26 Chapter 26 Tempting the mind
◎The destined person is willing◎
The night was quiet and lonely, and Yuliu was all alone, but she could hear Yunhe's voice very clearly, coming towards her like a sweeping wave.
Gentle and calm greetings, playful and teasing conversations, and perplexed inquiries...
However, more often than not, he was patient and gentle, constantly speaking words to ease her defenses.
Yun He's usually clear and melodious voice now carried infinite power, and it filled Yu Liu's empty and lonely sea of consciousness with gentleness yet determination, completely driving away the harsh mechanical sounds of the system.
The stagnant time and space resumed their flow in this moment of silence.
The night wind, carrying moonlight, quietly slid down from the carved wooden window onto Yuliu's forehead. Her hair moved slightly in the wind, covering the afterglow of the stars in her eyes, creating a scenery that belonged only to her.
Seeing Yuliu's dazed look, the system assumed she wasn't interested in the topic. It stopped the conversation with a rather mature sigh, "Ah... As expected, you also think the term 'destined person' sounds fake, right?"
"That's right. Even the two protagonists at the center of the world weren't destined to be soul mates. So, how could there be two people in the world who are destined to meet and be together?"
Her willow-like eyelashes trembled slightly, and her long, curled eyelashes touched the drooping hair, bringing a slight tingling sensation.
"It seems... the rumors are just rumors after all. They can't be taken seriously. They're just a figment of everyone's unfulfilled desires." The system analyzed the situation using its usual rules-based thinking. After concluding its own conclusion, it still sought Yuliu's approval. "Host, what do you think?"
"Hmm?" Yuliu's nose tip turned slightly red. She slowly raised her eyelids, facing the moonlight flowing into the room from the window, and looked at the lonely willow tree in the garden.
Her eyes were very light in color, and when the moonlight filled her eyes, they were like a pool of clear, sparkling hot spring water. The myriad emotions surging in her eyes were concealed by the rising mist.
The system is not good at sensing human emotions.
At this moment, it was increasingly unable to understand the meaning contained in the complex look in Yuliu's eyes.
Yuliu blinked gently, and the glimmer in her eyes began to fluctuate like ripples.
She said in a very soft voice: "Yes, I also think that the rumors are not entirely true."
At some point, the pitch-black night became like the picture that had just appeared in Yuliu's mind. A drizzle of rain poured down, and the night wind blew across her face, carrying with it the fragrance of fresh grass and trees outside the yard. She sniffed lightly, recalling the green bamboo figure she had just seen.
Blurry and hazy.
Yuliu couldn't tell whether it was Yunhe's figure waiting under the willow tree when she was making excuses not to take the medicine, or Yunhe's back as he followed her unspoken thoughts and walked away into the night with Jiang Jingmo.
But Yuliu thought that the rumors were indeed not true.
The destined person will not come to you unconditionally.
Instead, as long as you need him, he will respect your wishes, and even be willing to leave.
The system didn't pick up on the hint of sarcasm in Yuliu's tone. Instead, it felt smug about its opinion being recognized. It couldn't help but add a few more words before finally remembering tonight's business: "Ah, right... So, which one of the protagonists was the person you wanted to ask me about earlier?"
Occasionally, a few drops of rain fell from the gaps in the carved window lattice onto Yuliu's cheek. She raised her hand and gently wiped the beads from her cheek with her fingertips. She stood up from the bed and walked to the half-open window. She changed her usual vague words and told the system in a light but firm tone, "Neither."
At first she just wanted to know why Yunhe seemed to understand her inner thoughts better than she did herself.
Now it seems... there is no need to ask.
She had experienced too many bizarre twists and turns and was too cautious. She had never received any care that was more gentle and silent than the spring rain. That was why she realized so late that these things could be achieved as long as you were attentive enough.
Yuliu raised her hand and slowly closed the wooden window. The moment the left and right windows closed, a slight but abrupt creaking sound was heard in the silent night.
The willow tree in the yard, whose branches were swaying in the wind and rain, gradually shrank into an emerald green silhouette as the window was opened.
It looks a bit like that person's back.
But why is her destined person...
Could it be Yunhe?
While Yuliu was thinking about Yunhe, the system mentioned all the protagonists and supporting characters who had appeared, but it never got a positive answer from Yuliu.
"Who are you trying to ask about, then?" The system felt like it was about to explode from overload and heat after asking for so long. "Why don't you just ask me directly? Aside from the ethereal existence of the destined person, as long as it's related to the plot, there's nothing in this world I don't know!"
The system denied the existence of the destined person in every sentence, but the more it denied, the more Yuliu was certain that the person was Yunhe.
After all, the system is right in at least one thing.
——The destined person is an existence above the system.
So this also explains why the system was unable to provide an explanation for the side quest reward "Fragrant Far and Clear" before.
But in this case, she probably wouldn't be able to get any useful hints or help from the system regarding Yunhe.
Yuliu walked quietly to the small table while thinking, and poured a cup of tea. Maybe it had been left for a long time, so it was cold when she took a sip. The sour taste made Yuliu frown. She immediately put down the teacup and sat back on the bed.
"Why, isn't it tasty?" the system said, a bit disdainful of Yuliu's delicate demeanor. "This is top-quality Xihang Longjing tea. What's the matter? Did Su Yunyue spoil your palate after visiting the palace?"
It would have been fine if the system hadn't mentioned it, but after saying it, Yuliu recalled the table of festive spicy dishes in the palace, and her throat suddenly felt itchy.
No wonder she always felt her throat was a little dry before. She coughed lightly a few times to clear her throat: "No, it's just that I... prefer to drink hot tea."
The system was surprised to hear the word "like" from Yuliu for the first time. It asked with rare concern, "You used to play the victim and pretend to be wronged, didn't you always say you were used to drinking cold tea? Why did you suddenly change your attitude today?"
It's not a sudden change of character.
But before, Yuliu didn't know that she could be such a precious existence, so she just lived her life casually.
But things are different now.
She doesn't want to hurt other people's sincerity.
Yuliu lowered her head and smiled, then lifted the quilt and pulled it up to cover the lower half of her face. Her voice sounded a little muffled when it came out through the soft and thick quilt: "Who knows..."
“Sometimes, change happens so suddenly.”
Yuliu turned over and lay on her side, facing the window. Her thin shoulders, wrapped in the quilt, shrugged slightly, and she said meaningfully, "Just like I don't know why you suddenly wanted to use the teahouse next to the spring breeze to pass on a message to me."
"Oh, this is indeed a bit sudden..." The system paused, then suddenly asked, "Speaking of which, do you still remember the villain hiding behind the scenes? Aren't you curious why he always knows Xiao Tianmin's movements so well?"
Yuliu replied calmly, "Not curious."
"Why aren't you curious?" the system asked, puzzled, with a hint of questioning in its voice. "You should be curious, right? That villain will create a lot of very difficult troubles for the hero, and will put their relationship in crisis again and again. Don't you plan to resolve it?"
The more Yuliu listened to the system, the more strange it seemed to her.
She pulled the quilt down, revealing a slender neck. Her smooth neckline moved slightly as she spoke. In a tone even more bewildered and innocent than the system's, she asked, "First of all, I have no idea who the villain behind this is."
"Secondly, if I succeed in subduing the villain to Zhao An, can I replace the male protagonist and become the protagonist of this world?"
From the very beginning, when the Fourth Prince's wife fell off a cliff, the Fourth Prince's first choice was not to dispatch all the troops in the mansion to search and rescue her. Instead, he was secretly taken advantage of by the substitute "Yuliu". This has always made Yuliu extremely puzzled by the male protagonist's behavior.
It seems that the male protagonist accomplishes most of the things with the help of others.
The rumor of keeping a concubine was dispelled by Yu Liu personally verifying the identity of the younger sister of the Fourth Prince's wife's mother's family.
The fact that the Fourth Prince’s wife and her child were able to return to the palace safely was inseparable from Jiang Jingmo’s careful care for the past half month.
If we really want to talk about what the Fourth Prince did, it was probably to ask Li Shengshou to abort his unborn child...
She has never even met the Fourth Prince, who is said to be the iron-fisted and autocratic prince.
The system paused for a moment at Yuliu's questioning, as if deeply shocked by Yuliu's 'outrageous' remarks. Its speech became increasingly rapid: "How could you have such an overreaching thought? Be rational! You can't dethrone the protagonist. It's simply impossible!"
After hearing this, Yuliu wasn't annoyed or angry. Instead, she nodded indifferently, agreeing with a sincere tone, "You're right. Since this is both arduous and thankless for me, I'd better not 'overstep' in helping the hero subdue the villain, right?"
The villain attacked several times, his vision was always vicious and his plans were always cruel, and every move was aimed at the fourth prince's fatal point. If it weren't for the hero's luck, there would always be someone willing to sacrifice his life for him to break the deadlock, and a miracle happened to turn the danger into safety.
And that crazy and paranoid villain was able to fight against the Qi of destiny at the center of the world and cause this situation just by exerting his strength in the dark...
Yuliu felt that with her little thoughts, she might not be a match for that master at all.
Therefore, Yuliu has always been very cautious about that person's existence. She is curious and curious, but not too much. She now thinks that the most she can do is secretly dig out the villain's identity in advance and hint it to Su Yunyue or Xiao Tianmin. As for the rest...
Whoever should take responsibility should do it.
The system was stunned by the word "usurpation" that Yuliu replied with exactly as it was.
But in fact, although the act of appeasing the villain is beneficial to the emotional development of the protagonist, there is indeed no rule that explicitly requires that this is a task that Yuliu must complete.
Therefore, under the constraints of the rules, the system could only say dryly: "Okay, but it is true that the villain in the last world is the highest level. Taming the villain will be a bit difficult for you. It is wise for you to choose not to alert the enemy..."
"But, you should at least make the hero aware of the villain's existence in advance, right? Otherwise, the final plot will be too cruel, and it will easily end in a be. At that time, you, the host, will also be judged as a failure, and destroyed along with the collapse of the world." The system said, and suddenly said "Oh", "So, the person you wanted to ask before, is he the villain behind the scenes?"
What Yuliu originally wanted to ask was actually Yunhe, but she had already found the answers to those questions herself.
But she didn't need to tell the system this, so she took the opportunity to ask another question on her mind: "Is the flood and plague related to the villains?"
Although the post-disaster plague is a natural disaster, it is hard to say whether it was man-made.
After all, at this point when the Fourth Prince's wife was pregnant, the Fourth Prince stayed in Yangzhu County and was unable to get away, which was of no help in resolving the misunderstanding. Even if Su Yunyue took the initiative to settle Jiang Jingmo, in the end, the two of them would still have to sit down face to face to completely resolve the misunderstanding.
"It wasn't him. That villain only targets the hero and usually doesn't harm others. Otherwise, with his information network, this world would have been destroyed long ago." The system responded decisively this time. "And I chose to use the Spring Breeze Teahouse to deliver this message to you because I hoped you would pay more attention."
"What are you paying attention to?" asked Yuliu.
The system said: "The villain behind the scenes seems to have a very close relationship with Chunfeng Fulan."
·
Yuliu got up late again.
As the layers of curtains sway gently in the wind, warm white sunlight shines through the carved wooden windows into the quaint interior, bringing with it the soft light unique to spring.
At first, Yuliu only felt that there seemed to be a faint light in the darkness. He slept for a while in a daze, and then he suddenly opened his eyes and sat up from the bed.
She felt a little dizzy and rubbed her forehead, recalling what they had talked about in the second half of the night. She sat quietly for a while, waiting until her limp and numb body had accumulated some strength. Then she slowly raised her bare hands, pushed aside the gauze curtains, and got out of bed.
The teacup that I left on the table last night without finishing it has been neatly collected and placed on the tea tray. In the bright sunlight, the white porcelain glaze reflects subtle streams of light.
Yuliu was stunned for a moment, then cleared her throat and called out, "Fangyue, what time is it now?"
"It's 9:00 PM. I guess you're a little tired from your trip to the palace yesterday, so I didn't call you." Fang Yue heard the voice and brought out a copper basin of warm water that had been prepared early in the morning from the side room. She asked, "After washing up, would you like to have a meal?"
Yuliu's slender hands were soaking in warm water, with a few crimson petals floating lightly on the water, making her skin look even whiter and more translucent.
Hearing this, she paused slightly, but returned to normal in just a moment.
Yuliu took the silk handkerchief she had prepared in advance and carefully wiped the water droplets on her hands. She walked over to the makeup mirror and sat down. "Why didn't Yumei come back last night?"
Fang Yue paused as she was tying Yuliu's hair and asked in surprise, "That's true...but how did you know that, young lady?"
This is not difficult to guess.
Fangyue is a little younger and is afraid of fire and hot oil, so the meals in Yuqingyuan have always been prepared by Yumei. If the meals had been prepared in advance, Fangyue would naturally not ask any more questions.
But in fact, as early as last night when Yumei had not returned home, Yuliu had vaguely guessed that the Fourth Prince's wife had made some moves:
The meals Yumei prepared for her always contained distraction powder. Regardless of who Yumei originally wanted to poison, now that this box of food was on the table of the Fourth Prince's wife, she would inevitably be charged with the crime of murdering royal relatives.
What's more, the Fourth Prince's wife is pregnant.
When Yuliu gave the food box to Su Yunyue, he specifically reminded her of this.
"Since Yumei is not at home, have you had your meal yet?"
Yuliu didn't plan to explain the intricacies behind this to Fangyue yet. Seeing the little girl's hair swaying slightly, he chuckled and carefully checked himself in the mirror. His eyes weren't dark blue after staying up all night, so he didn't bother to waste time applying the gouache. He casually picked up a box of lip balm, dipped his fingertips in it, and gently dabbed it on his red lips. With a guilty look on his face, he said:
"I was in such a hurry yesterday that I didn't have time to deal with these things. Today I plan to go to Chunfeng Fulan again to finish the things that I didn't resolve yesterday. Coincidentally, Yuqingyuan has had a lot of guests recently. Why don't we all go to a restaurant and have something delicious?"
Yumei inserted a silver lotus beaded hairpin into her bun. Seeing Yuliu actually taking out the land deed she had collected yesterday, she was immediately flattered. "Miss, it's Master Yun, Lord Jiang... and me? Shall we go together?"
"Of course. Since everyone is in Yuqing Courtyard, we should all go." Yuliu lowered her head and put the deed into the tasseled sachet. Her nose trembled slightly and she hummed, "Firstly, it will allow everyone to get to know each other better and make it more lively. Secondly, as the host, I can't let you all go hungry, right? Just think of it as..."
Yuliu stood up and tightened the drawstring, then tied the small sachet with white lotus embroidery and tassels around her waist. Suddenly, her brows furrowed slightly as she looked at Fangyue, "What's going on? Could it be that one of them isn't in Yuqing Courtyard and has gone out for something?"
Yuliu subconsciously thought it was Jiang Jingmo.
After all, when Jiang Jingmo was guarding the frontier, besides training as a martial arts instructor, he was always restless in his free time, and it was common for him to go out drinking and eating meat.
"Ah? No, no, the Chunfeng Fulan Restaurant is famous for its delicious food, but it's a well-known den of money. I never thought that one day I would be able to go there."
Fang Yue was stunned for a moment, then when she received Yuliu's slightly smiling eyes, she became happy and excited again. She quickened her pace and took the lead to help Yuliu roll up the beaded curtain. As Yuliu lowered her head and walked past the curtain, she explained, "Young Master Yun and Lord Jiang haven't left Yuqing Courtyard yet. Moreover, they seem to have come to the young lady's courtyard early in the morning..."
"Hmm?" As Yuliu walked across the red beech table, her slightly curled knuckles glided across the wooden surface like a dragonfly floating on water. The moment she slid off the edge, her fingertips drew a small, smooth curve in the air, just like the tone of Yuliu's voice. "What are they doing here? Did Jiang Jingmo bring Yunhe with him? Next time they come, tell them that Yuqingyuan doesn't have so many rules. There's no need to go to the trouble of greeting and showing goodwill..."
Fangyue looked as if she wanted to say something but was hesitant. Just when she was about to say something, Yuliu had already pushed open the wooden door of the main room.
The setting sun of spring suddenly came towards her with a warm glow, and when it fell all over her body, it silently added a layer of soft spring vitality to her.
Not long after Yuliu got up, she suddenly walked out of the room. She was still not used to the strong light and squinted slightly. However, the brief visual darkness only made her sense of smell more sensitive.
The air after the drizzle was moist with the unique freshness of early spring. The willow trees outside became greener after being baptized by the spring rain, but the eyelashes of the elm and willow trees trembled slightly. When they looked towards the spring light, the first thing they saw was only the back standing under the willow tree.
It is tall and straight, like a cypress tree on the top of snow.
The shadow that was once easily dispersed by the ripples of the water now had substance.
As light and shadow overlapped, Yunhe seemed to sense something. He slowly turned around, stood with his back to the light, and placed all his gaze on the spring breeze, slowly moving towards the elms and willows.
【Author’s words】
First, Yuliu said to the system: Work hard, kill the boss, and let me be the protagonist!
Secondly, Yuliu said to Yunhe: I know you are a good person, but why don’t I have a love brain?
Finally, in order to get into the V category and still have some manuscripts saved, the author has been making 10,000 copies a day for a week (please praise!)
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