"Why don't you go die?" Black Rose made no effort to hide her anger.
Nightmare leisurely crossed one leg over the other and said dismissively, "Don't put it so harshly. I know you have a knife for a tongue but a heart of tofu, Mentor. You say you want me dead, but deep down, you love me to death. How could you bear to let such an outstanding student die?"
Black Rose fell silent.
If she could, she would have liked to strangle Nightmare-how had she ever trained something like him?
But she still suppressed her irritation and said bluntly, "Deal. Now can you tell me your brilliant plan?"
Nightmare lightly fingered the hair by his ear and replied with a smile, "I hear there's quite a grudge between the Ji Family and the Song Family, and the Song Family has close ties with Perfected Tao Qian?"
Black Rose suddenly saw the light, but then asked, "But does the Song Family really have enough clout to persuade Perfected Tao Qian to come out of seclusion?"
Nightmare sighed inwardly, Stupid woman. I've spelled it out so clearly, and you still don't understand, but his hands swiftly typed a reply. "Ordinary worldly affairs naturally wouldn't do it. But what if Old Master Song were assassinated?"
Black Rose was instantly startled. "The Ji Family has a grudge against them, and their bodyguard just made a huge splash in the ancient martial arts world. They'd naturally be the prime suspects!"
Nightmare narrowed his eyes slightly and continued, "Then what if the killer used fist techniques, and after the crime, a lingering scent of the same perfume Wu Moling wears was found in the room?"
Chanel, Coco Mademoiselle.
Nightmare considered himself an artist, so naturally, he pursued the utmost perfection in detail. He had watched every move and every technique Wu Moling used, committing them all to memory. Apart from the "True Martial Ultimate Strike," which he truly had no way to imitate, he could replicate every other method.
Nightmare had even pretended to brush past Wu Moling by accident, sniffing out which perfume she used.
All he needed to do was wait a little, acting once Wu Moling's body had presumably recovered enough for others to believe she was capable of committing the crime.
Black Rose's heart tightened, and she grew even more wary of Nightmare.
No wonder his mission completion rate was one hundred percent. With such meticulous thinking, how could he ever fail to find the perfect opportunity?
Nightmare laid out his entire plan, then reminded her, "Mentor, I trust word of my movements won't get out? My dear mentor is the one I find hardest to leave behind. If either family wanted to finish me off, I might just drag you down to the Yellow Springs to keep me company."
"You're overthinking it," Black Rose replied bluntly.
Though they were in separate places, both narrowed their eyes slightly, their thoughts unknown.
Lin Fei and his two companions returned safely to the Ji Family villa.
They encountered no trouble whatsoever along the way, which instead made him let out an almost imperceptible sigh.
Lin Fei had deliberately let Wu Moling accept the challenges to lay a trap, making the Dark Night Organization's assassin walk straight into his net.
After all, to outsiders, the Ji Family's strongest fighter, Wu Moling, was already extremely weakened, and Ji Yaoguang had only an "insignificant" Lin Fei beside her.
Faced with such a perfect opportunity, the Dark Night Organization's assassin had actually made no move?
Clearly, this assassin was extremely cautious.
"It seems these assassins aren't all fools." Lin Fei smiled faintly, feeling that things had become interesting.
But how long could such patient inaction last?
Lin Fei felt certain this cautious assassin would make another move, but he paid it no mind at all.
Schemes and tricks could indeed work wonders sometimes.
But before absolute strength, every scheme and trick was a joke.
As night fell, Lin Fei received a phone call. Yao Zhicheng told him over the phone that he had already headed back to the country ahead of the others and expected to arrive in Rongcheng tomorrow.
Lin Fei murmured an acknowledgment, then thought for a moment and said, "Arrange a time and place with Yaoguang."
With that, he handed the phone to Ji Yaoguang.
Meeting her puzzled gaze, Lin Fei smiled. "It's Yao Zhicheng. He says he can get to Rongcheng tomorrow."
Ji Yaoguang hurriedly took the phone and discussed the contract with Yao Zhicheng.
Meanwhile, Lin Fei walked over to the spacious balcony on his own, letting the night breeze wash over him beneath moonlight as tranquil as water.
A moment later, Ji Yaoguang quietly walked up beside him.
Although they stood together, there were still about two feet between them.
"Finished talking?" Lin Fei asked calmly.
Ji Yaoguang gave him a look filled with complicated emotions and nodded gently. "Mm."
Even without turning to look, Lin Fei could sense her conflicted desire to speak, so he smiled and asked, "What's wrong?"
Ji Yaoguang sighed, resting her delicate hands on the balcony wall. Looking out into the courtyard with a somewhat lost expression, she murmured, "Why are you so good to me?"
This question had remained hidden in her heart all along, and only today had she finally been unable to resist asking it.
"You have the answer in your heart." Lin Fei gazed deeply at Ji Yaoguang, but it made her unconsciously retreat half a step, lowering her head and biting her lip without a word.
When Ji Yaoguang raised her head again, she was astonished to discover that a trace of... sadness had flashed across the face of this unimaginably powerful man?
Such an expression seemed as though it should never appear on his face, yet there it was.
Just because she had taken half a step back?!
Ji Yaoguang drew a deep breath, mustered her courage, and decided to get to the bottom of it. "Why?"
This time, she was asking why Lin Fei liked her.
"Why?" For a moment, Lin Fei looked somewhat wistful as he murmured, "Because you're Yaoguang."
People today called fifty years of marriage a "golden wedding," showing just how precious fifty years of marital love was.
Then what about two thousand years of love?
Ji Yaoguang seemed unable to quite accept this explanation. She shook her head with a bitter smile. "But we barely know each other."
But we barely know each other.
Perhaps Ji Yaoguang could not imagine just how devastating her unthinking words were.
Lin Fei felt as though an invisible thorn had driven deep into his heart.
It had been so long since he had felt this that it even seemed unfamiliar.
So the two thousand years of love he cherished so dearly amounted, in the eyes of the present Ji Yaoguang, to nothing more than "we barely know each other."
Lin Fei was silent for a moment, then said, "Actually, in your previous life, we spent two thousand years together. If you're willing, I can let you see those scenes."
To his surprise, after a brief hesitation, Ji Yaoguang let out a breath as though she had laid down a heavy burden in her heart, then said softly but firmly, "I'm not willing."
She looked at Lin Fei somewhat apologetically, then continued, "I don't know what my previous life was like, and I don't want to know. Since I've already been reincarnated and started over, why can't I be a brand-new person?"
Facing Lin Fei's silent gaze, Ji Yaoguang put on a carefree smile, hoping it would rub off on him. "I'm Ji Yaoguang, an ordinary woman. I'm not the Empress Yaoguang Wu Moling talks about, nor the fairy you can't let go of in your heart."
"I'm an ordinary woman, but why can't I live for myself? Why must I become Empress Yaoguang?"
"Let the past stay in the past. Don't bring it up again."