“Young master, your food is here; do you want me to bring it in?” The waiter knocked on the door and asked.
Qin Yan glanced at Su Mi; the soft touch on his arm had not yet faded. He pulled up the thin blanket, seemingly casually, but it covered Su Mi completely. Since it was given to him, it was his thing. Even if he didn’t like it, who else had the qualifications to see it?
“Come in.” As soon as Qin Yan spoke, he heard a weak moan from behind.
“Go out and let Feng Bao bring it in.”
The poor waiter had just opened the door a crack and hadn’t stepped over the threshold when he retreated again.
Feng Bao had been waiting in the hall downstairs. When the waiter came to find him, he was also puzzled. It wasn’t until he delivered the food and heard the faint sound of a woman that he suddenly understood.
But he had locked the door properly and checked it before locking it. Where did this woman come from? Did the master think he wasn’t doing his job well?
Feng Bao was usually not talkative, but he was really scared this time. After the food was delivered, he trembled and said, “Master, I really checked the door before locking it, and there was no one inside.”
“Go down.” Qin Yan lowered his eyes, brushed past the blood stains on the ground, and of course he knew where the woman had come from.
“Yes, this servant will withdraw.” Feng Bao’s heart settled. The master wouldn’t blame him anymore, so he wouldn’t ask any more questions.
After a stick of incense had burned out, the effects of the aphrodisiac finally wore off. Su Mi peeked out from under the covers. Strands of hair were already wet and stuck to her cheeks, and her face was somewhat pale from the drug.
She blinked away the tears in her eyes, feeling weak all over as if she had just recovered from a severe illness. It was quiet all around her, but she vaguely remembered that there was a man, and she seemed to have…
A man!
Su Mi’s heart skipped a beat. She propped herself up on the bed, feeling a sharp pain in her palm. She had to look outside in a hurry.
He was sitting at the table.
That official who came out of the official sedan, she remembered his appearance. How fortunate it was that he was here! But according to what she had read in books, these officials probably wouldn’t want people to know their identities. Su Mi thought about it for a moment and decided to pretend she didn’t know him, so as not to cause any trouble.
Su Mi looked down at her clothes and remembered that she had pressed his arm against her face. A few blushes crept up on her face, but even though her body had been exposed, she still had to say thank you.
After all, she had run to someone else’s place by herself. To put it bluntly, compared to being insulted by Li Xiuyuan, this was already a stroke of luck.
“Awake?” Qin Yan turned his head at her words, and met Su Mi’s gaze. He smiled faintly. “Thank me for what?”
Su Mi was stunned. Of course, she was grateful that he hadn’t touched her or thrown her out, but how could she say it?
“Thank you for saving me.” Su Mi lowered her head.
She propped herself up with one hand and used the other to lightly pinch the ends of the thin quilt wrapped around her body, revealing only a bright and beautiful little face with messy hair, looking quite pitiful.
“You’ve been seen all over; there’s nothing left to cover.”
Qin Yan’s words floated gently into Su Mi’s ears, and her face turned red as if it were bleeding.
“That can’t be shown to you all the time,” Su Mi thought to herself, but she ended up saying it out loud. After she spoke, she wished she could bury herself in the blanket again. If it weren’t for her lack of energy to tidy up her clothes at the moment, she wouldn’t have wrapped herself up in the blanket in the first place.
Although her voice was soft, Qin Yan heard her. He smiled slightly, finding this person quite interesting.
The room fell silent for a few moments.
“Did Cui Manshu send you here?”
Cui Manshu? Wasn’t that the name of the governor of Jiangling City? What does he have to do with her?
Su Mi sat up straight, leaning against the bed frame while still wrapped in the blanket. Strangely, she didn’t seem to be afraid of this person from the bottom of her heart. Perhaps it was because she knew he was a high-ranking official, and although he might not necessarily be kind to the people, he didn’t take advantage of her in her vulnerable state, which made him seem like a good person.
She carefully considered her words and said, “I don’t know Governor Cui. Today I was ambushed by someone and drugged. I climbed in through the window of the room next door to hide for a while.”
Qin Yan picked up the tea cover and pressed down on the tea leaves’ foam. “I want to hear the truth.”
“I am telling the truth,” she replied.
As soon as Su Mi finished speaking, the noisy sound from the next room grew louder and gradually reached their ears. When she heard the two familiar voices, Su Mi’s expression changed—it was Li Xiuyuan who had come.
What Su Mi didn’t know was that Li Xiuyuan had already come once before, but seeing that no one was inside the house, he left to look for her outside. Read this novel at novelping dot com for the best experience.
Li Xiuyuan had been searching for almost half an hour outside. At first, he was patient, but now he was becoming impatient. Su Mi was under the influence of an aphrodisiac. If she really escaped and was touched by someone else, with her looks, she wouldn’t be able to escape that fate.
Thinking about how he had done so much for someone else’s marriage, Li Xiuyuan felt unwilling.
At this moment, Su Xian also came back after hearing the news. She had made an appointment with Li Xiuyuan to go out and look for Su Mi. She had planned to tell her parents that Su Mi had gone missing and then come back to Drunken Night Tower at night to “find the drunken pair” and then Li Xiuyuan would naturally propose to Su’s family.
But how could Mi’er be missing?
“Where’s Mi’er?” Su Xian asked anxiously, “Mi’er was unconscious and the door was locked; how could she disappear?”
“I’m asking you, did you see her drink it?” Li Xiuyuan couldn’t explain the aphrodisiac matter to her, and when he became anxious, his face didn’t look good.
“I saw her drink it,” Su Xian replied, feeling both anxious and aggrieved.
Li Xiuyuan calculated the time and figured that the aphrodisiac should have worn off by now. She would wake up and come back on her own, but whether or not she was still pure was unclear.
Li Xiuyuan felt stifled and walked towards the window to get some fresh air. This time, he noticed the bloodstains on the windowsill and the small table leaning next to it. He had thought it was Su Mi pushing it over due to the effects of the aphrodisiac, but now he realized…
He leaned over to look to the right, and sure enough! This could explain why the door lock wasn’t broken.
Su Xian’s thoughts were similar to Li Xiuyuan’s. “My husband, I wonder if anyone next door saw anything.
Li Xiuyuan and Su Xian’s conversation was not quiet and fell into the ears of Qin Yan and Su Mi in the next room.
Su Mi hung her head. She had been tense all along and had no time to think about what Su Xian had done to her. But now she heard Su Xian and Li Xiuyuan’s conversation, and her heart grew cold.
Qin Yan didn’t care much about it. If it was really just a coincidence, then things would be simple.
“Go out,” Qin Yan said calmly. The chill in Su Mi’s heart had not yet dissipated when Qin Yan’s words made her panic again. She still had no strength, and if she went out, wouldn’t she run into Li Xiuyuan’s hands? ‘Please let me stay a little longer. I have a jade hairpin of good quality,’ Su Mi begged, kneeling on the bed. She anxiously reached for a jade hairpin with a good colour from her hair, and the quilt slipped off her body.
Her long hair cascaded down, and a few strands of restless black hair traced a deep ravine in her chest. The shiny black hairline continued down, sliding over her delicate and white mounds, and at the moment she lowered her head in pleading, the two bright red dots on her collarbone were faintly visible.
Su Mi’s heart was hanging in her throat at this moment, and she had no idea that her actions had exposed something to the man opposite. Besides this hairpin, she had nothing else on her body, so what would she do if he refused? Qin Yan glanced at her lightly, and when he withdrew his gaze, his eyes darkened.
He leaned on the teacup at his lips for a moment but did not drink. At this moment, there was a knock on the door. ‘It’s me, Li Xiuyuan. I’ve booked the adjacent ‘Tian’ room. May I ask if this guest has seen my sister-in-law, who was in this room just now?’ Su Mi was greatly alarmed.
He had come straight to their door. She hurriedly turned to Qin Yan, her eyes filled with more pleading than before. He slowly sipped his tea as he looked at her. His expression was ambiguous, and his gaze gradually met hers. He lightly opened his lips and said, “was she wearing an apricot yellow ruqun?”