He’d said it—get rid of Shiliang.
And she—just a moment ago, she’d said that if he agreed to stay by her side forever, to be her guardian spirit, she would get rid of Shiliang.
Did that mean… he’d agreed?
Baili Xiaosheng’s eyes widened in disbelief. In that moment she lost every ounce of her usual confidence, unable to trust her own ears. Yet Guxi was perfectly serious. Gently smoothing back a strand of her hair, he said softly, “Silly girl. I stopped you only because I wasn’t ready to leave yet. What I was nostalgic for was simply those days gone by. As mercenaries, we never looked out for each other—we each only fought to keep our own lives. I once thought about buying her freedom from our master, living out a quiet life together. But that’s all it ever was—a thought.”
In the moonlight, he truly was so gentle—gentle enough to melt her entirely. But that wasn’t the point. The point was, he had answered the question she’d stubbornly kept asking. Or rather, not so much answered it as explained it to her.
A man who disliked explaining himself would nonetheless patiently, tenderly explain everything to the woman he loved, without a trace of impatience. This—this was what it felt like to be loved, to be cared about.
So this was the feeling.
Baili Xiaosheng’s heart pounded, her eyes wide, unsure of what to say. She wanted to shout with joy—she was so happy—but suddenly found herself turning reserved instead.
That expression of hers drew a helpless laugh from him, and without warning he leaned down and pressed a light kiss to her forehead. “Silly girl. Anything else you want to ask?”
Without a second thought, Baili Xiaosheng shook her head, sweetly content, which only made Guxi burst out laughing. If his young master hadn’t assigned him to watch over Baili Xiaosheng, he thought, the two of them might never have crossed paths at all.
He had never deliberately done anything for her—only that when he felt like doing something, when it seemed necessary, he simply did it. That had always been true, and it always would be.
Without any deliberate effort, he naturally protected her, worried over her—and perhaps, from today onward, there would be one more thing added to that: cherishing her.
Baili Xiaosheng gazed at him, foolishly, watching his lips move gently as he spoke, opening and closing—and watching, watching, she suddenly felt a strange urge rise within her.
At that same moment, he happened to lower his head and look down at her, catching her rapt, entranced gaze. He froze for a moment, then found his own eyes drawn, unconsciously, to her soft, delicate lips.
Time seemed to stop. The world around them fell utterly silent, their gazes growing hotter and hotter, entirely consumed by that single touch of red before them. Without either of them quite realizing it, he was already leaning slowly down, closer, closer still… Moonlight soft, lips gentle.
When the next morning’s sunlight streamed into the forest, Guxi woke at once. Seeing the girl still sleeping in his arms, his usually quiet, solemn brow softened with a touch of tenderness, a touch of doting warmth.
He didn’t wake her. Instead, he turned his gaze toward Qin Chu’s body nearby. Baili Xiaosheng soon sensed the brightening light and stirred groggily awake, though she didn’t dare open her eyes right away, afraid that everything from the night before had merely been a dream.
She kept her eyes closed, savoring the warmth of his embrace, feeling the very real, solid weight of his arm around her shoulders—only then did she become certain it had all been real, and only then did she dare to wake.
“Awake?” He looked down at her, his gentle eyes carrying a smile as warm as spring wind.
Recalling everything from the night before, her face flushed instantly. The kiss last night had started out so gentle, then gradually grown fierce and commanding—she hadn’t known he could be that overbearing.
He laughed even more heartily, his gaze drifting toward Qin Chu’s body nearby. “This man—what exactly was going on with him?”
Baili Xiaosheng had always thought of herself as thick-skinned, someone bashfulness and embarrassment had nothing to do with. But now, faced with this moment, she found herself utterly unable to be as natural about it as Guxi was.
The moment he asked about Qin Chu, she seized the chance to change the subject, to shift the focus, and tried to sit up. But Guxi gently held her down, his voice soft. “Lie there a little longer.”
“Your internal injuries—” Baili Xiaosheng said, alarmed, assuming he still couldn’t stand because of how badly he was hurt.
Guxi paused for a moment, then broke into a sly grin and nodded. “Mm. So lie there a little longer.”
And so Baili Xiaosheng obediently lay still, having no idea that after a night’s recovery, Guxi had already regained six or seven parts of his strength. Having her lie there had no real purpose behind it—he simply wanted to stay like this with her a little longer.
“Is it serious? Should I go find a physician?” she asked with concern, silently blaming herself for all of it.
“It’s fine, I just need a bit of rest. You still haven’t told me what’s going on with this fellow.”
Guxi’s attention was fixed on Qin Chu. Judging by his features, the man was likely a native of Nanzhao—and natives of Nanzhao rarely possessed such strong martial skill, usually only knowing minor tricks and arts. Someone with skill this formidable had probably come from a background as a palace guard.
“His name is Qin Chu. He’s a poison master—used to serve under Consort Qin. I had no idea his martial skill was this strong,” Baili Xiaosheng explained hurriedly.
“What exactly is in that lake?” This was what Guxi truly wanted to know. The two of them had been so secretive about it all last night—what could possibly be down there worth this kind of risk to Baili Xiaosheng’s life?
“The undying blood!” Baili Xiaosheng said excitedly, and at the thought of it she immediately sprang up out of Guxi’s arms. “He gave me a drop earlier, and I confirmed it—it’s absolutely genuine. He said he had a good deal of it stashed away, probably all at the bottom of that lake! I’m going down to look right now.”
Baili Xiaosheng, burning with impatience, was about to dive straight back into the lake. Guxi, good-natured as ever, wasn’t angry, just utterly exasperated, and called out to stop her. “Wait.”
“I’ll go find it first, explain later—a treasure like that is best secured right away!” Baili Xiaosheng said, and dove headfirst back into the lake.
Guxi didn’t know what to say to that. Shaking his head, he braced himself against a tree trunk and stood, making his way to the lake’s edge. Even though there was no more danger nearby, he still felt he ought to keep watch over her, staying alert to any movement in the water.
Fortunately, this time Baili Xiaosheng burst back out of the water quickly, soaked through, her long hair plastered to her face. It was broad daylight now, unlike the previous night—and in the sunlight, her soaked clothes, gone nearly transparent, took on a distinctly suggestive air.
Guxi, however, was without question a gentleman. Even having already decided this woman was his, he still, with perfect composure, averted his eyes and tossed his own outer robe over to her.
“It’s fine, there’s no one around, it’ll dry soon enough!” Baili Xiaosheng said, sometimes remarkably oblivious to such things.
“I’m not anyone?” Guxi shot back, perfectly serious. The moment she heard it, Baili Xiaosheng flushed red—did he really have to point that out to her?
Seeing her blush, Guxi felt a bit awkward himself, coughing lightly and firmly wrapping the robe around her without lingering on the matter of the lake. He drew her close and headed back toward Duku, worried she might catch a chill.
Here was a man who never lost his composure no matter how enormous the crisis, someone who gave others a sense of stability. Nestled in his arms, gripping a small porcelain vial in her hand, Baili Xiaosheng’s originally exuberant heart quietly settled, and the whole world seemed, for a moment, wonderfully at peace.
Yet neither she nor Guxi noticed that, hidden in the grass by the lakeshore, two figures in black were watching everything unfold, whispering quietly to each other—and as they spoke, a pair of bloodline fangs glinted faintly between their lips…