Edited by Ea

  Lin Shu blinked blankly: “I don’t know.”

  When people in the village handed the cylinder and jade ornament that he currently held into his hands, they did not explain what these were except that they were something left to him by the little idiot’s master.

  Lin Shu only knew that this was a container.

  A container made of special material and one that he couldn’t find any way to open.

  He hoped that hidden inside, there was a unique secret manual left by that master, which could change his meridians so that he could start cultivating again.

  If he had even a little bit of cultivation, he wouldn’t have to flee blindly in the face of that living corpse girl like today.

  Ling Fengxiao was still motionless and did not respond to him.

  Lin Shu felt that there was something strange about it.

  He inquired, “What’s wrong?”

  Ling Fengxiao finally asked slowly, “Was it your Master who left it?”

  Lin Shu: “En.”

  He grew up in that small village isolated from the rest of the world and possessed only the bare necessities. This kind of item, which one could tell was very rare at first sight, naturally could only be left by his master.

  “Don’t know how to open it?”

  Lin Shu: “Yes.”

  Ling Fengxiao seemed to have taken a few deep breaths and continued to ask, “What did your Master say when he left it?”

  Lin Shu replied very honestly, “I forgot.”

  Ling Fengxiao: “.……”

  “You dare to forget even this kind of matter?”

  The pufferfish was back.

  Lin Shu was startled. He quickly sorted out his expression and made himself extremely docile and then carefully explained the truth to the Big Miss.

  “I’ve said before……I used to be an idiot,” he said. “I only woke up after I turned 15.”

  Big Miss took the cylinder and slowly asked again, “Where’s your Master?”

  “I haven’t seen him.”

  Ling Fengxiao was quiet for a long time and finally asked again, “Who am I?”

  Lin Shu: “Big Miss.”

  “What else?”

  Lin Shu thought for a moment: “Southern Xia’s……Princess?”

  “What else?”

  Lin Shu thought for a moment and shook his head.

  Against the candlelight, Ling Fengxiao walked towards him.

  Lin Shu shrunk nervously into the quilt.

  Ling Fengxiao looked down at him condescendingly.

  Lin Shu continued to shrink into the quilt.

  Big Miss was not in a good mood. He could feel it.

  But it also wasn’t the same as being angry.

  Very complicated.

  Big Miss: “I don’t believe it.”

  Lin Shu: ???

  After having known each other for so long, how come the Big Miss still doesn’t believe the fact that he was a little idiot before?

  He said, “It’s the truth.”

  “In that case,” said Ling Fengxiao. “Am I just a person from Phoenix Villa to you?”

  \r \r \r

  Lin Shu shook his head.

  Big Miss raised her eyebrows: “Hmm?”

  Lin Shu: “You’re also my classmate.”

  Big Miss pressed on the handle of the blade.

  Lin Shu tensed his body warily.

  “Your classmate…… l accompanied you, raised you, and protected you like this, yet you just completely accepted all this?” Big Miss sat down on the bamboo chair beside the bed and looked at him without blinking.

  Lin Shu didn’t know what to say, so he just stared back at the Big Miss quietly. Besides Big Miss, no one had ever been so good to him.

  The classmates and roommates in his previous life were all expressionless towards him and ignored him. However, for him, that was already friendly treatment.

  When someone treats him well, he doesn’t know what else to do except accept it and say thank you. He could only say a few dry thank you’s.

  He felt that he didn’t deserve this kind of warm treatment and wanted to refuse, but he didn’t know how to organize his words to say it.

  Whether others treated him kindly or poorly, it seemed that he had always accepted it completely.

  Thus, Lin Shu, still looking at Ling Fengxiao, nodded.

  “You!” Ling Fengxiao raised her eyebrows sharply and pursed her lips. She was completely angry.

  Lin Shu looked at Big Miss anxiously, wondering if he had done something wrong. He saw her pair of inky black pupils that could clearly differentiate right and wrong looking at him with cautious and severe scrutiny.

  “You……” Ling Fengxiao stretched out her hand.

  Lin Shu shrunk back.

  Big Miss’s eyes softened, and her tone also softened slightly, “Don’t be afraid.”

  Lin Shu stopped.

  Big Miss pressed the corners of the quilt for him: “.……You have a good rest.”

  Lin Shu nodded, and after thinking for a moment he softly said, “You should also go to sleep.”

  —The rain outside was lighter now, but it was still coming down after all. He’s afraid that Big Miss still wasn’t feeling well and needed more rest.

  Ling Fengxiao: “Yeah.”

  After that, Ling Fengxiao took the book that Lin Shu put aside and put it back in its original position. She looked around the room again and made sure everything was normal and turned around: “I’m going back to my room.”

  Lin Shu nodded and then thought of the cylinder again: “That cylinder……”

  “Jade container,” Ling Fengxiao said. “It’s used to store precious letters and documents. If you want to open it, it’s very easy.”

  Lin Shu: “How to open it?”

  “At 7 p.m., when daylight starts to disappear, you can open it with a drip of blood from the fingertips of the designated person.” Ling Fengxiao said lightly, “Since it was something left by your Master, it can be opened with your blood.”

  Lin Shu: “Many thanks.”

  Ling Fengxiao smiled, but it was a very shallow smile that didn’t reach her eyes and made Lin Shu’s heart beat like a drum.

  “Come to the atrium tomorrow at 7 p.m. and open it.” Big Miss ordered, “Then, read what’s written inside it to me word by word.”

  Lin Shu didn’t know why she wanted this, but she must have had her own reason for acting this way, so he just nodded obediently.

  Big Miss continued to smile eerily: “I will deal with you then.”

  Lin Shu was in a panic. After Ling Fengxiao left, he tossed and turned about on the bed, thinking about what exactly she meant.

  And——Where did he provoke Big Miss again?

  He carefully went through the conversation he had just had with Big Miss, and a thought flashed through his mind.

  Was there indeed something important in this cylinder? Otherwise, why did Big Miss lose her temper when she saw it and ask him again and again if Master gave any explanation when he left it behind?

  With such a mood, he fluttered alone until midnight and fell asleep in a daze.

  Big Miss didn’t show up the next day. Instead, it was the other girls from Phoenix Villa who appeared in his bamboo residence. They changed the sheets and bed covers, concocted his medicine, and took care of his food and meals. They were simply meticulous to the extreme.

  “Big Miss told us to come here and take good care of you,” Ling Baochen said with a smile, “and also to protect your safety. I’m telling you, Little Lin Shu, Big Miss has never been so kind to any other man!”

  Ling Baoqing gave a Humph, “Back then, outside Minzhou City, who would have thought that you will have this treatment one day?”

  Ling Baojing was all smiles: “Lin Shu, you really are good-looking and also as obedient as a kitten. We all like you very much. It’s no wonder that Big Miss likes you.”

  Lin Shu didn’t know how to respond to their jokes so he only asked, “Where is Big Miss?”

  “Big Miss said that she didn’t want to see you today and needed to calm herself down, so she had us come here to take care of you.” Ling Baochen’s eyes shone with curiosity: “Say, did you make her angry?”

  Lin Shu touched his nose: “.……I seemed to have.”

  The girls all cried out in unison and chased Lin Shu to know the reason why their Big Miss was angry.

  In the end, Lin Shu had no choice but to pretend to be dead. No matter how much the girls pestered him, he was determined not to open his mouth. Only in this way did Lin Shu escape their endless probing.

  The girls saw that they couldn’t learn anything from Lin Shu, so they played by themselves and chattered about some gossip.

  “I heard that the matter of the living corpse has come to a conclusion!”

  “What did they say?”

  “When Old Mr. Yue woke up, he lost his temper when he learned of this matter and claimed that the school was indeed already clean and that there were no demons. He said that the matter of the living dead must have been fabricated by someone to make things difficult for him.”

  “The elder is really pure-hearted. What happened afterwards?”

  “Later, a marker stone with the Northern Xia witch’s symbol was found in Miss Chu Meisao’s room. Everyone said that she was probably in collusion with Northern Xia!”

  “Ah, was she actually from Northern Xia?”

  “On that marker stone, there are indeed patterns belonging to Northern Xia witchcraft. Therefore, even if she isn’t from Northern Xia, there must still be Beixia’s dogs running around in the school.”

  “Then why did she become a living corpse?”

  “This, I don’t know. The protection seal and the blood poisoning of that disciple are still being investigated by the High Officer. In this investigation, it’s said that a few disciples suspected of being related to Northern Xia were actually found in Jasper Heaven and Crystal Heaven. Unfortunately, there’s no tangible evidence yet. Big Miss said that she had sent a letter to the Palace and asked the Dragon Guards for some assistance.”

  “I hope this matter will come to light.”

  “Exactly.”

  Lin Shu didn’t know how this day passed.

  He stayed in the bamboo garden, reading indiscriminately and thinking wildly. One day felt like a year to him. He didn’t know how much time had passed before dusk finally arrived.

  In the distance, when the sun was setting in the west, and the hour was approaching, he left his bamboo house and walked to the atrium.

  There was a teapot and two small cups in front of Big Miss. At this moment, she was holding one of them and sipping the tea slowly. She looked up as he was coming over, “It’s good that you’re here, come.”

  Then she said, “Read the things in the jade container to me from beginning to end. There must be no mistakes.”

  Lin Shu took a dagger from his silk bag and punctured the middle finger of his left hand. The deep red blood bead gently dripped onto the cylinder.

  A layer of light suddenly appeared on the originally dim pattern on the cylinder’s surface, and after a few seconds, it became vivid and clear.

  Auspicious clouds, water markings, with a dragon and phoenix pattern in the center. It was very auspicious and festive. It didn’t seem to contain an exceptional secret technique.

  As he was thinking this, the cylinder clicked, revealing a hole at the top.

  Lin Shu reached in and as expected, touched a piece of paper. He took it out and unfolded it. It was a thin rice paper with words written on it.

  The instant he saw this handwriting, he was in a trance.

  There was a kind of inexplicable and distant familiarity with the writing style and the strokes. He must have seen it somewhere, but in any case, he couldn’t say how or where.

  Looking at Big Miss’s unruffled expression even at such a critical moment, Lin Shu began to read.

  “Disciple, you seeing this letter is like seeing me in person.”

  ——Hiss, it’s the little idiot’s master’s handwriting

  “Your Master has something to do and will leave first. Take care of yourself and be careful not to die.”

  Lin Shu: “.……”

  This tone was too casual and wasn’t very formal at all.

  He went on to read, “If your meridians are not good, don’t take it to heart. It will suffice if you simply have fun. Don’t tire yourself out. There will always be a road when the carriage arrives at the foot of the mountain. Master has arranged it for you.”

  Ah.

  Ling Fengxiao said the same thing, and this cheap master also told him to ignore the matter with his meridians and have fun to his heart’s content. Is there really any method in this world better than miraculous pills and medicines or unrivaled skills?

  While thinking of that, he continued to read, “A chance opportunity cannot be investigated. Fate is mysterious and inexorable. Do not worry about your Master, we will naturally meet again if fated.”

  After reading, he looked at Ling Fengxiao.

  Big Miss looked at the cylinder: “There’s more.”

  Lin Shu stretched his hand in. This time, the paper he felt was much thicker. It turned out to be a bright red paper seal, with something that seemed to be a document wrapped inside, bound with red satin.

  Lin Shu held it in his hands.

  It was a heavy item. The edge was slightly yellowed. The paper’s texture was very thick and dignified, and the back of the paper was pressed with auspicious patterns.

  This pattern, the dragon and phoenix patterns on the cylinder, the bright red paper seal, and the red satin sprinkled with gold—he gradually felt an ominous premonition upon linking all this together.

  Matters were not simple. ……

  It’s not simple.

  Looking at Big Miss’s smile that failed to reach her eyes, Lin Shu took a deep breath and wanted to run away.

  ___________________________________________________________________________

  T/n: Hello everyone, I’m Namizaki, and I, together with our amazing editor, Ea (whom I owe a curtsy and a kiss), will be translating this awesome novel from this chapter onwards. We will try our very best to give you chapter updates as early as we can and we hope you can stay with us till last. Thank you for all your support.