The small courtyard.
Inside the room, there was complete silence. Only a single oil lamp burned forlornly.
Now that he had fully returned to a safe environment, the pain from the beating he had suffered during his kidnapping, along with the exhaustion accumulated from struggling against those two Shaking Apes, surged over him all at once like a tide.
Every breath brought a faint, dull ache. Qin Yi suppressed the pain and drowsiness, his gaze settling on the sharp, elegant handwriting on the rice paper beneath his fingertips.
Ruan Su’s throat was injured. Unless it was absolutely necessary, the two of them were actually more accustomed to communicating through writing than through speech.
The rice paper recorded the things Ruan Su had experienced recently.
This was a customary practice between the siblings. After Qin Yi regained consciousness, Ruan Su would write down everything that had happened recently and tell him about it.
In order to make Ruan Su rely on him, Qin Yi had deliberately destroyed her ability to judge major matters through years of subtle conditioning. Therefore, whenever she faced an important decision, he naturally had to shoulder the responsibility.
Ruan Su’s record was very brief. She wrote that she had recently killed several people for the old master, that she had spent a few coins of silver on her daily necessities, and then complained in an angry tone about how disobedient and annoying he was while in his dazed state.
There was no major matter worth discussing.Qin Yi raised his eyes. His gaze passed over the candle flame and landed on the narrow bed in the corner.
The young woman was curled up on it, lying on her side with her back toward the wall and her knees slightly drawn up. Her breathing was even, and her small chest rose and fell faintly. It was as if she had shed all her vigilance and entrusted herself to this cramped little room and the person inside it.
If one ignored the half of her face that had been burned away, his old sister truly had the features of a beauty descended from heaven.
In fact, the contrast between her hideous burns and her otherwise flawless features gave her entire face a strange, eerie beauty.
After staring at her for several breaths, Qin Yi withdrew his gaze and stood up.
The exhaustion in his body caused his thin frame to sway involuntarily. A brief black haze spread across the edges of his vision, and he had to brace one small hand against the edge of the table before he could steady himself.
While in his dazed state, he could not take care of himself at all, whether eating, drinking, urinating, or defecating. The resulting malnutrition and muscle atrophy had left this body extremely frail.
Qin Yi realized that his body needed sleep, but he also knew that he could not sleep yet.
Every loss of consciousness was divided by the boundary of falling asleep, but there was something more important he still had to do.
His footsteps were soundless. He walked to the old wooden cabinet in the corner, bent down, knelt on both knees, and took a cloth bag from a hidden compartment beneath the cabinet.
He paid no attention to the faint noises. On the nights when he awoke, Ruan Su would always sleep deeply.
It was a sign of her absolute trust in him.
He opened it.
Inside were all the possessions Ruan Su had deliberately hidden away.
Ruan Su had made the cabinet herself, but Qin Yi had taught her the woodworking.
There was one official silver ingot worth fifty taels, a bag of loose silver, several yellowed old books, and a jade pendant that was completely out of place amid the surrounding dilapidation.
The main body of the jade pendant was hollow-carved. The jade was warm and translucent. On the left was a phoenix, every line carved with exquisite precision. On the right was a crescent moon. The phoenix’s head and tail connected to the upper and lower ends of the crescent, forming a flawless circle.
According to his old sister, this was something left behind by the parents he had never met.
She was keeping it for him for now. Once his brain disease was cured, she would return it to him.
Ignoring the money and the jade pendant, Qin Yi took out the most recently written book and returned to sit before the desk.
The corners of the pages had curled, clearly showing that the book was quite old.
It had no title, because it was a diary.
Qin Yi was a proper man and did not write diaries, so this one belonged to Ruan Su.
Even though he had completely tamed the young woman, he was still unable to fully control some of her independent decisions.
Well, that was the dignity of an older sister.
Ruan Su believed that she was the pillar of the family, and she liked to selectively report good news while concealing anything unpleasant.
After discovering this, Qin Yi had come up with several countermeasures.
Making her write a diary was one of them.
To cultivate this habit in her, he had put in considerable effort when she was young. Now, however, it seemed that all of it had been worthwhile.
His fingertip brushed across the rough paper. With a faint rustle, the pages opened. He found the place where he had stopped reading last time, and the sharp, elegant handwriting quietly entered his eyes.
Ruan Su’s handwriting was beautiful, with slender gold-style characters as sharp as she was.
Of course, that was also because Qin Yi had taught her well.
After all, she had practiced by copying his handwriting.
The third day of the tenth month,
[Eating, sleeping, taking care of Little Yi.]
The fourth day of the tenth month,
[Eating, sleeping, taking care of Little Yi.]
The fifth day of the tenth month,
[Eating, sleeping, taking care of Little Yi.
[The master came to Yellow Bamboo Town today. He said he could not find any trace of Qin Ke and estimated that he was probably dead.
[I have to think of how to tell Little Yi. He seems to like this younger brother quite a lot.]
The sixth day of the tenth month,
[Eating, sleeping, taking care of Little Yi.]
…
The eighth day of the tenth month,
[The old master summoned me to Shuyu Studio today.]
At this point, Qin Yi’s fingers paused slightly as they turned the page.
He seemed to have found the information he wanted.
His fingertip pressed down on the corner of the page, and the writing continued.
[Unlike when the old master previously instructed me to kill people, this time he talked to me about many strange things. He spoke about everything from firewood, rice, oil, and salt, to clothing, food, and daily expenses, then to Little Yi’s brain disease. In the end, he even mentioned the young master, saying that compared with profit, he respected his child’s happiness more.
[Does this mean he knows that the young master confessed his feelings to me?
[After I returned home, I told Little Yi many things, but he did not react.]
The ink in that final line was slightly fainter than the preceding lines, as though the ink on the tip of the brush had nearly dried up, yet she had not dipped it again and had simply written the words down.
The fourteenth day of the tenth month.
[Little Yi refused to eat or sleep today and kept making a fuss.
[I will definitely teach him a harsh lesson once he wakes up!]
The exclamation mark nearly pierced through the paper.
Qin Yi was somewhat speechless.
The sixteenth day of the tenth month.
[The old master summoned me again today.
[The atmosphere at Shuyu Studio was very strange. The old master told me many strange things.
[I feel a little uneasy.
[I wanted to discuss it with Little Yi, but Little Yi still has not woken up.]
From the changes in the thickness of the strokes, Qin Yi could see the numerous pauses made by the person holding the brush, as well as her hesitation at the time.
…
The twentieth day of the tenth month,
[The old master brought the young master with him to find me first thing this morning.
[It was actually to propose marriage.
[The old master promised me many things.
[If I marry the young master, I will have financial security and safety. Someone will also be assigned to take care of Little Yi. Furthermore, the old master promised that he would use every connection at his disposal to find physicians and do everything possible to cure Little Yi’s brain disease.
[Moreover, the old master emphasized that he had already broken off his engagement and would give me the position of principal wife.]
At this point, the brushstroke seemed to have paused for a long time. The ink spread across the rice paper into a round blot.
[Little Yi instructed me to reject the young master.
[But the atmosphere of the conversation was a little strange, and I found myself somewhat unable to refuse.
[I asked the old master to give me some time.
[The old master agreed.]
“........”
A draft swept through the room and brushed across the boy’s handsome face. Qin Yi’s gaze remained fixed on this line for two breaths, and a cold, indifferent darkness surfaced in his eyes.
This old master must have been plotting for a long time. Otherwise, Ruan Su could not possibly have hesitated.
Since when had it begun?
Qin Yi flipped back through the diary and only then discovered that Ruan Su had recorded some abnormalities concerning the old master as early as spring. Unfortunately, he had not thought in that direction at the time and had merely believed that it was a sign of favor.
The diary continued.
The twenty-first day of the tenth month,
[Eating, sleeping, taking care of Little Yi.]
The twenty-second day of the tenth month,
[Eating, sleeping, taking care of Little Yi.]
The twenty-third day of the tenth month,
[Eating, sleeping, taking care of Little Yi. I have decided to burn off my own face.]
It had not been placed on a separate line. It was simply written after “taking care of Little Yi,” as though it were an utterly ordinary matter.
The twenty-sixth day of the tenth month.
[Eating, sleeping, taking care of Little Yi.
[Everyone around me was very surprised. Many people no longer come near me. Is it because they are afraid of the master, or because they despise me?
[Little Yi... he probably will not despise me, right?]
Those final four words had been written very large, as though she were trying to convince someone, or perhaps... trying to convince herself.
Qin Yi closed the diary and put it back into the cloth bag. He silently stood up, returned to the corner, bent down, and pushed the cover of the hidden compartment back into place.
Qin Yi sat back down before the square table. His eyes hung low, and his dim pupils held no emotion.
Ruan Su was still obedient. She still regarded his words as absolute commandments, and there was no sign that she had lost control. That was good.
But there were certain things he could not deny,
For example...
Qin Yi reached out and extinguished the oil lamp. Darkness swallowed the entire room, leaving only those eyes glowing with a faint, cold light within the gloom.
...The attack tonight had been aimed at him.