Reborn as a concubine's daughter and entering a noble family: Xie Lang, don't be too seduc

"You suspect Sister Si?" Huo Sanghua realized.

It turns out that Xie Lin knew about the suspicious aspects of Si Qingyue, and he frequently appeared at Guanyue Tower in order to find out about the relationships behind Si Qingyue.

he... ...

It's not as bad as the rumors outside suggest.

It seems he already knew that Si Qingyue was among the assassins who broke into the Xie family on their wedding night.

She also knew that Si Qingyue had taken her hostage and escaped to the outskirts of the city...

"Yes." Xie Lin had been busy for a long time but still couldn't get the fire going. Today, the weather was freezing cold and the temperature had dropped sharply, making even starting a fire extremely difficult.

Hawthorne sighed silently, took out the tinderbox he had been hiding on his person, and handed it over.

Then I found a place to sit down next to the brazier.

They waited for Xie Lin to start a fire so they could keep warm.

Taking the tinder, Xie Lin hesitated noticeably for a moment, but still lit the charcoal first. Once the flames in the basin were high, he got up and sat down next to Huo Sanghua, toying with the tinder in his hand—

"This belongs to my elder brother."

His words carried a hint of doubt, and he recognized that the tinderbox belonged to Xie Shu.

Hawthorne lowered her head, thinking about how to answer him and how to explain what happened that night.

But Xie Lin said, "My older brother is usually very calm and composed. His only hobby is carving small things. He gave me one before, so I recognize it. Every stroke on it was carved by his own hand..."

"Last night, I was waiting in my room when I heard footsteps coming from the roof. I was afraid they would trap me there and I would have nowhere to escape, so I ran for my life before they broke in. But the Marquis of Anding's mansion is too big. I ran and ran and I don't know where I ended up. Just then, I ran into the eldest young master fighting with another group of assassins. He saved me. I was just escaping in the chaos when I met Sister Si."

Hawthorne looked at the tinderbox in his hand and began to speak—

"Sister Si was injured and originally wanted to take me hostage to escape. The eldest young master followed us out of the city, but later, in order to escape, Sister Si abandoned me, and the eldest young master was also injured. We didn't know if there were any ambushes around, so we could only find a cave to hide in and wait for someone to come and rescue us. At that time, I also wanted to start a fire to keep warm, but I couldn't light it after fiddling with it for a long time. So the eldest young master handed this to me."

"I see..." Xie Lin could vaguely imagine the situation at that time.

Huo Sanghua reached out to take back the tinder that Xie Shu had given her, but Xie Lin flipped his fingers slightly, causing Huo Sanghua to miss.

He then tucked his elder brother's tinderbox into his sleeve.

Then, under Hawthorne's questioning gaze, he took out his own and handed it to her—

“From now on, use this one. I will return this one to my elder brother. There are spies everywhere in this mansion. If the people around the old lady find out that you are using my elder brother’s things, the old lady will definitely try every means to kill you.”

Hawthorne hadn't thought that far ahead.

Reminded by Xie Lin, he couldn't help but gasp.

Xie Lin then handed her his own, and while leaning over to stir the charcoal in the brazier, tentatively asked, "So you and your older brother... ..."

"What?" Hawthorne waited for him to explain, wondering what he wanted to ask.

"Never mind." Xie Lin suddenly gave up, and seeing her reaction, he knew it was nothing.

Hawthorne, wrapped in his cloak, was still shivering uncontrollably; her body was frozen solid, and it wouldn't warm her up anytime soon. Perhaps from being frozen for so long, her mind had slowed down; she slowly stretched out her hands towards the flame—

The intense heat warmed my hands.

I quickly pulled it back and pressed it against my cheek, and immediately felt much warmer.

A secret joy, as if he had escaped death once again, crept onto his face.

Xie Lin looked at her laughing like a little kid and couldn't help but laugh. He sighed, shook his head, and felt utterly helpless.

Someone like her, who struggled to even escape the palace, how could she possibly have the mind to think about anything else?

When he first learned that Si Qingyue was the one who had kidnapped her and escaped outside the city, he had a fleeting moment of suspicion about Huo Sanghua, wondering if there was some connection between her and Si Qingyue... ...Si Qingyue feigned kidnapping to escape, luring his elder brother into pursuit, and then set up an ambush outside the city to frame him... ...

But now that I think about it...

She must have gotten herself involved without really understanding what was going on.

But even though the elder brother knew that Si Qingyue had taken Sang Hua hostage and left the city, possibly to lure him into a trap, he still followed her out...

He touched the tinderbox in his sleeve, his brows furrowing slightly.

"So..." Huo Sanghua hesitated, her expression somewhat unnatural. She figured Xie Lin had been gone all day; he should have found out everything he needed to. "Sister Si, is she really a bad person?"

She felt an inexplicable sense of closeness to Si Qingyue.

I can't quite explain why, but when I'm with Si Qingyue, I feel a strange sense of familiarity, like...

People who were already very close to me.

"I don't know," Xie Lin said nonchalantly.

Hawthorne grew anxious, "What do you mean you don't know? Didn't you suspect her?"

“I suspect her. She’s involved in many things, but I don’t know what her purpose is, so I can’t be sure she’s a bad person,” Xie Lin said.

From the first time he met Si Qingyue, he could sense that Si Qingyue was "interested" in him.

She approached him with a purpose, but he still hasn't been able to find out what that purpose was.

On his wedding night with Sang Hua, their home was attacked by numerous assassins, including Si Qingyue...

Xie Lin learned from someone close to his elder brother that his brother found her in their father's study, and after a fight, Si Qingyue was no match for him and fled wounded.

He looked at Sang Hua and asked, "Yesterday, when she took you hostage and escaped, did she say anything to you?"

Why Sang Hua?

Xie Lin was curious. Although he was certain from Sang Hua's answer that Sang Hua's encounter with him was purely accidental, he had a strange feeling that Si Qingyue had an excessive interest in Sang Hua!

On the surface, it was she who kidnapped Sang Hua and took her out of the city.

But considering the various situations in the Marquis's mansion at that time, her kidnapping of Sang Hua and escaping from the mansion was also a way of protecting Sang Hua.

The danger lies with the Marquis of Anding's residence.

If she can get Sang Hua out of there, she can avoid being hunted down by those assassins.

She might not be a match for her elder brother in terms of skill, but she could have escaped without alerting him. Instead, she took Sang Hua with her, leading her brother to pursue her all the way outside the city. Perhaps, she had intended to take Sang Hua with her from the start.

What exactly is the relationship between her and Sang Hua?

“...She told me she wouldn’t hurt me and that I shouldn’t worry. She said she would leave me once we were out of town…” Hawthorne recalled her experience from the previous night.

That's all I vaguely remember.

"Is there anything else?" Xie Lin asked tentatively.

"That's all," Sang Hua said definitively. Although she didn't remember much more, she didn't think it meant anything else. But when she looked at Xie Lin, she noticed that his expression seemed different than usual. "What's wrong?"

"Sang Hua, have you seen her before?" Xie Lin still couldn't figure it out.

Si Qingyue is such a cautious person, yet she exposed herself without any concealment in front of Sang Hua. Why is that?

“I saw him when I went to the temple,” Hawthorne said.

"That time we went to the temple? Was it... that time we...?" Xie Lin remembered.

Seeing Hawthorne nod, he became even more certain.

"Didn't you tell her to come find me?" Hawthorne didn't hide anything and directly expressed her suspicions.

That day, she clearly smelled Xie Lin's scent on Si Qingyue.

Therefore, she concluded that Si Qingyue had already met Xie Lin before appearing in front of her.

Hearing Huo Sanghua's confident questioning, Xie Lin panicked and hurriedly tried to prove himself, "When did I send her to find you? Is that what she said?"