Chapter 235 Confusion and Probe
They walked out of the courtyard. Wen Xichi took the path on the left. After slight hesitation, Qin Wanru did not stop and went after him. Yujie followed her closely, keeping two steps away from her.
After taking a few steps, they turned a corner at a junction and saw a bamboo forest. The wind blew through the bamboo leaves and made them undulate, inexplicably giving a sense of desolation.
Wen Xichi kept walking forward slowly with his hand clasped behind his back. But he didn’t walk quickly, which enabled Qin Wanru to catch up with him. They walked like this all the way. When they reached another turning, Wen Xichi finally stopped, turned his head and looked at Qin Wanru with some confusion.
With a smile, Qin Wanru took two steps forward and bowed to him sideways.
Qin Wanru raised her head, only to find Wen Xichi’s eyes were still fixed on her face and he was still very confused.
Embarra.s.sed by his gaze, Qin Wanru coughed in a low voice and was about to say something to break the embarra.s.sing situation.
However, Wen Xichi turned around, walking while saying slowly, “My cousin sister has grown up in our mansion since she was a child. She usually doesn’t like to go out and is barely on intimate terms with other Young Madams. My brothers and I treat her like a younger sister!”
Qin Wanru was startled at first and then smiled, walking while saying, “Your cousin sister is really an introvert!”
This meant that Wen Xichi had taken what she said that day to heart. It was great. Her warning was effective. With his intelligence, if Wen Xichi had expected that his brother would do something to him, it would be absolutely impossible for him to be trapped.
“Well, Second Miss Qin, tell me why you know about my cousin sister and where you know about the affairs between my second brother and my cousin sister?” Wen Xichi suddenly stood firm, turned around to look sharply at Qin Wanru’s face with his deep and aggressive eyes!
He had never doubted his second brother and cousin sister. But after hearing Qin Wanru’s words, he sent someone to check it out. The result turned out to startle him. He had never thought his second brother was so close to his cousin sister and they even had a more ambiguous relations.h.i.+p in private.
Although his second brother had always been very concerned about his cousin sister, Wen Xichi considered it an elder brother’s affection for a younger sister. They grew up together. He had never thought of falling in love with his cousin sister, so he thought that his two brothers hadn’t either.
In fact, his second brother had quite an ambiguous relations.h.i.+p with his cousin sister. But on the other hand, his cousin sister was very concerned about him, which even made him feel uncomfortable sometimes.
“I don’t know, but I have dreamed in a few days that third childe is killed by second childe. I didn’t take it seriously at the beginning, because I didn’t know you at that time. But after meeting you, I realized that it should be you. But I didn’t know if my dream is true, so I told you about it as a warning. If it isn’t true, it’s great. But if it’s true, you can be careful!”
Qin Wanru had thought over these words long before. After hesitating for a while, she looked away at a few tall and straight bamboos and said slowly and calmly.
Being reborn in this life was her greatest secret, and this secret was too shocking. If it was known by others, they would probably treat her like a freak.
How could she warn him without frightening him and make him take it seriously? It required a reasonable explanation. Otherwise, based on her understanding of Wen Xichi, she thought he would definitely not take it seriously.
Therefore, she told him something she had seen in the last life by means of such illusory dreams. Although it was a bizarre statement, at least some people might consider it reasonable.
Of course, Qin Wanru didn’t think Wen Xichi was among these people. But so what? Maybe he would believe it after she told him several times. Anyway, even if he was extraordinarily intelligent, he could never comprehend such a weird thing. If she hadn’t been reborn in this life, she also wouldn’t believe such a weird thing really happened.
“Second Miss Qin, there has never been any connection between you and our mansion, and you did not know me before. Why did you keep having this dream and remember it so clearly? What you think in the daytime is what you dream at night. Even dreams are not completely illusory!” Wen Xichi stared at Qin Wanru’s face with the strange peace in his eyes, as if he really believed it, but his words were still sharp.
This Wen Xichi in front of Qin Wanru was actually not the person with whom Qin Wanru was familiar.
In the last life, Wen Xichi had always been gentle to Qin Wanru. Even when he was tortured by illness with scarcely any breath left, he still had a gentle smile in front of Qin Wanru. He had never been so aggressive to Qin Wanru.
“I don’t know why. Maybe… we have met before?” Qin Wanru suppressed a trace of astonishment in her heart and turned around to look at Wen Xichi’s puzzled face, as if she was also confused.
“Second Miss Qin, you must be joking. You have never been to the capital, and I have never left the capital. Regarding my cousin sister’s affairs, it is even more impossible that it would be known by anyone!”
Wen Xichi fixedly stared at Qin Wanru, without missing any subtle expression on her face.
This kind of gaze made Qin Wanru feel quite uncomfortable. He was greatly different from the Wen Xichi in her memory. Could it be possible that Wen Xichi’s character had changed due to her rebirth?
“Uh… I really don’t know. I just knew that you were the person in my dream when I met you. Maybe we can call it the predestination of the last life!”
Qin Wanru bit the corner of her red lips and bowed her head with the handkerchief in her hand.
Such burning gaze made her feel very uneasy. She was afraid that Wen Xichi would notice something if she looked up at him again.
“Second Miss Qin is the daughter of Ningyuan Army General. I heard that Ningyuan Army General was a general guarding Jiangzhou and made his name known at a single attempt in putting down a rebel army. Now your family has moved to the capital. n.o.body expected that Ningyuan Army General would become a newly appointed official in the capital. I think Ningyuan Army General is a very talented person!”
Wen Xichi suddenly smiled, with his eyes becoming gentle because of his smile. He thought of a possibility which seemed to be reasonable enough to explain why this Second Miss of the Qin’s Mansion clearly knew about the situation in his mansion and even the affairs between his cousin sister and his second brother.
This Ningyuan Army General was not an ordinary person indeed, but he was so nosy. Upon arrival in the capital, he dared to put his finger into other powerful officials’ pie. Wasn’t he afraid that others would chop off his finger?
Hearing Wen Xichi’s words, Qin Wanru knew that he had misunderstood and thought that her father had tracked down all of these and asked her to make up to him with this information.
She raised her head helplessly and said sincerely, “Third Young Master Wen, if you think so, I can do nothing about it. I just want to tell you to be careful of those around you. Regarding other affairs, you really think too much!”
“I think too much?” Wen Xichi’s gaze fell on Qin Wanru’s face again.
“Yes, you do.” With her long eyelashes fluttering, Qin Wanru said again with certainty.
She didn’t expect that her warning would be so effective. What Wen Xichi said just now actually indicated that he took it seriously. He did not even ask if it was true, which meant that he had tracked down something. It made Qin Wanru feel slightly relieved but aroused her fear at the same time.
Wen Xichi seemed to doubt that she or her father was behind this. Why didn’t she know that Wen Xichi was such a skeptical person?
“Second Miss Qin, you haven’t been engaged, right?” Qin Wanru suddenly looked up and down at Qin Wanru and said ambiguously.
Qin Wanru was dumbfounded, but then said with slight shame and annoyance, “Does it have anything to do with you?”
A man and a woman couldn’t talk about this kind of thing in private.
“Does your father intend to make you marry into our family?” Wen Xichi suddenly said.
His words were too straightforward, and the meaning behind them startled Qin Wanru so much that she opened her bright eyes wide to stare at Wen Xichi and became speechless for a while.
“Your father didn’t mention it?” Wen Xichi looked very calm, watching Qin Wanru’s face and quietly a.n.a.lyzing the expression on her face. Finding that she was really shocked, he secretly frowned and thought maybe he had guessed it wrong.
“Third Young Master Wen, do you doubt that I get close to you with an ulterior intention of marrying into your family or marrying you?” Qin Wanru had rarely hidden her thoughts in front of Wen Xichi in the last life. Now he doubted her kindness was out of an ulterior intention. She inexplicably got angry at the moment and blurted out.
“Isn’t it true?” Wen Xichi asked her back.
“Third Young Master Wen, if you think so, just consider what I said as nonsense and ignore it. Regarding the rest, you really think too much. Perhaps when I first met you, I felt that I seemed to be familiar with you. But I had that thought just because of what happened in my dream. I didn’t mean anything else. As a childe from an aristocratic family, you should have heard of not talking about things that do not conform to the rites!”
After finis.h.i.+ng her words, Qin Wanru turned around and walked back.
She was really angry. She had imagined Wen Xichi’s various reactions. He might disbelieve it, doubt it or be surprised at it… But she thought he would show these reactions to his second brother and cousin sister. Unexpectedly, he believed it, but doubted her and suspected that she did that in order to marry him.
Was the trustful Wen Xichi she met in the last life a fake one?
Seeing Qin Wanru leave in anger, Wen Xichi stood firm with his hands clasped behind his back, frowning. In a moment, he actually wanted to stop her. He had a very strange feeling.
This strange feeling had existed since he found out what was going on in his mansion.
He had never expected that his second brother actually harbored malice towards him. He had never expected that his cousin sister, who had always been gentle, was actually such a girl in private and said that to his second brother. He had never made any malicious speculation about his family members before in many things.
But these were all true. What was even stranger was these things actually were told by a girl who had always stayed in her boudoir and had no connection with his family. It made him have to think deeply about it.
Was there anyone intending to trap his family?
Standing on the path and seeing Qin Wanru’s figure vanish in his view, Wen Xichi withdrew his gaze and meditated.
A little novice monk hurried over and bowed deeply to him after coming up to him. “Childe Wen, our abbot invites you to his place!”