This question.
Was a real headache for Bai Susu.
It wasn’t that it was hard to pick a candidate,
the main problem was that she couldn’t get over that mental hurdle— even though she knew she was just finding a toy for her own Dao Partner, in the end she’d still be sharing him with another woman.
"A toy... doesn’t count as a person!!"
Thinking of Chen Ye’s day-and-night "tempering," the girl clenched her teeth and forced herself to steel her resolve.
She’d heard it said,
that when Cultivators weren’t satisfied, they’d often go out and fool around.
Compared to Chen Ye sneaking around behind her back,
she’d much rather help him settle everything herself, keep the situation completely in her own hands.
Besides,
in truth Bai Susu also couldn’t bear seeing that look of regret on Chen Ye’s face.
Seeing the girl frown in thought, looking like she was racking her brains, Chen Ye was startled.
He thought to himself, "This girl, could she really be planning to find a Dao Partner for me? I thought she was just bluffing to scare me... I, Chen Ye, how could I be someone who lusts after beauty? Back when Susu wasn’t by my side, I endured tens of years just fine."
Chen Ye steadied his voice, rubbed the fluff on top of the girl’s head, and said gently:
"True Inheritor Bai, you’re underestimating me. I, Chen Ye, am by nature a man of few desires, pure of heart..."
Who knew that,
the moment those words left his mouth, Bai Susu’s eyes flew wide open as she stared at him in disbelief:
"Grandmaster Chen, are you telling jokes now? If you’re pure of heart and few desires, then my waist... ahem ahem, besides, when you’re outside flirting and fooling around, do you really think I don’t know?"
Chen Ye felt deeply wronged.
When had he ever flirted and fooled around?
He raised a brow. "What flirting and fooling around? Why does True Inheritor Bai say so?"
The blonde girl let out a cold snort, straightened her crisp little hand and began counting on her fingers:
"Our Sect’s Inner Sect Disciple, Li Qiuyun—how do you explain that?"
"Qiuyun? She’s just my niece..."
"Niece? Oh? This True Inheritor was not aware the Li Family had such a relative as you!"
Chen Ye was just about to argue.
But Bai Susu was already giving him a dangerous look. "If you don’t want people to know, don’t do it in the first place! Recently, Li Qiuyun’s lost all appetite for food and drink, and often wanders around the foot of Baopu Peak. You really don’t know what’s on her mind?"
Qiuyun often comes to Baopu Peak?
Chen Ye froze.
He really didn’t know.
And moreover,
what surprised him even more was that Bai Susu actually knew about something he himself didn’t?
She seemed to pick up on what Chen Ye was thinking.
Bai Susu’s little face flushed red, and she pouted. "Don’t let your mind run wild. What kind of status does this True Inheritor have? Of course I need to thoroughly investigate the people around me. Even you, Chen Ye, are no exception! What, you have an opinion about that?"
Chen Ye could only cup his hands helplessly. "Everything True Inheritor Bai has done is correct, reasonable, and beyond question. I have absolutely no objections."
The girl nodded in satisfaction,
then straightened her hand again and continued counting: "Also. That Foundation Establishment Cultivator from the Mao Family, Mao Qingzhu! Qing Jun’s mother—tsk tsk... with Qing Jun as a link, it’s hard for you two not to be close, huh! I hear that lately, the Patriarch Mao, Mao Cheng, has been looking to find her a husband, but Mao Qingzhu has turned them all down..."
Sister Qingzhu...
This time, Chen Ye truly had nothing to say.
Between him and Qiuyun, nothing had ever happened.
But between him and Sister Qingzhu, there had indeed been various ambiguous episodes.
He sighed inwardly. "Now that I’ve formed a Dao Partner bond with Bai Susu, how am I supposed to face Sister Qingzhu in the future? I’ve been so absorbed in cultivation these days, I’ve ended up neglecting her..."
At the thought of all this,
a faint trace of worry inevitably appeared on Chen Ye’s face.
Bai Susu’s eyes flickered; she assumed Chen Ye was upset about her monitoring, and stopped counting.
She clasped her little hands behind her back and said in a mock old-fashioned tone:
"Hmph! Don’t get the wrong idea! This True Inheritor is merely conducting routine investigations on you. As for ’getting jealous,’ such a thing could never apply to this True Inheritor. Under heaven, what is there that I, Bai Susu, cannot obtain? Even you are no exception."
"Mm..."
Chen Ye replied.
Susu was good in every way.
Soft and delicate, adorably pretty, of exalted status, with powerful cultivation.
And she treated him incredibly well, never hiding any sort of treasures from him.
The only problem was that she was just too domineering.
If she didn’t want him to be with Mao Qingzhu, then no matter what was said, she wouldn’t agree.
Though when you think about it—what woman under the heavens would actually be willing?
It was just...
Tonight, she’d accidentally let something slip.
Chen Ye was still lost in thought, and didn’t notice the change in the girl’s expression before him.
Bai Susu had been watching him the whole time.
She cared a lot about Chen Ye’s reaction... after all, what she’d done did seem a bit overboard?
Bai Susu had never imagined that one day she would feel she was being excessive.
But in front of Chen Ye, she always somehow felt she owed him.
She felt she kept too tight a watch on him, yet also felt guilty toward him...
Of course, this guilt wasn’t about dual cultivation, but about the fact that she was the Spirit Hidden True Inheritance, bearing the expectations of all the Elders and inheriting her father’s dying wish. She was incredibly busy and still had to juggle her own cultivation, so she rarely had time to accompany him.
If she hadn’t just finished off the Ten Thousand Puppet Master, she probably wouldn’t have had time to be with Chen Ye at all this month.
Bai Susu bit lightly on her lower lip with her pearly teeth. Looking at Chen Ye’s face that she both loved and hated, her heart was torn between two sides.
After a long time.
"Forget it!"
The girl suddenly spoke out in frustration, like a deflated ball. That little spark of excitement she’d had about "selecting concubines" for Chen Ye vanished completely.
Chen Ye came back to himself, slightly stunned. "What do you mean, forget it?"
"I said, the matter of me helping you find concubines is off!"
Bai Susu turned her head away, irritably kicked a small stone at her feet, and muttered in a muffled voice,
"This True Inheritor just thought it through carefully—if I find you a fixed one to keep in front of my eyes, I’ll be annoyed just looking at her. If I find one I don’t like, and she’s swaying around the courtyard every day, won’t she just piss me off to death? And if I find one too good, I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop myself... from wanting to kill her."