The charcoal sputtered feebly twice in the iron basin, its crimson sparks struggling upward with a stifled glow before quickly dimming again.
The bitter cold of Ningguta seemed almost tangible, seeping insidiously through cracks in the stone walls, gaps in the door panels, and the frozen-hard seams of the floor tiles, drilling deep into human bones.
Xie Yunjing drank water with a dull, rhythmic sound, as if keeping time for the pervasive chill in the room. He lifted his eyelids slightly, scanning Shen Taotao who had already reached the doorway. “Tell me, what does your Shen family possess that could catch Ben Guan’s eye?”
“Me!” Shen Taotao extended a finger, confidently pointing at herself.
“Pfft! Cough… cough…” Xie Yunjing spat out his water, bending over as he coughed violently. Droplets slid from his cold, stern lips down to his jawbone.
The culprit wriggled closer, her fingertip nearly poking into Xie Yunjing’s trembling Adam’s apple as he coughed. “What? You look down on me? I don’t even fancy you!”
Xie Yunjing wiped the water from his face and pushed her hand away. “Shen… Tao… tao…” he gritted through a hoarse, breathy voice, grinding his molars, “Are you making a fool out of me?!”
He didn’t even refer to himself as “Ben Guan” anymore.
Shen Taotao didn’t argue. Instead, she grabbed a frozen pear from a nearby side table and took a loud, crisp bite.
The icy shards mixed with cloyingly sweet juice flooded her mouth with the familiar taste of memory. She wiped her mouth haphazardly, her throat still clogged with pear residue, but her voice was resolute:
“Coal! I’m saying I know where there’s coal in Ningguta!”
The teacup lid clattered to the ground, spinning several times before settling. A spark of something vivid—all icy daggers mixed with a cold sneer—finally flickered in Xie Yunjing’s pitch-black, frosty eyes.
“Whoom—”
The air abruptly grew heavy.
Shen Taotao’s vision blurred as a massive shadow loomed over her.
An iron-hard hand clamped around her fragile neck with sudden, brutal force—ferocious and domineering, utterly unyielding. Like hoisting a disobedient kitten, he lifted her clean off her feet, suspending her in the air.
Xie Yunjing’s flawlessly handsome face pressed close, so near that Shen Taotao could see her own terror-widened pupils reflected in his eyes.
The icy daggers in his gaze fully erupted, splattering with terrifying killing intent and naked scrutiny. “The daughter of some low-ranking clerk from the Ministry of Public Works dares to claim she knows where coal is buried?” His voice dropped to a whisper, each word laced with frozen shards that hammered against Shen Taotao’s eardrums and struck at her very lifeline. “Speak! Who sent you? A spy dispatched by Di Rong, or… the Imperial Concubine?”
The suffocation assaulted her violently! Her windpipe was squeezed to a mere slit. Shen Taotao’s face flushed crimson instantly, her lungs burning with searing pain, dark spots dancing before her eyes.
Being so roughly restrained, with her life hanging by a thread, the innate, unyielding ferocity of a northeastern tigress ignited in her blood.
“Urgh—Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!”
She jerked her head up fiercely, mouth stretched to its limit. From deep in her throat, she mustered all her fury, rage, and the remaining half-mouthful of frozen pear debris, coalescing into a misty, viscous “biochemical weapon.” Without a second thought, she unleashed it—directly, accurately, and squarely—
S p l a t t e r i n g i t o u t!
Xie Yunjing had never encountered such a “mutually assured destruction” style of fighting. Having grown up in military camps, he was trained in honorable combat with spears and axes, and his courtly experience involved subtle, bloodless schemes.
This ultimate saliva attack—typically employed by market shrews and village women in brawls—completely shattered his psychological and physical defenses. The sticky, icy, sweet-and-fishy mixture spread over his face, neck, and hair like a damp veil, with the most concentrated droplets clinging to his eyelashes.
“You—!”
The half-formed roar in his throat was choked back by the revolting cold sensation. Xie Yunjing stood frozen for half a breath, like a martial arts master struck by a filthy hidden weapon. His wrist jerked as if scalded, flinging Shen Taotao away like a discarded sack.
Her back slammed hard into the wooden bedframe with a protesting creak. Stars danced before her eyes as the choking sensation faded, replaced by searing pain and fiery numbness in her spine. Though her throat burned like cut glass, it didn’t hinder her retort:
“Know what? I know plenty! Trading two bottles of medicine for my knowledge is a steal. Besides, everyone in Ningguta’s nearly frozen solid. Once we dig up the coal, our rooms will be warm as spring. While everything outside turns to ice, we’ll be indoors in single layers eating frozen pears!”
“Easier said than done.” His drawn-out snort dripped with undisguised contempt, as if hearing a child boast about plucking the moon. “You think Ningguta is Northwest Dragon Mountain? Those fur-clad, pearl-topped nobles in the capital—who warm their rooms with hand stoves—count every speck of coal dust! This—” He jabbed a finger at the brazier emitting mere sparks. “—is precious! Not some roadside twigs!” Leaning forward, his presence loomed like a beast stirring beneath frozen soil. “You’re telling me this godforsaken exile camp—where winds could slice off ears—has coal?”
Shen Taotao propped herself up, planting firmly on the icy, hard bed as if claiming her stage. “Of course! I saw the mountains on my way here. If I say there’s coal, there is.” Tightening her faded, threadbare coat, she raised two fingers. “Warmth is just the start. Second: coal means we can smelt iron. With iron, we forge more blades and spears. Molten steel poured into tempered swords—one slash could split Di Rong’s scum and their horses in two! Ever heard of equipment supremacy?”
Her words accelerated into a rapid-fire torrent, laced with northeastern slang honed by harsh cold, hammering Xie Yunjing’s nerves still reeling from the biochemical assault. Her round, furious eyes held no fear or submission, only a raw, “I’ll hash this out with you” ferocity.
And she wasn’t done!
Wriggling like a restless caterpillar, she squirmed to the bed’s edge until she was inches from where Xie Yunjing sat.
“I know all the twists and turns in your mind,” Shen Taotao suddenly lowered her voice, her nose nearly brushing against Xie Yunjing’s jaw. Her eyes gleamed sharply, carrying a penetrating clarity that seemed to see through every organ in a person’s body. “Those grim reapers sent by the Imperial Concubine, that damned Li Laizi—you didn’t kill him earlier or later, but chose to strike when the blizzard sealed the mountains and even messenger pigeons froze to death. Why?”
Dead silence.
Like a frozen river.
Even the occasional sparks from the charcoal brazier vanished without a trace.
Only the oil lamp on the table flickered, its light so faint it seemed on the verge of extinguishing at any moment.
The amber glow danced unpredictably across Xie Yunjing’s face. His gaze, deep as an ancient well, was no longer the icy scrutiny of one looking down on ants, but a piercing examination that stripped away all pretense, meticulously scrutinizing every subtle expression on Shen Taotao’s face—the arch of her brows raised in agitation, the slight flare of her nostrils, the bloodshot whites of her eyes from lack of air and anger, and in those startlingly bright, unyielding eyes, was it fearless madness or the truth unveiled through the fog?
The air tightened like a fully drawn bowstring. The wick snapped, bursting into a spark that made Shen Taotao’s heart jolt.
Pinned by Xie Yunjing’s gaze, sharp as shards of ice, her scalp prickled. A chill crept up her spine to the back of her head, colder than the blizzard raging outside.
Her earlier bravado deflated in an instant. Shen Taotao shrank back, pulling her padded coat tighter, her eyes darting nervously around.
In the crevice of overwhelming fear, a reckless thought emerged.
“…Besides,” she muttered, her throat dry, her voice unconsciously softening, carrying the sticky rasp of one who had eaten too many frozen pears. “This den of yours, the highest authority in Ningguta… isn’t much to speak of. Freezing cold. This bed—icy and uninviting. If someone were to lie here, it wouldn’t even serve as a warm coffin…”
Xie Yunjing’s thick lashes lifted abruptly, and in the depths of his abyssal eyes, a scorching vortex swirled violently! At its center, it was fervent, dangerous, carrying an unexpected, almost absurd inquiry.
His fingers, which had been resting at his sides and stained with a trace of pear juice, curled imperceptibly. His body leaned forward slightly, almost pressing close to her face, his breath, cold with the scent of snow-laden cedar, brushing against her forehead where her hairs stood on end.
The corners of his lips curved into a profoundly meaningful, almost teasing arc.
“Oh?” His voice was as low as the lingering reverberation of an ancient temple’s evening bell, rough and magnetic, striking directly into the depths of Shen Taotao’s buzzing eardrums.
“So this is what you were leading up to?” Xie Yunjing’s gaze, like the most delicate probe, slowly swept over her slightly stiff shoulders and neck, the subtle rise and fall of her chest from tension, and finally settled on her tightly clenched fingers.
His stare carried an unmistakable, tangible weight—leisurely yet scalding, like boiling water searing the skin. “First coal, then heating…”
His thin, sharp lips parted, and the words he uttered set the very air ablaze.
“Going to such lengths… just to warm my bed?”
Random Recommendations: Reborn to Cherish Warmth as Before, Shocking! The Abused Female Lead Goes Mad, Even the Heavenly Dao is Slain!, The Growth Path of the Uchiha, Divine Presence in the Mortal World, The Casebook of a Master Detective by Fat Melon, Alliance Under the Forest, Yang Wan’er, The Peerless Imperial Princess: The Seventh Young Miss of Divine Talent, Help! The Master Insists on Spoiling Me.