Chapter 022
Chapter 22: Mind Reading Makes Me Feel See-Through
Xiao Man stared at his face, still refined and otherworldly even in the dim light, and her heart pounded so hard her voice tightened as she forced out a greeting: “Eldest Grandson Young Master is teasing me; how would a maid dare speak Master’s name directly?”
She tried to wrap herself in proper manners, as if rules could build a safe wall around her.
Lin Qing Xuan did not look up as the tip of his brush moved steadily over the rice paper, leaving graceful characters behind. His tone was flat, like stating a simple fact, yet the words fell into Xiao Man’s heart like a rock into a deep pool and sent waves crashing: “When no one was around, you even called me ‘good brother’.”
Boom!
Xiao Man felt hot blood rush to her head in an instant; her cheeks, ears, and neck all burned. The heat was so strong she thought she might catch fire.
[This Buddha’s Chosen!!!]
[He didn’t just wake up to it. He turned on cheat mode!]
[Does he not want his pride anymore?!]
[Copying the Heart Sutra about form being emptiness while flirting so smoothly at the same time?!]
[That seamless switch of skills puts me, a modern office drone, to shame. I bow down!]
[He is the king of shameless!]
[Wait, wrong focus! He even remembers what I called him in my dream?!]
Crushing shame and the panic of being stripped bare swept over her. She clenched her fists so tight her nails bit into her palms, hoping pain would bring back her reason.
[Don’t think it! Don’t think it!]
[If he can Mind Read me at any second, then I have no privacy at all!]
[And this cursed Shared Empathy and Dreaming…]
Furious and unwilling, Xiao Man thought as a fierce frustration surged up:
[Why should it be like this?!]
[Why is he so strong that he can hear my Heart Voice, walk into my dreams, and act however he wants in there?]
[While I am like a clueless goose with zero unlocked skills!]
[Why can’t I hear his Heart Voice? It isn’t fair!]
As if answering that silent shout, Lin Qing Xuan finally set down his brush. He lifted his head, and those deep-pool eyes caught the shame, fear, and fierce refusal twisting across her face. His fingers paused on the prayer beads. Meeting her gaze with calm honesty that felt almost cruel, he spoke: “I made a few adjustments.”
He added with the same quiet, steady tone: “It is normal that you can’t hear me.”
Then he paused, his eyes sliding across her body to some spot that made Xiao Man think of her lower belly, and he said without a ripple: “Also, if the empathic link were fully open, that kick you gave me in your dream would have consequences.”
He weighed his words, but Xiao Man understood at once, and the red in her face drained white as he finished: “You would probably be stuck in bed for a few days.”
Xiao Man went silent.
[This is a blow to the heart. A total blow to the heart!]
[He remembers that kick. Of course he does! How could he not!]
Lin Qing Xuan did not see her go pale. He continued calmly: “As for the ‘modern person’…” He frowned a little, puzzled by the term, and asked, “Is it that man?”
Xiao Man froze. [He heard it! He really heard it!] She scrambled to drown the danger with a mental barrage: [Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law…] She tried to use the core values to cover the risky words.
The sudden, determined flood of thoughts hit Lin Qing Xuan like noise. His brows drew together for a heartbeat. Lifting a hand, he pressed two fingers lightly to his temple and spoke with rare helplessness: “I did not mean to read.”
He added, simple and direct: “When you are close, I will hear some things.”
He rolled the prayer beads again and looked at Xiao Man as if to say: your thoughts are too loud; they crash into my ears on their own.
Staring at his “innocent victim” face and then at the ink speck that had splashed onto her sleeve, Xiao Man felt a hot spike of anger shoot to the top of her skull. She wanted to grab the heavy inkstone and fling all that dark ink across his cold, clueless, shamelessly handsome face.
Clueless and shameless is unbeatable.
She drew in a deep breath, then another, forcing down the urge to go down together with him. She made her voice sound calm and reasonable, full of a spirit of “scientific” inquiry as she asked: “Eldest Grandson Young Master,” and she stressed the title on purpose, “do you mean this sense for hearing someone’s Heart Voice is limited by distance? For example, when I was working in Old Madam’s courtyard and we were farther apart, you could not hear me, right?”
Lin Qing Xuan dipped his chin a little, which counted as a yes.
Hope sparked in Xiao Man’s eyes. Distance. A safe distance was the key.
She straightened, put on the most sincere look of being considerate for the Master, then raised her voice a bit with a clear hint of keeping away as she hurried on: “Since that is so, Eldest Grandson Young Master, please consider this.”
She pointed first at the tightly shut door and windows, then at the wide desk between them as she pushed her words along, earnest and a little anxious: “A single man and a single woman, alone in one room with the doors and windows closed… if people talk, it will hurt your good name.”
She pressed her hand to her chest and rushed on, sounding dutiful: “I am a nobody. If my reputation is ruined, so be it. But you are Buddha’s Chosen, the pillar of our Heir Apparent Manor. If rumors spread, Old Madam and First Madam would be so sad.”
She leaned forward, eyes bright, and declared for his sake: “So, to protect your good name and to avoid suspicion, we should open the door and the windows.”
She stared at him, firm and ringing with a righteous tone: “Let the air in. Let the breeze through. Make it bright. That way, those sounds that should not be heard will not crash into your ears by accident and stain your clear mind.”
She finished in one breath, chest rising and falling, eyes shining with the glow of “I am doing this for you,” and the hard-to-spot urgency of “please let me out.”
Outside the door, Old Chen and Shi Tou had their ears pressed to the crack, straining to hear. At Xiao Man’s loud and clear talk about avoiding suspicion and opening everything, the father and son sucked in sharp breaths at the same time.
Old Chen went speechless as one thought flashed: [We are doomed. That girl has nerves of steel. She dares talk to the Young Master like that?!]
Shi Tou blinked hard, stunned and a little awed: [Xiao Man is so bold. For the Young Master’s good name, she is really going all in.]
Inside, Lin Qing Xuan listened quietly to Xiao Man’s “passionate speech.” His fingers slowly rubbed one circle over the smooth surface of the beads. He lifted his eyes and let them settle on her face, a little pink from nerves and excitement. Her eyes shone with two messages: I want to go out, and I want to stay far away from you.
Silence spread in the closed room, sticky with the scent of sandalwood. After a while, the corner of Lin Qing Xuan’s mouth moved the tiniest bit, so slight it felt like a trick of the light. He did not speak. He only leaned back against the wide, solid back of the rosewood round-back chair. Then he raised the long, defined hand that had personally shut the doors and windows, and he flicked it lightly toward the closed window in Xiao Man’s direction, a casual, gentle wave.
As you wish.