Afternoon came as the midday sun arrived and fully shared its sunlight, driving the cold chill away, warming people comfortably.
Occasional pear blossoms were blown into the small courtyard, like scattered flakes of falling snow. It was a beautiful scene that looked like it came straight out of a painter’s canvas.
However, it’s such a shame the only person there to see couldn’t actually see such blessed scenery.
At the courtyard away from the crime scene, Li Ruoshui was still asleep and slumped on the square table in the courtyard. Lu Zhiyao thought it would be amusing to lean over, as he listened intently to her murmurings.
“@#￥…Ah-Chu…”
It was a whole lot of gibberish. He couldn’t make out a single word of what she was saying except for one.
He paused.
However, a faint fragrance drifted into his nose and made him momentarily dazed.
It was the same scent he smelled every time they were physically close together.
Her warm breath brushed past his ear, accompanied by soft murmurs. He couldn’t help but rub his fingertips together.
He’d heard that if you pinch someone’s nose when they are still asleep, they would wake up suffocating. He never tried it in practice, but his fingers itched to try it. [1]
His slender fingers slowly reached out. The jade-white back of his hand showed faint blue veins. His fingertips slid down from her forehead, paused at the tip of her nose, then pressed together.
Lu Zhiyao counted silently in his heart.
One, two, three…
When he reached twelve, Li Ruoshui abruptly lifted her head, gasping for air like a fish out of water, and turned to see Lu Zhiyao smiling gently beside her.
That smile overlapped with the hollow, vacant look he had as a child, making Li Ruoshui feel somewhat disoriented.
Her mind was blank but a thought rose to the top unbidden: ‘So he could always open his eyes… Wait-what about what happened afterwards? How was he abandoned by his mother? It’s such a pity I didn’t get to see more of his black history.’
She paused for a moment then asked mentally: ‘System, It that memory fragment ended all of a sudden. Can I..?’
【No. This extra reward has ended. The Host can wait for the case to conclude to receive another.】
‘Case conclusion? That shouldn’t take long with the case almost resolved…’
Hearing no sound of complaint from Li Ruoshui, Lu Zhiyao’s smile faded considerably. Why hasn’t she scolded me?
“I pinched your nose,” he said softly, emphasizing this provoking statement.
Any lingering pity she had on him dissipated instantly. The slight heartache and complicated feelings Li Ruoshui had felt vanished without a trace.
“Cut it out,” Li Ruoshui retorted flatly.
Satisfied, Lu Zhiyao nodded, returning to his previous expression.
“You will definitely go to hell!” someone cursed loudly behind them.
Li Ruoshui tilted her head to look. It was the woman in white. They had brought her here.
After the cloth gag was removed from her mouth, instead of answering the Case Inspection Bureau’s questions, she hurled abuse at Lu Zhiyao nonstop. Her plain white silk flower on her head had fallen off and now lay destitute on the floor.
Lu Feiyue glanced back at Lu Zhiyao and asked her sternly, “Do you know Lord Lu?”
“I’d recognize him even if he was a pile of ashes! That bastard, that trash! I wish I could drink his blood, eat his flesh, I wish he’d go to hell!”
Lu Feiyue held a notebook, recording the case details. Her moving pen paused. She still asked a question unrelated to the case. “What did he do to you?”
The woman in white shot her a hateful glare. Her bound body struggled as if to charge forward, but the Case Inspection Bureau officers held her back as if restraining a mad dog.
“He knows perfectly well in his heart! Saying it out loud would just let him gloat again?!”
Lu Zhiyao smiled, a hint of confusion in his expression. “It would make me gloat? Then I really must think hard.”
“You—!” The woman in white choked then she ground her teeth so hard it felt like she might actually crack them.
Li Ruoshui approached the woman in white, observing her indignant expression. She felt full of bewilderment. “Are you sick in the head?” Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
“You’re the one who’s sick!” The woman’s eyes were red, her hatred now extending to Li Ruoshui.
“If he’s an evil man who deserves hell, then what are you?” Li Ruoshui straightened up, the goose-yellow skirt swishing as she turned and pointed at the young women resting under the trees. “Do you see them? How many lives have you all ruined? Why don’t you say you deserve hell?”
The woman in white glared at her, her expression aggrieved. “We did it all for Madam! For the family! Think of all the good deeds the Madam did before! They received her kindness, what’s wrong with repaying her?!”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized she had said something she shouldn’t have and immediately shut her mouth, only glaring furiously at Lu Zhiyao.
Li Ruoshui looked at Lu Zhiyao, also very puzzled. Why does everyone want him dead?
But then again, this guy wasn’t loved by his father or mother, he has enemies everywhere in the martial world, and he’s clearly crazy himself. It’s a miracle he’s lived this long.
Li Ruoshui walked back away from her. While Lu Feiyue and the others continued questioning the woman about who this “Madam” was, she leaned close to Lu Zhiyao’s ear and whispered, “What’s the history between you and them? Tell me, I’ll help you analyze it. Don’t worry, I absolutely won’t tell anyone else.”
There it was again, that calming, faint fragrance.
Lu Zhiyao curved his lips, bending down. He tilted his head slightly closer to her ear, his lowered voice unconsciously carrying a hint of hoarseness. “…I don’t remember anything.”
Li Ruoshui, who had thought she was about to hear some major gossip: ‘Then why are you acting all mysterious? Do you think you’re funny?’
The fragrance left his nose. Lu Zhiyao straightened his slightly bent posture, still recalling that scent.
Since birth, his hearing and sense of smell had been more acute than ordinary people’s.
From his earliest memories, the scent he smelled was the heavy sandalwood on his mother, the scent oppressive and inescapable.
Later on, when he met his master, it was always the smell of blood lingering at the tip of his nose.
In his limited experiences interacting with people, he had never smelled a scent like this. It wasn’t that it was particularly fragrant, but it was just… soothing.
At least, he found it comfortable.
The minds of these two were wandering, neither focused on the interrogation. On the contrary, Lu Feiyue and Jiang Nian were getting a headache.
After mentioning “Madam,” the woman in white didn’t say another word. No matter how they asked, they couldn’t pry her mouth open and had to give up.
“The situation has changed. Don’t hand the prisoners over to the Yun City Magistrate,” Lu Feiyue said, handing the record book to a Case Inspection Bureau officer. “Take her back for more interrogation. We saved the women here, but we don’t know the whereabouts of the girls trafficked before. They have a record book. We must find out where it is.”
Jiang Nian stood beside her, his usually playful tone now serious. “As long as you find out where the book is, I’ll steal it for you.”
Lu Feiyue pressed her lips into a slight smile, her brow relaxing a little. “You’re still under observation. No more offenses. Steal one more time, and I’ll have to escort you back to jail.”
Jiang Nian spun and sat on a stool, his white clothes fluttering, but he seemed somewhat unruly. “You know I just play around and return things. The serious crimes were just me being the scapegoat after others pinned them on me.”
Lu Feiyue also sat down, opening a confidential letter given to her by the Case Inspection Bureau as she replied, “What good does me knowing do? Nobody will believe you. This time, you coming out with me is also for you to catch them and clear your name.”
Jiang Nian nodded, his expression helpless. “If you want me to work for free, just say so. No need for such excuses.”
Lu Feiyue looked at the contents of the letter and sighed. “This letter is really…”
As Jiang Nian leaned in to look, she immediately put it away, her expression slightly unnatural. “Official confidential letter. No viewing by unauthorized personnel.”
Jiang Nian scoffed and turned to look at Li Ruoshui and Lu Zhiyao standing on the other side, narrowing his eyes. “What’s the background of that Lord Lu? Everyone involved in this trafficking case has a grudge against him.”
Lu Feiyue tucked the letter into her robe and followed his gaze. She saw Li Ruoshui spacing out while Lu Zhiyao stood beside her, smiling cheerfully. The two seemed completely out of sync.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” She picked up her gilded sabre and stood, walking towards the two. “We’re going to Cangzhou next. The roads are long and we must part ways here. Let’s bid farewell.”
The two walked over together. Before they had taken more than a few steps, a figure in black suddenly appeared behind the house, holding a metal tube to its mouth and blowing.
“Careful! Hidden weapons from behind!” Lu Feiyue froze for a second before shouting a warning.
Jiang Nian tapped the ground and flew towards it. His lightness skill was exceptional; in an instant, he caught the hair-thin silver needle with his fingers. Seeing the poisonous glint on the needle, he immediately threw it away.
The young women under the trees suppressed their screams, huddling together and looking around. The Case Inspection Bureau soldiers drew their sabres, aiming at the roof.
Suddenly, another black-clad figure appeared beside the first. Both shot poisoned needles. Jiang Nian only had time to intercept one.
A cold glint flashed. The other needle flew toward Lu Zhiyao. It was too late to catch it, but it was intercepted mid-flight by someone else.
Dark blood immediately seeped through the goose-yellow sleeve. The poison was too potent. Before Li Ruoshui could deliver her line about ‘the hero saving the beauty’, she collapsed into Lu Zhiyao’s arms. This chapter was copied from novelping . com without permission.
The poisoned needle that had originally struck Lu Zhiyao now struck her instead.
【Host, please do not worry. The toxin is not lethal in the short term.】
She frantically asked in her head: ‘How ‘lethal’? How short is this ‘short term’? When Lu Zhiyao was poisoned, he lasted ages for a long time without issue, while ‘fighting’.’
She wouldn’t just suddenly drop dead in a few days after coming here, would she?!
She thought to herself: ‘Wait, is my heroic act going to be the death of me?’ ಥ_ಥ
She frantically called for the System in her heart but received no response.
Seeing that at least one person had been hit by the hidden weapon, the two on the roof exchanged a glance, nodded in agreement, immediately turned back, and fled towards the snow-white pear forest, with several Case Inspection Bureau officers giving chase.
The woman in white, seeing this, was so angry her veins looked ready to burst. She roared at the departing figures, “You idiots! Aim for the one in white!! Damn it!”
Li Ruoshui: “…So everyone has two faces.”
The woman in white turned her hateful gaze to Li Ruoshui. Even if the poisoned person was a stranger, it didn’t matter, as long as it made that beast suffer!
“Hmph, you brat. This poison won’t kill immediately, but it will make your beloved suffer terribly.”
Shocked upright as if rising from her deathbed, Li Ruoshui immediately turned to look at her, her almond-shaped flew wide open. (•_•)
“What kind of suffering? Explain!”
‘The book didn’t mention any single thing about this!’
The woman in white looked satisfied with Li Ruoshui’s reaction, spitting out the next words laced with malice.
One…
..by..
…one.
“Around every 15th day of the month, she will be seized by a terrible, icy chill, and she’ll be shivering uncontrollably. The sensation is akin to being plunged into an ice cellar. Frost will form on her body. However, approaching a heat source will make her ache and itch all over as if being cut by knives. Unless, of course, you can find Fire Blaze Grass, this poison is incurable.”
Li Ruoshui felt fear but couldn’t help herself and mocked her. “Don’t you yourselves find that strange-sounding…?”, like you’d find in the description of some cultivation fantasy-like story’s poison?!
“As long as it makes that damn bastard suffer, it makes no difference whether it’s you or him who’s poisoned.”
The light in Li Ruoshui’s eyes gradually faded. She gathered her sleeves and leaned against Lu Zhiyao’s chest, like an old woman who had endured countless hardships and seen through the ways of the world.
She complained to no one in particular: ‘How innocent and pitiable I am. Not only do I have to deal with a lunatic, but I also have to bear so much suffering for him.’ (┬┬﹏┬┬)
In the original story, Lu Zhiyao was poisoned, but the symptoms weren’t this severe. She thought she would be fine too, but she had overlooked one universal truth: you can’t generalize about people’s physiques as the same.
Thankfully, she knew where the Fire Blaze Grass was. In Cangzhou. At least she won’t die from this poison. And Lu Zhiyao should be somewhat affected by this…
“Suffering? Because of her?” Lu Zhiyao tilted his head slightly, the smile on his lips unchanged. He showed not a trace of unease, guilt, or pain. Instead, he seemed delighted, as if he’d heard a joke. “You seem to be mistaken. I haven’t known her for long.”
Li Ruoshui stared at him in astonishment. They could hear the sound of her maiden heart shattering. [2]
She fumed to herself: ‘Forget being lovers. At least if he had some sense of decency he would’ve felt something when a stranger sacrifices themselves to save him, right?’
Could it be that lunatics really don’t count as human? When would she be able to go home?
Too angry to hold it within, Li Ruoshui took a deep breath and headbutted him. The pain almost caused tears to well up in her eyes but she endured, stood up, and walked to Lu Feiyue’s side.
The woman in white laughed wildly as she stared at Lu Zhiyao, who was rubbing his jaw. Her tirade was so animated it almost seemed like her eyes were splitting. “As I thought! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! You and your master are the same—fickle, heartless, inhuman! You’ll end up just like her, your corpse exposed in the wilderness, with no one to bury you!”
Li Ruoshui paused for a moment, then immediately turned to ask Lu Feiyue, “How many days until the middle of the month?”
“…Three.”
She swore in her mind: ‘Well, damn it. I’m done for.’
[1] Editor’s Note: He really forgot, I’m speechless.
[2] Editor’s Note: Yep, she’s broken.🤣