Baili Xiaosheng stayed the entire afternoon, chatting the whole time—despite being a woman of few words, she always seemed to have the most to say when talking with Aunt Qing.
As evening approached, she finally had to leave. Ziqing walked her to the door, kissed the little princess several times, and reluctantly said goodbye.
She hadn’t even realized how slowly she was walking. By the time she actually reached the back gate, it was already dark outside. The carriage waited right at the door, and boarding it was just a matter of a few steps.
“Miss Baili, please hurry, or we’ll have to leave first thing tomorrow morning,” the driver urged.
“Oh!” Baili Xiaosheng responded absently, and had already reached the driver’s side when she suddenly added, “Actually, wait a moment—let me go change into men’s clothes first, it’ll just take a moment, is that all right?”
Being merely a servant, the driver hardly dared say no, though privately he wondered whether it was really necessary, feeling that Miss Baili seemed to be waiting for someone. He didn’t dare voice the thought aloud. “Of course, Miss Baili. I’m just worried about traveling through the night—you might have trouble sleeping in the carriage.”
“It’s fine, I’ll be quick,” Baili Xiaosheng said, and with a turn, she vanished.
She really did go back to the courtyard she’d stayed in, only to find it completely empty—that familiar figure nowhere to be seen. It was only then that realization dawned on her, and she laughed at herself for being so foolish.
So she quickly changed into men’s clothing and hurried back to the back gate—and sure enough, dressed this way, the driver almost failed to recognize her.
“Miss Baili… no, no, I should call you Young Master Baili,” the driver said with a laugh, having already lit the lanterns by this point.
“Just call me young master, heh heh!” Baili Xiaosheng said, even lowering her voice, before climbing into the carriage.
The four-horse carriage set off at a brisk pace, and soon, Baili Xiaosheng could no longer see the back gate of Prince Yao’s manor behind her. She finally let herself lower the curtain, not even noticing that, aside from her reluctance to part with her master, this was the first time in her life she’d ever felt this reluctant to leave someone else.
What exactly was she so reluctant to leave behind?
She patted her own cheeks, took a deep breath, and leaned back against the high headrest. She meant to think through the matter of rebuilding the Poison Den, but her mind kept drifting off—she couldn’t even say herself what she was daydreaming about.
Just then, the carriage suddenly slowed, then came to an abrupt stop.
Baili Xiaosheng hadn’t been asleep, wide awake, and immediately lifted the curtain. “What’s going on?”
The moment the words left her mouth, she saw a tall, straight figure standing not far off, the wind lifting his robes and hair ribbon, along with the tassel on his sword hilt—familiar and unfamiliar at once from a distance.
Familiar, because Baili Xiaosheng recognized the figure at once—it was Guxi.
Unfamiliar, because the aura Guxi was giving off right now was nothing like a mere guard’s—more like a martial artist who’d wandered the world for years.
But Baili Xiaosheng didn’t have time to think about any of that. She immediately leapt down from the carriage and rushed toward him.
It was only once she’d rushed right up to him that she realized how impulsive she’d been, silently cursing herself—why was she so excited?
“What a coincidence?” Baili Xiaosheng said, true to being a child raised in the Poison Den, true to being Baili Weisheng’s disciple—her heart was pounding wildly inside, but on the surface she stayed perfectly composed, dressed as a young man, playing the part of a nonchalant young master with that casual greeting.
But then, Guxi’s next words nearly shattered her composure entirely. He said flatly, “I came here specifically for you.”
Baili Xiaosheng blanked for a moment, coughing lightly a few times. “Something wrong?”
“Mm.” Guxi nodded, carefully pulling a brocade box from his sleeve. Baili Xiaosheng was puzzled, but the moment Guxi opened the box, she froze instantly!
Inside the brocade box were densely packed poisonous insects. An ordinary person might not have recognized them right away, but she only needed a single glance to identify how many different species were inside.
These poison pets were the very ones he’d destroyed that day at Prince Yao’s manor, when she’d attacked him.
Could it be—had he deliberately gone out and gathered these specimens?
“Count them, there shouldn’t be any missing. I matched them against the bodies,” Guxi said seriously, closing the box and handing it to Baili Xiaosheng.
A warm, unnameable emotion, something she’d never felt before, suddenly filled her heart—a heart that seemed so strong on the outside, yet was actually so fragile. No one had ever taken her affairs to heart before, not even over the biggest matters, not even her own master.
And yet this was such a small thing, so small she’d forgotten all about it—and he’d remembered it, returning every last piece.
Baili Xiaosheng didn’t take the box right away, tilting her head up to look at Guxi earnestly, asking, “Why did you bother tracking these down to return them?”
“You seemed to be raising them every day. They must be important to you,” Guxi said.
Baili Xiaosheng froze for a moment, then burst into laughter, blurting out, “You’re such an idiot!”
This left Guxi momentarily stunned, a flicker of awkwardness crossing his face. Seeing him flustered, Baili Xiaosheng suddenly felt awkward herself too.
Fortunately, Guxi wasn’t some inexperienced youth. At twenty-five or twenty-six, though he’d never really interacted much with young women, and had certainly never encountered a situation this awkward, he still managed to smooth things over with composure.
“Miss Baili, please keep your things safe. I won’t hold you up any longer. Farewell.”
As he spoke, he pressed the brocade box into Baili Xiaosheng’s hands and turned to leave, but at that moment, Baili Xiaosheng spoke up. “Wait!”
Guxi turned back. “Something else, Miss Baili?”
“I’ve thought of it!” Baili Xiaosheng said with certainty, breaking into a grin.
Guxi was somewhat confused, not immediately understanding what she meant.
“Guxi, come back to Nanzhao with me and help me rebuild the Poison Den, and I’ll destroy Shiliang!” Baili Xiaosheng said earnestly. She herself had no idea how she’d suddenly landed on this particular condition, why she wanted Guxi to come back with her—but never mind the reasoning, she liked the idea!
Guxi, however, frowned, saying nothing for a long moment, clearly caught off guard.
“I’ll give you the time it takes to drink a cup of tea to decide. That’s the condition—otherwise, honestly, I’m not sure I even want to destroy Shiliang in this lifetime. She’s far more useful to me than you are!” Baili Xiaosheng said, her eyes crinkling into a beautiful smile, pretty enough to make people overlook the scars on her face entirely.
She’d never minded her scars in the least—this casual, unselfconscious attitude only made her scars stand out as a distinctive charm that other girls simply didn’t have.
Guxi kept his brow furrowed, looking at this girl several years his junior. In a sense, they were master and servant, but deep down, he’d always thought of her as nothing more than a girl with a pitiable past. He never expected that today, of all days, she’d turn the tables and threaten him instead.
Yes—Baili Xiaosheng might have framed it as negotiating terms, but in truth, she was threatening him!
Soon, the time it took to drink a cup of tea had passed. Seeing that Guxi still hadn’t said a word, Baili Xiaosheng felt a faint pang of disappointment deep down, but she still managed an easy, open-hearted smile. “Looks like you’re not agreeing then. Heh, I’ll be off. Goodbye!”
With that, she let out a soft sigh and turned back toward the carriage, but just then, Guxi suddenly asked, “How long would it take to rebuild the Poison Den?”