Guxi really had been lost in thought, but the moment Baili Xiaosheng’s hand moved, he sensed it instantly. In a flash, he twisted aside and neatly dodged her hidden dart.
But who could have known—in that split second, the dart shot toward Shiliang standing in front of him instead!
What was going on?
Guxi realized belatedly that Baili Xiaosheng’s dart hadn’t been aimed at him at all, but at Shiliang!
Almost by reflex, without even thinking, Guxi flicked his fingers and sent out a current of air, knocking the dart off course just as it was about to sink into Shiliang’s forehead. It clattered to the ground off to the side.
Seeing that Shiliang was unharmed, he let out a breath, then turned with a frown toward Baili Xiaosheng. His first words were an accusation. “What are you doing?”
“Getting rid of her!” Baili Xiaosheng’s voice was cold—cold enough that it left Guxi faintly bewildered. He had always known this girl was aloof and cool by nature, but after a year together, she hadn’t been that cold toward him. She was warm, in fact, as if they’d been old friends for years.
“Who told you to get rid of her!” The words burst out of Guxi’s mouth again, without him even noticing that his usually excellent composure always seemed to crumble in front of this girl.
A dangerous glint filled Baili Xiaosheng’s narrowed eyes. She gave a cold snort and arched a brow. “Oh? Do I need your permission to destroy something that belongs to me?”
The question startled Guxi back to his senses. He rubbed his temple lightly, pressing at it, and only then noticed how strange he’d been acting. What was wrong with him?
Getting rid of Shiliang was something he’d wished for all along, wasn’t it? So why had he just stopped Baili Xiaosheng?
“Well?” Baili Xiaosheng pressed again.
Only then did Guxi say flatly, “No need. If you believe Duku has finished being rebuilt, then please, keep your promise. Get rid of her.”
Guxi lowered his eyes, his long lashes casting a shadow across his face. His expression was quiet and unreadable—the kind that made it obvious at a glance that something was on his mind, yet no matter how one looked, it was impossible to tell what exactly that something was.
Baili Xiaosheng watched him, her eyes narrowing into two thin lines. The hand hanging at her side had, at some point, closed around another hidden dart.
Shiliang was someone she herself had raised and trained. Getting rid of her would take no more than a single strike.
She kept her gaze on Guxi and slowly raised her hand.
“Fine. I’ll get rid of her right now. I’ll keep my promise!” she said, word by word, her eyes never leaving him.
Get rid of Shiliang, keep the promise, one strike and it was done—then the two of them would owe each other nothing, and he would be free. He could go back to Da Zhou. He wouldn’t have to stay glued to her side anymore.
The room fell silent. Baili Xiaosheng’s hand was raised halfway, on the verge of striking, when Guxi finally lifted his eyes and looked at her, his lips pressing together faintly.
“Watch closely! Don’t say I never keep my word!” Baili Xiaosheng said coldly, a chill flashing through her eyes as she struck the dart out in an instant!
In that split second, Guxi’s heart lurched violently, beyond his control. He felt as though something had slipped away from him in that instant—though what it was, he couldn’t say. He only felt a sudden hollowness in his chest.
And yet, unexpectedly, Baili Xiaosheng’s dart veered off course, missing by the narrowest margin, and landed right beside Shiliang!
“This young lady is in a bad mood today and doesn’t feel like getting rid of her. There are still over a thousand kinds of medicinal herbs in Duku’s great pharmacy that haven’t been sorted. Get that done properly, and I’ll think about whether to get rid of her or not!” Baili Xiaosheng said, giving Guxi no room to respond before turning and walking off.
Guxi stood rooted to the spot, unsure whether he’d even registered what Baili Xiaosheng had just said. His gaze had fallen on Shiliang; his large hand lightly pressed against his own chest, his handsome brows drawn tight.
What was wrong with him?
A feeling utterly, utterly unfamiliar—something like nervousness, something like fear—in any case, his heart was pounding faster and faster. He didn’t understand what was happening to him. He only knew it felt very wrong.
Baili Xiaosheng had expected Guxi to chase after her, to argue the matter out with her, but to her surprise, he didn’t follow. That left her even more depressed.
These past few days, she’d been turning over in her mind the matter of Duku’s reconstruction. Without her quite realizing it, a whole year had passed. When she’d first made the pact with Guxi, she hadn’t given any thought to how long rebuilding Duku might actually take.
And now, she found that a year really was far, far too short.
Just as she was lost in thought, Guxi finally caught up to her.
“Where have you been these past few days?” Guxi asked flatly, as if he’d already forgotten their strange, unpleasant exchange moments earlier.
“The border between Nanzhao and Xijing,” Baili Xiaosheng answered honestly.
“Looking for someone?” Guxi asked, puzzled. Whenever this girl went out, it was usually to recruit talented, unusual people to her side.
But to his surprise, Baili Xiaosheng shook her head and said, with complete honesty, “I went to find a few mercenaries under Aunt Qing’s command, to ask about Shiliang’s past.”
At that, Guxi’s brow furrowed sharply. “And then?”
“And then I came back.” Baili Xiaosheng shrugged, as if it were only natural.
“What did you find out?” Guxi pressed.
“Why should I tell you!” Baili Xiaosheng shot back. She had long since decided that if she was going to get rid of Shiliang, she ought to at least understand something of the girl’s past first. She already knew a little about the history between Shiliang and Guxi, but she hadn’t expected that the two of them had once been so close, so inseparable—like childhood sweethearts who had grown up together.
The whole way back, she had turned it over and over in her mind, unable to make sense of it, only knowing that her mood had soured completely. The moment she returned to Duku, the first thing she’d wanted to do was get rid of Shiliang.
Unluckily, the instant she stepped into the secret chamber, she found Guxi standing before Shiliang, his eyes fixed on her intently. Could it be that he came here often, and she simply hadn’t known?
She didn’t understand it—how, standing before a corpse, this man could wear such a wistful, longing expression!
A man like this was, aside from her master, the man she admired most. How could he lower himself like that in front of a corpse?
She couldn’t accept it!
Faced with Baili Xiaosheng’s sharp, accusing question, Guxi once again realized belatedly just how unsettled he’d become. What on earth was wrong with him today?
He said nothing, only glanced at her once before turning to leave. He needed to calm down.
But to his surprise, Baili Xiaosheng said coldly, “You like her a lot, don’t you!”
Guxi stopped in his tracks. It was a long moment before he spoke. “That’s none of your concern. Prying into someone else’s past like that is not a decent thing to do.”
His rebuke, it seemed, had no effect on Baili Xiaosheng whatsoever. She ignored it entirely and pressed on. “You still like her now, don’t you? You clearly like her, and yet you keep telling me to get rid of her over and over—are you playing with me?”
When a man finds himself with no way to argue his case, it’s never because he’s done something wrong—it must be that the woman is being unreasonable.
“What exactly is wrong with you?” Guxi asked, his temper still holding steady, patient as ever.
But Baili Xiaosheng went on ignoring him, saying coldly, “So that’s why you stopped me just now!”
Guxi let out a low breath, his patience finally giving way. Without another word, his figure flickered and vanished from sight.
Baili Xiaosheng didn’t chase after him. She stood frozen in place for a long moment, until a maidservant approached and she finally came back to herself. She stared blankly at the maid and murmured, “He admitted it.”
The maid was startled half out of her wits. “My lady… you… what’s wrong with you?”
Her mistress had always been a decisive, forceful person, quick as thunder and lightning. Yet now, she looked like some poor bullied little thing.
“He admitted it!” Baili Xiaosheng murmured again, all trace of her earlier sharp, commanding air gone, like a flower that had wilted. Yet she had no idea that Guxi hadn’t actually gone far at all—he was perched on a rooftop not far away, just as he always had been, quietly, silently watching her from a distance.
The only difference from before was that, where his eyes had once been clear and calm, they were now filled with nothing but turmoil.