Fang Bie's logic struck Xue Ling as impeccable.
It was shameless, but impeccable, Xue Ling admitted.
This in itself was a flaw.
Had she ever considered deliberately answering a question incorrectly?
Perhaps she had, but she didn't dare.
Fang Bie's attitude and expression had made Xue Ling almost certain that if she answered a question incorrectly, she would be dead, or even eliminated.
So she treaded carefully with each question, striving for her best answer.
The expertise she'd acquired from her training as a Jinyiwei guard and her inherent calmness and caution had greatly aided her, allowing her to perfectly portray the role of Lin Xue, including her experience during her time in the Hive.
But—she was too perfect. Whether Lin Xue could match that level of perfection, Xue Ling didn't know.
She simply believed, if she were Lin Xue, she wouldn't have changed her answer in the slightest.
The girl felt her lips dry, a sign of utter despair.
She opened her mouth, but for a moment, no sound emanated.
"And then?" Xue Ling tried again, finally hearing her own voice. It was so hollow and dry, as if it didn't belong to her.
"Go back," Fang Bie said quietly. "I do not accept you as my bee wing."
"Back to where?" This time it was Xue Ling's turn to ask.
"Back to where you came from," Fang Bie said.
He pulled out a string of copper coins from his pocket, which looked like about a hundred wen. "If you don't have money, this is a gift from me."
Back to where she came from?
Xue Ling muttered this to herself.
Where did she come from? Back to where Lin Xue came from? Lin Xue came from a beehive training base, but that base had been completely destroyed by the Imperial Guards. Before that, Lin Xue's master had been killed, her parents had been killed, and her home was gone.
Where could she go back to?
Back to where Xue Ling came from?
She came from Yanjing, from the Imperial Guards, from the Northern Pacification Division.
But her father was dead, her mother was dead, the Emperor no longer had any affection for her, and all her colleagues wanted her dead. She should have hanged herself under the large poplar tree at home, instead of bravely traveling eight hundred miles alone with her sword to the Xiaohun Inn in Luocheng, attempting a mission that would have been a death sentence.
"I." Xue Ling bit her lip, her throat choked at that moment, but she forced herself to hold it back, not wanting to cry in front of this guy.
This was too embarrassing, too cowardly.
"I can't go back."
Xue Ling said this with a sob, then turned around and walked out of the inn.
Of course, she didn't take the copper coins that Fang Bie handed over.
The world is so big, but there is no place for her.
She once thought that this was her place.
But Fang Bie told her that this was not it.
Xue Ling took one step forward, then another, her steps were unsteady, but she still walked in a straight line.
When she took the third step, someone grabbed her hand from behind.
It was a cold and hard hand, this was the first time she had touched someone's palm.
Before, the only contact she had had was the cold blade on her neck.
Xue Ling turned around and saw Fang Bie, who was covered with a black cloth and smiled at her with his head tilted to the side.
He held her hand with one hand and pulled off the black cloth from his eyes with the other.
Under the black cloth were a pair of black eyes as bright as stars, but filled with melancholy and mist.
"I can't go back either,"
Fang Bie said softly.
"So, I'll be the bee's sting, and you'll be the bee's wings."
"You take me wherever I need to go."
"I'll help you kill everyone you need to kill."
"Okay?"
...
...
It took Xue Ling a long time to accept this dramatic change.
At that moment, she finally felt that this flawed assassin wasn't so detestable after all.
And, when he finally said those words to her, if they weren't the work language used by one assassin to another, they would have been far too provocative.
Would I like an assassin?
Xue Ling really wanted to ask herself.
Previously, Xue Ling would have firmly said absolutely not.
After all, she was a member of the Imperial Guard, and her father was its commander. Even if she couldn't marry a high-ranking official of equal status, she would at least marry a renowned young hero.
When her father was still alive, he had once asked her if, when she grew up, she wanted to marry a top scholar.
As he said this, they were standing in front of the Meridian Gate, watching the newly minted scholars file into the palace to take the imperial examination. She found it amusing, intriguing, that her father asked her this.
With his abilities, he could probably force any top scholar she liked to marry him, right?
Her father certainly wouldn't have watched her run to the Beehive to die, to meet such a flawed assassin, and even partner with him to kill people together.
Kill many people.
There would undoubtedly be bad guys among them, but there would also undoubtedly be good ones.
Even if she didn't have to kill them herself, she would still be aiding and abetting the evil.
But her father was dead.
Completely dead.
There was no way to ask her if she liked the top scholar, and no way to let Lü Yuan slap her in the face when she was forced to kneel before him.
She only had her last Feiyu suit as a source of stubbornness, and with that stubbornness, she came here to serve as an assassin aiding and abetting the evil.
"I don't want it," Xue Ling recalled her response to her father.
"I only marry someone I love. Even if he's the top scholar, why would I marry him if I didn't like him?"
Xue Ling had replied then.
It was the same now.
She chose to do what she loved.
Even if it meant being an assassin, but—at least she was an undercover assassin.
Thinking of this, Xue Ling couldn't help but laugh.
"What are you laughing at?" Fang Bie asked from the side.
Fang Bie was telling her the basic information about Xiaohun Inn so that she would have a general idea.
After all, he had already admitted that he was his bee wing and his partner.
"I'm laughing at you for wearing a black cloth every day even though you are not blind." Xue Ling said.
This is not wrong, because it is really funny.
For example, now, Fang Bie still chose to cover his eyes.
"Because Shaka will look weaker when he closes his eyes." Fang Bie said.
Xue Ling didn't understand at all.
"What?"
"Because covering my eyes will make others think I am blind, and they will look down on me a little, or at least want to take advantage of my blindness." Fang Bie corrected himself.
It seemed like he was explaining his previous statement.
"Okay, then the second question." Xue Ling looked at him.
At least Fang Bie was not ugly at all, and he was also her age, which was still very comfortable.
"Why is Xiaohun Inn called Xiaohun Inn?" This name is really weird!
"It was originally called the Ecstasy Inn." Fang Bie smiled: "Later, the proprietress found that the Six Gates came to check every day, and even raided in the middle of the night, and then she realized the seriousness of the problem."
"So it became the Sky Soul Inn."
Fang Bie wrote the two words "Ecstasy" on the paper.
"But why is it called the Ecstasy Inn?" Xue Ling continued to ask.
"My name was given by the proprietress." Fang Bie looked at her: "But when you see her, don't call her proprietress, call her Sister Ping."
Fang Bie did not answer Xue Ling's question.
He just picked up the pen and continued to write on the paper with the two words "Ecstasy".
The only thing that makes one sad and heartbroken is separation.
(End of this chapter)