This girl wasn't actually all that troublesome. She was quick and efficient—after bathing, she cleaned the tub herself, dried her hair with true qi, and then lay down on Su Zhai's bed, taking up only a small corner of it.
She fell asleep the moment she hit the mattress, making no sound at all. By dawn, she was gone. She was even a little well-behaved.
Fang Chengye was eager to curry favor, so whenever he went to Ziqian Hall, he would pick up Shi Yeshan along the way. Early this morning, he had come by again with the ox cart.
Su Zhai saw Shi Yeshan to the door and silently squeezed his hand, reminding him not to forget her warning from yesterday.
Shi Yeshan had something to say as well: "Don't talk to the one in the back, and don't bother with whatever she does. She's not normal."
Su Zhai: "…Understood."
The one in the back courtyard was already pondering how to rebuild the house on her own. Su Zhai felt a bit guilty about it—their own house had collapsed, yet it was the tenant helping to rebuild it. No matter how she looked at it, they were getting the better end of the deal.
Three days later, Chu Yi had already built the house into something quite respectable. She didn't come to bother Su Zhai either, spending her days practicing her sword, cultivating, and then running wild in the mountains. Shi Yeshan was fairly satisfied with her.
That day, Chu Yi suddenly caught a small fish and said she didn't want to eat it for now, so she put it in the water vat at Su Zhai's place to keep it alive for the time being.
The fish looked somewhat strange—its eyes were transparent, and its scales were especially shiny. When it swam in the water, it had a dreamlike beauty.
"I caught this in the river halfway up the mountain." Chu Yi stared at the fish, itching to eat it. "Do you know how to cook fish?"
Chu Yi really wanted to eat it, but her grandmaster had issued the Cease-Killing Order, so she thought she'd have Su Zhai cook it for her.
Su Zhai shook her head, speaking with a hint of fear. "This doesn't seem like any ordinary fish… Maybe you should just let it go."
Once you catch something, there's no reason to release it.
"When is that gloomy husband of yours coming back?" Chu Yi said impatiently. "If you don't dare to do it, that's fine—just have him come back and kill this fish."
Su Zhai was taken aback. "Is my husband… gloomy?"
Chu Yi said it as if it were only natural. "Wherever you are, his eyes are always on you, and he doesn't like you talking to others. Even someone as good-tempered as me can't stand him. Isn't that gloomy?"
Another adjective had been swapped in.
Su Zhai muttered, "Are you really that good-tempered?"
Chu Yi rolled her eyes and left. She was still hoping Shi Yeshan would kill the fish for her, but he didn't come home that night, so the little fish stayed in the water vat.
Before going to sleep, Su Zhai carried a lantern to the kitchen to take a look. She couldn't shake the feeling that the fish was somewhat eerie. But Chu Yi lived right in the back—if anything happened, a single shout should be enough to get her attention.
Su Zhai tucked her hands in and went back to bed.
At night, the mountain wind always blew with a mournful wail, like something was crying.
In her sleep, Su Zhai felt someone touching her face.
The hand was wet, and the fishy smell of water crept over her, giving her a drowning sensation. In the moment her breathing faltered, Su Zhai snapped her eyes open.
She saw a beautiful face pressed far too close.
It was a man.
He had a pointed chin, large eyes, and a face full of sorrow. He was lying limply on top of her, big tears rolling down from the corners of his eyes, splashing onto her face like they cost nothing.
Su Zhai quickly dodged to the side and kicked the man hard with her foot.
"Ouch."
He was kicked to the other side of the bed, yet he still gazed at her with those big eyes, his look infinitely plaintive, pitifully saying, "Please, help yourself."
Su Zhai pressed her back against the wall. Seeing that he didn't seem to intend to harm her, she grew bolder. "What do you mean?"
The blanket was piled messily at the edge of the bed.
The water-ghost-like man seemed embarrassed by her question. He pulled the blanket over his face, as if about to cry. "As long as you don't kill me, you can do whatever you want to me…"
His voice was muffled by the blanket, buzzing indistinctly.
In the end, he even started sobbing out loud.
A few crows cawed outside, mixing with his crying, making one's heart uneasy.
The little fish was crying very sadly.
Qiling Peak had always been rich in Spiritual Qi, and there were many spirit creatures, but none of them were evil. Nothing too bloody had ever happened there.
He had already been able to take human form and was used to playing freely in the river. Who would have thought a female cultivator like a vicious dog would suddenly appear and want to eat him?
During the day, the little fish had seen clearly—the woman before him didn't really want to kill him.
If he could win this woman's favor, there might still be a chance to live.
The little fish quietly peeked out from under the blanket, looking at Su Zhai through tearful, hazy eyes. As he cried, he suddenly hiccupped, then quickly covered his face again.
Su Zhai was watching him curiously and had roughly figured it out by now. "You're that fish."
The little fish nodded through his tears.
…Just as she thought!
"What's your name? Are you a demon?"
He answered timidly, "I don't have a name… I'm a spirit creature, not a demon, because I don't have any magical powers."
This was the first time Su Zhai had ever seen a demon, and the creature seemed quite afraid of her—probably because it knew she wanted to eat it.
"I won't kill you, don't worry. But…"
Su Zhai leaned in a little closer to observe him, the tip of her nose nearly brushing against the bulging blanket, and asked with great interest, "Really, anything is possible?"
She had a pair of clear, bright eyes, like the purest lake water, in which the shadow of a little fish was quietly reflected, as if it would be trapped there forever.
The little fish no longer had the courage to speak, and could only nod involuntarily.
What was about to happen didn't seem so terrifying after all.
But a low voice came from outside the door, "No."
While the two on the bed were still frozen in shock, the door of the main room was pushed open with a single palm.
A gust of wind swept in with half a withered leaf, rushing through the doorway ahead of him.
No one knew how long Shi Yeshan had been traveling through the night, but the moment he entered, he brought with him a fierce, murderous aura of wind and frost and sword. He strode to the bedside in a few steps, grabbed the little fish by the arm, and was about to lift it up.
Halfway through, Shi Yeshan realized it was completely bare, so he changed his mind, stuffed the whole person into the blanket, rolled it up casually into a bundle, then tucked the entire blanket under his arm and strode out the door.
Only then did Su Zhai snap back to her senses. She quickly got out of bed and, through the window, saw Shi Yeshan kick open the courtyard gate and walk straight out. She trotted after him.
Shi Yeshan said nothing, and when he reached a nearby stream, he raised his hand with crisp efficiency and threw the fish, blanket and all, into the water.
With a plop, countless splashes flew into the air.
Under the moonlight, the river shimmered with rippling light.
The little fish regained its freedom. Upon touching the water, it transformed back into its true form, dragging its enormous fish tail as it fled in haste, disappearing without a trace.
"…My blanket."
When Su Zhai caught up to the riverbank, she was dumbfounded. Watching the blanket drift downstream, she couldn't help but look at the man. "I—I, why did you throw away my blanket too?"
It was a blanket she really liked. She didn't know what material it was made of, but it was pleasantly cool to use in the summer.
Only then did Shi Yeshan understand where her look of regret came from.
He still said nothing, his eyes reflecting a hint of cold moonlight as he silently watched her.
His little wife was unruly. She didn't like wearing too many clothes when she slept, always using a knee-length, short-sleeved garment she had altered herself as sleepwear, with nothing underneath.
The moonlight was crystalline and translucent, able to pierce through that thin garment, revealing the delicate waistline within, and the shy, upright breasts, like lotus buds just emerging from the water. His gaze was like a fierce wind, and they trembled slightly.
She was a Succubus.
This realization suddenly surfaced in his mind with startling clarity, spreading through his dense spinal blood vessels and flooding his entire body in an instant.