Transmigrated as the Villain and Driven Crazy by the Vengeful Male Lead - Chapter 60

Chapter 60: It Seemed As If He Was Only…

Lv Shuyao’s first instinct was to walk away, but Su Cheyue’s gaze was searing, fixing him in place and making it impossible to take a step.

His white robes fluttered in the night wind, floating with a pure, flawless grace, like a branch of white coral blooming only for the night.

Left with no choice, Lv Shuyao gritted his teeth and approached. He didn’t look at Su Cheyue first, choosing instead to speak to A-Tong.

“It’s getting dark and the air is turning cold. Don’t let the Second Young Master stay out here too long.”

Su Cheyue turned his head: “I wanted to come out myself.”

Lv Shuyao kept his eyes on A-Tong: “Even so, he shouldn’t stay out long.”

A-Tong blinked, confused: “Should I push the Second Young Master back now?”

“Wait a moment,” Su Cheyue said.

A-Tong sensed the atmosphere and offered: “I’ll go prepare the Second Young Master’s bed…”

Lv Shuyao didn’t want him to leave, but the kid ran too fast—he was gone in a flash.

Lv Shuyao let out a soft sigh.

“Why are you sighing?” Su Cheyue looked up at him. “Is being alone with me that difficult?”

How could he think that?

Lv Shuyao’s heart jolted.

He had gone to such lengths to avoid him, thinking he had distanced himself far enough, yet Su Cheyue’s mood could capture him from a thousand miles away in an instant.

Lv Shuyao recalled the dog-training experiments from his general psychology class. He seemed to have developed an indelible muscle memory for Su Cheyue’s emotions; it had become a compulsive habit. The moment he saw Su Cheyue unhappy, he wanted to coax him.

By the time he realized it, he had already crouched down so that Su Cheyue wouldn’t have to look up to see his face.

He simply gave up the struggle.

“Have you been eating well these past few days?” he asked.

Su Cheyue looked at him. It wasn’t the obsessive, lingering gaze of that night; it was actually quite calm and normal.

However, it was much softer than before. When his gaze fell on him, it felt as if the clothes Su Cheyue used to provide Lv Shuyao were made of coarse hemp, but now they were made of silk and cotton.

Both were plain clothes without grand patterns, but one only knew the difference in feeling once they were worn.

Su Cheyue shook his head.

Lv Shuyao asked quickly: “Why not?”

Su Cheyue paused for a long time. It wasn’t until Lv Shuyao prompted him with “Tell me about it” that he finally spoke.

“It’s bland. There’s no flavor.”

“How can that be? I specifically told him to add half a fingernail’s worth of salt.”

Su Cheyue: “…It wasn’t yours.”

What wasn’t his?

Oh, Lv Shuyao thought, I’m so stupid.

It was his fingernail, not A-Tong’s. There was, after all, a difference in the size of their hands.

“I’ll talk to him and tell him to add more next time,” Lv Shuyao coaxed. “Anything else?”

He really wanted to hear him say more.

Su Cheyue said: “No.”

He had suddenly become very obedient and peaceful, not even questioning why Lv Shuyao had dumped him on someone else without a word.

Lv Shuyao should have been relieved, but he also felt a pang of loss. It was deeply contradictory.

“Who is the person who moved into the West Wing?”

Lv Shuyao said: “You heard?”

“Mm.”

Lv Shuyao spoke the truth: “It’s He Zixu’s second brother, He Zixuan. The young master of the Spirit Treasure Shop.”

Su Cheyue nodded slightly.

The crescent moon rose in the east, bathing the courtyard in silver.

“Can you hear what He Zixuan wants to do?”

“Have you been very busy lately?”

They fell silent together, then spoke at the same time. Lv Shuyao paused: “Uh… yes.”

“So busy that you don’t even have time to cook a single meal?” Su Cheyue didn’t answer his question, but pressed on.

“What?”

Su Cheyue said: “I saw.”

His eyes were like the setting moonlight—sinking, and so chilly that one couldn’t look away. “You delivered food to Miss Tao.”

“A-Tong said you spend every day together.”

As he spoke, his voice grew lower and more somber, his accusatory tone impossible to suppress. “Lv Shuyao, you are still a member of the Su family.”

It was as if he had finally found a righteous reason to strike, and his words poured out in a dense, prickly stream.

“Even if you want to leave and go to someone else, you have to explain it to me clearly and get my permission first. You aren’t allowed to take matters into your own hands and just leave. There is no such logic.”

What logic was he talking about? The logic of a negotiated divorce?

Lv Shuyao didn’t know how he could have misunderstood so badly. He explained frantically: “No, it’s because He Zixu has been unconscious for days. Tao Xuanxuan is guarding him without eating or sleeping, so I’m just helping out. Don’t misunderstand.”

He tilted his head, his puppy-dog eyes lifting innocently. “I was afraid that if she fell ill too, who would continue to treat your injury?”

Su Cheyue: “Is that so?”

Lv Shuyao nodded like a chick pecking at grain.

His legs were starting to go numb from crouching. Su Cheyue’s tone softened as he said: “Get up.”

Lv Shuyao obeyed. As he stood up, he felt a momentary dizzy spell and instinctively grabbed the handle of the wheelchair, only to touch Su Cheyue’s palm, which had been extended just in time.

The moment he yanked his hand back, he saw Su Cheyue’s brow furrow.

“I’ll go get A-Tong.” He turned to leave, but Su Cheyue called out: “Lv Shuyao.”

“If you are avoiding me because of that night, I am telling you clearly that it is not necessary.” His voice was very calm, as if that night he had only suffered a shallow scratch or a minor sneeze. “If you find it filthy or disgusting, you can just say so, and we will never see each other again.”

Lv Shuyao’s feet were pinned to the spot by the moonbeams, and his mouth felt as if it were stuffed with moonlight.

“If you think I will treat you differently because of it, or if you feel like an outcast in your own heart, I can find someone else,” Su Cheyue said. “After all, I don’t know when Su Xun will activate the Gu again.”

Does he even know what he’s saying??

Find someone else? Who is he going to find? Who else does he want to find?

Who else does he want to do that kind of thing with?

Lv Shuyao didn’t even realize a surge of anger had exploded in his heart. With his back to Su Cheyue, he clenched his fists.

Su Cheyue continued: “I just want to tell you that that matter had no impact on me at all. You aren’t that important.”

Not that important.

A breath caught in Lv Shuyao’s chest. With his back still turned, he said slowly: “Understood. I won’t [avoid you anymore].”

Having said that, he walked away without looking back.

Su Cheyue’s gaze turned into moonlight, following his silhouette. Only after he vanished around the corner did Su Cheyue speak softly under the crescent moon.

“I’m giving you only this one chance. After this, you won’t be able to run even if you want to.”

…

West Wing.

He Zixuan stood with his hands behind his back, surveying the guest room with a contemptuous smile. He sat down and picked up the tea on the table, only lifting the lid to sniff it before setting it down in displeasure.

“To sit on such a great treasure bowl like Pingluan and live like this.” He was extremely dissatisfied yet helpless. “What a waste of heaven’s gifts.”

An attendant beside him said: “Fifth Young Master’s illness likely costs a lot of silver.”

“True, so no matter how much is earned, it’s like throwing it into the water.” He Zixuan’s eyes shone with ambitious light. “Pingluan Town is in dire need of a new master who can realize its true value.”

“And so the Second Young Master has arrived.”

He Zixuan said: “We owe this to Lv Shuyao. Who would have thought the marriage between the Lv and Su families would produce such a devoted lover in Young Master Lv? If he hadn’t used the Bounty Order so flamboyantly and insisted on bringing Su Cheyue to Pingluan Town personally, it would have been difficult for us to know where the Tao descendants were hiding.”

He tapped the table irritably with his fan. “I should have realized sooner. Why were the mines west of Pingluan as solid as a fortress? No matter how many people I sent to mine them, I met with repeated failures. It turns out my dear brother was operating behind the scenes. Father actually divided such a good place to him.”

The attendant consoled him: “At that time, the Fifth Young Master was still young, and Pingluan was still a desolate place no one cared about. Now the Fifth Young Master has the right time and place, but he has lost the support of the people.”

“Indeed,” He Zixuan’s restless expression gradually eased. “He’s just a lingering soul now; why cling to these things? As his older brother, I should have come to help him long ago.”

Another confidant entered from outside. He Zixuan set down his fan and asked: “How is it?”

“Reporting to the Young Master: Tao Xuanxuan and the two from the Lv and Su families are all staying in the East Wing. I didn’t see any trace of the Fifth Young Master, but the room in the center of the East Wing is guarded. Just now, I saw Young Master Lv and Tao Xuanxuan enter that room together.”

“Guarded?” He Zixuan fell into thought. “Could it be a treasure warehouse?”

The treasures sold in the Spirit Treasure Shops were generally divided into two types: those of lower grade or utility, which the He family mined themselves, and finished products sold to the public.

Their father had taught them from a young age how to coordinate resources—finding immortal mountains and treasure mines above, and collecting what cultivators needed below. They built treasure warehouses to store goods and shops for trade, expanding the influence of the Spirit Treasure Shops across the cultivation world.

“If it’s a warehouse, why did Tao Xuanxuan and Young Master Lv enter together?”

He Zixuan said: “According to the final letter Tao Zhongran gave to Father, my fifth brother’s poison is violent and incurable. He has likely lost the ability to move long ago. This brother of mine has given his heart to his ‘Zhouzhou’; he surely handed the control of the shops to that woman. As for Tao Xuanxuan…”

He picked up his fan and opened it again, savoring the thought with half-closed eyes. “An interesting beauty… why would she be willing to boringly guard a terminally ill man every day?” He snapped the fan shut. “She is close to Lv Shuyao, yet so cold to me. Am I really inferior to that boy who looks like he’s still wet behind the ears?”

But the boy who is wet behind the ears is indeed very good-looking.

The confidant who had just come in opened his mouth but didn’t have the heart to answer. The other continued to console him without changing his expression: “Second Young Master Su’s condition isn’t much better than the Fifth Young Master’s. Tao Xuanxuan and Young Master Lv are likely kindred spirits who pity each other, which is why they are close.”

“Mm, back to business,” He Zixuan said, satisfied. “What did he say about that room? And how many people are guarding the East Wing? Can you two handle it?”

The two confidants looked at each other. One said: “He isn’t sure if there’s a secret vault in the room. As for the guards… if they are ordinary people, the two of us can handle them. If they are cultivators, the Young Master can send a signal and call for more reinforcements. Su Cheyue has become a cripple and is no threat. The difficulty lies in… the addition of the Lv family’s Young Master, Lv Shuyao.”

He Zixuan frowned.

“Lv Shuyao showed promise at Xifeng Ferry when he was young, and later he was taught by Su Cheyue for a time. His strength is indeed worth being wary of.”

“Not only that, Young Master,” the confidant added. “I just received news that Lv Shuyao stayed at Zhuohua Palace for several days. After he left, the palace—which hadn’t changed masters for twenty years—has a new owner.”

He Zixuan was shocked: “Chang Huaichen is dead?”

“Most likely.”

“No wonder he can control the Bounty Order! My fourth brother asked for that treasure from Zhuohua Palace so many times, but Chang Huaichen refused to give it to us. Lv Shuyao…” He Zixuan grit his teeth. “Is there a way to defeat him if we strike from the inside and out?”

The confidants didn’t dare answer.

He Zixuan tapped his fan in thought: “Find the location of the warehouse first. Tonight, go to the East Wing and cast some True Fire Spells. See if you can lure the guards away and confirm exactly what is in that room.”