Liu Changnong bent down to pick up the books and laid them on the stone slabs to dry in the spring sunshine. When he turned around, he saw her standing there gloomily with her head lowered, apparently lost in thought.
Thinking she was tired from carrying the books, he consoled her gently. “Thank you for your help today, Miss Xue. I’ll take care of the rest myself.”
Xue Ling nodded with her head still lowered, then walked forward stiffly.
She had only taken a few steps when Liu Changnong, who was behind her, seemed to remember something and suddenly called out, “The books have been dried very well. Miss Xue is a very good person too.”
The tightness in Xue Ling’s heart finally eased. She turned around and smiled at him, then lowered her head again and hurried away.
The little book attendant who brushed past her turned around in surprise to look at her retreating figure and scratched his head.
“Xiaoyong.”
The book attendant withdrew his gaze and walked over to Liu Changnong. He asked curiously, “Young Master, what did you say to that young lady?”
Liu Changnong shook his head. “Nothing.”
The little book attendant gave an “oh,” then continued, “I just found the dog’s grave, and I found its owner too.”
Liu Changnong flipped through the books without turning his head. “I already know.”
The little book attendant thought of the young lady who had just passed by, swallowed what he had been about to say, and began organizing the books alongside him.
On the road home from the academy, Xue Ling picked quite a few wildflowers from the field ridges. All her good mood, however, vanished the moment she saw someone skulking outside her gate.
Rao Zhong had waited outside for approximately two hours. When no one returned, he could not help wondering whether Xue Ling had known he was coming and was hiding somewhere outside. He was just considering whether he should smash the door down and see if there was anything valuable inside when a woman’s gloomy voice suddenly sounded behind him.
“What are you looking at?”
Rao Zhong was startled into a violent shudder. When he turned around and saw Xue Ling, who had returned at some unknown point, his expression immediately turned ugly, and he muttered several filthy curses.
Xue Ling stared fixedly at him. “What are you looking at?”
Normally, whenever Rao Zhong cursed her, she would curse back to some extent. Today, however, she was behaving unusually, repeatedly demanding to know what he was looking at.
Rao Zhong replied irritably, “Looking at what? Looking to see whether you’re secretly keeping a lover, just like that shameless mother of yours, who’s nothing but a harbinger of disaster.”
Xue Ling’s face paled slightly. It was not because he had cursed her mother along with her, but because she had heard him say “keeping a lover.”
Gu Xingzhi was inside the house, so when had Rao Zhong arrived? Had he seen the person inside?
Her thoughts raced, but Rao Zhong’s next words interrupted them, and her suspended heart slowly sank back into place.
“When are you going to pay this month’s money? My father has already given you several extra days.” Rao Zhong urged her impatiently.
From his words, Xue Ling could tell that he clearly had not seen Gu Xingzhi. Her pounding heart gradually settled. Clutching the strap of her basket, she said, “I won’t give it to you. I’ll give it only to Second Uncle.”
She had begged Second Uncle to lend her the money to bury her mother. If she gave the money to Rao Zhong, he would only take it to gamble. In the end, Second Uncle would refuse to acknowledge that she had repaid him. With interest accumulating upon interest over the years, the debt had grown into an astronomical sum that she might never be able to repay in her lifetime.
When Rao Zhong heard Xue Ling refuse, he became angry and shouted, “Rao Xue Ling, you won’t repay the money? Do you believe I’ll smash this wretched courtyard of yours?”
His voice was extremely loud. Xue Ling instinctively tried to cover his mouth, but she was only a frail woman and was easily shoved to the ground.
When Rao Zhong saw her fall, a trace of pity appeared in his eyes. But then he spotted the money pouch at her waist, bent down, and snatched it away.
Xue Ling was too late to stop him.
Rao Zhong weighed it in his hand and muttered unhappily, “That’s all the money there is?”
The moment Xue Ling saw him snatch away the money, she scrambled up from the ground and threw herself at him. She slammed him hard against the gate and grabbed his ear, snarling in a low voice, “Give it back, or I’ll bite you to death.”
Rao Zhong let out a loud cry when she seized his ear. He tried to pull her off him, but the more he tugged, the more his ear hurt.
Although she was frail, she was surprisingly strong. Besides, she clung to him like a dog-skin plaster and could not be shaken off.
Rao Zhong’s ear was torn until it bled. In the end, he had no choice but to throw the money in his hand onto the ground.
The moment Xue Ling saw the money pouch, she released him and crawled and rolled toward it to pick it up. She nearly took a kick in the process, but fortunately, having encountered this sort of thing since childhood, she had developed the habit of reacting quickly. She rolled across the ground and dodged it.
Seeing that he had failed to get the money pouch and had kicked at empty air, with blood still running from his torn ear, Rao Zhong was just about to angrily berate her when he saw that the woman on the ground had brushed aside her thick, eye-level fringe.
A pair of gloomy black eyes stared at him, making her look exactly like a female ghost that had just died at midnight.
In broad daylight, Rao Zhong was caught off guard and frightened badly.
Xue Ling’s fate was considered sinister. Back then, his mother had wanted to arrange a marriage for her, selling her to a poor old man. She had given the old man Xue Ling’s birth details, but unexpectedly, the old man had taken those details to a fortune-teller.
Her birth chart was extremely ominous. It was said she could bring death to the entire family. Terrified, his mother had driven Xue Ling back that very night.
And over the years, Xue Ling had grown increasingly gloomy, often giving people an ominous, deathly feeling.
She had also been so vicious just now that Rao Zhong was somewhat afraid of her. He did not dare confront her head-on, so he covered his bleeding ear and left while cursing and swearing.
Xue Ling kept staring at him until she was certain he would not return. Only then did she take out the money pouch and place it on her mud-stained knee.
One copper coin, two, three…
Xue Ling had never studied, but she counted money very quickly and rarely made a mistake.
After counting the copper coins in the pouch, the gloom vanished from Xue Ling’s face. She climbed up from the ground, limped over, took out her key, and unlocked the main gate.
The courtyard was utterly destitute, and even the doorframe was damaged and worn.
Xue Ling turned around and fastened the gate, then placed her basket beside it. Limping, she went to the kitchen first to boil water.
While the water heated, she went inside to fetch clean clothes.
When she saw that Gu Xingzhi had already woken up, she sat down beside him. “When did you wake up?”
Gu Xingzhi seemed to turn his gaze toward her. “Just now.”
Xue Ling raised her hand and pressed it against the white cloth covering his eyes. Then she asked, “What did you hear?”
Whether his temperament had always been this good, or whether she had worn it smooth, she did not know. Almost every time she asked him something, however, he gave her an answer.
“The door opening. The water being boiled.”
Xue Ling looked doubtful. “Only that?”
“Yes.” He calmly avoided her hand. “Only that.”
Xue Ling still did not quite believe him. Worried that he might have heard her name, she said, “Swear to Heaven. If you’re lying, you’ll never enjoy wealth in this lifetime, and you’ll be unlucky for the rest of your life.”
In her opinion, this was already a sufficiently vicious curse. She herself would not dare say something as terrible as being unable to enjoy wealth casually. Gu Xingzhi, however, seemed to smile.
After spending so long without seeing daylight, his smile was no longer as elegant and refined as it had been at first. It carried a gentle, sluggish gloom, with a hint of the expression Xue Ling deliberately put on when trying to frighten people. But in his case, that sharp coldness and disdain came naturally, seeping from his very bones.
“If I’m lying, I’ll never enjoy wealth in this lifetime, and I’ll be unlucky for the rest of my life.” He repeated her words unhurriedly.
Xue Ling believed him this time. Her expression brightened, and she threw herself into his arms, burying her dust-covered face against his neck and shoulder. “I believe you. A little dog doesn’t lie.”
Gu Xingzhi’s expression remained indifferent as he allowed her to sniff him all over.
Whenever Xue Ling clung to him, she would linger for a long while. Her breathing would become disordered and hurried, utterly lacking any rhythm, and she would constantly rub the tip of her nose against his ear. But it never went beyond that; she rarely did anything truly excessive.
But as she sniffed him now, a sentence suddenly slipped from her lips.
“Can I look at… that place… of yours?”
For a moment, Gu Xingzhi thought he had misheard. He frowned. “What?”
Xue Ling became unusually bashful. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pressed her head against him and repeated herself.
“Absurd.” The lips of the usually gentle and ceremonious young man trembled faintly. His tone was barely able to remain calm as he tried to push the woman off him.
Xue Ling hurriedly tightened her embrace and shouted in great displeasure, “If you won’t let me look, then I won’t look! Why are you being so fierce?”
Gu Xingzhi’s expression had only just improved slightly when he heard her snort. “If I didn’t lack one, I wouldn’t even deign to look at yours. Is there anywhere on your body that I haven’t seen? You eat my food, live in my house, and you’re still so stingy.”
Gu Xingzhi pressed his thin lips together. “It’s different.”
Xue Ling sneered and asked him in return, “How is it different? I’ve even stepped on it.”
Those words called up a memory Gu Xingzhi had deliberately tried to forget. His expression sank, and he once again became as cold and aloof as the heir who had looked down from on high at the very beginning.
Xue Ling hated him most when he acted like this.
There was still mud on her body from outside. Afraid of dirtying the couch where she would sleep that night, she simply dragged him off it.
Gu Xingzhi fell to the floor without making a sound of distress, though his brows drew together slightly.
As Xue Ling watched him sitting disheveled on the floor, his excessively handsome and noble appearance still made him seem utterly out of place. He was so composed that it was as if nothing she did could wear away the propriety and sense of shame engraved in his bones.
She wanted him to be unable to look down at her.
Xue Ling stepped onto his lower leg, and jealousy rose up from every direction once more.
Damn it, even his legs seemed to possess great strength, despite looking so long, lean, and slender.
What exactly had he eaten while growing up? He was fragrant, and his physique was so well-built.
If she had even half his hard muscle, she would have gone to the docks to work as a porter long ago, earned a fortune, and moved into a large house.
And if nothing else, if she had even half his fine looks, she would already have married a good husband—one who did not despise her fate, treated her wholeheartedly, and handed his monthly wages over to her to manage.
How had he ended up with every advantage?
Xue Ling had originally only wanted to step on his leg, but malice churned in her heart, and she could not help looking upward toward his abdomen below the navel.
He would not let her look, so… stepping on it once should not be a problem, right?