Chapter 2: The Hamster Demon (2)

Everything happened too fast. Before Zhou Xin could react, the hamster demon opened its enormous mouth.

At that critical moment, a black figure leapt up from behind the demon and landed on its shoulder.

The next instant, he raised his broken blade, turned the edge inward, and drove it viciously toward the hamster demon’s chest.

With a wet shhk, the blade sank all the way in. Bright red blood sprayed out.

Warmth suddenly splashed across Zhou Xin’s cheek, and the reek of blood rushed into her nose. She lowered her head, just about to wipe the blood from her face onto the hamster demon’s white fur, when it let out a furious shriek.

The sound was unbearably sharp and filled with hatred.

Then the world spun.

The hamster demon used her like a weapon, swinging her straight toward Shen Jibai, who was still perched near its shoulder and neck.

The distance between them closed at terrifying speed. Shen Jibai’s hand was still gripping the hilt of the blade, and he had not had time to pull it free. From the looks of it, he would not be able to dodge either.

“Vice Minister!”

“Vice Minister, get out of the way!”

If the two of them really collided, Shen Jibai would at most suffer some external injuries or be knocked to the ground. Zhou Xin, however, would absolutely split her head open — or even lose her life.

At that crucial moment, she suddenly calmed down.

In a flash of inspiration, she remembered the secret Xuanmen manual left behind by the old Daoist who had taught her how to scam people: The Record of Strange Beasts.

It was a handwritten text passed down for a thousand years, recording the weaknesses of hundreds of ghosts, spirits, and demons, as well as methods to subdue them.

The very first page contained an entry on hamster demons:

This demon understands human emotions. It is kind by nature, but gluttonous. If encountered, there is no need to exterminate it. Simply restrain and warn it with a body-binding spell.

A body-binding spell!

She had once seen the old Daoist use it.

Seeing that there was only a finger’s width left between her and Shen Jibai, Zhou Xin immediately formed a hand seal and shouted,

“Bind!”

As soon as the word left her mouth, layers of glowing vines wrapped themselves around the hamster demon, binding it from head to toe. It could no longer move, and its swinging motion stopped abruptly.

Everything happened just in time.

And yet, somehow, not quite in time.

Zhou Xin stared at the forehead only inches away from her. Then she felt warmth against her lips. Her front teeth knocked into the inside of her lip from the force, and pain made her breath hitch. A faint taste of blood immediately spread through her mouth.

A true bloody disaster.

Perhaps it was too unexpected — or perhaps he was extremely resistant to it — but the person she had kissed went completely rigid. His skin tightened, even his breathing stopped, and he did not move at all.

A yamen runner said, “Why isn’t Vice Minister Shen moving? Was he frozen by the spell too?”

This accident was way too ridiculous.

Zhou Xin thought to herself: Was it because this was her first time casting the spell, so her proficiency was too low?

But then she reconsidered. The body-binding spell was meant for demons and evil spirits. It should have no effect on people.

At that moment, the person who had stiffened like stone slowly lifted his eyelids. His dark gaze swept toward her from the corners of his eyes, filled with undisguised disgust.

Zhou Xin: “…”

As if anyone wanted to kiss you.

Shen Jibai glanced at her only once before looking away, so quickly it was as though he could not bear to look at her any longer. He leaned back to put distance between them, pulled out the broken blade, and said coldly,

“Go back. Don’t let anyone near this place.”

The yamen runners who had rushed over to help immediately retreated and returned to forming a human wall across the street.

As for their superior, there was now a red mark on his forehead made of blood — like the imprint of a kiss. If one did not look closely, it could easily be mistaken for rouge left behind by some beauty. It gave his cold, handsome face a strangely flirtatious air, as if he were a cool-faced young gentleman who had passed through a field of flowers and still come away touched by a petal.

Unfortunately, his expression was utterly foul.

Very ugly indeed.

Shen Jibai raised the broken blade and swung it hard at the hamster demon’s right limb. The blade fell, and Zhou Xin felt the grip around her body disappear. The space beneath her vanished, and she dropped to the ground, landing hard on her backside.

It hurt so much her butt ached.

Before she could even rub it, there came a thud as a pair of black official boots landed in front of her.

And that bloodstained broken blade was now pointed straight at her.

Zhou Xin: “?”

Her eyes widened instantly, so startled that even her backside stopped hurting.

What was this supposed to mean?

Burning the bridge after crossing the river?

Was he kidding? How was this any different from pulling up his pants and pretending he didn’t know her afterward?

“What exactly do you mean by this, Lady Lingyun? Is this some new method of humiliating me?”

Zhou Xin raised her eyes and stared at him blankly.

The light of midsummer filtered through the gaps between the leaves, falling over him in mottled patches. His cold, handsome face was half hidden in light and shadow, carrying a stormy anger that made him seem impossible to read.

His dark eyes looked down at her from above, carrying the pressure and authority of someone in a position of power. It made her heart tremble.

What on earth was going on?

Zhou Xin’s heart had already leapt into her throat. How had things escalated to the point of blades being drawn in the blink of an eye?

Even the cicadas chirping in the branches seemed frightened into silence. The surroundings became deathly quiet. There was no wind and no cloud.

Zhou Xin moved her lips and tried to explain.

“What happened just now… was an accident. It was not my intention. Vice Minister Shen, please don’t take it to heart.”

“An accident?”

His phoenix eyes, sharper than a cold blade, filled with heavy anger. His voice was icy.

“You can seal the Fox King alone, yet you get captured by a rat demon? Do you take everyone here for fools?”

“I lost my memory. Naturally, I don’t remember how to use spells. Why won’t you believe me, Vice Minister Shen?”

Zhou Xin scrambled backward on both hands and feet, trying to put some distance between herself and the still-dripping blade.

But for every foot she moved back, he advanced ten.

“You don’t remember how to cast spells? Then what is binding the hamster demon right now?”

As he spoke, he pressed the blade even closer.

“Chaonanyi, must you wait until your own life is hanging by a thread before you use your real skills? What do the lives of the Golden Guards and the Court of Judicial Review mean to you?”

By the time he finished, the blade was already hovering over the bridge of Zhou Xin’s nose, only two fingers away from her eyes, which had gone wide with terror.

Zhou Xin opened her mouth, but for a moment, she could not defend herself at all.

A rush of chaotic footsteps approached. The sword-carrying guards who had arrived late did not know about the accident that had just happened, yet they did not seem surprised by the tense, drawn-sword atmosphere at all.

It was as if the relationship between these two had always been this hostile.

The yamen runner who had led her earlier hurried over and stopped behind Shen Jibai, lowering his voice.

“Vice Minister, the tavern’s rear courtyard has been put back in order.”

Shen Jibai continued glaring at Zhou Xin without looking away. Even after hearing the report, he did not spare the runner a glance. His voice was no longer as icy as before, but it remained cold.

“How are the Golden Guards’ injuries?”

The runner glanced at Zhou Xin. Perhaps because of her status as Lady Lingyun, he seemed reluctant to say too much and could only answer timidly,

“External wounds. Nothing too serious. The injured Golden Guards have already been sent for treatment.”

Shen Jibai gave a faint hum.

He still held the broken blade up, with no intention of lowering it, as if waiting for her to take a stance.

Zhou Xin took a deep breath and forced herself to steady her mind.

“Vice Minister Shen, I am not someone who treats human life as worthless—”

“Not someone?”

Before she could finish, Shen Jibai cut her off. He gave a cold laugh, as if he had just heard the greatest joke in the world.

“Has Lady Lingyun forgotten whose life she used back then to force me into a duel?”

The sword-wielding guards who had retreated thirty feet away — the Golden Guards Shen Jibai had mentioned — all revealed expressions of sudden understanding.

They were not under the Court of Judicial Review’s authority, so naturally, they did not fear Shen Jibai the way the yamen runners did. The moment those words were spoken, they began whispering among themselves.

“No wonder Vice Minister Shen suddenly started fighting with Lady Lingyun. Before, no matter how she provoked him, he never reacted…”

“Whose life did she use to force Vice Minister Shen into fighting? It couldn’t have been his widowed aunt’s family, could it? The ones who depend on him?”

“What? Madam Shen only just became a widow. That was pitiful enough already. And Tannu is only eight this year… How could Lady Lingyun threaten them?”

“Lady Lingyun has already defeated every opponent in the Eastern Capital. Why did she still have to force the Vice Minister into a match?”

“Exactly! His Majesty even reprimanded Vice Minister Shen harshly because of it. I heard he was nearly demoted…”

“So Lady Lingyun deliberately refused to subdue the hamster demon?”

Seeing public opinion veer further and further off course, Zhou Xin immediately retorted,

“No!”

The moment she spoke, the whispering Golden Guards immediately fell silent. The surroundings once again sank into dead silence.

But while she could stop their mouths, she could not stop what they thought.

Judging from everyone’s reactions, not a single person present believed her.

The oppressive silence made Zhou Xin’s scalp tingle.

She quietly curled her fingers, her fingertips digging deep into the dirt.

Since these two had already had a grudge between them, why had he asked Chaonanyi to come capture the demon? Was he not afraid she would refuse to save him?

Taiqing Temple did not only have her.

With that thought, she lifted her eyes and met Shen Jibai’s gaze. Perhaps because her gaze was too open and direct, his phoenix eyes visibly sharpened for an instant.

“I’m sorry.”

She apologized sincerely.

“I was too reckless. I came here despite having lost all my memories, and because of that, both the Golden Guards and the Court of Judicial Review suffered losses.”

As soon as she finished speaking, everyone — Shen Jibai included — froze.

Clearly, given Chaonanyi’s personality, she would never have done such a thing.

Zhou Xin silently backed away a little. Seeing that the broken blade did not immediately follow, she seized the chance to stand up. Then she gave Shen Jibai, the yamen runners behind him, and the Golden Guards a formal bow.

“I apologize to all of you.”

At this, everyone became even more stunned. For a moment, they even forgot to respond.

“However…”

Her tone shifted. She withdrew her hands and straightened, meeting Shen Jibai’s hostile gaze openly.

“Under the circumstances just now, it was already lucky that I managed to cast a spell at all. If I had not remembered any spell, or if the spell I remembered had been unable to resolve the danger in front of us, does Vice Minister Shen know what the situation would look like now?”

Hearing this, Shen Jibai narrowed his eyes slightly.

“As for that accident…”

She raised a hand and pointed toward the restaurants, taverns, and entertainment houses on both sides of the street, where people were gathered at the windows watching the spectacle.

“With something like that happening in the middle of a busy marketplace, it will inevitably spread later. Vice Minister Shen may feel that his dignity has been damaged, but do you think my reputation benefits from this?”

“Whether Vice Minister Shen believes me or not, I truly have lost my memories of the past. Perhaps there were once many conflicts between us, so severe that we were like fire and water. But I no longer remember any of them.”

“Right now, in my eyes, Vice Minister Shen is my partner in capturing demons. You are a colleague whose life is tied to mine. Tell me, how would I dare humiliate you? And why would I risk my own life just to humiliate you? What benefit would that bring me?”

Zhou Xin spoke earnestly, saying everything in her heart in one breath.

For some reason, the more she spoke, the more astonished everyone looked. The yamen runner standing beside Shen Jibai was so shocked that his mouth hung open.

Shen Jibai’s expression also became unreadable. The hostility in his eyes gradually faded, but he still did not look away. He continued watching her steadily, as if scrutinizing her.

Zhou Xin met his gaze openly.

The two silently faced off for a while.

Only then did he look away, sheath the broken blade, and take a cotton handkerchief from his robe. He seemed to have no intention of paying her any further attention.

After wiping the bloodstain from his forehead, he tore the handkerchief to shreds with undisguised disgust and threw it onto the ground.

The tense atmosphere eased quietly.

Only then did someone finally think of the hamster demon.

“Lady Lingyun, this demon still hasn’t returned to its original size, so the demon-locking pouch can’t take it in. What should we do?”