Chapter 262

Chapter 262: You Treat Me As Yu Zhao’s Stand-In?
“Fourth Senior Brother.”

Cui Jue stood at the edge of the cliff with his hands clasped behind his back, acting as if he had not heard the call from behind him.

Ye Cong Xin bit her lips in embarrassment.

The path she had wanted to use to leave was blocked. She had no choice but to start with the person beside her.

To be honest, there had never been any deep conflict between her and Cui Jue. She did not even know why Cui Jue had suddenly started to distance himself from her.

Maybe she could use this chance to change Cui Jue’s opinion of her.

Ye Cong Xin sobbed as she choked out: “Fourth Senior Brother, what did I do wrong that made you unhappy? If you don’t tell me, I won’t know anything. Don’t you think you’re being too cruel to me like this? If I really did something wrong, I’m willing to change. Please don’t ignore me, alright?”

She looked like a lost fawn, confused and pitiful.

Cui Jue still acted as if he heard nothing. His figure was like a towering mountain, firm and unmoving.

Ye Cong Xin took a few small steps forward and reached out, wanting to grab Cui Jue’s sleeve.

Cui Jue shifted one step to the right, neatly avoiding her hand.

“Fourth Senior Brother!”

Ye Cong Xin finally broke down in tears, big drops rolling down her cheeks.

Half of her sadness was an act, but the other half was real.

Among her five Senior Brothers, she liked Cui Jue the most.

Cui Jue was cold and distant toward outsiders. Even when he faced the other senior brothers, he was a man of few words.

Only when he was with her would he smile. He would even prepare all kinds of body-warming pills for her.

He was not like Fang Cheng Lang, who loved to lecture, nor like Lan Zi Yu, whose temper rose and fell without warning. He was like a spring breeze, soothing her scarred soul during the most painful time of her life.

Ye Cong Xin had truly treated him as her own Senior Brother. She had even planned to steal his Luck Value in the end.

Cui Jue’s sudden change of attitude was the hardest thing for her to accept.

They had gotten along so well before. Why did Cui Jue change so easily?

[Are all men really this heartless?]

“Fourth Senior Brother, answer me why! Why?” Ye Cong Xin cried. “What did I ever do to wrong you?”

Cui Jue finally turned around. His eyelashes lowered slightly as he looked at her. His eyes were cold and unfamiliar.

Ye Cong Xin suddenly felt a chill.

She subconsciously wrapped her arms around herself. Her tear-washed eyes stared fixedly at Cui Jue.

She wanted an answer.

She was not willing to let it go.

“Ye Cong Xin, I only took extra care of you back then because of Little Zhao,” Cui Jue said quietly. “She pitied you and asked me to refine body-nourishing pills for you. Even the spirit herbs for those pills were planted and picked by Little Zhao herself. She is the one you should be grateful to.”

Cui Jue’s words mercilessly shattered all of Ye Cong Xin’s fantasies.

Ye Cong Xin could not accept it.

“No, it’s not like that, Fourth Senior Brother,” she cried. “You like me. Did you forget? You once praised me for being bright and cute, like a little sun hanging in the sky, always warm and blazing.”

She tried to prove to Cui Jue that there were many beautiful memories between them.

“That was something I once said to Little Zhao,” Cui Jue replied. His voice was icy.

“What?”

“Little Zhao’s time was split between the other senior brothers, and you just happened to show up,” he said. “Plus her request, so I treated you as another her.”

Back then, Yu Zhao had been the most popular junior sister on Lone Moon Peak.

Ye Cong Xin was just a sickly little pitiful thing.

Yu Zhao had a kind heart. When she saw that Ye Cong Xin’s health was bad, she went to Cui Jue to ask for medicine for her.

The distance between Cui Jue and Yu Zhao had closed bit by bit like that.

Cui Jue lowered his eyes.

His biggest mistake was falling too deep into the role.

From beginning to end, the junior sister he liked had only ever been Yu Zhao. Ye Cong Xin was just a stand-in to pass the time when Yu Zhao was not around.

But he had acted for too long. The fake had turned real, and he had ended up losing the person he truly cherished.

So he hated himself.

He let himself go and refused to touch the alchemy furnace again.

“Another her? You treat me as Yu Zhao’s stand-in?”

Ye Cong Xin’s voice trembled.

She had always thought she was different in Cui Jue’s heart.

So this was the truth.

Ha.

[Men really are ridiculous.]

“From now on, don’t come looking for me again.”

Cui Jue threw down this cold line and walked away.

Ye Cong Xin stood where she was, biting hard on her lower lip. The hatred in her eyes almost seemed to take physical form.

“Yu Zhao, it’s you again,” she hissed. “Why can’t you just die?”

Yu Zhao being alive was her greatest obstacle.

One day, she would make Yu Zhao pay back all the humiliation she had suffered because of her, not missing a single bit.

…

Yu Zhao rubbed her itchy ear.

She used one hand to lift the little fox wrapped around her neck and casually weighed it.

“Not bad. You’ve gotten even sturdier.”

“Yu Zhao! Yu Zhao! Let’s go play! Don’t stay in the room, it stinks!”

The little fox happily waved its chubby short paws as it spoke.

By “stinks,” it meant the smell of blood drifting out from the room next door.

Nine-Tails had agreed to Master Qing Yan that she would help Quan Ye get through this crisis, but she had never promised any specific method. As long as she kept Quan Ye’s life hanging by a breath and did not let him die easily, she would have fulfilled the agreement.

Because of that, Quan Ye had been in great pain these past few days. Every day they could hear his wails, and puddles of blood would seep out from under his room.

Yu Zhao was not affected at all. The little fox, however, could not stand it.

It came on behalf of all the little foxes to invite Yu Zhao to their den to play.

In truth, it was craving the many kinds of food in Yu Zhao’s storage space.

Yu Zhao happily agreed.

Since the day they had parted, Bai Ling and Nine-Tails had not shown their faces again.

Yu Zhao was not anxious.

Her predicament was also the demon race’s predicament. The two leaders of the demon race could not possibly ignore it. She only needed a bit more patience.

Yu Zhao followed the little fox to the place where lesser demons gathered to play.

Not long after she left, Bai Ling and Nine-Tails appeared in Quan Ye’s room next door.

Seeing Quan Ye tied hand and foot on the bed, his skin torn open and his appearance unrecognizable, Bai Ling could not help feeling uneasy.

After all, demon race blood flowed in Quan Ye’s veins. He still counted as one of them.

But when he glanced at Nine-Tails’s expression, he swallowed back the words on the tip of his tongue.

Nine-Tails seemed to sense his gaze and asked in a light tone: “Can’t bear to see it?”

Bai Ling shook his head.

Nine-Tails’s face was expressionless. “I could take out the spirit herb right now to stop his pain,” she said, “but I’m choosing not to. Bai Ling, do you know why?”

Bai Ling thought for a moment. “Because you don’t like him?”

“That’s right.” Nine-Tails admitted it calmly. “I really don’t like him. But that isn’t the main reason.”

She shot Bai Ling a sideways look. “It isn’t easy to be a descendant of the Azure Dragon Clan. Things that come too easily are never cherished. I want him to remember this pain and never forget who he is.”

If it had been another demonic beast, Nine-Tails might have chosen a different method. But Quan Ye’s situation was special. He clearly felt more attached to the human race.

Nine-Tails did not want to go to all this trouble only to save an ungrateful white-eyed wolf.

“But if you do this, won’t you push him to become even more rebellious?” Bai Ling asked anxiously.

Quan Ye was their second backup choice.

He did not want Quan Ye and the demon race to turn against each other.

“If that happens, it just means he isn’t the one we need,” Nine-Tails said calmly.

The biggest difference between Nine-Tails and Bai Ling was that she never placed all her hopes on someone else.

If Quan Ye could not blend into the demon race, Nine-Tails would abandon him at once and go look for a new target, instead of hanging herself on a single tree.

Bai Ling could ignore what other people said.

But Nine-Tails’s words were something he would definitely take to heart and think over again and again.

[Had he been wrong all along?]