Flowing Jade - Chapter 3

Thanks to my meticulous planning, my campaign to get close to Ying Fuxue proceeded methodically.

I went to enormous lengths to cling to the future villain’s thigh and avoid repeating my tragic fate.

The sharp-tongued junior brother who had once opposed him at every turn transformed seamlessly into his most devoted lackey.

I took every artifact and treasure the original host had hoarded and stuffed them into Ying Fuxue’s hands.

I racked my brains arranging chance encounter after chance encounter.

When Senior Brother was thirsty, I poured his tea.

When Senior Brother was tired, I hurried over to massage his shoulders and pound his back.

When Senior Brother practiced his swordsmanship, I sat reading on the trunk of the enormous crabapple tree beside him.

Ying Fuxue truly deserved to be the protagonist. Not only was he exceptionally gifted, he cultivated with extraordinary diligence.

From dawn to dusk, he did not rest for so much as a moment.

Through the luxuriant branches, I waved enthusiastically. “Senior Brother, would you like some osmanthus milk cakes? Senior Sister gave them to me, and I saved a few especially for you.”

Ying Fuxue sheathed his sword and looked up. A strand of black hair had fallen over his temple, brushing the red beauty mark on his cheek.

He glanced at me and said coolly, “No.”

He looked so sternly upright and aloof that his sinister air that night might have been nothing more than a dream.

Regretfully, I stuffed several more cakes into my mouth. In truth, I had only been polite.

As crumbs spilled from my lips, Ying Fuxue appeared to offer a kindly warning.

“Overindulgence in food will impede your cultivation.”

“You don’t understand me, Senior Brother.” I swung my legs idly, weighed down by sorrow.

“Cultivating every day is exhausting enough. If I don’t eat something nice, I won’t have the strength to walk…”

I went rigid.

A fierce arc of sword light tore through the dense crabapple branches and buried itself in the limb beside me.

The sword force rushing at my face carried undisguised killing intent.

With a soft thud, my cake fell to the ground.

The hand propping me against the trunk went weak.

“Why are your eyes red again?” the system asked.

“Because I’m about to cry,” I said.

Tears fell in fat drops as I sobbed to the system.

“Why is Ying Fuxue so horrible? It’s been half a month or so, and he still wants to kill me!”

“He wasn’t trying to kill you. There was a venomous snake beside you. Its tongue had almost touched your wrist.”

My sobs stopped. Slowly, I turned and saw a brilliantly colored snake writhing beside my hand.

Its little black-bean eyes looked as though they would never close, even in death.

I inhaled, my eyes widening inch by inch.

Ying Fuxue asked, “Why did you stop crying, Junior Brother?”

“Your expression looks much more genuine now.”

“Could it be that you’re afraid of snakes?”

I screamed and scrambled down from the tree. The fragile flowering branches shivered as my robes swept past them.

White petals came fluttering down with them.

I threw myself at Ying Fuxue, originally intending to put on a show and crash into him. Instead, I truly caught my foot on a stone and pitched forward, about to land flat on my face.

Ying Fuxue raised his scabbard at precisely the right moment to catch me around the waist.

I braced a hand on his shoulder, my gaze falling on the black ring encircling his pale, straight neck.

I had heard it was meant to suppress the half-demon blood in Ying Fuxue’s body.

“You’re so stupid,” the system murmured.

“Full of schemes, yet timid.”

“Spoiled and forever crying.”

“And every tear you shed is fake.”

Ying Fuxue’s cool fingertip swept past the corner of my eye. “Junior Brother, that isn’t how you use a honey trap.”

I rubbed my cheek against his palm. “Then teach me, Senior Brother. How should I use it?”

Ying Fuxue released me and stepped back twice. Then he bent and picked up the book that had fallen with me.

“A Compendium of Unorthodox Arts? Is this what you read every day, Junior Brother?”

Ying Fuxue did not know that this body, so well suited to becoming a human cauldron, would achieve only half the result for twice the effort in swordsmanship.

Naturally, Gu Chengchuan would never teach me any proper cultivation method. According to the system, every art he gave me was designed to turn me into a better human cauldron.

But I needed some means of protecting myself. If swordsmanship was beyond me, I could at least try medicine and poison.

I was about to answer when I saw someone approaching in the distance.

“Junior Brother, you can’t postpone this month’s medicinal bath any longer. Master is waiting for you.”