HPLFK 05

Chapter – 05

Oh Ho, Your Wife Threw Away the Things!

“Brother.”

Inside the carriage, Yun Luoyi spoke indignantly. “Why did you stop me today? We should have just let that half-demon die by my sword!”

“Are you genuinely stupid or just pretending to be?” Yun Lanci looked at her. “No matter what, A-Shang is still Xie Hengyu’s Dao companion. If you killed his Dao companion right in front of him, do you think you’d get away unscathed?”

Yun Luoyi pouted. “But didn’t you see? When I was about to kill that half-demon, Brother Yanzhi didn’t lift a finger to stop me! That means he doesn’t care about her at all. Maybe if I helped him get rid of her, he’d even thank me.”

“…” Yun Lanci pinched the bridge of his nose, no longer wanting to say anything more to his brainless younger sister.

“Brother, do you think that rumor is true?” Yun Luoyi suddenly lowered her voice cautiously, as if something had occurred to her.

Yun Lanci: “What?”

“That rumor I heard—apparently, the reason Brother Yanzhi married that half-demon is because she placed a love gu on him.”

Yun Lanci paused in his motion of pinching his brow. “Love gu?”

*

Behind A-Shang’s residence, there was a spiritual pool abundant with spiritual energy. Because the location was secluded, very few people ever went there.

A-Shang bathed in the spiritual pool. By the time she came out, the sky had grown very dark.

She returned to her dwelling. When she had left, it had been evening, and no lamps had been lit inside.

The moment she pushed open the door, A-Shang instinctively sensed an unusual presence in the room. In her previous life, she had endured a period when the sect hunted her down as a traitor. In that instant of sensing something amiss, her hand reacted faster than her mind.

“Who’s there?”

As she spoke, the spiritual energy in her hand coalesced into an invisible blade, which she hurled toward the person in the darkness.

The cool blade sliced through the darkness—and then seemed to be blocked by something, stopping a finger’s width away from the man’s face. It vanished without a trace in an instant.

By the time A-Shang recognized the person sitting there as Xie Hengyu, the candle beside him had already been lit. Its dim, flickering flame illuminated the man’s profile.

Seeing A-Shang return, Xie Hengyu set down the blade he had been examining and looked up at her.

A-Shang had just climbed out of the spiritual pool. Her long hair was still wet, and she wore only a white undergarment, which had become somewhat translucent where the dripping hair had soaked through.

Xie Hengyu could even make out a few purplish-blue marks on her chest beneath her clothing. He averted his gaze without any visible change in expression.

Sensing Xie Hengyu’s gaze, A-Shang looked down and realized that her attire was somewhat improper. She quickly grabbed an outer robe and draped it over herself.

Xie Hengyu asked, “You know how to use a blade?”

A-Shang was putting on her outer robe with her back to him when she heard him ask this from behind her.

She remembered that the blade he had been holding seemed to be hers.

“Mm.” A-Shang responded, then lowered her head to put on her shoes. She had walked in barefoot just now.

Xie Hengyu said nothing more. A-Shang did not speak either. The room fell silent.

In truth, the two of them had little to say to each other. In her previous life, Xie Hengyu rarely initiated conversation with her. Because she had been the one who liked him, she had always been the one to find topics to break the silence.

Now that she no longer made the first move, they naturally had nothing to talk about.

Xie Hengyu watched A-Shang’s back as she put on her outer robe while facing away from him, then bent slightly at the waist to slip on her shoes.

A-Shang had long black hair that reached her waist. She had not dried it after bathing, and water droplets were still dripping from the ends, rolling down and soaking into her outer robe.

Xie Hengyu found the sight oddly irksome.

The next moment, he stood up and placed a small white porcelain bottle on the table. “Three times a day.”

A-Shang looked at the small bottle on the table and realized that he had come to deliver medicine to her. She was somewhat surprised.

But she glanced at her arms. She had already applied the Golden Jade Ointment, and the wounds left by Yun Luoyi’s sword aura had nearly healed.

“No need. They’re almost healed,” A-Shang said.

Xie Hengyu stared at her for a moment. A-Shang did not know why, but she suddenly felt that his gaze at this moment was somewhat intense.

Then she saw his gaze shift downward, and his voice came cold and clear: “Not your arms.”

His tone was as cool as always—perfectly ordinary.

Not her arms? Then what?

A-Shang looked at him, meeting his clear, cold eyes, not understanding.

Xie Hengyu continued, “I have a Pure Yang constitution. You have half fox-blood—you may not be able to fully withstand my essence. Applying this will make it more bearable.”

After hearing Xie Hengyu’s words, A-Shang finally understood where this medicine was meant to be applied.

He had seen it today. He had seen that during her fight with Yun Luoyi, she had been unable to dodge the sword aura in time because her body was unwell.

But he had also seen Yun Luoyi trying to slash her face—and had done nothing, watching coldly from start to finish.

A-Shang clenched her fists tightly. Just how stubborn had she been in her previous life—stubborn enough to believe that such a heartless man could ever love her?

“Mm. Thank you,” A-Shang said.

Hearing her thanks, Xie Hengyu’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

His gaze settled on A-Shang’s face. It was still the same face as before, but he felt that something about her had changed.

Xie Hengyu studied her features inch by inch. This seemed to be the first time he had ever looked at her so seriously—the first time he had truly looked at the woman who had become his Dao companion. Her previously blurry contours gradually sharpened in his eyes.

His gaze was intense, carrying a hint of scrutiny.

A-Shang felt his stare and met it squarely. Their eyes locked, neither speaking, until A-Shang could no longer bear his peculiar gaze and spoke up:

“What else do you need?”

Her tone carried a hint of dismissal.

Only then did Xie Hengyu finally realize what had changed about her—her eyes had changed.

In the past, whenever he appeared, her gaze would fix on him, her eyes shimmering with smiles as if they could hold no one but him.

When he drew close, she would blush.

When the love gu flared up and the suffering was unbearable, he would be rough and hurt her, and she would only bite her lip and endure in silence.

But now…

The next moment, Xie Hengyu said nothing and turned to leave.

He did not dwell on why she had changed.

Xie Hengyu came like a gentle breeze, and left like one as well.

After he was gone, A-Shang looked at the small porcelain bottle he had left on the table. Her emotions were a tangled mess.

She knew that his delivering medicine to her was probably just a whim—and yet, her heart was still stirred by his every move.

A-Shang loathed Xie Hengyu for that. But even more, she loathed herself for it.

The next second, A-Shang picked up the small bottle from the table and flung it out the window.

She had no use for his things.