Chapter 13

Shen Qing wanted nothing more than to smash her head against the ground and burrow back inside.
What a joke! She had his snake wrapped around her waist, his sword in her hand, dragging along another man’s “house and pet” as she walked. If she ran into him like this, wouldn’t he beat her into a puddle of mush on the spot?
But Shen Qing was doomed to disappointment. She appeared in the Lishan forest safe and sound, and straight ahead stood the person who had been searching for her all this time: Li Daoxuan.
Zhao Ranyan and Shen Ling were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps someone had already escorted them back to Springview Terrace.
Prince Cang stood with arms folded beneath a tree, posture loose as if he had all the time in the world. When he saw her emerge, he slowly uncrossed his arms.
Looking at the crimson-robed youth with those shadowed eyes, Shen Qing quietly shifted the sword behind her back and tilted her head with a smile. “Your Highness Prince Cang, long time no see.”
“It has been a long time.”
If not for the faint curl of Li Daoxuan’s lips and the sense that the air around them had turned to howling wind over snowbound plains, the two really would have looked just like old friends reunited after a long separation.
Li Daoxuan called her name. “Shen Qing.” His voice was mild, but for some reason, it carried a killing edge.
Shen Qing’s smile widened. Outwardly, nothing showed; inwardly, cold sweat was almost soaking through her back. This man’s moods were always unpredictable. Who knew if he would lose his mind the next second?
“Does Your Highness require something of me?” she asked, feigning ignorance.
Li Daoxuan lowered his peach-blossom eyes and suddenly leaned in close.
On reflex, Shen Qing tried to step back, but a strong force tightened around her waist, yanking her straight toward him.
She glanced down. Li Daoxuan had seized Qiuren by the head and was dragging the snake toward himself.
Under the pull, Shen Qing couldn’t stop her own momentum. She stumbled forward, nearly crashing bodily into his chest. Just before she collided with him, she reacted in a flash, bracing one hand on his shoulder to steady herself.
Heat flushed across her cheeks.
Not from shyness, from pure suffocation.
Stubborn as ever, Qiuren’s head had been pulled into a perfectly straight line, yet its tail still refused to let go. Shen Qing was on the verge of being strangled in half.
“Your… Highness…” Shen Qing mustered all her strength to maintain a polite smile. Her other hand clamped down hard on Li Daoxuan’s wrist. “Could you let go?” She was very close to not being able to breathe.
Li Daoxuan had absolutely no intention of releasing her. Instead, with the hand braced on his shoulder, he smoothly reclaimed his own sword. “I’m not the one who needs to let go. It does.”
Qiuren’s entire head was trapped in his grip; it was clearly not having a good time either.
Suppressing her urge to smack him, Shen Qing said evenly, “If Your Highness lets go first, I’m quite certain it will very quickly follow suit.”
Li Daoxuan remained unmoved.
Just when Shen Qing thought she really might suffocate here and now, he finally showed a shred of mercy and opened his hand.
He sounded almost amused. “You stupid thing. Don’t even know the difference between inside and outside.”
Shen Qing had barely staggered back a few steps, panting for breath, when her wrist was seized again.
Li Daoxuan swiftly pulled out a talisman from his belt and slapped it onto Qiuren’s head. The black snake’s body went rigid; it slackened all at once, slipping bonelessly from Shen Qing’s waist and thudding to the ground.
Li Daoxuan hooked it up with his sword tip as if lifting a dirty rag. “Go crawl back and find Gu Yun,” he said mildly, then flicked it away with a toss.
Finally able to move, Qiuren gave Shen Qing a reluctant look, then slunk off in the opposite direction.
Off to torment Gu Yun.
Li Daoxuan turned back. “Now, it’s time to settle our accounts, Lady Shen.”
Shen Qing shook off his hand, playing dumb. “Settle accounts? About what? Your Highness mustn’t wrong an innocent.” She pointed at the sword that had been returned to its owner. “As for this sword, Young Lord Gu lent it to me. I had no idea it was yours.”
“And that snake, ” Her brows knit in a mock petulance. “I was walking quite properly when Your Highness’s snake suddenly crawled onto me and coiled around me. I couldn’t shake it off no matter what I did. If it had been some other young lady, she’d have been scared half to death by your Highness’s snake.”
Li Daoxuan said, “Then let’s not talk about the snake. Or the sword.” His lashes lowered, and he leaned in, face abruptly filling her field of vision, pressure thick as a storm front. “That day at Youjian Restaurant, Lady Shen took something of mine and has yet to return it. Now the rightful owner has come to claim it. Shouldn’t Lady Shen return what she took?”
Shen Qing blinked, all confusion. “I only remember taking back my hairpin from the peacock evil spirits. Your Highness and that evil spirits were fighting to the death; a mere mortal like me could hardly get near either of you. How could I possibly have taken something of yours?”
Li Daoxuan’s face went cold. He didn’t bother arguing, merely began stripping off his fingerless black leather gloves.
It was the gesture he always made when he was about to “teach someone a lesson.”
Seeing this, Shen Qing abruptly changed course mid-sentence. “Although… after you two left, I did pick up something from the ground. I’m not sure if it’s what Your Highness is looking for.”
Li Daoxuan paused, glove half-removed.
She reached into the brocade pouch at her waist and hooked out an object. “This thing, for example.”
The girl’s fingertips were pale and fine, like the best mutton-fat jade. Dangling from them, spinning lazily, was a plump twin-fish jade pendant, the very piece Li Daoxuan had hunted so long for.
The moment he saw it, he reached out to take it.
Shen Qing simply lifted her hand out of reach, her smile growing even sweeter. Seeing that he wasn’t pursuing the matter of the sword or Qiuren, and thinking of the Glass Heart she’d just reclaimed, she felt a sudden swell of confidence, and, inexplicably, the urge to tease him like a dog with a bone.
“Is this jade pendant truly Your Highness’s?” she asked.
Li Daoxuan’s reply was clipped. “You know it is.”
“But I don’t believe you,” she said innocently. “Have you any proof this pendant belongs to Your Highness?”
At that, a blade appeared before her throat just as she’d hoped. Li Daoxuan stood there wreathed in arrogance and untamed pride, cold mockery in his eyes. “This prince taking back his own property, why should he need to prove anything?”
Shen Qing promptly put on a frightened face and grabbed the blade at her neck. She hadn’t meant to squeeze that hard, but bright blood seeped through her fingers, dripping into the front of her cross-collared robe and soaking the neckline.
A visible red light flashed before their eyes. Shen Qing gasped and pulled the Glass Heart out from inside her robes. “It’s hot!”
The instant Li Daoxuan saw the Glass Heart, his pupils shrank hard, and even his sword hand faltered.
Then something seemed to strike him. He abruptly withdrew the blade and glanced up. The girl’s neck was as white and unmarked as ever, soft and smooth as fresh tofu. He pressed his lips together and changed tack. “What must this prince do to prove it?”
Having recognized its master, the Glass Heart’s glow died away, once more just an unremarkable red stone.
Shen Qing smothered the laughter in her eyes and let confusion rise in its place. “Your Highness’s words are rather… contradictory.” She furrowed her delicate brows, face tight with concern. “If you can’t prove the pendant is yours, then are you planning to simply rob me by force?”
Li Daoxuan looked at the girl putting on a show before him, forced his killing intent back down, and shut his eyes. “No.” He bit back his impatience to explain, “This jade is a pendant I’ve worn since childhood. Everyone around me can attest to it.”
“But Your Highness Prince Cang holds such high rank,” Shen Qing countered. “Those near you all fear your power and stand in awe of your virtue, of course they’d bow and scrape. How am I supposed to trust their-”
Li Daoxuan finally lost patience. “Gu Yun!”
Shen Qing lifted her eyes, gaze all guileless purity.
“Gu Yun is the legitimate eldest son of Prince Sheqin,” Li Daoxuan said. “His word, at least, you can believe?”
Prince Sheqin was the current emperor’s blood brother, his status second to none. Even Li Daoxuan had to obediently call him “Imperial Uncle” when they met. As the prince’s heir, Gu Yun’s standing was naturally not far below his.
Shen Qing at last relented, smiling in apparent relief. “Since Your Highness has invoked Young Lord Gu, then it must be the truth. The pendant must indeed be something you dropped.”
She carefully pressed the jade pendant into Li Daoxuan’s hand. Each word came slow and clear. “Your Highness should keep your belongings close. Don’t go losing them again.”
Li Daoxuan slowly tightened his grip around the jade. “I won’t.”
Having finally reclaimed her pride, Shen Qing watched Li Daoxuan walk off in thinly veiled embarrassment and felt more pleased than she had in a long, long time.
She loved that look of his, wanting nothing more than to kill her, yet unable to do a thing.
Loved it. The more, the better.
001’s cold electronic voice held pure confusion. “Host, target’s favorability -20.”
Shen Qing didn’t even look back. “Oh.”
“Are you… truly ‘conquering’ Li Daoxuan?” the system ventured.
Shen Qing nodded. “Of course I am. Why?”
“Based on the main system’s calculations, if you continue in this manner, the target’s favorability will show no improvement. If three years from now Li Daoxuan’s favorability has still not reached one hundred, your task will be deemed a failure.”
The corner of Shen Qing’s mouth curled. “Stupid system. That’s where you don’t understand. Humans are complex emotional creatures. You can’t handle them with calculations alone.”
Besides, she had discovered something: for the sake of the Glass Heart, Li Daoxuan’s bottom line could be lowered again and again. That alone showed how important the Glass Heart was to him.
Now that it had recognized its master, as long as Shen Qing was unwilling to hand it over of her own free will, even if Li Daoxuan managed to snatch it by force, all he would get would be a useless rock.
The moment he chose to repeatedly bend his temper and tolerance for her sake, his defeat had already been written.
“Li Daoxuan is just a swaggering, unruly middle-school brat,” Shen Qing concluded. “If you want to rein him in, you have to be even more outrageous than he is.” Of course, that required having the Glass Heart as a cheat; otherwise, if she tried to act wild in front of him, she’d just end up decapitated.
001 was thoroughly bamboozled. “It seems 001 still needs to work hard to understand this creature called ‘human.’”
Shen Qing flicked her hand. “Off you go, then.”
001 was just about to retreat when she called it back. “If I keep changing the plot like this, will it affect this world?”
The Glass Heart that should have gone to the female lead. Zhao Ranyan, who should have died. Shen Qing and Li Daoxuan, who were never meant to attend the Quijiang Banquet at all, now suddenly present.
001 replied, “The host’s very existence is already illogical. If the story’s progression shifts because you are conquering the second male lead, it is only to be expected.”
At that, Shen Qing’s eyes lit up. “So no matter whether I save Zhao Ranyan or stop the Shen residence from being wiped out, the main system won’t interfere?”
“Yes, Host. Moreover, both 001 and the main system find this book illogical, poorly plotted, with bad thematic intent and characters who are seriously OOC. So long as what you do does not violate human morals or bring disaster to the common folk, making some appropriate changes to the story might be for the best.”
The original author had set the male lead up as broad-minded, clear as moonlight and breeze, always gentle to everyone.
But in the latter half of the book, once the “vicious supporting girl” died and the male lead fell in love, before the second male lead barged in to wreck the plot, he basically turned into a man ruled entirely by romance. No more concern for the world, no more great Dao, only the heroine.
The text even said: no one was allowed to look at the heroine twice. Anyone who did was treated as a love rival and given no face at all. Even a stray dog that happened to glance in her direction would be kicked by him.
The male lead’s character collapsed so hard it was almost comical.
Shen Qing clearly thought of how her own senior brother was portrayed in the later parts of the original novel. Murderous light flared in her eyes. Again, she asked, “So I really can’t kill the heroine?”
001’s voice was icy. “Host, you are the vicious female supporting role. There has never been a story where the vicious supporting role kills the heroine. One only ever hears of the heroine killing the villainess.”
At that, the malice in Shen Qing’s gaze miraculously eased. A new thought slowly sprouted in her mind. “If I can’t kill her, can’t I just avoid her?” She narrowed her eyes, lips curving. “In future, you don’t need to keep reporting Li Daoxuan’s favorability. Just pop up once it hits ninety.”
“Since you can’t help me or protect me, you might as well go invisible and be a mute.”
“…Understood, Host,” 001 said.
This time the system vanished with impressive speed.
Armed with this new information, Shen Qing’s mood was excellent.
But something soon stuck in her chest again. She suddenly remembered what Qingnu had said:
“I can see it. Your whole body, even your hair, reeks of another man, oh no, another little brat. This snake and that sword in your hand both stink of him too.”
In her last life, Qiuren had despised and looked down on everyone equally, including her. Yet in this life, it had willingly slithered off Li Daoxuan’s body to coil around her.
Thinking of how different Qiuren was from before, and how easily she’d drawn Li Daoxuan’s sword, Shen Qing suspected that the formation she’d used in her previous life had bound the two of them together in some way.
As for what that connection actually was, she had no idea.
She’d stumbled across that formation, the Twin-Wings Rebirth Array, by accident in her master’s archive.
For such an odd name, its use was even stranger.
The book said: “The Twin-Wings Rebirth Array takes Mars-the-Heart as its omen. At the end of the eighth solar node, within the Palace of Li, when utmost yin meets utmost yang, blood is offered as passage. Yin waxes, yang wanes. When yin takes hold, nirvana follows.”
Shen Qing’s interpretation had been: on the day when Mars guards the Heart, the extremely yin body and the pure yang body within the Palace of Li exchange blood and swear an oath. By sacrificing the pure yang body, the extremely yin body gains a second life.
The day Li Daoxuan killed her had been the winter solstice, coinciding with the once-in-ten-thousand-years appearance of Mars guarding the Heart. The flames raging across Xuanji Pavilion’s upper floors as they fought had answered perfectly to the Palace of Li among the eight trigrams. Li Daoxuan was a pure yang body; she was an extreme yin body.
What a coincidence it had been, like Heaven itself had set the table for her, dishes laid out, chopsticks ready, just waiting for her to sit down and eat.
How could she possibly let a chance at rebirth slip through her fingers at the edge of death? Shen Qing had not hesitated. She activated the array, first passing her heart’s blood to Li Daoxuan, then dragging him into the sacrifice.
The Twin-Wings Rebirth Array in the book had not been a bluff, Shen Qing really had been reborn.
But in this life, her entire body carried Li Daoxuan’s scent; or rather, some inexplicable bond now tied the two of them together, such that Li Daoxuan’s snake had also acknowledged her as its own, and even that spiritual sword of his accepted her.
Rebirth was already an act defying the heavens. As for whether the array had any other side effects, Shen Qing did not know. She hadn’t read that far in her previous life.
Now, it seemed she needed to dig that book out again and carefully see whether this array came with any side effects.
With that thought, just as she was about to head back to Springview Terrace, her waist suddenly tightened.
In the next instant, Shen Qing realized she’d been pulled into someone’s arms.