Instinctive Nature

Hearing the words "yesterday," Qin Yi immediately took off the clothes he had only half put on. Ruan Su watched him with an odd expression and asked curiously,

"What are you... doing?"

Qin Yi turned over and climbed back onto the bed, asking in return,

"It wasn't easy getting people to believe I have a brain illness. Wouldn't it be a waste if I didn't make use of it?"

"Mm... oh, oh."

Ruan Su suddenly understood. Little Yi was so clever.

Seeing that she had actually believed him, Qin Yi shook his head and said,

"I was joking. I'd originally planned to go into town to collect the clothes and silver from Meng Peijiu, but since it's only been one day, there's no need to rush."

Ruan Su pursed her lips, her eyes carrying a trace of resentment. But she quickly put the matter out of her mind, lifted the half-spilled bucket of water to the earthen bed, bent down to wet and wring out the towel, then turned toward Qin Yi. Covering half of her burned face, she blinked, anticipation and tentative hope gleaming in her eyes.

Qin Yi glanced at her strangely. After thinking briefly, he raised his face.

Ruan Su's eyes curved into crescents. She hurried over and gently began wiping the boy's cheeks.

As the towel brushed across his face, Qin Yi closed his eyes, thought for a moment, and said softly,

"Starting yesterday, the proprietor should have already given you leave, right? But today, you should still take that paper talisman I gave you yesterday and visit him. Just don't trade it for a cultivation technique..."

"Eh... why?"

Ruan Su's body trembled slightly. Unusually, she interrupted Qin Yi.

She was asking both why he was stopping her from exchanging it with the proprietor for a cultivation technique, and whether she no longer needed to cultivate internal energy.

Qin Yi immediately opened his eyes, his gaze calm.

Their eyes met for an instant.

Ruan Su's hand, holding the towel aloft, froze in place. She looked somewhat nervous.

The air fell silent.

Ever since picking up this older sister, Qin Yi had constantly been giving her subtle obedience training.

And the most basic rule

was that whenever he was discussing serious matters, she had to keep quiet and listen.

She did not need to ask why. She did not need to know the reason. She only needed to do as he said, and he would lead her forward on the right path.

All the way south from Great Qin, they had traveled roads beyond counting. Qin Yi had kept his promise, so Ruan Su naturally had to do the same.

But this time, Qin Yi did not follow his old pattern and suppress the girl. Instead, he smiled and explained along with her question,

"Because our family has a better cultivation technique now. We can use that paper talisman to trade for something else, like silver."

"Oh..."

Ruan Su answered, letting out a long breath of relief. She had thought Little Yi was going to "scold" her again, but he had not.

Qin Yi reached out and rubbed her head reassuringly.

Ruan Su's beautiful eyes widened, and she immediately rubbed his head back.

Qin Yi resisted.

Ruan Su declared his resistance invalid.

After a bout of sibling horseplay, it ended with Ruan Su pinning Qin Yi to the bed with one hand and rubbing his hair into a bird's nest.

Qin Yi sat at the edge of the bed, breathing lightly as he watched Ruan Su carry the wooden bucket away to pour out the water, looking thoroughly satisfied. Thought flickered in his dark eyes.

Suppressing and completely locking down Ruan Su's subjective initiative had not actually been his personal wish. It had simply been the optimal solution under the circumstances.

When playing with human hearts, the slightest discrepancy could lead to a thousand miles of error.

Especially the sort of mental control born from suppression by every conceivable means—one careless misstep, and the backlash would come.

The only reason he had treated Ruan Su that way before was because Qin Yi had run out of options.

Just as physiques differed, there were gaps in talent between people.

Ruan Su's innate instincts were as frighteningly high as her unreasonable physical constitution.

Qin Yi did not know how long ago her family had thrown Ruan Su away, but when he found her, judging from the dirt and grime on her body, this older sister had survived alone in the mountains for at least a year.

And after he began systematically training her, her growth rate made Qin Yi feel as if things might spiral out of control at any moment.

Take yesterday, for instance.

When he had secretly slipped out of Immortal Guest House, Qin Yi had not left behind the slightest trace, nor had he told anyone where he was going.

Yet this older sister had still managed to find him almost immediately afterward.

Thinking of this, Qin Yi called toward the outside,

"Sis, how did you know yesterday that I'd gone to Meng's Cloth Workshop?"

Amid the sound of pouring water, Ruan Su's reply paused, as if she were seriously considering it. Then her hoarse answer drifted in from the little courtyard,

"...I felt... you would be there."

Feeling...

Two very interesting words.

If it truly was a feeling, then this older sister's feeling was far too accurate. After all these years together, decisions she made based on feeling had almost never been wrong.

And to get to the bottom of this, Qin Yi had conducted several variable experiments on Ruan Su.

He fed her information bit by bit—some real, some false, some seemingly real but actually false, and some seemingly false but actually real—then suddenly made her choose at a certain juncture.

The results of those experiments spoke for themselves.

Every time, Ruan Su could eliminate all the distractions and directly arrive at the most correct choice for the moment.

When he asked why she had chosen that way, she said she felt it was right.

After confirming this again and again, Qin Yi realized what Ruan Su was capable of.

Once she had absorbed enough information, she did not need to go through a chain of deductions like he did. Her brain would instinctively give her the optimal answer directly.

And,

she was rational and cold-blooded.

Two Calamity Seeds they had picked up had been discarded by Ruan Su as expendable pawns.

Of course, Qin Yi had tacitly approved of it.

But from then on, Qin Yi stopped training Ruan Su. Instead, he began progressively suppressing her in reverse, trying to snuff out that monstrous instinctive nature of hers.

If he could remain clear-headed around the clock, Qin Yi would not have minded continuing to train Ruan Su. But the existence of his brain illness truly left him no choice.

The fine mountain wind carried a slight autumn chill.

Ruan Su returned to the little house, sat beside Qin Yi, then quietly shifted her bottom closer until she was pressed against him. Suddenly, she asked carefully,

"Little Yi... is your brain illness... better?"

The room was silent. Qin Yi gathered his thoughts, then turned to see the faint fear in the girl's gaze, and could not help feeling puzzled.

Because of her nature, Ruan Su rarely revealed this sort of emotion.

During all their brushes with life and death on the road south, after Qin Yi dealt with the other Calamity Seeds a few times, aside from one or two thorns who submitted in body but not in heart, the rest would automatically regard him as their pillar, even developing something akin to religious worship.

But Ruan Su was different.

Even after years of Qin Yi's targeted discipline, her innate instincts had merely been suppressed.

When facing him, she was never meek or submissive.

She showed him no respect at all.

Sometimes, she even directly beat him up.

The authority of an older sister.

So what did this reaction now... mean?

"Mm, it should be better." Qin Yi nodded lightly and said slowly, "Though I may need to confirm it first."

"Oh..."

Ruan Su instinctively looked away. Qin Yi could tell there was not much happiness in her emotions.

Qin Yi tried to understand this change in her mood.

In fact, the moment the bucket hit the ground, he had noticed that something about Ruan Su's state was strange.

She had become overly cautious.

Even when he deliberately joked around and acted close to her, she carried a restrained distance, as though she were afraid of angering him.

Because of the silence, an awkward atmosphere rarely appeared in the little house.

Smack!

Ruan Su suddenly clapped both hands against her cheeks and stood up. Turning back, she smiled and said,

"I... go into town... buy a lamb leg, cel... celebrate!"

Still thinking, Qin Yi answered casually,

"There's no need. Isn't there still meat left at home?"

At those words,

Ruan Su's body suddenly stiffened, and she even seemed at a loss.

Qin Yi caught it from the corner of his eye, but did not move.

After a long pause,

pinch.

Ruan Su reached out and pinched Qin Yi's cheek, forcibly lifting his chin. There was none of the older sister's authority in her eyes from before. Instead, she seemed terribly lacking in confidence, as though afraid he would refuse her.

"We... celebrate. I... am the big sister!"

They looked at each other for several breaths. Qin Yi smiled.

Oh... he understood.

Finally understanding, Qin Yi's eyes curved as he smiled.

"Alright, then we'll celebrate. I'll cook lunch."

Ruan Su looked somewhat delighted. She immediately nodded, released him, put on her clothes, and stormed toward the door in a rush.

"Heh... heh... I'll go right now."

Qin Yi called after her,

"Remember to take that paper talisman to the proprietor and exchange it for silver. He probably won't cheat you."

Ruan Su ran to the door and opened the courtyard gate.

"...Okay."

Before she had stepped out of the gate,

"Sis."

Qin Yi suddenly called out to the girl again.

"Mm?"

Ruan Su turned back.

The boy's voice echoed softly through the green mountains, then was scattered by the wind in an instant.

"Whether my brain illness is better or not, you are my most important person."

"..."

Ruan Su's figure shuddered violently. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she bit her lip and sniffed, wanting to say something. But in the end, she turned away with a soft huff, the corners of her lips lifting. She waved behind her and skipped away with her petite figure, vanishing down the shaded forest path before the gate...