Chapter 60: Hairpin

Yu Lingxi looked at Ning Yin, resembling a child caught doing something wrong. She hadn’t expected Ning Yin to wake up so quickly. Before she could utter the prepared words, she saw Ning Yin lightly cough and slowly emerge from the darkness of the secret chamber.

“Last night, a rat sneaked in, and I haven’t cleaned up. Be careful not to step on anything when you walk,” Ning Yin casually explained. With a casual wave of his hand, the bed moved back to its original position, and the thick wall closed seamlessly.

The silvery dawn, illuminated Ning Yin’s handsome face, making it almost transparent. In his black-ice-like eyes, there was a hint of a shallow smile.

Yu Lingxi shifted her gaze away and started, “Ning Yin, I…”

“Not cleaned up yet, what’s the rush?” Ning Yin interrupted her with a smile. His gaze returned from her disheveled long hair as he opened a drawer and took out something. “Sit down, I’ll do your hair for you.”

Yu Lingxi was pressed into the only chair in the room, facing the bronze mirror on the dressing table. Ning Yin really picked up a comb and casually twisted her icy strands of hair, combing and styling it.

His movements were so natural that, had she not witnessed the thrilling events of last night, Yu Lingxi would have thought it was an ordinary morning. Ning Yin styled a simple bun for her, and due to his unfamiliarity, it turned out a bit loose, adding a touch of lazy and bright spring color to her reflection in the mirror.

“Ning Yin,” Yu Lingxi didn’t reveal the bloody fight from last night, just curling her fingers slightly and speaking softly, “I must go back home.”

She stared at Ning Yin’s expression in the mirror. However, Ning Yin didn’t even lift his eyes. His fingers slid down her loose bun to her fair neck, creating a faint and cool sensation.

“The weather is indeed good today,” he said calmly. “After having our meal, I’ll take you out for a stroll.”

Yu Lingxi’s fingers tightened a bit. She knew Ning Yin was diverting the topic. Ning Yin was so smart, perceptive, that even a hint of reluctance wouldn’t escape his eyes.

Yu Lingxi sighed lightly, holding Ning Yin’s hand, she stood up and spoke more straightforwardly, “I mean, I have to return to the Yu Mansion.”

Ning Yin remained nonchalant, looking at her for a moment before smiling gently, “I’m used to being a little submissive and rarely get angry in front of Sui Sui. So, Sui Sui probably thinks I have a good temper.”

He approached, lifting Yu Lingxi’s chin, and said warmly, “This mouth needs punishment.”

As he got closer, Yu Lingxi subconsciously wanted to lean against his chest, but considering his injury, she awkwardly ended up covering his lips with her raised fingers.

His lips were also slightly cool, a surprising touch. Yu Lingxi cleared her throat and continued, “I had a great time playing house for these two days. But, Your Highness, given the current situation, I cannot whimsically leave with you.”

“Playing?”

Ning Yin lowered his gaze, savoring the word. In his jet-black eyes, it seemed like swirling ink, yet also a profound stillness. Yu Lingxi knew she had to continue.

Every moment she stayed by Ning Yin’s side was a huge burden and danger for both the Yu family and Ning Yin himself.

“Since our first encounter in the Immortal Realm City, after ten months, I can’t give you anything anymore. With your talent and virtue, it’s time for you to return and take your position as a prince,” Yu Lingxi took a deep breath, putting on the most perfect smile, “I also need to prepare for my wedding!”

Ning Yin remained silent for a long time. The delicate morning light pierced through the window, casting a golden veil, while the room retained only the shadows of their silent confrontation.

What was Ning Yin calculating?

Yu Lingxi guessed that he probably wanted to lock her in a box, sealed in a small dark room. He used his gaze as a cage, imprisoning her within, with no way to escape.

Indeed, that was what Ning Yin had in mind.

The Xue family was hypocritical, seeking false reputation, thinking they could swallow the remaining military power of the Yu family by having the emperor dictate the marriage. As long as Yu Lingxi said “no,” Ning Yin had many ways to make Xue Cen disappear and ruin the marriage. As for the rest of the people in the Yu Mansion, as long as they kept their lives, it was beyond his concern.

However, Yu Lingxi said she wanted to go back to marry.

Ha, she was willingly going back to marry Xue Cen.

The warm smile faded, and the jade hairpin in his hand, not yet given to her, pierced through his palm, dripping with blood, as if awakening from a dream of a fleeting night.

He sneered, and a splendid dark color slowly spread in his eyes.

He remembered when he was still Wei Qi, Miss had told him: her heart contained many important people. Each person he killed was like stabbing a knife into her heart. Kill them all, and her heart would die too…

You see, Wei Qi remembered those teachings.

So he couldn’t kill Xue Cen. How could he bring himself to stab a knife into her heart?

Ning Yin smiled and inserted a cool object into her hair, adjusting the angle with a mad-like tone, “I offer you my life as a wedding gift, how about that?”

Yu Lingxi was stunned, afraid to touch whatever he had placed in her hair, afraid to respond.

“Wei Qi,” she frowned, calling their most familiar address.

“Is it not allowed?”

The wound from yesterday reopened, and blood dripped from his palm. He used a clean sleeve to wipe the blood from Yu Lingxi’s forehead, whispering, “After all, Miss saved this life of mine.”

“You won’t die, you can’t die.”

Yu Lingxi’s eyelashes trembled, then she raised her eyes more firmly, “Because you are Ning Yin, the formidable, intelligent, and indomitable Ning Yin that I know.”

I once promised you four wishes.

In her heart, Yu Lingxi said: First, to treat you as an honored guest, providing shelter to the best of my ability; Second, to pray on Qiqiao for everything to go smoothly and for peaceful years; Third, to delay marriage temporarily, spending the rest of your life in the Yu Mansion; Fourth…

Fourth, to allow you to take away a cherished item from the Yu Mansion, and you took me.

In her heart, Yu Lingxi apologized. For the last two wishes, she had to break her promises. Her rebirth had altered the course of destiny, unfolding in an unpredictable direction. Without achieving his great cause, the relationship between the Yu family and Ning Yin would be a disaster once exposed. For both families, it would be an insurmountable catastrophe.

Now, the only thing she could do was to keep her father and brothers low-profile, sending Ning Yin back on his rightful path. Until, like in the previous life, he was free from attachments, sweeping everything before him and trampling the world under his feet.

As the morning sun rose from the roof, dispelling the darkness in the room, Yu Lingxi’s eyes sparkled with a shimmering light. This was her final blessing, a farewell.

When she stood up again, her eyes revealed a gentle tranquility.

“Farewell, Wei Qi.”

Her parting smile was as beautiful as ever. Taking a step back, she walked towards the door.

As her fingertips touched the door, a sudden low cough erupted from behind, muffled as if trying to cough up something from deep within.

Yu Lingxi didn’t look back; she couldn’t look back. Qing Lan had already arranged everything and was waiting in the corridor. Exhausted, she walked towards Qing Lan, saying, “Let’s go back.”

The door closed, dividing the room into distinct areas of light and shadow.

After the intense coughing fit, Ning Yin slowly straightened his body. Faint traces of color returned to his pale lips after the severe coughing.

“Pretending to be pitiful is of no use, right?”

His figure was soaked in shadows, watching the disappearing silhouette outside the door, disappointed as he clicked his tongue. In the past, Miss would surely frown and run back, worried and anxious, murmuring, “How did you end up like this?”

Ning Yin pulled the corner of his mouth and suddenly furrowed his brows. A sweet and bloody taste surged in his throat.

He swallowed it back, casually wiping away the charming red from the corner of his lips.

Now that everyone was gone, who would care about his weakness?

Perhaps with the nourishment of that mouthful of blood, his pale complexion gradually gained some vitality. His lips showed a beautiful and unnatural crimson, making him incredibly handsome.

The returning bird was tired of the woods; his Lingxi bird had fled.

No matter, he had promised: if the bird ever got tired of this branch, he would snatch a piece of the sky and keep her captive— With a chain, no matter how she begged with warm and soft words, he would never let go.

Ning Yin chuckled coldly.

He wouldn’t pity her at all. After all, he was born to be a villain.

…

On the way, Qing Lan was constantly worried about the state of Yu Lingxi, hesitant to speak.

The early autumn sun was bright and scorching, but Yu Lingxi felt no warmth or brightness. She didn’t know how she walked out of the inn. Outside the secluded back door, Yu Huanchen almost immediately stood up and rushed towards his sister.

“Sui Sui!”

Yu Huanchen’s voice carried concern and relief. He was covered in dew, not daring to blink, as he had stood guard here the entire night. He had watched the group of assassins return during the night to test Ning Yin, but according to the agreement, he couldn’t intervene.

Yu Huanchen didn’t know how he endured that half-night. He regretted countless times for allowing his sister to leave the mansion and for softening his heart to grant her two days to say goodbye. He worried about Sui Sui getting hurt and feared that she wouldn’t come back impulsively, putting the entire Yu family in unprecedented danger.

But Sui Sui came back, crying.

“Elder Brother.”

Yu Lingxi only called two words before choking up, holding back tears all the way. She quickened her pace, disregarding everything, and threw herself into her brother’s arms. It was like a drowning person desperately seeking a piece of driftwood. She asked very softly, “Elder Brother, I feel a bit uncomfortable. Is it that my whole life… has lost its interest?”

“No.”

Yu Huanchen rubbed his sister’s head and accidentally touched a strange hairpin with bloodstains.

Naturally, he turned his gaze away and comforted in a low voice, “After this, Sui Sui will meet many interesting people and experience happy things. You will be happy and fortunate.”

“Is that so?” Yu Lingxi smiled.

But she always felt that her two lifetimes had come to an end, just like the road from the inn to the back door.

Yu Huanchen had prepared a low-key carriage and sent his sister back to the mansion. Yu Lingxi thought her complexion must be very poor at this moment because their stern and resolute father didn’t reprimand her with a single word. He only sighed gently, “It’s good that you’re back. Good girl, go to your room and rest.”

No one knew the pressure the Yu family had faced these two days.

Yu Lingxi returned to her own room and sat on the bed for a while. She remembered the object Ning Yin had inserted into her hair. She found a bronze mirror, carefully took it off, and discovered it was a finely polished white jade hairpin with auspicious cloud patterns.

No, calling it a white jade hairpin was somewhat inaccurate.

While the base color was indeed top-grade white jade, there was a beautiful blood-red mist-like color on the cloud patterns, elegant yet not plain, gorgeous yet not vulgar.

This was a rare and impeccable quality that even a thousand gold coins couldn’t buy, not to mention the exquisite craftsmanship on the body of the hairpin.

For some reason, Yu Lingxi recalled Ning Yin’s words from her past life: “I heard that only jade nourished by human blood can be considered…”

“Truly an extremely rare treasure.”

Yu Lingxi closed her eyes, placing the hairpin on her heart, curling her body slowly on the bed.

…

Yu Lingxi fell ill, and she developed a high fever at night. Since her rebirth last autumn, she had intentionally taken care of herself, avoiding such severe illnesses. The high fever persisted, and even the imperial physician in the palace was helpless. Only Yu Lingxi herself knew that the root of her illness was in her heart.

Too tired.

In the past year, she had avoided one disaster through various means, only to face the second and third waiting for her. Dealing with endless calculations and countless dangers left her mentally exhausted.

She occasionally thought, maybe it’s better to give up. However, thinking about her father and brothers whom she had barely saved, and the person who called her “darling” with a smile, she couldn’t bear to.

The only fortunate thing was that with this major illness, the marriage arrangements were temporarily put on hold. Late at night, the maid who was serving the medicinal soup was exhausted and fell asleep on the table.

Yu Lingxi’s consciousness was tortured repeatedly between the ice cellar and the flames, seeking a moment of clarity in the turmoil. Her body felt as heavy as iron, and she opened her eyes drowsily, seeming to see a person sitting outside the curtain.

A silhouette that was extremely familiar.

He remained silent, just quietly watching her through the curtain, like an ice sculpture immersed in the dark night. Yu Lingxi felt like she was going crazy and inexplicably wanted to cry. She wanted to call him, but her dry throat couldn’t produce a sound. Unable to hold on, she fell into a drowsy sleep again.

When she woke up, the space outside the curtain was empty, leaving a sense of desolation.

When her condition barely stabilized, it was already mid-autumn.

Tang Buli came to the Yu Mansion to visit her, bringing a bit of brightness to Yu Lingxi, who had lost her sense of taste due to the bitter medicine.

From Tang Buli’s mouth, Yu Lingxi learned in bits and pieces about the many events that had occurred during her half-month illness. For example, Tang Old Madam, who had been ailing for a long time, had chosen a husband for her granddaughter from the prestigious families. The engagement ceremony had taken place a few days ago.

Tang Buli sneered at this marriage but had no choice.

The Tang family had no male heirs, and those so-called young masters from prestigious families who sought to marry into their family were just aiming to inherit the family property.

Next, Ning Yin had successfully passed the test and returned to the palace, regaining his status as a prince. And the Crown Prince had schemed in various ways, and the Seventh Prince kept a low profile in the palace.

“Oh, by the way, next month is the autumn hunting event, and all the civil and military officials, as well as young masters from prestigious families, are invited. Would you like to go and take a look, Sui Sui? The Seventh Prince will also be there.”

Tang Buli sliced a pear for Yu Lingxi while glancing at her with a smirk. “Ever since I came in, you’ve been intentionally or unintentionally inquiring about the Seventh Prince’s news, haven’t you? Don’t think I can’t see it.”

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