Chapter 110: A Fox’s Prank and Morning Truths
A woman with long pink hair and fox ears kept lazily but playfully swaying her tail from side to side with elegant, teasing movements.
"Jinghua..." Yifei whispered, her voice laced with natural arrogance and a haughty tone.
The fox turned around with a smile to look at the woman, who watched her with a superior expression, arms crossed and showing not the slightest hint of fear.
"If Siyin finds out you’re doing this..." Yifei said with a smug air, raising an eyebrow in disdain as she glanced at the fox’s hands.
Jinghua let out a mischievous giggle, clearly enjoying her sister’s arrogant aura.
"But I’m sure this would do Siyin some good, Yifei. She’s been so tense lately, especially now that Master isn’t here..." A big, playful grin spread across the fox’s face.
"You’re going too far..." Yifei commented indifferently, watching with her haughty eyes as the liquid was poured without hesitation into their eldest sister’s private hot springs.
"No, no, no. You’ll see how she’ll thank me later," Jinghua replied, wagging her tail excitedly from side to side like an excited child.
Yifei raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced, but she didn’t lift a finger to stop her.
The elixir dissolved into the water with an iridescent shimmer that vanished instantly, leaving the surface of the thermal bath as crystal clear and deceptive as ever.
And Siyin’s presence—dominant yet warm—felt closer and closer.
...
Seraphine murmured, her face still flushed from the heat of the moment:
"I still can’t believe it..."
Cassian lifted his head upon hearing her murmur and looked at her. The redhead hid herself among the sheets in embarrassment, though she lowered the edge of the fabric a little to watch what he was doing.
Cassian was standing naked, looking for a new shirt to put on.
His body was perfect by mortal standards; his glossy hair and that particular part of him that had made Seraphine beg with tears streaming down her face and her expression twisted in pleasure were fully visible.
"Are you going to tell me what you held back with Fengyue?" she asked.
Cassian turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What are you talking about?"
"About how strong you really are. I’ve been learning a lot with her," Seraphine replied, puffing out her chest proudly as she looked at him with a smug smile, letting go of the sheet and completely forgetting she still wasn’t wearing anything.
He glanced down with amusement but made no comment about her nudity.
Instead, he answered her question:
"I think I made it clear to her. I’m stronger than she was."
Seraphine frowned. Inside her mind, Fengyue was screaming furiously: "Liar! How strong could someone as unpleasant as you possibly be!"
"But... that doesn’t make sense," Seraphine continued. "If you were that strong, how did you die? Besides, you shouldn’t be much stronger than me right now, even if you recovered your memories earlier." As she said this, she seemed to notice a detail: he appeared to have regained his awareness much sooner than she had. "How did you recover your memories?"
"I wasn’t reborn, Seraphine," he replied naturally. "I implanted my soul into a body that was about to die, so there were no memories of a Cassian Varkas before I appeared—at least not from one who was alive."
"You implanted your soul?" Seraphine didn’t understand anything Cassian had said, but Fengyue, for her part, frowned as she tried to process what he had done.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t heard of such a thing being possible, but she had never met anyone who had done it, nor heard of such a peculiar case as his.
At that moment, Adela entered the room, paying no attention to the woman in the bed and going straight to help Cassian with his clothes.
Seraphine seemed to take Adela’s entrance as a reminder of what they had done earlier, which finally made her realize she was standing naked in front of Cassian as if it were nothing. She turned into a tomato again, even though they had already seen every inch of each other.
"Adela, you’re scaring her," Cassian laughed, seeing how the woman in his bed was acting.
The maid finally directed her gaze toward her, giving her a flat look before focusing again on serving her master.
This seemed to ease Seraphine’s embarrassment a little. She began watching the interaction between master and servant with interest.
She frowned and muttered under her breath, thinking she couldn’t be heard:
"Letting another woman touch him so easily, even if she’s his maid..."
See! — Fengyue said in her mind — He’s a bastard! Leave him! He’s not worth it!
But Adela had heard her and couldn’t help but smile ironically while thinking: If only you knew how close he is to your "grandmother"...
She said nothing, however, knowing full well that unless Cassian said it first, she wasn’t supposed to, no matter how much she wanted to stop him from continuously adding more women to his circle.
And to think that until recently it had only been her and Elizabeth; an inaudible sigh escaped her lips.
On the other hand, Seraphine shook her head, trying to push Fengyue’s words out of her mind. Instead, she suddenly got out of bed and hurriedly started getting dressed.
Cassian looked at her in confusion at the abrupt change.
Once she finished changing, she approached him, gave him a quick embarrassed kiss on the lips, and said goodbye.
"I have to go see Grandma! Fengyue won’t let me stay in control much longer! She hates it when I take away her training time," she said, her face a bit downcast but still happy.
Adela and Cassian were left alone, looking at each other with unreadable expressions.
And just when it seemed the silence that had settled after Seraphine left would continue, both of them burst out laughing at the same time.
"Master..." Adela said in a slightly playful voice, "you’ve been dodging Seraphine’s arrow for so long... It seems there are some things from that trip of yours that you didn’t tell us."
"I told you about Fengyue... although I really thought that would mean I wouldn’t see Seraphine again," he shrugged and let out a tired sigh.
Adela finished arranging his clothes, stepped back a little, and began:
"By the way, there’s something I need to report about Elara."
Cassian, as if he had already been expecting it, answered immediately:
"Is it about Cassandra Demor?"
The maid looked up in surprise; her master was rarely up to date with these matters, even though he could easily be.
"I ran into Selyne Astaford yesterday," he continued calmly, "and she informed me about Elara’s ’imprisonment’."
Cassian finished adjusting the cuffs of his shirt, his expression turning icy.
"I suppose it’s time I meet this ancestor..."
