Just as He Sui’an was about to close the wardrobe and take out the packed bundle, there was movement on the bed. Qi Buyan stirred, the silver ornaments on him jingling. She quickly shoved the bundle back in.
He Sui’an cautiously left the wardrobe and tiptoed back to the bed. She saw Qi Buyan’s eyelids slowly lift, his pupils initially unfocused before they fixed on her.
Seeing this, He Sui’an froze.
Qi Buyan shook off his sleepiness, propped himself up on the bed with both hands, some fine braids mixed with his loose hair sliding down his back, some falling in front of his chest.
He Sui’an felt incredibly nervous.
He still seemed heavily drowsy, barely holding it back as he picked up the book beside the soft pillow. “Aren’t you going to read?”
She immediately crawled back to the bed, rolled to his side, and nodded vigorously. “Yes, I am.”
Qi Buyan raised his hand to rub his temples, trying to dispel his drowsiness. His sleeve slid down, revealing the butterfly silver bracelet with a gap on his wrist, a pink scar etched on his skin, giving it a strangely deformed beauty.
Every time He Sui’an saw the butterfly silver bracelet, it strengthened her resolve to leave temporarily.
Qi Buyan didn’t notice her watching him.
Even though Qi Buyan knew that low temperatures caused him to have uncontrollable drowsiness, he didn’t ask He Sui’an to remove the ice basins around them. She kept complaining about the heat, while his body temperature was high.
The cold mist rose from the ice, and even He Sui’an, wearing a gauze dress, shivered. Qi Buyan didn’t notice because she was always fidgeting, especially on the bed, constantly moving.
Using ice to cool down was definitely effective.
The problem was probably that there wasn’t enough of it.
It would seem deliberate to call for more ice now, so they had to wait until these basins melted before asking for more, and then request more basins.
He Sui’an calmed herself and actually started reading the book. Whether in ancient or modern times, stories about love always existed, with similar clichés that still managed to captivate.
After finishing the page where the protagonists of the book got married and were about to consummate their marriage, she closed the book.
“Hungry,” He Sui’an said, putting the book aside.
Qi Buyan, however, took the book and flipped back to where they had left off. “Marriage, consummation… the couple engages in the most intimate act.”
The book didn’t have any explicit descriptions; marriage and consummation were glossed over in a few words. She didn’t feel much when reading it, but hearing Qi Buyan read it made her ears tingle.
He Sui’an pinched her earlobe.
He lowered his eyes, his fingertips pointing to the word “marriage” in the book. “I want to do the most intimate thing with you. Do we need to get married first?”
Just as she was about to answer Qi Buyan, there was a knock on the door; it was a servant bringing their meal.
Looking out the window, they saw the sun setting. They had spent the entire afternoon reading the book without realizing it. He Sui’an got up to open the door for the servant delivering the food.
The servant brought in the dishes and also a dessert made from fresh flowers, saying that it was personally made by Princess Luoyan, who had also made a portion for them. It was a cold flower cake that had been chilled in the ice cellar.
He Sui’an asked the servants to convey their gratitude to Princess Luoyan.
After setting up the meal, the servant asked if He Sui’an needed help serving the food. She wasn’t used to being served while eating. “No need, you can leave now. Thank you.”
“Miss He, you’re too polite,” the servant replied, not used to He Sui’an’s constant thanks. They were merely servants and felt unworthy of being thanked by the princess’s guest. Perhaps it was common for those who roamed the Jianghu to treat people this way?
The servants exited the room.
The cold flower cake was transparent, with a few petals on its surface. It was a perfect treat to cool off, yet He Sui’an stared at it in a daze.
Princess Luoyan’s fate was unfortunate. Liu Yan had used Spirit Gu for the first time on the day she was to marry into the Nanliang Kingdom, aiming to kill the Nanliang entourage and prince who came to Great Zhou for the marriage, using Nanliang as a starting point.
Liu Yan knew that Princess Luoyan loved Xie Wenqiao and didn’t want to marry into Nanliang.
So he chose to act on that day.
After killing the Nanliang prince Tuoba Wu, Great Zhou was destined to turn hostile towards Nanliang and become enemies. This suited Liu Yan, who would use the opportunity to declare war on Nanliang.
What was Nanliang to dare demand two cities from Great Zhou as a dowry? Liu Yan wanted to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys, showing the other countries that Great Zhou was not to be underestimated.
Tuoba Wu was furious upon learning of this on the day of the wedding, raging.
He believed Great Zhou never intended to ally through marriage, instead using deceit to plot against them, which was not the behavior of a gentleman. If they wanted a fair fight, they should have declared war openly, not lured them into a trap under the pretense of marriage.
Thus, Tuoba Wu grabbed Princess Luoyan in anger, questioning if she had known about this all along, and raised his knife to kill her.
He failed to kill her.
Instead, he died.
Liu Yan, standing on the city gate, shot a poison-tipped arrow.
The arrow pierced Tuoba Wu’s heart, his knife falling to the ground, stained with blood and dirt. He had already fought a bloody battle before capturing Princess Luoyan, sustaining numerous injuries. The poison arrow weakened him, causing him to collapse.
He died in front of Princess Luoyan.
Princess Luoyan watched Tuoba Wu transform from a living person into a corpse. Before he died, he had grabbed her, smearing her with his blood.
Liu Yan sent men to retrieve Princess Luoyan.
She suddenly broke free from them, seized a long sword, and charged towards the city tower. Princess Luoyan wanted to kill Liu Yan to avenge her brother and sister-in-law, but before she could get close, she was struck down by someone controlled by Spirit Gu, who slit her throat.
It wasn’t Liu Yan who ordered someone controlled by Spirit Gu to kill her. She died because he had previously given a command to those under the control of Spirit Gu: kill anyone who harms him.
Liu Yan rarely lost his composure.
After all, he had raised her as his daughter for many years.
He rushed towards Princess Luoyan, who was bleeding from her neck. She happened to be standing by the edge of the city wall. After her throat was slit, she weakly fell over the wall, her whole body plummeting with a loud “thud” as she hit the ground below.
Princess Luoyan’s martial arts skills were not weak. If she hadn’t been blinded by anger and hatred that day, solely focused on killing Liu Yan and neglecting the dangers around her, she might not have died.
Liu Yan leaned over the city wall, trembling as he looked at the corpse below.
He had indirectly killed Ah Yan.
Having previously been forced to kill her brother and sister-in-law, and now indirectly causing her death, Liu Yan loathed himself. However, he quickly pulled himself together. He had not yet completed his grand plan of restoring Great Zhou and could not give up now.
Liu Yan was very committed to using Spirit Gu to revive Great Zhou. Having read the original story, He Sui’an knew better than to try to change his mind through emotional appeals or rational arguments.
The only way to change the ending was through their own actions.
She picked up the cold flower cake from the table and took a bite. It melted in her mouth, sweet but not cloying.
The dessert was meant for after the meal, but He Sui’an ate it first before eating her meal. She also handed a piece to Qi Buyan, “You should try it too.”
He ate the cold flower cake she offered.
The cake still had the chill of ice, with a soft and glutinous texture. Qi Buyan swallowed it, while He Sui’an picked up a bowl and started eating. She needed to eat well to have the strength to find a place to hide.
He Sui’an devoured the food on the table as if she were starving, yet she didn’t neglect Qi Buyan, leaving his portion of the meal untouched.
Qi Buyan calmly put down the now empty jade bowl and didn’t forget to drink a cup of clear tea.
Half of the cold flower cake remained.
He Sui’an didn’t eat it.
Since she didn’t eat it, and Qi Buyan wasn’t particularly interested in food, he left the half plate of cold flower cake as it was.
After their meal, night had fallen. He Sui’an went to light a candle, and the flame illuminated the entire room. Qi Buyan sat on the Luohan bed near the window, with several items laid out on a low table.
There was a small glass jar containing the Yin Corpse Gu, the Wan Cao Flower, and the Millennium Red Jade. Gathering these meant they could refine the Gu King and attempt to remove the Tian Chan Gu from his body.
But Qi Buyan couldn’t refine them yet.
Refining the Gu King required an extremely quiet environment and no interruptions.
He could only put them away and wait until they returned to the Tianshui Village in Miaojiang to refine them. As he thought about this, he flicked the small glass jar with his finger, and the Yin Corpse Gu inside clumsily crawled towards the stopper.
He Sui’an didn’t disturb Qi Buyan.
After bathing, she quietly sat on the bed, slowly drying her wet hair with a towel, contemplating her plans for the night. Success was the only option; failure was not an option, or she would never have another chance.
Qi Buyan returned to the bed and took the towel from He Sui’an’s hands. She had been drying her hair for a while, but the ends were still dripping. A simple touch left water stains on his fingertips.
“You seem preoccupied,” Qi Buyan said, sitting in front of He Sui’an and looking into her eyes.
He Sui’an instinctively denied it.
“No, I’m not.”
Qi Buyan ran his fingers through her damp hair. “Really? It feels like you’ve been preoccupied these past couple of days, always staring off into space.”
“You’re overthinking it. It’s just been getting hotter these days, and I don’t feel like moving. It makes me look like I’m spacing out. I don’t have anything on my mind, really.” He Sui’an lifted her head, her face flawless like white jade.
With that, she took back the towel and suggested that he also take a bath so they could rest early tonight.
Qi Buyan complied with her wishes.
He went behind the screen, unfastened the buttons of his girdle, and hung it on the screen. One by one, his indigo garments fell off, the sound of silver ornaments clinking intermittently.
He Sui’an glanced at the other side of the screen a few times. Tonight, she was unusually energetic, having eaten and drunk to her fill. She couldn’t afford to make a single mistake tonight.
She tried to act as normal as possible.
The sound of water from behind the screen ceased.
He Sui’an vaguely saw a tall figure stepping out of the bath barrel. Qi Buyan was putting on a clean set of clothes, making little noise with the silver ornaments. He wore only close-fitting underwear to sleep at night.
When He Sui’an realized she had watched Qi Buyan get dressed the whole time, she buried her flushed face into the soft pillow.
Although there was a screen between them, she could still make out the general outline of his body.
When Qi Buyan stepped out from behind the screen, he saw He Sui’an lying prone, her buttocks raised, her face repeatedly buried in the soft pillow.
He walked over.
“He Sui’an,” Qi Buyan said, sitting at the edge of the bed, looking down at her strange posture.
The moment she heard him call her, He Sui’an sprang up like a spring and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Is it hotter tonight?”
Qi Buyan didn’t feel hot, but He Sui’an looked quite warm, even sweating. He reached out to touch her forehead; it was indeed warm. Retracting his hand, he asked, “Are you feeling hot?”
“Very hot.”
She went to get more ice basins.
She had asked for four during the day; now she requested eight at once, placing them all around the bed. The chill immediately filled the room, dropping the temperature significantly.
T/N: We’re a little bit near the ending.
