Chapter 84: The Golden Cage Traps the White Phoenix (7)
After listening, Bo Yan smiled faintly and said, “How touching.”
From Shen Yuying’s description alone, it turned out everything had not been just Bai Chunsheng’s one-sided infatuation. It had been hard on the two of them as well—one was the Sword Sovereign, unmatched and proud of the heavens and earth, the other a noble great demon of the Ten Thousand Demon Sect. And yet, they still had to be so reserved.
So much so that by the time Yan Jingqiu met his untimely end, this unspoken affection had already been sealed away forever, buried in the dust of the past.
They had not dared to speak, had not dared to mention it.
This love had been both a thousand miles apart and within arm’s reach.
In that light, Yan Jingqiu had not fared much better than him. To have never possessed, or to not know one had once possessed—which was more pitiful?
Bo Yan let out a deep sigh. “You may go.”
In this short span of facing Bo Yan, Shen Yuying already had fine beads of sweat forming at her temples. Hearing his words felt like being granted permission to relax. Just as she was about to hurry away, Bo Yan asked her, “Where is the letter Yan Jingqiu sent?”
—Earlier, Shen Yuying had said Bai Chunsheng did not know he had a marriage contract with her.
If that was the case, then Bai Jianghan likely would not have given him the letter and sword tassel Yan Jingqiu had delivered. Bo Yan wanted to know now—what had Yan Jingqiu written to Bai Chunsheng?
Shen Yuying said, “The sword tassel, I don’t know where it went. But the letter should be in Bai Chunsheng’s possession.”
She recalled, “The day after Yan Jingqiu sent those things, he shut himself away in life-and-death seclusion. Bai Chunsheng didn’t wake until the seventh day after Yan Jingqiu went into seclusion. Bai Jianghan told him it was a letter Yan Jingqiu had left, and to keep it safe—it might be useful in the future.”
Thinking of this, Shen Yuying couldn’t help laughing once. Because of the engagement, Bai Jianghan treated her extremely well during that period. She remembered how Bai Chunsheng’s expression had completely changed the moment he woke and received the letter.
Before, while Yan Jingqiu remained unaware, Bai Chunsheng had secretly sent him quite a few “challenge letters.” So when he received this one, he thought that after leaving the Lutai Secret Realm, Yan Jingqiu had returned to the Yan family and found out about his little mischief.
He thought this was Yan Jingqiu’s counterattack, meant to teach him a lesson.
On the spot, Bai Chunsheng had not even dared to open it. Instead, he had thrown himself into Bai Jianghan’s arms, crying, “Yan Jingqiu is going to beat me up—what do I do?”
Bai Jianghan had coldly replied, “What else can you do? I told you not to provoke him, but you insisted, acting like you were so capable. Just you wait—once he comes out of seclusion, he’ll beat you half to death.”
Bai Chunsheng had quickly wiped his tears, hurried to destroy the last letter he had not yet sent, and for a whole year afterward had not dared step foot outside the Ten Thousand Demon Sect.
Only after hearing that Yan Jingqiu truly had gone into seclusion, and was not deceiving him, had Bai Chunsheng finally breathed easier.
That was why there had been a rumor in the outside world: “Bai Chunsheng sent a letter to Yan Jingqiu, and unexpectedly, Yan Jingqiu actually replied—it scared Bai Chunsheng out of his wits.” But that rumor was only half true. Sending letters had indeed been real, but the “reply” had in fact been a congratulatory marriage letter.
Bo Yan, “Didn’t you say Bai Chunsheng didn’t know he had a marriage contract with you?”
—If he had seen Yan Jingqiu’s congratulatory marriage letter, how could he still not know?
Shen Yuying lowered her head. “He didn’t read it.”
Bai Chunsheng had feared it contained some trap of Yan Jingqiu’s. How would he have dared open it? Of course he had quickly hidden it away.
She added, “Bai Chunsheng kept it. He sealed it with ten layers of restrictions and hid it. No one knows where he put it.”
Bo Yan gave a soft laugh, but said nothing.
Because of that single laugh, the air in the room grew heavy and stiff.
Shen Yuying sneaked glances at Bo Yan’s expression from the corner of her eye, but all of it was hidden beneath his mask. All she felt was his figure, solitary and desolate.
After a while, seeing she had not left, Bo Yan’s tone carried a trace of impatience. “Why are you still here?”
Only then did Shen Yuying dare to hurry out. She gave up her earlier thought of asking how Bai Chunsheng should be dealt with—if he was to be sent to the Cold Cavern, then so be it. It was not her who would be punished, after all.
Just before closing the door, Shen Yuying caught sight of Bo Yan sitting in that soft chair, as if at the bottom of a bottomless abyss, gazing into the distance at a moon he could not see, could never reach. In the Soul Abyss, the moon could not be seen, so it was doomed to be futile.
Perhaps because Bai Chunsheng had been mentioned so many times just now, Shen Yuying suddenly thought of him. The Golden Phoenix was yang, the White Phoenix was the moon. The Ten Thousand Demon Sect’s “Star-Plucking Pavilion” had been so named because that little White Phoenix, Bai Chunsheng, was the so-called little moon.
Where the bright moon rested, all the stars could be plucked.
But then why, in the Soul Abyss—a place where the moon would never appear—was this building called the “Yaoyue Pavilion”?
Note: Yaoyue meaning inviting the moon.
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
