Cage (17)
Li Qi stared at the door that was gradually opening. A beam of cold moonlight squeezed through the door and sprinkled on the floor inside the house, reflecting a human figure.
The door was fully opened, and the person who came in was Qinglan.
When Li Qi saw that it was her and not the person she was mentally resisting, she breathed a sigh of relief without leaving any trace.
"County Lady," Qinglan called from the doorway, lantern in hand. The moonlight stretched her shadow long and cast it on the ground. She said indifferently, "Lord Feng is waiting for you in the Treasury."
Li Qi breathed a sigh of relief, but then she breathed a sigh of relief again. She didn't really want to go to that place filled with countless terrible memories. She asked tentatively, "Can I not go? Or, will he come back here?"
Qinglan glanced at her calmly without answering. She stepped aside to make room for the threshold and said with lowered eyes, "I have already harnessed the carriage and am waiting outside the mansion. County Lady, please do not delay any longer. Let's go."
Li Qi's scalp felt tight.
The Treasury Pavilion carries too many shameful memories. Almost all of her entanglements with Feng Siji happened there. Now Feng Siji must meet her there, and she knows very well why.
She resisted and didn't want to go. Reason told her that she didn't want to have any relationship with Feng Siji anymore, but her emotions were controlling her. The way Shengxiang died in the sea of fire to protect her was still vivid in her mind, and she didn't want to lose the silly Ye Lan again.
Thinking of this, Li Qi took a deep breath, trying to shake off the shameful scenes in the treasury pavilion, and then walked out of the threshold very slowly.
The bright light filled the courtyard, as if the ground was covered with a layer of warm white frost. Every blade of grass and every tree in the courtyard was reflected in the moonlight, mysterious and quiet.
In the silent air, Qinglan's voice suddenly came to mind: "The county lady shouldn't treat you like this. After all, you'll be the one who suffers in the end. Why bother?"
It was rare for Li Qi to hear her sigh in a subtle way, so she couldn't help but pause and glance back, but she only saw a corner of her dress, which was warm and bright under the light of the lantern she was carrying.
Li Qi said nothing, walked out of the house, and got on the carriage prepared by Qinglan.
Qinglan hung the lantern under the eaves of the carriage, then sat in the driver's room and drove away.
Amid the rumbling sound of the carriage, Li Qi felt complicated, panicked, resistant, but mostly fearful.
She had never been afraid of anything. Even when she was stranded in Qianzhou with Mingrong and Dong Linche, she was not afraid. At that time, she was more sad that she would become homeless.
But she was deeply afraid and resisted Feng Siji who was in the Treasury.
Thinking of the pain of being torn apart by his revenge last time, Li Qi's heart beat faster.
This time he might be even angrier than last time. She thought of the silver chain with a cold glow that he had shown her before, and her face gradually turned pale, like the moonlight that was now spilling all over the ground.
"County Lady, we're here." Qinglan's voice interrupted her messy thoughts.
Li Qi took off her cloak, casually placed it on the cushion beside her, and bent down to get out of the carriage.
When he was about to go in, he saw Qinglan standing there without moving.
Li Qi's heart began to panic, and she subconsciously asked, "Aren't you going with me?"
Qinglan stared at her with cold eyes and said, "Master has already told you that he usually leads you by the hand, hugs you, or pushes you to go to him. This time, he wants you to go alone and take the initiative to see him."
Li Qi's heart sank. If there were only her and Feng Siji in the treasury, wouldn't Feng Siji have no scruples and bully her as he pleased?
She looked up at the eleventh-floor treasury pavilion. A dim light shone through the window, and she could vaguely see a figure leaning against the window. However, the figure was obscured by the light and was further away due to the distance of the eleventh floor, so she couldn't see the face clearly.
Her heart beat faster and faster, and she gritted her teeth and slowly walked up.
When I reached the top floor, I saw that the door was wide open. The warm light from inside shone through, forming a triangular angle on the ground, dispelling some of the darkness in the corridor.
She looked up and saw Feng Siji leaning against the window frame. His snow-white robe almost blended in with the faint moonlight outside the window. He didn't even look back when he heard her footsteps.
Li Qi entered the room and was about to step towards him when she heard him say in a deep voice, "Close the door."
Li Qi did as he did, and then walked towards him very slowly. The insects crawled faster than her, but fortunately they didn't hear him urging them. Li Qi felt a little relieved and stopped five steps away from him.
"Envoy Feng." She called out first.
Feng Siji was silent.
Li Qi nervously pinched the hem of her skirt, looked at his cold and distant profile, and continued:
"I didn't mean to not come to see you. I was just afraid that Zhang Zhouzhu and the others would target me. I was also afraid that He Mu would report my crimes to Chen Hu and that they would arrest me, so I didn't dare to show up."
There was still no sound from Feng Siji.
He was like a cold sculpture, leaning there, looking up at the moon in the sky with his head slightly tilted upwards. His brows, thin lips and high nose bridge were all stained with a hint of coolness from the moonlit night.
He has been in this posture since Li Qi came in, without changing at all.
Li Qi was extremely flustered seeing him like this, and the uneasiness in her heart was about to overwhelm her. The room was so quiet that she could only hear her breathing and the occasional sound of the wind blowing outside the window.
She knew he must be very angry, and he was also an inferior, cold and stubborn person, and not so easy to coax.
She gritted her teeth and continued, "I really didn't lie to you. You must know how uneasy things have been in Kyoto these past few days. It's understandable that I'm afraid to see anyone."
He moved, turned around, leaned against the windowsill, looked at her deeply, but still did not speak.
Li Qi got goosebumps when he looked at her. His eyes were like a big open mouth that swallowed her whole.
Her scalp tingled and her palms were covered in sweat. "I've said so much, why don't you just say something? I'm so nervous when you ignore me."
Feng Si blinked quickly, the corners of his lips slightly curved up, and he looked at her with a smile: "I didn't do anything, why are you so nervous?"
Perhaps because she was physically and mentally exhausted over the past two days, Li Qi did not notice the strangeness of his smile. She only saw that he not only replied to her, but also smiled at her. Perhaps he was not as angry as she imagined.
She breathed a sigh of relief and opened her mouth to reply, but saw his smile disappear in the blink of an eye. His features were covered with a layer of gloomy anger, and his cold eyes stared at her: "Where have you been these days?"
Li Qi's breath, which had just been released, suddenly came back to her senses. Her nerves tensed, and Yun Shanmin's face flashed through her mind. She subconsciously felt that she couldn't tell the truth, so she asked guiltily, "These past few days?"
She pinched her skirt tightly and said softly, "I've been hiding in the Xianglai Inn."
Afraid he wouldn't believe her, she quickly added, "It's outside the city, very remote, and it's Zhang Zhouzhu's territory. As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest place. No one would have guessed I was there, so I was safe."
After Li Qi finished speaking, she didn't hear his voice. She raised her eyes cautiously and tentatively to look at him, but she met his gaze that was fixed on her. She was stunned for a moment, and almost instinctively stepped back, turning around and running towards the door.
But he was much faster than her. He was tall and strong with wide strides. He caught up with the fleeing slender white figure in just two or three steps, grabbed her shoulders and pulled her towards him.
Afraid that she would struggle and fall, he suddenly pressed her down on the round table next to him.
The teapot and teacups on the table fell to the ground with a crackling sound. Li Qi was lifted up and laid on the table, her back pressed against the hard surface. She felt cold and painful. She struggled with her hands and feet to get up, but he had already pressed down on her, grabbed her hands, and clamped them on top of her head.
"Let me go!" Her hands lost their freedom and she wanted to kick him with her legs, but he suddenly brought his knees together, clamping her two slender legs tightly in his arms, preventing her from moving at all.
From hands to toes, he completely suppressed her.
Feng Siji was finally satisfied. He looked down at her and sneered. He bent down and whispered in her ear:
"Since you've already come to see me, why are you running away? You should know your place. Take off all your clothes and come to see me. Maybe I won't be so angry."
He almost bit her ear as he spoke. A cold breath rushed over her, lingering over her entire ear canal and the skin of her neck, stimulating her to shiver in his arms.
She felt that her wrists were about to be broken by him, and her legs were almost broken by him. Her face was distorted with pain, and she opened her mouth to beg for mercy, but he did not let her go.
His face and neck were flushed with rage. He looked at her with a dark, ruthless gaze, locking onto her like a wolf. "I really, really want to push you down from the eleventh floor, until you die and be done with it all. It would be best if you were completely shattered, with not a single bone left, so that I never have to see you again!"
As long as he couldn't see, he wouldn't have so many complicated thoughts, which entangled him so tightly that he almost suffocated him.
But there was really no trace of her in the theater at the mass grave. If he didn't look for her, she would completely disappear from his life, and he could then go his own way and eliminate the treacherous and evil.
But why couldn't he let go? Why? Feng Siji was almost hating her to death. His eyes were filled with hatred and disgust like fire. The hand that was holding her wrist moved in another direction and grabbed her neck, taking away her breath.
She coughed uncomfortably and grabbed his wrist tightly, trying her best to make him let go. He was too scary. The look in his eyes made her know how much he hated her. Even if he was reluctant to let her die, there would always be a time when he accidentally strangled her. She didn't want to die.
"Ahem...let go..."
"You've been with Yunshan Min these days, right?"
He tightened his grip, his fingers with distinct joints turning white from exerting force, and gradually left red marks on her fair skin. He felt the beating of her neck pulse in his palm. That was her fragile and pitiful life, held in his hand.
His gaze, as heavy as a tidal wave, was filled with dense hostility: "If I don't post a wanted poster, you won't come back at all, right?
"You want me to think you're dead, and that I, in my anger and heartbreak, will take care of He Zhangjing and the others for you. It would be best if we fought to the death, or died together. That way, you'd kill two birds with one stone, getting rid of the hatred in your heart, and me too. No one would bother you or retaliate against you anymore, is that right?!
"Is this why you deliberately let Li Ke summon me to Kyoto to be a special case envoy? You just wanted to use me from the beginning to the end, even if it meant my death. Am I right?!"
His eyes were covered with a thick layer of tears, but he tried hard to hold them back. His eyes were so red as if he had some kind of disease.
Li Qi saw this and suddenly relaxed her struggling hands.
Because he was right.
That's what she thought.
Her reaction already gave the answer. Feng Siji suddenly couldn't control his whole body and trembled.
All the grievances he had suffered because of her for so long came at him like a tide and a cold wind, extinguishing and blowing out the only light in his heart.
How could he be moved by someone like her? How could he sacrifice everything, even his life, for someone like her? He could no longer hold back and burst into tears.
Hot tears splattered on Li Qi's cheeks. He suddenly let go of Li Qi's throat and said through gritted teeth, "Li Qi, you will pay the price."
After saying that, he grabbed her by the collar, lifted her up like a kitten, and threw her heavily onto the bed.
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