Chapter 6. Beauty is indeed alluring.

In that instant, Mingzhe subconsciously glanced at another branch.

None of the people present had ever seen Qin Xiao before, nor had they ever heard his voice. Among the fellow disciples present, she was the only one who had secretly escorted him out of the capital.

Their eyes met, and Biezhi nodded slightly.

The man outside the door was indeed Qin Xiao, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.

Mingzhe untied the robe hanging on his body, signaled everyone to be quiet, then opened the door slightly and walked out sideways.

Seeing this, Biezhi and Fang Tingzhi exchanged a glance and stood up at the same time.

When Biezhi left, he didn't forget to take Jiran with him.

"I was unaware of Lord Qin's arrival. My master has just left on important business and does not know when he will return. If you are not in a hurry, you may come another day."

"It's alright, I'm just here to buy some information. You can pass it on to your master, and then it's up to you whether you accept it or not."

“This—” Mingzhe hesitated for a moment, not wanting to reveal the division of labor within Xianyun Tower to outsiders, and said, “Please speak, sir.”

"The bodyguard who followed me during the month or so I was away from the capital," Qin Xiao said calmly, his gaze fixed on the man opposite him. "I want to know who he is."

Mingzhe was taken aback.

The branches in the courtyard also stood there, stunned.

Qin Xiao was accompanied by many guards, including some sent by the Prince's Mansion. However, the person who came to his door was someone he had never expected.

And this person can only be her.

This was the first time Biezhi had encountered someone coming to her door. She looked left at Fang Tingzhi and right at Ji Ran, and silently asked, "What do you want with me? I didn't hurt anyone on the way, and I even dealt with quite a few assassins for him..."

"Don't be nervous."

Qin Xiao's voice came on the wind.

“He gave me a very generous gift, so I should reciprocate,” he said.

Fang Tingzhi frowned: "What did you give him?"

"I sent a few people with me." Biezhi was just following orders. This was one of the orders Qingshan had given her before she left the capital. After thinking about it, she felt relieved. "As long as they're not here for revenge, everything is fine."

She didn't want to know the rest.

However, Fang Tingzhi was quite interested in this and waved her hand in acknowledgment.

Seeing this, Biezhi turned around and looked at Jiran. Her eyes flickered, and she couldn't help but pause in her tracks.

A hint of contemplation lingered in the depths of the man's eyes, making them appear even more profound and unfathomable, less naive and more piercing.

Biezhi blinked.

When she opened her eyes again, the man in front of her looked exactly the same as usual. No matter how closely she looked at him, she couldn't see any indifference in him, as if the moment just now was just her imagination.

Indeed, how could someone who has been deaf for many years have such surging emotions at this moment?

She looked at Ji Ran with a puzzled expression.

Biezhi shook her head and glanced at the dark night behind him. "I haven't slept well in a long time, and my eyes are playing tricks on me."

Upon hearing this, Fu Huaiqing raised an eyebrow almost imperceptibly.

He glanced at the slightly ajar door out of the corner of his eye, his thin lips curving downwards slightly, and his fingertips, resting on the back of his hand, tapped slowly a few times.

Bie Zhi lowered her eyes, then looked up again: "Hmm?"

The girl's pupils widened slightly, and the candlelight fell into her round, almond-shaped eyes, adding a unique and vibrant color. Her watery eyes lifted as she gazed at the light.

Fu Huaiqing's gaze lingered for a moment before he looked at her with feigned suspicion.

Biezhi could tell at a glance that he hadn't understood her intentions, but seeing that he had nothing else to say, she took his hand and walked back, sighing, "If only you could hear me."

Fu Huaiqing neither agreed nor disagreed.

Even so, if she knew she could hear, she would surely leap three stories high and jump around in fright.

Fu Huaiqing could even imagine that scene.

He lowered his eyelids and chuckled softly.

A low, hoarse laugh reached her ears, like a flame stirring the grass, causing Biezhi to tremble. She turned around in surprise.

What came into view was the man's barely suppressed smile; his slightly restrained smile was so captivating that one couldn't look away for a second.

Beauty is indeed alluring.

Even her voice carried a seductive quality.

Biezhi murmured, "It's so beautiful."

"He's really handsome." Her senior sister's voice came from behind. She had only heard that her junior sister was infatuated with a deaf man, and after thinking it over, she couldn't figure out what it was about him that attracted her junior sister. Now it seemed—

"No wonder you're so fascinated." She paused, her gaze sweeping over the scar under Ji Ran's eyes, and said, "His scar is very deep and looks quite old. Even if a divine physician were to appear, he probably wouldn't be able to remove it."

"The owner of Wuweipu said that he was injured by a drunk cook in the inn when he was ten years old while rummaging through filth." Biezhi knew that the scars left over from many years would be hard to erase, so she sighed deeply and said regretfully, "If only we had met earlier, I could have taken him with me on my wanderings."

She didn't encounter these unpleasant things when she secretly sneaked into the kitchen to rummage through the filth.

Biezhi couldn't imagine that when Jiran bent down to rummage through the filth, he probably couldn't hear the commotion behind him. By the time he realized the danger, he was met with a blade.

Fu Huaiqing's fingertips trembled as he gripped her palm.

"If we're talking about someone who lacks ambition, then our junior sister is the one." Jing Qing said with a smile as he brought out the last dish, his eyes filled with a hint of teasing: "Instead of thinking about treating people to a good life, she's thinking about taking them on a journey."

"I have no ambition," Biezhi readily admitted, then sniffed the fragrant aroma like a little squirrel as she went. "I just wanted to have a little money, to live a refined life that the world despises, with my banknotes in my pocket."

She's just an ordinary person.

An equal and vulgar love of money.

“You’re quite valuable now,” Fang Tingzhi said, raising an eyebrow after eavesdropping.

Biezhi: "How much did he contribute?"

Fang Tingzhi made a four-pointed hand gesture.

Biezhi's eyes brightened slightly: "Forty?"

"Four hundred!" Fang Tingzhi's voice cracked with excitement. "He actually asked for four hundred taels!"

Bie Zhi jumped up and, leaning on the table, said, "I accept it."

"Don't steal my job!" Fang Tingzhi rolled her eyes at her. "They're just gathering information, not killing or setting fires."

“He’s been asking about me, so it’s perfect that he’s looking for me.” Biezhi shrugged, but she was just saying it casually. After all, if Xianyunlou really took the job, it would eventually fall under Shanju’s purview. “What a pity.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ji Ran looking up at her with a mixture of surprise and confusion in his expression. She sat down, picked up her chopsticks, and put a large piece of pork knuckle on his plate. She shook her head and said, "If this were me, I would write a whole book of my daily records for him. I would write down everything he wants to know and everything he doesn't want to know. It would definitely be more than worth it for him."

Regardless of whether Qin Xiao wanted it or not, he was given it to him.

Fu Huaiqing: "..."

She didn't seem to be just talking; she genuinely intended to do it.

Not long after, Mingzhe returned as well.

Unable to contain herself, Fang Tingzhi deliberately changed her position and openly inquired about the information.

The seat next to Biezhi was empty for only a moment before someone filled it. She, who was whispering with Jiran, noticed the presence around her and glanced to the side.

"I brought this back especially for you." Jing Qing picked up the wine pot in his hand and poured her a small cup. "It's the famous Drunken Flower Wine from Tan County."

In an instant, Biezhi's attention was drawn to the Drunken Flower Wine.

She held the wine cup, inhaling the fragrance wafting on the breeze. The refreshing wine carried a hint of floral aroma, intoxicating even before it touched her throat.

The rarity of Tanxian Zuihua Wine lies not in its price, but in its production time; to obtain a pot of it, one might have to wait a year or two.

When Biezhi inquired about the reason for his arrival, Jingqing explained that he had been passing through Tan County on his way out of the capital and had reserved a pot of wine in advance with a restaurant there, intending to pick it up on his return to the capital.

As Jing Qing spoke, she poured another cup of sake, reached across the branch and handed it to the man whose gaze was fixed on his own silence, asking him if he wanted a drink.

Fu Huaiqing raised his hand slowly and deliberately.

Before the wine cup could even land in his hand, it was snatched away by a stranger, "He can't drink."

Biezhi snatched the wine cup back to her senior brother, not forgetting to glare at Jiran as she turned around, "You can't drink but you still drink. You'll know how bad it is when you have a splitting headache tomorrow."

Fu Huaiqing withdrew his hand, which had been hovering in mid-air, and gazed at her quietly with his thin lips slightly pursed.

Looking at the man in front of her, Biezhi immediately thought of the big dog she encountered when she was a stray as a child. Its fur was as soft as cotton, making one want to touch it.

She thought this way, and that's what she did.

"Good girl."

The moment the girl's clear voice rang out, Fu Huaiqing froze for a second, and disbelief flashed across his face in the darkness.

He caught his breath, then remembered his current position, and his mood calmed down a little.

With her eyes slightly open, Bie Zhi caught a glimpse of the man's eyes sparkling with light, and his handsome, well-defined features were also radiant. She smiled and felt particularly pleased.

The first sip of the Drunken Flower Wine was much sweeter than the last.

The sweet and delicious fermented rice wine was like a refreshing juice. She drank one cup after another without realizing it. When she could no longer pour out any more wine, she vaguely realized that she was drunk.

Biezhi's eyelashes fluttered as she tilted her head: "Let's go."

Upon hearing this, Fu Huaiqing knew she was drunk; her voice had a sticky quality that wasn't there usually.

However, he is deaf now, so naturally he cannot respond to her.

Slightly drunk, Biezhi belatedly realized that Jiran couldn't hear anything. She took his hand, stood up abruptly, and said to everyone, "It's getting late, we should go now."

"Are you leaving already?" Fang Tingzhi put down her chopsticks.

Jing Qing also looked at her, her brows furrowing slightly.

Biezhi placed her palm in front of her chest and waved slightly, "We still need to go to the Vermilion Bird Gate."

Fang Tingzhi: "Send him back?"

"Hmm." Biezhi nodded.

Jing Qing stood up and glanced at the figure beside her: "I'll see him off for you—"

“It’s no trouble for you, Senior Brother.” Biezhi refused decisively before he could finish speaking, saying on behalf of Jiran, “He rarely interacts with other people and is shy.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she didn't wait for anyone to say anything more and led Ji Ran outside.

The remaining people exchanged knowing glances, their expressions carrying a hint of deeper meaning. The senior sister raised an eyebrow at Fang Tingzhi: "Is our junior sister's wedding approaching?"

Fang Tingzhi glanced at Senior Brother Jing Qing subconsciously, met his slightly stern gaze, and lowered her eyes to say, "It's nothing, we're just friends."

The senior sister clicked her tongue, not quite believing it.

A gentle breeze swept by, intensifying the feeling of intoxication.

Slightly dizzy, Biezhi clung to Jiran's arm, all her strength resting on him. She kept glancing here and there, her round eyes darting around like a rabbit brimming with curiosity.

She wasn't exactly drunk; she was still conscious, but she just couldn't stop wanting to talk.

"The moon is so round tonight, it's almost as round as the disc in my master's study." When talking about her master who was absent today, Biezhi had a lot of grievances to vent: "We finally got everyone together, but of all things, that Rakshasa called us away again."

"I was planning to talk to Master tonight and get him to put in a good word for me with Rakshasa." She sighed deeply. "He really is an old man who hasn't started a family. He dragged someone out to discuss official business late at night. No wonder he still doesn't have a wife. It's pitiful."

She kept talking with her head down, no longer calling him Yama or Rakshasa, but calling him "old man" repeatedly, completely unaware that the man beside her had a dark complexion and a throbbing brow.

Fu Huaiqing closed his eyes slightly.

He exhaled calmly, raised his palm, and swiftly and precisely slashed at the back of Biezhi's neck.

Suddenly everything went black before Biezhi's eyes, and she fainted.

In an instant, all around fell silent.

Fu Huaiqing rubbed his right ear, feeling much more at ease.