Xie Chenyan ended up joining Ye Linlang after all. On the day he left, he came to the Su Residence to say farewell.
By then, Su Niao was so angry her eyes were red. There was no way she was going to see him or give him a pleasant reception. Her response was simple: “Tell him to get lost!”
What Su Niao didn’t know was that the moment Xie Chenyan left for the military camp outside Yunzhou, Su Xuan was awakened by a voice suddenly sounding in her mind: Pleasure +15, Halo +15.
Su Xuan immediately brightened. She instinctively realized that Su Niao must have fallen into trouble again somewhere in Yunzhou.
Su Niao, of course, knew nothing about this. She was simply furious. Yet beneath her anger lay something deeper: unwillingness to accept it, and a faint but persistent fear. She kept remembering the agony of the poisoned wine in her previous life.
Yes, she had humiliated him. But the reason she’d done so in the first place was because he had sided with Ye Linlang, that shameless woman, and targeted her first. Besides, when he ascended the throne, she had already knelt before him.
She had even endured humiliation and apologized. And how had he responded?
Oh yes. He had looked down at her with that deep, unreadable gaze and calmly said that he had already forgotten the past and that she had no reason to worry. Then he turned around, ordered the Third Prince to divorce her, and had her force-fed poisoned wine. That alone showed just how hypocritical and patient he truly was. She had certainly mistreated him plenty during these past months. Who knew whether he was quietly keeping score, waiting for the day he could settle the account?
In the end, it all came down to one thing: She wasn’t capable enough.
She hadn’t managed to get rid of him once and for all. As this thought crossed her mind, another immediately followed: Cut through the knot quickly. A vicious plan began to form.
A few days later, Su Niao sat leisurely at the entrance of the Su Residence. The moment she spotted little Chen Ning approaching, a smile spread across her face.
The little girl was far too easy to fool. Her tiny pigtails bounced as she ran over eagerly. “Miss Su.”
Su Niao extended a hand, her gaze strangely intent. “Ah-Ning, come with me.”
“Big Sister has something delicious for you…”
That evening, a letter arrived at the military camp outside Yunzhou and was delivered to Chen Yan.
Ye Linlang valued Chen Yan highly. Soon after he joined the army, she appointed him as one of her personal guards. Some people were dissatisfied and challenged him. They were knocked flat one after another.
When the letter arrived, Chen Yan had just finished another round of sparring. His breathing had yet to settle. He took the letter, opened it, and saw a single line written in crude, distorted handwriting: Your younger sister is in my hands. If you want her to live, come alone to Zuifeng Pavilion on Mount Min at the third quarter of the Dog Hour. Otherwise, your sister’s life is forfeit.
Attached to the letter was one of Chen Ning’s hair ornaments.
It was the very ornament Chen Yan had personally bought for her two months earlier. In an instant, his face darkened. A short while later, he left the camp alone on horseback and galloped straight for Mount Min.
At Zuifeng Pavilion on Mount Min, Su Niao was hiding nearby. Around her stood several guards dressed in black, all skilled men recently sent by the Duke’s household. She had already planned everything.
Once she disposed of Xie Chenyan’s body, if anyone questioned her, she would simply claim that the crude martial man had attempted to molest her, forcing her to hate him and seek revenge. Once he was dead, there would be no evidence and no future trouble.
As darkness fell, the sound of hoofbeats approached.
Xie Chenyan had arrived.
On the stone table inside the pavilion sat a wine jug. Beneath it was a note instructing Chen Yan to drink the wine if he wanted to see his sister alive. Otherwise, when the appointed hour arrived, Chen Ning would die.
A water clock sat at the corner of the table, steadily marking the passing time.
The military camp was more than half a day’s journey from Jianning County.
Chen Yan had no time to send someone back to investigate or verify the threat. Walking into the pavilion, he saw both the wine jug and the message beneath it. Turning, he surveyed his surroundings and called out loudly: “I have come as requested. If you bear a grudge against me, why not show yourself and speak openly? At least let me understand why I’m being killed.”
Silence. Only the faint drip of the water clock could be heard.
As the appointed time drew near, Chen Yan’s expression grew grim. After a brief pause, he picked up the wine jug and drained it in a single swallow.
Hidden in the darkness, Su Niao stopped breathing altogether. Her heart pounded violently.
A while later, Chen Yan began to sway. Unable to remain standing, he braced himself against the stone table and sat down. With a ringing sound, he drew his sword, attempting to remain on guard.
However, Su Niao was patient. She waited quite a while longer. Only after a clang! and Chen Yan’s sword fell to the ground did she finally wave her hand.
The black-clad guards hidden in the darkness emerged all at once and closed in around him.
But at that very moment, Chen Yan, who should have been unconscious, suddenly opened his eyes. Snatching up the sword at his feet, he sprang to his feet. His cold gaze swept across the surrounding attackers.
Then, in the next instant, he spoke: “Su Niao. Come out.”
The moment Xie Chenyan stood up, Su Niao was already stunned. When she heard him call her name, her scalp went numb. How does he know it’s me?! No.
Maybe he was bluffing. Right, he had to be bluffing!
Xie Chenyan continued: “Before leaving home, I asked General Ye to station people near my house. If anything happened to my family, they were to send word immediately by signal arrow. So I know Ah-Ning is safe.”
Su Niao: “…?”
So cunning!
Looking into the dark forest, Chen Yan continued: “Ah-Ning may be young, but she isn’t foolish. In all of Jianning County, as far as I know, there’s only one outsider she’d willingly give her beloved hair ornament to… and that’s you.”
Su Niao: “…”
Willingly? She had traded a plate of pastries and a gold hairpin for it!
“I don’t understand what you’re trying to accomplish,” Chen Yan said, “but threatening my family has crossed my bottom line.”
“Come out yourself, and I’ll give you a chance to explain.”
“Or I’ll kill all your men and drag you out myself.”
Although Chen Yan was usually indifferent, he had always behaved much like any ordinary resident of Ping’an Lane. But at this moment, every word carried a chilling edge. He was genuinely furious.
Su Niao was wary, but having come this far, how could she possibly give up? Without a signal from her, the black-clad guards surged forward and attacked Xie Chenyan.
Holding her breath, Su Niao watched. Then she saw something that made her heart sink. The guards she had personally selected for their formidable skills were completely outmatched before Xie Chenyan.
In the blink of an eye, two of them were sent flying to the ground by the point of his sword.
Su Niao’s heart lurched in shock. The moment she remembered his earlier threat about killing all her men and dragging her out, panic surged through her. For the first time, she bitterly regretted coming here in person. Not daring to hesitate any longer, she quickly blew a whistle.
Coo-coo…
It sounded like a mountain bird.
The whistle was an order to retreat while fighting.
Su Niao crouched low and turned to flee. But she didn’t expect that, despite being surrounded by attackers, Chen Yan’s ears twitched the moment he heard the signal. As though he had suddenly grown hundreds of eyes, he abruptly broke free from the encirclement. Like a hawk diving from the sky, he swept into the dense brush and yanked Su Niao straight out.
Danger!
Dragged from her hiding place, Su Niao stared at the cold-faced man before her in utter shock. Her breathing became ragged. In her panic, she no longer had any room to wonder why she had once again come up with such a foolish plan.
“What exactly are you trying to do?”
Looking at the alarmed and bewildered young lady, Chen Yan’s voice was icy. “You’d better give me a reasonable explanation.”
“I… I…”
As she watched Xie Chenyan slowly raise the sword in his hand, and as the surrounding guards hesitated to advance because she was in his grasp, Su Niao’s mind went blank.
Then she heard him ask: “Just because I chose to follow General Ye, you wanted to kill me?”
It was as though a bolt of lightning split apart the chaos in her head.
Su Niao immediately looked up.
“Who told you not to listen to me?”
“No matter how I tried to make you stay, you refused!”
“You insisted on going to her!”
Her eyes were slightly red. Caught in his grip, she was visibly frightened, yet her face was still filled with anger.
Chen Yan looked at her. “So you decided to kill me?”
“I didn’t!”
Chen Yan glanced toward the wine jug in the pavilion. “What did you put in the wine?”
Forcing herself to appear calm, Su Niao replied: “Just a sleeping drug.”
He was still perfectly fine, which meant he obviously hadn’t actually been affected by the drugged wine. No matter what happened, she absolutely could not admit that she had intended to poison him.
Su Niao swallowed nervously and forced herself to explain: “I just wanted to lock you up so you couldn’t be with her. The way she looks at you is obviously suspicious.”
The more she spoke, the clearer her thoughts became. Desperately, she tried to steer Xie Chenyan’s suspicions in a different direction.
As expected, his gaze sharpened slightly. After a moment of silence, he asked: “And what does that have to do with you?”
Su Niao immediately blurted out the excuse she had just invented: “Because you’re mine!”
She dragged up an incident she had nearly forgotten herself. “We already kissed before. That makes you my person now. Yet you’re still trying to get involved with another woman. That’s abandoning me after taking advantage of me!”
She was referring to that moment in the mountains when, in her desperation to get him to drink the wine laced with sleeping powder, she had impulsively kissed him. At the time, she had been too anxious to think. Afterward, she had almost forgotten the incident entirely. But she knew that, given Xie Chenyan’s personality, he certainly hadn’t forgotten.
Now that she had fallen into his hands, she feared that failing to provide a reasonable explanation would turn them into enemies on the spot. If that was going to happen anyway…
She might as well throw away a little pride and hide behind a different excuse. For example, simple possessiveness born of stubbornness and caprice. Anything but the real reason. It would be embarrassing, certainly, but at least it left room to maneuver.
At that moment, Su Niao felt his grip tighten briefly around her wrist.
Of course Chen Yan remembered being kissed by her. What he did not believe was the explanation she was now giving. Quietly steadying his breathing, he said in an even voice: “So first, you toyed with Chen Xu’s feelings, and now it’s my turn?”
He raised his eyes to look at the young woman before him. For once, beneath his usual calm self-control, unmistakable cold mockery showed through.
“Miss Su thinks rather too highly of herself.”
“Not everyone wishes to become another admirer beneath the hem of your skirt.”
Though stung by the mockery in his words, Su Niao had no choice but to endure it. Not only could she not lose her temper, but she also had to keep up the act.
“I’m serious.”
Grabbing Xie Chenyan’s lapel, she looked up at him and said, “Stop following Ye Linlang around. Stay by my side instead. I won’t bully you anymore in the future, all right?”
At that moment, approaching hoofbeats echoed through the night.
Ye Linlang arrived at a gallop with a group of riders. Reining in her horse, she immediately asked with concern, “Chen Yan, are you all right?”
Dismounting, she walked over.
“I heard from Lao Chai and the others that something had happened to your family. You left so hurriedly that you didn’t even have time to explain. I was worried, so I followed to check on you.”
Then she noticed Su Niao. “Miss Su? Why are you here?”
The moment Su Niao saw Ye Linlang, her expression turned cold. The demeanor she had been struggling to maintain in front of Xie Chenyan nearly collapsed. But she had not forgotten her real objective. Ignoring Ye Linlang entirely, she looked only at Xie Chenyan and continued her performance. “Come back with me.”
Chen Yan lowered his gaze to the hand clutching his clothing. After a pause, he reached up and gently removed it.
“Miss Su, if you’ve had enough fun, then go home.” His voice was cool and detached. “This time, for the sake of the kindness you once showed my aunt and younger sister, I’ll let the matter pass.”
“But in the future, please think carefully before acting.”
“Something that crosses my bottom line will not be forgiven a second time.” With that, he released her and turned toward Ye Linlang, clasping his fists.
“I’ll return and accept whatever punishment the General deems appropriate.”
Ye Linlang nodded mildly. “It’s fine. Let’s head back first.”
Watching Xie Chenyan swing himself onto his horse and prepare to leave alongside Ye Linlang, apparently with no intention of pursuing this matter any further, Su Niao finally relaxed.
The plan had failed. But at least she had escaped disaster. Even so, she did not dare lower her guard completely.
Afraid he might still harbor suspicions, she hurried after him a few steps and called out loudly: “Chen Yan, I mean it!”
Having witnessed countless declarations of love in her life, she found the act easy enough to perform.
Putting genuine emotion into her voice, she cried, “This young lady is sincere about you…”
By then, Xie Chenyan was already mounted. At her words, his figure paused ever so slightly, only for an instant. The next moment, he nudged his horse forward and rode away without looking back.
Only after the group disappeared into the darkness did Su Niao finally breathe freely and truly relax.
After Xie Chenyan disappeared into the distance, Su Niao finally let out a long breath of relief. Then she spun around, rushed into the pavilion, grabbed the wine jug, and hurled it over the nearby cliff.
If Xie Chenyan came back and decided to check whether the jug had contained poison or merely a sleeping draught, wouldn’t she be exposed?
There were still damp patches on the ground nearby, where he had either spilled or spat out the wine earlier. With the jug gone, no evidence would remain.
The mountains grew quiet.
Sitting alone in the pavilion, Su Niao calmed herself and sank into thought. Looking back now, the more she considered this latest assassination scheme, the more convinced she became that the strange voices she had heard while dying in her previous life might actually have been real.
Perhaps she truly had some kind of cannon-fodder destiny that kept her coming up with irrationally stupid plans. Of course, there was also the possibility that she was simply stupid by nature…
But if those voices had been telling the truth, then perhaps she had mistaken the order of her revenge.
If Su Xuan really was the reason she kept growing more foolish and more unlucky, then dealing with Su Xuan was far more urgent than dealing with Xie Chenyan.
The realization left Su Niao somewhat dejected. Truthfully, she might not be able to deal with either of them.
Xie Chenyan’s martial arts were monstrously strong. She had no idea how he had developed such skills. He was a prince, even the Eldest Prince. Yet somehow he had been willing to endure the hardship required to reach that level. And then there was that unsettling, inexplicable Su Xuan…
But Su Niao’s discouragement lasted only a moment. The next instant, she abruptly straightened in her seat. She could not give up. If her suspicions were correct, if her relationship with Su Xuan were truly as strange as she feared, then even if she abandoned revenge entirely, Su Xuan would never let her go.
So…
She could not quit.
Meanwhile, Chen Yan rode back toward the camp with Ye Linlang. The entire journey passed in silence. The things Su Niao had said did not leave him completely unmoved. After all, he was merely an ordinary man with ordinary weaknesses. When the little peacock fluttered around him and demanded his attention, he had not been entirely unaffected. The difference was that he was no longer an inexperienced youth like Chen Xu.
A noble young lady like Su Niao had been born into privilege. To her, everything, including people, could be summoned with a beckoning finger. Because everything came to her too easily, it was difficult for her to remain attached to anything for long, whether people or things, just as with martial arts. When the whim struck her, she pestered him endlessly to teach her. But the moment she saw someone swinging on a swing, martial arts was instantly forgotten. When she wanted him to build a swing, her sweet words were enough to drown a man. Yet the instant a prettier swing appeared, the one he had painstakingly built for her became worthless, discarded without a second thought.
She possessed everything. And because she possessed everything, she never needed to cherish anything. If something wasn’t the very best, it never held her attention for long.
The same was true of people. The childish bullying and teasing she inflicted upon him meant nothing to him. They neither hurt him nor humiliated him. But if he truly let a few soft words from her sway him and threw himself into the flames like a moth… Then, when the fire finally consumed him, not even a shred of his dignity would remain.