Chapter 26: 25, Threads of Thought, Threads of Lotus

25, Threads of Thought, Threads of Lotus

"I apologize; I was presumptuous."

Zhou Chang bowed with clasped hands to Bai Xiue, his expression unchanged.

Bai Xiue looked at him timidly, suddenly feeling this fellow was rather shameless.

Seeing Zhou Chang could now move freely, she intended to offer some congratulatory words, but at that moment, Zhou Chang spoke again: "Miss Bai, do you know Wen Yongsheng?"

As he spoke, Zhou Chang stared straight at Bai Xiue.

As he had expected—the moment he mentioned the name 'Wen Yongsheng', the expression on Bai Xiue's small face changed abruptly; fear, panic, and various other emotions surged to her face, only to be forcibly suppressed by her in the blink of an eye.

She lowered her eyelids, avoiding eye contact with Zhou Chang, and spoke of other things to avoid the topic: "The Yongsheng Winery of the Wen family is famous throughout Sichuan; who would not know the name Wen Yongsheng?"

Her previous expression had already provided Zhou Chang with a key clue.

The other party indeed knew 'Wen Yongsheng'; not merely knowing the winery's name like an ordinary person, but likely having had contact with the person 'Wen Yongsheng' himself.

The hallucinations he experienced in the wine cellar were likely not hallucinations at all!

The matter of Bai Xiue marrying into the Wen family might have truly happened!

The various hallucinations brought by the wind of the Offering Qi might be the memories and thoughts of the 'Mortal God Wen Yongsheng' sealed within the wine cellar!

Zhou Chang smiled, still staring straight at Bai Xiue.

To the woman, his gaze seemed quite impolite, even bordering on shameless.

He continued: "The young master of the Wen family nowadays is named Wen Yongsheng, is that correct? Miss Bai."

"H-how do you know?" At this moment, the look in Bai Xiue's eyes as she gazed at Zhou Chang could only be described as terrified.

That the Wen ancestor Wen Yongsheng founded the Yongsheng Winery was something almost everyone knew. However, that the current eldest young master of the Wen family is also named Wen Yongsheng was a Wen family secret.

After all, descendants naming their children must always avoid the names of their elders.

For a great landlord family like the Wens, who claim to pass down a tradition of farming and scholarship, to have a eldest grandson sharing the exact same name as their ancestor—how would that look if spoken of publicly?

Thus, upon hearing Zhou Chang's words, many speculations flashed through Bai Xiue's mind in an instant; she thought Zhou Chang had some connection to Wen Yongsheng and had come specifically to find her now!

"So it is indeed so." Zhou Chang's eyes brightened greatly.

Having seen the Wen family young master in the hallucination—wearing a melon-skin cap, sporting a fake rat-tail braid, with a pale face—marry Bai Xiue who had a strangulation mark on her neck, he had been speculating on the identity of the Wen family young master.

Recalling that the wind of the Offering Qi brought the memories and thoughts of the Mortal God Wen Yongsheng, he made a bold guess—

Never expecting the truth to be exactly this!

"What is the relationship between the current Wen family young master and Wen Laozu?

Is he dead or alive? Can you tell me, Miss Bai?" Zhou Chang stepped closer to Bai Xiue, questioning her repeatedly.

However, Bai Xiue had now realized that Zhou Chang had been deliberately deceiving her to extract information.

Seeing Zhou Chang getting closer and closer, she felt even more that he was disrespectful, filled with shame and anger; she lowered her head, kept her mouth tightly shut, and refused to answer any of Zhou Chang's questions.

Moreover, at that time, when she married Wen Yongsheng, although she still had a breath of life, she was essentially no different from dead—how could she explain such secrets to Zhou Chang, whom she did not know well?

Seeing her say nothing and not answer his questions, Zhou Chang was not anxious.

Miss Bai would not stay here for only a day or two; he had plenty of time to negotiate with her slowly.

Especially, the longer he stayed with her now, the more he would gain.

—Perhaps due to Bai Xiue's emotional fluctuations just now, the speed at which Zhou Chang's Threads of Thought grew was also extremely fast; in this short while, the new Threads of Thought he had gained were enough to cover half of his arm again.

"Where is the other young lady now?" Zhou Chang sized up the woman's appearance and asked aloud.

The other young lady he referred to was the one with the 'paper face'.

Bai Xiue, made restless by his gaze, suddenly looked up, wanting to warn him to stop his current rash behavior.

However, when she looked up and met Zhou Chang's gaze, she saw his eyes were clear and pure, completely different from the looks of the men she had seen scrutinizing her in the past.

She felt she had misunderstood Zhou Chang and lowered her head again: "It... it is not a good person; do not have contact with it—it will harm you."

"Very well." Since the other party said so, Zhou Chang readily agreed.

The two fell silent for a while.

Enjoying the rapid growth of the Threads of Thought in his brow, Zhou Chang leisurely examined the furnishings in this side room, with no intention of leaving.

Bai Xiue, however, could not endure it; having lived for so many years, she had seen what men looked like when they were rash due to her appearance, but none were like Zhou Chang—there was clearly no private desire in the other's eyes; such behavior could not properly be called 'rash'.

It should be called 'defying the classics and rebelling against the way'.

This person is too strange!

How does he seem to know nothing at all about the strict separation between men and women, unaware that men and women should avoid suspicion between them?

"You..." Bai Xiue, utterly helpless, finally spoke.

At this moment, Zhou Chang said: "I see Miss Bai is sewing that so-called 'Hundred Beasts Robe' for me?

May I see it?"

Bai Xiue raised her eyes, slightly opened her mouth, looked at Zhou Chang, and for a moment did not know what to say.

What is going on with this attitude of his, so natural, as if it were only right?

The Hundred Beasts Robe is being sewn for him; him asking to see it seems not improper?

Finally, Bai Xiue compromised, lowering her head, and handed over the piece of rat-skin goods she had been hiding behind her back to Zhou Chang; naturally, the carapaces of the ground beetles she had sewn together, she still kept hidden for the time being.

These beetle shells would also be sewn into the 'Hundred Beasts Robe' later, but at this moment, it was not good to let an outsider see her sewing technique and the 'needle and thread' she used for sewing.

"There are indeed eight or nine rats.

Miss Bai has sewn them so completely that no stitches are visible, no trace of needle and thread." Zhou Chang turned the not-yet-large piece of rat-skin goods over and over.

The moment his hand touched this piece of goods, he confirmed it must have been sewn with some kind of thread sharing the same origin as the Threads of Thought in his brow.

However, at present, his Threads of Thought could not yet form any connection with this piece of goods.

He would have to wait until the Hundred Beasts Robe was truly sewn and he held it in his hand before he could conduct some experiments.

"Does a man of honor also know women's needlework?"

"Can young Zhou even understand what a stitch is?" Bai Xiue admired the leather goods she had sewn, her lips unconsciously curving upward, and her words became a few more than before.

But after the words left her mouth, she secretly blamed herself for being rash and speaking improperly.

Zhou Chang, not knowing what he had thought of, laughed: "I do know a bit of needlework."

"Really?" Bai Xiue felt even more curious.

"Naturally, but would you like me to show Miss Bai a trick?" Zhou Chang said.

Bai Xiue's lips curved; she was just about to speak when she suddenly caught sight of a figure standing at the door. Her expression instantly turned tense and fearful; she quickly lowered her head as if she had committed some great wrong.

Zhou Chang turned to look at the door and saw Zhou Sanji standing there with a gloomy face: "It's time to eat. How much longer do you intend to chat?"

"Oh." Zhou Chang turned his head and said to Bai Xiue, "Let's go, Miss Bai. It's time to eat."

Seeing his calm demeanor, Bai Xiue's fear and terror in her heart suddenly dissipated greatly.

She felt that chatting with a man from outside was not such a great moral collapse after all.

Zhou Sanji at the door slapped his forehead, sighed, and left the room.

Not long after, Zhou Chang also followed out of the side room.

Inside the side room.

Bai Xiue sat by the bed, looking at her toes, and suddenly let out a "pfft" of laughter.

Her eyes were bright, and the gloomy air between her eyebrows had dissipated greatly.

"Has your heart been stirred?" Suddenly, ripples spread across the left half of Bai Xiue's face like water, and that seductive, affectionate face appeared and disappeared within it. "You are truly stupid and dull; can't you see he is using you right now?

Now that you can sew the Hundred Beast Robe for him, he can converse with you; once you are no longer useful, he can kick you aside without any hesitation.

A person like him appears gentle on the surface but is cold and shallow underneath.

Deep down, his nature is indifferent... yet I saw it..."

Bai Xiue pressed her lips shut and made no sound.

Threads of faint, white, translucent lotus silk swam out from her body, coiling around that seductive, affectionate face and sealing its mouth.