Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

In the long, dark stairwell, Xu Yuan said nothing and urged her on even less. He simply lifted his hand and held it out in front of her. Su Jinxuan’s slightly hurried breathing was the only sound in that place. She bit her red lip so hard that her small canine tooth broke the skin at the corner of her mouth. Blood welled out, and she did not even notice.

Xu Yuan watched her quietly. He watched her struggle. He watched her anger. He watched her unwillingness. And then, he watched her begin to waver. He had gone through it himself. He knew exactly what Su Jinxuan needed right now.

A long silence passed. Then Su Jinxuan drew in a deep breath, and her arms, which had been wrapped tightly around her legs, loosened a little.

It’s fine. This isn’t surrender. It’s just to fool this bastard... To make him lower his guard. That’s right... Just to make him lower his guard. Not surrender. As long as I’m still alive, as long as I can keep him by my side, then I still have a chance.

With that thought in mind, Su Jinxuan slowly reached out her trembling hand, trying to grasp the only person within reach. But before she could touch him, the man in front of her pulled his hand back.

“If Miss Su is unwilling, then forget it.”

Su Jinxuan froze. Xu Yuan lifted a hand slightly. The Blood Origin Heartfall Art began to circulate in silence, and a flame rose from his palm. That faint, bewitching blood flame lit up the dark, narrow corridor. The sudden light made Su Jinxuan’s eyes ache for a moment, though fortunately it was dim enough that she could still clearly see the smile hidden in the narrow eyes of the man before her.

Su Jinxuan’s fists clenched at once.

Xu Yuan glanced at Su Jinxuan, still crouched by the wall. He said nothing, only let out a mocking laugh before turning and walking away.

Su Jinxuan lowered her beautiful eyes. Her breathing turned chaotic and quick, and her nails dug lightly into her palm without her noticing. She was being toyed with by the man in front of her. The tangle of thoughts in her mind made it hard for her to breathe for a moment.

However, Xu Yuan’s steps did not pause just because she was dazed. He kept walking upward at the same unhurried pace.

The glow of the flame and the sound of footsteps slowly faded into the distance. Only when the darkness was just about to swallow Su Jinxuan again did she suddenly come back to herself. She glanced down at the despairing blackness below, bit her lip, then pushed herself up and hurried after the direction where that distant flame had gone.

A moment later, hearing the footsteps trailing not too far behind him the whole time, Xu Yuan suddenly let out a soft laugh and said, “When I saw Miss Su staying behind just now, I almost thought you’d grown fond of this secret chamber.”

Then Su Jinxuan’s cool, quiet voice drifted up from more than ten meters below along the stairway. “So the rumors were true. Xu Changtian, your temperament really is this vile.”

“This vile? Miss Su, you shouldn’t make baseless accusations. I happen to think my temperament is fairly mild.”

Su Jinxuan’s voice trembled slightly. “Mild? Xu Changtian, you study such twisted methods of torture, and you still have the nerve to call yourself mild-tempered?”

“And what conflict is there between the two?” Xu Yuan’s tone did not change in the slightest. The smile in his voice remained. “So researching torture methods means I have a bad personality? Also, Miss Su, I think you may have misunderstood something. The relationship between us is hardly one of friends and family.”

He paused, then his voice took on a mocking edge. “Miss Su, surely you’re not expecting this young master to repay hatred with virtue, to treat you, the enemy who very nearly killed me, with the same courtesy I would show a friend?”

The long stairway stretched his voice out until it seemed to echo endlessly. Far behind him, Su Jinxuan fell silent at those words. No more conversation passed between them. One in front, one behind, the two of them walked along the narrow stairway until they reached the platform at the end. The platform was not large, but there was a stone door set into it.

Su Jinxuan stopped two meters behind Xu Yuan.

Xu Yuan slowly turned around, looked at the silent Su Jinxuan with her head lowered, then casually tossed her a long strip of black silk and instructed her in an offhand tone, “Put it on.”

Su Jinxuan caught it on instinct. She glanced at the silk in her hand, then lifted her eyes again, a trace of caution in her gaze.

But Xu Yuan merely returned her look calmly. In the end, Su Jinxuan looked away, lowered her head, and silently began wrapping the silk around both of her fair wrists.

Xu Yuan watched her movements, his expression turning a little strange. He could not make heads or tails of what this woman was doing. “What are you doing?”

Su Jinxuan lifted her eyes and shot back coldly, “Didn’t you tell me to tie myself up?”

Her voice was cool and sharp, but because of the natural allure in her body, even those words carried a faint, almost imperceptible seductiveness.

Xu Yuan looked at her helplessly and shook his head. “Who told you to tie yourself up? The silk is for covering your eyes.”

At that, the caution in Su Jinxuan’s gaze deepened.

Xu Yuan only kept smiling at her, unconcerned. “You don’t have any cultivation. If you don’t want to go blind, you’d better listen to me. It’s bright as hell outside today.”

Su Jinxuan pressed her red lips together and turned her gaze aside. She understood what he meant. After several silent breaths, she said nothing, and certainly did not thank him. She simply wrapped the long strip of black silk over her eyes.

Darkness swallowed everything around her once more. The light before her vanished again, and in the darkness around her, that same endless fear from before began creeping back into her heart, little by little.

“You got it on?” he asked.

“Mhm,” she answered.

“Then I’m opening the door.”

As Xu Yuan’s words fell, the stone door at the entrance to the chamber rumbled open with a heavy groan. Sunlight poured into the hidden passage through the doorway, but unfortunately, Su Jinxuan could not see it now.

In that lonely darkness, a drowning sort of suffocation came over her in wave after wave. Forcing herself to control the trembling brought on by fear, she fumbled forward by memory alone.

“You’re not seriously planning to walk out blindfolded by yourself, are you?” His voice came from in front of her, laced with amusement.

Then, without ceremony, he reached out and grabbed the wrist of the hand she was slowly using to feel along the stone wall. The warmth of his palm brought an unexpected sense of reassurance, and Su Jinxuan instinctively tightened her fingers.

Xu Yuan glanced at the succubus girl, whose expression had clearly gone a little stiff, and said with a smile, “Relax. If there are steps, I’ll warn you first. No need to be this tense.”

With that, he led her by the hand out of the dark, silent secret chamber.