Chapter 3 Different from the previous life
The other side.
Xie Yanyu heard Xie Chengjin's question and did not answer immediately.
She really didn't come here to look for the love thread Gu, but even so, she still felt guilty for a brief moment -
Did Xie Chengjin discover that she came to steal the love silk Gu this morning?
So he was testing her here?
wrong.
She only stole a small amount, and she carefully calculated the remaining amount in the drawer and even tampered with the record book.
This was not the first time she had stolen something from the dark room, and she had always handled it cleanly and had never been caught, and this time would be no exception.
Xie Yanyu recalled the process of having an affair with the silk Gu in the morning, and he felt relieved, so the guilty feeling quickly disappeared.
Her expression didn't even change as she answered his question, "No."
His tone was gentle and steady, with no sign of lying.
Because she didn't come here to look for the love thread Gu.
Xie Chengjin didn't comment and asked her, "Do you know what this is?"
Of course Xie Yanyu knew.
But she didn't know what was wrong with Xie Chengjin today. His attitude was as cold as usual, but this behavior itself was abnormal enough.
She didn't know what he was trying to do, so she didn't want to tell the truth, but from the fact that he had just stared at her as she went into the dark room to look for something, she could tell that he was not easy to fool, so it was best not to try to be clever in front of him, so she simply kept silent.
The air became quiet again.
The light from the dark room fell on the side of her face.
Xie Chengjin looked at her for a long moment, then said calmly, "This is love thread Gu."
Xie Yanyu lowered his head and looked submissive, but still said nothing.
Xie Chengjin continued, "It has aphrodisiac effects. If there is no antidote, you need to have sexual intercourse after taking it."
This was an explanation of the effects of the love thread Gu. If someone else had said this, they would probably have been more evasive and euphemistic, not so blunt. However, his tone was neither light nor heavy, and his words were devoid of emotion. Even when he said this, he seemed very cold, without any hint of vulgarity or sexuality, as if he were saying something very ordinary.
It was as if he was just teaching her to recognize the smell of this poison.
Xie Yanyu felt even more strange.
She always felt that he was hinting at something, even though he was just standing in front of her, explaining the effects of the love thread Gu in a cold voice, but she still had the illusion that she was being pressed step by step.
She is patient and can disguise her ambitions, but she is not without temper.
Being pushed too hard, she lost her patience and looked coldly at Xie Chengjin's palm with her eyelashes lowered: "Although this is not what I'm looking for..."
Her voice was flat. "But you held it before me and asked me to identify it. I really don't understand what you mean. Are you trying to give it to me as a reward? I'd be disrespectful to refuse."
After she finished speaking, she took the love thread Gu from his palm.
As she moved, her fingertips unconsciously brushed against his palm.
Xie Chengjin's palms were covered with scars, some new and some old. The new ones had just scabbed over, and when she rubbed them with her fingers, they felt slightly itchy.
His eyelids twitched. He was not used to having physical contact with others, even if it was just a light touch.
So much so that he was a beat slower.
When Xie Yanyu was about to withdraw her hand, he suddenly turned his hand and grabbed her wrist.
Xie Yanyu didn't struggle.
She lifted her eyelids, hiding the dark emotions in her eyes, and said in a gentle and slow tone: "What's wrong with my brother?"
She looked so pliable.
She is obedient and able to judge the situation, like a flexible reed, moving wherever the wind blows.
Xie Chengjin was testing her, pressing her step by step. He didn't expect that when pushed to this extent, she would directly take the things away. She was a bit brave.
He suddenly remembered the dreams.
He had been plagued by dreams recently, always dreaming of Xie Yanyu. The contents of the dreams were all sorts of bizarre, such as dreaming that Xie Yanyu defected to the demon clan and stabbed the aristocratic family, or dreaming that she was imprisoned by him and threatened him with a knife. These dreams had no beginning or end, no cause or effect, and were fragmented and incomplete.
Some dreams were even told from her perspective, and he could even sense her thoughts in the dreams.
Most of her thoughts were dark. Today she wanted to climb up the social ladder, tomorrow she wanted to step on everyone under her feet, and the day after tomorrow she was jealous of his good background and cursed him to die early.
He even dreamed that she had an affair with a silk poison and wanted to give it to Helan Wei.
He didn't know why he dreamed of her so often.
But without exception,
Xie Yanyu in the dream was dark and sharp, like a soft blade.
She is not as gentle as she looks in front of me.
Xie Chengjin lowered his eyelashes and stopped looking at her. He grabbed her wrist and pulled the love thread Gu out of her hand: "It's not for you."
He withdrew his hand as if nothing had happened: "I just wanted you to identify it so that you don't take the wrong one."
Xie Yanyu: “…” Sick.
Xie Chengjin: "But now I feel——"
Xie Yanyu replied perfunctorily: "Hmm?"
Xie Chengjin looked at her expressionlessly, his eyes lowered. "Perhaps it would be better to destroy all of the love thread Gu."
He hadn't originally planned to do this. He made this trip today out of curiosity about why he kept dreaming about her, and also to check the records of the poison. He didn't find anything unusual in the records, so he assumed she hadn't used the love thread Gu yet. When they met later, he wanted to test her to see if she was really the same as in his dream.
He now felt that she must have been interested in the love thread Gu.
Just like in a dream.
Maybe she really isn't as docile as she appears.
Xie Chengjin didn't have much aversion to his stepsister, but he couldn't say he liked her either. In his eyes, she was no different from the flowers and servants in the yard. He didn't care what kind of person she was, but since they were nominally siblings, he wouldn't let her call him "Young Master" like the servants, nor would he allow her to do something as disgraceful as drugging someone.
Since she is somewhat similar to the one in the dream,
It would be safer for him to destroy all these love thread poisons.
On that side,
When Xie Yanyu heard that he wanted to destroy the love silk Gu, she didn't feel much in her heart. She didn't need this kind of thing anyway.
She asked, "Are they all going to be destroyed tonight?"
Xie Chengjin nodded.
Xie Yanyu doesn't need the love thread Gu, but he needs the medicinal herbs in the drawer next to the love thread Gu to make the antidote for the love thread Gu.
She was just worrying about not being able to steal the herbs under Xie Chengjin's nose. When she heard his response, she felt that her chance had come. She said, "Brother, is this all you have? If there's any more, I'll get it for you."
Xie Chengjin glanced at the cabinet containing the love thread Gu and motioned her to get it.
He stared at her, not worried that she would hide it. If she wanted to use the love silk Gu, then she should hand it over to him personally and let him destroy it.
He was hammering her.
Xie Yanyu didn't care whether he knocked or not,
After getting his approval, she quickly walked to the cabinet where the love silk Gu was stored.
There were several kinds of medicinal herbs and poisons in a cabinet, which were placed in different drawers. She pretended not to know where the love poison was, opened several drawers around it and looked through them. She quickly picked up some materials for refining the antidote and put them into her sleeve.
Then he slowly opened the drawer containing the love silk Gu, took out everything under Xie Chengjin's eyes, and handed it to him: "Brother, please help yourself."
After saying that, he prepared to leave.
But before he took two steps, he heard Xie Chengjin's voice again: "Where are you going?"
Xie Yanyu paused and said, "Go back."
She was anxious to go back and make the antidote, and Xie Chengjin was really abnormal. She couldn't guess what he was thinking, so she wanted to stay away from him as soon as possible.
He had already wasted a lot of her time. She was a little annoyed and turned around to ask, "What's wrong? It's so late. Are you still worried that I'll run around outside?"
The tone is very gentle.
If Xie Chengjin hadn't been dreaming about her all the time and hadn't sensed the dark thoughts in her dreams, he probably wouldn't have been able to tell that she was being sarcastic and complained that he was meddling too much.
Xie Chengjin looked at her, and his fingertips suddenly felt itchy. He suddenly wanted to pry open her soft skin.
He suppressed the thought, expressionless, and closed the darkroom door.
Then he said, “Yeah.”
Xie Yanyu: "...I won't run around."
Xie Chengjin walked up to her and said, "It's too late. I'll take you home."
*
at the same time.
In Xie Yanyu's yard.
Xie Yanyu was, after all, an adopted daughter. Although no one, from the master to the servants, looked down on her, she was still treated better than the servants. Her courtyard was not large, but it had everything she needed: a bedroom, a study, an annex for the maids, and a hall for receiving guests.
But there is usually no one in the hall because Xie Yanyu has few friends and even fewer guests.
On weekday nights, the lights in the hall are always off, but today is unusual.
The lights in the bedroom and study were dim, but the lights in the living room were on.
In the hall,
Helan Wei stood in front of the window.
He came uninvited.
Xie Yanyu did not come to bring him soup in person. He asked the maid, and the maid said that the soup was cooked by Xie Yanyu herself, but she had something urgent to do, so she did not come.
The maid had no idea where Xie Yanyu had gone or what she was up to. When he asked, she simply evaded the question, saying, "She doesn't usually have anything important to do. If she wants to send you something, she usually does it in person. Today... maybe she really has something more important to do."
More important things?
Helan Wei scoffed at this.
But he still asked the maid to bring him over.
He even asked the maid to bring back the bowl of hangover soup intact.
He opened the hall window and looked out. This courtyard was very remote. At night, it was pitch black outside. Even the patrolling guards were few and far between. It was very quiet. Because it was so dark and quiet, it gave people a desolate and oppressive illusion. Helan Wei was affected by this atmosphere and felt inexplicably annoyed.
He didn't know when Xie Yanyu would come back, but he shouldn't have to wait too long.
This year, Xie Yanyu liked him so much that she gave him a love poison and told him that she wanted nothing else.
What else could she have more important?
She didn't know anyone in the Xie Mansion, so she probably didn't go out with anyone else. Maybe she just had some trivial matters to deal with.
Or maybe she drugged him, and she was afraid of his punishment, so she didn't dare to look for him temporarily and hid away by herself.
This is different from the previous life, but things will never stay the same.
She would be happy to see him when he came back and told her that he would not question her this time.
Helan Wei thought carelessly.
At this time, the clapper sounded again. It was already midnight, very late.
He looked outside again and noticed lights approaching in the distance, as if someone was coming with a lantern.
As the light got closer,
Helan Wei finally saw the scene over there clearly—
Xie Chengjin walked towards this side holding a lantern.
Xie Yanyu was beside him. Although neither of them spoke and each looked down at the road, they were very close.
Xie Chengjin even seemed to deliberately slow down his pace so that Xie Yanyu could walk side by side with him.
In the deep night and dim lights,
The shadows behind the two people stretched and overlapped, creating a subtle atmosphere of intimacy.
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