Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

With every curtain drawn shut across the windows, the whole room was steeped in dim, muted gloom. The aroma of cooked food drifted softly through the crack beneath the door. Three meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and a soup. A proper mortal feast, all prepared by the head chef of the Xu residence in Stillwater.

The strip of black silk that had been tied over Su Jinxuan’s eyes had already been removed. Her alluring peach blossom eyes were lowered as she sat at the wooden table in the side room, delicately picking at her food with a pair of bamboo chopsticks.

Xu Yuan had only taken a sip of spirit spring water during cultivation yesterday, so he was not hungry yet. He sat off to the side, quiet and amused, waiting for her.

Su Jinxuan moved with perfect grace, chewing slowly and eating in small, refined bites like a noble young lady. The problem was the expression on her face while she ate. It was so grim it looked like she was eating her last meal before execution.

Ever since he had brought her into this room, the enchanting girl had worn that same heroic, ready-to-die expression. By the look of it, she had already decided to stay stubborn to the bitter end and reveal nothing. Judging from her face now, she was probably fully prepared to be thrown into that secret chamber.

Xu Yuan was not surprised by that at all. If she could sell out the person she cared for most so easily, then Su Jinxuan would not deserve to be one of Azure Point’s heroines in the first place.

The room was very quiet. The only sound was the occasional clear clink of bamboo chopsticks against a porcelain bowl.

Su Jinxuan ate every last bite with slow, careful composure, then set down her chopsticks and glanced around.

Xu Yuan casually pulled a black patterned handkerchief from his Sumeru Ring and tossed it over.

“It’s yours. No need to return it.”

Su Jinxuan did not catch it. The black handkerchief drifted down and landed across her thighs, which were wrapped in sheer white silk stockings.

Xu Yuan smiled blandly. “Don’t worry. I haven’t used it.”

Only after hearing that did Su Jinxuan fall silent and pick up the small black handkerchief from her lap. Her expression remained dignified as she gently wiped the corner of her lips with it.

“Ah, my mistake. I think I did use the black one.”

Su Jinxuan froze.

Watching her chest rise and fall with anger, Xu Yuan chuckled. “Don’t look at me like that. I was joking. I haven’t eaten a proper meal even once these past few days.”

That part was true. With spirit spring water, which worked more or less like a fasting pill, he could stay shut up in his room cultivating twenty-four hours a day without even needing to use the toilet. These past few days, Su Jinxuan had been fed the same spirit spring water.

Su Jinxuan lowered the black handkerchief from her red lips and clenched it tightly on her lap.

“Xu Changtian, is making fun of me really that amusing?”

“If it weren’t amusing, why would I bother?”

For one brief instant, Su Jinxuan felt the urge to throw herself at him and fight to the death.

But the moment that impulse rose in her heart, Xu Yuan lightly tapped the wooden table in front of him and said with smiling eyes, “Of course, if it weren’t because you’re still useful to me, then compared to teasing you, I’d actually prefer to kill you outright.”

A flicker of panic flashed through Su Jinxuan’s eyes, but it vanished just as quickly. She let out a cold laugh. “Then kill me right now.”

“Enough nonsense.” Xu Yuan waved a hand, already sounding impatient. “You know I won’t kill you. Right now, you have two choices. First, I send you back to the secret room and lock you up again. Second—”

“I choose the first one.” Su Jinxuan cut him off, chin raised stubbornly.

The air fell still for a moment.

Xu Yuan arched a brow. He could clearly see her body trembling ever so slightly with fear. Their eyes met. Then, without wasting words with her, he simply nodded.

“Fine.”

His goal had been clear from the very beginning. That was to pry information out of Su Jinxuan about Mister Qin. And if possible, go a step further, using whatever the Blackscale Guards had uncovered in Embrocade to turn this enchantress spy to his side. Since there was no room for discussion right now, then he would lock her up a while longer and talk later. He was in no hurry anyway.

Slowly rising to his feet, Xu Yuan walked over to her and placed a strip of black silk on the wooden table. “Since you do not even want to hear the second option, then put this on and let’s go. Though I really am curious. What exactly makes you trust Mister Qin so much?”

Even though she had already braced herself again and again just moments ago, now that the moment had truly come, Su Jinxuan’s steady breathing gradually began to falter. Still, she picked up the black silk. Her hands trembled as she tied it over her own eyes, and she said coldly, “Mister Qin’s kindness to me is heavier than a mountain.”

“Pfft...” Xu Yuan failed to hold it in and laughed. “Heavier than a mountain?”

“You... what are you laughing at?” The terror of being dragged back into that hopeless darkness, mixed with her reverence for her benefactor, made Su Jinxuan lose some control of her emotions.

Xu Yuan replied at an unhurried pace, “Calm down. Mister Qin really has been as kind to you as a mountain. After all, he killed your whole family, then raised you from childhood himself.”

Su Jinxuan fell silent for a moment before speaking. “A cheap attempt to sow discord.”

“If it is really that cheap, then why did you react so strongly the first time I said it in the carriage?”

“When someone throws around baseless slander, anyone would be angry.”

After a brief pause, Xu Yuan suddenly reached out and yanked the black silk back off, staring straight into her eyes. “If it was slander, then why didn’t you refute me back then? Why did you choose silence and lies to dodge the question?”

Su Jinxuan stared right back at him without yielding an inch. “Everything you said was nothing but empty speculation without a shred of actual proof. Anyone can talk. Why would I waste time rebutting a castle in the air?”

“You are right. Back then, it was a castle in the air.”

Xu Yuan pulled out an intelligence report from his Sumeru Ring and casually tossed it onto the table in front of her. “But now it isn’t.”

Su Jinxuan’s pupils tightened slightly as she stared at the cover of the intelligence report. Hesitation flickered in her eyes, but in the end, she still did not move. She could not believe it. Or perhaps more accurately, she did not want to believe it.

The side room was steeped in darkness, with the sunlight outside shut away behind the curtains.

A few breaths of silence passed.

Then Xu Yuan asked softly, “You are not even going to look?”

Su Jinxuan only answered in a quick, icy voice, “Xu Changtian, after going to all this trouble to stage a performance like this, do you really think I would believe this so-called evidence you fabricated?”

Xu Yuan shook his head. “First you complained I had no evidence. Now I have brought you evidence, and you do not even dare look at it?”

At that, he suddenly let out a faint sigh. “And Su Jinxuan, you think far too highly of your own importance. From the fact that Qin Weijiu would not even pass on a cultivation art to you, it is obvious that you are nothing more than a pitiful tool to him. The information you know could never touch the core of things. If my household wants to move against Qin Weijiu, whatever intelligence you have would only be icing on the cake.”

“Oh, right.” Xu Yuan began to pace slowly through the room. “Do you want to know why Qin Weijiu refused to teach you any cultivation arts?”

Su Jinxuan’s beautiful eyes flickered slightly, but she still stared at Xu Yuan in silence.

Several moments passed. Since no one was playing straight man for him, Xu Yuan was perfectly happy to keep performing his one-man show.

“Because he did not dare. The uncertainty of the Bewitching Soul Devil Body is too great. Even if you deliberately restrain yourself and never use that enchantress constitution on your own people, as your cultivation rises, the innate seductive aura of that succubus constitution of yours will still affect those around you. Qin Weijiu’s own cultivation is profound enough that you cannot influence him, but his subordinates are another matter.”

At this point, Xu Yuan smiled faintly. “All it takes is one informed subordinate falling in love with you because of your physique, and there is a chance you might learn the truth about what happened back then.”

As he spoke, Xu Yuan pulled another precious volume from his Sumeru Ring. “This is a text about the Bewitching Soul Devil Body. You can read it and see for yourself whether what I said is true. After that, you can decide whether or not you want to read the intelligence the Blackscale Guards dug up in Embrocade.”

The moment she heard the name of her hometown, Su Jinxuan’s gaze wavered visibly.

Xu Yuan gently patted her on the shoulder. “I will give you half an hour. I will come back in half an hour. If your decision is still the same by then, I will not waste any more words on you.”

With that, Xu Yuan turned and walked out of the side room, gently closing the door behind him. He left Su Jinxuan alone, staring blankly at the ancient text and the intelligence report on the table, lost in thought.