Let her go hungry a bit longer, then. If she had to use her mouth to carry it, then so be it.
But please, stop staring at her. It was truly frightening, and she couldn't bear it.
Yet those pitch-black pupils staring straight at her curved into a faint smile.
His ice-cold dagger pressed against her cheek. Even just being near it, Xia Ji could sense the blade's sharpness—nearly capable of cutting through iron like mud.
Xia Ji didn't know what her own expression looked like.
But the Human-faced Dagger clearly reflected her terrified face, grown pale once again. Her almond-shaped eyes were wide open, and she didn't dare take a deep breath. Bujing Nu leaned closer, his long ink-black hair cascading down. He stared at the reflection of her profile on the Human-faced Dagger, finding her fearful expression quite amusing—interesting to look at, and interesting to touch.
"Sister, so you know fear too?"
His words carried a strange, eerie laughter.
Of course she knew fear.
Xia Ji wasn't a fool.
She was about to speak when her long-starved stomach let out a loud "gurgle." A flush of heat crept across her pale face. She furrowed her brows tightly. "Good brother, please untie me quickly."
Bujing Nu: ?
Bujing Nu stared at her with those pitch-black eyes for a long while, then crouched down with the Human-faced Dagger in hand. The blade's edge approached the space between Xia Ji's ankles. His index finger curled slightly, and the tightly bound rope snapped.
When he cut the rope around her wrists, Bujing Nu kept staring at her neck.
He noticed rings of red marks circling her slender, fair throat.
Xia Ji forced herself not to notice his gaze. This madman's eyes were always gloomy and sinister when fixed on someone, sending chills down one's spine. The moment the rope loosened, Xia Ji quickly turned around like a rabbit. Though her hands and feet were finally free, she didn't dare move recklessly. She looked back at Bujing Nu.
"I—I can eat now, right?"
Bujing Nu held the dagger, a piece of hemp rope still clutched in his other hand.
He stared at Xia Ji for quite a while before looking at the dishes on the table. "The restaurant will deliver food at noon."
Xia Ji: "I'll just eat what's on the table. Let me have something to tide me over, okay?"
"No," Bujing Nu tossed the hemp rope aside casually and sat on the chair closest to Xia Ji. He pushed the cold dishes and cold congee to one side—the dishes nearly touching the clothes piled on the table. "Eating leftovers is so improper."
Xia Ji: ?
You lunatic, since when do you care about propriety? What's wrong with eating leftovers?
Xia Ji gritted her teeth in anger, feeling that Bujing Nu was doing this on purpose. And he was sitting so close to her, staring at her again—staring!
His phoenix-shaped eyes were strikingly beautiful, and his androgynous face carried a faint smile. Suddenly, he pinched Xia Ji's cheek.
"Ah!"
He touched her without warning, and the pinch hurt. Xia Ji slapped his hand hard, and only then did he loosen his grip. Xia Ji was furious. "What are you doing!"
"Does it hurt?"
"Yes, it hurts!"
"Oh, so that hurts," he grabbed her hand again. "Does this hurt?"
What was he doing with her hand?
"It doesn't hurt." Xia Ji was irritated now, and shot him a glare after speaking.
"So this doesn't hurt."
Bujing Nu applied a bit more force, and Xia Ji yelped, "Ow, ow! What are you doing!"
"So this hurts?"
"Yes, it hurts!" You're insane! Xia Ji really wanted to curse at him!
But Bujing Nu kept staring at her, as if deep in thought, and even gave a slight nod.
"Sister, you die so easily."
Without even using the dagger, a little more force and she would suffocate to death.
Who was he calling easy to kill?
Xia Ji hated the word "die" more than anything right now.
She had died craving chicken wing rice—cravings that led her to transmigrate into this godforsaken place. During that night held in his arms, Xia Ji had already sworn an oath: she would be mortal enemies with chicken wing rice for the rest of her life.
Just thinking about it made her want to cry.
"Pfft, pfft!" Her gentle face made an expression completely unbefitting her appearance. She scrunched up her face, clearly angered. "I'm not easy to kill! I won't die!"
Not easy to kill? Won't die?
She wouldn't even dodge when she saw a blade—dumber than Shanu, who was simple-minded.
Even Shanu knew to run home at the sight of a knife.
"Let's hope so." Bujing Nu's words came with that strange, eerie laugh again. Xia Ji angrily snatched her hand back.
In truth, Xia Ji was a girl with a very good temper—gentle and stubborn, easy to get along with.
But one: don't keep her from eating. Two: don't keep her from sleeping well. Three: don't make her work overtime for nothing. And now she'd add a fourth: don't tell her she's easy to kill.
Now she was tired, hungry, and being mocked for being easy to kill. Xia Ji had no good face left for Bujing Nu. She had completely forgotten her earlier resolve to properly win this Bujing Nu over.
Bujing Nu could tell she was angry. She wasn't the type to hide things in her heart—when she was upset, it showed clearly.
He had seen many people angry before they died.
But he had never seen anyone get angry like this. He stared at Xia Ji without stopping, as if examining some rare treasure. Xia Ji stared at the tabletop, speechless, feeling like she was being observed like some national treasure.
What a heartless madman.
Fortunately, in the midst of this strange standoff, Shanu arrived carrying food.
When Xia Ji saw him, she was moved to tears of gratitude. Before she could even welcome him, the murderous god beside her spoke again in that eerie, sarcastic tone of his.
"You brought food this morning. Didn't you know she couldn't eat while tied up?"
"Afraid… afraid of being hit." Shanu's oversized head hung low as he moved to clear the dishes from the table.
"Oh." Bujing Nu sat to one side, his pale, knobby fingers idly twisting strands of ink-black hair, a strange, bewitching smile turned toward Xia Ji. "Elder Sister, if you're angry, just kill him to vent your frustration. I won't interfere."
Bujing Nu had been a Death Soldier since childhood, having killed countless people, yet he felt nothing about killing—only numbness. But he had one hobby, one of the few he possessed—
He loved watching others kill. He found it far more entertaining than the nobles watching their operas.
In his eyes, it was all a performance. This woman he'd picked up pleased him, and he wanted to watch.
"Ah! Ah…!" Shanu trembled and collapsed to his knees in terror. Xia Ji hurriedly stood up, snatching the food box that nearly fell from his grasp. The box was truly heavy. At the same time, she was thoroughly frightened by Bujing Nu's casually spoken words—both shocked and furious.
"Are you insane?!" Xia Ji couldn't take it anymore. "You're going to scare him to death!"
Xia Ji was genuinely angry.
She had no idea that Bujing Nu's heart was far more malicious than she imagined—he wanted to watch a killing show. She only felt that Bujing Nu didn't treat people as people at all. She quickly hugged the food box and shoved the kneeling Shanu a few times.
"Get up, hurry and get out."
"Ah… oh…"
He looked at her with only his left eye, then scrambled away as fast as he could, fleeing as if for his life.
Xia Ji turned her back, taking a long moment to compose herself before turning around and placing the heavy food box on the table, not sparing another glance at this madman.
"Angry again? What is it this time?" Bujing Nu sat there, tilting his head to look at her, clearly not understanding, then glanced at the table. "The leftovers haven't been cleared. Elder Sister, go call him back."
"With a mansion this big, is he the only servant you have?" Xia Ji couldn't stand it. Why did he have to pick on a simpleton?
"That's right," he actually nodded in confirmation, to her surprise.
"Then… then who does the cooking?"
"Elder Sister, there's no one who cooks." His tone was always so gentle and obedient when he replied.
"Then what about the food you usually eat…"
"Delivered from the restaurant," Bujing Nu said, glancing at the table. "He's gone now. What about the leftover dishes on the table?"
Xia Ji: ?
She was almost beyond words.
"It's because you scared him off!"
"It was Elder Sister who told him to leave."
Xia Ji: …
"It's just a few plates of leftovers. I'll put them away." Xia Ji furrowed her brows, rolled up her sleeves to reveal two slender pale wrists, and was about to pick up the cold dishes on the table when she turned to ask him where to put them. Before she could, the pale, bony hand of the youth beside her seized her wrist.
He lowered his head. Before Xia Ji could react, he bit her.
"Ouch!" Xia Ji felt the slight sting on her wrist and was dumbfounded.
"Just put them somewhere out of the way in the courtyard."
Bujing Nu said this, then smiled at her with curved eyes, a faint glistening of moisture on his lips, as if nothing had happened at all.
He's insane.
Xia Ji's heart pounded wildly from that sudden bite, yet he seemed to have done it merely on a whim. She lowered her head, taking a long while to compose herself before carrying the dishes out one by one.
Thankfully, there weren't many dishes from the morning.
After she finished bringing them out and came back, the youth was still sitting at the table. The big crow had also flown in through the window lattice and was standing on the table Xia Ji had just cleared, playing with the youth. When Xia Ji came over, she saw he had taken a piece of cloth and was writing something on it, like wild scribbles.
And he was using blood from his fingertip to write it.
This lunatic. Good heavens, what was he doing now?
"Elder Sister, you won't blame me for tearing your clothes, will you?" He sat there, lifting his eyes. Black hair, pale skin, a pair of eyes that let in no light, as if his pupils were naturally larger than others', dark and deep. He smiled faintly at her and asked, "What did you mean earlier when you said I was sick? Where am I sick?"
Xia Ji: …
"Not sick, not sick. Good little brother, just eat your meal, alright?"
"Then am I good?"
Xia Ji: "…Yes, yes, yes! A great person!"
Xia Ji truly didn't want to keep going back and forth with him endlessly. She quickly sat down and opened the heavy food box.
Silently, she laid out nearly a full table of fine restaurant dishes.
Xia Ji: …Damn rich people. No wonder this food box was so heavy.
Prince Beikang was walking back from a gathering at a friend's estate.
He had drunk some wine and was staggering tipsily as he strolled with his friend along the gravel path within the residence. Since it was a private estate, accompanied by a close friend, and with alcohol in his system, he spoke without restraint.
"Now that Father has bestowed Bujing Nu upon me, Second Brother is under house arrest in the palace, and Eldest Brother is such a fool—Huaiyu, tell me, if Father doesn't favor me, who else could he possibly favor?"
Lin Huaiyu was the legitimate eldest son of a prominent noble family in Jinling. He supported the reeling, wine-soaked Prince Beikang, and even knowing the prince was being somewhat arrogant now, he couldn't help but feel a pang of wariness at such blunt words.
He couldn't help but murmur his courtesy name, warning, "Cheng'an, be careful—the walls have ears."
"What do I have to be careful about?" Prince Beikang was clearly drunk. "Now I simply await Father's orders, going along with everything as it comes—that's enough! In the past, the tutors all thought the eldest brother was honest and the second brother clever, but in the end, who's left but me?"
"You, from now on—"
Before he could finish.
The two of them saw a dark shadow hurtling toward them from the dusky sky at breakneck speed. Prince Beikang started, hurriedly dodging backward.
"What! What is that thing!" In an instant, half his drunkenness burned away. He flailed his arms to shoo it off, terrified. "Someone! Someone come!"
Several attendants behind him rushed to shield Prince Beikang and Lin Huaiyu, drawing their swords and jabbing at the sky. But the black bird was extremely agile, and it flew straight at Prince Beikang with another sudden dive. Five or six guards surrounded the courtyard yet still couldn't catch it, letting it land right before Prince Beikang.
Prince Beikang jumped in fright, scurrying in a small circle while shielding his head and face with his hands. He squinted, only then realizing something was off, and quickly called out, "Everyone, stop!"
He yanked the cloth tied to the crow's foot, glanced at it—all he saw was a patch of red, and in the twilight sky, he couldn't make it out clearly. He hastily tucked it away.
Blood-red writing—what was this? Could it be a blood letter from his second brother, imprisoned in the palace in the capital?
Lin Huaiyu's gaze was drawn as well, but since it involved imperial family secrets, he dared not approach. Having seen that it was a blood letter, he knew it was certainly no ordinary matter.
Prince Beikang dismissed the crowd, politely sending the uncanny crow on its way, and carried the blood letter alone into the carriage. Only when he was certain he was completely safe did he lower his head, alert and focused, to examine it carefully.
The handwriting on it was crooked and messy, so ugly it hurt the eyes.
—My lord, the Xia family's corpse wasn't found. It's lost.
—Qi
Prince Beikang: …
He held the blood letter, neither able to throw it away nor keep it.
For this?
Did Bujing Nu really have to write him a blood letter over this?
Since crossing over to this place, Xia Ji had finally gotten a good night's sleep.
Because Bujing Nu, after eating during the day, had left shortly after, destination unknown. Before leaving, he'd only smiled and told her that she'd best not think about going outside—going out would mean death.
Xia Ji didn't know much about the situation outside, but she knew everything about the identity of the body she now inhabited.
The boy hadn't deceived her. If she rashly tried to escape, she would definitely die.
Though the boy was a lunatic, staying here was certainly safer than being out there.
Xia Ji had even deliberately caught Shanu and asked him where she could bathe. Shanu, suddenly grabbed by her, had been a bit frightened at first, but perhaps because Xia Ji had saved him during the day, he only stared at her with his one eye, timid and scared, for a moment. Huddling his body, he stammered, "In, in the back courtyard."
"Thank you," Xia Ji said, looking at him and feeling he was rather pitiful. "What's your name? Don't worry—no matter what he says, I won't do anything to you."
This sprawling estate—when Xia Ji had gone looking for Shanu earlier, she'd walked and walked and still couldn't reach the end.
Thinking of how this huge mansion held only her and Shanu, two pitiful souls, Xia Ji couldn't help but feel a sense of kinship with him.
But Shanu, shrinking into the corner of the wall, clawed at it with his hands. Xia Ji, afraid she might seem as unhinged as that madman, deliberately smiled at Shanu. Shanu's too-small hands scraped hard against the wall for a long while, then, stuttering, he spat at the ground.
"All, all liars. Pah, pah."
Shanu coughed and made to spit at her. Xia Ji's face went pale with fright, and she quickly backed away. "Hey hey hey! What are you doing! Shut your mouth, I'm warning you!"
Seeing he was about to spit, Xia Ji—who looked easy to bully but was hardly a pushover—raised her hand as if to strike him. Shanu let out an "ah!" and turned to run off.
Xia Ji: …
Leaving Xia Ji alone standing in the bleak, seemingly early-autumn night. It took her a while before she steadied her mood and headed to the back courtyard.