The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

"Zhizhi..."

Xie Jinlian suddenly froze on the spot, her whole body stiffening.

It was as if I had been struck by lightning, or as if someone had acupunctured me, leaving me unable to move.

Clouds, thin, spreading!

He's a complete beast!

"Master, what's wrong?"

Tang Xixue blinked, looking at his embarrassed expression as if he were about to turn into smoke and disappear, and asked in confusion.

"I...I'm going to change."

Xie Jinlian is really going crazy.

He shared his brother's feelings, and he decided to soak in the cold spring instead.

They actually did something so absurd.

He had never taken empathy seriously before.

But now, Ayan can feel every heartbeat, every flutter, every time his heart is stirred by her.

And if something happens to him... he can't escape it either.

What is this?

He had lived for over twenty years and had never been so disheveled.

"Master, it was just a kiss, and you... can't take it?"

Tang Xixue tilted her head, her peach blossom eyes filled with laughter.

"It's gone soft already, what are we going to do now?"

She returned to him exactly what he had said before.

Word for word.

He even imitated the tone of voice perfectly.

Xie Jinlian: "..."

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but couldn't utter a single word.

What could he say?

Could it be said that some people were doing some kind of... craft work, which dragged him down?

He didn't have the face to say it.

He simply became more determined to knock his brother unconscious.

"Zhizhi, do you know what the punishment is for deceiving your master?"

He tried to make his voice sound calm, but the slightly reddened tips of his ears betrayed his secret.

"Then, Master... shall I be punished?"

She leaned closer, her eyes sparkling like pools of autumn water.

The shimmering water was so dazzling it made one's heart race.

"I'll punish you by confining you to my side for the rest of your life... you'll never be able to escape again."

After Xie Jinlian finished speaking, he got off the bed.

The movements were extremely fast, as if they were fleeing.

His face flushed, he went to the bathhouse without looking back.

"Didn't you say we were changing clothes?"

Tang Xixue watched his retreating figure and couldn't help but chuckle.

Is her master so easily teased?

Just a moment ago he was so domineering, so certain, and so brooking no refusal.

How did it change so much in the blink of an eye?

She leaned against the couch, a slight smile playing on her lips.

That smile was brimming with sweetness.

I don't know how much time passed.

He finally bathed and washed again, and returned in clean clothes.

She wore a moon-white undergarment, her silver hair was slightly damp, and she carried the refreshing scent of a cold spring.

He walked to the bedside and gently pulled her into his arms.

The movements were very light and gentle, as if afraid of disturbing the thin snow falling among the flowers.

"Master smells so good."

Tang Xixue nestled in his arms and took a deep breath.

It tastes like snow lotus.

It was quiet and aloof, yet it brought a sense of peace.

"Zhizhi, stop fooling around..."

Xie Jinlian sighed very softly, but there was no more rebuke in that sigh, only a resigned indulgence.

But the arm around her tightened its grip even more.

"Why are Zhizhi's hands so cold?"

"I'm naturally prone to feeling cold," Tang Xixue replied.

Xie Jinlian grasped her hand and placed it in his own palm.

"It won't happen again. I'll share half of my warmth with you."

Tang Xixue leaned against Xie Jinlian's chest, and the extreme weakness she felt around her had miraculously dissipated after their passionate kiss.

He was like the best tonic, pulling her back from the brink of exhaustion.

His breath, his warmth, his heartbeat—all became life-saving elixirs.

"Little Lotus..."

She called out softly, her voice still a little soft, like cotton candy, sticky and sweet.

"Do my brothers know that I'm still alive?"

Xie Jinlian looked down at her.

"I don't know."

He spoke, his voice clear and cool, yet with a touch of husky magnetism.

Tang Xixue wasn't angry; she simply asked gently:

"Master isn't such a petty person... why didn't he send a message to my elder brother?"

She had known Xie Jinlian for more than a day or two, but for more than a dozen years.

From the first time she saw him, she knew that this man, though his face was as cold as snow, had a heart softer than anyone else's.

He wouldn't let his jealousy cause the person she cares about to suffer.

Xie Jinlian remained silent for a moment.

"I can't be magnanimous towards you."

He was frank and self-assured, yet a faint smile played on his lips.

"But it wasn't intentional that I didn't let Zhizhi's family know I was safe."

He gets jealous, he minds, and he has some ulterior motives.

But he cares about her, and he also cares about the people around her.

He will also treat those who have been kind to him well.

It's a case of loving the house because of its owner.

"Um?"

Tang Xixue blinked, her peach blossom eyes filled with doubt:

"That's Zhizhi—is she not going to make it?"

She recalled the feeling of struggling to wake up in the darkness.

Too hard.

It was so difficult that it felt like I had used up all my strength to climb out of that boundless abyss.

Every breath felt like drowning, every heartbeat like the final drumbeat.

If it weren't for the warmth that always surrounded her and guided her, she might never have come back.

"Weaving."

Xie Jinlian gripped her hand, then suddenly tightened his grip.

The force was quite strong, so strong that you could feel the trembling of his fingertips, so strong that you could feel the overwhelming fear that surged in his heart in that instant.

Don't say things like that.

He spoke each word as if he wanted to etch every single one into her heart, into the depths of her soul.

"With your master here... if you go to the heavens, I will ride the clouds to pursue you; if you go to the underworld, I will go upstream."

Tang Xixue looked at him.

Looking into his eyes, I saw a fleeting, deeply hidden fear.

The fear was so deep, so deep, that it felt like I had almost truly lost it.

She suddenly felt a pang of heartache.

"Your soul is shattered. It has never returned whole."

Xie Jinlian took a deep breath, suppressing her surging emotions, and softened her voice.

"We'll be fine once we find it."

Tang Xixue thought about the way back.

Those fragmented images, those days and nights of struggling alone.

But she still came back.

She suddenly smiled.

That smile was gentle, yet it inexplicably warmed people's hearts.

Like a ray of morning sun piercing through thick clouds, like a beam of dawn splitting open an abyss.

"At least, Zhizhi is back."

She nestled against him and whispered:

"The lotus blooms on the other shore, and you bloom before my eyes."

She looked up at him, her eyes like stars falling into spring water, rippling with tiny sparkles, and in those sparkles was his image.

"Meeting you under the moon, meeting plum blossoms in the snow."

Xie Jinlian looked at her.

A sudden wave of bittersweetness welled up in my heart.

That's heartache.

The pain almost brought tears to his eyes.

"A deer was found in the wilderness."

"You are in my dreams."

His thumb gently stroked the back of her hand, a very light and gentle movement, filled with unspeakable heartache and the relief of surviving a disaster.

"Zhizhi is back."

"I will accompany you on the road ahead."

He paused, speaking each word as if making a promise for all eternity.

"The sea may dry up, but this shore will never move. I will always be—the moon that first anchored you on the shore."

Cut the moonlight into silk, but not the wind and flowers, only to wrap her half a lifetime of coldness.

She reached out and intertwined her fingers with his.

Aftermath.

He's the one I'll spend the rest of my life with.

Tang Xixue leaned against his chest and remained quiet for a moment.

She suddenly understood his intentions.

If her soul fragments cannot be recovered, she will still die.

Her master didn't want them to know she was still alive, and then face the despair of her death once again.

That kind of despair, once is enough.

There can't be a second time.

"Weaving."

Xie Jinlian's voice deepened, carrying a hint of solemnity.

"It was the Heavenly Punishment Hall that attacked you this time."

Tang Xixue was slightly taken aback.

"Ayan has checked. You're at the top of their kill list."

"Is the cult that Master is talking about...?"

Her brows furrowed slightly, and a hint of coldness flashed in her eyes.

"The old medicine god died at the hands of those people."

She remembered the old man who had taught her medicine.

Kind-faced and compassionate, a doctor with a benevolent heart.

His hands have saved countless people on the verge of death, and his lamp has illuminated countless nights of despair.

He has practiced medicine for decades, saving countless lives.

But in the end, he died because of their carefully crafted poisonous scheme.

He died silently.

Died inexplicably.