Chapter 32: Lin Baiwei's Identity

The sky grew dim.

Shen Yi knocked as usual, then pushed the door open.

Lin Baiwei, as always, hid in the back courtyard and only poked her head out after hearing his voice.

Unlike her drenched appearance from yesterday, the woman had changed into that white robe today; the slim-fitting long gown fluttered with her sleeves, seeming otherworldly. If only her exquisite face could rein in that ravenous look a bit, and she didn't keep swallowing her saliva, she would indeed be described as having a graceful, fairy-like bearing.

"Hee, I smell meat."

"Did you get your stipend?"

She reached out, took the clay pot and lotus-leaf-wrapped bundle from Shen Yi's hand, and impatiently set them on the table to open.

Shen Yi looked at her profile, feeling a touch of envy.

Whether eating fire-roasted bread or fine dishes, she could wear the same smile; if his past life had possessed such a state of mind, perhaps he wouldn't have had to live so strenuously.

"Your clothes are covered in blood again. Every day you go out..."

Lin Baiwei teased as if by accident, but as the lotus leaf and clay pot were uncovered, she frowned slightly, her expression growing much colder.

Shen Yi saw her expression change but didn't know what had happened.

But he was too lazy to care; eat if you want, don't if you don't.

He sat at the table, reached out to grab a goose leg; the crisp skin and savory juices burst on his tongue, masking the slight blandness.

Lin Baiwei twitched her nose, then simply closed her eyes and hugged her arms tight: "It's too greasy! I have no appetite at all."

Shen Yi rolled his eyes at her and took a direct swig of Huadiao wine from the bottle's mouth.

Lin Baiwei opened her eyes a slit, her eyelashes trembling slightly; she glanced at him from the corner of her eye, her pearl-white teeth biting her red lips: "If you can't get used to the baked cakes, tomorrow buy some raw meat and soy sauce, and I'll cook it for you, okay? Why go rob others..."

"You can cook?"

Shen Yi looked up, somewhat surprised.

"If I couldn't cook, I'd have starved to death long ago; there aren't restaurants everywhere... Are you even listening to me?"

Lin Baiwei counted on her fingers: "One jin of pork is about twenty wen. If you save a bit of your monthly stipend, accounting for firewood, rice, oil, and salt, you could eat meat almost every day. I also know needlework, so if clothes or shoes tear, we don't need to buy new ones."

In the dim room, Shen Yi silently watched her counting off items like a family treasure, then thought of the extravagance of Old Master Lin casually handing over eight hundred taels of silver.

"Are you truly the Young Lady of the Lin family?"

"Are you deaf?" Lin Baiwei was frustrated; why couldn't she make him understand?

A clean official servant drawing a stipend from the imperial court was either mixing with demons or bullying ordinary people; what a waste of such potential.

In the past, she would have had to tear the other person's ear off.

The woman's puffed-up, angry expression was quite well-behaved. Shen Yi shifted his gaze, pulled a few pieces of broken silver from his waist, and tossed them onto the table, cutting off the other's endless chatter: "Your father gave them."

With these words spoken,

Lin Baiwei froze instantly, her gaze sweeping back and forth between the silver and the bloodstains on Shen Yi's body.

"You went to find her?"

Before the other could reply, she suddenly stood up, leaned forward to bring her pretty face close to the young man's, and said anxiously: "Do you know how serious the problem is? They aren't as simple as you think. The North Cliff Fox Demon has an elder traveling here; the reason they haven't entered the city is that they fear my identity! But if you truly kill their junior and provoke them completely, no one can protect you!"

She was clearly truly panicked.

Feeling the fragrance rushing toward him, Shen Yi remained calm: "So, what is your identity?"

Hearing this, Lin Baiwei's voice stopped abruptly. After a long silence, she spoke in a muffled tone: "At least you heard the key point."

Shen Yi also stood up, expressionless, and without hesitation extinguished that strange emotion that had arisen in his heart.

This woman was indeed still hiding things; the trouble she carried was far greater than he had imagined.

"Let's eat."

Shen Yi returned to the bed and sat down.

"Anyway, I'm not a bad person." Sensing his distance, Lin Baiwei sat back down and poked at the yellow croaker with her chopsticks.

This time she truly had no appetite; only after a long while did she say in a low voice: "Is my father okay?"

"For now."

Shen Yi roughly understood the other's current mood: "The fox demon isn't in the manor, but they brought other demons into your home."

"Thank you."

The bloodstains on the young man's body and the silver on the table had already explained everything.

Lin Baiwei tried to calm her trembling hands, holding the clay pot and sipping the fish soup in small sips.

She steadied her breathing, and her emotions gradually stabilized.

Shen Yi recalled what the other had said earlier; she must live... It turned out the more precise meaning was that even if her own parents' lives or deaths were uncertain, she still had to live.

In Lin Baiwei's words, the so-called fox demon elder actually feared her identity and dared not enter the city.

"I want more money."

"What?"

Amidst Lin Baiwei's surprised gaze, Shen Yi took a rag and carefully wiped the scabbard: "I said, two Initial Realm martial arts aren't enough; I want Jade Liquid Realm ones. Still two, and I want to receive one in advance as a deposit."

Since the identity had changed, the price naturally differed.

Lin Baiwei stared at him silently and actually accepted such "extortion." She picked up her chopsticks again to pick up a piece of fish meat: "I can only memorize one. Prepare paper and pen for me, and I'll give it to you in three days."

The woman chewed the fish meat forcefully, using it to mask the grievance welling up in her eyes.

She wasn't used to showing weakness in front of anyone.

Suddenly, that indifferent, annoying voice came to her ear again.

"Does what I said just now still hold?"

"What did you say?" Lin Baiwei tried to stuff the sweet, tender fish meat into her mouth, her cheeks puffed out, oil stains on the corners of her lips, not wanting him to hear the tremor in her voice.

"Cooking and making meals."

Shen Yi hung the cleaned scabbard on the wall.

Even though the other party was being cryptic, he still managed to roughly sort out his thoughts.

The fox demon, wary of her identity, hadn't killed her, but had casually tossed the powerless woman to the predecessor. No matter how capable these foxes were, could they guard her day and night?

It was nothing more than wanting to use the predecessor's hand to get rid of this woman.

Then what was so special about himself?

Thinking it over, Shen Yi could only think of the identity of a constable, and from this he could easily deduce the fact Lin Baiwei had been hemming and hawing, trying to cover up.

Tch, so the Lin family sent their only daughter out to study under a master, and in the end shipped her straight into Zhen Mo Si, did they.

What she feared most was never any fox demon—it was clearly himself.

If she were killed by an imperial court constable, the fox demons could easily extract themselves from the whole affair and wash their hands of it completely.

If his thoughts back then had gone even slightly astray.

And he had truly cut this woman down in one slash, personally killing a member of Zhen Mo Si.

Shen Yi only had to imagine the scene of being wanted across the entire Daqian dynasty, and a chill ran down his spine. He took the opportunity to curse out the predecessor in his heart—that lecherous wretch.

Any woman at all and you'd dare to touch her!

"..."

Lin Baiwei had no idea of all the thoughts churning in Shen Yi's mind. She swallowed a mouthful of fish meat, sniffed hard at her slightly reddened nose, and said in a hoarse voice, "Fine, I'll do it!"

It's just cooking, right? Stuff you till you burst!

Her small hand gripped the chopsticks so hard they creaked. Once she endured through this month, she'd find a way to break the seal.

When the time came, she'd definitely prepare a whole basin of dishwater, pinch his nose, and pour it down his throat.

Thinking of this, Lin Baiwei's mood improved a little. She took up the wine pot and gulped it down in one go.

(End of this chapter)