Chapter 104: Cold-Blooded Indifference

Without even turning her head, Xue Fanzhi knew the visitor was Wen Xian.

She feared they would refuse, yet this person hadn’t even finished greeting before demanding to board the ship. How shameless could she be?

Xue Fanzhi glanced at Xiao Yi. If he agreed, she would jump into the water right then and there.

No, she couldn’t swim—she wouldn’t go seeking death—but after this, she would never care about Xiao Yi again, regardless of whether he was useful to her or not.

Wen Xian had caused her death in a past life, and she hadn’t yet avenged herself. There was no way she could share a boat with her now.

“Sorry, I can’t let you on,” Xiao Yi said coldly behind him.

“Oh, you can’t…” Wen Xian froze in an instant, her delicate face flushing crimson. Such a large ship, with eight people aboard, could surely accommodate one more. How could she not fit? Why was she so “big”? It was clearly a polite refusal.

Wen Xian glanced at the little maid standing beside Xiao Yi, her heart aching. That was Xue Fanzhi, wasn’t it? In their last life, Xue Fanzhi and Xiao Yi didn’t even know each other then. They hadn’t been this close.

It was truly frustrating. She was a reborn soul, hoping to rely on her past life’s experience to thrive this time, at least to suppress Xue Fanzhi. But the major events of this life were unlike before. It was as if fate had eyes—whenever she understood something, it would evade her grasp. How infuriating.

If rebirth weren’t so rare, she would suspect there was another reborn soul disrupting the course of her previous life.

“Um…” Wen Xian still wanted to try again, but Xiao Yi ordered the boatman, “Go faster. Keep away from that other ship.”

Wen Xian was speechless.

Had she not witnessed Xiao Yi and Xue Fanzhi’s loving scenes in their past life, she might have been infuriated to death.

The two boatmen whispered to each other: “If you dislike that woman so much, just say it outright. You should have stopped her from chasing you a long time ago.”

Xiao Yi’s boat sped forward. Unexpectedly, before they had gone far, just as Wen Xian planned to turn and sit in the cabin, she slipped and suddenly fell into the water with a splash.

Although Xiao Yi and Xue Fanzhi couldn’t see the scene clearly from where they stood, they heard the splash distinctly. Upon hearing it, the boatman instinctively turned the boat sideways, positioning it right in front of Wen Xian struggling in the water.

***

Wen Xian flailed in the water, shouting, “Help! Help! I can’t swim!”

No sooner had she spoken than she sank beneath the surface. After a moment, she resurfaced, clearly exhausted and unable to swim away, just circling helplessly, draining her strength.

Xue Fanzhi knew Wen Xian’s swimming skills were poor. She was certain that if no one rescued Wen Xian within fifteen minutes, she would drown.

“Help, help…” Wen Xian gazed at Xiao Yi with desperate eyes, then sank again with a gulp.

Xue Fanzhi was speechless—her calculation was off. It wouldn’t even be fifteen minutes. More like a matter of breaths.

Seeing Wen Xian like this, Xue Fanzhi recalled how, in their previous life, Wen Xian had ordered someone to push Xiao Yi’s eldest son into the water. The boy was only five, somewhat able to swim, but he fell in the middle of the Taiye Pool. The eunuchs couldn’t rescue him in time, and he drowned.

It was the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the imperial consorts had entered the palace for a banquet, and as empress, she presided over the feast. She was chatting with the consorts by the poolside when the boy fell in.

They all watched helplessly as he struggled underwater, unable to rise.

Afterward, Wen Xian falsely accused her of masterminding the incident. The motive was simple: the boy’s mother had spoken behind her back the day before, saying she was incapable of bearing children, and she had overheard it. Many palace servants were present, witnesses even, but because she did not immediately punish that concubine, she was accused of holding grudges and cruelty, even towards children.

That concubine had publicly cursed her before all the consorts, calling her venomous and unfit to be empress, condemning her to hell’s eighteen layers after death.

At the time, she could only accept the unjust scrutiny with a pale and powerless defense: she was innocent.

Of course, the concubine was later imprisoned in the cold palace for falsely accusing the empress. Xiao Yi did not punish her, but with the Wen family’s influence and lack of evidence, Wen Xian herself escaped penalty.

Now, Wen Xian struggled underwater. Was this her reckoning?

Xue Fanzhi had no intention of saving her. If Wen Xian died this way, it would be a sort of revenge.

She looked at Xiao Yi, who frowned slightly but showed no sign of rescuing her. Xue Fanzhi felt an indescribable emotion. Xiao Yi was naturally not heartless, but Wen Xian was, after all, his woman—albeit from a past life.

She thought, if Xiao Yi knew Wen Xian had once been his woman, he wouldn’t stand by and watch. Unfortunately, it was bad news that she couldn’t bring herself to tell him.

Though she intended not to marry Xiao Yi this time and even planned to let Wen Xian have her moment of glory, hoping those two scoundrels would come to some arrangement, Wen Xian simply wasn’t destined for it. That was none of her concern.

Wen Xian surfaced again but sank once more. This time, it was clear she had reached her limit, fearing she might never come up again.

Xue Fanzhi observed Xiao Yi, whose face remained icy and impassive. She didn’t know if he was silently blaming himself for his coldness or if he truly was so cold-hearted.

At that moment, she almost wanted to ask, “Are you really going to let her die?”

Xiao Yi indeed intended to let her die.

Call him heartless or call him a scoundrel—he had long sorted out his feelings. He despised Wen Xian.

Despised her, indeed.

Even he didn’t fully understand it himself. Others might have many wives and concubines and still be unsatisfied, but why did he only like Xue Fanzhi?

He loved Xue Fanzhi’s silly innocence. He loved having a small stove in winter to brew tea, sipping it while playing chess.

He loved spending summers by the water, fishing while she painted.

Xue Fanzhi’s many whims added charm to life. She would paint a tiger onto a fine depiction of eight horses’ fists, or a duck on a picture of grass shrimp. Occasionally, she would surprise him with a strange new garment or a dish he had never tasted.

She once said copper pots couldn’t make good dishes, so she studied iron pots and actually made one. That night, he had his first stir-fried meal—unexpectedly delicious.

In short, Xue Fanzhi applied her cleverness to every little detail of life for novelty, convenience, and simply to be with him. With her, he never felt bored because she always had something new. She had her own interests and would make time for him when she could. How could he find that tiresome?

Unlike other women who demanded constant attention.

So he didn’t want anyone else. But he was destined to be emperor. When he became emperor, his status and identity forced him to accept what he didn’t want but couldn’t refuse.