“So what you’re saying is that Nalan Yunyan noticed the friendship between us and wants me to taste the bitterness of being betrayed, so she chose you. She wants you to harm me?”
“Mm-hmm.” I’m coming to harm you, scary, right?
Looking at Gu Qinghan, who was like a fairy under the moon, Qian Yu sat upright and nodded obediently.
In her heart, she hoped that Gu Qinghan wouldn’t treat her like a fool just because she couldn’t remember how to knock and could only wait outside the door.
Her brain capacity had just been a bit overloaded lately.
She hoped that wouldn’t lower the credibility of her plea for help.
Qian Yu’s prayers worked.
The current Gu Qinghan really didn’t care much about the truth of what she had just said—she was simply hesitating over whether or not to kill her.
Unlike Nalan Yunyan’s golden hair or Qian Yu’s milky white, Gu Qinghan had pure black hair and black eyes.
She looked at the small Half-Yao before her, and within her eyes, dark as a secluded spring under the moon, killing intent was swirling.
Setting aside those feelings of guilt for a moment, she discovered that this cowardly and hypocritical fox was actually the first variable she had encountered since her Rebirth.
No poisoning.
A proactive confession.
Every step precisely landed outside the revenge script she had envisioned.
If Gu Qinghan didn’t know that a sense of sedimentation caused by the overlap of two souls would exist after Rebirth, and that Qian Yu lacked it, she would have suspected the other party had also undergone Rebirth.
But in any case, regardless of why the other party was acting so differently from before.
For a variable, especially one like Qian Yu who had many prior offenses, the safest method was actually to eliminate her directly.
The other party’s hypocrisy had already been proven; she was not a good person by nature.
Rather than waiting for her to pull something big in the future, it was better to eliminate her now.
But…
Glancing at the obedient and small white-haired fox before her, Gu Qinghan’s deep eyes flickered with a slight hesitation.
No matter how much evil Qian Yu had committed in her previous life, she hadn’t started yet in this one.
To strike first in the name of caution today, while she hadn’t shown any malice, just to guard against her…
After that, would she have to place shackles on every existence in the world for the sake of safety and caution?
Such behavior didn’t seem to align with her Dao heart.
Gu Qinghan exhaled softly, and the slight guilt she had previously felt toward Qian Yu welled up again at this moment.
After a long silence, she directed a scrutinizing gaze at the other girl.
She should first determine the level of threat Qian Yu posed before making a decision.
If this confession was for another purpose and hid killing intent, she would kill her directly.
But if this truly was a confession that did not carry harmful intent, then…
Gu Qinghan closed her eyes slightly.
On the other side, perhaps because she had waited too long, Qian Yu was currently feeling a bit drowsy. Sensing Gu Qinghan’s gaze, she immediately sat up straight again.
She scratched her head and smiled foolishly at her.
Looking like a ball of fluff, she didn’t seem very smart, even a bit silly.
It felt like she might start dripping snot and wipe it on her clothes in the next second.
The scrutinizing gaze paused for a moment.
Gu Qinghan subconsciously looked at her own clothes, somewhat unwilling to admit that her past self had been brought to the point of having her meridians shattered by such a little thing.
Qian Yu’s appearance was far too deceptive.
Fluffy ears, a milky-white tail, combined with that silly, innocent, and romantic smile—who knew what she was actually thinking?
Being deceived by her wasn’t actually an unfair fate.
She should try to bait some information out of her first.
As a former Fifth Realm Venerable, although Gu Qinghan’s heart had been solely on cultivation, the passage of years had still subtly added much to her experience.
Now, she was confident enough that through some simple conversation, she could judge the real thoughts in Qian Yu’s heart through her micro-expressions.
As long as there was the slightest hint of panic or something wrong, she would strike ruthlessly.
She briefly considered the process of baiting information.
However, before she could even speak, she saw…
“Gosh, what on earth is Gu Qinghan thinking? Is she going to help or not? Can she give me a straight answer? I’ve been waiting so long the flowers have withered.”
“The rice cakes on the table smell so good, and the wild fruits next to them are so red; they look very sweet. If I had known this Gu Qinghan could zone out for so long at once, I would have eaten something first.”
“So hungry… want to eat…”
“Want to eat +1.”
“Want to eat +2.”
There was no need to bait information at all; Qian Yu’s thoughts were all written on her face.
Her focused scrutiny and killing intent became a bit disordered at this moment.
A trace of confusion flashed across Gu Qinghan’s cold face, which had been hardened by hatred.
What exactly is going on in Qian Yu’s head?
Why are her thoughts so obviously written on her face?
Where is your cunning?
Where is your shrewdness?
Since you took the initiative to come and confess to me, don’t you have any back-up considerations?
Why are you thinking about eating at a time like this?
You can’t really be a good fox who isn’t here to harm me, right?
A question mark appeared inexplicably in her mind.
With a bit of persistence, anger rose from Gu Qinghan’s heart, and malice was born from her courage.
She suddenly pushed the rice cakes on the table toward Qian Yu.
She wanted to see if the other girl really wanted to eat that much, and how much truth there was to those stupid thoughts written on her face!
Perhaps because she sensed the fragrance of the food, the little Half-Yao’s tail lifted slightly.
Then, Gu Qinghan fiercely interrupted her own pushing motion, picked up a rice cake, put it in her own mouth, and chewed elegantly.
Qian Yu’s tail dropped instantly.
Hmm…
Gu Qinghan was silent for a moment, then tried a few more times in succession.
It was the same every time.
It didn’t look faked at all.
This little Half-Yao’s emotions seemed to be written on her tail; whenever she smelled food, it would lift, and when she found the rice cake wasn’t for her, it would drop in disappointment.
In fact, because she had tested so many times, the little Half-Yao even cast an accusing look at her.
If you’re going to eat, just eat. What’s the point of pushing it toward me? To let me smell it?
A touch of complexity and relief, which only she could understand, flashed through Gu Qinghan’s eyes, which had been deep with scrutiny.
Why can all her emotions be written on her tail?
If she had taken the time to observe Qian Yu’s tail back then, would she have avoided being played for a fool?
There were originally five rice cakes on the table.
After Gu Qinghan’s round of experimentation, only one was left, to the point that the little fox, who had been teased into a state of urgency, looked like she was protecting her food.
She was staring at her with wide eyes, looking pitiful.
Her fox teeth wanted to show, but she didn’t dare.
…
Gu Qinghan silently pushed the only remaining rice cake over.
She didn’t take it back again.
She still didn’t quite believe someone’s emotions could be so obviously written on their tail.
That would make her past self, who was brought to ruin by Qian Yu, look like a…
If she experimented one more time, the other party would surely show a weakness!
Perhaps sensing the gaze Gu Qinghan fixed on her, Qian Yu, who was eating the rice cake, was momentarily stunned.
She stuffed the entire rice cake that had just reached her mouth into her maw in one go.
She gave her a smug look—now you can’t snatch it, right?
Gu Qinghan’s eyelid twitched.
She took out the best spirit fruit from her Storage Ring.
First, she imperceptibly let the sweet fragrance waft out for Qian Yu to smell, then she immediately put it into her own mouth, acting elegantly and appearing like a celestial being who didn’t eat the food of common mortals.
The little fox in front of her was indeed greedy at first, then disappointed.
After realizing that she really hadn’t left a single bite for her, she even looked a bit incredulous, her appearance becoming even more resentful and aggrieved. Are you even human?
“Hehe, Qian Yu, you have today too~”
Seeing Qian Yu looking so aggrieved, as if she would burst into tears with just a bit more teasing, Gu Qinghan suddenly experienced a pleasure called revenge.
The hatred and pain in her heart were still there, but she had to admit that it was precisely Qian Yu’s simple and easy-to-tease manner that allowed her to temporarily escape the blindness brought by hatred and look at things from a more rational perspective.
She thought that perhaps… it wouldn’t be bad to keep the other party around to tease like this?
Of course, this wasn’t because she was being blinded by Qian Yu’s cute appearance again after suffering such a huge loss.
This was a rational consideration made after completely shaking off the emotional impulses brought by hatred.
Firstly, killing the other party before she showed any ill intent did not align with her principles or her Dao heart.
Secondly, the main reason Qian Yu could harm her in the previous life was because her overly harmless appearance had left her unguarded.
Now that she was already on guard and had mastered a way to observe her to some extent, the chances of her being able to harm her in the future were minuscule with Qian Yu’s rare talent of being over sixteen and still only at the Initial Stage of the First Realm.
More importantly…
Gu Qinghan thought of the mysterious Great Dao of Fate she had accidentally encountered in her previous life.
Through this variable called Qian Yu, could she observe the uncertainty of how things developed and the branching of the long river of fate?
Attaining the Dao was the most important thing.
Previously, when her mind was filled with hatred for Qian Yu, she had actually completely forgotten this point.
“I already know about the matter you mentioned.”
After thinking for a bit longer, the condensed killing intent in Gu Qinghan’s heart finally settled for the time being. She looked at Qian Yu and spoke indifferently:
“Since you are worried about Nalan Yunyan settling scores with you, you should stay here at my Hanji Peak for the time being. I doubt she would dare to strike at you here.”
On the other side, the smile on Qian Yu’s face froze.
Uh, if you keep me here, what am I supposed to do when Nalan Yunyan comes to ask for progress the day after tomorrow?
I had already planned on how to play both sides.