Chapter 5: What Are You Really Expecting?

‘Great, that hateful Lin Huanhuan has been taken away for questioning by the Disciplinary Disciples. I should be saved soon, right?’

Still tied up and barely able to move, Ye Jinxi looked at the closed door, unable to suppress the joy rising in her heart.

‘Once I get out, I have to report her properly. How could she do something like this? Absolutely unforgivable!’

Just thinking about how Lin Huanhuan had grabbed her chest earlier—those white doughy things—and her careless attitude, Ye Jinxi felt a rush of shame and anger. An unexplainable suffocating feeling pressed down on her heart.

She thought angrily.

A few minutes later, Ye Jinxi calmed down.

‘No, I can’t just sit here and wait for death. I can’t put all my hopes on Lin Huanhuan being taken away and me being rescued as a matter of course. What if no one discovers I’m here?’

‘Wouldn’t that be the end for me?’

Thinking this, Ye Jinxi knew she absolutely couldn’t wait helplessly.

She tensed her body, straining her hands, her little face turning bright red.

‘These ropes are so tight. Why are they so sturdy? Are they dead set on not giving me a chance?’

Ye Jinxi started to feel discouraged. She tried a few other ways to loosen the ropes, but every attempt failed, without exception.

“I was being unrealistic. Lin Huanhuan isn’t poor, so if she tied me up, of course she wouldn’t use cheap rope. I don’t even know what material this is, but the quality is actually so good.”

Ye Jinxi muttered a few times, then turned her gaze to Dong Yun’er, standing motionless like a statue outside the door.

‘She seems to be Lin Huanhuan’s personal maid, probably pretty loyal, right? Maybe there’s a chance here?’

Ye Jinxi still remembered: this morning, she’d been cultivating as usual, then went to eat. When she met the maids outside, passing through a secluded spot, one of them suddenly attacked. Caught off guard, Ye Jinxi was captured in an instant, bound up, and sent here.

‘Now convincing her to let me go is probably impossible, but I have to try no matter what.’

“Um? Miss standing outside, may I ask your name? You’ve been standing there for so long, aren’t you tired? I’m feeling a bit thirsty too. Could you pour me some water?”

Ye Jinxi tried to start a conversation with Dong Yun’er, hoping to get her sympathy and trick her into letting her go.

No matter how Dong Yun’er answered, Ye Jinxi already had a response ready. She was fairly confident this could work.

She looked expectantly at the door. Time passed slowly, but there was no reply, not even a single movement.

“Being… ignored?”

Ye Jinxi stared, dumbfounded. Seeing this, she instantly understood that the maid outside had absolutely no intention of speaking to her.

“Damn it, why so determined? Why use such resolve to do bad things? Wouldn’t it be better used for cultivation?”

Ye Jinxi complained bitterly, but there was nothing more she could do. Since the other side wouldn’t respond, it’s not like she could pry open her mouth and force her to answer.

“Annoying people, just as hateful as Lin Huanhuan! Birds of a feather, really. Let’s see what you do when Lin Huanhuan doesn’t come back.”

Ye Jinxi grumbled, twisting her body uncomfortably. After being tied up so long, her blood and qi were not flowing well.

“Oh? Why would I not come back? What exactly are you expecting?”

At that moment, the door creaked open, and Lin Huanhuan walked in with a smile.

“You—you were taken away by the Disciplinary Disciples! Why are you back here?”

Ye Jinxi cried out in shock, eyes filled with disbelief.

After sending off the two Disciplinary Disciples who’d come to question her, Lin Huanhuan had rushed straight back, just in case something unexpected happened.

She’d heard Ye Jinxi’s complaining the moment she reached the door.

‘Really a restless one!’

Lin Huanhuan looked down at her, snorted coldly, and said lightly, “Why would I be taken away by the Disciplinary Disciples? What did I do?”

“You dare say you didn’t tie me up?”

“I did tie you up, but who knows about it? Since no one knows, then it never happened, right?” Lin Huanhuan sneered.

“Huh?”

Ye Jinxi was utterly stunned by her twisted logic. She’d never met someone so shameless.

So, if you do bad things and nobody finds out, it doesn’t count? Wouldn’t that mean there are a lot fewer bad people in the world?

“You’re talking nonsense. That’s just sophistry! Sophistry!”

Though Ye Jinxi said this angrily, despair welled up inside her.

‘It’s over, it’s really over. Even the Disciplinary Disciples can’t do anything about Lin Huanhuan. This is hopeless. How on earth am I supposed to get out?’

Come to think of it, it was reasonable. Lin Huanhuan had the Lin family behind her, and she was a direct descendant at that.

The Lin family had several Golden Core experts, and the family head himself was at the Golden Core peak.

Even though Zhenxuan Sect was a super sect with a Nascent Soul True Lord overseeing it, she was just a regular outer sect disciple. Every year, Zhenxuan Sect recruited thousands like her, and the number who went missing wasn’t small.

Without evidence, how could two Disciplinary Disciples make a big fuss with Lin Huanhuan over her?

Earlier, Ye Jinxi had panicked and tried anything she could, but now, understanding her situation, she felt all hope fade away.

Was she really doomed today?

Lin Huanhuan crossed her legs and sat down carelessly, quietly enjoying Ye Jinxi’s growing despair.

“Not bad at all.”

After waiting a while longer, sensing Ye Jinxi was almost truly desperate, Lin Huanhuan finally said nonchalantly, “I’m not afraid of them, but if they really start investigating, it wouldn’t be good.”

“But if I let you go, you’ll definitely talk nonsense. Maybe I should just bury you directly. Death erases all traces—no loose ends.”

Though the words sounded like a threat, Ye Jinxi keenly caught the hidden opportunity within.

“You want to let me go, but you’re worried I’ll talk?”

Ye Jinxi’s heart leapt with joy, like someone falling into an abyss suddenly grabbing onto the last lifeline. She hurriedly said:

“Lin Huanhuan, as long as you let me go, I’ll absolutely forget all about today. I won’t say a word, I swear, really, believe me!”

She gazed at Lin Huanhuan expectantly. Lin Huanhuan rubbed her fair chin, “Oh, that sounds pretty good, but how are you going to guarantee it?”

“I swear to the heavens, I absolutely won’t tell anyone or seek revenge for this. If I do, may I be struck by lightning.”

Ye Jinxi lifted her chin, gaze resolute, her eyes filled with longing for freedom.

Lin Huanhuan pretended to ponder for a long while before finally nodding.

“Alright, I’ll let you go this time and do nothing more to you. But remember, next time I pursue you, if you dare turn me down again, I won’t be so polite.”

Ye Jinxi didn’t reply. As the restraints were gradually loosened, she was dazed, almost in a trance.

She slowly stood up, still not fully recovered.

Lin Huanhuan said blandly, “Why are you still standing there? Not planning to leave? Or are you thinking of doing something else with me?”

Lin Huanhuan put on a look of sudden realization, “So that’s it. We are mutually in love after all. Fine, go lie on that bed over there.”

“I don’t want to!”

Ye Jinxi snapped back to her senses, shoved open the door, and ran out as fast as she could.

She didn’t stop until she’d gone far, and with no one chasing behind, Ye Jinxi finally breathed a true sigh of relief.

“I can’t believe she actually let me go just like that.”

“But whether or not I give her face will depend on the situation. After everything she’s done to me, she’s still so arrogant, hmph!”