Lin Zhiji froze.
“Y-You… what did you say?”
“Weren’t you trying to complete a task?” Xie Yi said lightly.
The words struck Lin Zhiji like lightning, instantly making his heart leap into his throat.
Could Xie Yi already know what the main quest was?!
Xie Yi’s gaze swept over his nervous expression.
“You made me lie down and then bit me. If it wasn’t for a task, were you trying to do something to me?”
Faced with Xie Yi’s aggressively invasive stare, Lin Zhiji’s mind briefly went blank.
“N-No way.”
Xie Yi absentmindedly pinched his jaw, forcing his mouth slightly open to reveal harmless canine teeth and a tongue reddened from kissing.
“Didn’t I already tell you? If it’s for a task, just tell me directly. Why bother wasting effort?”
Hearing that, Lin Zhiji realized Xie Yi had misunderstood again, assuming this was another daily mission like before.
He unconsciously sighed in relief.
Then immediately realized—
Xie Yi was clearly mocking the fact that his teeth were too weak to even break skin.
Lin Zhiji got so angry he wanted to bite him again.
But afraid he would fail and end up being bitten instead, he forced himself to endure it and turned his head away from Xie Yi’s grip.
Soft lips brushed across rough fingertips.
The warm softness made Xie Yi recall the tenderness inside his mouth, and his thumb unconsciously rubbed against itself.
Lin Zhiji was exhausted after all.
Forcing himself to apply medicine and bandage Xie Yi’s wound had already drained him completely.
Soon after, he drifted off to sleep.
Worried he would sleep uncomfortably, Xie Yi carefully placed him back on the bed.
Yet the moment he let go, Lin Zhiji leaned closer, grabbed his hand, and affectionately pressed his cheek against it.
Xie Yi’s gaze darkened.
He knew—
Only after falling asleep would Lin Zhiji become this obedient and dependent.
If awake, he would never willingly reveal such vulnerability.
He had already given him so many opportunities.
Yet Lin Zhiji continued to avoid the truth.
Xie Yi’s eyes never once left his face, missing not even the slightest expression.
Though Lin Zhiji tried hard to hide it—
The evasive glances, the nervousness, even the unconscious sigh of relief—
To Xie Yi, they had all been impossible to conceal.
He had already suspected before that Lin Zhiji was hiding something from him.
Now, he was nearly certain.
He should have been angry.
But looking at Lin Zhiji’s still-pale face and bloodless lips, his anger lodged awkwardly in his chest, neither rising nor falling, impossible to release.
At that moment, he suddenly heard Song Lü’s lowered voice from outside the door.
“My lord.”
Xie Yi’s expression shifted slightly. He tried to withdraw his hand, but Lin Zhiji seemed reluctant. His brows furrowed faintly, though under Xie Yi’s coaxing, he still loosened his grip in the end—obedient in a way that made one’s heart ache.
Xie Yi’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
Yet all he did was lower a gentle kiss onto Lin Zhiji’s forehead.
—
Song Lü stood anxiously outside the door, inwardly cursing those heartless colleagues who had shoved such a dangerous task onto him.
Who didn’t know that ever since Young Master Lin had been injured, their lord practically wished to remain glued to his side, rushing back to the residence the moment he finished work every day?
Though Song Lü was somewhat slow when it came to matters like these, his sense for danger was sharp.
He let his imagination run wild while waiting until finally Xie Yi stepped out of the room.
His lord’s clothes were not particularly disheveled, and his expression seemed relatively calm.
Song Lü quietly let out a breath of relief and hurriedly reported:
“My lord, a letter has arrived from the capital.”
He handed over the secret message that had just arrived.
The letter was from Shen Xian.
Shen Xian wrote that after his military report and the corpses of the Kou family had been delivered to the court, they had indeed caused an enormous uproar.
The court was now in constant turmoil, almost entirely divided into two factions.
One side believed Xie Yi had prevented disaster before it happened, discovered the Jie tribe’s wolfish ambitions in time, and protected Qingzhou—thus deserving praise.
The other side believed he had acted arbitrarily, disregarded imperial authority, and freely executed court officials—therefore deserving death.
The Crown Prince and Prince Qi also seemed somewhat displeased with him, so at present, the second faction’s voice was much louder in court.
As for the Emperor, his attitude was more ambiguous.
He neither rewarded nor punished Xie Yi.
Instead, he issued an imperial decree summoning Xie Yi back to the capital.
Recently, he had also summoned Xie Pingyue multiple times and showered him with rewards, as though imperial favor toward him was flourishing.
Xie Yi read through the letter and considered carefully.
The attitudes of the two factions aligned roughly with his expectations.
The reactions of the Crown Prince and Prince Qi were also unsurprising.
Only the Emperor’s stance proved troublesome.
Originally, Xie Yi had assumed the court would argue over this matter for another ten days or half a month.
By then, once the locust plague broke out and unrest spread across various regions, no one would have the energy to care about Qingzhou anymore.
Yet he had not expected the Emperor—who usually remained bedridden and indifferent to state affairs—to act so decisively this time.
According to Shen Xian, the Emperor had already begun selecting the imperial envoy who would deliver the decree. Most likely, they would depart soon, and he urged his lord to make a decision quickly.
After hearing this, Song Lü made a throat-slitting gesture.
“My lord, should we just… take care of the envoy?”
“No.” Xie Yi rejected the idea without hesitation.
Killing Qingzhou officials could still be justified.
But if something happened to an imperial envoy, it would be genuine treason—a direct challenge to imperial authority.
Xie Yi understood clearly.
Though executing the Xu and Kou families and Qingzhou officials had earned him authority and won him a measure of public support, his foundation was still unstable.
This was absolutely not the time to become enemies with the court.
After a moment’s thought, he said:
“Send word to Shen Xian. Have him investigate who this envoy is, what he likes, and what weaknesses he has…”
Only after Song Lü had memorized everything did Xie Yi instruct him to summon Luo Zhitang.
“Starting tomorrow, spread word that I am injured and recuperating. Matters regarding locust prevention will temporarily be handled by you.”
Luo Zhitang froze briefly before quickly understanding.
“Rest assured, my lord. I accept the order.”
But after speaking, he noticed the bandage wrapped around Xie Yi’s finger and stared in surprise.
Their lord was highly skilled in martial arts. Injuring him was difficult enough.
And now that Qingzhou was practically under his control, injury was even less likely.
Especially to a finger.
Moreover, the bandage had been wrapped unevenly and crookedly—not at all the work of a military physician.
Luo Zhitang seemed to realize something.
Immediately, thoughts began turning in his mind.
—
When Lin Zhiji woke the next morning, he instantly felt much clearer-headed.
The previous grogginess was gone, and his body no longer felt as unbearably heavy.
Could it really be because of the main quest?
Just as Lin Zhiji prepared to open the mission list, he suddenly realized he was pressed against a warm, solid body.
He instantly stiffened and tried to inch away.
But in the next second, an arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him back.
Their bodies fit tightly together, and he could even feel the scorching heat of the other man’s arousal.
Then Xie Yi’s slightly husky voice sounded above him.
“Last night, you kept wriggling into my arms. And now you’re pretending nothing happened?”
Lin Zhiji: !!!
“Y-You’re talking nonsense!” Lin Zhiji blustered weakly. “I sleep very properly. I don’t roll around.”
Though he said that, inwardly he lacked confidence.
While Xie Yi occasionally said shocking things, he generally disdained lying about matters like this.
But…
Clinging to Xie Yi? Rolling into his arms?
Lin Zhiji dared not think too deeply about it and quickly changed the subject.
“Why didn’t you go out today?”
Though he had been feverish recently, he still knew Xie Yi came back every night to accompany him, only to leave again early each morning.
This was the first time he had woken up and found Xie Yi still here.
As for his obvious attempt to avoid the topic, Xie Yi did not care.
“I’m injured,” he said casually. “Starting today, I’ll be recuperating in the courtyard.”
“Injured?” Lin Zhiji froze, quickly turning around. “How? Where are you hurt?”
Looking at the undisguised concern on his face, Xie Yi chuckled and held up the finger wrapped in bandages.
“Isn’t this it?”
Lin Zhiji: “……”
The smile in Xie Yi’s eyes deepened.
Then he pulled Lin Zhiji closer into his arms.
“Sleep with me a little longer.”
He had spent the entire night arranging various matters, barely sleeping at all.
Only near dawn had he finally lain down, and even now he had slept less than an hour.
No matter how resilient he normally was, fatigue inevitably showed.
Seeing the faint shadows beneath his eyes, Lin Zhiji swallowed the protest that had risen to his lips.
Still, having just woken up, it was hard to fall asleep again immediately.
So he secretly opened the mission list.
Main Quest Four had not been completed.
Instead, it displayed: “In Progress.”
Lin Zhiji remembered that when he had first received the quest, those words had not been there.
Meaning—
His thinking last night had been correct.
Thinking back to Main Quest Two, when Xie Yi had sent the traitor’s severed head back to the General’s Manor, the system had hesitated for ages before still counting it as completed.
Which meant—
This mission system judged things rigidly.
As long as the key elements in the quest were fulfilled, even if the method was absurd, the system would still count it.
If that was the case…
Then loopholes could definitely be exploited.
Thinking this way, the worry he had carried—that completing the main quest would somehow harm Xie Yi—finally eased for now.
But as one worry settled, another inevitably rose.
He subconsciously looked up at Xie Yi.
The man’s bone structure was exceptional. Even from this angle, he remained impossibly handsome.
And because he was asleep, the sharpness in his features softened. Strands of black hair curved along his cheek, lending him an entirely different sort of allure.
Lin Zhiji’s heartbeat unconsciously sped up.
He thought—
In the end, he really was ordinary.
Even though rationally he knew nothing between him and Xie Yi was possible…
He still could not stop himself from falling.
He would never forget it.
At the moment when he had nearly despaired—
Xie Yi had arrived carrying light into his darkness.
According to 03, he was a cold and cruel villain.
Yet with him, Lin Zhiji had felt a sense of safety unlike anything he had ever known.
Actually…
Maybe it wasn’t impossible for them to end up together after all.
And even if it truly proved impossible—
Wouldn’t having once loved be better than forever regretting a missed chance?
Lin Zhiji quietly persuaded himself.
Pressing his lips together, he secretly glanced up at Xie Yi again.
Seeing he still seemed asleep, Lin Zhiji gritted his teeth and cautiously wrapped an arm around his waist.
Only then, pressed against Xie Yi’s chest, did he drift drowsily back to sleep.
And so he never realized—
After he had fallen asleep, Xie Yi opened his eyes again.
The body in his arms was warm and soft.
Those thin wrists no longer merely clutched at his clothes as before.
Instead, they boldly embraced him.
The fluffy crown of Lin Zhiji’s head rubbed against his chest through layers of fabric, yet somehow seemed to scratch directly against his heart.
The faint gloom between his brows had disappeared too.
As though he had finally laid down every burden and entrusted himself completely.
This version of Lin Zhiji was unbearably adorable.
Every bit of obedient softness felt like temptation.
Yet it also laid bare the violent possessiveness inside Xie Yi—
The urge to grind him into bone and blood.
Or swallow him whole.
Or carve him into his ribs so deeply that even if Lin Zhiji cried himself hoarse, the only name he could call would be his.