The Brother I Betrayed - Chapter 3

I didn’t know why Xie Yan hadn’t called me out for pretending to sleep.

Perhaps he didn’t want to speak to me. Perhaps he felt awkward too.

Or perhaps the room really had been too dark for him to notice the flaw in my act…

Only he knew the answer.

I would have liked to ask.

Xie Yan never gave me the chance.

Certain people stayed up half the night, sneaking into my bedroom to do who knew what underhanded thing.

Then daylight came, and Xie Yan put on his official robes, made himself look respectable, and went out to “attend to important business.”

Whenever I woke, he’d already left. By the time he returned, I’d long since gone to bed.

After several days of this, I finally accepted that he was deliberately avoiding me.

Was he keeping the “promise” he’d made back then?

If so, why let me into the residence at all?

Did he simply not want to help the Xu family?

That seemed very likely.

If this dragged on until the sentence was handed down, their property would be seized and the whole family exiled.

Then he wouldn’t even have to take revenge himself. I’d be finished along with the rest of them.

…What a vicious man!

Once that thought took hold, there was no reining it in. The more I considered it, the more certain I became that I was in mortal danger.

And just when I was at my most anxious, a letter arrived from the Xu family, urging me to persuade Xie Yan to help as soon as possible.

Did they think I didn’t want his help? I couldn’t even get the man to show his face!

Clutching the letter, I considered staying up all night. If I planted myself outside Xie Yan’s door, surely I could catch him.

Once again, he denied me the opportunity.

On the very day the Xu family’s letter arrived, Commander Xie—who always had so much important business to attend to—came home on time for the first time.

When he wasn’t there, I schemed endlessly for a chance to see him.

Now that he was home, half my courage vanished.

After watching me hover outside Xie Yan’s door for ages, the attendant on guard finally had to ask:

“Miss, what exactly are you doing?”

“Admiring the dragon until the dragon actually shows up,” I said gravely.

The attendant looked baffled.

After a pause, he asked, “Do you wish to see my lord?”

“Well, since you insist…” I moved toward the door with a bashful air. “I suppose I could go in for a moment…”

He stopped me. “Miss, my lord says he isn’t receiving outsiders today.”

Lovely. So that was the trap.

I understood at once. Xie Yan must have heard about the letter urging me to hurry. That was why he’d come home early.

He wanted to watch me run in circles before humiliating me from his lofty perch!

Why did he have to be so vindictive?

All I’d done was commit a few selfish, utterly heartless acts.

Fine, perhaps I had been in the wrong. Did he really have to hold such a grudge?

“Ha. A petty man who leaves people to die will never amount to much.”

I was so annoyed that I didn’t quite keep my voice down.

The attendant glanced anxiously into the room, then hurried to explain.

“Please wait. I hadn’t finished. My lord isn’t receiving guests today, but you’re hardly an outsider. He told me that if you insisted on seeing him, I was to let you in.”

I stared at him.

Then what had all that been about?

Was this some performance staged for my benefit?

The attendant stepped aside and opened the door.

At that precise moment, however, I felt going back where I’d come from might be better for my continued survival.

Unfortunately, the attendants in the courtyard blocked my retreat. The only way left was in.

With matters as they stood, I could only brace myself and enter.

The same cool incense still scented Xie Yan’s bedroom. He hadn’t changed it in all these years.

Yet cool as that fragrance was, in my memories it always mingled with burning heat.

With sweat, scratches, and the relentless movement of Xie Yan’s lean, powerful waist, that cool scent had steeped into every part of me and branded itself deep into my memory.

They said scent was the most romantic kind of memory.

Mine seemed rather too indecent to mention.

I fanned my face and warned myself to stop thinking about improper things.

For all I knew, Xie Yan was planning how to torment and humiliate me. Instead of letting my thoughts wander, I ought to be figuring out how to save myself.

But the moment I lifted the beaded curtain and stepped into the inner room, my mind went blank.

There were no horrifying instruments of torture. I didn’t even spot Xie Yan at first.

Because the entire room, from the walls to the tabletop, was covered in portraits.

And every face was mine.