Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

“Qin Mo?” At the sound of that name, Su Jinxuan’s expression did not change, but a strange glint flickered through those charming peach blossom eyes of hers. She did not answer right away.

Xu Yuan did not rush her either, but after waiting a moment, surprise began to show in his eyes as well.

She was taking too long to think. Whether she knew someone or not was usually the kind of thing that would be remembered in an instant. Even if she did not plan to answer, and needed a moment to choose her words, it still would not take this long.

Su Jinxuan was far too shrewd to bungle something this basic. That meant this reaction of hers suggested she was actually considering telling him about Qin Mo. And if that was the case, then things had just gotten interesting.

The two of them had met before. And she was willing, without much hesitation, to reveal information about Qin Mo.

Those two facts alone were enough for Xu Yuan to narrow the route taken by this world’s plot-favored protagonist down to fewer than five possibilities.

After a long pause, Su Jinxuan finally said softly, “How did Third Young Master learn that I know Young Master Qin? When I met him, it was several months ago. Back then, you and I had not even met yet, had we?”

Her voice was gentle, and her gaze lingered on Xu Yuan’s eyes, faintly probing. She could not understand it. When she had encountered Qin Mo, Xu Changtian should still have been trapped, not yet rescued. If so, where had this information come from?

Xu Yuan heard the test hidden in her words, but he had no intention of answering, not a single word. Even when he knew something, it was best not to reveal the specific details unless absolutely necessary.

Sure, blurting it out and acting like some all-knowing mastermind in front of people felt great, but explaining himself afterward was always a headache. It was the same reason Xu Yuan had no interest in copying poems and passing them off as his own.

With an outsider like Su Jinxuan, he could make up whatever he liked. Outsiders did not know the full story, so they would only assume that this Third Young Master had been hiding his talents all along. They would imagine things like this wastrel on the surface was actually a master schemer, planning a thousand miles ahead, secretly building up an intelligence network of his own behind the scenes.

Once that reputation spread, the teasing saying attached to the Chancellor’s Manor, two dragons, one phoenix, and one rat, would probably turn into something much nicer, like two dragons, one phoenix, and one hidden kun, or maybe one hidden qilin.

But the problem was that outsiders might not know Xu Changtian, but Xu Xinyao, Xu Changge, and that old man he called a father absolutely did. A person’s temperament could change because of physique, strength, status, and all sorts of other factors.

But intelligence? That was not the kind of thing you could just conjure out of thin air. They probably would not go so far as to suspect he was an impostor, but one way or another, he would still need to give them an explanation.

After a pause, Xu Yuan said in a low voice, “How I know is none of your concern, Su Jinxuan. Right now, all you need to do is answer my question.”

After a brief silence, Su Jinxuan lowered her head and gave a small bow. “Third Young Master is right. I overstepped just now.”

Xu Yuan waved a hand. “It’s nothing. What I’m curious about now is this. What exactly is your relationship with Qin Mo?”

At that, Su Jinxuan let out a soft, tinkling laugh, her eyes brimming with charm. “Are you asking because you’re jealous of Qin Mo?”

Xu Yuan shook his head with a faint smile, neither confirming nor denying it. “Perhaps. A succubus physique like yours is hard not to covet.”

“This servant already belongs to you now, Third Young Master...” Su Jinxuan breathed the words against him and gently leaned against his shoulder. “If you’re craving it, why not just eat me?”

Xu Yuan sneered inwardly, but casually wrapped an arm around her shoulders and continued, “So then, Jinxuan, what exactly is your relationship with Qin Mo?”

He wanted to figure out which route that plot-armored protagonist had taken, so he could decide how best to deal with him.

And besides, Xu Yuan did not necessarily have to kill the so-called protagonist. On some routes, that protagonist was even more villainous than the villains, even more scummy than the Third Young Master. If their goals happened to align, cooperation might not be impossible.

Su Jinxuan fell into thought for a moment, then said with a light laugh, “If I tell you, what benefit will I get?”

“Benefit?” Xu Yuan lifted a brow and turned to look at her, meeting those eyes of hers, clear and fluid as autumn water.

He curved his eyes in a smile and lightly brushed the back of his fingers across the beautiful face before him, his voice soft and unhurried.

“Of course there’s a benefit. Once we get back to the residence, when I hand you over to Ying’er, I’ll put in a few good words for you and ask her to be a little gentler.”

His voice was warm, almost like lovers teasing each other, but the smile on Su Jinxuan’s face stiffened ever so slightly. Deep down, she had still been clinging to one last sliver of hope. It was the hope that Xu Changtian was taking her back to the estate in order to keep her imprisoned as his private plaything.

She knew very well how irresistible her body was to men like these. She did not want it, but if Xu Changtian failed to resist and touched her, then if the ancient text given to her by Mister Qin was accurate, she would still have one last chance to turn the tables.

But Xu Changtian’s words just now turned that fragile hope of hers into a complete joke.

Ying’er was obviously the masked woman she had seen the moment she woke up. That kind of attire was unmistakable. She was a shadow guard of the Chancellor’s Manor. And if she were handed over to that woman, then her fate...

At the thought of it, panic flickered uncontrollably through Su Jinxuan’s eyes.

After a long silence, she bit her lip lightly and said in a soft voice, “Then I don’t want any reward after all. If I tell you everything truthfully, could you at least grant me a quick death?”

Because of that moment of hesitation back then, when she had failed to choose mutual destruction, the bewitching essence within her had already been sealed inside her sea of consciousness by one of the experts at Xu Changtian’s side. Now she could not even kill herself if she wanted to.

Xu Yuan stroked his chin and smiled with amused interest. “That depends on how well you perform, Jinxuan. We still have about half an hour before we reach the estate. If you can offer me something that truly interests me, then your proposal might be worth considering.”

Su Jinxuan drew in a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll talk. The relationship between Qin Mo and me was not that complicated. We traveled together for a while, and before parting, we made a wager.”

“A wager? Let’s hear it.”

“When we parted, I told him that if he could bring me the demonic beast core of the deer demon in Wind Crow Forest within this month, then I would play a piece for him alone.”

Xu Yuan gave a slight nod and said with a faint smile, “If that is all, it still is not enough to make me consider granting you a quick death.”

A trace of confusion appeared on Su Jinxuan’s face, but she quickly gritted her teeth and continued, “I approached Qin Mo because Mister Qin said his background might not be simple...”

That line made Xu Yuan’s eyes sharpen at once. Again, it was another change in the plot. In his previous life, he had always thought the protagonist’s encounter with Su Jinxuan had been one of those chance meetings written into fate. But now it turned out someone had arranged it behind the scenes all along.

Still, even if the meeting had been staged, the romance on those routes was probably real enough. After all, the favorability meter in the game system did not lie.

Pulling his thoughts back in, Xu Yuan said, “Go on.”

Su Jinxuan glanced at him, let out a quiet sigh, and said softly, “Mister Qin said Qin Mo might be connected to a place called Burial Village.”

“Burial Village?” Xu Yuan repeated the name under his breath, now even more certain that this Mister Qin was far more than some ordinary sect member.

Su Jinxuan shook her head. “Mister Qin did not say much. I only know that Qin Mo may have come from Burial Village.”