Yun Manor, deep into the night, when all was still and silent.
In the dim corridor, only a few lamps flickered, casting faint yellowish glows.
Su Cheng had left her room at some point and was now walking along the corridor.
Her footsteps were so light they seemed almost drowned out by the sound of the night’s wind and snow.
She quietly arrived outside a side chamber, stepped onto the clean-swept bluestone steps that hadn’t yet accumulated much broken snow, and approached the door.
She reached out and knocked on the tightly closed door in front of her.
The reason this door was shut tight wasn’t because Yu Yi had changed her mind—it was simply because this wasn’t Yu Yi’s room at all.
“Who is it?” came a questioning voice from inside.
“It’s me,” Su Cheng answered.
The voice that emerged sounded strikingly similar to Yu Yi’s.
“Elder Sister!?”
The voice inside suddenly turned excited.
That’s right—the person Su Cheng had come to find tonight wasn’t Yu Yi. It was Yun Qianxue.
Next, Su Cheng clearly heard the sound of Yun Qianxue leaping excitedly off the bed, her bare feet pattering across the floor as she hurried toward the door.
Yun Qianxue opened the door full of anticipation.
But the moment she saw the person standing there was not Yu Yi, the smile on her face froze instantly.
“W-what’s going on? I-I clearly just heard Elder Sister’s voice…”
Thinking this, Yun Qianxue poked her head out and looked around.
She saw nothing.
“Stop looking. There’s only me here,” Su Cheng’s voice rang out.
Yun Qianxue glanced to the side and realized Su Cheng was no longer standing in the doorway—she had slipped inside the room without a sound, like a ghost.
“S-Su… Elder Sister Su? Alone? Then that voice just now was…”
Yun Qianxue asked in a daze.
“Of course it came from me.”
Su Cheng cleared her throat, then spoke again in an imitation of Yu Yi’s tone. “How about it? Pretty close, right?”
Yun Qianxue was stunned on the spot.
Even through the door it had sounded remarkably similar, but now, hearing it face-to-face, the resemblance was almost perfect!
“Surprised? Curious?”
Su Cheng gave a soft chuckle.
A wicked glint flashed in her eyes.
“Back then… I went through a very lonely period. So I started imitating Master’s voice and talking to myself. If I hadn’t mastered this skill, I might have gone mad long ago.”
Just as Su Cheng said, after leaving Among the Colorful Clouds, aside from frequently visiting Fengyue Tower in Ling’an City to “play with hands,” she had also secretly practiced mimicking Yu Yi’s voice in private.
Once she succeeded, she often waited until no one was around, then used Yu Yi’s voice to softly moan as if being pushed down onto the bed—using it to relieve her own loneliness.
This disrespectful act behind her Honored Master’s back filled her with both guilt and thrill. She sank deeper into it, unable to pull herself out.
It wasn’t until later, when the misunderstanding between her and Yu Yi was finally resolved, that the Master she longed for turned her gaze back to her once more.
With that first knot in her heart untied, Su Cheng began to restrain those unspeakable private indulgences.
She had originally thought that as long as she could be with Yu Yi, staying close at all times, she would never feel lonely again, never again crave that physical and spiritual “satisfaction.”
But then Yun Qianxue appeared, seemingly falling for Yu Yi at first sight.
Jealousy flared in Su Cheng’s heart, and her body involuntarily grew sensitive, aching with desire for Yu Yi’s affection.
She wanted Yu Yi to favor only her—no one else, especially not some outsider like Yun Qianxue.
So tonight, Su Cheng had begun to act.
Under Yun Qianxue’s stunned gaze, Su Cheng slowly drew something from her waist. In the dim candlelight of the room, it gleamed brightly.
Yun Qianxue focused and saw, to her shock, that it was a sharp dagger!
“N-no way… Is she going to…”
Yun Qianxue instinctively swallowed.
From the moment they first met, she had sensed that Su Cheng was someone she absolutely could not afford to provoke.
She was an extremely dangerous person.
But just as Yun Qianxue began to tense up in fear, Su Cheng’s other hand reached into her pocket and pulled out a wild fruit. She started peeling it with the dagger.
“Want some?”
Su Cheng offered the peeled fruit to Yun Qianxue.
“I picked it specially for you on the way here.”
“Huh?”
Yun Qianxue blinked.
The sudden reversal caught her off guard and left her mind blank.
Without thinking too much, she reached out and took the fruit.
Su Cheng simply watched her quietly.
That gaze put a certain pressure on Yun Qianxue, so she cautiously opened her mouth and took a small bite.
“Hss… so sour! Ptoo ptoo ptoo—”
Yun Qianxue’s scalp instantly tingled, goosebumps rising all over her body.
Her mouth flooded with saliva, and the extremely sour fruit slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.
It took her quite a while to recover.
When she looked at Su Cheng again, she found Su Cheng staring back with an amused, teasing smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
“Y-you did that on purpose! That fruit obviously isn’t ripe!”
Yun Qianxue wiped her mouth and couldn’t help scolding.
“I already told you—I picked it specially for you. So… do you think I did it on purpose?”
The smile on Su Cheng’s face grew even deeper.
After saying that, Su Cheng suddenly moved right in front of Yun Qianxue in an instant. Before Yun Qianxue could react, Su Cheng grabbed both her wrists, lifted them above her head, pinned them firmly against the wall, and pressed her entire body up against it.
“You little fox spirit… who gave you the nerve to dress like that and try to seduce my Master?”
Su Cheng murmured, her face close to Yun Qianxue’s.
Her eyes were dark and lightless, radiating a chilling intent to kill.
“That outfit… Elder Sister picked it out for me herself!”
Yun Qianxue answered.
She then explained how she had hesitated over her choices.
“What?”
Su Cheng was somewhat surprised.
That extremely revealing dress had actually been chosen by Master for her?
Could it be… that Master preferred bolder types?
Even now, Su Cheng clearly remembered that back at the sect, Master had always respected her disciples’ preferences and requests when buying new clothes.
She had never once selected outfits according to her own tastes.
And since Su Cheng herself dressed in a variety of styles, she had never quite figured out her Master’s preferences back then.
“Where is that dress?”
Su Cheng asked Yun Qianxue.
Though the killing intent in her eyes had slightly eased, it was replaced by an unusually intense desire.
“O-over there…”
Yun Qianxue pointed in a direction.
Su Cheng immediately released her, found the dress, took it without another word, and quickly left the room.
Yun Qianxue followed her to the doorway.
She watched Su Cheng vanish rapidly into the wind and snow, her emotions complicated.
“What a strange person…” she murmured.
This “friendly” visit from Su Cheng had made one thing clear to Yun Qianxue.
Su Cheng definitely didn’t just want to be a disciple.
Like herself, she harbored another kind of feeling toward Yu Yi.
“Hmph… is this supposed to be a show of authority toward me? Just wait and see—this Young Miss is not giving up!”
Yun Qianxue silently vowed.
Although she had indeed been frightened by Su Cheng’s actions just now, that didn’t mean she would crumble because of it.
On the contrary, Su Cheng’s behavior had deeply provoked her—and in doing so, given her even greater motivation!
“Huh? Why is there mud on my wrists…?”
Yun Qianxue suddenly noticed that both her wrists had patches of dirt clinging to her skin.
“Was her hand dirty just now? No, that sour fruit was perfectly clean… how strange…”
Yun Qianxue didn’t realize it.
The killing intent Su Cheng had directed at her earlier had been real.
It was only because of the person she held so dear in her heart that Su Cheng had ultimately restrained herself.