94. One Question, One Answer

That night, Gu Fei wore a white undershirt and sat upright on the edge of the bed. Her black hair spilled loose around her shoulders, and those eyes of hers, larger than most people’s, held a faint, hidden shimmer. On her jade-pale face, light and shadow crossed in restless patterns.

You Hu sat half a zhang away from her, his blue robe still as a statue’s. In his hand he held a white porcelain teacup, though he had not taken a single sip.

Aunt Ku brought in hot water, wrung out a cloth, and carefully wiped Gu Fei’s hands. The palms had been scraped raw by stones and grit earlier that day; such wounds were the most painful, especially on the hands. It was fortunate that Gu Fei had not uttered a single sound from beginning to end. Only her face was whiter than ever.

She lowered her gaze, and beneath her long, upturned lashes, thin shadows fell in layered strips, adding a trace of fragility to her features.

You Hu had already turned the water in his cup cold. He set it down at last and, after a moment’s thought, said, “Miss, I cannot yet tell what poison this is, so I need to wait until it erupts before I can judge. Tonight, you will have to bear with some discomfort.”

Gu Fei’s lashes moved once.

By now, more and more of You Hu’s true nature had been revealed. If this were her former temperament, she would have already been furious and driven him away as far as she could.

But now that she was afflicted by an unknown poison from Southern Qi, with caution weighing on her heart, she could not bring herself to trust You Hu completely. So she remained silent, asking nothing.

How could You Hu not understand her thoughts? He gave Aunt Ku a look whose meaning was difficult to decipher.

Aunt Ku’s hands paused on the towel. Seeing that the water in the copper basin had already turned cloudy, she took the basin and left, even drawing the door shut behind her.

In the entire room, only Gu Fei and You Hu remained. Within the faint glow of a small oil lamp, the occasional crackle of the wick could be heard. The flame flickered without rest, and the shadows at their feet swayed with it, uncertain and unstable.

You Hu had actually prepared himself to answer if Gu Fei asked. But now that she did not ask, it was as though a full-strength punch had landed on cotton: there was nowhere to force the power through. It was strangely vexing.

He sipped the now-cold tea in his cup, his brows knitting. The tea’s characteristic bitterness spread across his tongue, clearing his mind. His narrow phoenix eyes half-lidded, and for the first time You Hu felt the thrill of meeting an equal.

Gu Fei was too intelligent, her thoughts too layered, no less formidable than his own. Between them, conflict and calculation were inevitable because their interests would never fully align. In a narrow pass, the brave prevailed; in the end, it would come down to whose methods were superior.

Such a contest of minds was exactly to his taste. The desire to conquer it gave him more delight than any other kind of pursuit.

His gaze burned upon her like molten lava, as though he meant to sear a hole straight through her.

If Gu Fei could not feel it, she would be a fool. She folded her hands in her lap, calm as still water, but the words she spoke were cold and clear. “No matter how you stare at me, you will not make flowers bloom from it.”

You Hu gave a low laugh. His phoenix eyes were deep and bright as he twirled the lid of his cup, flicking off a few drops of tea. “If the miss did not look at me, how would I know you were looking at me?”

With nothing else to do, he simply began to provoke her with his words. Even if he could gain only a sliver of the upper hand through verbal sparring, he found that satisfying enough.

Gu Fei’s expression did not change. Her lashes trembled lightly. She lifted her eyes, and those ink-black pupils were as dark as the deepest night, their gloom so profound that not even clear water could dissolve it. “I do not know what purpose you have in staying beside me. And I do not much want to know. Last time you schemed against me as well, and in the end it was only because I was not as skilled as you. There is nothing to resent there. I will simply get it back next time. You and I both harbor thoughts that cannot be spoken aloud, so there is no trust to speak of. If that is the case, and our goal has not yet been achieved, then before long we may end up at each other’s throats. Better to ask and answer questions, no?”

At her suggestion, an enigmatic look passed over You Hu’s face. He set down the cup in his hand and leaned against the table’s edge, the upturned corner of his eye full of spring’s languor, extremely alluring indeed. “One question, one answer. It must be fair. No lies, and no changing the subject.”

Gu Fei nodded. “Naturally.”

A glimmer of light danced on the tip of his slightly full, droplet-shaped lips. You Hu loosely curled one hand into a fist and pressed it lightly to his mouth as he gave a soft laugh. “This humble scholar has studied the sages’ books since childhood and has long admired the spirit of the gentleman, so the miss may ask first.”

Gu Fei showed him no courtesy at all. She stared at him, pressed her lips together almost imperceptibly, and her loose black hair softened the line of her ears and cheeks, making her seem almost gentle. Yet the words she spoke were sharper than anything. “You are the miraculous doctor known as Master Nine, and Master Nine is you?”

So she really could not help but ask...

You Hu thought this, and the shadow at the corner of his mouth deepened. The smile on that incomparably handsome face spread wider and wider, like a pear tree in full bloom, bright and magnificent. “Yes.”

Since they had agreed not to lie, he naturally kept his word. “What are you to Le Qingbo?”

“Childhood sweethearts.” Gu Fei answered without the slightest hesitation.

Hearing that, You Hu’s brows tightened. He had been careless in the way he framed the question and let Gu Fei slip through the gap. With only a little investigation, anyone could know that she and Le Qingbo had grown up together. But the bond of childhood sweethearts could mean many things. Who knew what sort of relationship it truly was?

Gu Fei did not care in the least. She went on, “Is Master Nine the Nine Fox King?”

Scholar You Hu, the strange physician Master Nine, the master of the Bright Pavilion, the Nine Fox King.

Three identities.

Gu Fei’s thoughts were bold. Since she had already confirmed that You Hu was Master Nine, she still knew nothing at all about the man called the Nine Fox King. So she simply hurled the whole thing at him and waited, no matter what answer he gave, to judge by his reaction.

His roguish, affectionate phoenix eyes instantly bloomed with rippling peach blossoms, and in those dark, obsidian pupils a rain of peach petals seemed to drift down in rustling sheets. You Hu burst out laughing. The sound was loud and hearty. Looking at Gu Fei, he nearly laughed himself breathless. “Just because the character for nine appears in the name, the person must be the same? Then is the miss the same person as Gu Rou?”

Gu Fei’s brows drew together slightly. Seeing You Hu’s reaction, she suddenly became uncertain again.

“How would the miss come to trust this humble scholar?” Now it was You Hu’s turn to ask.

At that, Gu Fei pulled her thoughts back and considered it. After a moment, she shook her head honestly. “I do not know.”

Then, as if afraid You Hu might think she was lying, she added, “I do not even trust myself. I only trust the tangled interests between people. When two people pursue the same interest, that is when I trust most.”

You Hu studied her thoughtfully, then shook his head without speaking.

Gu Fei asked, “What purpose do you have in staying beside me?”

This was the question she had never been able to understand. She truly could not see what on earth she had that anyone would covet.

This was not difficult to answer. You Hu replied frankly, “Both you and I were supported and raised up by the Bright Pavilion. Now that I have made some slight success of myself, it is time to repay the Bright Pavilion. So the Nine Fox King gave me the task of helping you. Helping you grow until you fear nothing, helping you become strong enough to make your enemies tremble, helping you achieve your wish.”

Three successive “helping yous” left Gu Fei silent.

She thought of the schemes You Hu had laid before, cutting off every retreat between her and Le Qingbo and forcing her to face the abyss of pain. If what he said was true, then this kind of aid was indeed something special.

She gave a cold laugh and looked at him with no warmth in her eyes. “By ‘fear nothing,’ you mean cutting away all my ties, leaving me without weakness, and at the same time driving me day and night into hatred so that I can never escape it?”

You Hu was unmoved. The smile on his face had completely vanished, leaving only cold, hard lines that looked especially merciless in the lamplight. He looked down at Gu Fei from above, not the slightest bit compassionate. “Look at all those who achieve great things. Which of them did not climb over corpses? Let alone matters of romance.”

He paused there, and sarcasm flickered between his brows. “Le Qingbo is not suited to you. In time, the two of you will become enemies. Do you want a slow pain or a swift one?”

When he finished and Gu Fei still did not answer, You Hu pressed harder. “Or perhaps the Nine Fox King and I were both mistaken, and the miss does not cherish her remaining half-life at all. No need to wait for the future and return to the Great Capital. In just a few days, when Mo Ge Yi arrives, you will be finished!”

He aimed straight for her scars and her soft underbelly, crushing down on them with all his strength, and then prodded them with a dull knife for good measure.

Gu Fei’s fingers clenched suddenly around the wheelchair armrest. She bit her lip. Her face was as white as snow, and against the backdrop of her black hair she looked even more slender and frail. Her eyes carried a chill that seemed to freeze the heart as she stared at You Hu. “What happens between Le Qingbo and me, whether it ends or not, is not for you people to control!”

Yes. This was the one thing Gu Fei had never been able to tolerate. She hated nothing more than being controlled; every word and every action had to follow her own will.

You Hu’s eyes flashed. He looked at Gu Fei with complete seriousness. After a long while, he finally said, “I understand.”

In that instant, he had touched Gu Fei’s one inviolable line. Both of them were deep and meticulous in their schemes, proud to the bone, their bones too hard to yield, stubborn enough to die rather than submit. Naturally, this was the one thing Gu Fei detested most. It was also the reason she had failed so badly in the Great Capital at the hands of the Mo family. Had she been able to compromise even a little, or endure temporarily with a mask of compliance, she would not have lost half her life back then.

Gu Fei let out a breath. But before her body could relax, she suddenly felt a numb tingling spread rapidly from the back of her hand to every limb and bone. Then it moved into all ten of her fingers. Her originally pale pink nails changed in an instant, at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning a deep, vivid blue, exactly the same as Dugula’s.

By the time You Hu looked over, even her lips had turned blue.

Gu Fei had no time for any further thoughts. The numbness deepened at once, becoming a maddening itch and pain, as though countless ants were crawling and gnawing within her marrow, dense and multiplying by the moment.

“Ah...”

She cried out in agony and fell onto the bed, curling instinctively into a ball. Her black hair poured out like a flood, spreading across the pale blue quilt like the most seductive waterweed. Reflected against Gu Fei’s blue lips, it was unbearably alluring, as if she were some siren of the depths.

You Hu leaped to the bedside in a few strides. He seized the edge of the quilt, wrapped it around her, then pinched her chin to force her mouth open and shoved something inside. “Bite down on this.”

After that, he rolled up her sleeve. Sure enough, he saw blue tendrils spreading from the azure nails like dodder vines. In only a moment, they had grown from the back of Gu Fei’s hand along the veins all the way up her arm, and they were still growing, as if feeding on her flesh and blood.

You Hu’s expression darkened. He had no time to worry about propriety. He helped Gu Fei sit up a little and let her lean against his chest. Then he tore open her undershirt, and as expected, the blue tendrils had already covered both of her arms and climbed over her shoulders, which had once been white as porcelain, continuing toward her chest and body.

“Hm...” Gu Fei bit down hard on the quilt. In only a short time, she looked as though she had just been dragged from the water. She could clearly feel the agony of the poison taking effect in her body, and she also knew that You Hu, without her permission, had ripped off her clothes and was even running his fingertips over her icy skin.

She felt cold, a cold that seeped from her very bones. Yet as the itching pain deepened, the only place that felt warm was where she touched You Hu’s body. Even his fingertips were warm as a brazier, and that warmth suddenly stirred a faint longing within her.

The third update will be at ten tonight.