Chapter 26: There’s Nothing He Dares Not Do

Chapter 26: Chapter 26: There’s Nothing He Dares Not Do

He seemed stunned, his body growing rigid inch by inch. He stood frozen for a long time.

The study fell into a deathly silence.

It wasn’t until the candlelight flickered from a gust of night wind through the window that Xie Jinbai seemed to snap back to his senses.

He quickly rounded the desk and strode over to Li Yong. "Are you certain that was truly Cui Mingrui’s first time meeting her?"

His low voice was taut with tension.

Li Yong’s heart tightened. He declared, resolute, "I would stake my life on it. There is absolutely no mistake."

Unmarried young ladies and married gentlemen move in different circles.

Besides, Pei Shuyao has only been in the Capital City for three years. In those three years, the number of times she has gone out to attend banquets, offer incense, or even go boating on the lake can be counted on one hand.

She would have had no opportunity to meet Cui Mingrui.

Today’s flower-viewing banquet at the Tea Garden was organized by Prince Ping and his wife to select a husband for their daughter. Princess Anning is close with her younger cousin, so she made a special trip to attend with her husband.

Otherwise, why would a married man like Cui Mingrui attend such a banquet?

So, it really was their first time meeting.

Xie Jinbai was profoundly shaken.

He raised a hand and pressed hard against his throbbing temples, the image of Cui Mingrui cleanly and decisively sweeping the woman into his arms that afternoon replaying in his mind.

He knew his brother-in-law. On the surface, he was as gentle as jade and seemed good-tempered, but in reality, he kept everyone at a distance.

Nor was he a lecherous womanizer.

It was impossible for him to act so improperly toward a girl he had just met, who had mistaken him for her brother and was under the effects of an aphrodisiac.

’Then why did he do it?’

A thought he had forcefully suppressed now burst forth, impossible to contain.

Overcome with emotion, Xie Jinbai felt his strength leave him. He staggered back a step, catching himself on the desk.

"Master!"

Li Yong rushed forward to support him, but Xie Jinbai held up a hand to stop him.

His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he asked in a hoarse voice, "Have you read the third tale in *A New Account of the Tales of the World*?"

As his master’s most trusted confidant, Li Yong was no brute; he was, in fact, well-read.

*A New Account of the Tales of the World* was a banned book from a previous dynasty, filled with strange folk tales and curious anecdotes.

It contained ninety-nine tales, all centered on spirits, demons, ghosts, and monsters.

The third tale told of a poor scholar from a previous dynasty who went to the capital for the imperial examinations. After successfully passing and earning the title of Jinshi, he was secretly murdered, and his identity was stolen.

The scholar came from a farming family, was not skilled at conversation, and had no close friends among his fellow students.

Meanwhile, the family of the man who stole his identity was quite resourceful.

They murdered the scholar’s parents, wife, and children—everyone who could have recognized him—and smoothly assumed his official post.

Logically, it should have been a perfect, seamless crime.

But after his death, the scholar’s soul returned, borrowing the body of a young man from a noble family.

In the end, he personally avenged himself, satisfyingly cutting down his enemy with his own hands.

Li Yong, of course, understood why his master had suddenly brought up this story at this very moment.

It had been three years since the Mistress’s incident, and his master had never moved on.

Bringing her back to life had become his sole obsession.

To that end, he had tried every method available, conventional or otherwise.

For three years, a man of his esteemed status as a Prince had been living like a walking corpse.

Now, he had met a young woman with strange words and actions.

And his first reaction was that the Mistress had also experienced a miracle—that her soul had returned to a new body, that she was reborn.

’Is this still my calm and wise master?’

But in contrast to Li Yong’s sorrow, Xie Jinbai’s eyes were startlingly bright.

"The words of the Qiang Clan’s High Priest were true after all."

Occupying a high position and holding great power, he had naturally seen and heard far more than the common people.

There were many inexplicable things in this world, and no shortage of people who had experienced miracles.

Since Cui Lingyao’s death, Xie Jinbai had read countless tales of the strange and supernatural. He had even traveled far and wide, following the stories to meet many of their protagonists.

He believed in those tales of ghosts and monsters, one hundred percent.

He was singularly focused on summoning Cui Lingyao’s soul back and reviving her.

To this end, he had rounded up all the gifted and strange people he could find in the Da Yue Dynasty.

He used threats and bribes.

He sharpened his butcher’s knife again and again, forcing them to perform the Soul Summoning Technique. ℴℴ𝘮

He failed time and again.

He despaired time and again.

Finally, from the old abbot of Lingyin Temple, who was so exhausted he was about to vomit blood, he learned that the High Priest of the Qiang Clan was skilled in divination.

This person’s art of calculation was said to be the best in the world.

He could divine why Cui Lingyao’s soul was unwilling to return.

He could also divine whether the fated bond between them as husband and wife was truly broken.

So, Xie Jinbai led his troops on an expedition to the Southern Border and captured the Qiang Clan’s High Priest alive.

He forced the man to use blood as a sacrifice and perform the divination three times.

All three times, the answer was the same: their fate was not yet over.

There would come a day when they would rekindle their destiny.

Xie Jinbai believed it.

In fact, he was surviving solely on the sliver of hope born from this steadfast belief.

His Yaoyao would one day return.

His fate with her was not yet over.

Only then did some life return to Xie Jinbai.

And now, after waiting for so long—so long he had nearly despaired—a young woman who might be ’her’ had finally appeared.

Drugged and delirious, she had called Cui Mingrui ’brother’.

Trusting him, relying on him.

But when she looked at him, her eyes were filled with shock and panic.

In her presence, his heart would stir instinctively.

It was leaping for joy.

Xie Jinbai pressed a hand to his heart.

It wanted to go to her.

He wanted to see if the true soul beneath that mortal shell was the person he yearned for day and night.

If Xie Jinbai wanted something, there was nothing he dared not do.

He shot to his feet, threw open the door, and strode out.

......

In the Duke Shen Mansion, the night was deep.

Cui Lingyao tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Even though the aphrodisiac that afternoon had taken a huge toll on her, leaving her body exhausted.

But sleep would not come.

’To suddenly return to Great Yue, to have a new, unfamiliar identity...’

’This identity doesn’t have the prestige I had as the legitimate daughter of the Marquis Mansion. There are no loving parents or an older brother, and I could be married off at any moment.’

She couldn’t help but feel troubled.

Then there was the matter of Chen Minrou.

’Chen Minrou is actually dying.’

’And her devoted husband is planning to marry her younger sister.’

’How could this be...’

’Is there anything I can do to help...’

’What illness does Chen Minrou even have...’

Now that she was in a different body, their statuses were worlds apart. It would be difficult to even see her old friend.

A gust of night wind blew in, making the window shutters tremble slightly. Cui Lingyao looked up and glanced outside.

’I didn’t have Zhiqiu keep watch tonight. Did I not even close the window properly?’

’I wonder if the mosquito-repellent incense is even working.’

To avoid becoming a feast for mosquitoes, Cui Lingyao got out of bed, walked to the window, and gently closed the shutters.

’The screen won’t affect the ventilation anyway.’

A pair of fair, slender hands reached out from inside the room, grasping the shutter and gently pulling it inward.

Pressed tightly against the wall by the window, Xie Jinbai held his breath, his gaze fixed on her two slightly raised fingers. His brow twitched violently.

With a CREAK, the shutters closed.

His lashes trembled. His body, like a sculpture of black jade, melted into the darkness, completely still.

During the autumn hunt that year, she had accidentally injured her index finger on a bowstring while drawing a bow.

The wound had been deep, and for more than half a year, she couldn’t use that finger. Even after it healed, she developed a habit of lightly raising her index finger and not putting pressure on it during everyday tasks.