Standoff (revision)
She wore a pale white undergarment, the cut of which was not fitted, yet her waist appeared particularly empty due to her slender figure. Thick strands of hair cascaded down her shoulders and back onto the bed, reflecting dappled moonlight.
The two were very close together, and he could even smell her faint fragrance. However, even in such an ambiguous and gloomy atmosphere, they were both preoccupied with their own thoughts.
For a fleeting moment, a somewhat laughable thought crossed her mind—
Throughout history, the so-called "sleeping in the same bed but dreaming different dreams" between couples has probably been something like this.
A faint light, almost unrecognizable, flickered in Dou Yanxun's eyes. In the pitch-black silence, only his slow voice could be heard:
"If it weren't for your secret instructions, how could these secret matters have spread throughout the entire mansion and become known to everyone?"
His voice, however, was exceptionally cold, as if it were filled with ice. There wasn't a trace of emotion in it.
Lin Xu tightened his throat, "But what good would it do me to make this public...?"
Her voice, though soft, was incredibly calm and could even meet his gaze without fear.
Dou Yanxun then said:
"You deliberately sent your trusted confidante to inquire about information from the young maids in the other courtyard. Nongyu is still young and innocent, so she naturally revealed all the old stories. Granny Chang is shrewd and an old servant in the mansion. If the matter of her gossiping about the master is confirmed, you can get rid of her without any problem. It is a plan to kill two birds with one stone."
He gave her no chance to explain, and continued:
"However, since you have already set your mind on this and are willing to inquire about my past, I wonder if you have heard from Nongyu that there were two outstandingly beautiful maids who used to serve me in the Dou family's villa? Why have they disappeared into thin air?"
Lin Xu's eyelashes trembled slightly, and the two looked at each other, an unbearable silence filling the air.
After a moment, she gently opened her lips, her voice tinged with difficulty:
"...But I have never had such thoughts, and I do not know what my husband means."
The coldness in Dou Yanxun's eyes deepened. Sure enough, she was putting on an act with him.
She couldn't possibly understand; the two were ultimately worlds apart in strength. He could take her life in an instant, in that moment of rampant killing intent—
How could she possibly appear to understand?
Lin Xu lowered her head slowly and impassively, trying to hide her fear. Even though she already had her suspicions, hearing him mention the two vanished maids so casually still made her feel uneasy and afraid.
Jiaorui and Jiaohan, the two most popular maids in the former villa, were incredibly glamorous but died one after another, and the cause of their deaths was too suspicious.
When she first heard about this, she guessed that there must be a deeper reason behind it, and after verifying with Zhao Qi, her speculation deepened.
A beautiful maidservant, pregnant at the time, suddenly fell into a well and died. Less than half a day later, another maidservant, overwhelmed with grief, threw herself into a lake. It is said that the maidservant's body remained submerged in the lake for half the night, and when it was pulled from the water, it had been mostly eaten by the lake's fish.
On the surface, it seems to be nothing more than a despicable act of a spoiled illegitimate son seducing a servant, and then killing him to cover it up after the affair was exposed.
However, upon closer examination, it becomes clear how easily the spies that Madam Bai had planted in the villa over many years were eliminated—how effortlessly! Furthermore, as the mistress of the household, she was unable to thoroughly investigate the matter due to the timing of the new bride's arrival.
If the surface appearances are already so unbearable when the two sides clash, then the hidden undercurrents beneath must be even more terrifying.
She had gone to great lengths to marry this man, only to find he was a cunning and ruthless villain.
How could she not be afraid?
Zhao Qi once said that compared to the noble and dignified eldest son of the Dou family, this second son was like the sea buckthorn on the frontier, which is mixed with mud and gravel but can break through the stone. His personality was more patient and tolerant. He had already suffered all the hardships in the world.
The boy who lost his mother at a young age was also labeled as having a fate that would bring misfortune to his father and wealth, and was driven to another courtyard, or even banished to a desolate and barren border region.
Over the years, Dou Yanxun has been a source of great difficulty for the servants in the mansion. His status is awkward, his personality is eccentric, and serving him always requires consideration for Madam Bai. As a result, the villa has gradually become a place that no one cares about.
Dou Huaisheng thought that this almost forgotten existence would fend for itself in the northern frontier, but unexpectedly, a letter from home arrived from thousands of miles away many years later, which changed Dou Huaisheng's mind. He immediately sent nearly a hundred guards from his mansion to the north to bring him back.
Zhao Qi was among them at the time. However, their group had not gone far from Mujing when they saw a young man in the distance, thin in stature, galloping towards them on horseback.
Amidst swirling dust and tattered clothes, the boy's eyes shone with a stubborn light, making him unforgettable even with just a fleeting glance.
At that time, Dou Yanxun was only seventeen or eighteen years old, but he was so thin that he was almost unrecognizable. He was tall, but he must have suffered a lot of grievances on the way. His whole body was covered in blood, and there was not a single patch of skin that was exposed. There was no trace of the pampered young nobleman he once was.
They were almost indistinguishable from beggars on the street.
This return secured him a small foothold in the Dou family.
Everyone in the manor knew that the second young master had suffered a lot since childhood while being raised in the border region. Therefore, even though he was an illegitimate son and not valued in the manor, they still respected him for riding thousands of miles home alone.
.
Seeing that she remained silent, Dou Yanxun remained silent for a long time. When he spoke again, his voice was calmer than before.
"Since you refuse to admit it—"
Lin Xu suddenly felt a sharp pain on her side, accompanied by a flash of cold light. Her heart tightened, and she immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
Dou Yanxun was holding a knife in his hand, pressed against her waist.
No wonder his voice sounded so calm; it was clearly a coldness that suggested he had given up on further feigning friendship with her and was advising her to take care of herself.
She could tell.
More importantly, the knife he was holding at that moment, even though it was not clearly visible in the dim moonlight, was the same length and size that she had always hidden inside her inner garment as a weapon for self-defense in case of emergency.
Without anyone noticing, he had taken it away from me without making a sound.
A wave of despair washed over Lin Xu.
Dou Yanxun smiled, however:
"Madam usually presents herself as gentle and mild-mannered, but I never expected her to be so stubborn."
He was relaxed and even lazily shifted his body a few places. "Not bad, it suits my taste just right."
In that instant, a thousand thoughts flashed through her mind, but none of them could guarantee her safety at this moment.
Zhu Ling and Qing Mo had already received their orders and left. Now, behind the curtains in the hall, only she and Dou Yanxun remained. He held a sharp blade in his hand—the tip of which she had even sharpened herself.
With just a little more force from his fingertips, he could have sliced the skin on her side, and might even have killed her.
But now, his patience is gradually running out.
"I am truly curious. Since you love me so much, why do you always keep this dagger with you at all times?"
"Or perhaps, in my humble opinion, this is the real reason why you've been so close to me?"
She slowly lowered her eyes in the silent darkness.
When exactly did Dou Yanxun find out that she was carrying this knife?
Just now, when she was soaking her hands in rose juice, the knife was clearly still safely hidden inside her inner garment. When exactly did he take that dagger away from her when she wasn't paying attention?
A chill ran through her heart; perhaps...
From the moment he obtained that dagger, he harbored murderous intent towards her, yet he quietly watched her act.
He sensed something was wrong... How long had it been going on?
She had never felt danger so closely before. The person in front of her was her husband in name only, but the coldness in him went straight to her bones, making her feel cold all over.
"My husband is too kind."
After a long pause, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and though her voice was soft, it carried an unconcealed fear, with a hint of sobbing in it:
"...My husband and I should be in the same boat through thick and thin, so why is he suddenly so suspicious of me?"
Her voice was gentle as spring water, seemingly trying to melt the chill between them. However, deep down she knew perfectly well—
Right now, every word I say is like walking on a knife's edge.
If she makes even the slightest mistake, she will be shattered to pieces.
It looked exactly like a fish on a chopping board, helpless and dehydrated for a long time.
—Only by continuing to tell the lie that he loves him can he save himself.
Dou Yanxun narrowed her eyes to slits, the dagger in her hand seemed to have moved slightly away, or perhaps not; she dared not look down.
After a long while, he shifted his body, looked down at her, and his eyes, though dark, gleamed with a hint of amusement and scrutiny.
Suddenly, Dou Yanxun's lips curled into a smile, a faint, mocking laugh echoing in the darkness. The laugh, however, was extremely low and carried a chilling undertone.
"Sharing weal and woe? Madam, you make it sound so easy. You schemed to marry into the Dou family and pretended to want to get close to me in every way, but you never mentioned your scheming and plot. How come you're acting so affectionate now?"
Even so, she clearly felt the pressure on her side lessen considerably. Lin Xu dared not relax and had to remain even more composed:
"I married into the Dou family not for wealth and glory, but only to walk hand in hand with my husband, seeking a long-lasting trust and stability. As for the so-called old matters, unless my husband brought them up, I never had the slightest malicious intent to pry into them. Whether it was my infatuation or my various means to get close to you, I have no other purpose whatsoever—"
Marrying you is the only thing I want to do.
Dou Yanxun's eyes were cold, like a beast that had been lying in wait for a long time, carefully examining the prey in front of him.
He casually toyed with the blade of the dagger in his hand. As the blade flipped, it flashed with silver light intermittently, causing her eyes to tremble.
After a long silence, the beast's smile deepened. He sighed softly, "Since my wife keeps saying she only wants to be with me, why do you need to hide a knife day and night? You can't love me to death, yet you're always thinking of ending me with a single blow, can you?"
If it weren't for the sharp weapon between them, they would have looked exactly like a couple playfully teasing each other when they were deeply in love.
Her heart clenched even tighter, and she could only speak in a low voice:
"I don't want to lie to you. At first, I hid this knife on my person... genuinely to protect myself from you."
Perhaps the explanation is weak, and you wouldn't even believe it if I told you, but although I love you, I am actually quite timid and cautious, not nearly as bold as I pretend to be..."
Her voice trailed off halfway through, and when she spoke again, even though her face was obscured, a tremor in her voice could be heard.
"That day, I fell in love with my husband at first sight during a fleeting glance at him in the martial arts arena, and so I sent someone to inquire about him. But my husband's reputation... in Mujing, he was hardly a respectable young master, and had been involved with many women. But my devotion to my husband remained unchanged. At that time, I had a cousin who was on good terms with me. He was worried about my safety and knew some martial arts, so he offered to teach me some skills for self-defense... so that even if my husband and I were to be alone together one day, I wouldn't be taken advantage of by him so easily..."
That's the whole reason.
Dou Yanxun was taken aback upon hearing this, and after a long while, he let out a cold laugh. He moved a few steps closer to her, his voice almost ringing in her ear: "What a fine string of sweet words, Madam is indeed clever."
Lin Xu's heart skipped a beat. She looked up and, by the light of the moon, she could vaguely see a complex expression in his eyes.
Beneath the ice, it seemed, there was an indescribable surge of emotion, and it was unclear whether he would believe this long explanation.
She couldn't see through it for a moment, as if she were facing a fog, within which were countless hidden undercurrents, surging with a dangerous aura.
She could only continue to murmur softly, "Even if my husband doesn't believe me—"
Before she could finish speaking, Dou Yanxun interrupted her: "The cousin you're talking about, is he Liang Yingzhi from the martial arts training ground?"
He paused, then gently turned the dagger in his hand, the tip seemingly unintentionally gliding across her skin.
The chill was like a sudden blizzard, making her back even more soaked with sweat.
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