Tao Hua froze for a heartbeat, then guessed that Guan Fusha was probing her.
For Guan Fusha to ask that, she clearly knew something already. It was very possible that she had already dug up every last detail about Tao Hua.
Tao Hua didn’t intend to hide it and said,
“…You’re right, I know you. You’re Guan Fusha, Right Protector of the Night God Cult.”
“That really is strange then. Why did you just now pretend you didn’t know me?”
The amusement in Guan Fusha’s eyes deepened.
Tao Hua lowered her head and bit her lower lip, not knowing how to answer.
“Perhaps I should change the question… Why does Miss want to join the Night God Cult?”
While Tao Hua had been unconscious, Guan Fusha had already sent people to investigate her from top to bottom.
To be fair, Guan Fusha really was curious.
How did a pampered young lady like Cui Taohua, who looked like she couldn’t lift a bucket or carry a basket, end up running off to join the Night God Cult?
Tao Hua had guessed from the start that she’d be asked this when she tried to join, so she’d long prepared a story.
She lifted her head slightly, a faint, indescribable sadness on her face.
“My father is a rich merchant from Gui City. He has wives and concubines all over the place and children everywhere, but he doesn’t care about me. My mother is the type who favors sons over daughters. She hopes my older brother can inherit the family, so she planned to marry me off as a concubine to Lord Wang, a business partner of our family.”
She stopped there for a moment. Tears pooled in her eyes almost instantly, large drops trembling on her lashes, about to fall.
“…Lord Wang is older than my father, and he also has wives and concubines all over his household. He spends his days in brothels. I… I really don’t want to marry him, so I ran away from home. When my mother found out, she flew into a rage and ordered people to drag me back. I truly had nowhere left to hide, so after thinking it over again and again, I decided to come and join the Night God Cult.”
Nothing she said was false, she had only exaggerated a little.
Cui Taohua’s mother had indeed considered marrying her to Lord Wang to secure her son’s position in the Cui family. But the original Cui Taohua was not someone easy to bully. She’d cried, made a scene, and even threatened to hang herself, refusing to marry no matter what, until her mother finally dropped the idea.
If it had been anyone else, just seeing such a rare beauty crying so pitifully would have been enough to make them agree on the spot.
But Guan Fusha was not “anyone else”.
More importantly, she looked in the mirror every day and had long since become numb to the concept of “beauty”.
After listening to Tao Hua’s miserable story, Guan Fusha said nothing. Her face still wore that bright, gentle smile, giving no hint of what she was thinking.
Under that gaze, a chill ran down Tao Hua’s spine. She kept replaying her own words in her head, wondering if anything had sounded off.
“Protector Guan, now that you know why I want to join the Night God Cult, does that mean I can…”
“Since Miss is so honest, I may as well be straightforward too.”
Tao Hua hadn’t even finished before Guan Fusha cut her off.
“All matters in the cult, big and small, must be personally approved by the Cult Leader. So this… I’m afraid I can’t make the decision.”
“…”
Cui Taohua realized this woman was really damn good at stringing people along.
If she didn’t already know that the Cult Leader of the Night God Cult no longer cared about worldly affairs, and that practically everything in the cult was handled by the Left and Right Protectors, she might actually have believed that sincere-looking face.
The position of Cult Leader in the Night God Cult was usually chosen from the Left and Right Protectors. So within the cult, aside from the Cult Leader, they held the most power.
But the current Cult Leader, Dongfang Wen, only had one disciple—Guan Fusha. The position of Left Protector had been vacant for a long time. It was basically certain that the next Cult Leader would be her.
One person below ten thousand above—who exactly was she pretending to be powerless in front of?
Even so, Tao Hua had no intention of exposing her directly. She only put on a disappointed expression.
“I see… Your esteemed Cult Leader must be incredibly busy. I’m sure he has no time to meet a nobody like me…”
“Not necessarily.”
Guan Fusha smiled.
“I have some matters to report to the Cult Leader tomorrow morning. If Miss is willing, I can bring you along to see him then.”
A very particular kind of “what the hell” pain welled up in Tao Hua’s chest.
She’d just wanted to join the Night God Cult as a small fry and cling tightly to the heroine’s thick golden thigh. How had things gotten this complicated?!
“Oh, right, your medicine.”
Guan Fusha had already turned to leave the room when she suddenly remembered the bowl on the low table.
“Drink it while it’s still warm.”
She was still smiling so gently and harmlessly, like she wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Tao Hua accepted the bowl, but her heart was trembling.
Seeing her hesitate, Guan Fusha asked,
“What is it?”
“…Nothing.”
With Guan Fusha’s strength, if she’d wanted to kill Tao Hua, she would have done it long ago. Why bother poisoning a medicine after going to the trouble of saving her?
Thinking that, Tao Hua tilted her head back and downed the whole bowl in one go.
A faint fragrance spread across her tongue, completely different from the bitter flavor she’d imagined.
Guan Fusha stood at the side of the bed, watching her with keen interest.
“Miss really is brave. Aren’t you afraid I might have poisoned the medicine?”
“…”
Tao Hua did feel a twinge of regret now.
But even so, all she could do was grit her teeth and keep going.
“Protector Guan is unmatched in the art of poison. You must always keep antidotes on you. Besides, if Protector Guan truly wanted me dead, you’ve had plenty of chances already. Why go to all this trouble to save me and then slip poison into my medicine?”
“Well said.”
The smile on Guan Fusha’s face grew even brighter.
“But you forgot one thing. There are many kinds of poison. Not every poison has to kill.”
As she spoke, she suddenly leaned toward Tao Hua. The distance between them vanished in an instant.
That sweet fragrance, carried on warm breath, brushed over Tao Hua’s face. Her whole body went weak, and her heart pounded out of control.
“Some poisons,” Guan Fusha murmured, “make you unable to live, yet unable to die.”
She glanced at Tao Hua’s faintly flushed cheeks, very satisfied, and slowly drew back. Her expression returned to that gentle, harmless smile.
“Then I won’t disturb Miss’s rest.”
Sharp nails dug into her own palm. The stab of pain finally cleared Tao Hua’s head.
She opened her mouth, her voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
“Protector Guan, please… walk slowly.”
On her way out, Guan Fusha gave her a look full of hidden meaning.
Tao Hua’s poor little heart immediately started pounding all over again.
Only after she was sure Guan Fusha had truly gone did Tao Hua stop forcing herself to sit upright. She collapsed onto the soft couch, her back soaked in cold sweat.
Holy shit.
Guan Fusha was too monstrous. She’d almost made a perfectly straight woman like Tao Hua lose control!
Or… had she secretly slipped some kind of Gu poison into that medicine just now?
