I'm Competing With The Male Lead For A Woman - Chapter 34

“Congratulations, Host. During this free activity period, you obtained the hidden item [Chunshankong] and unlocked the new character [Bai Zheng]. Based on these factors, the system will grant you an additional 24 hours of life as a reward.”

“A new mission will begin tomorrow. Please continue to work hard, Host!”

Xiao Jin: “…”

A 24-hour extension on my life is not enough to offset the damage of a 12-hour cutesy voice.

Fortunately, it was late at night, and the effect of the cutesy voice had passed.

Xiao Jin didn’t know if the system could sleep, but she certainly couldn’t. She simply went to the study, taking advantage of her active mind at night to organize her thoughts.

Sitting in front of the desk, she uncovered the lid, took a piece of incense from the box containing the Chunshankong, and placed it in the censer.

Then, Xiao Jin quietly watched the smoke curl up from the censer’s lid, lingering among the paper, ink, brushes, and inkstone.

The fragrance was light and pleasant, but the thought of what Bai Zheng had said in the Yanyu Pavilion gave Xiao Jin a headache.

Thinking of this, she looked at Steward Zhang, who was standing nearby, and asked, “Old Zhang, did this Prince save Minister Bai’s daughter before?”

It was the middle of the night, and Steward Zhang was already sleepy, his eyelids almost closing.

Hearing Xiao Jin’s question, he immediately became alert and answered, “Replying to Your Highness, there is such a matter, but that was many years ago.”

It was clear that the original owner’s persona of a noble person with a short memory was deeply ingrained in people’s minds. Even if Xiao Jin asked such a question at this moment, Old Zhang would not find it strange.

Xiao Jin closed the lid of the Chunshankong and casually said to Old Zhang, “Tell me about it.”

Although Steward Zhang felt a little strange, not understanding why his own Prince was suddenly interested in Miss Bai, he still obeyed the order and began to speak.

He spoke for quite a while.

Xiao Jin listened while not forgetting to look for the book she had read a few days ago.

By observing Su Tan’s reaction, she felt that the poison “Absolute Sorrow” seemed to be an unknown type of Gu poison.

But when she was reading a few days ago, she found a book that detailed the three stages of Absolute Sorrow’s poisoning. Now it seemed that this book held great significance.

However, by the time Old Zhang finished talking about Bai Zheng, Xiao Jin still hadn’t found the book that she didn’t know where she had put it.

After listening, Xiao Jin couldn’t help but use her finger to rub her forehead.

She was both annoyed by the love-hate relationship between Bai Zheng and the original owner and wondering how such a large book could just disappear.

Fortunately, she would only stay in the book world for a year, so she didn’t need to worry too much. But unexpectedly, after a trip to the Yanyu Pavilion, things became even more complicated.

Xiao Jin thought about it and decided that what she needed to focus on most right now was the original owner’s overly strange serious illness, the person behind the assassination, and…

The reason for Chu Shao’s character collapse.

Recalling the look in Chu Shao’s eyes as she gazed at the colorful lantern, Xiao Jin stopped rubbing her forehead and asked Steward Zhang a question: “Old Zhang, does the estate have anyone who can make lanterns?”

Steward Zhang was stunned, and after a moment, he cautiously said, “This, is Your Highness referring to… the kind of lantern that this old servant is thinking of?”

“…”

Xiao Jin: “What else? What do you think I’m talking about?”

Steward Zhang really didn’t expect that one day the Prince would ask such a question. After all, regarding something like a lantern, it wasn’t that the Prince hadn’t mentioned it before, but he simply didn’t care about it at all.

Sure enough, ever since he got married, the Prince has really changed.

Steward Zhang showed a look of relief and was about to answer when he saw Xiao Jin frown and move her lips, as if she wanted to say something.

He was very good at reading people. He immediately closed his mouth and waited for his master to speak.

Unexpectedly, after a moment, Xiao Jin’s expression returned to normal.

In the end, she didn’t say anything unnecessary. She just turned her head and said indifferently, “Forget it. We’ll talk about it later.”

Steward Zhang wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he always felt that in the candlelight, Xiao Jin’s lips were pursed into a thin line, and the way she turned her head looked very unnatural.

However, her action of dismissing him was very natural. She just waved her hand and said, “It’s late. You may leave.”

“Yes.”

…

When Xiao Jin woke up the next morning, she had a terrible headache.

This was because she had searched for a long time last night but still couldn’t find that book. While feeling irritable, she also couldn’t figure out why she had asked Old Zhang if the estate had someone who was good at making lanterns.

And even if the Prince of Yan’s residence did have an artisan, it had nothing to do with her.

Xiao Jin had too many things she couldn’t figure out.

To calm her mind, she casually pulled a book from the bookshelf and flipped through another volume containing the history of the Qi Kingdom.

Ancient texts and traditional Chinese characters were already obscure, and without translations, the hypnotic effect was maximized.

After barely flipping through ten pages, Xiao Jin had the illusion of being back in the days of compulsory education. The thought of the teacher’s kind face made her feel sleepy.

So she blew out the lamp, used her elbow as a pillow, and fell asleep on the desk.

Initially, the scenes in the dream were normal.

Spring in the capital was rainy, with continuous drizzle. The catkins were even more annoying, piling up like fine snow on the tiles of Yangjiao Alley.

Then, the scene suddenly shifted.

The sound of a Pipa started, with a strong sense of tension in the tune. Following layers of mist, the dreaming Xiao Jin arrived at the innermost room of the Yanyu Pavilion.

The room was dim and unlit, and she could only vaguely hear a tune of “Longing for the Loved One” coming from downstairs.

Xiao Jin was in the dream and didn’t realize it was a dream.

Standing in the boundless darkness, she tentatively raised her hand and reached out to the side, but she didn’t grasp anything.

She reached up to her face, but touched the silk gauze covering her eyes. It was a slippery, cool sensation like a Jiao scale.

Xiao Jin was silent.

This scene seemed familiar, and she was even a little confused about whether all of this was real or a dream.

Just as she was thinking this, another hand suddenly reached out from the darkness and gently held hers. The hand was warm and delicate, and the force with which it held her wrist was very familiar to her.

Xiao Jin almost froze.

No way.

Even if it’s a dream, this is too outrageous.

Xiao Jin fell silent, but the person in front of her did not stop moving.

In the darkness, a sound of tearing silk faintly echoed.

That person tore off the curtain of the hibiscus bed and wrapped the silk around Xiao Jin’s two wrists several times, tying them together. They stopped wrapping only when her hands could no longer move.

In the darkness, Xiao Jin coughed a few times.

Although she could roughly guess who the other person was, she still asked in a hoarse voice, “Who?”

However, no one answered her. The room was filled with the fragrance of Chunshankong. Xiao Jin sat in the wheelchair and could clearly hear the other person’s breathing.

Logically, she should feel fear.

But Xiao Jin could vaguely sense that this was just a dream, so she didn’t overly care about how things would unfold. She simply relaxed her mind and tried to open her eyes to see if she could wake up from the dream.

The person in the darkness, however, reached out and pinched her chin, forcing her to raise her head with a rather firm attitude.

Just as Xiao Jin frowned, a warm fingertip pressed against her, circling her lips lightly.

The finger was like an exquisite, cold key, prying open the tightly closed door lock, squeezing between her teeth, and stuffing a piece of incense into her mouth.

Xiao Jin wanted to struggle, but her hands were tied, so she could only open her lips and hold the incense in her mouth.

But while her chin was being pinched by that hand, the person slightly bent down and kissed her neck. Like kissing a dying swan, the other person’s lips were very soft—a meticulously planned murder.

Xiao Jin’s chin was pinched painfully. She felt that if the kiss had been on her windpipe, she would have died from lack of oxygen.

Her back was pressed tightly against the cold bamboo slats of the wheelchair. Under the dual pressure, she couldn’t breathe and felt close to suffocating.

The slightly bitter incense slid down her tongue into her mouth. But because the other person’s lips lingered on her neck, the incense slid to her throat and stopped moving, making it difficult to swallow.

The most painful thing was not the feeling of suffocation, but the fact that Xiao Jin knew that a thin, long Gu worm must be wrapped inside this incense.

Like the moist, lingering kiss on her neck, that Gu worm was taking root in her throat, and she could neither avoid it nor resist it.

In the empty room, a gentle and elegant voice drifted in: “The meaning of Absolute Sorrow is that before it reaches the stomach, it cuts off the throat, thus severing the sorrow of ten thousand ages.”

When Xiao Jin opened her eyes again, her elbow was sore, and cold sweat appeared on her forehead.

Her throat felt dry and scratchy, as if she had swallowed a piece of incense wrapped in a Gu worm, making her feel itchy and creepy.

With the waking from the dream, this feeling had already faded.

But when Xiao Jin saw the cold ashes in the censer, she suddenly remembered the sensation of her lips being rubbed by the fingertips, and she immediately felt extremely unwell.

She lowered her gaze, looking at the faint crimson mark on her wrist, and remained silent for a long time.

This was because her hands had been tied with a dead knot by Chu Shao in the Yanyu Pavilion yesterday. Although the ligature marks on her wrists had faded now, they had not disappeared.

Xiao Jin was speechless, suddenly unsure of the nature of last night’s dream.

Could it be… that perversion is contagious?