Dao Companion Crippled, Coveters Move

Chapter 434 420: Huang Wanshi Knocks on the Door at Midnight

「The next day.」

Pei Yuhang sat cross-legged in his room, his eyes slightly closed. His breathing was long and steady, his expression serene, as if he had become one with the world around him.

Jiu was curled up on a mattress in the corner, sneaking glances at the meditating Pei Yuhang. Whenever his brow twitched even slightly, she would frantically turn away, either fidgeting with her fingers or pretending to smooth out her already neat collar.

'Damn it. Pei Yuhang is watching me the whole time. I have no chance to contact the Holy Daughter...'

Jiu grumbled inwardly, biting her lower lip and leaving a faint line of teeth marks on its delicate surface.

Finally, Jiu flopped back onto the mattress in defeat, burying half her face in the soft pillow.

She rolled over, her unfocused gaze wandering across the ceiling beams.

Lying there only made her more frustrated.

Last night was the first time she had ever spent the night in the same room as a man.

And absolutely nothing had happened.

She'd spent the whole night in a state of both anticipation and fear, all for nothing. Of course, she knew her fantasy of some "nighttime raid" was completely unrealistic.

Just then, a sudden knock echoed from the door.

In an instant, Jiu stored the mattress on the floor into her Jiezhi Storage Ring, then transformed into a shadow and slipped into the wardrobe.

Pei Yuhang opened his eyes at the same moment.

"Enter."

The door was pushed open.

A Little Pill Boy holding a tray appeared before Pei Yuhang.

"Palace Master Pei, my master made some pastries for you to try."

"Pastries?"

Pei Yuhang didn't even glance at them, waving a hand dismissively.

"That won't be necessary. Take them back."

Seeing Pei Yuhang refuse, the Little Pill Boy's hands, still holding the tray, began to tremble. He pleaded:

"Palace Master Pei, please, you must accept them..."

Pei Yuhang could see the Little Pill Boy's panic. It seemed if he didn't accept the gift, the Pill Boy would suffer some terrible punishment upon his return.

But even so...

He refused to compromise his principles.

He had promised Liyuan he wouldn't get involved with that woman, Huang Wanshi. He could already see she harbored ill intentions and had ulterior motives for approaching him.

So he couldn't accept some mysterious item made by her...

Especially not food.

Pei Yuhang thought of the tea Lu Ruoxi had once served him, and the faint taste of salt and sweetness welled up in his mouth instinctively.

Even his senior sister, who had treated him so well, had done that. Pastries and tea from other women were completely out of the question.

He would absolutely not accept them! How could the great Cold Sun Sword Immortal fall into the same trap twice?

The Little Pill Boy saw that Pei Yuhang was adamant. No matter how pitiful he acted, he couldn't make the ethereally handsome immortal show the slightest bit of compassion.

In the end, he had no choice but to leave, dejected.

After the Little Pill Boy left, Jiu emerged from the wardrobe.

"Why didn't you take them? If you weren't going to eat those pastries, you could have given them to me."

Jiu said with a grin, but her smile froze under her mask when she heard Pei Yuhang's next words.

"You could have eaten them, of course. If you don't mind what sort of filth was mixed into the ingredients."

"BLECH! Pei Yuhang, you're disgusting! Why would you tell me that!"

Jiu's throat bobbed, and she nearly ripped off her mask to throw up.

Then, a question popped into her mind.

'What on earth did Pei Yuhang go through to make him immediately jump to such a wild conclusion?'

...

...

Huang Wanshi stared at the returned pastries on the table before her, her expression like ice.

The Little Pill Boy stood before her, hands clasped, head bowed, not daring to even breathe too loudly.

"Ma... Master... Palace Master Pei just wouldn't accept them. I... I had no choice but to bring them back."

In a fit of rage, Huang Wanshi swept all the pastries off the table.

"You useless thing! You can't even deliver a simple gift!"

As Huang Wanshi screamed at him, pointing a finger at his forehead, the Little Pill Boy lowered his head and thought:

'I couldn't deliver it because you're such a detestable old hag! Sword Immortal Pei is handsome and elegant; why would he want anything from you!'

But alas, the Little Pill Boy could only savor such words in his mind; he would never dare say them out loud.

Huang Wanshi hated it more than anything when people called her old.

Once, a Little Pill Boy had been caught bad-mouthing her in private. Not long after the words reached her ears, he was kicked out of the Dan Yun Pavilion and even sent to the Outer Sect, his future completely ruined.

The Little Pill Boy just endured Huang Wanshi's verbal assault. Only when she had tired herself out from yelling did he cautiously speak up:

"Master, why don't I clean up the pastries on the table and give them to the other Pill Boys to eat?

You worked all morning on them, Master. It would be a waste to just throw them away."

The Little Pill Boy was about to lay on a bit more flattery, but Huang Wanshi's face flushed, and she said coldly:

"Destroy all of them! Don't let anyone eat them!"

"But... Master, you spent all morning on them. Even if Sword Immortal Pei didn't accept..."

"Destroy them all! Don't make me say it a third time!"

"...Yes."

The Little Pill Boy helplessly began to clean up the scattered pastries, thinking to himself that this Elder Huang was truly moody and unpredictable. 'Serving her is so difficult.'

'Huh? Why is there a... hair inside this egg yolk pastry?'

'It... doesn't look like the kind of hair that comes from your head.'

The Little Pill Boy's scalp prickled with horror. He didn't dare ask, didn't dare look closer. He was just thankful he hadn't actually taken these cursed things and given them to his friends to eat.

After the Little Pill Boy cleaned up the mess and left, Huang Wanshi sat in her chair, her eyes narrowing.

'Pei Yuhang is certainly on guard against me. Getting my hands on him is going to be more difficult than I thought.'

'My original plan was to put a curse in the pastries, using an Exorcism Technique to gently make you mine.'

'Since you refuse the soft approach, I'll just have to get rough!'

At this point, Huang Wanshi saw Pei Yuhang as a challenge. She refused to believe that she couldn't have a man that even Lu Ruoxi had managed to obtain!

...

...

「Night.」

Outside the Spirit Wheel, a heavy rain began to fall. The sound of the wind and rain made the windows tremble gently.

Meanwhile, Pei Yuhang was meditating quietly in his room, comprehending the sounds of the wind, rain, and thunder.

Jiu sat in a chair, propping her cheek on her hand as she watched him with boredom.

Under Pei Yuhang's surveillance, she had been cut off from the Holy Daughter for almost two days.

'What method could she possibly use to slip away from Pei Yuhang and contact the Holy Daughter?'

Suddenly, Pei Yuhang's eyes snapped open.

Jiu thought he had caught her staring and quickly looked down, pretending to fix her hair.

But then she heard Pei Yuhang say, "Hide. That detestable old woman is here."

'Old woman?'

Jiu paused for a second, but her assassin's instincts took over. In a flash, she turned into a shadow and dove under Pei Yuhang's bed.

Pei Yuhang's expression stiffened.

'What are you doing hiding under my bed?!'

Unfortunately, before he could tell Jiu to come out, a knock sounded at the door.

"Palace Master Pei, open up~ It's Sister Huang."

Listening to that cloying voice, deliberately affected to sound coquettish, made Pei Yuhang feel sick. He replied coldly:

"Elder Huang, it is late. Whatever you have to say can wait until tomorrow... Also, please have some self-respect when it comes to how you address me."

Pei Yuhang was on the verge of dropping all pretense and calling Huang Wanshi the brazen hussy she was for coming to harass someone in the middle of the night.

However, the woman outside the door was even more thick-skinned than Pei Yuhang had imagined.

Instead of being angered by his rebuke, her voice became even more affected, enough to make one's skin crawl.

The saccharine-sweet affectation was sticky like honey, mixed with faint pants, like the cry of a warbler drenched in the night rain.

"Palace Master Pei, the night is so cold and lonely, and it's even raining and thundering... I'm a little scared.

I was just thinking, I should come find Palace Master Pei for a cup of hot tea~"

Tea...

Pei Yuhang's pupils contracted, and his expression instantly darkened.

'There was nothing he hated more than tea from a scheming woman!'