When Gu Shuhan later learned that Gao Sijin had been injured, he was instantly consumed by frantic worry.
He was the one who had hired the assassin, but at the time, it had never crossed his mind that the elderly man would actually get a chance to fire.
The original plan was that the slow-moving old butler, the moment he drew his gun, would surely be thwarted by Tsukiyuki Rio, thereby triggering an internal war within the Tsukiyuki Family.
What he hadn’t anticipated was that Kurosawa, the butler who had taken the money, actually found the perfect moment. Tsukiyuki Rio had been blinded by rage, and the maids had overlooked the seemingly harmless Kurosawa. It was precisely because of this that Kurosawa got the chance to pull the trigger and fire that bullet.
After taking the money, Kurosawa seemed to have long foreseen his own death. His family had been arranged well in advance and sent to San Francisco to evade the Tsukiyuki Family’s retaliation. No matter how influential the Tsukiyuki Zaibatsu was globally, it had no authority to throw its weight around on another country’s soil.
Although Kurosawa didn’t die with his body intact, he could rest in peace. The problem now fell squarely on Gu Shuhan’s shoulders.
“Damn it, this is all my oversight.”
On the balcony of a luxury apartment in Minato Ward, Tokyo, Gu Shuhan gazed at the brilliant starlight, his heart extremely uneasy. As the scattered lights of the night went out one by one, he returned from the balcony to the living room, a space decorated in a minimalist Northern European style now shrouded in darkness.
No matter what, Gu Xiarui would absolutely never let this go. Even though Gu Shuhan was Gu Xiarui’s ancestor, it couldn’t change the fundamental truth that he was nothing more than a chess piece.
At this moment, Gu Shuhan had even braced himself to face death.
Despite all his calculations, he hadn’t foreseen that Gao Sijin would turn back at that critical moment. He hadn’t predicted Sijin would have the courage to push Tsukiyuki Rio aside and stand in front of her. Even less could he have anticipated that the old assassin would truly find that one-in-a-million chance to strike.
The odds of these minute events aligning were as slim as winning the Big Lottery jackpot and getting struck by lightning on the same day.
Fwoosh.
A ghostly candlelight suddenly ignited in the living room, which moments before had been as black as an abyss. A shivering red flame danced drowsily on the wick, flickering weakly, as if it could extinguish at any moment, now bright, now dim.
“You were never a benevolent monarch…”
But that celestial, transcendent bearing intoxicated Gu Shuhan every time. When he first laid eyes on Gu Xiarui over four hundred years ago, he thought he had met a legendary fairy.
However, when a fairy arrives cloaked in fury, it is not something any mere mortal can withstand.
Dragon-Phoenix Red Candles, four or five feet tall, dyed the living room a pure, deep crimson. Beneath the silk and gauze curtain drapes stood a dressing table carved from rosewood, adorned with patterns of dragons and phoenixes in harmony—completely out of place with the modern style of the living room.
A bronze mirror was embedded in it, polished to an exceptionally clear shine.
Gu Shuhan felt as if he had returned to over four hundred years ago. This place was no longer Tokyo, but a detached palace where an ancient monarch indulged in day-and-night revelry.
“Lady Gu Xiarui, I am guilty.”
Gu Shuhan knelt on both knees.
A silver-haired girl, expressionless and emotionless, appeared within the bronze mirror. Her brows were like distant mountains, her lips like red cinnabar. Deep within her crimson eyes, akin to flowing years, flickered a hint of flame barely perceptible to anyone.
“He is injured.”
The black ink left words on her folding fan, the strokes as sharp as a blade.
“Yes, it was due to my error. I will not defend myself. I am willing to accept any punishment.”
“A tribulation was his destiny.”
Her phoenix-like eyes held a majestic authority.
The very reason she had become a supernatural entity and could not embrace Gao Sijin with a human body was precisely dictated by his fate. He could not escape it; such was often the price of being saved. After one Hell, there was still another.
Gu Xiarui had striven to change this, willingly merging with the supernatural entity, enduring the severing of her tongue by a blade’s edge, yet still she could not avert his destined calamity.
“However.”
With a flip of the fan, new text materialized.
Seeing the words, Gu Shuhan gave a bitter smile.
“The death sentence is waived, but punishment for the living is inescapable.”
Gu Xiarui wrote the character “Tiger” on the fan’s surface. The word blazed with a dazzling white light, and a ferocious tiger, its angry eyes bulging wide, materialized before Gu Shuhan. Staring into those eyes radiating a piercing yellow light, at the stark white fangs, and the eight-foot-long tiger tail, Gu Shuhan understood the punishment he was to receive.
“Patriarch!”
Hearing the violent roar, his guards, Tang Yicai and Tang Ercai, immediately pushed the door open and rushed in, only to be stunned into a stupor by the sight. How could a ferocious tiger have suddenly appeared inside the apartment?
Its wild mane bristled fiercely. This was a beast meant to rule the primordial forest as king, yet now, it bared its fangs and brandished its claws, glaring fixedly at Gu Shuhan. The yellow and black stripes all over its body exuded a brutal and vicious aesthetic of violence.
“Do not interfere,” Gu Shuhan said calmly to his guards.
“But Clan Leader, this is far too dangerous…”
“Leave. This is a ‘reward’ I deserve.”
“We cannot allow you to face any danger.”
“Get out!”
Gu Shuhan roared, and only then did the two guards from the hidden family clans withdraw from the room.
Turning back to the tiger poised to strike, Gu Shuhan did not retreat. Instead, he stepped forward, spreading his arms wide before the awe-inspiring beast.
“Come on. Vent your fury!”
The tiger’s claw slashed toward Gu Shuhan’s face. Steel-like fangs pierced his skin. Agonizing pain wracked his entire body, but he understood he had to take responsibility for this matter. Crimson blood splattered into the corners of the living room.
Looks like I’ll be troubling them to clean up the blood again…
After Gao Sijin was injured, Yu Qingxue, who usually wore a constant smile, felt an immense weight in her heart.
She possessed the ability to slice a bullet with her tachi. As a maid, how could she have been so negligent at that moment?
“Eat something. You didn’t eat anything yesterday. Besides, what happened has already happened—blaming yourself is pointless.” Morgana placed a plate of freshly made egg fried rice before Yu Qingxue. “It’s really quite rare, though. I never thought a creature like you could make such an expression.”
“How cruel. What do you mean, ‘a creature like me’?” Yu Qingxue propped her fragrant cheek on her hand.
Morgana’s cooking was genuinely delicious, yet Yu Qingxue stared at the feast before her, unable to take a bite.
Whenever she tried to eat, she recalled the scene of Gao Sijin collapsing limply to the ground after being shot. To Yu Qingxue, that image was like ten thousand arrows piercing her heart. The moment she drew her tachi, she had even felt an overwhelming urge to simply hack everyone to death.
To hell with the world. If you dare hurt my man, everyone pays with their lives!
That had been Yu Qingxue’s truest thought in that moment.
“What, still no appetite?”
Seeing Yu Qingxue hadn’t touched her meal, Morgana couldn’t help but furrow her brows.
“What if I said I’ve been on a diet lately? Would you believe me?”
“I don’t believe you. In the past, I always thought that thick nerve of yours would never succumb to sadness. I never expected you to be like this…”
“Blame me for falling in love with the wrong man.”
Right now, Gao Sijin was lying in a sickbed at the Tsukiyuki main household. It was said he was out of life-threatening danger, but Tsukiyuki Rio forbade anyone from seeing him.
Because of this, Yu Qingxue couldn’t stomach any food.
The urge to see him again made Yu Qingxue restless. She pressed a hand against her heaving chest, feeling her heart pound wildly without pause.
