Chapter 11.2

Half her face was nearly pressed against his chest, close enough to hear each other’s breath and heartbeat clearly. It was a gaze of utter reliance, and the focused intensity within it caused Xie Yan to momentarily lose his composure.

She was hooked around his wrist, and the vial of medicine slowly slipped as his grip loosened bit by bit. Xie Yan snapped back to his senses and closed his hand over it once more.

His grip tightened. Their fingertips brushed. Xie Yan was just about to speak when he heard a soft, gentle voice.

“Pretty please, husband.”

The word yes had almost come out of his mouth, guided along by her leading words — but Xie Yan snapped his eyes shut and swallowed it back.

It’s her after all.

It really is her.

“Husband?”

Su Jiao, still holding his wrist, tilted her head to look at him.

Xie Yan’s eyes suddenly flew open. He pushed her aside and walked out.

“No.”

****

The darkness of night was at its thickest. Su Wei, asleep, opened his eyes, cold sweat soaking through the back of his robes.

The moonlight that spilled in illuminated his crimson, anguished gaze. He raised a hand and pressed it over his heart.

He had dreamed that dream again.

He dreamed that his Jiao Jiao had become Empress, been bullied by that man’s Noble Consort and his princes, and died in the inner palace, utterly alone and without aid.

“Brother… it hurts so much… why didn’t you come to save me?”

The tear-filled eyes from the dream tore at his heart. Su Wei had never felt so powerless before — he had simply watched as she, right before his eyes, married another man, became that man’s Empress, and died in the cold desolation of the imperial palace.

The dream had been so vivid — he had even dreamed of following that man in rebellion. Was that what their future would hold?

His Jiao Jiao would die an unjust death in the third year of Xie Yan’s reign. Before either of them died, they would not even be able to see each other one last time.

“Cough, cough… cough, cough, cough—”

Su Wei suddenly pressed his hand over his heart and coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood.

He stumbled out of bed, gasping, and stared out at the night beyond the door.

The pitch-black night was like an invisible net cast over the entire Su residence, ensnaring it within an unknown future. That uncertainty sent a wave of panic through Su Wei — yet his heart’s turmoil lasted only a moment before a cold resolve flashed through his eyes.

Even if this is fate, I will change it. I will pull my Jiao Jiao out of it.

“Someone come.”

A person stood in silent stillness outside the room.

“Master.”

“Go to the outskirts of the city and tell that person — some plans need to be moved forward.”

****

It was precisely midnight. The room was filled with the steady sound of quiet breathing. Su Jiao slept soundly, unaware that a figure was now standing before her.

Xie Yan’s ice-cold fingertips descended upon her soft, delicate face and pressed down — not too hard, not too gently.

One by one, the events of the past few days since his rebirth flashed through his mind.

The snake venom. Barging out from the Buddhist hall. After his rebirth, when she had witnessed him kill and dared to stand before him. The medicine on the day of the return visit. And then… Su Jiao hurrying out of Father Su’s study with a look of urgency.

Every strange, contradictory suspicion had found its answer in the moment he had used the Huishui Condensed Dew Pill to test her tonight.

The Su Jiao of five years ago could not have known the purpose of that object. Only the Su Jiao of five years later…

Clinging to life, honeyed words ever at the ready, flattery flowing from her lips without a shred of sincerity. She dared to coax him with sweet words one moment, then turn around and smile brightly at Su Wei the next.

It really was her.

She had actually been reborn.

Just like him — reborn into the first year after their marriage.

The image of her turning and walking away from his sickbed without a moment’s hesitation continued to surge through his mind. The gaze that had rarely stirred since his rebirth darkened with a cold, sinister light. He bent his head, and in the moment his finger pressed her sleep acupoint, his large hand closed around her slender, vulnerable neck and began to tighten.

Given those audacious words she had spoken at his sickbed and her desertion, what would stop him from simply killing her here and now?

He had originally thought that since he had been given a second chance, and Su Jiao had been reasonably obedient thus far, he would let the dead rest — he would no longer dwell on those old betrayals and that flight.

But she had actually been reborn.

His grip tightened. That originally porcelain-pale face flushed crimson in an instant. Her slender neck — beneath his hand, it could be snapped in the blink of an eye.

He bent down over her, the breath in his chest heaving. In the moment his palm bore down with greater force, Su Jiao — deep in her sleep — seemed to dream of something, and murmured softly.

“Husband…”

Xie Yan startled, then let out a cold, mocking laugh.

“Liar.”

Even as he said it, his mind involuntarily conjured the image of her radiant smile in the lamplight.

“Wherever husband is, there I shall be.”

“We are to be husband and wife for a lifetime.”

His grip had barely relaxed for a moment before the image returned — of her leaving without the slightest hesitation the moment before her death.

Five years as husband and wife, yet Su Wei’s betrayal had taken away what little sense she had left. She had clung to her misguided notion and resolved to leave. But outside, the world was in chaos — she had grown accustomed to a life of wealth and comfort at his side. If she had fled, who would have protected her?

A person as desperate to survive as she was — if she’d had any sense, she should have known that staying by his side was the best possible outcome.

And yet she had, of all things…

No… wait. That wasn’t right.

She did, in fact, have a brain now. Since her rebirth, aside from that very first mention of separation, she had learned to be obedient at his side — sweet words and honeyed phrases always at the ready. Even if her motives were calculated, she had stayed in her place and hadn’t done anything foolish again.

She also knew that the first thing to do after coming back was to stop enduring the Empress’s mistreatment.

Having returned with her memories, she had gained at least a measure of cleverness, and she was staying obediently by his side. Was she hoping, as in her previous life, to wait for him to ascend the throne and become Empress?

That made sense, too. After all, she had grown so accustomed to a life of privilege — she adored luxury and clung fiercely to life. In their previous life, she had never once raised the subject of separation throughout five years. Now that she had come back, she would naturally need to find a way to first do away with Noble Consort Yun Miao and the Empress, and then live her carefree life as Empress.

Xie Yan suddenly fixed his gaze on her, and a flicker of amusement crossed his eyes.

With all her flattery and her plans to stay by his side and angle for the position of Empress, she had even managed to coax the Xie Yan of five years ago into doing something as foolish as barging out from the Buddhist hall for Su Jiao’s sake.

She must think he is very easy to manipulate.

The cold hand gradually loosened. He suddenly let out a quiet, soft laugh.

What if… what if Su Jiao, just as she was about to become Empress, discovered that he too had been reborn — that all her years of sweet words and honeyed phrases had been utterly wasted — what kind of expression would she make?

Xie Yan suddenly found himself curious.

He bent down, and with ease his hand encircled Su Jiao’s waist, drawing her into his arms.

The neck he had gripped earlier bore a stark, vivid red mark. Xie Yan’s gaze passed over it, and he leaned in closer.

His gaze was ice-cold, yet carried a trace of enthralled, dangerous fascination.

It travelled over her skin inch by inch, drifting and lingering, until —

He suddenly bent down and bit down hard on her slender, delicate collarbone.

His lips and teeth broke the skin. A faint, metallic taste of blood spread between his teeth. Only after biting did the suffocating tightness in his chest ease slightly.

“Then I shall keep you by my side for now.

After all…”

Xie Yan’s gaze settled on her. The vulnerable neck beneath his palm bloomed into vivid crimson, and she lay sleeping, utterly unaware, oblivious to the danger drawing close.

He suddenly smiled with keen interest — a cold smile that unfurled in the darkness of night like a flower in full, wicked bloom. His eyes carried a possessiveness and an absolute certainty that even he himself had not yet noticed.

He pressed down hard on that wound.

“It wasn’t easy for me to finally find…

something that makes coming back worth it.”