Clear as Ever - Chapter 3

Feng Lanshu was the Phoenix Empress’s most beautiful child, and he understood the destructive power of his face very well.

He had always enjoyed crooking a finger and watching others lose their minds over him.

When I first met him, Junior Shishu had rejected me only days earlier. Humiliated, I had just moved away from Bright Moon Cliff.

By then, two beautiful men had already broken my heart. I had developed a severe aversion to handsome faces. So when Feng Lanshu deliberately approached me again and again, I didn’t fall for his little tricks. I became wary and avoided him instead.

It was the first time his seduction had failed, and that made him take an interest in me.

He put away his frivolous arrogance and began studying me in earnest: an honest woman to the point of spinelessness, softhearted and absurdly kind.

Later, during sword-riding lessons, my flying sword spun out of control. Feng Lanshu threw himself into its path to save me.

I escaped without a scratch. He fell and was badly injured.

Out of guilt, I lowered my guard and agreed to care for him. Feng Lanshu did not waste the opportunity.

“Everyone sees me as a demon, an outsider,” he would lament. “You’re the only one who doesn’t despise me.”

“Senior Sister Xie, will you be my friend? I’d do anything for you.”

He claimed he wanted friendship, yet paraded his beauty in front of me every day. One moment his hand would “accidentally” brush mine; the next he would drink from my cup and blush as he asked whether that counted as an indirect kiss.

I was a country bumpkin raised in the mountains. How could I withstand such courtesan tactics?

Within days, my heart—shattered by beautiful men—had sprung back to life.

He was different. This time was truly different!

Still, experience had made me cautious. Before giving him my heart, I asked carefully, “If you truly like me… may I kiss you?”

Feng Lanshu fell silent.

Those few breaths nearly killed me with shame. I was about to cover my face and flee, pretending it had been a joke, when he wrapped an arm around my waist, shut his eyes, and kissed me.

I was too lost in that clumsy, inexperienced first kiss to notice his trembling lashes—or the irritation he was fighting to hide.

Afterward, Feng Lanshu became much colder.

I was drunk on the illusion of being loved. I gave him everything and noticed nothing.

Even when he tried to complain that I was too clingy, saying tactfully, “Senior Sister, you don’t have to sacrifice so much time for me. I can occasionally be alone,” I missed his meaning completely and thought him considerate.

My stupidity must have left him speechless.

Eager to shake me off, he abandoned subtlety. When a letter from Kunlun arrived, he seized his chance and accused me of deceiving him.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a fiancé? What do you take me for?”

“It isn’t what you think,” I hurried to explain. “Our parents arranged it when we were babies. It has nothing to do with what I want. I… don’t like Tu Qinyu.”

“Why did you hesitate?” Feng Lanshu froze. “Xie Qingru, why did you hesitate when you said you didn’t like him?”

His feigned anger acquired a spark of the real thing.

“Don’t tell me you’re with me while still pining for your fiancé.”

I knew I was at fault, so I apologized sincerely. “I’m sorry. Please don’t be angry.”

He gave me a complicated look. “You think ‘sorry’ is enough? Are you truly stupid, or just naturally faithless? Don’t you feel your apology is missing something?”

“Missing what?”

He took a deep breath. “A promise. Aren’t you supposed to promise you’ll deal with the other man as soon as possible?”

I faltered. “But the engagement involves both sects. I can’t end it simply because I want to.”

Feng Lanshu bit his lip, then curved it into a bewitching smile. He drew me into his arms, fingertips brushing the side of my neck, and pressed red lips lightly to my earlobe.

“Good Senior Sister, am I not enough? Could your fiancé possibly be prettier than me?”

He whispered something else in my ear. “If you end the engagement for me, afterward… you may do anything you like to me.”

Honestly, in that instant I had already imagined how many phoenix eggs we would have.

So I agreed.

I hugged him tightly, looking every bit the fool lured away by a pretty face.

“Lanshu, I promise. Tomorrow I’ll return to Bright Moon Cliff and ask Junior Shishu for help.”

The marriage alliance involved two great sects. Only Lord Frostmoon had enough influence to overturn it.

“Even if Junior Shishu breaks my legs,” I said, “I’ll accept it.”