To facilitate communication with Xie Shuo, Xin Yi specially spent a large sum to exchange for a Sign Language Mastery Pack from the Melodramatic Transmigration System.
Otherwise, she had to keep paper, ink, brush, and inkstone at the ready at all times, in case he suddenly wanted to say something that she couldn’t understand.
After all, their relationship had already progressed to this point. They spent most of the day together every day, so it couldn’t always be one-sided communication from her, whether on the bed or off it.
Although Xin Yi truly enjoyed deliberately twisting his meanings while taking advantage of his inability to speak.
But after a long time, Xin Yi discovered that he would retaliate, and each act of retaliation lasted quite a while. In the end, she was still the one who suffered.
After exchanging the golden finger, she found a moment to tell him.
Of course, she had prepared the excuse in advance. She first praised herself for her quick mind and fast learning, then confessed that she had secretly learned sign language.
“I want to understand you more, Xie Shuo.”
Xin Yi took the youth’s hand and placed it against her cheek, gazing at him as her almond eyes curved into smiles. “From now on, you can talk to me, and I’ll understand.”
In that instant, she could clearly sense the mix of touched emotion hidden behind the youth’s stunned and complex gaze—love intertwined with being moved.
Moreover, she wasn’t worried at all about giving herself away. After all, even if Xie Shuo racked his brains, he could never guess that she had a portable system capable of unlocking golden fingers.
As evening drew near, after finishing dinner, Xin Yi lay at the table and read a storybook for a bit. Then, under Xiang Lan’s hesitant gaze, she headed to the neighboring courtyard.
The reason was simple: if she didn’t go to him proactively, Xie Shuo would definitely sneak into her bed once night deepened, and no amount of shooing would drive him away.
So she had gotten smart. They only did it in her room occasionally when she couldn’t dodge it; otherwise, it was always next door.
Ancient soundproofing was truly terrible. Even if she tried her best not to make a sound during the act, the shameful noises from other places were still loud. She feared Xiang Lan would hear.
Xiang Lan naturally had no idea about these unspeakable worries and simply assumed her young miss had been bewitched by the concubine’s younger brother, casting everything else aside.
Every day, she fretted endlessly, wishing she could tie Xin Yi up and toss her into a temple to listen to an old monk chant the Dao De Jing three hundred times.
Her daily passion was urging Xin Yi to cut ties with Xie Shuo immediately. Afterward, she could find anyone she wanted outside—even a male courtesan from the Pleasure Quarters would do—just not Xie Shuo.
She also said that no matter how much Xin Yi hated Xiao Cheng Ce, she couldn’t ruin a young lady’s reputation just to spite him. What’s more, the man in her affair was such a dangerous, life-threatening existence.
Xin Yi couldn’t stand her constant nagging. At first, she could brush it off with a few words, but later she just went all out.
She declared that she had simply taken a fancy to Xie Shuo’s face and body. Until she grew tired of him, she had no plans to find someone new—unless Chu Chu had an even more beautiful younger brother back in the Miao Frontier.
Xiang Lan: “……”
What a relief—thank goodness Madam Chu Chu only had one younger brother.
Mid-fu had passed, and the weather grew even hotter. Simply relying on cool mats and bamboo seats was no longer enough to beat the heat.
She needed to pair them with ice cream pastries, snow-soaked bean water, and tuckahoe cakes.
Xin Yi feared the heat especially. Back in modern times, she had lounged in air-conditioned rooms all day, remote control set to the perfect temperature for ultimate comfort.
Nothing like now, without even a fan.
But she had unexpectedly unlocked one of Xie Shuo’s benefits. She had originally disliked the color and patterns of his snake tail, finding them ugly enough to give her goosebumps after just a couple glances.
Yet with its cooling effect, she could overlook those flaws for the time being.
So these past days, she had hugged the youth’s snake tail to sleep.
She could even rub against the scales, dropping the surrounding temperature by ten degrees automatically—not a bad trade for all those times she had obediently cooperated, clinging to his waist on the beauty couch or by the courtyard pavilion’s pool.
At the thought, Xin Yi couldn’t help curving her pink lips and planted a kiss on his ink-green snake tail.
Then she heard the youth let out a passionate muffled hum by her ear. Though he tried his best to suppress it, his snake tail instinctively coiled around her, as if urging her for more.
Xin Yi, who had only meant to give a kiss: “……”
She gazed at the hot sweat beading on Xie Shuo’s neck and forehead, and at those pale golden vertical pupils—she was used to it by now. Until his snake tail wrapped around her and pulled her into his arms, forcing her to endure the youth’s kiss.
Yet no matter how many times, the force of Xie Shuo’s kisses still made her frown. He left no room to breathe, kissing as if it were his last meal, even drawing a bloody taste from her tongue tip.
When it finally ended, Xin Yi collapsed dizzily in his arms, her eye corners and lips glistening with moisture.
The snake tail coiled around her still swung restlessly, eager to press on but afraid of hurting her.
Before bed, she habitually wore thin layers: a loose water-red undergarment and a simple ruqun skirt.
Xin Yi felt his snake tail slip under her skirt hem, bringing a sudden chill to her calf. She shivered blankly yet inexplicably comfortably, followed by a surge of faint shame in her heart.
Xie Shuo was suffering terribly—she could feel it.
But with his snake body and tail, whether physically or mentally, Xin Yi couldn’t get past her own mental block.
She just couldn’t accept… doing that with a snake yet.
After a moment of silence, the youth’s chest grew scorching hot, nearly melting her.
But his snake tail remained cool, standard cold-blooded temperature. Xin Yi felt ice and fire torment, especially as he began kissing her neck.
Before long, the kisses turned to nibbles.
Things were heading toward disaster, on the verge of tragedy.
Xin Yi had no choice but to divert his attention another way. She lifted her head, cupped the youth’s handsome face—twisted in the struggle of desire—and cooed softly and seductively, “A Shuo, let me help you, okay?”
……
By the time it was thoroughly over, her hand ached too much to lift, and she was too lazy to wipe the mess between her fingers or on her ruqun skirt.
The candle had long extinguished; she couldn’t see her shameful, disheveled state, but she felt the slight abrasions on her palm.
Because there really were barbs.
Though they were fine, soft little thorns, they still pricked, and enduring them too long wasn’t sustainable.
The more she thought, the more annoyed she grew—feeling utterly miserable and worrying over things that hadn’t even happened yet.
She didn’t even hug his snake tail for cooling that night, curling up in the bed’s corner instead. Naturally, she got dragged right back.
Several days later, just as Xin Yi thought Xiao Cheng Ce had forgotten her entirely, a servant from the east courtyard came with a message.
Their master wanted her to tidy up and join him for dinner in his courtyard.
Xiang Lan had the biggest—and most unhappy—reaction to the news.
In the past, she would have been thrilled, hoping Xin Yi would regain favor. Now, she was utterly dejected. “Miss, use tonight to bid farewell to the general. Let’s not stay here anymore. This servant would rather beg on the streets with you than keep living in fear. We already have the divorce papers—why not just leave in the next couple days?”
Xin Yi was utterly nonchalant, her red lips curving in a smile. She even picked up a piece of pastry and fed it to her. “We’ll leave when it’s time to leave.”
Xiang Lan was on the verge of tears from anxiety and had no appetite.
She took the hazelnut pastry held to her lips and placed it back on the empty dish on the table. “What counts as ‘time to leave’? Today? Tomorrow? Or the day after?”
Xin Yi: “After the affair gets exposed?”
“……”
Xiang Lan deflated completely. She looked at the woman in the bronze mirror and let out an utterly resigned, plaintive sigh.
It was over. Her young miss was born with a death-wish fate. Staying with her meant constant worry—no different from dreaming. She was determined to blow up the entire general’s mansion, wasn’t she?
But… with such a stunning, radiant beauty of a face, the general probably wouldn’t bear to drown her in the pond, right?
Probably not.
Perhaps after total despair, one develops a whatever-happens attitude of abandon.
That was Xiang Lan right now; she even found herself in the mood to admire her young miss’s beauty.
The woman’s face was hibiscus-like, her expression faintly cold, thin powder on her features.
She wore an eye-catching vermilion qi ruqun: the light green top panels tied together and bound tightly with a matching silk ribbon, revealing only a glimpse of her snow-white jade neck.
The greater vistas were concealed, hard to glimpse.
Yet the full curve propped up beneath the bellyband was excessively plump, like snow-capped hills—utterly enchanting.
When helping with the bath, Xiang Lan had once secretly held out one palm to measure, stared for a long time, then blushed and switched to two palms.
Good thing her miss didn’t know, or she’d curse her a brainless cur.
But she thought indignantly: Why!
Why let that concubine’s younger brother get the benefit—that little mute from the Miao Frontier didn’t look like he knew how to pity the fairer sex at all? He tossed till dawn every time, with noises to match, and kept a courtyard full of gu insects. Top to bottom, he screamed bad news.
For her miss to provoke him was truly inviting trouble. Whether she could shake him off later was anyone’s guess.
At the thought, she couldn’t help worrying for her miss.
A moment later, the door pushed open.
It was Xie Shuo.
Xin Yi first noticed his gloomy, handsome face, then the scratch on his chin. She couldn’t help frowning. “How’d you get that? Don’t you know to cover it? If you go like this, Xiao Cheng Ce would have to be an idiot not to notice.”
She beckoned him over, none too pleased. “Lower your head. I’ll cover it with some powder.”
Xie Shuo didn’t resist, letting her pout her red lips in displeasure as she applied two or three layers of powder over the scratch.
Only then did she reward him with a kiss on the lips. “Good little snake, I don’t want him to find out. Let’s keep it secret, okay?”
His dark eyes gazed quietly at her. After a long moment, he didn’t nod.
His lips merely hooked into a mocking curve, as if scrutinizing the false affection hidden beneath her flirtation.