“Tell me, what expression would she have when she sees her virtuous husband like this in private?”
“You’re lying,” his voice trembled. “You can’t possibly…”
“Hmph, do you think I’m a good person?” Without another word, she directly injected spiritual power.
A glaring spiritual light exploded in the side hall. On the light curtain, there was clearly the quiet room, with him pinned against the wall by her…
It wasn’t a long shot, but a close-up.
Even the red mole behind his ear was captured clearly.
His clothes were disheveled, his hair in disarray.
His face was flushed, his eyes vacant.
Finally, it froze on… froze on a part of his body that had been forcibly manipulated into some shameful posture.
Qin Shuying lightly clenched her hand, and the light curtain dissipated.
“This is just the beginning. There’s plenty more.”
Shen Mo’s lips trembled; he couldn’t make a sound.
‘It’s real!’
‘She really recorded it!’
‘Recorded those nights he most wanted to forget, most unbearable to recall!’
‘Shame!’
‘Too shameful!’
‘He would rather die!’
‘Rather be sliced to death by her right now!’
‘He absolutely cannot let his wife see!’
‘Absolutely not!’
The last bit of strength supporting him dissipated in an instant.
Shen Mo no longer tried to escape the body behind him that was both burning hot and freezing cold.
He was like an old doll that had all its bones pulled out and all its pride shattered.
He completely collapsed into her embrace, his head hanging limply, disheveled hair covering his deathly pale face and his empty eyes that were utterly lifeless.
He gave up.
He let the hand re-enter his clothes.
He let the burning hot lips linger on the back of his neck and ear, leaving a wet, hot sensation.
Qin Shuying leaned over him, looking at his lamb-like appearance of giving up resistance and being at her mercy, her desire for control greatly satisfied.
This time, there was no more obstacle.
“My good Mo’er,” she bit his earlobe with her teeth, not hard, not soft. “You need to… hold it in well, okay.”
“If you can’t hold it and make some inappropriate sound, or if the commotion is too loud and alerts Wan’er… letting her see what we look like right now…”
“I won’t be responsible for the consequences…”
Shen Mo even held his breath.
Only his chest heaved violently.
“That’s a good boy…”
“Remember, be obedient from now on.”
Seeing that she was really about to breach the last boundary, Shen Mo closed his eyes. When he opened them again, amidst the gray decay, he barely gathered a stubborn clarity.
“You… you and Wan’er grew up together, like sisters… how could you… how could you bear to… humiliate her husband like this?”
He wanted to use their old bond to awaken even a shred of conscience in her, or at least, some scruple.
“Like sisters?” Qin Shuying looked as if she had heard an enormous joke, the madness in her eyes fading a bit. “Did she tell you that?”
Shen Mo said nothing.
Qin Shuying looked at him for a long time. “Shen Mo, do you know how she became the master of Jiaoyue Peak back then?”
Shen Mo was stunned.
‘Of course he knew.’
Su Wan’er was a disciple of Cloud Hidden Mountain. When her cultivation was sufficient, the sect bestowed a peak upon her, and she became its master.
‘What was wrong with that?’
Qin Shuying looked at his expression and laughed again.
That smile was different from before, carrying an indescribable bitterness.
“Jiaoyue Peak was originally mine.”
Those seven words were like seven knives, cutting into Shen Mo’s heart one by one.
That thing that flickered in her eyes, something like pain and like hate.
“Back then, we broke through to Nascent Soul at the same time. I broke through three months earlier than her, my cultivation was higher, my achievements were better. Everyone thought Jiaoyue Peak was mine. But in the end…” She paused.
“The sect said her family background was better, said her cultivation method was more suitable for leading a peak…” She didn’t finish, just laughed again, a laugh that had nothing in it, empty.
“I became a peak master a full thirty years later than her.”
Shen Mo had never known any of this. Su Wan’er had never said it, Qin Shuying had never mentioned it, and no one up and down Cloud Hidden Mountain had ever brought it up.
He only knew that they grew up together, were once close friends, and later grew apart.
He didn’t know that such things were hidden behind that estrangement.
“So you,” he spoke, his voice rough, “it was to take revenge on her?”
Qin Shuying looked at him, then suddenly reached out and gently pinched his chin. Those eyes were right in front of him, deep as an abyss.
“Revenge?” She repeated the word. “Shen Mo, do you think I sleep with you just to take revenge on her?”
Shen Mo quickly changed the subject. “What about Shizun Yun He? She personally decreed that private fights are strictly forbidden within Cloud Hidden Mountain, and disciples are not allowed to harm each other.”
“That’s right, she did decree no mutual killing, no disputes, especially between Wan’er and me—no direct conflict, to avoid damaging the sect’s reputation and weakening Cloud Hidden Mountain’s strength.”
“That’s why I didn’t make a big show of charging up Jiaoyue Peak, didn’t cross swords with Su Wan’er and make a public spectacle.”
“I merely… used some… not-so-orthodox methods to take back some things I deserve, or… people.”
“As long as I don’t let things get out of hand to the point of harming the sect’s interests…”
She paused. “Do you think Shizun… really cares about what I do to you in private?”
……
Just a wall away, Su Wan’er and Qin Shuying in the hall were completely unaware of anything unusual, still conversing amicably.
The recordings from the Shadow Recording Stone were clearly not continuous—jumpy and fragmented—but each segment was bits and pieces of their childhood days together in the village and their earliest times embarking on the path of immortality.
The images were simple, even a bit rough, but filled with the warmth accumulated over long years.
Su Wan’er’s beautiful face showed undisguised daze and nostalgia.
Qin Shuying still sat upright, her side profile cold and hard, but when her gaze fell on those old images, there was also a hint of complex emotion in her eyes.
“…I didn’t expect you still kept these.” Her tone carried a rare, slight choke.
“I dug them out when I was bored.” Qin Shuying lacked her previous fierce intensity. “Thought you might have forgotten.”
“How could I forget…” Su Wan’er murmured.
……
Shen Mo didn’t know how he had managed to endure until now.
“I… beg you… let’s… change places… okay?”
His face had somehow become flushed with a rosy color, spreading from his cheekbones to the corners of his eyes, and from there to the roots of his ears, as if splashed with a thin layer of rouge.
The fine hair at his forehead was wet with sweat, sticking to his skin, making his face even more vivid.
His handsome brows were tightly furrowed, as if enduring some unbearable torture.
His long lashes trembled lightly, like butterfly wings wet by rain, each tremor carrying an indescribable forbearance.
Qin Shuying lowered her head, looking at him like this. The dark flame in her eyes burned stronger. But she only slightly curled the corner of her mouth.
“Change places? Change to where?”
“Anywhere is fine… just not here… too close to her… too close…”
“Shen Mo,” she called his name.
Her fingertips slid from his waist to his lower abdomen, moving slowly downward.
“Were you not quite eloquent just now? Like sisters, sect rules, Shizun’s warnings—you spoke with such logic.”
Shen Mo’s body suddenly tensed. He bit his lower lip, pressing back the sound that was about to escape, leaving only a muffled nasal sound, like a small beast having its tail stepped on.