"Help...Help..."
Shen Xiangwan felt strange when she heard the voice. She mustered her courage and walked towards the source of the sound.
The dim light illuminated the path, and she was shocked to find a middle-aged man lying in a pool of blood, countless tiny snakes squirming on his body.
"Ah!" Shen Xiangwan turned around and fled.
However, she ran into someone.
Shen Xiangwan glanced up, her whole body trembled as she stared into a pair of cold eyes. "I—"
"Tell me, where were you the morning before yesterday?" Feng Zuoqing asked coldly.
Shen Xiangwan shook her head vigorously. "I..."
Feng Zhuoqing suspected her.
It turned out that he had been suspicious of her all along.
Shen Xiangwan almost collapsed as she realized the truth.
There was a sudden pain in her jaw, and she felt someone was choking her neck.
He whispered slowly in her ear, "Why are you not obedient? Such a pretty greedy piglet will lay in a pool of blood tomorrow morning. What a pity..."
She felt cold sweat dripping on his palm, and his smile looked hideous under the lantern's light. His grip on her neck tightened, and she felt increasingly harder to breathe. She opened her mouth and gasped for air as she stared at him in despair. She hated him, and she hated to die so early. She still had so many things to do. Why did he have the right to take her life?
She gathered her strength and suddenly raised her hand to scratch at the back of his hands like a cat’s paw.
"Very well!" He licked the blood on the back of his hand and watched her collapse to the ground. Then, he turned to leave.
"If I hear a single word about what happened tonight, there will be another corpse in the moat tomorrow!"
He let her go.
He was risking his secret being exposed by letting her go.
Shen Xiangwan felt that it was unreal.
She sat on the ground as the cold wind attacked her, and it took a while before she regained the strength of her hands and legs.
She didn't dare to go sleep in Feng Zhuoqing’s guest house anymore. Even if she had extraordinary perseverance, she would ultimately be driven crazy if she were to stay with this monster.
Shen Xiangwan turned around without hesitation and ran to the courtyard where she lived.
As she passed by the garden, she heard the sound of footsteps.
"Sister Wan."
It was Murong Xiude. He was alone in the garden, holding a lantern in his hand. When he saw her, he was obviously relieved. "I can't sleep well, I want to come and check on you."
His long eyelashes swept gently as he spoke.
"I'm fine." Her heart calmed as she noticed his uneasy expression.
"This is a date I kept from just now." Murong Xiude stuffed a date into her hand and accidentally touched her cold hand. He immediately grabbed her little hand and exclaimed, "Why are you so cold?"
She knew he cared about her, and her heart softened. She did not withdraw her hand. "Nothing. It’s probably because it is too cold at night."
"No, you are usually warm. Something must have happened to you." Murong Xiude yelled, "Was it him? Did he tease you again or scared you?"
Shen Xiangwan pursed her lips and pulled her hand back. "Just leave me alone. You should take care of yourself instead." She hurriedly walked towards the small courtyard without looking back.
Staring at the slender figure in front of him, Murong Xiude stomped his feet angrily.
He felt uneasy tonight, and he could not fall asleep, so he ran out quietly. Just now, Xiao Wan's hands were not only cold, but also… almost frozen.
"Xiaowan, one day, I will protect you and never let you feel cold." he muttered, his eyes shining in the candlelight.
As Shen Xiangwan was walking away, she looked at the date in her palm. She brought it to her lips and gently bit into the date.
It tasted very sweet, and it also tasted a little like Murong Xiude’s unique scent.
Her breathing calmed as she thought of him worrying about her in the middle of the night.
"I'm too inexperienced. Even though he is a murderous monster, he wouldn’t dare to do anything now that he is in the Duke’s mansion. How could I forget such an important detail! All those lessons for nothing." Shen Xiangwan was annoyed after thinking it through, and finally decided not to return to her courtyard. Instead, she turned back to Feng Zuoqing’s guest house to keep watch of his room.
As soon as she pushed open the courtyard door, she heard a voice from not far away. "Fat girl dares to come back!"
The monster hasn't slept yet.
Shen Xiangwan walked over calmly. "Young Master, go to bed earlier."
"Come, eat something with me."
She was forced to sit at the small round table in the courtyard. The smell of beef pricked her nostrils.
Shen Xiangwan was surprised. “Where did you get beef at this hour?”
In fact, they are rationing for everyone in the mansion. Even if some of the guests were given some dishes to eat with their wine at night, not everyone had a share. It seemed like he didn’t care about the rules at all. Despite that, she lunged forward and grabbed a handful of the beef.
"I just took them." His casual reply intimidated Shen Xiangwan. It seemed that he was not only good at playing with snakes and worms, but he also knew martial arts. Unfortunately, Xiao Qi and Murong Xiude were not good at martial arts. If someone could teach them to practice a few moves, their body might be stronger. Her heart burned in rage as she thought about this.
Of all the masters in this mansion, she would rather support Murong Xiude, a master with an empty title, than all of the other unreliable masters.
However, it would take a lot of effort for them to build his confidence and personality.
"Here, take this."
"What's this?"
"Fruit wine, you stupid girl. I let you go today, so you must drink with me."
"But, is this alcoholic?"
"Stupid, this is just fruit wine. Taste it. Don’t come begging me for more." Feng Zhuoqing seemed very unhappy.
Shen Xiangwan quickly picked up the gourd and took a sip.
The fruit wine tasted sweet and sour, and it smelled like grapes. She immediately fell in love with the taste.
As she took a sip of the wine and ate a piece of beef, she instantly forgot that the boy sitting next to her was a murderous monster.
Although Shen Xiangwan’s figure looked blurred under the dim lantern light, Feng Zhuoqing's heart calmed down inexplicably as he watched her drinking the wine and eating the meat.
"Do you have any more of these?"
The two of them kept eating and drinking without talking. In the end, Shen Xiangwan ran out of the wine. She pouted her lips and looked at Feng Zhuoqing with regret.
Although the fruit wine was not much, she drank quite an amount. She felt dizzy. At this moment, she smelled like alcohol, and her chubby little hands flapped beside her as she tried to reach for Feng Zhuoqing’s gourd of wine.
Feng Zhuoqing thought she looked funny.
"You want this?"
"Hmm..." Although she wanted to, she tried her best to control herself. This boy is very cunning, she feared he would have bad intentions.
"You are a coward who doesn’t dare to speak the truth!" he insulted. Shen Xiangwan got mad.
"I want it, give it to me."
With surprising strength, she snatched the gourd from Feng Zhuoqing's hand.
She downed the whole gourd of wine in the blink of an eye. Noticing the startled look on his face, she felt proud. "I drank it." She thought he wouldn’t dare to drink it anymore once she already drank it.
Feng Zhuoqing stared at her. She looked drunk, and her eyes were red as she looked at him teasingly with a peachy red face. Her little red mouth looked attractive and delicious. Shifting his gaze at her little red face, he couldn't help but pinch her cheeks.
"Your logic is truly unprecedented."