaoyang Sect, and many of the Chaoyang Sect’s disciples were dead or injured. The scene was tragic.”

“The Chaoyang Sect was also the sect that had once stirred up the jianghu to hunt Yu Luoying, branding him the leader of a demonic cult. In the end, Yu Luoying fought all the way to the Chaoyang Sect with his final breath, intending to drag them down with him.”

Xie Tinglan sighed and shook her head. “It’s a pity that by then, Yu Luoying was already at the end of his rope, and he could not shake the Chaoyang Sect’s foundation. More than that, the backing behind the Chaoyang Sect ran deep; after only a few years, it rose again.”

Ye Rui listened, still shaken, her mind completely seized by what Xie Tinglan had just said—that Yu Luoying was her father. She still had no idea how to react.

Was this... a joke? I actually have a hidden identity too? At least a civilian-plus?

Hu Tu: [What, you think you’re playing Werewolf here?]

Xie Tinglan looked at Ye Rui with deep, unreadable eyes; there was much she wanted to say but had not yet said. Ye Rui felt a little uneasy under that gaze.

“I knew you were Yu Luoying’s daughter because Yinzhi sensed the aura of blazing fire from you. That’s the aura of Burning Heart Art.”

Startled, Ye Rui touched her chest, then her abdomen, and finally her face, as if trying to feel out that blazing aura and pull it out by hand.

“But... I can’t feel it at all!”

Xie Tinglan couldn’t help but laugh. She had thought the first thing this person would do was angrily think of the hatred of a father who had been killed; instead, she first touched herself all over to confirm her identity.

“Yinzhi wouldn’t be wrong. Burning Heart Art is too special. She said Yu Luoying likely left the vast majority of his power within you; you’d need to step onto the path of inner cultivation before you could release and use that power.”

The more Xie Tinglan said, the more Ye Rui froze. In the end, she sat there with a blank, speechless expression.

Ye Rui: “...”

She never would have thought she actually had such a cheat, such potential to leap to the top in one step!

“I... I actually have the potential to become a martial arts master?”

It was truly something she wouldn’t even dare dream of. She had thought that with Hu Tu, she would have to level up slowly no matter what, but now...

Hu Tu: [So I’m the one holding you back?]

Ye Rui: [No~ how could I dare~]

Hu Tu: [The System is crying...!]

Ye Rui: [Out of curiosity, if you cry, do you leak machine oil? And if you cry tears, is your body waterproof?]

Hu Tu: [...Get lost, get lost, get lost!]

Xie Tinglan smiled faintly. Thinking of what Gong Yinzhi had said, she continued, “You do have the potential, but you can’t instantly mobilize Burning Heart Art’s inner force; you’ll have to advance step by step. Otherwise, you’ll be even more prone than most people to qi deviation.”

Xie Tinglan picked up a wolf-hair brush and placed it before Ye Rui, saying, “That’s why you need to cultivate both body and mind; curb arrogance and impatience. Before practicing martial arts, first refine the heart.”

Hearing this, Ye Rui’s excitement suddenly dropped, though she also felt a little more at ease. If she had really been given an all-powerful cheat with no flaws at all, she should have been afraid. It felt too unreal to gain such benefits without any cost.

Powerful potential came with high risk; that made sense. Still, Ye Rui was a little scared. She didn’t even know what true qi deviation would be like. Could it... make her body explode?

Even so, hearing all this still felt a little unreal. She hadn’t expected her origins to have such a background.

“Back then, Wangshu Sect also pursued your father. And after I formally stepped into this situation, I once sent people to look for your mother and daughter as well, and I even thought that if I really found you, I would kill you and seize the Burning Heart Art.”

Xie Tinglan’s tone trailed off at the end; clearly, she still had not finished. Ye Rui wasn’t in a hurry and waited patiently for her to continue.

“Would you resent me?”

Only after hearing Xie Tinglan say this did Ye Rui suddenly understand why she had brought up these long-buried events.

So she was afraid Ye Rui would... resent her?

“Xie Tinglan.”

Ye Rui called her name, the corners of her mouth lifting. Smiling, she said, “So you can be this afraid of losing someone too!”

She had thought Xie Tinglan’s arrogance had reached the point where she feared nothing.

Xie Tinglan’s eyes curved slightly, not flustered or angry because of Ye Rui’s teasing.

“I’ve always been afraid of losing things.”

She paused.

“But there are many things I have no choice but to weigh and choose between.”

-----------------------

Author’s note: Little Ye: I’m about to become unbeatable in the world!

Prime Minister Xie: (knocks her on the head) Write your characters; stop daydreaming.

Little Ye: ...