Still Secretly In Love With My Enemy Today - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: 

 

My mechanical bird returned early the next morning, carrying a refined iron pin in its beak.

 

The calculation engine chattered and creaked for a moment before spitting out a long-winded tirade from Ye Jingwei, along with her bargaining demand for twelve mechanical puppets as payment.

 

Xie Huaishuang sat beside me. He clearly wanted to touch the machine; his fingertips reached out and then retracted as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. I took the iron pin from the bird, took hold of his sleeve, and guided him through the machine’s principles and functions, part by part.

 

After a few moments, I felt this was inconvenient. I looked at him and simply placed my hand directly over his. Xie Huaishuang’s movements paused for a heartbeat, but he quickly followed along, asking: “Is this different from the Calculation Towers?”

 

“These small ones have fewer uses. They can only transmit information and perform simple calculations—this is the outer shell.”

 

I turned the engine so he could feel the side.

 

“Have you seen where the iron pins are inserted?”

 

Xie Huaishuang nodded. “The ones with many holes punched in them, right?”

 

“Yes.” I found one and placed it in his hand. “The holes aren’t random; they follow rules—it’s like… a kind of script. Humans can’t read it, but specific calculation engines can. It prevents leaks.”

 

When he set it down, I lifted his wrist. “The words appear here.”

 

Xie Huaishuang was quite interested in the device. He sat at the table and studied it for fifteen minutes, tapping here and poking there.

 

“I have plenty of things like this back home,” I told him. “I’ll show you better things then.”

 

Before his brows could lift in surprise, I quickly wrote in his hand: “But if you keep saying things like ‘leave it to luck’ or ‘I’ll do it myself,’ then you probably won’t see them.”

 

That bad habit of his really needed to change.

 

Xie Huaishuang blinked rapidly and lowered his gaze. I couldn’t tell if he was feeling guilty, but he murmured a response: “Fine… I’ll be more careful next time.”

 

“The sun is out today,” I told him. “Let’s go get the clothes.”

 

His only decent outer robe was completely unwearable after last night. I had to wrap him in the dark blue cloak for now; it was a bit too long for him and trailed on the floor.

 

His eyelashes fluttered up and down quickly. I heard him speak softly, sounding a bit awkward.

 

“The clothes… I didn’t mean to.”

 

It took me a moment to remember my warning from two mornings ago about not getting his only decent outfit wet.

 

He certainly remembered that part clearly.

 

“I know,” I patted the back of his hand. “If it’s dirty, it’s dirty. It’s nothing.”

 

Xie Huaishuang seemed lost in thought. His left hand rested on the calculation engine in silence, but he didn’t pull his right hand away, so I continued writing.

 

“As I said last night, I found someone to look at you. She’ll be here tomorrow. She might be able to neutralize the poison in your body.”

 

He stopped fiddling with the engine and looked up in surprise. “Tomorrow already?”

 

That was the one good thing about Ye Jingwei—her words were foul, but as long as the payment was right, she would do anything.

 

“Yes.” I thought for a moment and felt I should instruct him. “Regarding your poison and your other injuries, you must tell her the absolute truth, do you understand?”

 

Xie Huaishuang nodded, looking quite obedient. If I didn’t know his true, troublesome nature, I really would have been fooled.

 

—I had been thinking about it since last night; something felt wrong. When things are unusual, there’s always a catch. His loss of control this time definitely wasn’t as simple as just “poison recurring.”

 

I decided to press him one more time: “You can hide things from me if you must, but don’t hide anything from her. Remember?”

 

Actually, “hide things from me” was a lie. He should tell me the truth too!

 

Xie Huaishuang must have caught my subtext. Whenever he felt guilty, his gaze would wander, and he’d touch the tip of his nose.

 

“We need to speak with Chunhua and the others today… the Temple will notice those deaths sooner or later. We should move fast.”

 

He shifted the topic. “Today and tomorrow, we need to finalize the head count with them.”

 

Before I could reply, he continued: “Then, according to our plan… we set everything up. After we set fire to Linlang Pavilion, we all leave.”

 

He actually used the word “we.” I asked him: “Not leaving it to luck anymore?”

 

Xie Huaishuang paused, thought for a moment, and shook his head.

 

“I remember,” he said softly. “I won’t be reckless.”

 

“It’s not that you were being reckless before.” Looking at him made me want to sigh for no reason. “Just… if possible, think of yourself more. Don’t always treat your own life as an afterthought.”

 

…

 

Xie Huaishuang and I refined the feasibility of the plan. After an hour of studying the details, we decided: the first two days for counting heads and passing messages, the next two for arranging routes, and the final day and a half for setting the traps inside the building.

 

And then—on the night of the sixth day, I could take him away. Everyone could leave.

 

Outside, there would be no rouge or wine stains. Outside, it was mid-spring, with purple magnolias, crabapples, and peach blossoms. There would be bustling streets with iron rails and the steam-shrouded Illusion Stages.

 

And a spring pond—I looked into his eyes but didn’t tell him, only thinking it to myself—that was also emerald green, shimmering where the sky met the water.

 

In any case, I could take him away. The sixth night would be a night of swirling flames and bright stars.

 

Xie Huaishuang fell silent for a short while when he heard this. I asked: “What is it?”

 

He didn’t answer, his gaze just lingering on me.

 

I asked again, and he finally spoke slowly.

 

“Zhu Pingsheng.” He called my name, his gaze wavering with a hint of distress. “I still can’t see.”

 

I froze, realizing I shouldn’t have said so much. I was telling him of the thousand beautiful sights outside, yet I had forgotten he couldn’t see any of them. Why was I telling him all this?

 

“It doesn’t matter. Ye Jingwei—the person I told you about—she’ll definitely have a way. She cured Senior Sister Chen before… and even if she can’t, I’ll find someone else. You’ll definitely see these things,” I looked at him. “I promise—I promise.”

 

Xie Huaishuang blinked, but then he shook his head and smiled.

 

“It’s not those things,” he said softly. “I want to see you—right now, I want to see you.”

 

I was about to go into detail about how Ye Jingwei cured Senior Sister Chen, but hearing those words, my fingers stopped instantly in his palm.

 

The sunlight filtered down, and the green pools of his eyes reflected my blurry, motionless shadow. The spring warmth seemed to flood through my chest and over my head.

 

Why were my breathing and heartbeat so loud?

 

In that spring-filled world, I took Xie Huaishuang’s hand and slowly pulled it toward me, resting it on my own brow.

 

His fingertips moved, tracing my eyebrows. He thought for a moment. “I know… I’ve seen them before.”

 

His fingers moved down slightly, resting very gently over my eyes.

 

“I’ve guessed what they looked like… they are indeed very beautiful.”

 

Xie Huaishuang’s eyes crinkled slightly as he smiled. “In the past, through the bead curtains, I could never see clearly… so this is what they are like. What color are they? Black?”

 

I tapped his hand twice in affirmation. His cool fingertips circled once and then continued downward, tracing my features bit by bit.

 

My eyelashes, the bridge of my nose, my lips. His fingertip stopped at the corner of my mouth. “Can you… can you smile for a bit?”

 

I didn’t know what he was up to, so I just did as he asked, only to see him smile as well.

 

“So you have dimples.”

 

After he had spent fifteen minutes tracing my face, I leaned down and let him hold my hair. Unlike his, the ends of mine had a slight curl, and when tied up high like this, it only reached my shoulders.

 

“Is your hair naturally like this… with a bit of a curve?”

 

“No.” I felt a bit embarrassed saying it. “When I was little… I burned myself once with iron tongs, and a few locks got curled. I refused to cut it and kept throwing a fit, so my senior sister and the City Lord had no choice but to curl the rest for me. Ever since then, the ends have always stayed a bit wavy. I don’t know why.”

 

Xie Huaishuang laughed, pinched the ends of my hair, and let go.

 

His hand, cool as porcelain, returned to the side of my face. He smiled at me, his emerald eyes shimmering like spring water.

 

“It’s beautiful.”

 

…

 

Chunhua came to find us before we could go to her.

 

I heard the sound and opened the door. Her makeup from the previous night was still partially on her face. Her gaze skipped over me to Xie Huaishuang, who was studying the peonies by the table, before turning back to me.

 

“Shall we talk inside?”

 

She seemed to care for Xie Huaishuang, so I had a favorable impression of her.

 

“I… it’s nothing much, I just heard someone caused trouble last night, I didn’t know if…”

 

“It’s fine.”

 

I closed the door and saw Xie Huaishuang look up, sensing someone was there.

 

“That’s good then.” Chunhua remained at the door, looking Xie Huaishuang up and down several times. “Then I’ll just…”

 

“Sister Chunhua?” Xie Huaishuang stood up. “Why are you here?”

 

I glanced at him. Were they so familiar that he could sense who she was instantly?

 

That familiar?

 

Chunhua looked at me. The words at the tip of my tongue changed: “I’ll tell him.”

 

I didn’t mean anything by it; I was simply closer to him, so why bother her? It really didn’t mean anything.

 

After a few sentences written in his hand, Xie Huaishuang nodded toward Chunhua. “We are fine.”

 

He stepped closer and said seriously: “Is now a good time? We have something else to discuss with you.”

 

Chunhua looked confused. “Discuss with me? What is it?”

 

“What we mentioned before… about everyone leaving. We might need to move faster.” After I translated, Xie Huaishuang said: “I’ve memorized the layout. We can start preparing now.”

 

Chunhua was stunned. She blinked, her hairpins swaying. “How could this…”

 

She glanced at me and wrote something very quickly in Xie Huaishuang’s hand.

 

“He is trustworthy,” Xie Huaishuang said immediately. “I’m sure—I’ve known him… I’ve known him for a long time.”

 

Chunhua still frowned, so Xie Huaishuang continued: “He’s trustworthy, I promise.” He pointed at me and added, “And very powerful.”

 

His deep green eyes turned toward me. My fingers involuntarily curled, hooking onto a thread on the table.

 

…Could he not praise me so suddenly? It’s very distracting.

 

After saying that, he poked me: “Why don’t you and Sister Chunhua go over the details again?”

 

I suspected he was doing it on purpose, but I had no proof.

 

The plan was largely similar to what they had already devised, just with the addition of myself. I spoke with Chunhua for fifteen minutes. She pondered for a long while before looking up, her expression completely different from before. “In your view, what are the chances of success?”

 

“If it were just the two of us, less than thirty percent.”

 

I met her eyes. Looking closely now, I realized her features were quite sharp and decisive, though they were usually buried under layers of powder that made her look timid.

 

“But if everyone in Linlang Pavilion participates as discussed, the chance rises to seventy percent.”

 

Chunhua fell silent. I asked: “Do you still think it’s unwise?”

 

“Seventy percent?” She shook her head and suddenly laughed, tapping the table. “If you’re worried we’ll refuse because it’s risky, you’re mistaken…”

 

“If there were even a five percent chance, we would do it.”

 

Her hairpins jingled as she let out a breath and looked up, her speech becoming rapid.

 

“I haven’t wanted to stay in this place for a single day longer. By tomorrow evening, I’ll have the headcount. As we discussed, I’ll find a way to get the message to everyone.”

 

Before her voice had even faded, she turned to leave, but paused and looked back at me, pointing to Xie Huaishuang, who was sitting quietly.

 

“You’ll stay with him, won’t you?”

 

I didn’t understand why she asked, but I nodded. She smiled again.

 

“Then that’s good. I feel more at ease—remember, prioritizing your own safety is most important.” She pulled out a hairpin that had slipped and tucked it into her sleeve. “Don’t force it. Whether it succeeds or not, we just wanted to be human for once.”

 

She had arrived with smeared makeup and a tired air, but she left looking completely different. I told Xie Huaishuang what she had said, and he sighed softly.

 

“This place should have been destroyed long ago.”

 

Before I could respond, he looked up again. “Thank you.”

 

Why thank me all of a sudden? As if I were doing this only for him.

 

It only has a little to do with him—just a little.