The footsteps outside the door faded into the distance.
Lin Zhixue remained seated on the embroidered stool by the window, frozen in the exact posture she had held.
Madam Zhou’s obsequious laughter outside, Gu Yanqing’s cold remark of “Don’t act clever in the future,” and then the muffled rumble of carriage wheels rolling over the bluestone pavers.
She had heard it all.
“I never said I came to propose marriage.”
“She is working for me now.”
Those two sentences tumbled over and over in her mind.
So, it wasn't a marriage proposal.
From beginning to end, his visit today hadn't carried that meaning at all.
Madam Zhou had fussed about for nothing, and she had terrified herself for nothing.
Yet at the same time, another implication surfaced.
Working for him. When had she become someone who worked for him?
Just because she had loosened the soil at his manor once? Did that even count as “working for him”?
She looked down at the pink silk dress she was wearing, then shifted her gaze to the face in the mirror—so plastered with powder and rouge that it hardly looked like her own.
Suddenly, she felt a fleeting urge to laugh, yet couldn't.
After all that fuss, what she had feared was him taking an interest in her had actually turned out to be him treating her as a servant.
Still.
Compared to being taken with her, being considered a servant was actually a relief.
Before she could sort through these thoughts, the door was shoved open.
Xiaohe rushed in, tear tracks still wet upon her cheeks.
The moment she stepped through the door, she threw herself before Lin Zhixue, grasping her sleeves and looking her up and down.
“Miss! Did that man do anything to you?”
“I heard Madam Zhou outside talking with him about a marriage proposal. Was she trying to sell you off? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” Lin Zhixue pressed down on her hands with a bit of force, getting Xiaohe to still. “He didn’t do anything.”
Xiaohe froze, clearly slow to process this.
She blinked, glanced at the two teacups on the table that looked practically untouched, and opened and closed her mouth.
“He didn't do anything? Then what did he come here for?”
Lin Zhixue briefly recounted what had just happened.
Madam Zhou had written a letter, he had come, realized it was a misunderstanding, drank a cup of tea, and left.
She kept it concise, saying nothing about how terrified she had been, nor about all the wild speculations running through her head.
After hearing the story, Xiaohe’s expression shifted from worry to confusion.
She tilted her head, pondering for a long time, before suddenly blurting out, “Miss, do you think... Young Master Gu has turned over a new leaf?”
Lin Zhixue didn't answer.
She recalled what had happened several months ago.
Back then, she had only had three spirit stones left to her name.
The original host had searched her from head to toe just to dig out those three, even sneering contemptuously, “Just this much?”
“He even robbed me of three spirit stones back then,” she said softly.
Xiaohe’s expression changed again.
Someone who would rob another of even three spirit stones and the person who had handed out wages and stood up for her young mistress over the past few days didn't seem like the same person at all, no matter how one looked at it.
Her brows knitted tightly. After wracking her brains for quite some time, her eyes suddenly lit up. Leaning close to Lin Zhixue’s ear, she lowered her voice and said:
“Miss, do you think... he was possessed by some wandering ghost? I heard the storytellers say that when someone undergoes a sudden, drastic change in temperament overnight, it's because their body was seized!”
Lin Zhixue wanted to tell her not to let her imagination run wild, but swallowed the words before they left her lips.
Because she genuinely couldn't explain it either.
A person couldn't inexplicably transform from a bully who robbed someone of three spirit stones into a benefactor who stood up for them. It wasn't normal.
Yet she didn't believe in body seizure either.
The concept of body seizure certainly existed in the cultivation world, but to seize the body of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, the person doing it would have to be an expert of at least the Golden Core realm.
Why would such a figure, after seizing a body, not focus on cultivating, but instead run over to a petty cultivator at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, giving her spirit stones and taking hits for her? What could they possibly gain?
That was even more absurd than the idea of body seizure itself.
“I don't know,” she finally said with a shake of her head.
“All we can do for now is observe carefully.”
“Whatever his purpose may be, as long as he hasn't revealed his true colors, we shouldn't provoke him.”
Xiaohe nodded, only half-understanding.
Lin Zhixue stood up, pulled the two silver hairpins from her hair before the mirror, and took down the bun that had pulled her scalp numb, letting her hair fall loose over her shoulders once more.
She dipped a handkerchief in tea and wiped away the powder and rouge from her face bit by bit.
With every layer wiped away, the face in the mirror looked a little more like her own.
Once she changed back into her old clothes and smoothed out the creases on her sleeves, she finally felt like she could breathe properly.
Outside the window, the sunlight was bright.
Looking at her restored reflection in the mirror, she retrieved the jade pendant left by her mother from the clothes she had changed out of and hung it around her neck once more.
The jade felt warm; resting against her chest, it seemed to steady her heartbeat.
...
The carriage came to a stop before the gates of the Gu manor.
Gu Yanqing lifted the curtain and stepped down, his stride much lighter than when he had set out.
Seeing him return, the gatekeeper attendant hurried forward to take the horses, while Gu Yanqing walked straight through the front courtyard and returned to his room in the rear courtyard.
Shutting the door, he leaned back into his chair and let out a long breath.
It was finally resolved.
He had nearly stepped right into the trap today.
Fortunately, he had reacted quickly enough—neither allowing Madam Zhou’s scheming to succeed, nor causing Lin Zhixue to fall into a deeper misunderstanding.
That final remark, “She is working for me now,” both explained his presence today and gave Madam Zhou a reason not to touch her.
Not that kind of relationship, but his person nonetheless. He felt he had struck the balance just right.
Still, relying solely on clever tricks wouldn't be enough.
In this world, when all was said and done, absolute strength was the only hard truth.
His cultivation at mid Foundation Establishment wasn't weak in Canglan City, but looking across the entire cultivation world, it merely made him a slightly bigger fish in a pond.
If trouble really came knocking, his current capabilities wouldn't amount to anything.
What was more, Lin Zhixue was bound to rise sooner or later.
She was the female lead of 《Treading on Snow》, the future sword immortal who would ascend to the summit by treading upon a path of corpses.
When that time came, whether he could survive beneath her blade would depend on favorability, not cultivation.
Yet who could say for sure when it came to something as fickle as favorability? The safest bet was still to become stronger himself.
At the very least, he couldn't lag too far behind her.
Sifting through the original host’s memories, he found a dust-covered cultivation manual on the bottom shelf of the bookcase.
It wasn't the one the original host had practiced before.
What the original host practiced was a basic cultivation technique that every Gu clan descendant possessed. Its grade was not low, but it was balanced and steady, suited for slow, methodical grinding.
Gu Yanqing didn't want balanced and steady.
He needed speed. He needed agility. He needed something that could maximize his survivability in a short period of time.
This manual, 《Roaming Cloud Technique》, was something he had dredged from a forgotten corner of the original host’s memories. Stuffed onto the bottom shelf at some unknown point, it hadn't even been flipped through once.
It was a cultivation manual primarily focused on movement techniques, complemented by swordplay. While not top-tier in grade, it excelled in being nimble and versatile, especially suited for hit-and-run tactics.
Head-on clashes weren't his forte, but as long as he could run fast enough and dodge cleverly enough, in many situations he wouldn't need to clash head-on at all.
Opening the book to the first page, he sat cross-legged and began circulating his spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy in his spiritual meridians wasn't particularly profound, but it flowed smoothly enough.
He guided the spiritual energy along the circulation pathway of 《Roaming Cloud Technique》 for one complete cycle. A faint, aching soreness arose in his meridians, akin to muscles that hadn't been used in a long time suddenly being stretched.
The first circulation was a bit stiff, but it went through.
Opening his eyes, he looked down at his palm and could feel an extremely subtle current of air coil around his fingertips before retreating, like a tiny fish that had just learned to wriggle.
Good. Any progress was good progress. He turned to the next page and continued reading.
...
Shen You sat in the gazebo in the Shen clan’s rear courtyard, her fingers tapping rhythmically against the stone table.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
She recalled that face in the alley last time.
That face that infuriated her just looking at it—devoid of any cosmetics or powder, yet impossible to find fault with.
What decent clothes could a destitute girl like Lin Zhixue afford to wear?
What decent rouge and powder could she afford to use?
Yet she had simply stood there, bare-faced, blocked by Shen You, without crying, causing a scene, or begging for mercy. She had stood straight as a rod, as if she were the one in the right.
What right did she have?
What infuriated her even more was Gu Yanqing’s appearance.
Back then, she could have taught Lin Zhixue an unforgettable lesson, but a single sentence from Gu Yanqing had completely ruined her plans.
And worst of all, he was someone she couldn't afford to offend. The Gu clan had two Nascent Soul ancestors, and in terms of influence, they held an edge over the Shen clan in Canglan City. No matter how arrogant she was, she knew who she shouldn't mess with.
Yet she couldn't swallow this anger.
Lin Zhixue couldn't hide behind Gu Yanqing forever. Next time she caught the girl alone, things wouldn't end so easily.
“Next time,” she muttered to herself, staring at the crabapple blossoms in full bloom outside the pavilion, her fingernail carving a faint white scratch into the stone table. “Just you wait.”
A gentle breeze blew past, sending crabapple petals rustling to the ground in a shower of blossoms.
Rate on N.U.
