Playing Charades

Lin Qingyan kept her eyes closed, her breathing long and steady.

With every breath completing a cycle, her spiritual energy circulated through her meridians, its flowing trajectory clearly perceptible.

This was the meditation method of the Nine Heavens Thunder Incantation, which emphasized having power like a thunderbolt while keeping the heart as still as stagnant water.

The spiritual energy had to be as swift and decisive as lightning, yet the mind needed to remain like a tranquil water surface, devoid of any ripples.

But today, ripples had formed on her water surface.

The source was the person standing by the window.

Gu Chengyin.

After he said he was going to have a chat with Li Shiyuan, Lin Qingyan didn't take it seriously and simply continued her meditation.

To her surprise, however, Gu Chengyin did not leave.

Instead, he stayed in this room, right by her side.

He just stood there, exactly three feet and three inches away, a subtle distance.

In a cultivator's perception, within three feet was one's domain; beyond three feet was the outside world.

Gu Chengyin was stepping right on the boundary line. He wasn't exactly invading her domain, yet he was constantly exuding his presence.

This presence was very peculiar.

It wasn't a coercive aura, nor spiritual energy fluctuations, nor even a sound or a scent.

It was a gaze.

Lin Qingyan could clearly feel Gu Chengyin's eyes resting upon her.

Like winter sunlight piercing through the clouds, it wasn't scorching, but it was impossible to ignore.

She tried to pull her focus back to her meridians, back to her spiritual energy circulation, back to the cultivation mantras she already knew by heart.

But she failed.

Thus, Lin Qingyan attempted to change the rhythm of her breathing.

Inhale for four breaths, hold for two, exhale for six.

This was the Heart-Calming Mantra, capable of soothing any emotional fluctuations.

When facing a siege from three cultivators of the same realm, the Heart-Calming Mantra could keep her heartbeat steady at once per breath.

Right now, her heartbeat was twice per breath.

One beat too many.

Logically, this shouldn't be happening. She was a Golden Core cultivator.

She was Jingzhe of the Heavenly Master Mansion, someone who could remain composed and keep her heart as still as water even in perilous situations.

Yet in front of Gu Chengyin, she actually couldn't even control her own heartbeat.

Even when she used to stay by her Empress sister's side, she had never been like this.

Lin Qingyan was somewhat baffled, but she eventually gave up.

She slowly opened her eyes.

In her line of sight, Gu Chengyin was indeed looking at her.

His gaze fell straight onto her face.

Those eyes were exceptionally profound, like two bottomless ancient wells.

But there was no lust in the well water.

Lin Qingyan had seen too many looks from men, stunned, greedy, obsessed, and even vulgar.

They were like sticky spider webs that made her instinctively disgusted.

Gu Chengyin's gaze was different.

He was admiring.

A pure, clean admiration without impurities.

It was as if he was looking at a masterpiece painting passed down through generations, a thousand-year-old ancient temple, or the first snowfall of early winter.

His eyes held praise, appreciation, and even a bit of reverence.

Lin Qingyan's heartbeat quickened again.

But when she spoke, she didn't show it at all, instead asking with some dissatisfaction:

Weren't you going to the City Lord's Manor for the banquet?

Gu Chengyin's expression remained unchanged as he replied matter-of-factly:

Yeah.

Lin Qingyan's brow began to twitch, and she followed up:

Then why haven't you left yet?

Gu Chengyin blinked, saying in surprise:

I've already come back.

His tone sounded astonished as to why she would even ask such a question.

Lin Qingyan remained speechless.

Silence.

A long silence.

Lin Qingyan stared into Gu Chengyin's eyes, trying to read something from them.

But there was nothing, only a candor so open it bordered on shamelessness.

Lin Qingyan suddenly realized something.

With her cultivation base, her life experience, and her horizons having witnessed countless joys and sorrows.

Apart from when Gu Chengyin was recalling certain embarrassing scenes for her, at all other times.

She actually couldn't figure out what he was thinking.

This feeling was very strange.

It was like punching cotton, having strength but nowhere to apply it.

It was also like trying to catch the moon's reflection in the water; it was clearly right in front of her, yet reaching out yielded nothing.

What do you mean you've already come back?

Lin Qingyan finally spoke, suppressing a trace of irritation in her voice: Did you even go before claiming you've come back?

The moment the words left her mouth, Lin Qingyan regretted them.

It was too emotional.

It didn't fit her persona, nor did it match her cultivation level.

She should have been calm, indifferent, looking at Gu Chengyin like a misbehaving child.

Then, she should have used her Golden Core cultivator's pressure to make him confess honestly.

That was what she should do as an elder, as his aunt.

Gu Chengyin's eyes lit up, as if he had discovered something interesting.

Lin Qingyan's heartbeat faltered again.

In that very instant, she saw the smile hidden in the depths of his eyes.

Lin Qingyan's breathing paused for half a breath, and then she understood.

This guy was teasing her.

And she had fallen for it.

Lin Qingyan closed her eyes again.

When she reopened them, all the emotions in her eyes had vanished, leaving only pure calmness.

Then, she slowly raised her right hand, golden light flashing at her fingertips.

The light condensed, rotated, and compressed, finally forming a familiar golden lightning sphere.

Lin Qingyan's gaze landed on Gu Chengyin's face, her tone flat:

Try playing riddles with me again?

The expression on Gu Chengyin's face froze, and he immediately and decisively said:

Auntie, I know I was wrong!

You are magnanimous, please put away your divine ability.

I promise to confess absolutely everything, with zero concealment!

Lin Qingyan stared at Gu Chengyin for three breaths.

Finally, the golden lightning sphere at her fingertips began to dim until it completely dissipated.

Only then did Lin Qingyan lower her hand, tucking it into her sleeve, and said faintly:

Speak, what are you plotting now?

Actually, Auntie, Gu Chengyin began, his tone turning serious:

By not going to the welcome banquet and instead checking into Fanlou, I am already having that chat.

As for how Li Shiyuan chooses to chat with me, that's his business.

Anyway, I'm right here by your side, I haven't gone anywhere.

When Gu Chengyin said this, his eyes were very candid.

So candid that, for a moment, Lin Qingyan didn't know how to respond.

The room fell quiet again.

This time it wasn't an awkward silence, but a thoughtful one.

Based on Lin Qingyan's understanding of Gu Chengyin, him doing this definitely meant he was scheming something.

Before, she had only seen the surface layer, but looking at it now.

Beneath this surface, there was a deeper meaning hidden.

Thus, Lin Qingyan began to deduce.

As a Golden Core cultivator, her thinking speed was a hundred times faster than an ordinary person's.

Within a single breath, dozens of possibilities flashed through her mind, constructing seven or eight logical chains before finally locking onto the three most reasonable explanations.

First: Gu Chengyin was bluffing.

He checked into Fanlou to strike a pose, but in reality, he hadn't figured out his next move at all, so he was loitering here to stall for time.

Second: He was waiting for Li Shiyuan to come knocking.

Fanlou was bait, breaking the rules was bait, and even his words just now were bait. He was waiting for Li Shiyuan to take the hook, waiting for the other party to lose their composure first.

Third: And the one that startled her the most.

Gu Chengyin believed that as long as he stayed in Fanlou, as long as he showed his trump card of breaking the rules, and as long as he demonstrated an attitude of non-compliance.

Then his game of chess with Li Shiyuan had already begun.