“Still, since Gongsun Lin isn’t here today, Yunzhi, care to join me for a drink? Don’t worry, it’s just clear tea,” Su Yi said as he naturally poured a cup of clear tea and sat down by the table.
Tantai Yunzhi was pulled back from her tangled thoughts by his words, her heart inexplicably fluttering.
Looking at Su Yi’s gentle smile, she hesitated for a moment, yet couldn’t help stepping forward, subconsciously wanting to head toward the closer seat right next to him.
‘Senior Sister Gongsun and Senior Brother were so close today, so there shouldn’t be anything wrong with me being a little closer, right?’
Yet the very instant she approached the table, Su Yi suddenly felt something warm and soft press against the outer side of his thigh!
His body froze, and he subconsciously looked down—
However, that single glance left him instantly dumbfounded!
‘You! I—’ Su Yi didn’t dare make a sound, only crying out in his heart.
For Ming Xi had curled herself into the cramped space beneath the table without him ever noticing!
With her cheek turned sideways, she rested right against the outer side of his thigh. Her upturned golden eyes sparkled with the wicked smirk of a successful prank, tinged even with the leisurely amusement of watching a good show, as if relishing his shock and fluster at this very moment.
“Wait, Yunzhi,” Su Yi called out abruptly before Tantai Yunzhi could get any closer, his voice carrying an imperceptible stiffness.
Tantai Yunzhi paused mid-motion just as she was about to sit down, looking at him in confusion.
Feigning composure, Su Yi pointed to the other side of the table. “Sit across from me. It’ll be easier for us to talk.” He didn’t dare let her sit next to him; from that angle, the “scenery” beneath the table would be in plain view.
Hearing this, Tantai Yunzhi felt as if an invisible hand had gently squeezed her heart.
She remembered clear as day that for the entirety of today, Gongsun Lin had been practically glued to Senior Brother’s side, far closer than the seat she was just about to take. Why was it that when it came to her, it wasn’t allowed?
A pang of bitterness brushed past her heart, but her cool, aloof face betrayed nothing. She merely complied in silence, walking around to sit on the opposite side and accepting the cup of tea Su Yi handed her.
Seeing this, Su Yi let out a secret sigh of relief, though a thin layer of cold sweat had broken out across his back.
He wouldn’t have minded Tantai Yunzhi seeing Ming Xi the moment she walked in. In that case, he could have simply explained that Ming Xi had arrived uninvited. While troublesome, it would still have been far better than the current situation!
This utterly dreadful position... He could hardly imagine how priceless Tantai Yunzhi’s expression would be if she caught sight of this spectacle!
‘Thank goodness you can’t see under the table from the opposite side.’ At this moment, Su Yi was immensely grateful for the design of the desk, yet simultaneously regretted letting Tantai Yunzhi stay.
This was practically drinking tea atop a powder keg!
As for Ming Xi, currently hiding under the table, her expression was equally fascinating.
She had originally just been curious about who was visiting late at night, thinking she might discover who frequently dropped by Su Yi’s room. Hiding under the table had merely been a mischievous whim of hers.
Who knew that not only did Su Yi fail to send the visitor packing, he even invited her to sit down for tea?
However, feeling Su Yi’s muscles instantly tense up above her and sensing the nervousness he tried so desperately to conceal, the wicked smirk on Ming Xi’s lips deepened, a much richer glint of amusement flashing in her eyes.
‘Staying hidden seems even more fun than getting caught...’ She chuckled silently, deliberately adjusting her posture to lean more “comfortably,” clearly feeling Su Yi’s leg muscles grow even stiffer in response.
Seemingly unaware of anything amiss, Tantai Yunzhi took a sip of tea and said, “Senior Brother, actually, lately the way Master looks at me has felt somewhat...”
“Like she’s looking at a daughter-in-law, right? I know, my mother’s just like that.” Su Yi waved his hand dismissively.
“You don’t need to pay it any mind. She just misunderstood when I brought you back to the manor back then. Rest assured, I don’t harbor any improper thoughts toward you, Junior Sister,” Su Yi explained.
He certainly didn’t want Tantai Yunzhi thinking he had brought her into the manor out of designs on her beauty.
“Is that... so?” Tantai Yunzhi tightened her grip slightly on the teacup.
‘Just as I expected...’
“Then, with Master urging you like that, have you... ever thought about that sort of thing, Senior Brother?” After asking, Tantai Yunzhi felt her heart race, hardly daring to meet his eyes.
“That?” Su Yi was pondering how to answer when he suddenly stiffened, the hand holding his teacup jerking violently as tea nearly sloshed over the rim.
The movement down below made it impossible for him to maintain any semblance of calm. He could only say hurriedly to the bewildered Tantai Yunzhi, “Yunzhi, it’s getting late. Go back and rest first! We can talk in detail tomorrow!”
This abrupt dismissal caught Tantai Yunzhi completely off guard.
Seeing the almost undisguisable irritation and panic on Su Yi’s face, her heart felt as if it had been stabbed viciously, rapidly sinking.
‘As expected... Did I make him uncomfortable? Does he find me annoying?’ She lowered her eyelids, her long eyelashes concealing the sour ache welling up in her eyes. The sip of clear tea she had just swallowed now tasted bitterly unbearable. ‘He isn’t even willing to spend a brief moment with me... Compared to Senior Sister Gongsun, in the end, I’m just...’
“Understood, Senior Brother,” she replied softly, her voice barely audible.
Without sparing Su Yi another glance, she clutched her sword, turned, and briskly left the room.
The instant the door clicked shut, Su Yi took a violent leap backward, as though desperate to distance himself from the source of a plague.
Flushed red with fury, he pointed at Ming Xi, who had just leisurely crawled out from beneath the table, his voice trembling with rage:
“You! Ming Xi! Have you no sense of propriety?!”
He could hardly believe that the day had actually come when he would say those words to someone!
Yet Ming Xi’s expression was icy, her golden eyes gleaming with a dangerous light as she stared straight at Su Yi.
“Are you being pressured into marriage by your mother too?”
“No, and besides, what business is it of yours?!” Su Yi retreated a few more steps, terrified of Ming Xi getting any closer to him.
“What business is it of mine? Right, what does it have to do with me...?” A complicated expression surfaced on Ming Xi’s face.
She didn’t know why, but when she heard them discussing those matters earlier, she felt as though someone had given her heart a sharp squeeze.
‘Could it be that I...?’
“Su Yi!” Ming Xi called out, her expression odd as she looked at him in disbelief. “I think I...”
“...have fallen for you!”
She rested a hand over her chest in disbelief, feeling her heart hammering like a war drum.
Before, she had chalked up how Su Yi constantly stirred irritable emotions in her to mere competitive pride, but now, she felt that this was love!
Because she hated it—hiding under the table, listening to them talk. She hated other women getting close to him, yet loved seeing him thrown into a fluster on her account. If this wasn’t love, what was?!
She was someone who despised beating around the bush. Just like how she had despised that Phoenix clan prince back then—even without Su Yi, she definitely would have sabotaged the engagement banquet herself.
And now, since she felt it, she had no intention of hiding it.
Yet the other party didn’t seem to feel the same way at all.
“Fallen for me?!”
Su Yi was so exasperated he almost laughed.
He remembered clearly that in the game’s setting, Ming Xi could barely summon any interest in anything in the world. Tantai Yunzhi’s aloofness was keeping people thousands of miles away, whereas Ming Xi’s detachment was such that just when you thought you were seeing the real her, you would discover it was merely a mirage!
Her “love” right now was nothing more than the excitement of finding a new plaything in her boring life!
“Stop spouting nonsense! Now, get out!” Su Yi snapped.
However, watching Su Yi’s expression become all the more vivid with anger, Ming Xi felt her heartbeat quicken and flutter even more erratically rather than calming down.
An unprecedented, intense possessiveness tangled with an urge to destroy, surging into her heart.
Without waiting for Su Yi to utter another retort, her figure blurred, closing in directly and erasing the distance between them in an instant!
A spiritual pressure far exceeding the Foundation Establishment realm erupted without restraint.
“Golden Core!”
Su Yi was caught off guard by her sudden outburst of aura, but before he could react—
Before him, Ming Xi’s breathing was ragged and uneven. Reaching out, her icy fingertips brushed against Su Yi’s lips before both hands cupped his face. Her voice carried an unquestionable dominance tinged with a dangerous sweetness: “Shut up! For now, don’t say anything that’ll displease me.”
With that, her fingers probed further down.
She had said it herself: she was not one to beat around the bush. Once certain, she wouldn’t wait a single moment.
It was over! Utterly improper! Where was her sense of decency?!
Looking at the young woman before him—high in status, overwhelmingly powerful, yet now sporting a feverish gaze and a smile bordering on deranged—a chill violently shot up Su Yi’s spine.
‘This character who died young in the original story... isn’t secretly a psychopath deep down, is she?!’
A noble, immensely strong, utterly unscrupulous, and possibly mentally unhinged... Young Pavilion Master?
Having transmigrated to this world for so long and weathered countless storms, Su Yi, for the very first time, clearly felt an emotion called “fear” quietly spread across his heart.
‘Transmigrated and ran into a psycho, what do I do? Waiting online, urgent!’
Rate on N.U.
