Shen Jue looked at Nan Si, who was lying silently on his bed, then walked to his table and took out a small bottle of medicine.
"Here, eat it," Shen Jue said as he poured out a small pill and held it toward Nan Si.
Nan Si slowly sat up on the bed. She looked blankly at the pill, then at Shen Jue.
A soft smile bloomed on her face, making her look unbearably cute and gentle.
"Pretty husband, is it candy?" Nan Si asked as she grabbed his hand and shook it lightly.
"Careful!" Shen Jue reacted instantly, catching the pill before it could fall to the ground.
He looked at Nan Si, who was staring at him with timid eyes. The anger that had lingered in his chest quietly dissipated.
He sighed inwardly, thinking that he had married an ancestor rather than a wife.
"Here. Swallow it," he said, bringing the pill closer to her lips. His voice sounded cold, as if he did not care at all.
Nan Si looked at him. Her eyes were filled with affection for a fleeting second, then she lowered them.
When she raised them again, they were filled with pure naivety and simple innocence.
The change was so quick that Shen Jue wondered if what he had seen before was merely an illusion.
Nan Si obediently swallowed the pill.
The bitterness exploded on her tongue, and her face immediately wrinkled into a small bun.
"Ouch… too… too bitter…" she complained, sticking out her tongue and making a pitiful expression.
'It's really bitter,' Nan Si thought resentfully.
[Haha… who told you to act like a fool?]
Baby laughed while watching his host suffer.
Shen Jue felt an inexplicable trace of amusement and handed her a glass of water.
Ding…
[Affection Value: -6%
Blackening Value: 76%]
After drinking the water, Nan Si looked at Shen Jue, who was spreading bedding on the floor.
"Pretty husband… you… you… why make bed…" she asked in a small, confused voice.
Listening to her incoherent question, Shen Jue felt a faint pang of tenderness.
"I will sleep here. You sleep on the bed," he replied calmly.
"No… no… husband and wife sleep together… Mother said." Nan Si widened her eyes and climbed out of bed, tugging at Shen Jue's sleeve as she tried to pull him toward the wooden bed.
Shen Jue looked at the small figure stubbornly dragging him and let out a restrained sigh.
"No. You go to sleep. Otherwise, I will send you back."
His voice turned cold and indifferent again.
Nan Si heard his tone, and a sharp bitterness rose in her heart.
She remembered how her Jue Jue had always spoiled her and never once spoken to her in such a distant way.
This time, her tears were real.
They fell silently, like pearls slipping from a broken string.
Shen Jue had already turned his head when he faintly heard the change in her breathing.
He glanced back.
Nan Si was no longer speaking.
She was just sitting there quietly, tears streaming down her pale face.
Something inside his chest shattered.
He had never felt such a strange ache before.
Even knowing that indulging her might be a mistake, he still stepped forward. His fingers brushed away her tears clumsily.
"Alright. Don't cry," he said, his voice softer than before. "I'll sleep on the bed."
But Nan Si did not stop.
She turned toward the wall, her shoulders trembling as her sobs grew louder.
Inside her mind, Baby hesitated before finally speaking in a rare serious tone.
[Host… it is not the fragment's fault. As we cross worlds, the darkness within them continues to increase. Their original nature is gradually suppressed.]
Nan Si listened silently. Her sobbing slowly subsided.
But she still puffed her cheeks slightly and muttered inwardly, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
Ignoring Baby's explanation for now, she turned to look at Shen Jue.
He was awkwardly trying to coax her while forcibly suppressing his own emotions.
Her heart ached for him.
"Then… you come… sleep with me… we husband and wife…" she said softly.
The panic that had unknowingly built inside Shen Jue finally eased.
He looked at her swollen, walnut-like eyes and nodded.
"Alright. Let's sleep."
His voice was gentler than before.
The morning light was unforgiving.
It bled through the thin paper windows, turning the floating dust into a shimmering haze.
Shen Jue had already woken early and prepared a simple breakfast.
Now he sat at the small wooden desk in the corner, a half-transcribed scroll spread before him.
The ink had dried long ago.
His gaze, however, remained fixed on the figure under the red quilt.
Nan Si was still asleep, but her face had regained a trace of color. No longer deathly pale, her skin now carried a faint, translucent pink.
[Host, wake up. The Male Lead has been staring at you for forty-two minutes. If his gaze were a blade, you would already be sliced into sashimi.]
Nan Si's mind slowly stirred.
'Forty-two minutes? He's more obsessive than modern CEOs. Fine. Let's reward him.'
She did not open her eyes immediately.
Instead, she let out a soft, distressed whimper and curled into herself, clutching the quilt tightly.
"Don't… don't hit… Si'er will be good… don't give the bitter candy…" she whispered, her voice trembling.
The scratch of the quill stopped abruptly.
Shen Jue's hand tightened around the bamboo stem.
The words "don't hit" echoed in the quiet room, striking him like a physical blow.
He stood up stiffly and walked toward the bed.
"Nan Si," he called in a low voice.
She jolted awake, eyes wide and glossy with tears. When she saw him, she flinched and pulled the blanket up to her nose.
Her pupils trembled as they focused on his face.
"Pretty… husband?"
The fear in her eyes slowly faded into that same vacant, gentle smile.
"Oh. Not Aunt."
Shen Jue's expression darkened slightly.
"You talk in your sleep."
Nan Si tilted her head, messy hair falling across her cheek.
"Si'er talked? Did I say something bad? Husband won't send me back, right?"
She hurried toward the edge of the bed, movements still clumsy from the lingering poison.
Her hand hovered near his sleeve, afraid to touch him.
"Don't send me back. The candy is too bitter. I'll be good. I can wash clothes… I can…" She looked around anxiously. "I can pick flowers!"
[Warning: Host, that is not a valuable skill to a disgraced scholar.] Baby commented dryly.
Nan Si ignored him and looked at Shen Jue expectantly.
Shen Jue felt a strange tightness in his chest.
"I don't need flowers," he said, a little more sharply than intended.
Nan Si's eyes dimmed instantly.
A single tear slid down her cheek.
Shen Jue clenched his fists behind his back, fighting the urge to wipe it away immediately.
"Fine. Don't cry. As long as you behave, I won't send you back."
His voice was still cold, but his eyes betrayed him by glancing at her repeatedly.
Nan Si's lips curved faintly.
[See? I told you he loves me. Look how awkward he is.] she teased Baby inwardly.
"I… I can read," she added shyly, pointing at the scrolls.
"Father let me sit in the hall sometimes. I know 'mountain' and 'river'…"
Shen Jue paused.
A Nan daughter being literate was rare.
"You can read?" he asked skeptically.
He wrote three characters on a scrap of paper: 恩 情.
He held it up before her.
"What does this say?"
Nan Si squinted and leaned closer, her forehead almost touching the paper.
"En… Qing…"
She looked up at him.
"Grace. Like when husband didn't let me fall."
The air grew still.
Shen Jue pulled the paper back abruptly and turned away.
"You're not as foolish as they say," he muttered.
"Everyone says Si'er is a broken doll," she said softly. "But dolls don't feel cold. I feel cold, husband."
Before he could respond, loud banging echoed at the courtyard gate.
"Shen Jue! Bring out the girl! The village head wants to question you about the poison!"
It was the uncle.
He had returned.
With people.
Shen Jue's gaze turned icy.
He looked at Nan Si, who was trembling, clutching the quilt tightly.
"Stay here," he ordered quietly. "Don't come out."
He reached for his outer robe.
But Nan Si jumped from the bed and grabbed the hem of his sleeve.
"Husband, don't go! They have the bitter candy! They'll make you eat it too!"
She clung to him desperately.
Shen Jue looked down at her — small, pale, frightened.
A humiliation meant to shame him.
And yet—
A cold, murderous protectiveness surged through his veins.
He covered her small hand with his.
He did not pull away.
"Let them try," he whispered.
Ding…
[Affection Value: -4%
Blackening Value: 72%]