A familiar yet slightly unfamiliar warm scent filled the air around He Sui’an. She blinked her eyes, feeling Qi Buyan’s somewhat awkward lips gently brush past the corner of her mouth, soft against soft.
He Sui’an’s lips were slightly cool, while Qi Buyan’s were warm. The moment they kissed, it felt as if his warmth was gradually invading her. Instinctively, she tightened her grip on his waist.
The kiss seemed devoid of any emotion, yet it was incredibly intense, making it hard for her to breathe.
Qi Buyan kissed lightly.
It was as if he wanted to carefully savor this feeling.
Again and again, each kiss felt slightly different, indescribably wonderful, making it impossible for Qi Buyan to stop. How could simply pressing lips together bring such joy?
With this thought, he deepened the kiss.
He Sui’an was so close to Qi Buyan that she could see his long eyelashes lowered, bathed in the soft morning light that cast a thin layer over them, his side profile pale and innocent, like glass.
The young man held her chin with one hand and cupped the back of her neck with the other. As the kiss lengthened, his Adam’s apple moved slightly.
He kissed her earnestly.
*
Having kissed Qi Buyan several times before, He Sui’an didn’t react too strongly. There’s a saying, “habit becomes natural,” but she still felt a slight flutter inside.
What did he mean by “Can we become closer?”
He Sui’an’s neck inexplicably felt hot.
No, it can’t be what I’m thinking.
“Cough, cough, cough.” Thinking this, He Sui’an suddenly choked on her own saliva, her neck and face turning red.
No, it must be just her overthinking. After the kiss ended, He Sui’an, who had been squatting on the boat’s toilet, decisively concluded.
She pushed open the door and washed her hands.
Time to go back.
The place for passengers to bathe was inside the cabin, while the toilet was outside.
Qi Buyan had already returned to the cabin. He Sui’an, using the excuse of needing to use the toilet, had stayed outside temporarily. Now that she had washed her hands, she was ready to return, as there was nothing else to do on the boat.
She had forgotten to ask Jiang Songwei and Jiang Xuewan which room they were staying in; otherwise, she could go find them when bored.
She looked up at the water outside the boat.
The water surface was vast and boundless.
The boatmen, with bare elbows and wearing large shirts, had nothing much to do either. However, as the time to unload cargo approached, they became increasingly vigilant, taking turns to patrol the warehouse more frequently.
Since He Sui’an learned that the cargo was illusionary Gu, she kept her distance from the boatmen and the warehouse.
Unexpectedly, the boat docked ahead of schedule today.
One by one, the boatmen went into the warehouse, coming out with several boxes of cargo on their shoulders.
He Sui’an stood in a secluded spot, unnoticed by them, as they whispered gossip in a foreign language. They talked about how a foreigner had caught a woman who accidentally discovered what was inside the boxes.
This was no small matter.
The fact that the cargo was illusionary Gu couldn’t be widely known. It would be disastrous if an outsider found out.
They said the woman looked like a fool. The foreigners initially planned to silence her as they had done to others the previous night, but seeing how pretty she was and not very bright, they changed their minds.
A beautiful woman should be utilized to the fullest.
They believed a foolish beauty was easier to handle.
The foreigners happened to know a regular customer with peculiar tastes. They planned to sell the illusionary Gu to him and give him the woman as a bonus, earning a favor in return.
Releasing her was out of the question. Illusionary Gu was banned by the court, and getting caught with it was a capital offense. Even if the woman seemed like a fool, they wouldn’t let her go easily.
Better safe than sorry.
Hearing their conversation, He Sui’an realized for the first time that illusionary Gu was prohibited by the court.
She wondered if her pre-amnesia self had little contact with the outside world. After all, even if she had amnesia, she might subconsciously react to people or things she had heard of before.
But when Qi Buyan first mentioned illusionary Gu, it felt like a completely foreign term to her.
No wonder they were so nervous. At first, she thought it was because the cargo was extremely valuable, and they couldn’t afford any mishaps.
It turned out there was more to it.
They had indeed killed someone last night.
The blood was human, not pig’s blood. Hearing their description of the woman, He Sui’an thought of Jiang Xuewan.
They continued discussing how the foreigners had instructed them to place the woman in a large box, to avoid attracting attention, and smuggle her off the boat along with the cargo to be taken away by someone else.
This batch of illusionary Gu wasn’t for just one customer.
After reaching the dock, there were more than ten different routes for transporting the illusionary Gu. As for the woman they had caught, they were only responsible for smuggling her off the boat. The foreigners wouldn’t tell them where she was being sent.
So they had no idea where she would end up.
One of the boatmen took out a silver hairpin.
He showed it off to his companions, saying he had picked it up from the woman, and it was worth quite a bit of money.
He Sui’an now completely confirmed that the woman they were talking about was Jiang Xuewan. That silver hairpin was a gift she had recently given to Jiang Xuewan.
Wasn’t Jiang Xuewan supposed to be by Jiang Songwei’s side? It was truly Jiang Xuewan. He Sui’an couldn’t ignore this situation. Even if it was a stranger, she would have reported it to the authorities because lives were at stake.
She wanted to go back and tell Qi Buyan first.
He Sui’an knew it was best not to act alone; it was too risky.
But as soon as she turned around, she was knocked unconscious.
The foreigner had been standing at a high point and saw He Sui’an as soon as she appeared. There was no way he would let her report to anyone.
At that moment, a large box was being carried out, with a corner of a skirt peeking out from under the lid. The foreigner who knocked He Sui’an out put her in the box too. If they were sending one person, they might as well send two.
He would deal with them all at once.
It saved him from getting his hands dirty.
Most importantly, with people constantly moving on and off the ship, it wasn’t convenient to kill anyone. The foreigner said he was sending beauties to the guests buying insect Gu as a favor, but it was also a way to shift the blame.
The boatmen carrying the large box saw this and hurriedly closed the lid.
Upon reaching the shore, they relaxed a bit.
They had to wait for their contact to arrive. Once they left the shore, the people carrying the large box would no longer be boatmen but others buying insect Gu.
The people taking over twenty boxes of insect Gu and one large box were quite surprised.
The large box seemed to contain two people.
It was a bit heavy.
But they were servants and naturally wouldn’t question why their master’s purchases had become heavier. They cooperated to carry the large and small boxes given to them by the boatmen back to the mansion and then reported back to their master.
He Sui’an slowly regained consciousness after a bumpy journey.
As she gradually adapted to the dimness of the box, she saw Jiang Xuewan. Jiang Xuewan’s mouth was gagged, and her eyes were open, but they looked vacant and unfocused, as if she were immersed in another world.
“Miss Jiang?”
He Sui’an carefully nudged the butterfly hairpin out of her braid, moved it to her bound hands, and slowly cut through the ropes.
After cutting the ropes, she removed the cloth from her own mouth and hurriedly took out the gag from Jiang Xuewan’s mouth, freeing her hands. She whispered, “Do you recognize me? I’m He Sui’an.”
As her sleeve slipped, it revealed Jiang Xuewan’s wrist.
There were marks from insect bites.
He Sui’an immediately grabbed Jiang Xuewan’s wrist to examine it. Had they used insect Gu on her?
It looked like it.
He Sui’an involuntarily held her breath and gently embraced Jiang Xuewan, afraid she might bump her head. She was also anxious, nearly nauseous from the swaying, but the box was finally set down slowly.
“Be careful!”
A middle-aged man’s voice rang out.
“This belongs to the Young Master. If it’s damaged, you’d better watch your lives.”
Someone, not understanding the gravity of the situation, muttered, “It’s just a bunch of ugly bugs inside. Why does the Young Master treasure them so much?”
A loud slap echoed as the overseer struck him across the face, his tone sharp and cutting. “What do you know? The bugs the Young Master buys are more precious than your worthless lives.”
“I spoke out of turn.”
The person who was struck immediately knelt and apologized, kowtowing so hard that He Sui’an, hidden in the box, could hear the “thud, thud, thud” of his head hitting the ground. The other servants, too terrified to say a word or plead on his behalf, remained silent.
Though it wasn’t her being struck, He Sui’an could almost feel the pain in her forehead.
She couldn’t stand the scene of someone kowtowing.
The overseer didn’t want to dwell on it either. They were all servants, and it wasn’t easy for any of them. But they had to know what could and couldn’t be said.
After all, working in a wealthy household required utmost caution.
The Young Master had an odd temperament, obsessed with these insects. If he heard the servants speaking like this, there would surely be trouble, possibly even fatalities.
The overseer coldly snorted, “Never mind, you clumsy fool. Get out of here.”
The kowtowing servant thanked him and withdrew.
The other servants, behaving themselves, carefully placed each of the twenty boxes of insect Gu in their proper place, not daring to slack off, fearing they might be the next to be scolded or punished.
The overseer, having worked in the mansion for decades, knew how to handle things meticulously. After the servants finished, he personally counted each box to ensure everything was correct.
When he reached the large box, he paused.
“This is the gift Mr. Al sent to the Young Master?”
The servant responsible for coordinating with the boatmen at the dock replied with his head lowered, “Yes, Mr. Al said it was something the Young Master would like. He acquired it by chance and wanted to give it to the Young Master as a gift.”
He Sui’an feared they might open the box to check.
She held her breath.
The overseer replied lightly, “Since it’s a gift from Mr. Al to the Young Master, we’ll wait for the Young Master to return and open it himself.”
The footsteps gradually faded away as they left.
It was very quiet all around.
So quiet that He Sui’an could hear her own deliberately subdued breathing.
The big box was still unlocked, and He Sui’an managed to open it without much trouble. She was curled up inside, her legs numb, and she stumbled out.
Jiang Xuewan was lying in the box with her head tilted. He Sui’an called her a few more times, but Jiang Xuewan remained unresponsive. It was unclear how long the effects of the hallucinogenic Gu would last or when she would recover.
He Sui’an dragged Jiang Xuewan out, and she did not resist.
When Jiang Xuewan finally started to respond, she only giggled foolishly.
How could she take her away?
