Chapter 34

Li Daoxuan reacted with lightning speed. In an instant, he seized Shen Qing’s slender wrist and hauled her out of the water. As she broke the surface, her skirts flared through the air, scattering a veil of droplets. The moment she was safely behind him, he slashed his sword downward at the water. The surface exploded in a chain of surging water pillars, silver spray bursting in all directions.
When the turbulence subsided, the pool lay empty, no “thing” in sight.
Li Daoxuan immediately realized he had been tricked. He turned toward the culprit, who was smiling brilliantly, but before he could speak, a wave of numbness surged through his body. The sensation rose rapidly from his ankles, creeping along his meridians in thin, threadlike strands until it spread to all four limbs. In no time at all, his body slackened beyond his control.
He barely managed to drive his sword into the ground to support himself, cold eyes sweeping mercilessly toward the instigator.
Shen Qing curved her brows and lifted her pale hands, waving them teasingly before his eyes. On her index finger gleamed a delicate, finely crafted ring, the obvious source of his paralysis.
Her face was lit with a victorious grin, like a cat that had successfully stolen a bite of fish, eyes squinting into crescents.
“Didn’t expect that, did you? I kept one move in reserve,” Shen Qing whispered close to his ear.
Li Daoxuan let out a soft scoff and tilted his head slightly to meet her gaze. “Indeed, I didn’t expect it. My mistake.” At that moment, the two stood nearly face to face, their noses only a hair’s breadth apart. Even the trembling droplets clinging to Shen Qing’s lashes were clearly visible to him.
Yet anyone could see the sharp edge flowing beneath their gazes, the undercurrents surging around them.
Li Daoxuan asked coolly, “What do you intend to do? Don’t forget, without me, you won’t make it out of here in one piece.”
Shen Qing lifted a hand to wipe away the fresh water sliding down her face, then casually wiped her palm against his shoulder. Leisurely, she replied, “Your Highness only said I wouldn’t get out in one piece. You never said I couldn’t get out at all.” At most, the price would simply be higher.
As she spoke, she gave his shoulder a light pat and smoothly shifted the topic. “Of course, I don’t plan on leaving alone. After all, Your Highness promised to protect my safety.” She pointed toward the pool. “I already tested it for you just now. The water’s safe, you can go down without worry.”
Li Daoxuan lifted his eyelids. “This prince never said he was going into the water.”
Shen Qing smiled. “Of course you didn’t, I did. Besides, that’s not up to you.” She gestured toward his waist. “The poison in your body can be cured simply by soaking in water.”
With that, she began rummaging over his chest and waist, not sparing even his sleeves. Before long, several stacks of talisman papers appeared in her hands, along with the brocade pouch that had mysteriously vanished earlier. Shen Qing clicked her tongue and muttered under her breath, “No wonder the pouch disappeared, turns out it was snatched away by a dog.”
She then snatched away the sword he had been using to support himself. Seeing him stubbornly refusing to collapse, Shen Qing decided to lend a hand. She lifted her foot and kicked him squarely in the abdomen. Ignoring the murderous glare he shot her just before falling into the water, she strolled off to the side at her leisure to wait.
Though it was nearing the seventh month, the underground palace was truly frigid. Yin-laden drafts drifted from nowhere in particular. Once her anger ebbed and her mind cooled, Shen Qing finally had the energy to think, only to realize she was growing colder by the second, her body beginning to shiver uncontrollably.
Yet the breath she exhaled burned hot, and warmth crept up her cheeks and ears. Shen Qing pressed a hand to her forehead and immediately sensed something was off. She realized she was about to develop a fever.
Having spent so long around Li Daoxuan, she often forgot that her body was far more fragile than an ordinary person’s. After the succession of shocks earlier, followed by the sudden plunge into water and the icy environment of the underground palace, falling ill was inevitable.
She cursed Li Daoxuan from head to toe in her heart, bitterly regretting not stripping off his outer robe earlier to dry her hair. Now she could only hug this useless sword and stand here freezing.
After an unknown length of time, perhaps once the poison had been neutralized, the water finally stirred again.
Li Daoxuan leapt out of the pool and landed steadily on the shore. In Shen Qing’s eyes, he looked exactly like a drenched dog that had just crawled ashore.
In reality, however, his long hair hung damp against his back, soaked through. His clothes clung tightly to his body, outlining every line of his form. Droplets slid continuously from his brow like a translucent beaded curtain, lending him an air of quiet mystery.
At that moment, he resembled a merman who had just taken human form, dark lashes shedding tears, eyes like black stone, wet strands of hair at his cheek like drifting seaweed. Strikingly beautiful.
The newly emerged “merman” flexed his palm slightly. An invisible current of wind swirled around him, and in the blink of an eye, his robes no longer dripped, his hair smoothing from separate strands into a sheet of flowing silk.
Shen Qing knew he possessed such abilities. Pushing him into the water had merely been to vent her anger. Watching him slowly dry himself, she couldn’t quite name what she felt. She only thought: if Senior Brother were here, that would be wonderful. He would never let her be splashed with even a drop of dirty water, if she did get wet, he’d dry her with a pained expression.
Her throat burned with an uncomfortable dryness. Shen Qing swallowed hard and fixed her gaze on Li Daoxuan, extending the sword she’d been holding toward him. “We’re even now. You’re not allowed to hit me.”
Li Daoxuan rotated his wrist and accepted the sword, looking at the person who had suddenly withdrawn her fangs. “Even?”
“Yes. Even,” Shen Qing said, stubborn despite her lack of moral ground. “You pushed me into the water once, I pushed you in once. We’re square.”
“Besides,” she continued, “you thought I didn’t know what you were planning earlier, deliberately taking my pouch, trying to make me step on that pile of bone spikes.” Perhaps because of the fever, her voice softened with a trace of grievance. “If I’d stepped on it, even if I didn’t end up crippled, my foot would definitely be scarred.” She lowered her head and sniffed lightly.
After all this, she missed Senior Brother even more.
She hadn’t actually done anything yet, but she already looked on the verge of tears. Li Daoxuan clenched his jaw, feeling both angry and amused. On careful reflection, however, under the influence of the parasitic gu, his darker impulses had indeed been amplified, and he truly had done those things.
By that reckoning, neither of them really owed the other. So Li Daoxuan asked, “Then what do you want?”
Shen Qing’s eyes flashed. She lifted her gaze, eyes rimmed red, her voice thick with nasal congestion, at first listen, it almost sounded like she was crying. “You’ve already poisoned me, so you’re not afraid I won’t give you the Glass Heart. But in exchange, you must protect my safety.”
“Of course, I’m not asking for a lifetime, just until before we’re married. During that time, if I encounter danger, you must arrive in time.”
She lowered her head again. “You’ve seen it too. Lately, I keep feeling that someone wants to harm me. Even falling into this underground palace, it was only me. If that’s not targeting me, then what is? I won’t even hunt demons anymore. I just want to stay alive.”
Doing good didn’t require slaying demons, distributing porridge to relieve suffering counted too. It was far more practical than risking one’s life chasing monsters.
“Master passed away early. Senior Brother is always busy subduing demons and saving the people, gone for months at a time. The other brothers in the pavilion all have their own affairs. I can’t keep burdening them.”
Li Daoxuan picked up smoothly, “So you came to this prince, intending to use me?”
Shen Qing shook her head. “Your Highness, that’s not quite right. It’s mutual benefit. Just now, even if our grudges are cleared, what matters most is the present, working together to escape this place. Once the Glass Heart is in your hands and my poison is cured, we’ll be completely even. How about that?”
Completely even. It sounded like a fine phrase.
Since meeting Shen Qing, Li Daoxuan felt nothing but increasing trouble. And since he had already vented his anger, parting ways cleanly would indeed spare him much annoyance.
He nodded. “This prince agrees.”
Li Daoxuan was never one to break his word. With everything laid bare, Shen Qing wasn’t worried he would go back on it. Once her objective was achieved, the knot in her heart finally loosened. She let out a long breath, after accompanying him for so long, even if Li Daoxuan wasn’t tired of her, she certainly was.
In his eyes, she must now be an unkillable, thorny nuisance, the kind with barbs. To get rid of her sooner, as long as she didn’t make any excessive demands, he would naturally agree.
Yet the moment Li Daoxuan relented, the system could no longer understand what was happening. Silent for a long time, it had no choice but to violate Shen Qing’s instructions and speak up: “Host, if you wanted Li Daoxuan to protect your safety, why didn’t you bring it up from the start? Why make the target resent you instead?”
If this continued, how was the mission supposed to proceed?
Shen Qing was startled by the sudden voice in her mind. She quickly realized it was the system. Instead of answering immediately, she sneezed, her body swaying uncontrollably. In the next instant, a hand settled on her shoulder, steadying her.
Her vision blurred, spinning out of focus. She could only fall backward, leaning against the cold stone wall. The hand on her shoulder, however, was warm and dry.
Her cheeks burned hot. Even without checking, she knew she had already begun to fever, and before long, she wouldn’t be able to hold on.
Li Daoxuan simply watched as she slumped against the stone wall, showing no intention of helping her up. Only his palm tightened slightly, resting over her frail, damp shoulder through a thin layer of fabric as he began channeling internal energy.
A gentle warmth spread from her shoulder throughout her body. Compared to the oppressive heat at her brow, this internal energy was like a mild spring breeze, softly soothing the turbulence within her.
Shen Qing knew he was fulfilling his promise to “protect her safety,” drying her clothes and hair. She leaned against the wall, unmoving, eyes closed.
A droplet slid down from her forehead, slowly tracing the bridge of her nose before falling onto her cheek. The girl’s lashes trembled lightly, as if she could feel the water pass. The droplet lingered for a brief moment at the side of her face, against her fair, faintly flushed skin, it looked like a pearl cradled in jade, strikingly vivid.
Yet there was nothing in the boy’s eyes.
His lowered gaze seemed to rest on her face, but in truth his thoughts had long since drifted elsewhere.
It was only when Shen Qing murmured, “This is all your fault,” that he was pulled back.
Her voice was extremely soft, half like a coquettish murmur, half like sleep-talk, vanishing as quickly as a bubble.
As if deeply dissatisfied, she added, “When we get back, I’ll have to drink medicine again. It’s so bitter.”
Li Daoxuan’s focus slowly returned. His eyes were drawn to the small droplet on her cheek, and he stared at it for quite some time before speaking. “You’re not even afraid of death, yet you’re afraid of bitterness?”
Shen Qing countered, “Everyone has something they fear. If they don’t, it just means they haven’t discovered it yet. Like how Senior Brother only realized when he grew up that he’s afraid of slaughtering animals. My father fears my mother’s tears. My mother fears me falling ill.” She paused, then suddenly opened her eyes and asked him, “What about you? What are you afraid of?”
Li Daoxuan shifted his gaze to her eyes, only to find that she had already closed them again, leaning back as if she didn’t care whether he answered or not.
And indeed, he had no intention of answering.
Silence returned to the surroundings.
Yet in that silence, what flashed through Li Daoxuan’s mind was a small figure.
A tiny child inside an airless room, the only light coming from an open firewood door. A tall figure stood at the doorway, its features blurred, its dark, massive shadow almost completely swallowing the frail child, like a prison erected on flat ground.
The thin, weak child sat on the cold floor. His body, covered in wounds, was already filthy. Ignoring the grime on his hands, he clutched a bowl of pork ribs and gnawed at it until grease coated his mouth, devouring it ravenously, terrified someone would snatch the meat away.
The shadow laughed hideously. “Eat. Once you’re done, I’ll send you to see your mother.”
He couldn’t understand the deeper meaning of those words. He only forced himself to eat, if he ate his fill, he could see his mother. She would hold him, coax him gently, tell him old stories, give him a warm embrace so he could finally sleep well.
So he ate with even greater urgency. He carefully sucked every last shred of meat from the bones, even drawing out the juices clinging to them. He was truly starving.
The man in black laughed even more viciously. “Looks like you can’t wait to go see your mother.”
The little boy hugged the clean bones tightly and nodded hard. His eyes were spotless, pure to an extreme.
And then… then,
Li Daoxuan abruptly closed his eyes. His lashes trembled restlessly, and the strength in his hand unconsciously tightened.
Sensing the change, Shen Qing glanced over his face once, then closed her eyes thoughtfully.
In her heart, she said, “001, have you ever heard the saying ‘thick accumulation leads to thin release’?”
The system, expecting no response, fell silent for a moment before replying, “I have, Host.” But what did that have to do with Li Daoxuan?
As if guessing what the system was thinking, Shen Qing explained, “Everything I’m doing now is for the sake of my mission. Look, Li Daoxuan dislikes contact with others, yet he doesn’t even realize how many exceptions he’s made for me.”
“Just now, I asked him whether he had anything he feared. He didn’t answer, but his subconscious reaction told me that he does. This time he didn’t answer, maybe next time, he will. Isn’t that already a change in his attitude toward me?”
The system had previously asked: if she wanted Li Daoxuan to protect her safety, why hadn’t she proposed it from the start? Why make the target resent her instead?
Shen Qing thought that perhaps at the beginning, Li Daoxuan truly did dislike her. But after they laid everything bare just now, he no longer found her detestable, he saw her as a “trouble.”
After all, she had “gone to great lengths” to scheme against him time and again, only for him to expose and dismantle each move. Yet he still couldn’t figure out her true purpose. Things that couldn’t be read and were not fully under control often carried latent danger, and were the most irritating of all.
From the moment he fed her poison as a “threat,” to her kicking him into the water to “vent her anger,” to finally “reluctantly” proposing peaceful coexistence and stating her “purpose” outright, now that Li Daoxuan knew what she wanted, he could categorize her as harmless, and his inner vigilance would naturally relax.
And what he had wanted all along was the Glass Heart. So, in order to get rid of her troublesome presence, anything within his tolerance that didn’t harm his interests, he would agree to it. After discerning which of her actions stemmed from scheming and which from harmlessness, he was willing to “break rules” again and again.
After all, occasional exceptions wouldn’t damage his core interests, and might even secure what he needed in one stroke. Why not?
“…That does seem to be the case,” the system murmured.
“And besides,” Shen Qing continued, “he’s been revered since childhood, placed high above others. Anyone who dared defy him would be dragged away the next moment. In all these years, I’m the only one who’s repeatedly schemed against him, teased him, and yet, he can’t kill me.” That was partly due to her identity, and partly because of the Glass Heart.
“It’s like living a calm life for years, when suddenly a little cat appears, thinking it has devised a flawless plan to steal your dried fish. You’ve already seen through everything, but because life is too dull and stagnant, you’re willing to play along, pretending the cat succeeded. Li Daoxuan is very smart, my little schemes are effortlessly transparent to him.”
And precisely because they were so easy to see through, his guard lowered. His subconscious would judge: this person is not a threat.
That made it far easier for Shen Qing to trick him, because no one falls in love with someone they perceive as a latent danger, let alone share a bed with them.
“The calmer Li Daoxuan’s life is, the more I need to disrupt it, make him remember me. Otherwise, why do you think so many domineering CEO stories remain popular? A man who’s seen endless intrigue and beautiful schemers, suddenly encountering a woman who’s indifferent to fame, resilient yet fragile, if it were me, I’d be interested too.”
The system was thoroughly persuaded. “So that’s how it is.” Then it sighed. “Host is right, humans really are complicated.”
Hearing 001 repeat a phrase she herself had once said, Shen Qing’s eyelids twitched. She suddenly asked, “Are all systems this… human-like?”
The system went quiet for a beat, then replied with a faint electronic distortion, “There was some lag just now. Host, what did you say?”
Shen Qing said, “Nothing. Go dormant. Next time, don’t come out without my permission.”
After adapting to life in the Li Dynasty for so long, the system’s presence felt increasingly out of place, uncomfortable.
The system quietly exhaled in relief. “Understood, Host.”
001 retreated, but Shen Qing’s thoughts became more active. Systems could lag too? Could they be curious, like 001?
After several brief exchanges, Shen Qing no longer felt that 001 was a cold electronic product. On the contrary, it seemed to possess a hint of sentience, more like… Qiuren, that kind of spirit entity. The only difference was that Qiuren couldn’t speak, while 001 could.
With that doubt lingering, Shen Qing opened her eyes and looked at the hand resting on her shoulder. Her lips felt dry; she pressed them together lightly. When she lifted her gaze, it unexpectedly collided with Li Daoxuan’s, and she realized that something about him was off again.